Is Classic EQ the best MMORPG in the world?
 

Honest question, I have no idea.

I've briefly tried WoW when it came out, then maybe 1 or 2 mmos since then, I can't even remember the names. Basically they all seemed to suck terribly, compared to pre 2002 EQ. They all were "story on rails", as opposed to the sandbox/openworld Everquest.

Is there something obvious I'm not seeing? This game from 1999 can't possibly be the best in its genre 20 years later, can it?

well its definitely up to the user, but I think it is :)

DAoC is the only other mmo I've played that has a spot in my heart thats anywhere as near and dear as classic EQ. And, like you said, its the sandbox aspect. DAoC endgame was to run around a huge sandbox and pvp vs the other realms. And you could approach that with whatever tactics and group make up you wanted. Thats what made it and this fun imo. Trying to come up with a different way to do the same things. Modern mmo's seem to pigeonhole you into "do it this way".

Blinding nostalgia is what it is.

You really can't say any MMO is objectively the best, but you can say you like one more than the other.

Can't nobody tell you how you think or feel

But if you try to say it has the best mechanics, or the best graphics, or the most stable code, or any objective issues that can be debated, you're going to lose.

So if you like it the most, then sure, it is for you.

From an objective standard, nah mate.

EQ is the worst MMOG there is, except all the others. DAoC was good, the only PvP (RvR) MMOG I've enjoyed. Shadowbane was about half fun, half annoying, had fun crafting and character customization, but PvP was too unbalanced for me. WoW is great at what it's designed to be (casual linear quest mill) and not at what it isn't (shared-struggle sandbox). I always chuckle at the irony that World of Warcraft is all about questing while EverQuest is all about slaughtering things.

A slightly tweaked EQ to be more sustainable would be great. I wish I had the time and willpower to hack C++ any more, or I would do it myself...

Edit: Also I can't wait for Jibartik's uni-map UE5 VR client to be finished.

perhaps its due to the similarity to the rogue-like genre

It's hard to say which MMO is best, especially since some MMO's were only good for a certain period of time, and then changed for the worse. In most cases that iteration of the MMO is lost forever.

I would say Everquest 1 is one of the best NON-INSTANCED MMO's out there (before it became instanced). If the player doesn't mind the game being instanced, there are certainly better MMO's out there.

you might note the op already accounted for this by situating "everquest" in the classic 1999-2001 era this project emulates, instead of trying to find a dumb ahistorical taxonomy like "instanced/non-instanced."

incidentally, the best mmorpg in the world is eve online circa 2006-2010, which cannot be emulated and we shall never see its like again. but classic eq and uo are my tied top two.

I liked SWG at the jump to lightspeed era. It was one of the few mmo that I felt you could really have human interactions with other players without it feeling you were doing it in spite of the game.

I love EVE Online as well. But of course it's something totally different.