What Are Your Favorite EQ2 Memories?

I highly dislike dust devils. Even moreso when they toss you on top of giant spiders! hehe
Also, that's awesome about meeting your hubby in EQ2 Congrats!

I never minded the Spirit Shard corpse runs before. It's the group experience debt that was a group deal breaker for me way-back-when! hehe

I just love hearing about the amazing friendships that form in game! *warmfuzzies*

favorite memories

- Entering game for the first time and getting stuck in crouch mode with two friends and running around like that.
- Silent City..always was such an awesome dungeon
- Billy!
- Vox ghost!
- Flying
- Craters in the land scape
- Fishbone earring!
- all the ancient EQ1 ruined locations (varsoon, kaladim, chessboard, etc..)


To share from EQ1 (because its funny)

logging into EQ1 for the first time, and leaving halas, noticing around the guards are lots of dead players, then typing on my keyboard "Wha..." and then suddenly finding myself in that pile of corpses. (The 'a' was mapped to attack back then and I was typing "what happened?" that really was a "wecome to EQ1"

It seems almost ludicrous now, but I remember when I hit level 30 on my then main and only toon - Oephelia, my half elf monk. I dinged on a cenotaur near the cenotaur village area. I must have danced around the room for 10 minutes because it was SO. DARN. HARD. to get to level 30 back then. Nowadays, I can hit 30 in under 30 minutes... but back then I was so proud

I also remember her dinging 70 in the Bonemire, on a basilisk. I fired off some fireworks and took a few screenshots, which have long since been lost.

It was cool when leveling was really meaningful. Now its just how fast can I grind to get to endgame. And that's partially my own fault...

I dunno if this is the most interestingstory at all, but EQ2 is the first and only MMORPG I've played. My wife was introduced to the game by a co-worked while I was away at a conference. I remember her calling me and telling me about how cool the game was. I wasn't terribly impressed, but I told her I'd give it a try when I got back. She had started a conjuror on Najena and when it was my turn to create a character, I fell back on my D&D/AD&D days and made my paladin, Vainamoinen. I've become far more 'hooked' on the game than she ever imagined!

Initially, my wife and I duo'd around Antonica (she was a Halfling from the Baubleshire and, I, a human from Nettleville). We were amazed at the size of the "world" and hadn't yet discovered any other zones. I recall finding the Thundering Steppes griffon tower and assuming that the Thundering Steppes was just an area in Antonica. When we actually found the zone-in to the Steppes, I recall both of us having our minds simultaneously blown by the fact that there was another 'huge' place for us to adventure!

I did hook up with a random group in The Caves early on in the game. I had only learned some of the slang/abbreviations used in the game and I couldn't figure out why my group kept telling me that I was the MT (I thought it stood exclusively for "mistell", at the time). I just shrugged and ran around the zone with these people following me telling me that I was a mistell.

Soon after, I became a Ruins of Varsoon junkie and ran that zone as often as possible. I could, and likely did, tank it in my sleep. The Chamber of Immortality seemed like a pretty hardcore instance to clear

I would have to say that the day we purchased our T3 guild hall in Antonica was a huge milestone. My wife and I, along with another wonderful couple, founded N' Friends (meant to be "and Friends") relatively early in our EQ2 lives. We worked like crazy to save up the plat to buy that guild hall (back when 1000p was a big deal). None of us raided, we typically stuck with the heroic content, and we were fairly casual players, so it was a long haul to that 1000p mark.

I have a terrible memory so I know I'm forgetting about a tonne of crazy stuff in the game.

The first thing that comes to mind is how I didn't realize that a name like "Vainamoinen" would be a hardship for those trying to invite me to their groups or how I would meet so many Finnish people in-game (all 4 of them or so!). Vainamoinen (or more correctly, Väinämöinen) is the main character of the Finnish national epic collection of poems, the Kalevala. A pally on Najena that I looked up to (I forget his name now Was it Waral? I'm not sure), was very envious of my name as he was (is) Finnish.

Most definitely! The co-founders of our guild have been and will continue to be great friends. Our guild is really a small collection of people that get along well and enjoy spending time with one another.
I took a sudden and unannounced 4 year hiatus from the game sometime during Sentinel's Fate. When I returned, I was welcomed back with open arms and only mildly chastised for dropping of the face of the earth (or Norrath in this case). I feel very fortunate for knowing my guildies and having met the many other great people who have tolerated me!

As a professional curmudgeon, I have to admit it has been quite satisfying reading through the posts in this thread. It's great to see how a game has influenced so many people and brought a lot of them together.

I recently decided that I had outgrown my #2 Bayle Street House. But, by the time I had moved into my Mistmoore Crags place and taken everything out of the old Bayle Street House, I couldn't convince myself to actually give the place up. So it sits, empty for now, just in case I need it to help me continue my pack rat lifestyle. Nostalgia is a weird thing.

I ended a [unhealthy] 7-year relationship, and moved 5 states away from where I had resided, in November 2004. I wasn't necessarily looking for something to occupy my brain and give me the time I need to mentally decompress, but I think I found it when I found EQ2.

I had never played an MMO, but I had heard of EverQuest. I had been reading and following along with the forums at SOE, prior to the game's launch, during summer of 2004. I was intrigued. The weekend after the game launched, I picked it up. I remember getting home from the store and looking at the 10-disc package in awe - even though I had been a gamer for a long time and had played 2 and 3-disc games on the PS1, 10 CDs was unheard of in 2004. (Soon after DVDs took over, so it was unheard of then - and ever more.) While the game installed, which took quite some time, I read through the large, thick game manual. (Nice, polished, professional, thick paper game manuals that you could stick your nose into and smell the ink; they are relics of another time now, too) I grew more and more anxious to log in an explore this new virtual world. It was "a first" and goes down as one of those few genuinely "new gaming experiences" that I've had in my life, which is probably why it holds such a strong place in my memories.

I'll never forget that first character creation process, the boat ride tutorial, the first steps on IoR, choosing my weapon, running around in my ripped up junky shirt, finding a piece of leather armor or a tin sword that did 1 extra damage and just being like "YEAH! A new weapon! A leather glove! I'm totally winning it!" Dying over and over to the goblins in that first camp in IoR; dying to treasure chests; dying from jumping from the treehouse. Grouping up and having someone explain waypoints to me; taking down the orcs in the cave for the first time. Then, finally, hitting level 6 and being able to leave the island, and going to Qeynos, going through the citizenship quest, then entering Graystone Yard for the first time. There was a guy at the docks who had a pink name tag instead of a green one, and he was directing people where to go. (It was a player RPing!) exploring Oakmyst and Qeynos, Baubleshire, the Forest Ruins, the Peat Bog (my first Tower Shield!) ...

At some point a few weeks in I was asked to join a guild. Not having ever played MMOs before, I didn't really understand what that meant, being in "a guild" - but I soon found myself tanking for a regular group every single night and soon was made a patron (some of you recall the patron system, right?) and an officer in the guild. Together we went through Antonica, Blackburrow, Stormhold, Thunderring Steppes, Ruins of Varsoon, the boat ride access to EL, then in Enchanted Lands, Runnyeye. Our guild was the very first guild on the Lavastorm server to reach the cap of Level 30, and, at the time, we were doing pretty well in Tier 5 raiding, too. By that point it was April of 2005 and a lot of people had stopped playing the game or were quitting. Unfortunately it wouldn't last as two of my regular group defected and went to a competing guild, our guild leader went MIA, and one by one the rest of us, including me, went our separate ways, joining other guilds. Then the server got merged with Nektulos, and I left it entirely, and joined my present guild on Antonia Bayle. The memories I made during those first 6 months, though, will never be forgotten or replaced.

During that time I was waiting tables while I picked up my life (that seems melodramatic to me, now, but it was how I felt, back then) and I would come home, beat and mentally exhausted, probably suffering depression without knowing it, and I would log in, and there was this whole amazing new world waiting for me where I could lose myself and be someone else entirely for a few hours every night, forgetting my problems (and in some way, working through them at the same time, giving my brain that time it needed to move on.)

However the story doesn't end there. I've been playing for 10 years and for 9 of those have been in the same guild, Vermin on Antonia Bayle, and our guild has met in person every year for the past 5 years. In fact we just got back from a trip to Universal Studios in Orlando FL two weeks ago where we rented a house, got called out at Medieval Times, and I rode on a guildie's RL horse! Las Vegas SOE Live in 2013. Trips to Wisconsin, Texas, and Tennessee before that. Our guild leader and his wife (also a player) had a baby in 2008 and we sent gifts - and now the kid is 6 years old. ... The group changes a little bit every year but for the most part we've all been together in the guild as a core group.

Now looking back 10 years not only am I in a completely, much different, much, much better place in my own life personally (in fact thinking about it now is almost strange) but the game has changed so drastically, it's hard to remember everything that was different. Kind of mirrored my own life in a weird way!

My ONE regret is that I wished I had kept my very first character that I spent so much time playing during those first six months. Unfortunately I deleted him at some point - totally regret it!

~ Ara

In The Caves back in the day, one eye was always on the lookout for this lovely little creature after we once bumped into it in the tunnel between the lower and upper caves. Heh, "Back to the waterfall!" we'd holler and dash off like a bunch of halflings to dinner when it would show up. We loved the fear and excitement this tanned little rodent brought.

I have so many....lol. One I was sharing with folks the other day, while running them through Tserrina, as they'd never been through it:

Back on Freeport, when ToF's was all new, dark and shiny, I'd done Finding the Dain w/ friends from another guild & was running w/ my Guildies through Mirror, Mirror. We got back to the broken mirror room and folks went ballistic...."It won't work", "Kitty, you bugged it, because you did the quest before...", "Yeah, Kitty, dump your quests and redo yours..." I told them, "Guys, that's the wrong mirror...." After ten more minutes of arguing, again, "Guys, really, that's the wrong mirror"

Finally....to fix things, we petitioned; a friendly GM showed, took one look at their Journal and said, "That's the wrong mirror" Took them on to the appropriate mirror.



Kitty

My favorite memory was being with my small-and-close guild early on. I really didn't get the whole see invis thing since I was a mystic and could always see invis and assumed others could, too. I, uhm, used to always leave waterwalk on since I liked it and couldn't see why others did not.

Shortly after the desert expansion came out, we were messing around in Pillars of Flame, and our guild leader (who could be kind of a dink sometimes) yelled at us to jump off this cliff.

"Where are we going?" I ask.
"Just jump," he helpfully said.
Yup. I wiped my whole group. The water...we were jumping in the water.
I said, "If you had told me why we were jumping, I could have let you know."

Later on what I'm hoping was a different trip to Pillar of Flames, we were over by the heroic dinosaurs. Check that, the heroic INVISIBLE dinosaurs. We're creeping around, and stop for a moment to check the place out.

"Are we going to kill those dinosaurs?" I ask.
"What are you talking about?" Tank/leader says.
"Those dinosaurs, over there," I say.
"There aren't any dinosaurs there."
"Uhm, be careful of the..." I say.
He gets us too close. They aggro. He dies.
"What happened?" he asks. "What hit us?"
"Uhm...that could be those dinosaurs I tried to tell you about."

I remember that run, Kitty....sure was qu

I remember that run Kitty...sure was quiet in voice for awhile after that, lolol.

There are many words I could use to describe that experience, but "hoot" wasn't one of them

I love that combinations like this are possible!

LOL I'm glad you persevered and eventually found your way!

That's another thing I love: 3rd party sites (and books!) with maps!

Uwk

On my first date with my wife I told her how in the new crafting system in EQ2 making coffee no longer takes more time than in real life (quoting the patch note from the time). She wasn't a gamer and thought I was crazy, but we ended up getting married nonetheless. So that's how being an EQ2 geek didn't manage to screw up my love life.

Anyway, a little more background. I was never a big EQ2 player. I played for less than a year in 2005-6, and then a few more months when EQ2 Unlimited came out (and a little more on other occasions, such as when AoD came out). In my original run I found the game too slow, hard and lacking in story (compared to City of Heroes which was my main game), but I loved collecting, crafting and selling stuff. Every morning my froglok would go out of his small Castleview Hamlet inn room to look for butterflies (and other useful stuff) in Oakmyst Forest and sell those he didn't need on the market. Crafting was very time consuming, but a good way to blank the mind, and people actually bought second grade intermediate materials created during the crafting process.

After I stopped playing EQ2 I still kept tabs on it (like I do now even though I don't play it), and so discovered the crafting system change just about the time I had that date, and just had to mention that.

On my first day in game, back in Sept of 2005, I made a mage class. I did the isle of refuge and happily left for Qeyons. I had a friend who had been playing for a few months and I was quite excited to meet up with her. However, I quickly decided I didn't want to be a mage, so I deleted Amemyst the mage and made Amemyst the fury. Since I had just *done* the Isle of Refuge once and eager to get back to my friend, I did a small number of quests and left the island. Later, I became quest obsessed and strove for the quest count leaderboards. And those quests I passed up called to me and called to me. Many years later, the vet reward came out and though I wasn't eligible, a friend was and we immediately hatched a plan to get back to the isle of refuge and get those quests and not just one side, but BOTH sides. We were careful to be respectful of newbies and they've since locked you out from doing that, but man was it fun!

angry joe plays everquest...

but seriously I couldn't get enough of Nek forest or the Everlings, any story line involving them is a win.

That's a wonderful story It must have been such an awesome feeling for you and all of your guildmates!

I love seeing what's become of the old lands of Norrath as well! For the longest time, I was repeatedly logging into EQ1 just to run to some of the locations and do side-by-side image comparisons on my computers. I used to have a huge collection of the comparison images, before my computer died : / I learned to start uploading my images for back-up after that mishap : )

That was definitely something to dance around the room about!
I remember having a super-happy moment as well once I finished my class quest at level 20 and finally became a Warden. The quested armor around that level was this light tan (patchwork-ish) leather set and I was so determined to complete it and finally have an outfit that matched. It's quite possible I shed a tear of joy when I finally obtained the breastplate

That brought back some memories. You really had to pay attention in those days so you didn't turn into a tasty little snack for Slaverjaw.

Speaking of VP...I would consider the first time running for Myths one of the coolest game designs in 10 years.

ROK rocked in general, hands down my favorite expansion.

For me, it was learning that I was accepted into the Beta for Eq2, I had been playing Eq1 for years already and heard rumors that SoE was making a Eq2. Then got a beta invite in my email. I remember the excitement, and awe at the new character creator, then it just got better as I first stepped foot on newbie island! I was hooked from that day forward.

Yeah. How good is that feeling when you make your first new character in a great new online-world: Everything's a new experience, so much to learn; lore, combat, mechanics etc etc. The feeling of the unknown around every corner.

For me that's one of the best experiences in MMOs.

Shoot, any RPG, even the ol' pen-and-paper ones, but it's nice to see things visually, too.

I like this character creation process a lot; I still think the finest example, ever, in the history of MMOs was the old City of Heroes one. Feh, if they'd sold that separately, to be applicable to any game system (fantasy, sci-fi, etc.), I'd've bought that in a heartbeat. Too bad the game didn't last...oh well, less competition for EQ2 here!

Uwk