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EverQuest

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Re: EverQuest

#131

Post by markbnj »

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…

> crossing the ocean on a boat felt absolutely epic and dangerous

Given the way death was implemented ("LFG @ EC tunnel for a corpse run to Guk!") and the fact that you could fall off the ships in the middle of the ocean when the game lagged, it _was_ epic and dangerous. I remember the first time it happened to me and players in public chat coached me through a 20 or 30 minute swim to get my wizard and stuff to an island with a portal.

Re: EverQuest

#132

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

"So you want us to beat an MMO? ** you! When was the last time you've heard of someone beating EverQuest?"

"Well when was the last time you've heard of someone PLAYING EverQuest?"

"...That's fair"

Re: EverQuest

#133

Post by Foobar8568 »

bpicolo wrote: post #56
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…

> players hung out in tunnels shouting their wares. The Luclin bazaar from EQ is still one of the coolest/most unique game features I have ever seen. Park your character to open up a shop with selected items from your inventory. Browse everybody's wares by walking around and clicking them to see their shops!

It was still great, pointless city but within the main hub. Lineage2 would allow players to sit in any towns in a similar way.

Re: EverQuest

#134

Post by guitarsteve »

jdwithit wrote: post #73
nzeid wrote: post #58

Hehe, a little upsetting that I only see one former UO player in these comments right now. I loved the anarchy and never stopped missing it through FFXI, WoW, and other MMO's. There was a rivalry between EQ and UO and no one I knew including myself had the time to play both.

I was a freshman in high school when UO came out. I distinctly remember getting accepted into the beta test and frantically checking the mailbox every day until the CD finally showed up. I had played Gemstone III (a text MUD on AOL) and Sierra's The Realm so I wasn't totally new to the concept, but the vision and scale of UO had my excited out of my mind. I did have fun with it but ultimately I think I was too young…

The Realm consumed a lot of my life as a child.

Re: EverQuest

#135

Post by 1123581321 »

don_neufeld wrote: post #79
herodoturtle wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comments like this is why I love HN. Thanks for sharing. And RIP to your former colleagues.

Thanks, but trust me - they were no saints. Kelly Flock threw the project I was leading under the bus with Sony Pictures on his way out the door when they fired him. I barely saved it. Brad McQuaid, as CEO of Sigil famously didn’t even show up for the meeting where the whole Vanguard team was told the company had failed and they had no jobs, and no severance. The games industry definitely has its heroes, but they ain…

As an aside, this is how I’d like to be toasted (roasted?) at my funeral, to the extent my surviving family would find it to be an appreciation of the whole person. Too bad old coworkers tend not to attend and eulogize!

Re: EverQuest

#136

Post by bluelightning2k »

beloch wrote: post #52
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…

I too formed memories by playing EQ in a way that was, in retrospect, dumb, and learning from the experience. e.g. I created an Erudite wizard (who could not see in the dark) and insisted on leveling up in Toxxulia forest, the default "newbie" zone for Erudites. It was dark there, even during the day, and pitch black at night. I kept my monitor at the calibrated brightness level because I didn't want to "cheat". Mons…

I can top this. The Erudite zone was literally built around a massive chasm. Early on in the game I unlocked "levitate" - and naturally levitated down into the big chasm.

A little way down a loading screen hits for a zone called "The Hole"; a high level raid zone. My levitate was removed by the loading screen, and retrieving my body would require a team of high level players - thus lose (meaning ALL my gear and inventory was permanently lost, and a heavy XP penalty).

I don't think experiences like these are as positive as your nostalgia has led you to believe.

Re: EverQuest

#137

Post by pests »

don_neufeld wrote: post #72

I was there. My first pay stub had Verant on it, I joined shortly before the SOE transition. One thing maybe not well known outside of the company was that the MMO subscription revenue enabled a hotbed of experimentation. There was an MMO RTS which never shipped, and several other takes on “can we make genre X an MMO?” that I can’t remember. And then SWG, obviously. EQ2 had all kinds of interesting people on it as a…

I never played EverQuest but another game by SOE. I was absolutely addicted to Cosmic Rift throughout high school. Then someone decided it was a good idea to make it subscription only. I still remember being able to login and get trial time as some Guest#374950. Really killed the community and the game died not too long after.

I ended up going back to the original Subspace, which Cosmic Rift was a spiritual successor to, which shortly after had its client redeveloped by the community (PriitK of Kazaa, Skype, Joost fame) called Continuum. Ended up playing this for over a decade.

Re: EverQuest

#138

Post by h2zizzle »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #109
h2zizzle wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

The whole idea is that exploring is its own reward, and points-of-interest need to be few and far between in order to kindle the feeling described above. "You see that mountain? You can climb it," is inferior to, "I heard there's a mountain beyond the horizon; we should find it and try to climb it." And then you spend an in-game day or two working your way there. If you're constantly being bombarded with "things to do", 1) It deadens you to their novelty, and 2) The game can't make them TOO difficult. Sometimes the player should just be walking; sometimes they should be physically lost; sometimes they should happen upon something that is of zero use to them.

I'm not sure how far you got into XV, but it's completely different from XVI. XVI is XIII-style hallways, but with no battle wipe, so areas are designed to be large enough for combat. XV is a Ubisoft-style open-world, but with a lot less of the dopamine hacking cruft of AC et al. Using the car feels very roadtrip-like, but you certainly can and should get out and hoof it through the wild areas.

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