In hindsight, perhaps all this extra fluff was to fill the mind's eye of the player with images that at the time current technology could not produce. Like many here, I found EverQuest after playing MUDs for years. So reading text line after text line, I created an image of what my character was hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and touching in a gaming world. Here comes this game with its graphics and while you actually see, parts still seem to be missing. Perhaps all the additional stuff in these guides (that apparently everyone bought) were to help fill in the gaps. That your character was a small part of a much larger gaming world and there are all these "others" out there that you never will interact with, but are molding the world too. You might be the current hero of your class trainer, but there are those more powerful and stronger ahead of you.
Just a wild thought.
|