I started this weekend and my first thought was, ugh... EQ, after spending a bit playing a cleric and dying several times first level, and second level, and spending a while getting through third.
Then I started to notice something other MMO's haven't given me since EQ... enjoyment. The feeling of accomplishment when you take a few hours to get a level instead of a few minutes. Even when I died and lost level 6 I think it was, and was back at level 5 I thought... this is why the bad people were so much more obvious leveling up, and raged a lot louder every time something went wrong. Other MMO's are just so goddamned easy and forgiving, there is no sense of accomplishment. Then when you raid with people they give up on the first wipe cause they've had an ez mode time through the game.
The EQ world seems better too. Something about it seems more real and immersive, maybe the lack of open serverwide channels? Maybe the time it takes to travel and the actual loss when you die instead of a 30 second run back to corpse? Maybe it's just that there is some empty spaces in nektulos where I'm leveling and not endless mobs populating every inch of space, and the fact that every mob can't just be leashed. If you get a red mob and it's beating the shit out of you, you run for a zone line or guards that may be very far away.
Anyway, thanks, after many years of not playing EQ, I find I still like it better, and Kunark was a golden age.
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