Quote:
Originally Posted by Tork
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I'd mostly agree - except to say anything after PoP should be written out of EQ.
I don't want to kill space aliens, I want to kill dragons and demons and Gods. I want simple story arcs with loads of lore and special events, places and people.
And EQ mostly delivered on that up to PoP, even including SoL, which was horrible and ruined the sense of community with Nexus/Bazaar and don't get me started on those horrific new models, but EXCLUDING LDON - instancing destroys what is central to EQ (or at least to EQ's playerbase), which is contested content and the shared experience. More to the point, you cannot have a hero without a villain, and all those contested points of contact provided just the right stage and just the right amount of friction to make it all work.
Why are lguk and os so much fun? The frogs? Well, yes in part - but the lore is only part of it - think of all the ways shit went bad in those zones, and how much a part of your player experience was built on those memories - the good ones.
The subculture which formed in that communal experience was amazing - grinding out hell levels, camping rare spawns, ninja/ks'ing named, and all the /ooc magic in groups filled with a rotating cast of characters are what made it fun - not getting yet another disposable piece of loot.
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Speaking of long run, I might as well throw it out there Nexus and PoK helped ruin the world by making the world too small - part of EQ was being swallowed up in it. The run to NTOV is epic - doing CR there is painful, but rewarding... how utterly forgettable is it so click on a book?
I'd rant more, but I'm sleepy exhausted - suffice it to say EQ, even with its warts, had the right formula - if people see analogues in WoW, good.
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YES!
The open world. The contested content. The griefers. The trains. The Ninjas and KS'ers. The hero 'ubers' that would stand at zone lines slaughtering trains in newbie zones, tossing buffs at random.
Coming home from whatever, sitting down and chatting with people that you've gotten to know over the course of days/months/years. Getting all prepared, starting to buff up, and having *that other guild* come in and start doing the same... AND THE RACE IS ON!
/waving at the guy that you've seen fishing at the same spot for a week trying to get enough to grind through another few tradeskill levels... as you're on your way to whatever spot to try and grind through some more XP.
The beauty of the non-instanced, huge world that we were all emersed in was the unexpected.
I remember finally getting the people together for those raids into Sky, Fear, and Hate for my duckstick. Having the entire group come with me, collecting people as we went, a rolling party the whole way back to Kazen for my final turn in.
I miss those days. I miss that experience. Unless there comes a time where a real, open world game with the community like EQ is released, I doubt that anything will even come close.
Given how real life has changed since 1999, I don't think I'd even have the time to play it.
/mourn Hell, I'm almost as bummed typing this as I was the day I called farewell to Steamfont, sat at the feet of my original Gnecro guildmaster, and /quit for the last time.