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Reader Comments (24)

Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 10:15AM BIGGIN said

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My first MMORPG upon launch, and I still wax nostalgic for it a couple times each year.

Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 10:19AM (Unverified) said

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I used to really enjoy playing EQ, as it was such a new experience for me. But now I look back at how much of a pain in the arse it was to "play..." I remember spending weeks camped in Karnor's Castle (or was it Keep?) with a friend pulling Gnolls over and over and over and over...

Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 10:29AM venekor said

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Yeh I got into playing EQ on a veteran trial thing the other month and man it was bad. It feels just so dated and obviously it will because it is an old game but if you're never going to evolve then don't expect new players.

Like the character models, animations, sound, textures, combat and starting zones are all really dated and horrible to play. The Maps look like a 5 year old drew them too.

I've seen some of their new zones and they look ok but I just don't get why you wouldn't upgrade everything like CCP are doing with EVE to keep new blood in the game.

The UI and combat are the main things that need attensiona nd they need to ditch all the poor starting areas like I made a Lizardman and it's starting area was so bad that I fell in the water and I couldn't get out.

Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 10:42AM Kamokazi said

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They're not upgrading because they know it's futile...the underlying systems for that game are not worth the investment to update. They expect the game to die off in the relatively near future (3 years?). Sure, they're still pushing for trials and whatnot, but those cost them very little to run, and it takes very few sign-ups to get ROI. SOE may be many things, but they aren't stupid enough to believe that EQ has any long-term value left in it. They also have many other games that are newer they want people to play-CCP doesn't have an EVE 2 out or anything.

Yes, a lot of things will look like a 5-year old drew them. But look at other games from that time...it's no different, really. 3D hardware acceleration was still a pretty new thing. Your web browser is probably using more RAM right now than the total system memory the original EQ client was designed for (64MB).
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Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 11:41AM (Unverified) said

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You can always count on moo to bring nonsensical criticism to every EQ-related post. Kamokazi pretty much summed it up - the game is dated and is on its way out the door, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a good game for its time. Graphics aren't everything, you know. It's like calling a '69 Firebird a horrible car simply because it's old.

Try bringing something constructive to Massively more often, moo.
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Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 3:28PM ultimateq said

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Hey look, its an mmo thats not WoW, and moo hates it!
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Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 10:55AM wjowski said

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Ah, ten years of near-irreparable damage to the MMO community.

Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 11:42AM (Unverified) said

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Damage? I hate to break it to you, but EQ was one of the pioneers of the MMO community. Your beloved World of Warcraft wouldn't exist without it.
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Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 12:25PM (Unverified) said

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I see what mean as far as damage. Linear based progression with a grind attached to make it seem fun.

It was almost an exact opposite of what the other MMO of the time was offering.

But it does go to show that people do like different things. Some like to grind some don't. *shrug*
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Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 12:26PM wjowski said

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Spare me. If EQ had been a single-player game, it would've been universally panned. The only thing it 'pioneered' were some of the most egregiously tedious gameplay mechanics known to man.
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Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 6:39PM (Unverified) said

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Right, because it was missing those big yellow exclamation points and the minimap that you've become so fond of. It's only human nature to dismiss things that one can't accept or overcome.
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Posted: Mar 3rd 2009 12:59AM wjowski said

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Again, spare me. Everquest was every bit as stupid-easy as people claim WoW to be. Only with twice the bugs, half the stability, and ten times the timesinks.
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Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 11:52AM (Unverified) said

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Exactly. At the time it was amazing to see this entire world populated with OTHER PEOPLE you could speak to and go on adventures with.

It's only with hindsight (or at the point when you realise it's a chore to advance) that you see how punishing EQ was. But that's only because of other games coming along and building upon what EQ had estalished, taking the best bits and polishing it all up to make it smoother, easier and less-taxing to play.

I had a lot of fun with EQ but I always got the sense that the devs leaned more on the punishment than reward side of things and by the time you got to the higher levels, it did seem a chore to play.

Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 12:53PM (Unverified) said

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Say what you will about Everquest, but don't try to make it seem as though the game didn't jump-start the MMO genre. Ultima was there previously, sure, but I don't think any game meant more to introducing MMO's to a wider audience than EQ did. It had it's flaws, but so does every game. Some people think EVE's learning curve is too steep, some think WoW is too easy, some think CoH is too repetitive, some think blah, blah, blah. People enjoyed the community and the chance to experience something different.

WoW has taken the next step. But I know how fickle and ignorant people can be; six or so years from now, Massively will post an article stating that it's WoW's 10th anniversary, and people will complain about how it raped their gaming experience.

Let the people who enjoyed the game and the experiences it brought relish what the game once was and be nostalgic for a bit. I'm sorry that a few of you see this as an opportunity to go out of your way and criticize a game that tried to do something different and succeeded.

Posted: Mar 3rd 2009 8:39AM (Unverified) said

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This makes me feel very old!

Posted: Mar 2nd 2009 6:56PM (Unverified) said

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I play EQ on a daily basis and am somewhat active in the community.I can't speak for all of them but for me dated graphics don't mean a thing.The gameplay is what's key.I've tried a couple other mmorpgs here and there and I just could not bring myself to keep playing.There were a few issues like the ease of leveling and weapons and gear that decay over time that I just hated.

For the WOW folks that laugh about EQ being an old game I suggest they look at their game's age.WOW is going on 5 years and iirc the lead designer just jumped ship to work on something "new".Soon alot of WoW folks will be in the same spot EQ players were in '04 when Gates was released.

Posted: Mar 3rd 2009 6:34PM (Unverified) said

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"Wjowski said...

Again, spare me. Everquest was every bit as stupid-easy as people claim WoW to be. Only with twice the bugs, half the stability, and ten times the timesinks."

You're a tool. You obviously haven't played EQ, especially not in it's younger days. You could get lost so easily even in starting cities, you had to actually explore to find quests and things needed for the quests.

As for bugs and stability... I can't speak for WoW, because I hated the game so much just from the craptastic 7 day trial or w/e that I refused to give Blizzard any of my money, but what bugs EQ did/does have aren't anything major. It's still one of the more polished MMORPGs out there and has been, especially if you consider how much content EQ has. Stability wise... I ran that shit on a crappy Dell perfectly fine, with Luclin graphics back when they first launched.

Posted: Mar 3rd 2009 10:09AM wjowski said

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For someone who despises WoW you sure seem to love going on about it, especially since I've barely mentioned the game once.

At any rate, quite frankly if you thinking clicking buttons, mapping Sense Heading to your movement keys, 'corpse runs', and grinding the same damned mobs over and over again were challenging gameplay elements you'd weep bitter tears if you'd ever played Ultima Online.
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Posted: Mar 3rd 2009 6:34PM (Unverified) said

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I go on about it simply because if any game is to be blamed for hurting the MMORPG genre, it's WoW. Sure it brought in the numbers, but it lowered standards in all aspects.

When groups wipe to group content and some raid mobs take weeks of trial and error to perfect and conquer, that shows challenge. You can easily tell in EQ if someone knew wtf they were doing or not while playing their class.
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Posted: Mar 3rd 2009 6:34PM (Unverified) said

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P.S.

WoW ruined MMORPGs, not EQ.

Now everybody wants E-Z mode shit.

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