Is Classic EQ the best MMORPG in the world?

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

you might note the op already accounted for this by situating "everquest" in the classic 1999-2001 era this project emulates, instead of trying to find a dumb ahistorical taxonomy like "instanced/non-instanced."

incidentally, the best mmorpg in the world is eve online circa 2006-2010, which cannot be emulated and we shall never see its like again. but classic eq and uo are my tied top two.

I am not sure why you think talking about major changes in a game is "ahistorical" and "dumb". If the game becomes considerably different from what it once was, that changes the overall experience of the game.

MMO's are fairly unique, since they are more of a service than a traditionally packaged game. This means they can evolve over time, and become a different game all together. That is why you need to have different time periods for MMO's that have lasted a long time. Everquest live before it added instancing was a completely different game than Everquest live today.

I am not sure why you think instanced/non-instanced is a trivial matter. That is one of Everquest's main differences from MMO's today, and it changes the play style of the game quite a bit. It is the main reason why I prefer P99 over other MMO's. This is one of the only places where you can still experience the fun of playing in a non-instanced MMO.

[aceyem]

EVE Online is the only other MMORG I have played. I like EQ for it's streamlined design, it will run on a Pentium III with a only a TNT-64 graphics card and it runs just fine. EVE requires at least a quad core I7 and an Nvidia 1040 gpu just to get decent performance. EQs simple design is what makes it great. EVE is a lot more complex and has a long and steep learning curve just to start having fun. Plus you have to pay real dollars to Dell or HP for the home super computer.

[Castle2.0]

Was super pumped for SWG... then never played it. Jedi accounts went for big bucks on the RMT market then later you could choose to be Jedi instead of it being an ultra-rare random thing that chose you.... Myeh.

EQ Trilogy will always remain my favorite. I even enjoyed the lower/mid level stuff Luclin offered.

[Topgunben]

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

Honest question, I have no idea.

I've briefly tried WoW when it came out, then maybe 1 or 2 mmos since then, I can't even remember the names. Basically they all seemed to suck terribly, compared to pre 2002 EQ. They all were "story on rails", as opposed to the sandbox/openworld Everquest.

Is there something obvious I'm not seeing? This game from 1999 can't possibly be the best in its genre 20 years later, can it?

Classic EQ and Classic WOW are the best. WOW had more money, development and technology in its favor, but for its time, there was nothing like EQ.

If I wasnt playing here on P99, id be playing classic wow.

I wouldnt go back to guild wars, rift, DAOC, LOTRO, or ESO.

[Trexller]

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

Is Classic EQ the best MMORPG in the world?

yes

[Danth]

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

It's hard to say which MMO is best, especially since some MMO's were only good for a certain period of time, and then changed for the worse. In most cases that iteration of the MMO is lost forever.

This, I think, more than any other single factor represents the ultimate doom of the MMO-RPG genre. They're fleeting. Even when a person finds a game he likes soon enough it morphs into something completely different--often detrimentally so. It has happened to me numerous times throughout the years as well as probably most other users on this forum. Hence why I'm here on P1999 with its forever time-locked environment.

------------------------------------------

In trying to type a response to the original question I realized I can't: I haven't played any of the present generation of MMO-RPGs. Not Elder Scrolls, not Final Fantasy, not any expansion of Warcraft made in the past ten years, not Old Republic--I haven't touched any of them. I'll say EQ was the best of its kind when it first came out, as it represented a large jump over games like Meridian59 or Ultima Online. It remained best probably at least until Warcraft came out. Call EQ the "Ford model T" of its genre: It wasn't the first, and had plenty of room for improvement, but it put the genre on the map.

Danth

[kaizersoze]

Where is the love for shadowbane

[Hisamori]

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

A slightly tweaked EQ to be more sustainable would be great.

I'll echo this. I always thought EQ had the best/most interesting class design but WoW had the best world, excepting maybe SWG at launch. I have not played EO or AO to compare but have played DAoC, Aion and a handful of other smaller MMOs.

I wish P99 was open source but I suppose EQEmu is so that's enough. I think the should revert the click nerf, at least partially, because blue badly needs a plat sink of some kind.

I also never understood emulating parts of the timeline that were flawed, i.e. so-called legacy items or other nerfed/removed items or certain bugs and game mechanics. If they so powerful as to create game imbalance, why implement them at all?

[kjs86z]

Asheron's Call was by far the best, but EQ isn't too shabby.

[7thGate]

I would go with City of Heroes, personally. Character design and builds had flexibility I've seen almost nowhere else, and it had difficulty settings to prevent the gameplay from becoming too easy or too difficult for whatever skill level you were playing at. Its instanced and an incredibly different game from P99, but I love them both for very different reasons. City of Heroes edges it our for me though, I think.