How your very first encounter went with the world of Norrath

[Kwitchercryn]

So, as the title says, lets see how everybodies first encounters went when they first signed on and started adventuring in the world of Norrath.

When I first purchased Everquest, it was shortly after it launched back in 1999. My computer was sitting in the "office" in mine and my dads house. I started it up and I was instantly hooked. There was so much. I was completely overwhelmed and had no idea what I was doing. I loved it.

Loved it so much in fact, that I completely lost track of time. Before I knew it, I had been on the computer for going on 24 hours. My face was only a few inches from my computer screen because my vision was starting to fail me, yet I couldnt pull myself away. So many orcs to slay!

Then, all of a sudden, my screen goes black! :eek: "WHA!?!?!?" I look up and see my dad with his finger on the power button to my computer. "Go...to...bed" , damnit all.....so I went to bed, sadly, I didnt even make it TO my bed, I ended up passing out on the floor of my room some how. Thats all she wrote. After that, I was completely hooked to this wonderful game.

[Barkingturtle]

I feel like the next line of your post should've read, "And I never saw a tree again."

My first moments in EQ I fell off Kelethin and promptly started my first corpse run. I imagine many others shared my experience and it was apparently fun.

[Kwitchercryn]

What is this "tree" you speak of?

[Volibear]

I rolled a DE necro. Fought a snake and lost. I then deleted the necro and started a mage. I then promptly won my first battle and kept the mage.

[fadetree]

Well, at the time, I was writing my own internet multi-player game....a text-only persistent world. It a sort-of clone of Gemstone III for 16 players and had been running it locally over 16 phone lines at the house, with a lot of success. Then I discovered the internetz, and was busily retrofitting the game for sockets and upscaling to 128 players. I had actually QUIT MY FREAKIN JOB to develop the internet version.

So then I was looking around at the internet for competition....found meridian 59 and was relieved to find it was more or less unplayable...saw a couple of others...and then ran into EQ. It was May of 1999. I had a bad feeling right away...and then when it opened and I stepped into it in June my jaw dropped and I knew it was game over for me, no freakin way a single person could compete with that. So went back to work and played EQ for the next 8 years.

As far as what happened, I rolled up a human ranger that first day, dropped into Surefall Glade, and spent like an hour trying to get out of there because I COULD NOT SEE lol. Then when I was out I surveyed the land before me. Lots of people running around killing stuff, training beetles to guards lol. I remember being on the little ridge just to the left of the SF entrance, back to back with another player, valiantly fighting the skeles...soon we were dead but it was a blast. Lots of great memories.

In fact, thats why I just rolled up a new ranger here on eq99. I tried a Sony TLP server for a while, but they are blowing through expansions so fast that it might as well be a live server, plus they didn't actually regress the code base so its still EZ mode in any case. So if you see a very young ranger around qeynos named Fadetree, its me. I like it a lot...I was *thrilled* to get a backpack and a coupla +5 HP ears off the injured rat in the catacombs, and had to RUN FOR MY LIFE in actual fear when I had a coupla red giant rats aggro on me. I barely made it to the exit. See, thats what you don't get on the live servers..actual dread and actual ( well sorta ) accomplishments.

[Danyelle]

I rolled a DE necro. Fought a snake and lost. I then deleted the necro and started a mage. I then promptly won my first battle and kept the mage.

Good...good.

[nocookiesforme]

I can't remember which of these came first, but both of my first experiences involved incredibly noobish deaths.

Well, that's not quite true. My absolute first encounter with Everquest was just watching my friend play it for about 15 minutes when I went over to his place after school one day. After seeing his level 6-8ish mage kill some random mobs in Qeynos hills, I was enthralled. I HAD to play this game. So I went home and ordered Ruins of Kunark off of Amazon.com immediately. But when it finally arrived, I learned (to my endless chagrin) that our computer's graphics card was not up to the task of playing Everquest. (This was odd; I later found that I <i>could</i> play that shitty offline tutorial that came with the game back then. So desperate was my longing to play that I actually completed that tutorial <i>twice.</I>

Anyway, while I saved up money to buy a new video card, I got to play the game on two separate occasions at friends' places; they each let me make a character on their accounts since they knew how badly I was jonesing.

The encounter I <i>THINK</i> came first involved me making a human ranger. After struggling for probably upwards of an hour, I finally found the guildmaster in Surefall glade. I remember having trouble maneuvering in the tunnels there without night vision. Anyway, I eventually fell into a small body of water somewhere within Surefall, and started to drown. I didn't know how to pan up! I panicked, fearing that all I had gained through my hour of hard work, a newbie weapon and my guild tunic, would be lost!

I searched the shelf above my friend's desk for the Everquest box, hoping to find a manual. No luck. My friend was in his living room, playing Majora's Mask, so I ran out to ask him what to do. His gracious and helpful response: "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Uh... Ah... Ahahahahaha! Page up. Just press page up."

I sprinted back to his room, but it was too late; I had drowned.

My other "first" experience was less exciting; at a different friend's apartment, I made a Human Monk in Qeynos. Running around the yard killing rats, I was frustrated to see that they had a tendency to run away when they were almost dead. "Whatever," I thought. "I don't feel like chasing them." So after waiting a little while to regain some health, I ran off, probably halfway across the yard, and started a fight with another rat. The same damned thing happened! At this point, my health was pretty low. I sat down, waited to heal up for all of like 2 ticks, then picked a fight with <i>another</i> rat that walked right across my path. Almost as soon as I did, the first rat, which had gained enough health to resume the fight, then chased me across the zone, returned. I switched my attention to that initial rat, and I think I actually managed to kill him. But by then, the 2nd rat had regained enough health to come back after me, and he didn't have very far to walk. The 2nd and 3rd rats owned me.

:)

[SCB]

The very first thing I ever did in EQ was roll a Wood Elf druid. At the time I was obsessed with druids in DnD (still the coolest class ever in 2nd edition rules IMO), and figured this would be equally cool.

I almost immediately fell to my death in Kelethin after wandering for what seemed like hours to find my guild hall. When I recovered my corpse, it had a number of Fine Steel weapons on it. I ran around /shouting if anyone had "lost any Fine Steel" weapons. No one claimed them, and I was elated to see what they were worth.

That's right, I got hooked by a bug.

[eadric]

My first day in Everquest ended with my level 4 half elf ranger falling down the hole in the Tree in Blackburrow. The corpse was more or less irretrievable... no one went that deep into Blackburrow and came back alive. So I lost all my gear and gold on my very first day in the game. And yet, I was totally hooked.

[Kwitchercryn]

lol Yeah, my first toon got lost wondering around in Greater Fay, I remember coming across a dead orc and looted the small cloth wristbands off him "whoo! Armor!" only to turn around and get punched in the face by a much bigger much livelier orc. I didnt understand that I had to run back and get my body at this point in time. So, I was pretty upset when I noticed I lost my uber leet wristbands a few hours later >.<

[choster]

I remember being very skeptical having briefly tried UO... Well i fired up EQ and created an Ogre Shaman and was instantly hooked.

Getting turned around in the entrance of Oggok because it was night time and I didn't have a torch. I got a bit frustrated zoning back and forth before I realized I could turn up the alpha on my monitor enough to at least see the outline of the walls.

I remember being terrified of those spiderlings that would gang up on me and regularly eat me for breakfast, my wife looking over my shoulder once asked, "How is it you are standing there fighting and also laying on the ground taking a nap over there?"... Ohhh, that is where I left my corpse... Thanks babe.

Entering the swamp for the first time and thinking "damn, I thought my home was bad.". Fleeing in terror from that damn mushroom guy... You know, that is whay makes classic awesome... You get attached to your dude and death is powerful inconvenient... And fear is easier to come by in the dark when things aren't animated to be all bubblegum and rainbows.

Zone 3: Whatever was North of the swamp... I was just glad to get out of there (at 5 AM) someone is yelling "help! This poison is killing me!"... Oh wait, didn't I get a spell for that? Run run run, cast! Hero! (for a day)

So many experiences thay you just can't gt in a modern mmo.

[Within99]

First character ever.. Dwarf Warrior.

It sucked

But everything was so 3d, so It was fun.

I like power, so I like leveling, only reason in continued playing.

[Kevlar]

I remember a black screen and "You have been disconnected". Then about 6 hours looking around everfrost peaks for my corpse with my newbie gear. I think I just ended up deleting that character and starting over.

[Swish]

I remember making a high elf enchanter for my first character, spending probably an hour exploring this new world. Killing bats and wasps outside Felwithe was great and had me captivated, some time later I decided to follow the path which incidentally led to Kelethin, my heart was pounding, it was dark... the sounds of the wild were intimidating as I ran.

At what I know now is the newbie lift, there were some mystical beings there casting spells. Likely a druid, I remember the green glow coming out of their hands and the "ahh" sound as what was probably "Skin Like Wood" hit me. Totally, totally hooked...never got tired of it until after GoD and still played even then.

[timoris]

I made a high elf magician because my older bro was a high elf wizard and I wanted to be like him without copying him. Haha....back then I didn't know how to turn up brightness on monitor either so when nighttime came I went inside felwithe and waited for the day. Was such a revelation when I shouted in gfay "Damn it's so dark at night".....a few seconds later "Turn up your screen brightness bro". Totally altered my experience of EQ - I could play during the night.

Back then I didn't know what the max level was so I thought when I hit level 9 that I was nearing max level. Boy was I wrong.

[bulbousaur]

I created a barbarian warrior. Everfrost was PACKED with people. I went up to a guy that was beating on a mob, and started beating on it, to help. He got mad, and said something about "KS."

I had learned how to send tells, so I sent him one that I had been playing all of 5 minutes, and what was I doing wrong, I wanted to help? He calmed down and started walking me through making hotkeys, why you don't attack other people's mobs, and other noob lessons.

I played about three hours, totally enthralled. Then I wandered a little too far and was massacred by a skeleton (vengeful?). Didn't have a clue where my corpse was.

I went back to Diablo 2 for a couple of weeks, until a friend convinced me to try EQ again. I continued to play it for ten years.

[Galanteer]

got killed three times in half an hour before I rebound the auto attack hot key. Also died to drowning in a fountain during that 30 min.

[Sylexis]

Fippy killed me, the bastard. My game consisted of a quest for revenge from that day forward.

[Bohab]

My first day in Everquest ended with my level 4 half elf ranger falling down the hole in the Tree in Blackburrow. The corpse was more or less irretrievable... no one went that deep into Blackburrow and came back alive. So I lost all my gear and gold on my very first day in the game. And yet, I was totally hooked.

Yes. Very similar... I lost my SK's (first live character) corpse in the Befallen well a week into release and I never played him again.

But my cherry was popped when my friends that played UO showed me the EQ beta. I would go over their house and we would nerd out for hours around the monitor. My very first character of my own was a Dwarf Paladin. I killed bats, goblins and decaying skeletons and then got lost right outside Kaladim. Died and never found my corpse before beta ended. It was the best gaming experience EVER.

Bought the game the day it released from the mall. Played it on my mother's HORRIBLE Compaq on AOL dialup with no second phone line. Between the calls, crashes, and awful frame rates it was still a great experience.

[Valroth66]

Started a Human Warrior, found my trainer after about half an hour, wandered around qeynos trying to get out, fell in the water and drowned. I never got that corpse back.

[Ephirith]

Started a half elf paladin and split my starting points between agility and strength. Hit level 4 or so and went to EC and found a shaman killing the druids. He let me loot a bunch of fine steel weapons, I used one of them and sold the rest. Then a passing druid handed me a full suit of raw hide.

I thought I was hot shit, so I decided I wanted to journey to Qeynos. Actually made it through Kithicor at night, only to get killed by orcs in Highpass. Managed to get my corpse and went back to the commons where I found befallen. Wasn't long before I fell down the well near Llrodd and I never did get that corpse back.

Was about level 6 by then and managed to get a full suit of cloth and a rusty sword from vendors, and decided to get on the boat and go to Faydwer. Fell off the boat in the middle of the ocean and spent what must have been 2-3 hours swimming around until I found an island.... where I got killed by an aqua goblin or something.

About a week later I decided I wanted to be a high elf paladin and asked a guy in kelethin to help me transfer all my stuff. He logged off with it and never came back on. It wasn't even good stuff, like a full suit of banded and a fine steel weapon. This shattered my innocent 12 year old trust in the good of humanity and I moved to Rallos Zek with my brother where I spent a couple years being a complete douche to people.

[Flunklesnarkin]

I tried eq the first time a little before velious was released.


I remember being told the giant pit outside paineel (The Hole) was a shortcut to exp camps and i just had to jump in...



needless to say i never got that corpse back xD

[Barrier]

I started with a barbarian warrior, promptly fell in a well, and died. I didn't know about drag, so there he lies forever or until Aradune comes back.

[Heavydrop]

Made a human cleric in Freeport on Rallos Zek not knowing it was a pvp server (all I saw was a low population because at that time the game told you how many were on) so I was running around, killing stuff and I bought me my first pair of patwork pants from a merchant! I was excited. Then some guy came through and pk'd me and took my pants :( I didn't understand what was going on and he probably had a few laughs at my expense. I restarted on the Mithaniel Marr server same class came name, etc and had a good time

[stormlord]

Since I can't remember my first login the way you want me too, I'll state what I can about my first few months starting in late march 1999... (barring a session of hypnosis)

1) I remember having to figure out credit card information... I remember where the computers was in the room... I remember having anticipation for the credit card being validated
2) I remember being amazed that it was a 3d world with other people!
3) The framerate was choppy in Qeynos (i had a voodoo 2 and like 300mhz cpu)
4) I remember fletching arrows
5) I remember blackburrow being a pvp slaughter house with people looting each other's whole corpses
6) I remember waking up past midnight on March 19 1999 and looking out my window at the stars... Went outside and had an ominous feeling... In the morning we talked about a ufo... All of this feels more recent strangely than EQ does even though it happened several days before I installed EQ...
7) I remember making a monk friend... i think his name started with X...
8) He was a roleplayer and died bravely in North Karana fighting an enemy of his
9) I ran around all over the place, you better believe it... tons of playtime, not very many levels

I wish I could remember better. It's all very very fuzzy. I'd give money to remember the memories clearly.

The human brain is a machine that generalizes everything into abstracted pyramids with increasing detail towards the base but it's still all subject to the wizard of oz. I wish it were clearer.

The passage of time either wipes things away or it changes them, almost exclusively.

[stormlord]

Well, at the time, I was writing my own internet multi-player game....a text-only persistent world. It a sort-of clone of Gemstone III for 16 players and had been running it locally over 16 phone lines at the house, with a lot of success. Then I discovered the internetz, and was busily retrofitting the game for sockets and upscaling to 128 players. I had actually QUIT MY FREAKIN JOB to develop the internet version.

So then I was looking around at the internet for competition....found meridian 59 and was relieved to find it was more or less unplayable...saw a couple of others...and then ran into EQ. It was May of 1999. I had a bad feeling right away...and then when it opened and I stepped into it in June my jaw dropped and I knew it was game over for me, no freakin way a single person could compete with that. So went back to work and played EQ for the next 8 years.

As far as what happened, I rolled up a human ranger that first day, dropped into Surefall Glade, and spent like an hour trying to get out of there because I COULD NOT SEE lol. Then when I was out I surveyed the land before me. Lots of people running around killing stuff, training beetles to guards lol. I remember being on the little ridge just to the left of the SF entrance, back to back with another player, valiantly fighting the skeles...soon we were dead but it was a blast. Lots of great memories.

In fact, thats why I just rolled up a new ranger here on eq99. I tried a Sony TLP server for a while, but they are blowing through expansions so fast that it might as well be a live server, plus they didn't actually regress the code base so its still EZ mode in any case. So if you see a very young ranger around qeynos named Fadetree, its me. I like it a lot...I was *thrilled* to get a backpack and a coupla +5 HP ears off the injured rat in the catacombs, and had to RUN FOR MY LIFE in actual fear when I had a coupla red giant rats aggro on me. I barely made it to the exit. See, thats what you don't get on the live servers..actual dread and actual ( well sorta ) accomplishments.Me and you did a similar thing. I also played a ranger. I was doing programming classes at college, not trying to make an MMO. Strangely, I seem to remember being bound just outside the entrance to surefall glades near the campfire. I may have been bound in surefall, but I don't remember well enough. I don't remember having vision problems (i was human), but I remember the game being dark at night.