Let us also not forget that, originally, SQL was merely a DB query language. The underlying DB was utterly unrelated technologically.
It still is. Some perl modules support SQL backed by flat files (been a while, I forget the exact names). I'm sure other languages do as well.
SQL, or Structured Query Language, is pretty much database agnostic. For example, just for MySQL (one quite popular open-source relational database) here are your back-end choices: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/storage-engines.html I wish they had gone with a database from the start, but I'm guessing either cost or complexity prevented them from going that route. Shame too.
Don't forget all this new tech built in 97 and 98 had to squeeze through modems of the time. 14.4k 28k and then OMG i got the new 56k.
At one point I had 4 analog phone lines in my house for everyone here to play their games! I even rewired my home's modem phone lines with Cat5 cable and soldered the connections to wring every last bit from them. Once in a blue moon I'd see 52k connections but mostly they were 50.6k Then my Telco offered ISDN and I was the first residential property in the entire county to have ISDN lines. Technically they delivered 128kbps but your standard PC Com ports could only go up to 115k. I still have the US Robotics ISDN modems in the basement somewhere! And of course then I needed 2 of them so both Reg and I could have our own connection! Then I wired the house for 100Mb Ethernet and used a fancy Microsoft package called ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) to feed all the other users in the house from my connection while Reg had her own pristine unshared 115k pipe!
That's hardcore man, never heard of anybody doing that before. I still have my U.S. Robotics external 33.6 modem laying around, just because it's cool looking. Went internal for 56k so none of those got saved.
My first char was played on 28.8 baud, it was later upgraded to 56.6 baud and then ISDN. It wasn't exactly reliable until I got ISDN though.
I identify as "a C++ guy" but these days if I sit down to write something for myself the choice of language is clear. It's going to be C#.
I keep a Beginning C++ book around just to remind myself that I have it easy. Did a little work with C on Unix, but never had to do C++ beyond goofing around on my own. It's frightening. I also thought I'd always prefer Java, but C# has taken over, and I do like it. Javascript, on the other hand, haunts my dreams. So powerful, but also difficult to get right, and a pain to troubleshoot, despite looking like it should be easy to troubleshoot.
I'm not getting it. NT4 was current back then, no? Unless you're talking much later in EQ's lifetime.
I wrote a few books on the subject. I've done a little in that area. It was Actionscript rather than Javascript but the same foundation. Didn't love it, for sure.
My point was that NT, particularly at that time, would have been a crappy OS to run an MMOG on. UNIX or Linux would have been optimal.
That was a long time ago and I was still working, and had a life. Neither of that is true now so I need my EQ
There are a lot of smart programmers in games companies, but schedules are never accurate so it's common to have to push features out, and hack implementations in a hurry. It's why I got out of that business.
I remember a phrase that sort of came with my original computer: I speak BASIC to my Apple. I wrote a mini program to facilitate preparation of my IRS annual document. (This avoided having to pay for Excel.) This was well before EverQuest came to the world.