cultural anthropological study about P99

[Kasilis]

Yes, you have heard right. I'am planning to do a study about P99 regarding the question 'Why do people play a 12 year old game'?

A little bit about my person first. I'am a 24 year old student from Frankfurt, Germany, so forgive me any grammar misstakes! I played Everquest myself from 2001 until 2004/2005 on Torvonnilous . When I've heard about the Project in december 2010 I was really excited about it, but i also wondered why. At this point a lot of ideas came into my mind trying to explain this question, but also the idea for the research.

Because writing something which is only based on your own subjective thoughts is not scientific. So what I need now is your help, because science has to be based on empiric and/or experimental facts. You can help me gathering these informations via chat (ingame, IRC, facebook etc.), even voicechat if you want to, PMs, or links to other forum threads regarding this topic in any way. I know it sounds silly, but please don't write your thoughts regarding the 'Everquest spirit' down in this thread, because it might influence others. Better send them to me via PM.

I'll talk with ingame friends of mine aswell. But a problem qualitive research always has is that it runs the risk not be representitive. So I'am trying to find any kind of player involved in this game: casual players, family guild members, hardcore raiders, brokers, women, roleplayers and developers. I think this is the right moment to thank Rogean and the developer crew for this great piece of work and the time you've invested in it. And at the same time I'am asking for even more of your time. It would be great if you could give me a quick comment about why you are putting so much effort in it.

For everyone interested in participating: I have some questions prepared, but I don't want to narrow you down. It's really important for me that you tell me what you think about classic Everquest, so feel free to tell me anything that comes into your mind. What makes Everquest so special for you? What is the core of the 'Everquest spirit'?

While writing this forum message I had the idea that some of you might think I'am working for the roleplaying industrie trying to creat a new game or something like that, but I can honestly say: No, I'am not. If anyone has any concerns about what I'am doing here and what I'll do with the given information don't hesitate to ask me and I'll give you my professors email adress, so she can verify my intention. Every piece of information will be anonymized and at the end of the research deleted from my hard disk.

If you would like to participate or have questions don't hesitate to contact me via PM or ingame (Kasilis, 30 iksar necro, yay!).

See you ingame!

[Nagash]

Hey matey, I will happily participate to your survey (PM me your questionnaire) but for my ophtamologist's sake, please repost your wall of text, in its current format, it is likely to be ignored by a lot of people :(

BTW, did you manage to get you 29 pet?

Petitpas/Nagash

[lukus]

i would also like to participate in your survey i have also recently come to playing p1999

[xshayla701]

ooo pick me pick me

no don't, i didn't play eq in 1999 :(

[Crimzen]

Posting an open call could potentially result in a skewed selection of people. Namely, those that want to tell you something specific about why they came. Perhaps you would be better off at randomly sending tells to individuals about the topic?

Just some thoughts. I would hate for you to begin working on skewed data.

[Kasilis]

Well I'll do this aswell. And yes it is always a question if a group does want to get researched or not. This is always the problem or the key of the field research to attract the fields interest in some way.

[Knuckle]

i came

[Polixenes]

Q: "Why do people play a 12 year old game?"
A: Umm, it's a fun game.

I'd love to know the point of this exercise.

There's nothing special about a 12 year old game still being fun to play. Ever heard of Monopoly, chess or football?

[Messianic]

He should do an Anthropological study on tagging on the p99 forums...

the tags in this thread are hilarious

[Hobby]

Monopoly is fun? Since when? All I've ever done in monopoly was rage, throw houses, rip money, and kick the board and walk off....

[etplante]

Tagging is the best part of the forums and the only thing that saves a lot of these threads.

[Supaskillz]

You are going to have sample selection problems conducting a survey via these forums, so you should think about who you audience here is. That said I will take your survey.

[Eldaran]

I have a lot that I could ramble on about how this game makes me feel and why i'm here when there are tons of other choices out there.

[Kasilis]

Q: "Why do people play a 12 year old game?"
A: Umm, it's a fun game.

I'd love to know the point of this exercise.

There's nothing special about a 12 year old game still being fun to play. Ever heard of Monopoly, chess or football?



Well, yes you are right and wrong at the same time. But you cannot compare these games with everquest. You are right Everquest is a 12 year old game, but it is a game belonging to the genre called MMORPG. As far as i know there havent been much development in the football, chess or monopoly "genre" in the last years. In fact in the MMO genre there has been. A lot of new games have been developed. So I think it is a legitimate question to ask whats so special about Everquest. In my honest opinion: The comparison doesn't really work.

[Kasilis]

spill out everything you want to tell me, Eldaran.

And Knuckle I'am also interested in PVP, so even you are invited to participate and share your thoughts about Zek and R99 if you want to.

[Morlaeth]

I'll participate, PM me your questions

[Polixenes]

Well, yes you are right and wrong at the same time. But you cannot compare these games with everquest. You are right Everquest is a 12 year old game, but it is a game belonging to the genre called MMORPG. As far as i know there havent been much development in the football, chess or monopoly "genre" in the last years. In fact in the MMO genre there has been. A lot of new games have been developed. So I think it is a legitimate question to ask whats so special about Everquest. In my honest opinion: The comparison doesn't really work.

I take it the key premise of your study is that newer MMORPGs are enhanced versions of EQ, and whereas the outsider might expect newer games to make EQ obsolete, in fact EQ retains a loyal following? If so I would counsel you to make this premise crystal clear in your paper and somehow show (to a non-player reading it) the basis for that premise. In the world of games generally speaking the games most played are old games and the creation of hundreds if not thousands of board games over the past 50 years have not diminished the appeal of chess, Monopoly and other 'classics.'

I suspect at the end of the day you will have a study that concludes that some people like EQ better than WoW, EQ2, Vanguard etc. You might equally study board games and find lots of people think Monopoly is more fun than Game of Life, or horse-racing is more fun than dog-racing, and I just wonder out loud what your professor will think as he reads it....was this worth researching?

Anyway, not to pour cold water on your project and I wish you an A grade.

[Kasilis]

First i have to say is i don't see development in a evolutionary way. Like from primitive prehostoric clubswingers to seemingly super intelligent and free beings like we see humans today. You might got me wrong on that one.

The graphics have improved with the new generation of MMORPGS. But I don't say WoW/EQ2/Vanguard have a better gameplay or are better in general. I say they are just different - still they developed.

In general it is worthy to research any expression of culture. Any. There is nothing not worthy to research.

To make an example:
Noone likes grinding still it takes up a huge part of the game. If not the largest. We are "wasting" hours and hours every week doing it. If you would take the grinding out of the context noone would waste his time on something that boring. But then you remember "Ahh right I get experience for it" and around it there is a whole world, so it makes sense again and ends up being fun.

But what exactly is fun about it? Didn't we maybe just all come back only because of nostalgia and we are just ending up with our old habits or addictions again? This might sound sad, so don't pin me down on this please. But I have the same smile on my lips when I think of Everquest like when I think of my first kiss. It wasn't that perfect but hell it was exciting.

I was 12 years old when I started playing EQ and couldn't hardly speak english or had any deeper idea of the gameplay. This world was an dangerous yet adventerous place for me, which was amazingly fun to be explored. And I've really soaked up this world so that I've a damn glorified memory of Everquest, but when I've hit lvl 4 with my bard in Kelelthin at noob ramp after x hours grinding after returning to P99. I started wondering "serious what am I doing here? But I kept going with the though that I've got so much more to see and in the end it isn't that bad..

And that is where the other MMORPGS come into the view. Because if P99 is more than nostalgia and routine there has to be something which this game is offering that none of the other MMORPGs could in the meantime. It might sound simple to you, but it is exactly what I want to hear. Where are the differences? What is so special about Everquest? Not the comparison of Everquest to other MMORPGs is my research interest. But more the function of gratification while playing Everquest and the question why you've returned.

The subjective taste of persons is irrelevante here. I don't care if some people like WoW and some people not. It's not about what the people like. It is about what Everquest is about. What is its spirit?

Maybe I've picked a bad introducing question to make my point clear. But I hope this post helped you to understand my motives and to substantiate the legitimation of the research.

[Hasbinbad]

who were you on torvo?

[Kasilis]

Another point I want to add is the challenge. How can Everquest players resist the rapid Gratification MMORPGs like WoW offer you? This is a huge difference between those 2 games. To awnser this question it is simply not enough to say: People who like challenges play challenging games. You can't just explain that with different tastes. So if you want to do science, you have to go further.
That is what I'am trying to do. And therefor I need a understanding of Everquest which is not based only on my own subjectivity.

[Kasilis]

who were you on torvo?

Kasilis iksar monk

Was in Fizzle Dings. German guild. We had a raid alliance with Blood and Guts back then and were always stealing the raid encounter, because of the euro time advantage, yay!
Only one member besides me playing here, so I've joined Blood and Guts and have to bear the french guildchat now all day /shiver

[Knightmare]

He should do an Anthropological study on tagging on the p99 forums...

the tags in this thread are hilarious

So true. lol.

Send me a PM if ya want Kasilis, I'll fill out whatever you have :)

[Eldaran]

Another point I want to add is the challenge. How can Everquest players resist the rapid Gratification MMORPGs like WoW offer you? This is a huge difference between those 2 games. To awnser this question it is simply not enough to say: People who like challenges play challenging games. You can't just explain that with different tastes. So if you want to do science, you have to go further.
That is what I'am trying to do. And therefor I need a understanding of Everquest which is not based only on my own subjectivity.

For me, the instant gratification has and hand holding has killed the entire MMORPG genre for me. When games like WoW hand everything to you, "go here, kill this, come back" over and over and over again, you stop reading quest text and follow the arrows to where you go. It becomes less of a virtual world and more of a train ride on 2 very predictable tracks. You have a maps to show you where everything is and every quest you complete gives you better gear constantly.

Everquest is full of mystery and enough difficulty to make you want to overcome challenges. When I first logged into Greater Faydark in 1999 I was awestruck. I had no idea where to go, but I saw tons of people killing stuff outside of Felwithe. I started doing the same. Everquest was lucky enough to have the finest MMORPG Community i've ever experienced. These people were mostly die hard fantasy fans and serious pc video gamers. The WoW generation came in from playing their awesome instant gratification console games and changed everything.

When you needed directions, or had questions, or needed someone to craft metal bits for you, or needed to find a corpse, you couldn't just go to an NPC and do everything. You had to ask other players. It was very difficult to solo past the single digit levels as most classes. You had to interact with the community. No other game has been able to capture this for me.

I've played almost every major MMO release at least for the first month and all of them have failed to capture that "living world" that Everquest had. I have to remember which direction I need to travel in West commonlands to get back to East Commonlands because there isn't a map. I better hope I run into something I recognize as I'm running from these 3 orcs I pulled by accident.

I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that I was a teenager in 1999 and my imagination was out of control, but I still feel the same magic as I'm playing on project 1999. The game is unchanged and all these years of MMO gaming hasn't changed the fact that the spirit of this game is one of challenge, mystery, intrigue, community interaction, and overall just having fun being in the world around you. I love this game.

/rant mode off

[Knuckle]

Elderan so true, MMOs by their very nature were targeting a hardcore crowd, it wasn't known to be a cashcow. Now that everyone saw the success of everquest, a game that was originally designed to bring fantasy novels, RPG single player games, and D&D to life in a 3d world, has now become a pathetic commercial cash farming shit social pop culture reference riddled shit holes. every motherfucking mmo that makes pop culture references all the time literally makes me want to scream. playing rift in beta as soon as i saw the pathetic pop culture references from a newbie quest guy I wanted to stab my eyes.

[Kasilis]

/discuss

[Eldaran]

Elderan so true, MMOs by their very nature were targeting a hardcore crowd, it wasn't known to be a cashcow. Now that everyone saw the success of everquest, a game that was originally designed to bring fantasy novels, RPG single player games, and D&D to life in a 3d world, has now become a pathetic commercial cash farming shit social pop culture reference riddled shit holes. every motherfucking mmo that makes pop culture references all the time literally makes me want to scream. playing rift in beta as soon as i saw the pathetic pop culture references from a newbie quest guy I wanted to stab my eyes.

This is exactly why I feel so great being back in the old version of Norrath. No other game after EQ felt so much like a getaway instead of just some game I'm playing to pass the time.

[Amelinda]

Monopoly is fun? Since when? All I've ever done in monopoly was rage, throw houses, rip money, and kick the board and walk off....

That's what people do in EQ? how is this different??

;)

as for OP - i'm willing to answer your questions :) PM ME!! :)

[Knuckle]

I'm convinced hobby played on vztz

[Huggie]

i will participate send me any survey.

[Bruno]

He should do an Anthropological study on tagging on the p99 forums...

the tags in this thread are hilarious

I'm not even sure people read thread posts anymore, just tags.

[Daywolf]

Monopoly is fun? Since when? All I've ever done in monopoly was rage, throw houses, rip money, and kick the board and walk off.... You should try playing it with another person or two. :D

Q: "Why do people play a 12 year old game?"
A: Umm, it's a fun game.
Damn, I'm now influenced, cant participate now :o