Ever thought about why you love this game so much?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by nezran, Jan 18, 2021.

  1. yepmetoo Abazzagorath

    I like the interface, the game play and the basic D&D style elements.

    I always hope we will get more resources applied to the game, because I feel like there is so much potential for this game that is going to waste.

    I enjoy that you can either go hardcore and burn through stuff, or go slow and consistently gain player power and development, that there is really always *something* to do.
    OldCa61 and nezran like this.
  2. Sakuraba Augur

    I know why I generally enjoyed it in the past and do enjoy it from time to time.

    The world itself was always fun to explore, even post-PoP with the travel conveniences. When I started my Halfling pally in Rivervale way back in the day, it was exciting to see all the different areas and play with a group. It was fun to find some mob or item you didn't necessarily *know* you wanted to find. Dying was even fun, in all honesty, despite the frustration of de-dinging.

    I haven't gotten a character to cap since the cap was 65, I've tried to come back several times. But without the exploration and the friends along for the ride it's been hard to stick around. Intended to get involved again with this expac and then ended up getting too busy lol, hopefully I can try again soon now that things have quieted down around here.
    nezran likes this.
  3. Flatchy Court Jester

    They have got to be doing something right as I have not bought or subscribed to any other game since 2003.

    Always something new and exciting to do! Thank you to whoever invented this game and to you who now keep it alive and going!
    OldCa61 and nezran like this.
  4. Evye Augur

    A sense of community and nostalgia.
    Also there is ability with EQ that you can do one thing everyday in it to be a little bit better and I myself don't get that feeling from the rest of my life.

    Also Evye has always been here for me. Through all my crap relationships she has always taken me in when I have time for her again.
    nezran and OldCa61 like this.
  5. Tucoh Augur

    Not to derail, but this is one aspect that I think is really insidious in MMOs (and gaming in general, but with MMOs especially).

    If I want to get into better shape IRL I can start on a long, sometimes painful process to sloooowly improve my physical fitness with debatable value and mostly temporary results. Same if I want to pick up a new skill or work on a project. Often these IRL improvements come at fiscal cost too.

    But in an MMO? I can casually spend an hour or two and permanently give my character a tangible boost with no difficulty, cost or real effort on my part. So instead of fighting hard for gratification in a way that helps me RL I instead get that dopamine fix in an MMO.

    That doesn't mean that once you get sucked into an MMO you'll never be successful, but it is a risk we know all too well.
    nezran and Evye like this.
  6. Evye Augur


    I agree with this 100%
    Games in general were developed because people were starving and the King wanted to distract them from starving. So maybe deep down we are all starving for something and EQ is just distracting us from it.
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  7. Nennius Curmudgeon

    panem et circenses

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses
    Evye likes this.
  8. minimind The Village Idiot

    The main "high" I get from EQ is completion-- Completing missions, completing quest arcs, etc. It's even better when its complex and done with the assistance of other real people. Kick it up another notch when considering the addition of voice chat for quick strategy adjustments and I'm seriously having the best time.

    I think this is in contrast with my career that typically deals with long-term projects, 85% done solo or at least without direct interaction with others. My wife will ask, "How was work?" and if I say, "Productive!", it's a good thing! If it's "Teleconferences and emails all day", it's not good and I'm likely headed to EQ to find a way to tick a box or something.
    Skuz, nezran and Nennius like this.
  9. nezran New Member


    I think that sentiment is not uncommon. MMOs, with all their levels, quests, currencies, rising percentages, and dings, provide a sense of accomplishment, which, as you describe, fulfills something missing sometimes in our careers.
    Skuz and minimind like this.
  10. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    So if we ate a snickers we might stop playing EQ?
  11. minimind The Village Idiot

    That really makes me want to make another zerk called "Hangry."
    Barton, Skuz and nezran like this.
  12. Vumad Cape Wearer

    I've been in the same guild for about 16 years. I stopped playing for a while to focus on career stuff, and when life gave me a great big kick in the nuts, the people in my guild were still there. It was truly a prodigal son moment of monumental proportions. I play EverQuest for the people in EverQuest.
    Nennius, Skuz and nezran like this.
  13. Sissruukk Rogue One

    The people, even ForumQuesters that I disagree with.
    Skuz likes this.
  14. Tryal Anderror Journeyman

    I just returned to the game after about 5 years off, but played pretty hardcore from 2001 until basically StrarCraft 2's release in 2010 and then came back a few times.

    My Reasons are probably similar

    1. Years of Content - Whenever I come back there's so much to do, especially with the achievements to give you suggested things to do, I've just been able to say like 'Today I'll do ever quest in Bixie Warfront' or whatever.

    2. Real 'Power Progression' feel - I've played a number of other MMOs, and one thing EQ does well is making it easy and satisfying to explore old content. It's fun to run through Anguish or Crystalos or something solo and see how you fare against things that used to take an army, or go back and do old quests able to AoE an entire zone.
    Some other games like FF14 have things that prevent this feeling of progression, there's rarely any reason to do old content, and when there is like daily or weekly missions you don't get to really play your character, if you're level 80 and you do a level 60 mission it 'syncs' you to level 60 and downgrades your spells and gear etc...

    3. Game isn't 'on Rails' - Want to pull a mob across the entire zone? You can. Want to do something using an unintended strategy? You can. And missions and raids at least for the most part aren't just entirely about running into and out of coloured areas on the floor to avoid things. Positioning and strategy and stuff is still crucial, but it's not as completed dictated by a game of simon says.

    4. Relaxing - My main is a Necro and I've always just loved kiting, just getting into a pattern, moving around, adapting, perfecting, I was happy just kiting for hours with some music on or a tv show next to me or whatever.

    5. Optimization - This one actually helped my professional life too. Almost any technical skill I have related to excel, python, SQL and stats and probability math, I developed just because I liked finding optimal spell lineups or order to cast spells, or interactions between classes etc... I now work in modelling and Machine Learning, and that all helped me learn those skills years before I needed them.

    6. Progression - I like how tangible some of the progression is, as you gain AA, improve gear or level up, you can see clear things... this mob used to take 8 DoTs to kill, now it's 7. I used to run out of mana in my Lesson burn, now I can go straight through, I can kill 2 extra mobs in half an hour, My pet can tank something it couldn't before, I parse higher in a group or raid.. it's all very measurable

    7. Complexity - Again in other MMOs the strategy is usually very clear, there's limited spells and abilities and generally the exact order you use them in is completely known. If you're a Black Mage you Cast 3 - 4 - 5 - 1 -3 - 4 - 6 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 -1 or whatever, there's just a simple cycle, its the same for everyone and you basically just do it. Here you have to adapt so much more, there's not like 10-20 spells, there's like 600 and just because you're 115 doesn't mean there's no use for a level 30 spell sometimes. If I'm kiting in GD, there's a level 95 and a level 66 spell loaded, because one is very efficient, and the other is the highest cure disease version we have.


    But things I always remember that I don't like when I come back

    1. Absolute acceptance of things that used to be 'cheating' - This is probably a lot because I played my first 5-6 years on a PvP server before those merged, but any sort of scripting or things like MySEQ were very harshly looked at, in our case of course because if you could track other players, you could more easily kill them.
    It feels now from the past couple months of observing it that the community has kind of decided on a made up set of rules for themselves. MySeq and MacroQuest2 are ok... but not certain hack parts of it, and it's totally ok to have 6 characters running entirely on Macro configurations...but only if you don't AFK. The result of this is groups of 6-12 toons sitting at certain camps 24 hours a day either farming things or selling power leveling.
    People even stream live on Youtube and Twitch running these 3rd party programs. Any other game you'd clearly be banned. I'll try to just adapt to it and accept that's just the game now, but its an adjustment.

    2. The fact the game changed in such a way to almost force #1 to happen. - I feel like the game never quite adapted to the idea that pick up groups are more and more rare, and has in fact increased the hostility to not playing with at least 3 toons. There seem to be less missions and content where you can find a clever way to do it slower with sub-optimal or less than full groups, and more of a tendency towards just letting bot groups do the missions and sell the task adds.

    Overall I'm enjoying playing it again, but I do find more and more it feels like a single players game with other people in the same world more than a multiplayer game.
  15. Khyrra Elder

    I just love EQ.
    Friends I have made along my EQ journey.
    Raiding, groups, soloing and so many different things to do.
    I admit I also love tradeskills and Housing:)

    Hugs to all.
    Skuz likes this.
  16. IblisTheMage Augur

    Because I am a man of culture and good taste, and I respect myself.

    :-D :-D :-D
  17. IblisTheMage Augur

    tbh I think I learned this from Everquest, to handle conplex life/work situations: continously invest in piling minuscule improvements to any and all aspects that I can manage, based on best guess with the information I can mobilize, continually being prepared to reevaluate things I believe I know and have lived by for years.

    The Everoptimization without directly measurable or immediately percievable benefits ends giving pretty good personal yields long term, not unlike what I experience in the game
    Vumad, Tucoh and Skuz like this.
  18. Hexsim New Member

    I've actually thought about this a lot, even though I've taken very long breaks over the years and seem to come back due to nostalgia reasons, at the very least.. but I thoroughly enjoy this game every time I return to it, even after so many other games of all different types, competitive, pvp, fps, console, or whatever.

    #1 When I was a kid, this game was like magic - Simply put, when my friend got this game not long after released it wasn't like anything else out there. It was such an incredible world with so much depth and a true feeling of adventure you just can't replicate still to this day. So much to learn and explore, so much personality and wonder. When I finally got it for christmas myself it was like the best day ever, and ofc I think this "#1" my age had a lot to do with it (i was probably 12 or so?)

    #2 It is extremely pleasing and satisfying to the senses - Maybe im crazy and super nerdtastic, but to this day when i hear water from a pond I often think of lake of ill omen... whenever i see anything regarding wood elves i think of greater faydark, my downright favorite starting area. even often when it snows i think of, well the many beautiful snowy zones that exist. and so on and so on.. much nostalgia to be had.. but killing enemies, the level and aa system and drops are all satisfying as well because they're not too easy to get, and not too difficult either (a little on the more difficult side is always better.. good to have something to obtain or look forward to)

    #3 It's somehow both simple and complex at the same time - As I saw another person respond.. it's simplicity is a good reason to like it. But is it really all that simple? Nowadays it could be considered as such, but it could also be considered very VERY indepth. What other games have this many things like all these languages, tradeskills, factions, different types of quests, and items that are not at all easy to obtain from years ago but still viable. All the different skills to level up, spells to learn, different ways to hunt them down and access them.. all the areas from different continents and such, all intertwined and often revisited for such a great experience. Let alone how many abilities and macro each person needs to use. Think about how severely dumbed down rpgs are in comparison nowadays, one could argue that those are the simplistic games.

    #4 The people are good people, its just that simple - There is little to no toxicity or immaturity as you find in more modern games, and the community genuinely just seems to want to help and have a good time. Another game that's like this is Warframe, which ironically is yet another almost entirely PVE game.

    ..I wrote way more than I expected lol
    Skuz likes this.
  19. Zolav Augur

    Because it is freaking EQ man... EQ!
    Krool and Skuz like this.
  20. Deux Corpse Connoisseur

    Because I am OCD and this game is designed to cater to that