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EverQuest - Progression Servers Update
Community Manager Laura Genender has been playing on the EverQuest Progression Servers and takes some time on this New Year's Eve to give us a full report of the good, the bad, and the ugly side of this interesting approach from the makers of EverQuest.
On March 16th, 1999, Sony Online Entertainment opened the virtual doors to the world of EverQuest – one of the most successful and popular games of its generation. While comparatively small next to the modern EverQuest world, consisting of over 400 zones and 14 expansions, the game at release contained a large amount of content for such a relatively new genre of gaming. Many gamers began their MMO careers in Norrath, and many still reside there today.
On June 28th, 2006, Sony introduced two new EverQuest servers. These newest additions – Combine and Sleeper – operated under a whole new rule set not seen in EverQuest or any other game. Known as the progression servers, Sleeper and Combine opened up with original EQ content exclusively. Ruins of Kunark, Shadows of Luclin – all expansion content had to be unlocked by the defeat of raid targets and the completion of quests.
While my article in April discussed the server (by then Combine and Sleeper had merged)’s first 9 months of existence, I’ve now had a year and a half to form opinions about the concept and the reality of progression.
;)
The progression server concept is nothing short of a brilliant design tactic which invokes a sense of nostalgia in old EQ players and a good deal of curiosity in the new generation of gamers who missed the roots of the genre. The server also evokes a sense of achievement, a need for cooperation, and a deep-rooted feeling of competition by leaving the expansions in the hands of the players. Being the first shaman to complete the Epic 1.5 quest is no small deal, and even gets enshrined on the Progression Timeline. Players have created their own form of tracking each guild’s progress, and every major guild religiously updates their status on the Big Kill Board.
But concept and reality are never quite the same. The original concept behind the progression servers was to create a community bond where everyone had to work together to complete goals and unlock the next step in the server; in reality, if you look at the Timeline and Big Kill Board, you’ll see that one or two guilds are unlocking every achievement. While most guilds are progressing at their own pace through the content, the server is really only a progression server for the number one guild. For everyone else, the progression is player-created and could be practiced on any EverQuest server with just as much success.
;)
This is further aggravated by the slow shrinkage of the Combine population. Last April, the server was home to 9 healthy raid guilds; 6 of these are left and no new raid guilds are forming. The high end guild, Realm of Insanity, is undisputedly the number one guild on the server; there simply isn’t a large enough hardcore raider population to support a true competition.
Guilds have almost entirely segregated themselves into niches. The hardcore raider has two guilds to choose between; the semi-casual raider has three, and the casual raider has one. These choices are further restricted by playtime availability, class/level, and more.
Community isn’t the only issue with the progression servers; there have been several mistakes in content, as well, which have broken the immersion. As stated in my previous article, a task (Furious Jailor) from the 10th expansion was available to Progression Servers on unlocking the 5th expansion. My guild alone has killed the Furious Jailor over 100 times, and we aren’t even at the 10th expansion yet!
Progression servers also had early access to the Veteran Rewards. The end-game boss of Planes of Power, Quarm, is made trivial by the use of one of the Veteran powers. And finally, the new Legends of Norrath loot cards have made EXP, HP, and mana potions – and mounts – widely available to a number of players.
;)
Despite its flaws, the system has still worked relatively well and has provided a great amount of fun for progression server players. From a development standpoint, the progression server required very little in the way of new assets (graphics or sound) and allowed designers to recycle material to new and old players alike. As beneficial as this is to Sony and its users, no other game could really pull this off… yet – the success of this program is due to EverQuest’s immense size and the enormous scope of content.
As for the future of progression, there are two questions on the tip of every player’s tongue. Firstly, what will happen to the server when it reaches “the end”? Does Combine become a regular EverQuest server, or does it have to unlock each new expansion? What will happen to the population, and will the server be merged into a more established community?
And then – will Sony do it again? Many players have begged for a “Classic” server which includes only the first 3 to 4 EverQuest expansions, rather then progressing onward into more modern content. Other players may desire a second chance to motor through progression, or a progression server based more on your individual or guild accomplishments (i.e., each guild would have to personally unlock their content).
Progression servers sound cool. It's awesome they have this capability.
Maybe it's possible to have Precu SWG servers after all
The Progression idea drew me back to EQ but at a stage where I was too far behind the main guilds to actually take part within the unlocking of content, so I would be extremley happy if they went with another Progression server based on the idea of each guild unlocking the content rather than server wide, this would bring some real challenges to each guild and perhaps draw in more players as they won't feel they are going to be left behind by the big guilds.
The thing with Progression, though, is even right at the beginning with no expansions unlocked, the Progression game was exactly the same as the standard game. All the bug fixes, tweaks, updates and upgrades were present, they just locked off expansion territories and features.
I think PreCU SWG would be impossible to do now.
From what i remember sony devs never kept the code from pre-cu and cu swg all they did was write over it which is why swg nge is so bloody hard to change basic things like the ui and makes it near impossible to add fresh content..unless offcourse they recycle from the existing game *cough cough* new ships cough cough.
A classic EQ server asap plz.
Nice article.
Nostalgia is a very tricky, and some would say fickle, thing to work with. Sometimes it clicks with people and some times it doesn't.
I started playing on the Classic Dark Age of Camelot servers with, admittedly, too high of expectations that it would be just like the good old days. While not having ToA expansion did indeed help, too many other things had changed and I couldn't make myself like the changes.
From what I've heard from others Everquest had a similar problem. It was a lot like the old, but not enough. It didn't feel like you were back in 2001 playing old school Elf crack.
If you want to give your old player base a nostalgia shock, I suggest saving the game exactly like how it is on launch and bring it back after a few years (fatal or really crappy glitches aside). More then likely, these developers have no need or want otherwise to keep the game in it's completely original form.
I'd go back and play original versions of any of these:
Dark Age of Camelot
Asheron's Call
Everquest
PlanetSide
Star Wars Galaxies
...I'm sure the list has a few more, but I got to head out. Peace!
Yeah, there were a lot of things that slipped through the cracks, and a lot of things that were intentionally left different. For example, old-school EverQuest meditation (mana regeneration) required the caster to open their spell book, which blocked their entire screen. Later in the game they allowed casters to meditate via the /sit command, without blocking their view...but the progression servers started out with /sit meditation.
When I'm sitting, I like to be able to at least watch everyone else fight. I'm glad they left this change out - while more hardcore veterans wanted spellbook meditation back.
Unfortunately you can be caught in the catch 22 situation of having to cope with bugs that shouldnt be there, or imbalances that only got resolved later on in the game.
Actually if you resolved those bugs/balance issues then what content do you miss out of including in with the game for these standalone 'classic' servers.
The only time in which something like a 'classic' server could work would be if some GAME changing took place (Starwars NGE being my only experiance with). And although the code might not be there, 90% of the time, the game changes get rolled through several patches... and unfortunately you are then left with 2 or more SAME games to develop for (unless of course you allowed people to transfer characters from 'classic' to 'current' servers)
I hear you Laura, but, like many things we take for granted, this was to be earned through playing to me. It was a major milestone to get to the level you dropped the book and on a RP tip marked the passing from novice to master spellcaster. At least thats how I always saw it. :)
Lets not forget the book thing didnt last forever. :)
Whether it's nostaliga or not, no other game contected to me like EQ1 did. And theres always a market for nostalga right?
As far back as 2002 when the EQ forums were more frequented you would see sporadic threads discussing a possible concept such as the Progression/Combine server. At the time the idea was more fanciful than a possibility, but the fervor grew and old school players like me felt that it was worth a shot to keep this concept alive.
Around 2005 and with a lot of community momentum SOE seemed to have taken notice. It wasn't just a few sporadic threads now, but a rally of players who were really wanting this idea to come to fruition. I can still recall the excitement I felt when I received my Station News Letter and was reading that SOE was going to open a Progression server.
I hopped on the forums and saw an elated group of players and more importantly I saw old schoolers coming out of the woodwork. People I knew from old guilds and real life friends were considering a return, most of them did.
As some of you may recall SOE had the best subscriber base in June/July 2006 than they had experienced in several years. Anyone who logged in opening night saw over 400 players in Greater Faydark alone, when you weren't crashing from the sheer volumes of people.
It was an incredible time, a wonderful time! Norrath was alive again, crafting was viable again, questing was fun again, trading in the EC tunnel was soon to follow and that was the thrill well worth the subscription alone.
Times couldn't have been sweeter in those first three weeks, however it wasn't long before we saw Misty Thicket Picnic Baskets and Qeynos Afternoon tea being sold, which garnished some amazing stats for just 1 silver per and so the tyrannical rush of Uber Guilds to completely tear through content began.
I've never objected to how people play as long as they followed the rules, but I felt that the speed and tenacity at which the raiders were slowly affecting the game was turning a 4 year old dream into a end game nightmare.
One of the more disappointing elements was that SOE naively admitted they didn't anticipate that 'end-game radiers' would be interested in playing as this was a walk down memory lane, smell the roses environment, a claim I found very difficult to believe.
The whole idea was to allow players the luxury of reliving the 'good'ol days'. It was fun while it lasted (all of two months for me), would another Progression Server work, maybe, but not with the same fan fair as the first Progression Server. I admit I miss the game, however I'm not sure if I'd make another return. SOE would really have to stick to their guns, outline the progressions process and expansions clearly so that we could have a smell the roses game play.
I played the progression server on launch in summer 2006
it was a blast with TONS of players in the newbie zones and beyond
(I lost interest after POP opened)
- would happily do this again if they started a new classic server
Amazing post Laura ^_^, it pin-points what happened with the progression server perfectly. It seemed like SOE catered much more to the hard-core players than to the casual, nostalgia seeker. Wether it was intentional or just coincidental, I have no idea.
I played on one of the progression servers also (The Sleeper) and honestly, even with the modern game changes left in, I had a blast. It was, without a doubt, the most fun I've had in an MMO in years.
As for the classic server idea, I've kind of got mixed feelings about it. Don't get me wrong, I truly love the old world and classic content more than anything in the game, but I also like being on the proactive side of things when it comes to development. I want to see everything the game has to offer - past, current, and future.
With that said, what I'd really like to see as a new server in the future (if they do, in fact, decide to create a new one) would be a progression server with much longer time locks for unlocking expansions. That was my biggest disappointment about The Sleeper; I felt like I was being rushed in order to see and do all of the things I always wanted to do in the old world. And for those playing for nostalgia's sake, I'd guess that they were the most disappointed of us all. One month per expansion just didn't seem long enough (or was it longer? I can't remember exactly.) With the super guilds racing each other for fame and glory, it left the rest of us in the dust as we watched the old world fade back into obscurity and become that which it is on normal servers. I just wish that there could've been more time to bask in the greatness that was classic EQ. Aside from that though, it was a very memorable experience, and I'd gladly do it again.
Here's hoping SOE considers a 4-6 month time-locked progression or classic server in the near future ^_^.
-Alacres
sony online entertainment is plain stupid. someone would say that a companies goal is to earn money. well, it looks like they got way too much money since anyone else with half a braincell would have opened already several DIFFERENT ruleset servers (pvp included).
its about time to get braid mc quaid back into buisness to show em what the vision actually is
current everquest sucks big time...every new expansion trivializes everything beyond that.
The multitude of expansions is not the problem. The problem has been and always was the POK (Plane of Knowledge) and in-game tutorials.
POK and in-game tutorials killed off the old world, for there was no longer any reason to hang out in Freeport, Qeynos, Halas, or East Commonlands. The game sort of died for a lot of us when POK went live. (And the in-game tutorials made things even worse).
I am all for out-of-game tutorials as existed in the original release of EQ. Folks do need to experiment with movement, casting spells, opening inventory, etc... But to throw folks into some contrived tutorial instance for the first 10 levels really kills any reason to hang out in the wondrous newbie lands of pre-expansion EQ.
The thrills of EQ were numerous, but among those included having the home starting cities as safehavens and places to train and sell, and to have cross-continent journeys and the excitement of risking getting caught in Kithicor Forest after sundown. Stuff like that gave the old world a culture and a feel to it. (And yes, high level players could still buy a druid port if they didn't want to make the journey.)
But today, EQ feels like Dungeons and Dragons Online or Guild Wars where you hang out in one city (POK in EQ) and wait to get a group so you can port to where the fight is. Lame, lame, lame.
Why have a POK? Why not place an auction house and trainers in every major starting city, with a few cities having spells others do not, so some travel is mandated. Let the cities of Freeport, Halas, Qeynos, Kelethin, and Felwithe LIVE. Nothing more cool that seeing living folks in Freeport. (Instead, Freeport looks like a set from the movie "I am Legend"; just empty and grim).
And one other thing, I loved Jay Barbeau's original midi music and thoroughly despise Laura Karpman's jazzed up versions of the EQ themes. The latter sounds like the tired music track of a TV sitcom and is just annoying. Jazzed up themes generally blow.
Sony needs to give us EQ classic and restore the original music. At least give us ONE server like this.
Thanks. Happy New Year.
That sums up the change in genre between early games (from text muds on up through EQ1) and the modern games. EQ1 required the player to do a lot of bookkeeping by hand. It was the last game I drew maps (with the original multimedia design tool... graph paper!) while playing. It was the last game where I would spend an extra hour after intending to quit because I *had* to retrieve my corpse before it decayed. It was also the last game where I got to know the layout of the game world like the back of my hand.
In-game maps destroyed so much of the feeling that EQ1 had, it's really a shame. The reason Kithicor was so terrifying was that it was dark (I mean dark as in you could see 20 feet ahead of you, and that was it... unless you didn't have a torch, in which case you could see almost nothing). But dark alone isn't enough... you also had no in-game navigation beyond typing /loc to get your coordinates, and a little compass which wasn't always 100% accurate. No in-game map with little radar dots, no gowing trails to waypoints. Just you and your knowledge of the game, or your printout of eqatlas's maps and a notepad.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not a young kid these days. I don't have the patience (or time!) to draw maps and try to remember which similarly-named mob I got a quest from (to turn it in... you had to remember!), and which one would sell me stuff. But I also know nothing will have the same kind of intense feelings because nobody will give up those comforts.
It's a real shame that Vanguard failed the way it did. If they had stuck to their original "no teleporting" and "no maps" concepts, and had released a game that wasn't so bug-riddled, it would have given you that same feel. The fact is, instant travel and maps makes the world itself redundant. It doesn't matter how far across the uncharted oceans a city is, if you can buy a ticket to take a safe ship which goes through a portal.
As for pre-cu SWG... Only way that could ever happen is if SOE dug out a copy of the server code from that time (cvs, svn, source-safe... they must have one somewhere) AND dug out a copy of the client from that time as well. You'd have to suffer with all the bugs of the old client AND server, since I gather the changes to the code infrastructure were significant, and they wouldn't stick any developers into back-porting bug fixes unless they could prove it would be a significant source of income.
Happy New Year!
I would not play on a server that was capable of unlocking the mess that is Luclin and beyond. Aside from LDON, LOY and Kunark the rest of the raid crap can rot.
Now, if they had a EQ server with just Kunark, and the new regen changes that would truly rock. I'm not interested in getting 50 people together to zerg some poor mob to get a reward that trivilalizes the game.
I used to have reams of those maps tacked up on the wall behind the monitor so i wouldn't get lost.
God there were so many great areas in the game to just screw around in and it's amazing how vividly i remember them after all these years. and who can ever forget the exhiliration / terror / furor whenever you heard :
!!! T R A I N !!!
waaaahhhh!!! 
bwahahaha wheee! what a damn fun game it was.
edit: oh yeah back on topic - Progression. fwiw Horizons had an excellent progression system where masses of people had to work together mining and defending the miners to unlock new playable races, and construction to unlock new land masses. I remember coordinating defense efforts with dozens of other fighters every day over a period of weeks in order to free a race. In addition to the normal spawns, every so often the GMs would intervene and throw in a mass attack that would have us fighting for our lives! great fun and there was actually some global Goal to work towards, ie there was actually something Going On in the world.
This is a great thread. Very intelligent, I agree with so much of what is said here. I used to have all the eqatlas maps in a huge binder too, read the book guide before really playing.
{ Mod Edit } after Luclin Garbage came out, the ugly models and the dumming of the game, the uber raid zones that invalidated old content. This might have been the greatest game of all time, and SoE choses to mess with it.
I kind of wish I had logged on to the progression servers the first couple weeks they were up. That sounded really fun just to log in for those couple weeks. Like a reunion.
But I think that the stupid tutorial zones? would have made me delete the game right off my pc. Do I get this right you did not just pop into Quenos or whatever as a level 1? There were breadcrumb trails showing waypoint, and in game maps.?? it sounds to bad to be true.
*Side note there is an emulator server that is in the works that might be real fun, http://www.eqclassic.org/ there is also http://www.eqemulator.net if you would like to make your own server, or play on someone's private server. Its not very hard to run a server.
Still it would be nice if SoE could provide the original game the way Verant intended on one of its servers. Many of us still have the original CDs still even.
I didn't play EQ the first time around, but this time I've been on board since the launch of the Sleeper :) I've a 70 cleric with almost 700 aas these days; I have my critisms about the server but overall, it is really fun.
As a note, an earlier poster asked about other server rulesets; there is also a PVP server (Zek) and an RP server (Firiona Vie).
How many subs does Everquest1 have?
You really have to be a masichist to play a game today that was designed in 1999. Especially when it was mediocre to start with.
People through around the community as an excuse, I suppose if your friends all play, but I found communities in other games that were as good if not better.
EQ is just not worth bothering with in this day and age.
I wouldnt rule your theory out but as a person who knows a little about code and codeing you dont just write over your old code and not have a back up saved somewhere. You may have to revert back at any point in the coding process so they will always have a version 1.0 somewhere. The problem that can easily be solved would be the actual file that had the combat upgrades on it. They would have to make a whole new executable that read which server you went to and use combat version 1.0 or the new NGE combat version. Will they do this probably not because they probably dont want to mess with the main executable because a bug could make a mess for NGE servers or you could get NGE in some instance on the PRE-CU server. But it can be done.
the only reason they changed this was because of the new UI. Yes at level 35 you didnt need to use your book to meditate. but when they went to this new UI the spell book doesnt block the whole screen. So they changed it. And personally i could care less about the Meditate it shouldnt of been there in the first place. My problem was the HELL LEVELS. when they took this out (after i did all mine) that was very dissappointing time in my EQ career.
taera, current zek is a joke, you can not compete there if you start new ....there have been 4 pvp servers which have been merged...wana know why? cause trivializing expansions ruined the whole pvp system, planes of power with those fu**ing books sealed the demise of real pvp in everquest. natural save zone (old citys) started to be ghost towns, everyone and his neighbour chilled in POK.
current zek is a carebare server, it simply sucks.....one of my best pvp experience in the last 2 DECADES was everquest pvp 2000-2002, sullon zek RIP.
planes of power and any other expansion beyond that ruined it.....and, imo, pve too on this note
To each their own, sadly - there's no way to please anyone, all the time :( the POP raids were some of my favorite progression so far!
When I was discussing this thread with a friend of mine (I was out lining what I said in my previous post) he mentioned that to him the element that most effected the game in his opinion was removing hell levels. There is no question that you had to earn as you learned.
To me the first real changes that started to affect the game was when the changes to the crafting stations and or the various trade skill kits were designed not to combine unless you had the correct ingredients. To my knowledge that was the first major change that was made to compensate for people making mistakes that were costing them gear and equipment.
I can remember losing gear and equipment by accidentally combining sewing kits, my friend called it the stupid tax. Risk vs Reward couldn't have been better spoken by EQ, the game had consequences, it caused the player to be cognoscente of what was going on around them.
Some may argue that once the Bazaar was introduced the social element started to break down as the EC tunnel was a social gathering place, however this is debatable as people still had to interact for grouping purposes. Nonetheless the Bazaar did seem to trivialize the whole trading process.
There is no question in my mind that POK had an enormous effect on the home cities and or newbie areas, not to mention it alternatively became the starting city, so to speak. POK also had an impact on both Druids and Wizard porters, now everyone could freely travel where ever they wanted.
This semi coincides with the early introduction of City Binders, which was kind of the second major change. This also detracted from the various classes that offered binds, similar to Wizard and Druid porters. This of course was the offering of the various classes before resing became the one size fits all class offering.
Then you have the varying nurfs, granted when one class had some kind of perceived advantage it was a fix, if it were to your disadvantage it was a nurf. Balance has and always will be a point of contention in any game. Though not as much now days as classes seem to share similar abilities.
Everquest was a great game, it had depth, purpose and a reward system that made people want to come back for more. To me Everquest was ground breaking game, I'm not sure the current MMO populace would have liked the original game because it would have required more out of the player than these newer players would be willing to invest and I don't think you'll see another game like EQ for that very reason.
As far as the tutorial, I suppose I have to give SOE the benefit of the doubt here. I believe that they realized that there wasn't that many new people subscribing to the game and those new players needed a more accessible place from which to develop their character and find others to group with.
I personally didn't like the tutorial, however I did see the need for it.
I started on the progression server right on release. It was a GREAT idea.
I joined FoH, I quit, I joined RoI.
Then I realized the major flaw in the progression. One guild unlocks something for the whole server. This could have easily been fixed to require a certain number of guilds or characters to progress to unlock the next step. (but of course, if you make that number too big, the top guilds get bored waiting).
Also, during the FIRST part of the servers existence... they forgot to restrict certain things. I forget the name of the zone, but god... the amount of time spent camping Poachers for experience to level. I couldn't tell you how many people were camped in neriak waiting for that one mob to spawn... and then the FoH vs RoI dps contest to see who could get the kill.
I wish progression was always based on player involvement.
Not to turn this into a "bash SOE" thread, but Smed and those who make the decisions for Everquest have failed the game.
The game has been developed in a direction it was not originally intended to go. If WoW has shown anything it is that the "classic EQ" formula is a hit. But instead we have a game without a purpose or identity except to try and fit into the NEW lore of EQ2. Everquest was left behind to die years ago. Like so many other SOE titles, only those fans who remember it in it's glory keep it going.
SOE does NOT know how to make good games, or market either. After resisting for years for joining the "SOE is bad" bandwagon, I have to add my name to the role.
I think there will be more players to come into this game.So i decide to join them.
I played on the combine, just until i got my account hacked and SoE refused to help me because the credit card i used to pay the game was different from the one i used for the frees :P
But i have to say that until then it was an enjoyable experience, it remind me of the old EQ days despite some minor issues like some upgraded loot which outdated classic items.
If they decided to start a classic server or just a longer progression server i would indeed join it again.
Well I suppose I do not have much room to talk about the subject considering I came so late into the game with SoL, but the whole reason I bought the PC back years ago while in the military was because of Everquest. Sure I liked Return to Castle Wolfenstein among other games, but nothing quite gave me that aww and chill factor as EQ had. I remember my first character being a Barbarian Beastlord and traversing the artic wastelands in the dark and seeing my first skeletons. To this day just thinking about it gives me goose bumps. It was not that it was scary, but that it was that good. The sights, the sounds, the imagination etc. all made it worth while. Plus the price tag as I recalled was not too much a month.
Before I even purchased EQ a fellow soldier use to play EQ and it's first two expansions heavily. Besides Star Craft that was all he would play was EQ. I ended up at first not paying attention to the game, but after realising the depth and character customization and the amount of races and job classes, I could not learn enough about it. I use to sit in his chair and read his EQ book which was huge, not so much for the instructions of the game, but more for the player info of job classes and skills and races and even more indepth stuff such as stories and gods etc. I remember one story inparticular about a dwarf in a bar and how he was about to strangle another dwarf for it's statements about the war or some thing. I can not remember if the old proud dwarf killed the other or bought him a drink after his story.
In either case and more to the point I have played many paid and free MMORPGs... FF11, Horizons, Asheron's Call 1 and 2, EQ, Shadowbane, Dark Age of Camelot etc. plus free ones like Knight Online, Rubies of Eventide and more I cannot even remember this late at night... besides EQ and the now free Shadowbane... I have never came back to an MMORPG to play again. I have left EQ at least three times... I sort of have an ADD problem when it comes to games... I think my highest character was a 30 some thing Dark Elf Necromancer... even though I had not even scratched the surfice of the game, my mind said I was bored with it and I moved on again and again.
Yet even to this day EQ has a special place in my heart. Some say it was SoL that tipped the tide to bad gaming while some say including me it was PoP... regardless, I remember my old fellow soldier sitting there for hours just talking to people on line, some friends, some new people and trying to create a raid, then while on it just sitting there to mediatate and regain mana and heal their wounds. It was all about the "Role Playing" at that time... imagine doing that in a MMO"RPG" game... who would have thought it plus the exploration. (Sarcastic) I have heard stories where it would take a very long time to gain even one piece of cheap armor that was worth a lot back in the original days that now is common practice after slaying a few beasts. And all the old towns are empty for the most part... every one logs on and the first thing they do or did when I played was run to a portal or some thing... what about all the great adventures of the old realm? I know half these people are new and probably never even played EQ before and yet there they were trekking into new realms that should not have even been seen yet. What a waste. That more than any thing probably stopped me from getting back into it... that and the higher price tag.
Now here I am wanting to play the old EQ and since it would be the old version a nice "old" price per month would be nice as well. I am now playing EQ:Champions of Norrath just trying to get some feel for it. Has any one played EQ Online Frontiers for the PS2? Any thing like the old EQ? Sorry for this long post... but this discussion was the whole reason I even registered for the site. One day I hope to meet you all in the old EQ game world... perhaps we could sit and break bread and drink water and wine for a while and then go slay some giants.