I'm starting to think that Old School EQ had it right, not that it would work in today's market. I enjoyed SWTOR, don't get me wrong... but I enjoyed it more like a Mass Effect single player game and less like an MMORPG. The only real reason to group was to do the occasional heroic quest, or to do a flash point. Of course SWTOR's mechanics,graphics, story, etc are leaps and bounds above EQ, but EQ had that special something in it.

 

EQ in my opinion actually felt like a world to explore. There were no rails to guide you on leveling. You hunted, traveled, and explored to find new niches and leveling areas. The zones themselves and the monsters within them told the story without the need of quest logs. Things were actually hidden and quests required you to think, explore, and experiment. Back in EQ, you got together in groups just to explore dangerous areas to find out what was there.

 

 

Traveling through the world itself was an adventure.

 

There was mystery in the game. Player driven myths about incredibly rare mobs existed. Dungeons were difficult and maze like. You would bring a player with you just because you knew they could navigate a certain area well.

 

Death was a bad thing. You could lose all your gear and your level. You fear death and that made exploring new areas and taking risks more exciting. I will never forget the fear of crossing Kithicor forest and seeing the Sun set in the distance. What was normally a friendly zone for levels 5-8 because a terrifying nightmare of 40+ elite monsters at night. The whole zone became a living hell.

 

Hunting gear was important as early as when you broke away from your newbie zones. Every zone had interesting and useful gear drops that could last you 10+ levels.

 

The problem with the game?

 

It was hard. It took work and time to do a lot of what was necessary. If you were a jerk or troll, you got black listed and your reputation was ruined. It took months to level. A lot of us weren't bothered by this. But it wasn't enough to make it mainstream.

 

Unfortunately, the world has changed and mainstream mmos are required to have fast paced leveling and easily obtainable... everything.

 

It makes me sad really, because I know we will never have anything like it again.

Edited January 31, 2012 by GreenEyed

 

It makes me sad really, because I know we will never have anything like it again.

 

Basically this.

 

EQ was unique in its time, and in its early days brutal, unforgiving, and amazingly fun.

 

But honestly, I wouldn't go back to it. For all that it had being sparkling and new, games that have come since have improved on the genre by leaps and bounds. What the new games can't offer is the awesomeness of being first which is a big part of what made EQ so magical.

 

At the time, the death penalty in EQ annoyed me, but now I'd never play a game like that again. I think that's why Vanguard: saga of heroes failed so epically hard.

 

The great thing about WoW was my spouse and I looking at something and saying, "I don't know if we can take it.... let's see!" It led to testing limits, not farming camps because you knew you could and it was safer.

 

I think BioWare has a strong addition to the genre. Time will tell if they can really flesh it out and carry it forward and keep it compelling.

Lol i installed the 14 day trial of EQ the other day. The memories oh how i miss veeshans peak and all the other fond memories. EQ1 did have alot of things right but that piece of crap with that "Blizzard" stamp brought the teenybopper into the "mmo" scene who never got to experience a real mmo, real raiding, and a community that was actually amazing in its prime.

EQ was also basically the only game in town. There was no place else to go, and people defended the people serving them EverCrack furiously.

 

I don't miss it.

The community had to be amazing because the game was so cruel.

 

I don't miss staying up until 4am helping a failed plane of nightmare do corpse recovery.

Even though the raid system is completely archaic I did have the most fun with EQ. What's more fun than having your melee and DPS rush up the stairs to fight Nagafen and then run back down for heals. I think some of the best and worst team work skills were displayed in that game.

Every game gives me EQ nostalgia

 

then I downloaded EQ, played for awhile, and realized how much I don't like it

 

that's the thing about nostalgia

 

quad kiting i do miss

EQ was also basically the only game in town. There was no place else to go, and people defended the people serving them EverCrack furiously.

 

I don't miss it.

 

Asherons Call came out the same year i believe and I actually got hooked on that more than EQ at first. Very fun game in its time but horrible developer support after a year or so. Just in general the birth of the visual MMO time period was just good cause there really was nothing like it out there. Now every year we just get rehashed stuff with a different skin or updated/upgraded "fill in the blank". I love swtor dont get me wrong I just think it came at a lull in the MMO industry lol.

"Every day, the future looks a little bit darker. But the past... ...even the grimy parts of it... ...keep on getting brighter."

Basically this.

 

EQ was unique in its time, and in its early days brutal, unforgiving, and amazingly fun.

 

But honestly, I wouldn't go back to it. For all that it had being sparkling and new, games that have come since have improved on the genre by leaps and bounds. What the new games can't offer is the awesomeness of being first which is a big part of what made EQ so magical.

 

At the time, the death penalty in EQ annoyed me, but now I'd never play a game like that again. I think that's why Vanguard: saga of heroes failed so epically hard.

 

The great thing about WoW was my spouse and I looking at something and saying, "I don't know if we can take it.... let's see!" It led to testing limits, not farming camps because you knew you could and it was safer.

 

I think BioWare has a strong addition to the genre. Time will tell if they can really flesh it out and carry it forward and keep it compelling.

 

 

 

 

Not always improved.

 

I don't mean that in a nostalgic for pain way.

 

I genuinely mean that many new MMORPGs don't equal EQ1 for their worlds. EQ1 had a great world, not as completely open as some (even then), but still massive and full of character and you didn't feel like there were walls (most of the time).

Not always improved.

 

I don't mean that in a nostalgic for pain way.

 

I genuinely mean that many new MMORPGs don't equal EQ1 for their worlds. EQ1 had a great world, not as completely open as some (even then), but still massive and full of character and you didn't feel like there were walls (most of the time).

 

EQ nailed exploration is a very archaic way, but worked very well for it's time

 

having a piss poor map meant people visually explored the nooks and cranies of zones, that led to new zones being explored, new enemies, quests, towns, venders/spell merchants.

 

but people expect much more today and having a crappy mini/full map would NEVER fly today(sadly)

 

which worked to it's advantage considering the majority of the zones sizes are actually on the small side

Edited January 30, 2012 by SkateOnTrees

Not always improved.

 

I don't mean that in a nostalgic for pain way.

 

I genuinely mean that many new MMORPGs don't equal EQ1 for their worlds. EQ1 had a great world, not as completely open as some (even then), but still massive and full of character and you didn't feel like there were walls (most of the time).

 

Most MMORGs weren't as successful, therefore couldn't afford the expansions that Sony/Verant could.

 

I view EQ's size as more reflective of its economic success than anything else. They had to keep building so we'd keep playing.

AW dood.... I know exactly what you mean... There was a sense of a 'living' world, and genuine peril around every corner.... When i left Qeynos for the first time and ventured to West Karana, i was literally ******** myself. I bottled it and ran back...... !!! HAPPY DAYS...

 

It's just been announced as F2P in March btw .. Might visit again for old times sake.... Or maybe not. Rose tinted etc, so maybe best not to ruin pleasant memories..

 

Anyway, yeah.... I think the more 'advanced' mmo's of today still have something to learn from those old , less forgiving tropes.

 

thnx for post,

 

 

c.

EQ nailed exploration is a very archaic way, but worked very well for it's time

 

having a piss poor map meant people visually explored the nooks and cranies of zones, that led to new zones being explored, new enemies, quests, towns, venders/spell merchants.

 

but people expect much more today and having a crappy mini/full map would NEVER fly today(sadly)

 

which worked to it's advantage considering the majority of the zones sizes are actually on the small side

 

The zones weren't that small (some were), athough admittedly without mounts everything was "bigger"...... and certainly the lack of maps made it harder (but who didn't print out a folder of EQ Maps?)

 

But the problem is EQ1's "box" zone mostly had more to explore than SWTORs do these days (almost every SWTOR zone is actually more like a dungeon from later EQ1).

 

But EQ1 had many things, like forests you could actually get lost in (of several styles too - from the dark to the genuinely impeniteable).

 

 

And I think most importantly EQ1 didn't have so much of the zone path, where as today it's always a specific wynding path through every zone.

 

I can guess where almost every quest give will be in SWTOR, in EQ1 it wasn't always that straight forward.

Most MMORGs weren't as successful, therefore couldn't afford the expansions that Sony/Verant could.

 

I view EQ's size as more reflective of its economic success than anything else. They had to keep building so we'd keep playing.

 

 

Well there weren't many around, although at least 1 was bigger, but yes they constantly created masses of world.

 

But even vanilla EQ1, I'd be surprised if SWTOR, for example, has more square footage (vanilla MMO to vanilla MMO).

 

Also EQ1 orginally used a different method of zone building which allowed for very unique zones and dungeons, it wasn't until PoP that they started using the dungeon kit technique that WoW and everyone else seems to have followed with.

this game is absolutely gigantic trust me, the "focus of the game" just impedes on any sense of exploration

 

 

i can't explain it exactly how or why it's that way, but I know it is

 

i'm willing to bet it is the size of EQ1 already

Edited January 30, 2012 by SkateOnTrees

Ultima Online foo... Ultima Online 4 Life!

These threads are so retarded. You are right, someone should release a game today, that requires a giant grind fest to level, which includes such fun activities as picking a camp spot, and sitting there for 3 hours, pulling the same mobs over and over for hours on end.

 

Than this awesome thing called hell levels, healing rotations, farming bane weapons, etc.

 

yes, please, why does somebody NOT make another game catered completely towards somebody with NOTHING better to do, but sit there for hours on end doing the same repetetive crap.

 

Or maybe we can just all go back to playing WoW? Yeah... ok... because once you hit max level you have oh so much awesome end game to do.... lets see.

 

1) Casual player: Run the same dungeons and heroics for months.

 

2) Run the same raid for months... thats right 1 raid. Anything else is obsolete content.

 

I played both WoW and EQ, and got burnt out on both at some point, switch to WoW from EQ, and now switched to SWTOR from WoW. And you know what? I am happy. I really like this game, and I look forward to leveling alts.. why? Because its actually somewhat of an enjoyable process.

 

This game does have its bugs, but all of these cries and crap are ridiculous. There is an endgame, its the same as all others. The game is not even 2 months old really, there will be plenty of time for them to add cooler features later.

 

The leveling in this game is better than pretty much any other popular MMO. And the end game is there, it will get established over time as well. Or do we want to talk about WoW's endgame, and class balance when it first came out? Where not even blizzard knew what they were doing with some classes. If you played a feral druid, prot pally, ret pally etc. at launch. The gear was not itemized properly, and the raids involved a couple of centric players, with essentially buff and healbot classes. Hell, MC and BWL were AWESOME for a paladin back then.... doing 5 minute buffs for 40 people, over, and over, and over, and over. Doing some healing, then back to buffing.

 

SWTOR is not perfect by any stretch. But this is a really fun game, and can only get better with time. If they took something like EQs AA system, and applied it to the legacy levels, added in some better space combat, and give us space raids etc. Then this game will be sweet. The end game content comes with time. But so far, this game is a lot of fun.

It makes me sad really, because I know we will never have anything like it again.

 

You can if you want, EQ1 is going free-to-play in March; http://www.everquest.com/free/

EVE.......ok, i better shut up....

this game is absolutely gigantic trust me, the "focus of the game" just impedes on any sense of exploration

 

 

i can't explain it exactly how or why it's that way, but I know it is

 

i'm willing to bet it is the size of EQ1 already

 

Maybe, but W Karanas was bigger than Quesh.

You can if you want, EQ1 is going free-to-play in March; http://www.everquest.com/free/

 

These threads are so retarded. You are right, someone should release a game today, that requires a giant grind fest to level, which includes such fun activities as picking a camp spot, and sitting there for 3 hours, pulling the same mobs over and over for hours on end.

 

 

Look, im not asking for EQ1 to come back or for a new game to made in that direction. I just miss the good ole times and that unjaded sense of wonder as you went out in it's incredibly massive and explorable worlds.

 

I think no minimaps/zone maps made the game a lot more interesting when you had to actually keep up with how you traveled.

The community had to be amazing because the game was so cruel.

 

I don't miss staying up until 4am helping a failed plane of nightmare do corpse recovery.

 

MMO that required group usually had better, more polite community compare to a game that can be solo leveling all the way and about as challenge as watching your paint dry.

 

While I understand we all grow up and had more responsibility that we simply can't afford to stay up late to do a corpse recovery everyday. Still, there must be a day or two in a week that you can afford to play 12 hrs straight. Don't you wish for a more engaging game during those days? If you look at the market now, there are no game cater to the need of group player. Every single one of them is solo centric, till you hit a brick wall called end games. Even EQ these days is heavily influence by the wow mentality and getting more solo friendly.

I liked EQ but it didn't have much of a story. Questing was haphazard and you generally just straight out grinded for xp.

Cars make me nastalgic for horses.

 

Horses were awesome.

 

I remember riding into town and tying my horse at a post in front of the local saloon, only to find that it crapped all over my shoes.

 

One time, my horse untied itself and got away. Those days were the best. Getting it back took some real work. Sometimes when I feel really nastalgic, I'll put my car in neutral and push it down a hill just to relive the rush of seeing my only means of travel dissapear before my vary eyes.

 

I think we had it right with horses, man.