What Made Classic Great?

[sox7d]

The cinnamon swirls in every bite

[Calibretto]

UI was the least fun part of an extremely fun game. The fun came from not knowing what was around the next corner, other than information shared from player to player. (until everlore anyway) Feeling like a bad ass because you had figured out the Paw of Opolla quest or Bone Bladed Claymore and had newbs flocking to you at T1.

Oh yeah, not much lawyering at all.

[kaev]

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

the community is what made classic EQ great.

the difference between EQ and every other mmo was that when they created EQ they created a world first, and now when MMOs are created they are created as a game first.

EQ was a world that u just got thrown into and had to learn to swim or drown. people interacted because people needed each other to survive. current MMOs dont have that forced interaction for survival/progression, and moreover they "feel" like games, and because of that, they will never allow for the same immersion that EQ gave people.

theres a reason that every EQ server has unique little differences that separate it from every other server. above all things, EQ was community driven, and simply switching servers would allow for almost an entirely different game.

good luck future MMO makers [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This nails it. The EQ community became more and more game-oriented as time passed, even during classic (I remember my first guild leader bitching to me about how the only thing anybody talked about during open planar raids was loot, he gave up and RMT'd out of EQ soon after that conversation.)

Design elements that had nothing to do with game play but affected character progress (hybrid and racial XP penalties, static PHs with fixed spawn times, & etc.) contributed substantially to the game-ization of EQ by taking players minds away from gameplay and thus subverting the world feel. Every time people argued about game mechanics in OOC the world faded a bit. Every time players made decisions based solely upon mechanics that had zero to do with game play (like excluding players from groups due to the XP penalties, like camping utterly predictable static PHs for known rare spawns with known loot) EQ died a little more.

The MMO player community, the people who pay to play via subscriptions & pay-to-win microtransactions & etc, they (we) destroyed EQ and ensured that it will never exist again. All those huge piles of money Blizzard was rewarded with for WoW have forever corrupted the genre into just another place for money whores to go fleece the sheep.

[Jimjam]

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

the community is what made classic EQ great.

the difference between EQ and every other mmo was that when they created EQ they created a world first, and now when MMOs are created they are created as a game first.

EQ was a world that u just got thrown into and had to learn to swim or drown. people interacted because people needed each other to survive. current MMOs dont have that forced interaction for survival/progression, and moreover they "feel" like games, and because of that, they will never allow for the same immersion that EQ gave people.

theres a reason that every EQ server has unique little differences that separate it from every other server. above all things, EQ was community driven, and simply switching servers would allow for almost an entirely different game.

good luck future MMO makers [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This is why I love things like warrior only armour with +intelligence on it.

[loramin]

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

This is why I love things like warrior only armour with +intelligence on it.

Hey, that armor is totally useful ... for warriors that do a tradeskill ... that isn't smithing ... or fletching ... so basically warriors that do tradeskills they can't really use much.

But for warriors that do tradeskills they can't really use much that +intelligence armor is awesome! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Rivthis]

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

It probably had something to do with it being the very first 1st person MMO ever released. Before then you had to purchase dice, AD&D manuals, and then invite a bunch of fat, stinking, socially awkward rejects to your house to slay a dragon.

^^ This

so i voted for bush towers

[hammertime7795]

What made classic great is different for different people.

[webrunner5]

I would like to have a Dollar for every time I died in the first year I played EQ. Wow, I remember myself as a Cleric, and a Paladin friend I met, which we played together for years, we died like 12 times in one day in Oasis of Marr. It was crazy. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[jolanar]

It was great because it was made in complete ignorance. You can never recreate that.

[Itap]

What other game could you spend 8 hours a day grinding experience and gain 1/4 of a level