Why didn't EverQuest remain as popular as other old MMO's?

[kjs86z2]

honestly debating firing up asherons call

[BradZax]

I think a big part is because luclin art were ass should have looked more like this.

[Reiwa]

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

I think a big part is because luclin art were ass should have looked more like this.

Did EQLive ever introduce cloaks? God I hope not they'd make it bad.

WoW had graphical cloaks going for it too.

[BradZax]

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

WoW had graphical cloaks going for it too.

Yea, I remember saying like "see they could have made capes!"

[jolanar]

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

Did EQLive ever introduce cloaks? God I hope not they'd make it bad.

WoW had graphical cloaks going for it too.

Character models have been the same since Luclin sadly. They did introduce a very awkward looking new type of armor though. Gotta pay real $$ for it of course.

[Zuranthium]

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

I have to respectfully disagree that camping items or rare spawns where "nothing happens at all" needs to be fixed, or changed. Camping rare items is one of the most memorable and fun aspect of EQ. Its one of the major changes that modern mmos, such as wow, did that lost that "magic" feeling I was talking about. Camping mobs made the world feel like a "world within a world" and not just "rpg video game #233"

Players quickly begin to learn about iconic items like SSOYs, fungi tunics, fbss, ect. And they dont forget it. It gives the game more lore and depth and LIFE in the "virtual world" as opposed to systems like wow where you get random green item #144, or random blue item #626.

You're still talking about different things.

A game can have rare items, but doing nothing except sitting in one spot and killing a braindead NPC a few times every hour, until the item you want finally drops, is not good gameplay at all.

People should have to continually move through a dungeon or a given game area, either that or MOB's should constantly be wandering into the area you're sitting in, with unpredictable patterns.

Look at the excruciating Pained Soul camp for example. There's an entire maze-like ruins filled with undead, but instead of needing to move through it and/or pull the undead out into the jungle, you just sit in the outer part in one spot for an average of 12+ hours, killing 1 single NPC. In an ideally designed version of EQ, that entire area would be used: all of the undead would be able to spawn Pained Soul, and the placeholder itself would keep changing, so you'd need to actually move around the whole area, not just camp one small section. And of course because of the volume of MOBs there and the pathing that should exist, it would promote grouping in order to "camp" the area safely.

[Wakanda]

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

You're still talking about different things.

A game can have rare items, but doing nothing except sitting in one spot and killing a braindead NPC a few times every hour, until the item you want finally drops, is not good gameplay at all.

This is inaccurate for what true classic EQ is like. A lot of what you're describing is a by-product of P99 servers being really old, and the PNP.

On early P99 Green some of the most exciting and gut wrenching moments I've ever had was actually camping HBC, FBSS, TBB, SSoY, Mith 2 Hander, GEBs, SMR etc. Not only was the content extremely difficult and risky, but also the spawns and items being rare just added suspense to the scenario. Especially when you have vultures around plotting on your demise. I remember one time when FBSS was still selling for 20K, me and a random Enchanter (both mid to low 40s) realized Frenzied Ghoul was up, and we agree to try and duo it.

As we are setting up outside of the room groups start to pile up behind us, and we realize we're running out of time. So we end up having a botched pull, and almost wipe instantly, but get things under control. Then I realize that the Frenzied Ghoul does in fact have the FBSS because of how much damage he's doing. I'm frantically spamming heal to try and keep the pet alive, and we are both OOM and almost dead when the frog finally goes down.

Have a million moments like this from early P99. GEBs, Mith 2 Hander and even Dhamp have even more intense at times. In 2026 however, yes, a lot of level 60s are AFK watching youtube and occasionally tabbing in every 30 minutes to clear trivial content for a chance at loot. This is not what EQ was ever designed for.

And the reason I bring up the PNP at all is because I do remember in 1999 being a kid in Lower Guk and it wasn't just a zone where you sat AFK hoping for a rare item. It was an actual leveling zone with lots of big pulls. We were all there primarily to gain experience, and if we did manage to get a rare item, that was just a bonus.

This was how the game was played. And this is still how the game is played on fresh TLPs. It's one of the main reasons I think the PnP kind of makes the P99 experience less classic than TLPs. On a fresh TLP it's still the norm to sit in Supp or Frenzied room, or near AM and pull mobs from everywhere, often competing with the other groups around you for who can pull/kill mobs the fastest. To me that is what classic Guk was like (the same thing applies for Sol B and every other zone really).

I actually remember Guk and Sebilis as being kind of a safe zones to adventure in because there was so many groups killing everything that even if you got into trouble you just had to run around a corner and a group would rescue you.

What I noticed happened on P99 Green, however, even before Kunark dropped was that you did have a lot of zones like Guk be effectively rendered AFK camp zones, rendering them kind of useless for groups who were trying to level.

But no, that's not how the game was designed at all, nor is it in line with most of our classic experiences. I've never sat AFK camping a Tranquil Staff in KC, but god damn have I gotten excited when I was grinding exp there and randomly saw one drop. That's how the game was designed to be played.

Edit: I remember getting a Seblisian Berserker Cloak when I was a kid. None of us in our group even knew it existed until it dropped. Because again back then you were basically just playing the game to gain experience and hoping that maybe your group would get lucky and a super rare item would appear.