I am just curious if there is anyone who has played continuously since 99? If so i would be interested to know your experiences and how it has changed in the 17 years EQ has been around.
I think it's mostly for the better. While I can see the appeal of both time periods, the playstyle of beta/1999 and today's game are totally different. The pacing of EQ in 1999 wouldn't sell as a new game shipping today, much less spawn an industry out of clones of it.
Nov 30, 1999. Ranger. Uuvin on E'ci I didn't know anything about anything in the first few months. Everything was something new. From weapons and armor, to how to not hit 'a' accidentally and attack your home town trainer ( and die instantly) to not falling off the ramps in Kelethin ( and die instantly) to not walking too close to orc camps ( and train to the lift or die) to how to get into Crushbone, to join a group, to communicate, to where Trainer camp was, to what was actually valuable ( shiny brass shield) to what was impossible at level 5 ( Dvinn camp) to eventually finding Butcherblock, how to get on a boat, how to not fall off a boat in OOT, how to survive in OOT when you went LD and the boat left you in the middle of the zone, how to find a corpse, how to bind / get bound after dying in North Ro and finding myself back in Kelethin, discovering ghouls in unrest need magic weapons to damage them, realizing that a level 30 was so powerful they can kill stuff in seconds that takes me 2 minutes, learning to respect other players for their knowledge and helpfulness, learning when NOT to train to zone, learning about a rez, the different powers that different classes have. These days, if you want to know anything, you just google it - even before you log on. and every quest or fight or bug or delay is basically the same tactics as you already have dealt with sometime in the past. Some things as months went on that I also remember: having to sit around waiting for groups in lower guk because there was so little to do for higher levels and camps were monopolized by some to sell items ( took me several weeks to break into these groups and eventually get a ykesha). Finding out some people quite literally didn't care about training others. Some folks wanted consent just so they could loot your body instead of actually helping to drag your corpse. Learning to be as independent as possible cause its hard to find reliable and trustworthy folks some days, Learning why it was called evercamp when I needed 62 hours to get my epic drop. I will enjoy reading what others write.
I played since 1999 , it was me and my father he was a Mage , I was his Shaman ...Mercs have changed the game in a big way ... People don't group as often as they did in the early years of EQ .... I recall someone give me 4 pp , I thought I was so rich hehe ,of course I got killed and never did find my body with that 4pp . Yi Min
May 22, 1999 - non-stop, no breaks I find the game has got harder, and easier. Basic things have been "dumbed down" No more corpse runs, just summon it up. (that took the fear out of Fear) Again, making sure you didn't hit "A" while talking to a trainer, or any other npc - and now you don't have to talk to npc's, you just click on the linked text. Guild Lobby and people padding out their /played time after making a heroic character Back in the old days, we had to walk uphill both ways to Enchanter school, in the rain and snow... Now you Origin...then gate. Easy. Oh Duels! When they were broadcast.. I killed a Paladin - Jimako (I was playing my first love, a wizzy) the guild thought it was hilarious! (He didn't...) I'm just not scared anymore, no more blind human running into undead in East commons, no more 12 -14 hour fear CR, No more forgetting I was KOS and accidentally dying - oops! The raids may be harder, the mobs may be meaner, but we are tougher, we don't die as easy - well if a mob wants me dead, I'm dead, heaven help the person that tried to save me! Oh last thing! No more camping to chat to save buffs! Remember that?
Yes, though at this point i'm not sure if its a badge of honor or shame. Like anything, the game has changed in major ways in the course of 17 years. Some good, some less so; but there are those of us that still have passion for the Ever in EverQuest.
Off and and on since April 1999. It has changed immensely for the good and the worse. GoD/OoW were the down fall of what I shall call Original EQ. It was a game for small groups that became a game about raiding (rather than just having fun). Many will disagree with me on this point, and that is perfectly fine. My experiences have been my experiences and I do treasure them, even though they are for a video game. The game, the lore, the soul, is just so engrossing that is hard to ever leave it for long. The people, they either make you want to leave immediately or have become life long friends. EQ is very polar, you will find great or awful, but rarely any middle ground. Whether it is people, content, or experiences, EQ represents a lot about life in its many forms. Those of us who play it tend to have a love hate relationship with the game. We love the highs (the friendships and the triumphs), we despise the lows (400 bodies in fear anyone?), and we really feel at home here. EQ has become, for all intents and purposes, the first truly artificial world for many thousands of people over a significant period of time. There have been others, there will be many more, but how many games can say they have lasted 17 years and still have the draw our old gal here does?
You want to know the difference? It is the quoted statement. There were no write ups, there was no Alakazam to go to for all the information, there was no Lucy's. The Veeshan shard lead all other shards in figuring things out (Pre Kunark). if folks want to say something changed Everquest ... for the better or the worse, nothing changed it more than the write ups, the EQ Information sites (Pre Wiki). Everquest started as Friends, Family, groups to "If you don't have a mana stone, then your not playing with us", (the raid mentality that destroyed Friends, Family, Groups) EQ became item centric, which formed the Holy Trinity. Raids ruled for a long time, then WoW came out and Raids people left. Then came the plug the holes, personified by Mercs and Power leveling (were one can go from 1 to 105 over night, have no AA's, no equipment and no knowledge of how to play the class). EQ has/is become/becoming more a Solo Player with a NPC group. Check a thread on 2 mercs out at one time. People are going to fight it, but in the end, unless something can restore the Friends, Family, Group paradigm, then for EQ to earn money it will become a Solo Player with an NPC group. While I do not see this happening, I can foresee talk of a Solo Player with a NPC Raid Group.
Breaks, but since 1999 lots has changed, so has my bank account in RL. It grows every time i put up the 12 accounts I returned to mess around on the Ragefire server, to try other things. I wont ever play like i once did though, too much has changed so has the game. We had our fair share of character changes, but not until recently has it discouraged many. So doing the lowbie thing again is somewhat refreshing, testing out new ideas etc.
There are a lot of good changes but the ones I don't think were for the best were the changes in group dynamics (and the focus was on grouping - raiding wasn't even really a 'thing' really). There wasn't a huge gaff from one archtype to the other, outside of healing vs non-healers. For example, you didn't have only 3 tank classes - rangers and monks were just as viable, if not favorable in some ways. A rogue was certainly more dps than a warrior, but not on the order of 10+ times as much. Having classes different but closer together meant more viable grouping combinations for even challenging content. Yes, there was the holy trinity, but the archtype role shoehorn is worse today. Fights were also longer. There wasn't the same level of button mashing madness as today (unless you were a bard). Unless you were way out of your league, you weren't likely to die in seconds but rather via hitpoint attrition over a period of time. Splitting was a skill as well as CC - especially CC without mez ( root, fear, etc ). There wasn't a million AAs to buy and grinds were slow, making levels mean something. CR runs - while almost universally hated - made for some of the most memorable times in EQ and put risk into the game. Without PoK books, the world felt bigger. Dungeons were well designed and some of the most interesting places in EQ, where a crawl was an adventure but if you knew where to go, there were safe spots. Those are the things I miss off the top of my head.
Played since 1999 but I think you get a better perspective on changes from those that stop and start playing multiple times. For myself, without any significant break it all just blends in together.
There's also been a difficulty switch from managing groups of low hp, low dps mobs to not wanting to handle more than one high hp/high dps mob at a time. I always tend to get concerned when the current dev team tackles an old zone, because they seem to all be of the high hp/high dps school of thought, but don't give thought to mob placement in those zones.
Given that 99-04 was the growth period of EQ, I think you'd be more hard pressed to find people who started after 2005 than before 2000.
If I had to take a wild guess on the year most people started, not claimed they started, it would be 2001. Great year for EQ , SoV was out and the worst of the buggy crap was sorted out. Numbers were rocketing up beyond what anyone ever thought would be possible... talk about being wrong though it took WoW to show it. Anyway I think it was the best year for the game in a lot of ways but the main was that there was still some creativity displayed by players and devs. That all began to change with Luclin and the year that followed so yeah I agree. Still the best MMO out there but so so far from what it could have been.
I started in 2002, and late 2002 at that. Zero Velious nostalgia here. If we're being honest, POP was a better expansion anyways, no?
March 99'er here. The game is much better today if you intend to play by/with yourself. The game of yesteryear was better for fostering relationships.
You take that back, Velious was the greatest expansi...yeah, I was honestly sick of snow after six months of Velious and still had six more to go.
