9\11 appreciation station

[douglas1999]

The 15 year anniversary of 9\11 was yesterday. In a callous disregard of the victims, I started thinking about EQ Live and where the game was at the time. At some point in velious I believe right? Had the AoW been killed yet on 9\11? We were still 3 months away from Luclin at the time, and I was a massive EQ junkie, so I'm trying to remember the events of 9\11 in the context of Everquest, because I am a broken human being. I was probably grouping in velks or something, chattin about the terror nightmare taking place.

[khanable]

I lived pretty close to the city. Kids from my school lost parents that day. The school didn't tell any students as I assume they didn't want to freak everyone out and cause mass hysteria. The school did not let out early either, I assume they thought this would have been the safest place for us. Teachers were obviously bothered by something and super nervous throughout the day. None of them could focus. None of them wanted to be there. Students were being taken out of school all day by their parents, one by one. I can say with certainty that it was the most awkward day of my life - you could tell something was seriously wrong but no one would tell you anything and you were just left wondering. I had thought maybe some sort of scandal with the school had broken or something. By the end of the day half of the school had been taken out by their parents. The last few classes were half empty. I can't describe the feeling - knowing that something is seriously off but not having any answers.

I remember getting home and both my parents were already home. That shit never happens. I walked in and the first thing I see is my parents watching the news - videos of the towers collapsing on TV. Surreal.

I didn't play EQ that day. Nothing could have pulled me away from that TV.

I do remember logging in the next day and seeing the patch notes include a statement about 9/11, followed by another about a victim. Here they are if anyone cares:

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September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack Response
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"The staff of Sony Online Entertainment wish to extend their
condolences and prayers to the victims, and the families of the
victims, lost in today’s horrific events. We share in your grief during
these difficult times."

The quote from our front page expresses how we all feel here in the
office. I only want to extend my personal sympathies to all the
families that this has touched.

We have received many letters, and I want to thank you all for sending
them in. It's obvious that we will all be different people from here
forward. If I don't dwell on this in my responses here it is only
because I know that none of us will forget what has happened, and that
you come here for entertainment not reminders of tragedy.

Alan

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September 13, 2001
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Sony Online Entertainment, is asking for your help in locating someone
involved in the recent terror:

Sony Online Entertainment needs your help in locating Gregory Trost.
Gregory is a nephew of an SOE employee and his last known location was
the 86th floor of Tower Two in the World Trade Center. With the tragic
events that took place on September 11, the Trost family is anxious for
any information regarding Gregory. If you have any information on
Gregory's whereabouts, please contact Sony Online Entertainment at this
special address. greginfo@station.sony.com

[Editor Note: Gregory Trost was later found to be among the nearly 3000
people killed in the World Trade Center disaster.]

[pathius41]

I remember that day like it was yesterday as one does with most major life events. I had just got home from work and was heading to a nearby city with my roommate at the time to hit best buy up for a new PC to play EQ on. We were chatting away about EQ no less when I heard the radio talking about the plane hitting the tower. Said to my roommate HTF do you hit a damn building? then the second plane hit. OK this was no accident. We hurried to Best Buy to see about 100 people massed around all the TVs, we must have sat there watching for about 5 hours.

[skarlorn]

I was pretending to be sick that day because fuck school. Public education only serves to brainwash us into fear mongering toads who listen to whatever authority we place ourselves under next. I was young at the time but intuited this, so instead of learning algebra I was running the coal economy on Runescape.

I walked into my parents bedroom and they were both watching the news. Which was odd, we were not a family of news fiends. I learned what had happened and looked at the towers on the screen. I felt unimpressed. Didn't see what the big deal was. I then returned to making a fortune in Runescape, which I would later lend out to rich kids in school for real money ($20 a week for a million on loan.)

The next day, at school, we were told by our teachers that we could not tell the autistic kid in our grade what had happened. He would get too upset. It took me most of the day to realize what they were even talking about.

Good old Texas bubble.

[Valse]

I was in college and worked a later shift at the time but woke up early that morning (early for me at least) I started my pot of coffee, loaded up EQ to put in a few hours on my monk before heading off to work and flipped on the tv.

It was right in between the first and second tower being hit. It was very surreal, it was on EVERY channel. I honestly thought another European city had been bombed and was a bit upset that normal TV wasn't on. Didn't think much of it though and wasn't paying close attention...then either live or delayed or replay, I can't remember, the second plane hit and the reporter mentioned where they were reporting from. I was literally turning around in my chair to get up to get a cup of coffee when it happened.

Everything started clicking for what it was very rapidly. As a sophomore in college, I grew up A LOT that day. The world was no longer fun and games and "nothing will ever happen to me, fuck I hate fucking work." Here I was watching what could have been world war 3 starting with my very eyes. Not in a history book, not in a Tom Hanks movie but real life. I'm not afraid to say it scared the hell out of me.

I was glued to the television till my alarm went off to get ready for work, basically waiting for the the attacks to continue to roll in and for my city to get called out as a target...or worse just simply not existing anymore because a bomb went off or something. Got to work and everyone that had to remain on staff was in the breakroom glued to the news. More than 90% of the company was let out for the day. It was a call center and all our phones were shut down so there was nothing to do. I remember the chaos was so intense for the next few days that everyone was paid a day late. Direct deposit was offline and someone from corporate had to drive the paper paychecks across the country because mail and flights were ground to a halt.

EQ wise, my monk died. I left auto-attack on when I turned around to the tv and never made it back to the computer screen.

[Alanus]

I was in college. I woke up, went to my 8 am lecture, and the first thing the professor said was that a plane hit the WTC. She wasn't aware that a second had hit yet. I had assumed it was an accident.

Then, I got back to my dorm and my roomie was watching the TV and I saw a second had hit. I skipped classes for the rest of the day.

I don't remember EQ at all that day

[Cecily]

I bought some RAM for my computer to make EQ run better. Heard some woman outside screaming about something, disregarded and played EQ.

[Barkingturtle]

I was off work that day and just happened to wake up in time to turn on the tv right as the second plane hit. My most lasting EQ memory from that day is witnessing the corpses of "FDNY" and "NYPD" sprawled upon the lip of the East Commons tunnel.

[azeth]

All I remember is watching the live-feed of us bombing the fuck out of Baghdad (i think?) shortly afterward. Watched that for about a week straight.

[Borak]

I was five blocks away when the planes hit. At about 9:20 I said screw this, I'm not waiting for my building to evacuate, I don't care what my superiors say, I'm taking the elevators down and walking out. Some nutcakes were walking towards the towers, to take photographs etc. My first thought was, walk away from the danger, not towards it. Second thought - they're gonna hit more buildings, time to walk away from the financial area. I made it to Canal St. when the first building fell. I didn't know it at the time because cell / pager networks were down due to oversaturation, traffic was at a standstill and lots of people were just walking north like me. Took me five hours or so to walk home, thousands were walking across the Queensboro Bridge like refugees, I didn't know what had happened, all I could see was the smoke. When I finally saw what happened at around 2:30 on my TV, I couldn't believe it.

So, whenever some asshole on Facebook says 'never forget', trying to pimp their patriotism, I reply, 'Shut up, I'd rather not remember. Thanks.' Well, no, I don't say that on Facebook, but wish I could.