Things i liked about EQ (that you probably didn't)

[damocles]

I am reminiscing about some of the aspects of EQ that I liked and would like to see in an MMO in the future. I suspect the things that I liked about EQ are things that turned people away from the game. I hope one day we see an MMO that implements some of these things. Albeit in a better way than EQ did.(some of this of course changed in later EQ expansions)

Or is there an MMO that already has most of the following?

Remote areas...
I liked the fact that traveling across the EQ world often took a while and that you rarely saw other players in areas like the Eastern and Western wastes (though occasionally you may see a whole guild ride/pass by). That traveling across these areas could be precarious. Ports were actually useful. Getting your first horse was pretty damn neat.

Rare real world spawns
Both because they made travel in some areas a little more exciting (“I am porting to WL does anyone know if Wuoshi is up?) and because mobilising and competing for these spawns was actually fun (as well as, at times, frustrating). Because things happened in a real world, it felt more real (as opposed to a lot of my time in WoW which was Major City > Queue battle ground/get summoned to instance > rinse/repeat).

Not everything was instanced
I liked being in dungeons where it felt like a real crawl and where you had to interact with others (for good and for bad). For me, no other game has quite captured the feeling I had the first few times I Xped in Kael (it was a scary place). Dying was something to be avoided. EQ was a grind but other MMOs often feel like a second job to me.

Specialised classes
I know it was frustrating at times – needing to have CC, slows, healing and a tank in any given group. But when it worked– it was great

Itemisation
It was random and frustrating but it meant that not everyone wore the same stuff. I don't like the WoW system where you could accumulate xxx by x number of arenas/daily quests etc

The change weather spell
It was fun to be able to change the change the weather in a zone. I would love to see more little things like this in games

Crafting
It could be a colossal headache (it took me days of farming to get my 'smithing' up to a high level) but it somehow also felt rewarding when you finally maxed a skill (I had friends that preferred crafting to adventuring)

AAs
Having something to grind for at max level – rather than just gear. Somehow it made your character mean more because you had to invest time to get it to where it was. Unlike some MMOs where you can have a maxxed out character of every class because all you need to do is gear them up.

Epic quests/events
Shawl...Cabbage ring (long quests that gave non-elite players access to top end gear). War for the 10th Coldain ring anyone? Epics!

 

[Craig234]

I think that's a good list and agree with it. I could add some more. I don't know a game that forced cooperation and encouraged players helping each other more. Ir a game that had as muchsense of mystery in locations and danger when you went into a dungeon. When playing it its first year, I said that I felt competition would eventually force MMO's to get a lot more forgiving, and EQ would have to follow to stay competitive; they did.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Play Eve

 

[darkewaffle]

FFXI

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Agreed, especially the specialized classes. Modern MMOs, and probably EQ Next, there won't be pulling and classes with abilities for it, you will simply have to overpower the mobs with numbers.

 

[shortylickens]

Old D&D was the best about having individual classes with proper strengths and weaknesses. I dont think we've ever had an MMO that recreated the desktop experience properly.

 

[yottabit]

Many of the things you describe are applicable to WoW too

I worry that the genre of the slow MMORPG that rewards the dedicated players might be gone

 

[Lumathix]

Everything in your list is spot on.

 

[Markbnj]

Many of the things you describe are applicable to WoW too

I worry that the genre of the slow MMORPG that rewards the dedicated players might be gone

Some of them, maybe. Itemization and specialized classes. Otherwise, WoW was the game that buried the real MMO experience once and for all.

 

[RPD]

I can still recall getting my Journeyman boots, camping that damn named Cyclops took awhile, but man it felt good once I finally had them and had a cheap mans SotW on command.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

I can still recall getting my Journeyman boots, camping that damn named Cyclops took awhile, but man it felt good once I finally had them and had a cheap mans SotW on command.

The equivalent will undoubtedly be purchaseable for 500 Station Cash in EQ 3. Prestige of accomplishment will be dead and buried.

 

[imaheadcase]

I wish i was into EQ when it first came out.

MMO are to easy mode now. I have flashbacks to how awesome DAOC was and how hard it was to do things in it, but loved every minute of it.

Now i tried Guild wars 2 and just completely lost interest after a month because it was so easy. Most people got to level 80 before the first month. It took me a YEAR to get max level in DAOC for example. lol

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I wish i was into EQ when it first came out.

MMO are to easy mode now. I have flashbacks to how awesome DAOC was and how hard it was to do things in it, but loved every minute of it.

Now i tried Guild wars 2 and just completely lost interest after a month because it was so easy. Most people got to level 80 before the first month. It took me a YEAR to get max level in DAOC for example. lol

Play eve.

Takes well over 24 years to get max stats

 

[yottabit]

Some of them, maybe. Itemization and specialized classes. Otherwise, WoW was the game that buried the real MMO experience once and for all.

I never played EQ but Vanilla wow had a lot of the other things you mentioned- long distant travel, crazy world bosses and events that actually had impact, very difficult quest chains etc. WoW now is an embodiement of everything thats killing MMOs I think... or at least what the 'new' MMO is

 

[Newbian]

Not everything was instanced
I liked being in dungeons where it felt like a real crawl and where you had to interact with others (for good and for bad). For me, no other game has quite captured the feeling I had the first few times I Xped in Kael (it was a scary place). Dying was something to be avoided. EQ was a grind but other MMOs often feel like a second job to me.

A lot of the stuff mentioned in the others was newer stuff that I never tried (before the first expansion such as horses and crafting was not at all useful 90% of the time) but I liked the instances in EQ at times.

Mainly because it just wasn't your small group like a lot of the games have now and you actually played with strangers at times.

However some guilds could control instances by training and preventing others from getting in at all to control the market for a time it was interesting.

However at the same time so many zones were ghost towns even early on and most people never saw half of what was in each zone, even many towns because of all the stuff hidden or had no purpose to it like I remember the hidden passages in the high elf, or something like that, city.

But the biggest thing I remember is the bazaar every saturday or sunday in a tunnel near one of the main human cities since it was near where anyone could go and was mostly safe other then one npc that the evil races had to run from then since there was no AH in the game and the amount of players that used it was incredible.

 

[OCNewbie]

You touched on this a little bit, but I actually liked death being something you really wanted to avoid! Really adds a sense of excitement and adventure! to a game when you feel like you're taking a REAL risk with exploring, or testing your skills against a really challenging area or boss mob. You realized and accepted the risk, knowing that death would cause undesired inconvenience, so you actually used your brain, and played cautiously, and intelligently to avoid having to deal with a rightfully undesirable death.

 

[damocles]

You touched on this a little bit, but I actually liked death being something you really wanted to avoid! Really adds a sense of excitement and adventure! to a game when you feel like you're taking a REAL risk with exploring, or testing your skills against a really challenging area or boss mob. You realized and accepted the risk, knowing that death would cause undesired inconvenience, so you actually used your brain, and played cautiously, and intelligently to avoid having to deal with a rightfully undesirable death.

This is how EQ felt for me. Exploring new areas while actually being nervous that you may not be tough enough for them. Surving bad pulls against the odds. I think EQ was a bit tough on dying but I like the fact it had palpable consequences

I can still recall getting my Journeyman boots, camping that damn named Cyclops took awhile, but man it felt good once I finally had them and had a cheap mans SotW on command.

There were some really cool items in EQ. Even though it was probably unintended the 'junk buff' concept worked well in practise (building up a small stockpile of clickies)

Agreed, especially the specialized classes. Modern MMOs, and probably EQ Next, there won't be pulling and classes with abilities for it, you will simply have to overpower the mobs with numbers.

I have never played a game where pulling (and the skill of the person doing it) was so important.

How is Vanguard these days? I see it now now FTP

 

[imaheadcase]

Play eve.

Takes well over 24 years to get max stats

Eve is too boring. Look more space! Look to left more space!

 

[darkewaffle]

As much as I enjoyed NM hunting and the different mechanics/tendencies of each one, valuable equipment in real-world rare spawns is just begging for a camper's monopoly and nobody has more time to camp than gold sellers. It was a lot of fun at the time but it just isn't practicable now.

MMOs take a lot of money to make and the people who would play a "hardcore" mmo are few and far between with far higher expectations than your normal player. There's no reason to try to appeal to them.

 

[KMFJD]

Play Eve

oh god no

 

[OCNewbie]

Perhaps some kickstarter group will create an EQ-like MMO. Though I'm not sure how that sorta deal could support servers running for an extended period of time without a monthly fee, and if it has a monthly fee, it would need sufficient numbers to keep the servers up and running indefinitely.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Eve is too boring. Look more space! Look to left more space!

You can't complain about there not being hardcore MMO's and not play eve.

Eve is a game where if you die, there is litterally a dollar amount on the assets you lose, and in the case of normal expensive ships, can be 50 dollars, or in the case of idiots, 30,000 dollars.

Everything the OP wants, Eve provides and has had provided for years, and at a much more massive level than what EQ could ever provide. Leveling taking years to specialize into industry manufacturing characters or combat characters. Industrial powerhouses can literally change an entire regions market to their benefit, there are massive stretches of the Drone regions that are empty and a wasteland, and Wormholes that change the face of the game.

It is THE hardcore MMO in the modern era, and so many people who say they're hardcore players, play then quit because they have a hard time keeping up.

 

[damocles]

You can't complain about there not being hardcore MMO's and not play eve.

Eve is a game where if you die, there is litterally a dollar amount on the assets you lose, and in the case of normal expensive ships, can be 50 dollars, or in the case of idiots, 30,000 dollars.

Everything the OP wants, Eve provides and has had provided for years, and at a much more massive level than what EQ could ever provide. Leveling taking years to specialize into industry manufacturing characters or combat characters. Industrial powerhouses can literally change an entire regions market to their benefit, there are massive stretches of the Drone regions that are empty and a wasteland, and Wormholes that change the face of the game.

It is THE hardcore MMO in the modern era, and so many people who say they're hardcore players, play then quit because they have a hard time keeping up.

I played EVE for a while and would agree it is a hardcore game but it feels very different to EQ to me. It has all the elements you mention but I just found it boring (didn't the designer of the game actually state that it was meant to be boring once or something like that?)– whereas I didn't find EQ so.

Great game – just didn't rock my world

 

[Markbnj]

You can't complain about there not being hardcore MMO's and not play eve.

Eve is a game where if you die, there is litterally a dollar amount on the assets you lose, and in the case of normal expensive ships, can be 50 dollars, or in the case of idiots, 30,000 dollars.

I've been playing for about a month, and it's a much, much richer game than it was the first time I tried it, which was probably six years ago or more. There's a lot more to do. It's still likely to be a bit boring for people who are fans of fantasy MMOs, at least in terms of setting, but if you look at it as a simulation of power, economy, and strategy across a space-faring civilization it's pretty cool, and very deep.

In terms of risk... the other night I lost an $8m ISK ship and all her fittings in a level 2 PVE security mission. One you see that blue flash and expanding debris field, you know it's gone, baby, gone.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Perhaps some kickstarter group will great a EQ-like MMO. Though I'm not sure how that sorta deal could support servers running for an extended period of time without a monthly fee, and if it has a monthly fee, it would need sufficient numbers to keep the servers up and running indefinitely.

This comes up often and I have no idea, how much does it cost to run an MMO server? Bandwidth doesn't seem to be anywhere near as expensive as it was in EQ1 days. Someone educate me please.