One of the fundamental modern experiences of human beings is the high school reunion. Someone somewhere thought it would be a great idea to pull together a bunch of people who probably don’t know or like each other and let them try to one up everyone else in a structured environment ten years later! I had a lot of friends in high school and I already keep in touch with them. Everyone else is just filler! Why am I even bringing this up on an MMO design blog? I’m going to be celebrating a ten year reunion here shortly. That is right folks EverQuest is turning ten.
I remember the first time I set foot in EQ after leaving UO. I was blown away by the first person experience and the huge graphical improvement. The difficulty of the game left me stunned but the rewards had me craving more. Today, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of EQ, I thought I would recount my favorite moments from the game.
The first one is a nightmare I’m sure many of us faced at one time or another. I took a trip to Befallen on my young paladin to slay some undead. Unfortunately Befallen has a series of locked doos and an evil well that drops you behind them. Once you’re down there you’re rightly done. I died and my body was trapped. I called Khallid who was a warrior and higher level than me and begged. I said, “I’m going to lose my body!” He came and saved the day but it was pretty hairy!
When it came to Khallid we, (our group), always saw to it that he had the best gear. He was, after all, the main tank. When he won something we all felt like we won. Dresden, Khallid and I were on a Hate raid and things were going pretty well. The three of us were at Dresden’s house playing on a LAN so we could communicate better. This was before ventrilo. An indicolite breastplate dropped and Khallid won the roll! We were so thrilled that we, three mostly grown men, did the group hug and jump up and down maneuver. It was like winning the Super Bowl for nerds!
It is funny how that when I think about terrible wipes now I laugh. Back then it was serious business though! At one point we were “raiding” the old Splitpaw. Our buddy paladin was late to the raid and agro’d a ton of gnolls. Instead of following procedure “stand and die,” he decided to jump down from the bridge to us. This seemed like a good idea until every gnoll in the zone came into where we were. The stream was so long it looked like one giant gnoll snake. Rightly Durrel said, “Oh lord!” and hit evacuate. Many were not so lucky however. This was quite the corpse recovery for our guild!
The sad truth is I probably have over a hundred various stories about EverQuest. It really was a big part of my life for a long time. I still happen to think it is one of the most superior MMOs out there and as you may know I’ve been playing it lately. So thank you SOE and EQ for giving me lots of memories and happy birthday to you!
All characters are © 2007 - 2012
I still believe this is the best MMO ever made, even including recent releases. I would go so far as to say it is one of the top 5 games of all time, at least on my list (Fallout 2 and Rome Total War are other personal favorites).
It is unbelievably sad that a game like this can probably never be made again. Or, if it is, the expectations of monetary success cannot be equal to Warcraft. Of course we can still hope that Copernicus resurrects the essence of EQ. Other than that, however, the life arc of the EQ style MMO seems to be on the severe down slope.
Let’s just look at the general concepts that the original release of EQ trumpeted. Complete and total time sinks (hard camps, place holders, few (no) quests, grinding xp). There was no map, the zones were huge and many times confusing. The gear was very rare and everyone knew those few precious items that all players dreamed of as meer legends of rumors, to be glimpsed only when some level 50 ran by you in North Freeport. Death mattered more than you can imagine; not only did you lose alot of xp, you had to get your body back with your gear on it. Almost every class could not solo, and competent group play was a requirement. The game mechanics and general world were mysterious, things that couldn’t exactly be nailed down.
Now, many times, I have appreciated the newer MMO attributes that add to efficiency. Maps are great, copious quests with marked areas are very useful, death being a simple port to a bind point is relaxing, and the plethora of “diablo-style” loot makes improving your character a rather simple task.
Sadly, however, those very things that make games like Warcraft, Warhammer, and others so popular to the massive amount of new MMO players also make the games completely watered down and uninspired products. Perhaps the genre has passed me by, or maybe those early MMO days can never be recaptured. But, I will never forget the sense of accomplishment and wonder that EQ could inspire in me. Everquest allowed suffering and annoyance to be in a game. I miss that suffering, it made the victory that much more glorious.