The moment you knew...

[Overcast]

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

Whenever my ex and I were at the store, we noticed the EQ box in the electronics department and thought it looked cool. Finally after about a month he bought a copy and started playing. He was hooked and I was pissed lol. About a month later he made me sit down and make a character.

haha, how oddly familiar.

The Wife and I went to the computer store, I was going to pick up Baldur's Gate or something similar, actually - I'm not sure why I went, but it was to get a game.

She wanted... something... She looked around and found this game called 'Everquest'. I said, "There's NO WAY I'll pay a monthly fee for a game, that's stupid".

But - I was ok paying it for her, since if she was busy gaming, that meant I could be too, lol.

So at first I had this hardcore "No pay per month" for a game attitude. And would kinda ignore her playing. But as time went by, I'd watch a bit more and a bit more... She finally talked me into making a character. A DE SK.

I started out - the long dark trail in Nek just *amazed me* at what was down there. I bought the game a week or so later, lol. But she was playing a HE Cleric - so I made a Human Warrior - but didn't stick with that long, that was 'hardcore' for a newb such as I. She already had her set of friends, so by and large, we played separate for quite sometime.

[Gamkek]

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

Does anyone remember how scary it was at the time to kill a kobald, watch it die then gasp when its arm flew up again for one last strike? lol

Little things like this were what made EQ great for me.

My "it" experience was one of my first characters - a troll shaman. I hailed some troll NPCs in Grobb. They talked like trolls, they acted like trolls, they wanted me to do trollish things for them like bring them mushrooms, frog parts and bones.

I exited Grobb for the first time and walked out to the swamp - you could hear the bubbling of the gassy swamp water, the buzzing of insects. It was soooo dark, even with infrared troll vision. I waded through the water and mud smashing rats, tadpoles, skeletons...anything I could find and (in my mind) eating them!

I WAS a troll. It was amazing to feel that immersed. Classic EverQuest had and still has an atmosphere that games with 20x the visuals can't come close to. The imagination is way more powerful than the eye and sometimes less is more, if less is focused in the right places. EQ got it right by focusing on the NPC scripts and behavior, the sounds, the landscapes and the mechanics (harsh penalties, long distance travel, easy to die, etc.). Those things made the world feel alive.

[Dunes]

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

Do you think the next generation has the same feeling about today's MMO's? What I mean is: did EQ give us this great feeling that no other game can give us because it was our first 3D MMO?

I imagine it is a number of things:
1) I personally came from having played 2 MMO's before EQ, so for me atleast it wasnt the novelty of playing with other people (in general). Rather, it was the fact that grouping and forced social interaction was required in EQ, and in a good way. The challenge really brought people together, and the time spent at each step of the leveling ladder brought back that old high school experience - you worked your way up with the same group of people more or less. Frequently you would bump into many familiar faces across many zones and levels, and that developed a sense of comraderie.

2) The 3rd dimension and freedom of movement was a really new concept. Ultima Online had jungle tile sets, snow tile sets, etc, but could you jump into the ocean and swim? No. Did you have to deal with reduced visibility because it was raining or snowing? No. The atmosphere of EQ was cutting edge and hadnt been done in a visual MMO before

3) The vastness and depth of the world was unparalled. UO had a big world, but there were hazy distinctions between areas. Sure there were dungeons, but for the most part they were multi leveled caves with increasing difficulty. EQ created identifiable, distinct zones, and each offered a different challenge and opportunity to explore.

4) The "named" mobs created the concept of camps and the desire to acquire drops from said mobs. The size of the world, the complexity (yet predicability) of the drops drove a community of gamers to create online depositories of information (such as Allakhazam). We would then spend vast amounts of time perusing drops, seeking knowledge and strategies, and more, taking our addiction (call it "immersion" if you must!) to all new levels. We were now thinking about the game while not even playing it.

Anyway, Im sure there are many many other reasons, but some people may try to blow off the impact EQ had on us as being just a novelty. There was a lot more to it, and the sociological implications were far deeper than many realize.

[KnuckleSangwich]

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

Funny enough, when I got hooked was when I first ran over to Kelethin and saw the huge tree city.

Haha, I remember creating my first character (human mage in Freeport) and while killing my first few mobs I could have sworn that looking down at the rats directly (in first person) was allowing me to hit them harder.

Whoa!

[knottyb0y]

For me I remember after weeks of struggling with dial up and disconnects finally getting my first cable modem. Finally! I was able to play my dark elf magician without interruption. The moment I remember clear as day was at level 12 camping Aviaks with two friends and stopping for a minute to watch the sun rise over Lake Rathetear. I played several different characters since that one and the absolute biggest part of EQ to me were the people I met and grouped with and guilded with. The social aspect of this game is what put it over the top, knowing that at anytime i can log on to this world and find someone to play with, someone who actually cared about their character and usually enjoyed the game as much as I.

I really hope this server can recreate that experience, logged in last night to see Gfaydark full and teaming with life. This is a good sign.

Knottyb0y * Gagresh * Tallon Zek * Dendris * Project 1999

[azeth]

Originally Posted by knottyb0y [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The moment I remember clear as day was at level 12 camping Aviaks with two friends and stopping for a minute to watch the sun rise over Lake Rathetear.

Bout 1.5 months ago when kash and i were grinding the 3 spawn tower we caught the sun coming up in the horizon. It is truly epic in lake Rathe.

[fuji]

Does anyone ever have a frustrating night, swear they will never play the game again, uninstall, break the game discs, then the next day you are downloading the installer?

[ukaking]

Two instances really made me realize what I was dealing with in EQ. I started a month after Kunark released. I can remember getting a few levels and starting to really lay the smack down on the wolf pups in Field of Bone. As I ventured a little ways down the path, I slowly crept into the "pit". My gamma was set a little low so I couldnt even see the other side of the pit. To me it appeared to be a vast wasteland! I thought I knew what I was talking about, until...levels later, around 20, a bard friend came and took me from the safety of the Field of Bone, ran me with Selo's through the trees and branches in Warsilks Woods, I had no idea where I was, and took me to the Overthere. I couldnt believe my eyes. Rhinos, Sarnaks, Chickens! I started taking screenshots and printed them out to take to work the next day to show to guildmates. Truly a humbling experience.

[Loquan]

Your co-workers played too? That'd be badass [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[ukaking]

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

Your co-workers played too? That'd be badass [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah, actually we had one guy already playing original content, then he came to work with the new Kunark expansion and was reading the booklets at lunch. When I saw the Iksar and found out there were "servers where you can kill other people" myself and four other guys from work went and got the game. We all formed an all iksar guild with people we had met on the game over the first few weeks and we quickly realized that the game was hard enough and PvP was only scratching the surface.
Still play to this day with one of my workmates and former officer of the guild AND my top officer that I met in game back then right here on P99!
It truly is amazing that I developed such a bond with my guildmates that it lasts even today, 7 years after the guild was gone.