At what age did you first start playing EverQuest, and what draws you in?

Fenrisulfr · #1 03-20-2011, 10:41 AM

Personally I started playing at around age 9 or 10 when the game had just hit the market... And although I wasn't mature enough to understand the depth, I sure could appreciate the complexity of such a magnificent game. Meeting other players and just talking to them about anything and everything as the years went on is what made me love EverQuest.

I'll admit that I am human, and I pass the regular Ol Joe on the street and I'm not one to take a conversation farther than a simple hello at times with new people. Why? Because of the face value effect... And because I've been a generally shy person when I'm not working. EverQuest allowed me to not use the physical form as an awkward excuse to not get to know many people, and I learned to appreciate a lot of good qualities in people that I seemed to pass up in real life.

Of course I love the loot, the grind, and the quest... But ultimately I loved the culture I discovered among the players, and the experiences I shared with them over the past 12 years.

So let me know! What age were you? Why come back to such an "outdated" game? I hope that one day I can share experiences with you fellow players, and I can enjoy the game just like I did back in the day!

Kimmie · #2 03-20-2011, 10:53 AM

I was 11 or 12 and used to make fun of my brother while he played.
Then he made me try it. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

dredge · #3 03-20-2011, 11:10 AM

hateshadow · #4 03-20-2011, 11:43 AM

I was 13 in 2001 and I liked the fact that the game had what seemed like an infinity of different items and so many character combinations. Before that I I tought was such a large amount of items and classes, as the game I used to play before that was Diablo 1.

gprater · #5 03-20-2011, 11:49 AM

having played AD&D since 79, this was finally D&D-visualized....something we always talked about from the moment our friend(the DM) got his first "trash 80" computer and we spent all that time typing in the code for a simple text fantasy adv game.

quellren · #6 03-20-2011, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kimmie [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I was 11 or 12 and used to make fun of my brother while he played.
Then he made me try it. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Same here, but I was a bit older at 18. He played UO and Diablo, then EQ when it launched and I used to call him a loser for wasting time in a dark room playing video games. In the first few days of it going live it was all he talked about. One day after about a week of his incessant ramble, for a reason still unknown to me, I was like "Hey what is this thing you play?"

30 minutes later I was a lvl 2 Barbarian Warrior. In a week I was a hopeless EQ-addict. So much so, that I bought my own copy, got my own sub and rolled my beloved Barb Sham that I played literally everyday until I left for Basic Training.

I guess simple nostalgia draws me in to P99. For a long time I used to say my favorite character of any MMO ever was Sdaor. For better of worse, EQ had a fairly significant hand in the decisions that made me who I am today.

Ryhalt · #7 03-20-2011, 12:46 PM

I was like 15 or so and honestly I was just looking for a fantasy game for the computer. That was really about it.

odizzido · #8 03-20-2011, 12:56 PM

I was 17 the first time I played. One of the things I liked was I never ran out of things to do to make my character better. I was actually only level 49 when kunark released and never got past 53 or 54.

I have a lot more time now and am 50 with far better gear than my first character. One of the things I am not happy about with P99 is that the devs don't like AAs, which to me was unlimited character improvement. I am sure this time around I will do my epic and be 60 and such.....and then after that I won't have a whole lot to do with my main character.

Well, a few other things I like about EQ and enough negative:

-The world feels like it has distance and you have to travel. Add on that you need food and water to function and you have a nice "I am going on a real journey" feeling.

-Corpse recovery. Nothing keeps you wanting to live like a healthy fear of corpse recovery. And when you live that extra close battle it makes it all the more awesome.

-Mob diversity. Having level 35 mobs mixed in with level 10 stuff adds a lot. Not only does it let high level and low level characters mix together unlike any other MMO, it also gives you that "revenge" opportunity. That time slate killed my ogre when he was lvl 10, well now it's payback time. And all those giants you avoiding in oasis? Now you look for them.

-Lack of loot explosion. When something drops in EQ it's sweet because loot is rare. When something drop in diablo2 or most other MMOs it's just "oh great more garbage I have to sort through" because you already got 50 other drops in 30mins.

-Race diversity. Ogres are just better in combat than other races, but they get stuck in dungeons. Gnomes and only gnomes can tinker. Things like that allow you to pick a race on more than just looks. Should you make a troll shaman for the extra regen/cani or an ogre for no front stun?

-Spell levels. Having them every four or five levels really gives you the feeling of "I just got so much better".

There are other things, but I think those are the main reasons I like EQ.

Phallax · #9 03-20-2011, 01:34 PM

I was 20 ish. I was an avid UO player and a friend of mine talked about EQ beta and how awesome the game would be. But I was so into UO at the time I really didnt give EQ a second thought. I didnt think it stood a chance. After going to his house and messing around on his account while he was at work. I got addicted. I was unemployed at the time and actually went out and got a job just so I could pay for EQ lol.

I was drawn into EQ because of its depth and seemingly endless exploration. My first raid encounter got me even more addicted. Theres nothing more thrilling than getting together with 40+ other players to take down 1 bad ass mob. No other game offered that at the time.

EQ is also the only game I felt was/is epic. The fights and quests are more meaningful than just "oh yea Ive done that".

I also have one of my largest gaming accomplishment on EQ. Even though the berserker community was low I got the first ever berserker epic 1.5 worldwide and I felt like the shit for that for awhile. Could have had the first 2.0 also if my guild at the time didnt go by DKP =/

Mcbard · #10 03-20-2011, 01:54 PM

I was 13 at the time. All my friends at school were trying to get me to play it for a couple of months before I finally gave it a try. I had played console RPG's a lot before I started, and I actually played Runescape and I really enjoyed it before I started EverQuest. I used to have a Runescape folder and all of that, with recipes and maps and stuff, same thing I later had for EverQuest. After a few months of nagging my mother to foot the bill (for both the game and monthly subscription) she finally bought it for me and I started playing.

There was about a full group of us at school that played, and we would log in and hang out together and kill stuff. The thing that drew me in was just the largeness of the world. My buddies and I had a fullsize virtual play land where we could do whatever we wanted, and at the time it was all so new and majestic. The world was so large, and the content so deep that it stayed that way for a couple of years for me and it was really fun. After a couple of years in the game though its rather unfortunate but it just starts to lose that feel. It becomes just another game where you know how to get everywhere, the majesticness had worn off, and I was just grinding and raiding in a world I already knew almost everything about. It was fun while it lasted though.