Why EQ is better

[firesyde424]

So I was sitting on my cleric NFP today, trying to find something useful to make that would repay me the 400 plat I had sunk into my baking skill over the last several days, when I see several purple and blue sprites appear around my cleric and a brown boot surrounded by a blue background appear in my buff window.

Someone had SoW'ed me....

I didn't ask for it, didn't spam or beg or offer to donate. Someone just.. cast SoW on me. It wasn't a big deal. It's happened tons of times already just on P99 since I started playing, and more times than I can count while I played on live. So immersed and steeped into the EQ experience was I, that it didn't really register to me what had happened until I thought back to the several years of WoW that I played, trying to remember if that had ever happened to me in WoW.


Right then, it occurred to me that I couldn't remember another time in any of the other MMO's I had played, and I have played quite a few, that someone had just dropped a random buff on me. In fact, I had tried to remember a time in WoW when I had sat on my druid and just buffed random passersby. I must admit, I couldn't. And yet, earlier today, I had sat on my cleric in EC, buffing and healing newbies while I was working on my baking skill.

And it dawned on me, despite outdated graphics, tortuous(sometimes) gameplay, one of the harshest death penalties in any MMO, and sections of leveling that are quite literally labelled "Hell", Everquest is by far, the best MMO I've played.

What makes it great? The immersion and the community. We have the best community of people, people who will help each other out for no reason other than they want to. People who will stop on their way through EC to buff the newbies. And Immersion.... I created a necro again on this server and still felt the wonder and chills of walking into the Neriak Necro guild for the "first" time.

/salute EQ

[hyzon]

I sometimes have the conversation with my roommate (who started playing), and another buddy about the game.

I'm always speaking of it positively, but after talking about hour long corpse retrievals, or spending 30 minutes to find your way out of a city zone (assuming no maps), and some of the other things that I tend to speak of with awe and respect, I always get the response from people that don't play that rings something like "that sounds miserable why would you want to do that?"

And I acknowledge - To each his own, but I think EQ genuinely makes you work your ass off for what you have. Being a new character doesn't give you the feeling of having 100 buttons to push (especially melee classes), you have to spend some time being horrible before you can be good. I think once you get there you have that much appreciation for what you have, which turns into appreciation for others, because we're all in the same boat.

My roommate, who never had played EQ prior finds himself getting excited about silly stuff. I think two I'm remember most are "WOOO, I found the forest! (Nektulos, after wandering around trying to get out for half an hour)". and a "WOOOO, I just soloed and even and a blue and lived with 3% health." He had been running back and forth to his corpse, and that struggle made him appreciate finally whooping some ass.

So I guess in short (except for not at all), EQ is better to me because of the challenge. I feel like this challenge feeds into the closeness of the community. It attracts a generally more patient, more tolerant, more appreciative sort of crowd.

[Skaff]

It is a great example where gameplay drives the playerbase. Generally speaking, EverQuest requires effort and a commitment from the players. This commitment is made to the character, the people they group with and the server in general. The leveling process takes a good amount of time and most content is designed heavy around teamwork.

Like you, I played WOW for a long time. While there is group content for the game, many things are just done on your own. You are hardly forced to interact with the rest of the players to get anything done and that does show in the community that plays the game. While I still think some of the raw mechanics of WOW is still fun (heck bosses are petty fun and can be a challenge at the TOP TOP end), the community is just a toxic waist land that I can barley stomach.

[President]

Not that im trying to defend WoW, but they really did a fantastic job with the first few 40 man raids.. and I must say they did warriors VERY well...

But yes, nothing close to the atmosphere this game creates... I don't think I ever went around and gave lower levels something - I've easily given away 3k of plat and items away to lower levels here.. and I'm not rich...

[Lazortag]

the generosity in Everquest is really weird and random. I can tell you that in no other MMO would someone just give me a whole bunch of armor for free because I'm low-leveled. This is possibly helped by the fact that Everquest is such a social game (being fairly difficult and requiring people to squad and interact with people to get most things done), so other players aren't just names but actually people who we want to get along with.

[firesyde424]

An old comic I feel is appropriate for this thread:

http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20031124

[km2783]

I don't even notice the "craptacular" graphics anymore.

And back to the matter at hand, a guy named Glowen buffed my lowbie Cleric to the tune of 500 extra hp and handed me 8pp [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] A gnome Mage, whose name escapes me, shortly afterward hit me with a damage shield, and the hell of lvl 3 was short work indeed [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I usually buff everyone I see myself, if they're nekkid or aren't being babysat by a higher level [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[AR3151]

i try to sow everyone, i dont how many times i will be medding and someone stands in front of me, i just stand up and sow, they just start laughing. They normally say "LOL thanks i didnt even have time to ask"

i try to ALWAY sow if someone is on a CR, hell i will chase them down to SOW

but i agree with the original poster, the people on here are generous, i have gotten money from beetlejuice just from asking if he needs any help selling or whatever when he was camping guards.

[Lumathix]

Originally Posted by firesyde424 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

An old comic I feel is appropriate for this thread:

http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20031124

Amen brother. Amen.

[Fanatik]

I was reluctant to agree and try this out, but I took the dive yesterday and although I stumbled a bit to get started again with the crap graphics, it began to grow on me. Already, just trying to get Chords of dissonance was an epic affair at level 2, it really made me work for it. I griped and moaned to a buddy, but I did it, and man it felt great!

This thread is awesome and might even make baby jesus cry.