EQ was my first mmorpg and probably one of my favorite games of all time over all platforms. Playing on a pvp server from the get go it was a great compliment to the games mechanics. Since the game was group focused as far as progressing past the early levels reputation was important. If you randomly killed people you would soon be known as a pk (player killer) and chances are it would be harder if not impossible to find groups. Since dying included coin and a droppable item as loot, deaths mattered, as did recovering your corpse with armor/items. The whole mixture worked very well in the scheme of things. Also the fully connecting world with no instancing or copied zones added to the feel of a real world, something many of todays mmogs are failing quite badly on in my opinion, (they later added instancing in ldon, but pre ldon was the best).

It's funny to look back because many of the things that made EQ so great are mechanics that many of todays mmog designers seem to think are flaws. Ideas like a fully connected world, death penalty, player loot, and need for grouping are just a few examples. Most players play mmogs for a few reasons, IP weather new or already existing, gameplay, graphics, and community. Sadly many developers seem to forget about the community, in favor of money. Too many mmogs today decide to let players solo their way without ever grouping. The easiest way to create community in these games is to force them to group. It's the easiest building block to the idea around yet developers shy away and try to cater to the masses instead. There's a reason why EQ is still coming out with expansions 10 years down the road. Anyways I had many fun years with the game and don't regret any of it. Shout out to Rallos Zek and Sullon Zek!