Don't know the exact birth of my Everquest addiction but it was in 99 on a toon named hitdadek a paladin on sol ro. I played at end game in original then through kunark casually. Stopped for a while and began playing again in luclin. I've played on and off since 99 and I'm on my third paladin. Original account I shared with my college roommate when the semester ended I let him keep the account as I had no reliable net at my house.
'99 here Barb War Ganoron on Mith Marr server, then Saryrn, then Bertox. Ishtass has been my main since 2003
Maybe....Im sorry about the Cognatus thing btw....I....really didnt mean to absorb all you guys in 2 days....
My account was created in May '99 - My account has been active 16 years in total. I switched to Jhenna as my main over my original main Druid in Nov '99 because Druids were AWFUL at healing at the time, making them perform poorly in groups. I didn't just want to kite things solo, the social aspect to the game is what made it so exciting then and it's still the same today. I took a couple months and played on Ragefire last summer as a Ranger to relive the original experience of EQ and it just isn't the same for me. It just goes to show you what we all say about EQ (those of us that didn't play Ultima Online or muds like Legends of Kesmia) when EQ first came out nothing can ever again recapture the original allure of the game - even despite the Vision(tm)! (Can you imagine ever again playing a game where you need to be online for entire day basically to do Ragefire for your Cleric Epic?? We all used to do stuff like that!) The omg that's another player killing rats in the newbie zone next to you realization was such an amazing game changer at the time in '99.. It was so much different an experience than playing Baldur's Gate and Diablo on a LAN game with a couple friends (omg a ring dropped where is it??). You had an entire zone of players to play with and meet. I'm still in contact with people I have not played EQ with in 15 years! In conversations with those players that haven't been around since Planes of Power they still look fondly upon those days in EQ. I haven't played many other MMO's - just Vindictus and Tera. When you look at the issues Tera has (I still play it) and compare it to the issues EQ has I promise you all you'd rather have EQ's imperfections. Today's MMO's are cash grabs, RN-Jesus and for all the beautiful graffics and modern character models - they are soulless, empty games that are fun for a little while and just become completely boring once you reach max level. It's time to move on from MMO theme park game models. Sometimes it really sucks that gaming is so mainstream! ...and yes I'm not ever playing a new Korean based game again lol. Why do they enjoy game experiencing where punching yourself in the groin is like the point of the game experience?? Ok, I'm done rambling!
Started mid 99. Played a shaman for a few months then discovered Shadowknights. Joined an all evil guild because roleplay mattered to a lot more back then. They integrated so I moved on to Bloodhorde for years as one of the few all evil guilds. From Bertox to Terris Thule to Prexus. Finally shut down Bloodhorde and Joined TSM where they were silly enough to make me guild leader. So have played it all as it came out, and moved from non raider to raider to running a guild with two full raid teams both farming the latest content. Still love this game.
