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EverQuest

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Re: EverQuest

#101

Post by matwood »

lordnacho wrote: post #18

Everquest was my first warning about game addiction. Every teenage kid by the year 2000 had spent too much time in front of a game, of course. But not like this. I was sitting with a friend of mine at a computer café. This was more prevalent at the time, since a capable computer with all the modern games on it was still somewhat pricey. So my friend starts taking to our side guy, who is playing EQ. Nice fellow. "Hey…

> Everquest was my first warning about game addiction.

I didn't play EQ, but got started on Dark Age of Camelot right when it was released. There was a confluence of life events that caused me to start playing. Three years later, multiple accounts, and who knows how much game time, it had ruined my health and a wonderful long term relationship.

The upside is that the loss caused me to quit by giving away my accounts. I literally never played again. I remember some fun times while playing, but do sometimes regret the time spent that I could have been doing something else. I also learned about myself that it's not the game that gave me issues, but the social pressure of other people relying on me.

Re: EverQuest

#102

Post by matwood »

socalgal2 wrote: post #45

I never played because I saw my friends get addicted. I'm not judging that as "bad". People are free to spend their lives however they want. But, ... just to pass on... My friends had a company. Then they got into EverQuest. I don't know what percent of "work time" they spent playing. Maybe zero. But, they would stay at the office after work to play. I visited one day and saw playtime in the corner of the screen of o…

> that friend told me if I wanted to check it out be sure not to make any friends or join any guilds. They said it's the social obligation that's the addiction.

I mentioned in another comment this is what got me in DAoC. I actually played a little WoW just fine because I soloed and only joined groups with randoms. It was a normal game time experience.

Re: EverQuest

#103

Post by Bluecobra »

daeken wrote: post #6

I can nearly single-handedly credit EverQuest with my career. I got my start in the ShowEQ and eqemu sphere, first building little PHP apps to manage servers and such, then reverse-engineering -- I learned x86 and then C++ all to get the lifts in Kelethin working. Hell, nearly 25 years later, any time I work on some new graphics API or game engine, I end up writing an EverQuest zone renderer. Not my favorite game of…

I credit ShowEQ with learning Linux and getting everything to work correctly. I remember absolutely trashing my PC a few years earlier trying to install Debian from a Boot magazine CD. Glad I didn’t break my monitor with bad XFree86 settings.

Re: EverQuest

#104

Post by Bluecobra »

azretd wrote: post #34

Early EverQuest required groups to progress because trash mobs were hard, the environment was vast, dungeons had traps, there was no auction house and players hung out in tunnels shouting their wares. 26 years later, the nostalgia hits me every so often and I spin up Project Quarm or Project 1999 where it still plays the same, and it’s fun for awhile but I’m not enjoying it as much as I enjoyed the memories. I enjoy…

Oh man those tunnels. I remember a tunnel scam where a seller would close the trade window and quickly reopen it with a lesser item that used the same icon. Not sure if the GMs did anything about it but I always made sure to carefully inspect the item I was buying.

Re: EverQuest

#105

Post by phendrenad2 »

Never played EQ, but spent my fair share of time in WoW. And then, many many other MMOs. What was aleays great is jumping into a random new game and not knowing what to do or where to go - just figuring it out on the fly. A few times in recent history I've tried to jump into the latest MMOs only to find that they hold your hand every step of the way, forcing you to walk through lengthy tutorials. If I wanted to play a game I'd just load up Doom. I want a WORLD to explore! Until MMOs learn to provide a rich and compelling world again, the genre is dead in my eyes.

Re: EverQuest

#106

Post by bigstrat2003 »

83457 wrote: post #95
jdwithit wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My (girlfriend at the time, later wife) gave me a "it's me or WoW" ultimatum at the peak of my raiding obsession. I picked her. We had moved across the country for grad school and had no friends and I was using the game as a crutch rather than like, actually meeting people. I joined a softball team with some people from her program and made a bunch of lifelong friends. More power to everyone who can play MMO's in a w…

A coworker years ago told me she was a WoW Widow.

I knew a WoW widow in college. Her boyfriend got completely hooked on the game, even to the point that he didn't want to have sex with her any more! She desperately tried to get his attention back but couldn't do it, and ultimately broke up with him. She was (understandably) very bitter about the game after that and wouldn't remotely consider dating someone else who played.

Thankfully as far as I'm aware the dude eventually got control of himself again and is living a pleasant family life these days. But the addiction is real for some people.

Re: EverQuest

#107

Post by Cthulhu_ »

thegrim33 wrote: post #22
mike1o1 wrote: post #2

I absolutely loved EverQuest and it’s still probably holds some of my fondest gaming memories. My favorite feeling about it is that it felt like a real world first, gameplay second. It had a real sense of danger and wonder that I think will be almost impossible to recreate. Going from Qeynos to Freeport, or crossing the ocean on a boat felt absolutely epic and dangerous. It was wonderful, but not something I would wa…

It was also at the perfect moment in time where you couldn't just pull up the game's wiki on a second monitor and have fully detailed maps and quest details on hand. You actually had to learn things for yourself by exploration and trial and error. You had to learn things from other people by talking to them in game. In my mind back then, I was in awe of people that even had the knowledge of how to get across certain…

The only way the world could continuously change is via procedural generation, but for those games, the base mechanics remain the same. Minecraft comes to mind, where the 'golden path' is to gear up, find certain items, go through a portal and kill the boss. The levels are generated different every time, but the base steps are the same. I'm afraid it'd be the same with a procedurally generated MMO.

If it's hand generated, realistically they could only do a new map once every period, and the first guides would be online within hours of release. I believe Fortnite does or used to do this, making big map changes every season.

Re: EverQuest

#108

Post by Cthulhu_ »

dgfitz wrote: post #90
MBlinow wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've made an effort in recent years to actively avoid researching wikis and guides on games as I play them. I've come to think that a lot of the joy in gaming is the discovery and unraveling the systems that make the game tick. Finding the optimal ways to level or complete some mission through exploration and experimentation is always so much more fulfilling than finding the first result the comes up in google where…

I will always be in awe of the folks that figured out all of Elden ring without a guide. Some of those quests were just bananas.

I try to play through these games without a guide first, but especially with Elden Ring, there's a high chance you miss half the game then. Which is a shame.

To figure out all of ER, you'd need to play through it multiple times, comb through everything, do things in a different order, etc etc. There was a post on Reddit the other day, someone said they found Jarburg after playing for more than 900 hours. I know of it, but in two playthroughs I don't believe I actually went there yet.

I wonder if they collect analytics and they can at one point say which areas, questlines, gear items, etc are discovered the least.

Re: EverQuest

#109

Post by Cthulhu_ »

h2zizzle wrote: post #55
thegrim33 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was also at the perfect moment in time where you couldn't just pull up the game's wiki on a second monitor and have fully detailed maps and quest details on hand. You actually had to learn things for yourself by exploration and trial and error. You had to learn things from other people by talking to them in game. In my mind back then, I was in awe of people that even had the knowledge of how to get across certain…

You have to make the world big and uncharted enough that it can't be picked over quickly. I have some hope that Light No Fire might pull it off. Probably an uncommon experience, but I felt something similar playing Final Fantasy XV. The semi-realistic scale and emptiness of the world map that people complained about actually contributed to the consistent feeling of being out in the wilderness, stumbling on dungeons a…

XV was very much "on rails" IMO, especially at first when the car could only go on pre-programmed roads; there's very little content outside of what the developers intended, and exploring isn't really rewarded. Same with XVI, which was better, but still a mostly empty overworld, little incentives to go exploring or hunting because while there is a crafting system, it's shallow and a very linear progression from one weapon to the next, usually involving taking down a hunt mark.

RDR2 is very enjoyable to go out and just explore, you definitely feel out in the wilderness sometimes there. Another one would be Kingdom Come 1 / 2, especially 2 (it's a bit 'fuller') where you can just decide to go for a hike in the forest and go hunt or find some bandits or an easter egg. It's got long-ass walks (or horse rides) between towns; when I played the first one I barely used fast travel.

Death Stranding, again not so much; the only interesting things there are the actual destinations you have to go to / from. Great scenery and experience though, and the long-ass walk is core gameplay.

Re: EverQuest

#110

Post by Cthulhu_ »

slashdave wrote: post #68
thegrim33 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was also at the perfect moment in time where you couldn't just pull up the game's wiki on a second monitor and have fully detailed maps and quest details on hand. You actually had to learn things for yourself by exploration and trial and error. You had to learn things from other people by talking to them in game. In my mind back then, I was in awe of people that even had the knowledge of how to get across certain…

Another aspect that differs from many of today's game is just how long it took to progress. Every upgrade felt earned. Today, rewards are tossed at players. Interesting that progression was massively eased in later versions.

It depends on how it's earned though, I think the brainless grinding is no longer fun or rewarding. FFIX removed, solved, or hid a lot of the tedium of a lot of MMOs.
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