What Made Classic Great?

[loramin]

So, I know the devs are intent on making P99 as classic as possible both content-wise AND UI-wise. That's great, but to me it seems strange: I don't miss old school EverQuest because I liked the crappy UI, I miss it for the world. The zones, the mobs, the quests ... that is what made classic EverQuest so great to me. It seems to me taking out light blue cons and other UI enhancements like that just makes the server worse.

I'm curious how everyone else feels.

[leewong]

The ability to customize the UI was introduced with Velious. I consider Velious (and so do the devs, Rogean, etc.) to be classic.

#1 thing that made EQ so great back in the day...the community. Your poll sucks.

[loramin]

#1 thing that made EQ so great back in the day...the community. Your poll sucks.

LOL, well just rephrase the question: was it the UI or the content that drew the great community to the game?

[leewong]

LOL, well just rephrase the question: was it the UI or the content that drew the great community to the game?

It probably had something to do with it being the very first 1st person MMO ever released. Before then you had to purchase dice, AD&D manuals, and then invite a bunch of fat, stinking, socially awkward rejects to your house to slay a dragon.

[Bodybagger]

why would the UI draw someone to a game? The UI was a part of the immersion.... you had a small window into a different world and the UI made everything seem like an extension of your avatar imo. I loved having my class icon spinning or pulsating reminding me who and what I was playing as at any time. I think almost anyone plays slightly different as they play each character, and in classic I prided myself on having made the grind past lvl 30 on ALL classes (seems insignificant now but not then) and having a great understanding of every class so I could be a very powerful and diverse group leader as a subject matter expert on all roles/classes... my leadership made a lot of good groups great and a lot of shitty groups passable.

I think the UI helped immerse me into each class more back then. And obviously the content IS the game... the UI is how you experience it... both are classic and both are as important for true classic.


Agree, terrible poll.

[Sirken]

the community is what made classic EQ great.

the difference between EQ and every other mmo was that when they created EQ they created a world first, and now when MMOs are created they are created as a game first.

EQ was a world that u just got thrown into and had to learn to swim or drown. people interacted because people needed each other to survive. current MMOs dont have that forced interaction for survival/progression, and moreover they "feel" like games, and because of that, they will never allow for the same immersion that EQ gave people.

theres a reason that every EQ server has unique little differences that separate it from every other server. above all things, EQ was community driven, and simply switching servers would allow for almost an entirely different game.

good luck future MMO makers :(

[Faiding]

I like the classic UI for the same reason I wouldn't retrofit a vintage car with iPod integration.

[leewong]

the community is what made classic EQ great.

I already said that :P

[Sirken]

I already said that :P

but i elaborated on it :p

[Nisei]

Not knowing a damn thing about the game.

[sox7d]

The cinnamon swirls in every bite

[Calibretto]

UI was the least fun part of an extremely fun game. The fun came from not knowing what was around the next corner, other than information shared from player to player. (until everlore anyway) Feeling like a bad ass because you had figured out the Paw of Opolla quest or Bone Bladed Claymore and had newbs flocking to you at T1.

Oh yeah, not much lawyering at all.

[kaev]

the community is what made classic EQ great.

the difference between EQ and every other mmo was that when they created EQ they created a world first, and now when MMOs are created they are created as a game first.

EQ was a world that u just got thrown into and had to learn to swim or drown. people interacted because people needed each other to survive. current MMOs dont have that forced interaction for survival/progression, and moreover they "feel" like games, and because of that, they will never allow for the same immersion that EQ gave people.

theres a reason that every EQ server has unique little differences that separate it from every other server. above all things, EQ was community driven, and simply switching servers would allow for almost an entirely different game.

good luck future MMO makers :(

This nails it. The EQ community became more and more game-oriented as time passed, even during classic (I remember my first guild leader bitching to me about how the only thing anybody talked about during open planar raids was loot, he gave up and RMT'd out of EQ soon after that conversation.)

Design elements that had nothing to do with game play but affected character progress (hybrid and racial XP penalties, static PHs with fixed spawn times, & etc.) contributed substantially to the game-ization of EQ by taking players minds away from gameplay and thus subverting the world feel. Every time people argued about game mechanics in OOC the world faded a bit. Every time players made decisions based solely upon mechanics that had zero to do with game play (like excluding players from groups due to the XP penalties, like camping utterly predictable static PHs for known rare spawns with known loot) EQ died a little more.

The MMO player community, the people who pay to play via subscriptions & pay-to-win microtransactions & etc, they (we) destroyed EQ and ensured that it will never exist again. All those huge piles of money Blizzard was rewarded with for WoW have forever corrupted the genre into just another place for money whores to go fleece the sheep.

[Jimjam]

the community is what made classic EQ great.

the difference between EQ and every other mmo was that when they created EQ they created a world first, and now when MMOs are created they are created as a game first.

EQ was a world that u just got thrown into and had to learn to swim or drown. people interacted because people needed each other to survive. current MMOs dont have that forced interaction for survival/progression, and moreover they "feel" like games, and because of that, they will never allow for the same immersion that EQ gave people.

theres a reason that every EQ server has unique little differences that separate it from every other server. above all things, EQ was community driven, and simply switching servers would allow for almost an entirely different game.

good luck future MMO makers :(

This is why I love things like warrior only armour with +intelligence on it.

[loramin]

This is why I love things like warrior only armour with +intelligence on it.

Hey, that armor is totally useful ... for warriors that do a tradeskill ... that isn't smithing ... or fletching ... so basically warriors that do tradeskills they can't really use much.

But for warriors that do tradeskills they can't really use much that +intelligence armor is awesome! ;)

[Rivthis]

It probably had something to do with it being the very first 1st person MMO ever released. Before then you had to purchase dice, AD&D manuals, and then invite a bunch of fat, stinking, socially awkward rejects to your house to slay a dragon.

^^ This

so i voted for bush towers

[hammertime7795]

What made classic great is different for different people.

[webrunner5]

I would like to have a Dollar for every time I died in the first year I played EQ. Wow, I remember myself as a Cleric, and a Paladin friend I met, which we played together for years, we died like 12 times in one day in Oasis of Marr. It was crazy. :p

[jolanar]

It was great because it was made in complete ignorance. You can never recreate that.

[Itap]

What other game could you spend 8 hours a day grinding experience and gain 1/4 of a level

[kaev]

What other game could you spend 8 hours a day grinding experience and gain 1/4 of a level

Obviously you haven't played a hybrid past L50. Only those who have undertaken the one true test of Classic Everquest Purity and honed their loathing for the Unpenalized to a flame of uttermost intensity capable of burning through Ten-Foot Thick Fort Knox Conspiracy Doors can understand that grinding 1/4 level in a mere 8 hours is a grand and godly thing to be loved and cherished for all eternity.

[entruil]

1 lootable made it great

[cormag]

After playing many CRPGS like Baldurs Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment (and finishing them all) I was highly intrigued by this game called: Everquest.

I read that you couldnt "beat" or "win" it and it never ended. So around June of 2000 I picked up a Ruins of Kunark box from Best Buy and I've been playing it ever since.

It never ends you see.

[myriverse]

It never ends you see.
Certainly true, but this is true of practically all MMOs.

[bix]

The original game pigeon-holed people into roles based on their classes, but there were at least 4 or 5 different roles (tank, puller, healer, damage-dealer, crowd control, de/buffer, corpse retriever, etc.). Because content was difficult to move through as well as being plentiful with regular expansions, that meant a player would not have the option of jumping in. Instead, the 'right' thing to do is to find a replacement for your role within your group before leaving. If you were deep within a dungeon, that might not even be an option. If someone had a mishap, then a corpse retrieval was a necessity and the group progression would stall due to that corpse retrieval. Invariably, one of the most demanding part about EQ was its time and the commitment to that frequent/consistent time. Relationships were cultivated and names were remembered. If you wanted to be douchy, your name and rep would be circled around the server to the point where you might be shunned. Leaving a guild was an event as opposed to a server message. Finding a new guild that aligned with your playtime and skill-set was an involved process. That made EQ a true community.

The content was varied and vast enough that people could spend months within a zone on a regular schedule before advancing to the next set of zones. And if you had cultivated a good group, you would find yourself in dicy situations with a high degree of challenge - and all of that with some good friends made the game fun. EQ did have excellent end-game content, but the time sink in leveling meant that a significant portion of EQ was actually just leveling and exploring, rather than chewing through the content. That also meant you might still be chunking away at a raid level content from several expansions ago.