Was level 20 the original planned max level for EQ?
 

I say this because, in the UI, skills turn to 'master' at 100 and you reach this at level 20. There are no further skill levels (i.e., Very Bad, Bad, Average, Good, Very Good, Master).

I've always suspected they envisioned a level 20 cap and changed it to 50 in alpha/beta, but never updated the UI or skills to reflect it.

There is a lot more quest content for 1-20.

It's like they either thought those quests would stretch the duration of levelling or they would back patch in extra quest content 20-50 as people progressed through the game... But then they went the expansion route instead.

It was originally intended that the exp grind in crushbone would take 2000 real life hours and The Emperor was the final game boss.

that's guild wars 1, OP

Someone should make a max level 20 guild and see how much game content they can beat. Bet it'd be quite fun.

Good idea. What's the best gear that a bunch of level 20s can get?

If you get to level 21, instant guild removal.

Could 100 level 20s even kill naggy, vox, or phinny?

I think the level 20 thing comes from the D&D influence behind EQ. So many of the mechanics are based on D&D concepts/ideas, so the level 20 thing probably also came from that. Then during development they probably realized that they needed more content and extended it to 50.

If only Green could be a max level 30 server, at least for the first year.

It would put the challenge back into Everquest. Superior Healing chain, anyone?

Yeah, max level 30 and make guise drop off frenzy instead.