Quote:
Originally Posted by Khoram
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Such a difference from other MMOs. I remember when WoW was in beta, I was excited, I read blogs and stuff every day. When the game came out I realized I already knew so much about it, about zones and quests and items. Thottbot and the like had already data mined everything and it was available on a website with an easy to use interface and I realized, what a letdown it was to already know so much about the game.
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You have no idea how on point you are with this. It's something akin to trying to get my Aunt Kathy to use a cell phone. She prefers her rotary. Weird.
When I was a kid, I played EQ. It was my first graphical MMO. It pioneered everything that all MMORPG games are currently based on. It's like Seven Degrees Of Kevin Bacon. In any given game, you WILL come back to an inspiration basis evolving from some heavy experience with EverQuest.
I remember when Epics were first released. It was a rush. Nobody knew anything. I was just a pup, but I remember being in a guild that had tanks fighting over dragon scales. I was... sixth in line. It took forever, but I got it. How did I do the quest? I looked on Allakhazam, and that was fine with me, because I still had to ask fellow warriors what was what, for confirmation. Allakhazam was NOT always right.
And then I remember when OoW released in 2004. This was a big thing for me. I was 20 years old. I was the Rampage Tank for the best guild, then, on E'Ci. I was a barbarian warrior. I had every clicky imaginable. I was so happy. And when I realized the new Epics were released with that expansion, I ran to Allakhazam!
Except... there wasn't anything there.
Wait, what?
Seriously? Nothing?!
That's right. Nothing. Absolutely ZERO information. All there was, was the STEP. ONE.
That's *IT*.
So I did step 1.
When I finished it, I asked other warriors where they were headed? Naturally, they were all fucksticks and being closedlipped about it because they wanted to keep other warriors behind them. An understandable thought process, if I'm being honest.
This was before Google was so absolutely vital to human existence, mind you.
So I went on the web. I went onto
www.dogpile.com. Ghetto google =P. I typed in the Step 1 NPC and some of the text, in quotations.
I found a fansite with a large forums attached. This forums was created very recently, and was dedicated to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT THE SOLVING OF THE NEW EPIC QUESTS.
I was astounded.
And in case you don't get why, I was astounded because an entire game community. I'm talking hundreds. Upon thousands. Upon tens of thousands. Of players from each class. Were working together. To cobble every bit of information possible. There were subforum sections for each class, each step, with detailed requirements, once they were found out.
I joined this forum. I was so absolutely enthralled by what this group was doing. I wanted to be part of it. So I joined up. I went onto the warrior subforum. I introduced myself. I was welcomed with open arms. I volunteered my skills. There was, naturally, someone who took charge, said WE NEED PEOPLE IN EVERY ZONE LOOKING FOR STEP 2!
And that's what warriors did. At least five warriors went to each zone, as they were assigned to it from the forums, and they went through every single NPC, critter, and potentially interactable environment. And once a warrior found out what was what, everyone collapsed to that point, a detailed explanation was found of how to get from the previous step, to that point, and then get past it.
I myself? I provided only ONE step information. But, let me tell you. When I realized I was able to be the one who posted info that helped thousands of people progress in the quest, I went apeshit at my desk. I had a few tears, not going to lie. I was so damned proud of myself. Everything else, I was not the first person to post the solution. But for just one step.... I was that guy. That guy who stepped up and helped every warrior.
Several weeks later, I had worked with my fellow warriors, and we had progressed to the endpoint where we needed the orb. My guild was in Anguish. And we were clearing augment trash and bosses constantly. We didn't even BOTHER with the Ring event because it was ridiculously hard, and one of our tanks was... well. He was just dumb. Sorry. He was. That event was stupid hard without tanks who knew exactly what to do.
So we started learning Hanvar. It took a few raid nights but one evening we came in, and I had won a semi junk augment. It was an upgrade for me, but pretty meh. We got into Hanvar and it all... just... clicked.
Hanvar went down. For the count. Everyone was FLIPPING THE HELL OUT. I was one of them.
Loot was announced. The leaders went into council about it. This was the first kill on the server for Hanvar. Two Asian guilds had done it prior, but had succeeded through exploiting and a GM nixed them off. No USA timezone guild had done it yet.
And then they come out of their discussion.
"Grats to Daerken on the Epic2.0 Orb"
OH MY GOD GRATS 1000x
1x salty ranger named Capitao who would have gotten it if it weren't for me tried to get me dinked out because I got an augment earlier. The management listened to him, and summarily turned him down because we constantly farmed augments anyways. He got so pissed he left the raid. And then xferred off server eventually. I think to Rathe. Can't recall.
I then went, and finished the first Warrior2.0 on the server of E'Ci.
I was proud.
And not once did I get any info handed to me by Allakhazam. I worked with my community to make it happen. I was a part of it.
Pardon the rant. I know it's long winded. That experience right there? Is what made EQ great back then. Even if crap expansions destroyed it. And my memories have long since faded, so I don't remember everything on the spot exact. But by and large, that was my experience.