At what age did you first start playing EverQuest, and what draws you in?

[Fenrisulfr]

Personally I started playing at around age 9 or 10 when the game had just hit the market... And although I wasn't mature enough to understand the depth, I sure could appreciate the complexity of such a magnificent game. Meeting other players and just talking to them about anything and everything as the years went on is what made me love EverQuest.

I'll admit that I am human, and I pass the regular Ol Joe on the street and I'm not one to take a conversation farther than a simple hello at times with new people. Why? Because of the face value effect... And because I've been a generally shy person when I'm not working. EverQuest allowed me to not use the physical form as an awkward excuse to not get to know many people, and I learned to appreciate a lot of good qualities in people that I seemed to pass up in real life.

Of course I love the loot, the grind, and the quest... But ultimately I loved the culture I discovered among the players, and the experiences I shared with them over the past 12 years.

So let me know! What age were you? Why come back to such an "outdated" game? I hope that one day I can share experiences with you fellow players, and I can enjoy the game just like I did back in the day!

[Kimmie]

I was 11 or 12 and used to make fun of my brother while he played.
Then he made me try it. :(

[dredge]

.

[hateshadow]

I was 13 in 2001 and I liked the fact that the game had what seemed like an infinity of different items and so many character combinations. Before that I I tought was such a large amount of items and classes, as the game I used to play before that was Diablo 1.

[gprater]

having played AD&D since 79, this was finally D&D-visualized....something we always talked about from the moment our friend(the DM) got his first "trash 80" computer and we spent all that time typing in the code for a simple text fantasy adv game.

[quellren]

I was 11 or 12 and used to make fun of my brother while he played.
Then he made me try it. :(

Same here, but I was a bit older at 18. He played UO and Diablo, then EQ when it launched and I used to call him a loser for wasting time in a dark room playing video games. In the first few days of it going live it was all he talked about. One day after about a week of his incessant ramble, for a reason still unknown to me, I was like "Hey what is this thing you play?"

30 minutes later I was a lvl 2 Barbarian Warrior. In a week I was a hopeless EQ-addict. So much so, that I bought my own copy, got my own sub and rolled my beloved Barb Sham that I played literally everyday until I left for Basic Training.

I guess simple nostalgia draws me in to P99. For a long time I used to say my favorite character of any MMO ever was Sdaor. For better of worse, EQ had a fairly significant hand in the decisions that made me who I am today.

[Ryhalt]

I was like 15 or so and honestly I was just looking for a fantasy game for the computer. That was really about it.

[odizzido]

I was 17 the first time I played. One of the things I liked was I never ran out of things to do to make my character better. I was actually only level 49 when kunark released and never got past 53 or 54.

I have a lot more time now and am 50 with far better gear than my first character. One of the things I am not happy about with P99 is that the devs don't like AAs, which to me was unlimited character improvement. I am sure this time around I will do my epic and be 60 and such.....and then after that I won't have a whole lot to do with my main character.

Well, a few other things I like about EQ and enough negative:

-The world feels like it has distance and you have to travel. Add on that you need food and water to function and you have a nice "I am going on a real journey" feeling.

-Corpse recovery. Nothing keeps you wanting to live like a healthy fear of corpse recovery. And when you live that extra close battle it makes it all the more awesome.

-Mob diversity. Having level 35 mobs mixed in with level 10 stuff adds a lot. Not only does it let high level and low level characters mix together unlike any other MMO, it also gives you that "revenge" opportunity. That time slate killed my ogre when he was lvl 10, well now it's payback time. And all those giants you avoiding in oasis? Now you look for them.

-Lack of loot explosion. When something drops in EQ it's sweet because loot is rare. When something drop in diablo2 or most other MMOs it's just "oh great more garbage I have to sort through" because you already got 50 other drops in 30mins.

-Race diversity. Ogres are just better in combat than other races, but they get stuck in dungeons. Gnomes and only gnomes can tinker. Things like that allow you to pick a race on more than just looks. Should you make a troll shaman for the extra regen/cani or an ogre for no front stun?

-Spell levels. Having them every four or five levels really gives you the feeling of "I just got so much better".

There are other things, but I think those are the main reasons I like EQ.

[Phallax]

I was 20 ish. I was an avid UO player and a friend of mine talked about EQ beta and how awesome the game would be. But I was so into UO at the time I really didnt give EQ a second thought. I didnt think it stood a chance. After going to his house and messing around on his account while he was at work. I got addicted. I was unemployed at the time and actually went out and got a job just so I could pay for EQ lol.

I was drawn into EQ because of its depth and seemingly endless exploration. My first raid encounter got me even more addicted. Theres nothing more thrilling than getting together with 40+ other players to take down 1 bad ass mob. No other game offered that at the time.

EQ is also the only game I felt was/is epic. The fights and quests are more meaningful than just "oh yea Ive done that".

I also have one of my largest gaming accomplishment on EQ. Even though the berserker community was low I got the first ever berserker epic 1.5 worldwide and I felt like the shit for that for awhile. Could have had the first 2.0 also if my guild at the time didnt go by DKP =/

[Mcbard]

I was 13 at the time. All my friends at school were trying to get me to play it for a couple of months before I finally gave it a try. I had played console RPG's a lot before I started, and I actually played Runescape and I really enjoyed it before I started EverQuest. I used to have a Runescape folder and all of that, with recipes and maps and stuff, same thing I later had for EverQuest. After a few months of nagging my mother to foot the bill (for both the game and monthly subscription) she finally bought it for me and I started playing.

There was about a full group of us at school that played, and we would log in and hang out together and kill stuff. The thing that drew me in was just the largeness of the world. My buddies and I had a fullsize virtual play land where we could do whatever we wanted, and at the time it was all so new and majestic. The world was so large, and the content so deep that it stayed that way for a couple of years for me and it was really fun. After a couple of years in the game though its rather unfortunate but it just starts to lose that feel. It becomes just another game where you know how to get everywhere, the majesticness had worn off, and I was just grinding and raiding in a world I already knew almost everything about. It was fun while it lasted though.

[aggresor223]

I actually used to hang out at a "card shop" close to my middle school, played a lot of magic the gathering (I know, but like nerdin out on eq is any better). The shop had set up 8 computers set up by a lan and then everquest came out and they were offering to set up an account if you just payed the monthly fee (and payed to play on their computers). Eventually I talked the parents in to a home computer and then it was on like donkey kong!

[Knightmare]

I was about 26 when Kunark came out. Long ago, before there was this interwebs thing I played the old D&D games on a Commodore 128 and one of the races in those games were Lizardmen. When I saw a playable race just like it in Everquest, Iksar, I was sold.

I was sold further when I saw they had a wide open free for all PvP server where there was a price tag attached to talking shit to people: getting whacked and losing something. Oftentimes repeatedly until said punkass logged out in a fit of nerd-rage lol. It removed some of the anonymous bravery people feel when hiding behind a monitor, added another element of fun, and made one feel like they could have some level of vengeance for asshattery :mad:

[Chrushev]

I was about 15, friends in High School started playing and were talking about it. One of them let me try it out on his account. I was hooked.

[Foxx]

i was 12 years old, and i snapped my femur in a wrestling match and was in a leg cast for a gross amount of time. I couldn't do anything, and the doctors told me I wouldnt be walking again for at least 6-9 months. My older brother played the game and was obsessed, I always made fun of him for it because i was like lol nerd, and then i started playing...

Made my troll warrior on Veeshan at first, joined some cool pals in a guild called Celestial Tomb and was on my way to glory. Then i was nerd raging that I couldn't kill this mean necro that was stealing my spiders in guktop. I rolled on rallos zek after that and never looked back

[Torqumada286]

I was a few weeks shy of 30. It was great to play in a world, where many of the other characters running around weren't computer controlled.

Torqumada

[Airdefier]

I was 12 in 2000, my stepdad and his dad played. Both of whom I recently got on this server :D

[Drieddead]

I had just turned 13 and bought eq with my birthday money. I was burnt out on Diablo 2 so i decided to pick up a box with the most interesting cover art. I started playing on the Seventh Hammer. I proceded to make a High Elf paladin and put all my stat points into agi named Laliden. I then joined a RP guild called Elven Crusade. This char still exist and is level 76 with a 1.5 epic and is Anguish geared XD.

[Taddare Plume]

I was 22 and my boyfriend, all our friends and I had been playing Gemstone 3, a text mud. When I heard about Everquest it was talk about the release of Kunark and so my BF and I bough a copy to share, and that lasted about a week :) We bough another copy and flipped a coin to see who had to make a new char and I won the original copy we had.

What I loved best was the feeling of a permanent world. In GS3 you could forget there was a river in the room description. In EQ you could not forget about the terrain, it existed. Exploring felt like exploring, not just looking for keywords to move to the next set of descriptions.

I also loved that EQ made you be good at your class. It didn't hold your hand when things started to go wrong, it kicked you in the head. The bar for average was set very high, and exceptional players could turn a good group into a great one. Casters had to learn to trust the melee, sit down blind, and med if they wanted to be useful. Melee had to learn how to pick targets and control target movement. Everyone had to learn panic kills, always.

[sox7d]

i was 10 and my friends from class convinced me to convince my mom to get it for me.

the draw of eq from a young age is the same draw that made pokemon red and blue so great


as a kid, all your life you've been told what you can or can't do, forced to do things and go places you didn't want to and treated, well... like a kid. everquest was an escape from that, with all its immerse aspects, it said, "here's another world where, whether you're 10 years old or 40 years old, everyone has equal potential. go where ever you want, whenever you want and do whatever you want, the only thing holding you back is your own abilities. you're finally in control."

[Fatalist]

I was a few weeks shy of 30. It was great to play in a world, where many of the other characters running around weren't computer controlled.

Torqumada

Same to me. So I guess we one of the elders :-) Two years ago I played Meridian 59 so EQ was my second MMO.

[Fenrisulfr]

Very nice! It's great that we have diversity on the server. I hope to group with you all soon.

[Vanech]

I started playing EQ when I was 19 after a coworker introduced me. I had to convince my roommate to let me install it on her laptop. She ended up as hooked as I, and for all I know she's still playing EQ in some form today.

I only played for a short period of time in 99'. I returned shortly before SoV and played every-freaking-day until GoD was released.

I know some really freakin' cool people thanks to EQ or things related to it... n' that's what keeps me coming back, I think.

[Humwawa]

My buddy Mike was a nut for computers in 1999, a CS major at Purdue University. I was an English/Philosophy major who had never owned a PC better than an IBM-PC that could barely run "Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego?".

After a night of drinking I stopped by his apartment to visit. His girlfriend had gone to bed (it was 2am) and he was up, as usual, fidgeting with his PC. Except this time he was playing EverQuest. I watched him for awhile, staring stupidly at his dark elf necromancer as he murdered snakes and bugs and such for no reason I could determine. When he logged out and decided I was probably too drunk to walk home, asked me if I'd like to play this game a bit. I agreed; he went to bed.

I understood none of it. I put points into dexterity because the number was green. I spent what felt like an hour, trying to pick a name (it was probably only 15 minutes), and settled on my favorite character in Gilgamesh's Epic - Humwawa. After loading in, I died at least 7 times.

Frustrated, I snuck out to the porch and smoked a jay. And suddenly the game made sense. The colors seemed to be some kind of mysterious, occult code of operation. I slew snakes with reckless abandon to the seductive caress of 16 bit green orbs of malign magic.

I was playing when the sun came up, and playing still that night when he got home after leaving to visit his girlfriend's parents.

I bought a PC soon after, and he gave me the account. And so I descended into Gamer Nerdery.

[Valroth66]

I turned 10 the day EQ came out. About a week later my uncle sent the CD to my mom because he didn't like the game. It was all downhill from there.

[Foxx]

It was all downhill from there.

qft

[vossiewulf]

Me and the wife started playing when it came out at age 35. That means all of you damned kids can get the hell off my zone's lawn ;-)

[Mcbard]

Creepy old man!

[fischsemmel]

Started when I was 16, back just shortly after the release of Kunark. EQ was my first MMO.

As far as what drew me in? I don't really know. I clearly remember being immediately hooked on EQ just by watching my friend run around third gate on his level 1 dark elf. He wasn't even DOING anything, and I already was addicted to the game.

The most fun I ever had in EQ was definitely being an enchanter in full groups though. Wow, that was fun.

[Fenrisulfr]

My buddy Mike was a nut for computers in 1999, a CS major at Purdue University. I was an English/Philosophy major who had never owned a PC better than an IBM-PC that could barely run "Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego?".

After a night of drinking I stopped by his apartment to visit. His girlfriend had gone to bed (it was 2am) and he was up, as usual, fidgeting with his PC. Except this time he was playing EverQuest. I watched him for awhile, staring stupidly at his dark elf necromancer as he murdered snakes and bugs and such for no reason I could determine. When he logged out and decided I was probably too drunk to walk home, asked me if I'd like to play this game a bit. I agreed; he went to bed.

I understood none of it. I put points into dexterity because the number was green. I spent what felt like an hour, trying to pick a name (it was probably only 15 minutes), and settled on my favorite character in Gilgamesh's Epic - Humwawa. After loading in, I died at least 7 times.

Frustrated, I snuck out to the porch and smoked a jay. And suddenly the game made sense. The colors seemed to be some kind of mysterious, occult code of operation. I slew snakes with reckless abandon to the seductive caress of 16 bit green orbs of malign magic.

I was playing when the sun came up, and playing still that night when he got home after leaving to visit his girlfriend's parents.

I bought a PC soon after, and he gave me the account. And so I descended into Gamer Nerdery.

Inspiring hahaha. Awesome!

[hedbonker]

I was 43 (in 2000) at the time. I was NOT into gaming of ANY sort. Two of my co-workers started to rave about this game. Telling me I HAD to try it and how insanely huge the world was and how you could even fish in this game and on and on omg shut UP already...

So I finally buy this thing and it sits on my shelf for a couple of months until one Saturday I am bored and decide to see what the game is about. I load it up and make a HIE wizzy and put all my points into CHA. I head out into Gfay and I think to myself "WOW what crappy graphics this has...". So I play for a bit and ding level 4. I decide to head on down the path and see where it leads. I crest a hill and see Kelethin in the trees and players everywhere with particle effects going off like mad and it is at this moment that it dawns on me that this is indeed a virtual world. After I have that epiphany, that is all she wrote - I am hooked.

[nemethor]

I was 43 (in 2000) at the time. I was NOT into gaming of ANY sort. Two of my co-workers started to rave about this game. Telling me I HAD to try it and how insanely huge the world was and how you could even fish in this game and on and on omg shut UP already...

So I finally buy this thing and it sits on my shelf for a couple of months until one Saturday I am bored and decide to see what the game is about. I load it up and make a HIE wizzy and put all my points into CHA. I head out into Gfay and I think to myself "WOW what crappy graphics this has...". So I play for a bit and ding level 4. I decide to head on down the path and see where it leads. I crest a hill and see Kelethin in the trees and players everywhere with particle effects going off like mad and it is at this moment that it dawns on me that this is indeed a virtual world. After I have that epiphany, that is all she wrote - I am hooked.

hedbonker your avatar is hilarious. totally fell for it.

[fishingme]

Seems I have everyone beat, 7 in 99. Released 5 days before my B-day though so I suppose ill round up


Edit:

what draws me in, super youngin childhood nostalgia, love it.

[Anort]

I was 14 I think when I started playing. My friend told me about the game in study hall, I thought he was lying to me about this game at first , at the time I didn’t even own a computer. After him telling me about it for a few weeks and bringing in the booklet, my mom decided to buy me a computer plus the game and it was awesome! The computer was not awesome but it was a computer and it let me play.

[azeth]

I was 12 when EQ was introduced to me by 3 friends of mine. I was basically hooked the moment I saw the box because I knew it'd be the video game version of the borderline LARPing sort of fun we had every single day of every summer of my life prior to then.

[Bilyeh]

When I was 5, I made a Erudite Shadowknight on my dads account when he got the game and later played a halfling rogue. Of course I couldn't play the game to the fullest extent because of my age but I played it whenever I was over my father's house up until DoD and loved it enough to make me come back 11 years later. As my first video game I can say no other games I have played afterwords can compare to the greatness of EQ.

[StinkyGreenBud]

I was 17 back in 1999 and my older brother played it and he begged me to try it out. I was hooked on ultima online at the time and eventually i tried it and was doomed ever since.

[username17]

I was 18 or 19, I think.

My neighbor was talking about Everquest.
He let me play one of his toons (Sukkan, high elf mage. lol).
I was completely hooked. He even got his mom hooked.

So for his one account he played, I played, and his mom played.
Anyone remember 'Cheater log updated'? hehehe

He died on his enchanter and because we were playing on other toons, his corpse poofed. He made us all get our own account at that point.

I had a job, my own computer and own phone line (for internet). But my parents wouldn't let me use their Credit Card. My neighbor was kind enough to let me write her a check and she'd pay for my account.

I leveled a wood elf bard to the 20s, got almost a full set of lambent SOMEHOW.
I don't remember but I'm sure I harassed a lot of people to get it.

I ended up quitting because I was playing like 10+ hours a day.
My account is still out there, but I have no idea what the username or e-mail address is. The CD key is long gone and the payment wasn't even in my name.

But ever since my experience in Everquest, I compare all MMOs to it.
I come back every now and then, even tried Al'Kabor. But this is currently the best EQ Experience, imo.

[Sephrana]

I was 23 when I started playing. My husband at the time had bought the game and wanted me to play also so he had me start a character on his account. i eventually took that acct over with my bard. and it's the people that draw me in. also raiding. love both. <3

[Dannermax]

In 2000 at the age of 18 i worked as an intern in a computer store, and at my last day there, they told me i could pick any game as a thank you for my effort. I picked EverQuest, mostly because of the fantasy illustrations on the box, and because i wanted to try out this new supposedly RPG..

When i got home, i discovered that the game required a mothly fee and an internet connection. But i figured: what the hell, lets try this thing out. Like many others like you i was instantly hooked! The funny thing about this, is that i never knew anyone else who played it, and not even today (11 years later) have i met anyone who have had any experience with the game..! Possibly because i Live in Denmark, and by that time, online gaming was in its youth!

I gave up on the game around when Luclin was released. I felt that the original, simple and beautiful feel of the game had been lost. I started playing EQ again last year, but gave up because i felt the world had been too big and complex. It wasnt the EverQuest i had remembered.

But it fills my little gamer heart when i hear about the 1999 project. I just dont hope they plan on too many expansions.. but thats another discussion..

Thats my story! - Seeyou

[nilbog]

I was 18 at the time.. and graduated high school about 2 months after release.

3d fantasy graphics on my badass celeron 333 + voodoo2 drew me in :P Most other games at the time were ugly. i.e. Ultima was cool, but it was an overhead, weird 2d view.

Why I continued to play EQ.. and now develop is the feeling of an open world, in which you control your character.. instead of the game controlling you.

[Fenrisulfr]

I was 18 at the time.. and graduated high school about 2 months after release.

3d fantasy graphics on my badass celeron 333 + voodoo2 drew me in :P Most other games at the time were ugly. i.e. Ultima was cool, but it was an overhead, weird 2d view.

Why I continued to play EQ.. and now develop is the feeling of an open world, in which you control your character.. instead of the game controlling you.

Sounds about right!

We all appreciate the work you guys put into the server and give back to the community.

[Polixenes]

I was 33 back in 1999. No idea why I chose the Innoruuk server but I rolled a high elf cleric in April or thereabouts, and finally dinged 50 on Boxing Day.

This included a 27 hour session camping Drezlna for my Jboots followed by 13 straight hours of sleep.

Prior to that I was playing MUDs, Master of Orion, XCOM: UFO Defense, Diablo, Ultima Underworld. Maybe Baldur's Gate unless that came out later. Is it just that I am older that games don't seem as good as they used to be? Probably.

[Drem]

used to play MUDs. never played ultima online and actually played asheron's call before my friend let me log on his EQ account and make a monk. hooked ever since, tho it's never been quite as fun as it was during velious

i guess i was about 14 or 15

[Hottbiscuits Dreadmuffin]

Back in the summer of 2000, I was so eager to start playing this new game EverQuest with friends of mine on Spellbinder (oldschool AOL magic-FPS) and Splatterball (paintball FPS).

I pretty much rolled my face across the keyboard when I was registering my account (I was 11 and so excited) because not only did I misspell the username I'd wanted (poisonivy became poionsivy) but the password I couldn't even guess.

I had to call EQ tech support the first day because I couldn't get in my account D:

I love EQ Classic / Kunark / Velious for the lore and the difficulty of the game. Originally, there were no maps or websites you could go to to find things out. Everything was an achievement. Now that p99's EQ server is out, all of the original EQ Classic info is GONE from the internet (mostly, except for maps) so it's just like when I started :D

It took me 15 minutes to find the Shadowknight guild in Neriak when I'd just started playing again. Awesome.

[Gr8ein]

Hehe i was about 4 lol i just explorered alot i still remember playing,nothing compares to this game,what draws me in is community is filled with nice people,and the game isn't too easy.

[gnomishfirework]

I was 19. I had just been dumped so I went out and bought it. It kept me occupied.

I had been playing MUDs and some guy i knew was going on about how lame MUDs were compared to EQ.

[Vonkaar]

I seriously had no idea that I was playing with so many babies back in those days. I assumed everyone around me was around my age. I was 21 when I started. I completed the nerd trifecta by watching the owner of my local comic shop playing Everquest on his computer and was instantly hooked when he transformed into a wolf and demonstrated quad kiting. I played MUDs on BBS' for years but this was (literally) a whole new dimension.

Initially, I lost at least 5 corpses worth of tattered cloth and rusty weapons before learning you could locate your corpses and loot your bodies. My original human paladin had 5 points spread out into all stats because I thought it would make me balanced. It took me a week before I made level 3, mostly because I stood around talking to people - many of whom were NPCs.

I stumbled into EC by mistake and was blown away by all of the auctions and shouting. I ran into a few halflings and thought they were awesome looking. A level 19 Tigole saw me running away from skeletons towards the tunnel and ran over to help out. I said thanks and he said np.. we got to talking and somehow in a 5 minute conversation I decided I wanted to be a halfling. I mentioned my friend that turned into a wolf and he said that he 'thought' that was a druid spell, so I chose Druid. And that is my story... Many hundreds of days /played later and I never twinked, never looked back. I stuck by a halfling druid and pretty well stayed at max level forever. I did a lot of complaining about being a druid and felt pretty useless towards the end of SoV, but ultimately loved the game as it was.

No other MMO had the social aspects of EQ. The fact that EQ was such an ugly bitch and so flawed is what forced you to be friendly. You HAD to stare at your spell book for 10 minutes while you rested your mana... so what did you do? You chatted with NPCs or hopefully, the dude next to you roleplaying a hot wood elf ranger. You all become friends and loyalty springs from this friendship. Guilds formed and drama ensued. Death HURT and clerics were valued for their abilities to lessen this sting. Shit, I just died 6x in Unrest from a train... lost 4 hours of experience but this badass cleric in full planar purple came in and rezzed all of us. I'll never forget him.

By removing these difficulties from the games and catering to the casual gamer, companies like Blizzard have opened up the coffers for a flood of newbs and hoards of cash... but alienated the fan base who will come back TEN YEARS after the game is long dead - just hoping for more of that abuse. We all complained like crazy for all the shit that Verant did to us in those days but here we are, >donating< cash, or programming skills, or spare server parts, or our own spare time to a world that many of us swore off - just for a bit of that nostalgia.

That's what has me coming back for more abuse. No, I won't go for my epic in P1999. No, I won't go into VP on P1999. I won't stick around and try to wake the sleeper when SoV rolls around. I don't need that abuse. I will try and farm Grachnist and get myself an earring so I can run around exploding in mid-air...

[Cethin]

I started playing when I was 12, in Summer/Fall 1999, way before Kunark. My best friend (at the time) was playing EQ and I often went over to his house to watch him play and/or create my own character and end up lost in Qeynos Hills soon to be killed by a bear of sorts. Eventually, I bought my own account and created a halfling druid named Neddun. My friend helped me out with gear and would often use me as a mule for the items he was trading (Lore items and such). I loved the graphics in the game, especially the spell graphics and how they change as you level up.

Eventually, I got tired of quad kiting dorfs in BB and found that a hybrid healer/caster was not really my style. So I created my soon to be twinked-to-hell monk after Kunark came out. Cethin Whistlingfists (lame, I know, I was 13 alright?!) I sold everything that I could off of my 53 druid and even sacrificed my soul to a necromancer for a decent amount of platinum all the way down to level 49 (Have to save starfire and SoN right?). Then I bought my monk everything a typical kunark-geared monk would have...only he was level 1. KDs, Trance sticks, fungi tunic, FBSS, the works. I loved tearing through mobs by myself and I leveled up rather quickly.

What really kept me into the game was the whole concept of FD pulling and how powerful monks were at running groups. I loved the challenge of it, I loved the thrill of it, I loved planning ahead and making sure that it was safe to bring back mobs and that all my threat was wiped from them (damn wandering mobs). Pulling for raids was especially fun, even though I did not have much experience with that at the time. I hope to level a monk on P99 after I level my enchanter which is a class I've always desired to play.

I just love the challenge of this game. It is very unforgiving, you need to know what you're doing and people will know if you're good or not. I love the community of EQ. Instead of throwing yourself into a LFG queue in which you're paired up with people across servers you don't even know (coughWoWcough) and never to see them again. In EQ, you handpick your groups. You want to do something, you already know who to bring. I love it. EQ is great. P99 is the best. I love you guys. *tear*

[Kazowi]

I was 11 or 12 and used to make fun of my brother while he played.
Then he made me try it. :(

by brother you mean twoclose, and by try it you mean anal right?

[Quasimojo]

I was 33. I had never heard of the game, but when I saw it on the shelf at the local CompUSA and read the box description, stating I could play an RPG online with hundreds or thousands of other people, I had to check it out.

What keeps me playing? I'd have to say the fact that nearly everything I do is meaningful. I have a compelling reason for pretty much any activity, whether it's completing a quest for a particular item or grinding xp for that next level and a particular class-defining spell. The game is full of opportunities for feelings of accomplishment.

Add to that the fact that even basic combat requires some level of tactics and strategy.

All the other MMORPG's that have come since are like kids games to me.

[dernsaw]

I started 9 days before my 19th birthday. I had read about it months before in a Gamepro and just happened to see it on a shelf one day while at a store. Picked it up and said goodbye to my social life, except rare occasions, for the next several years.

I did get most of my friends hooked, definitely makes you feel good to know one of them flunked out of college playing so much.

The good ole days!

[Gibcarver]

I started playing in I think in 2000 shortly after kunark came out. My friends gave me the original game so I could play with them before kunark but I didn't have a 3d card in my parent's PC. So i built my own computer(amd k6-2 system) and got completely sucked in. I was 15 at the time and made a dwarf warrior. I believe getting involved in everquest and the raid scene on Bristlebane helped make me more community minded and willing to step up to the challenge of "making shit happen" instead of waiting for someone else to get the party started. With velius I joined Crimson Blades and fought our way up to Ntov raids, eventually being the 3rd guild to ever complete the ring of vulak. That ring event was so much fun to figure out, getting wiped each new wave because we had no idea what was going on, having no idea how many waves there were. When vulak finally poped it was amazing.
The guild leader, Aaria, was a prefect example of a cult of personality. when she leaned people followed, so when she decided to take a break from leadership and join up with the circle of legends (pop era) the rest of the guild had to move with her. Once in CoL with a following like hers she seemed to immediately become an officer and though she wasn't the leader of the guild, she is who we followed :)

[Gibcarver]

I did get most of my friends hooked, definitely makes you feel good to know one of them flunked out of college playing so much.

The good ole days!

<----- about to flunk from playing too much

[Bodeanicus]

I was 27. My buddy's brother had been in the beta, so they both had the game on the first day. I watched him play a bit, then played all night after he went to bed. This is still the best MMO, hands down. I've tried most other MMO's since then, but none capture the magic this one has.

[milo2689]

I was 30, I was in prison for 12 years for attempted murder. I was looking for something to relax me when i got out since I had so much anger being in the pen so long, and was looking for a game that had to do with killing, but was more passive, so this game fit me well.