Green Class Distribution

[Zuranthium]

Originally Posted by DMN [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

All it took was for shamans to start hitting 9 and druids 14 for druid's stock to start massively rising. Few people wanted to play blind ass scrubby looking tattooed clown-shoed barbarians, who started in what was believed the in the worst starting zone in the game

That isn't true at all, LOL? First of all, plenty of people found Barbarians to have an appealing look (and as for Ogre/Troll, people had plenty of reason to play those races too, aka their stats, if not the fantasy roleplaying enjoyment of playing an Ogre or Troll caster). Second of all, Everfrost was an amazing starting zone. There was more to hunt there, and across a wider level range, than any other starting zone in the game, and the ambiance of the twisty icy mountains and danger of nighttime was quite enthralling (even if it was more difficult).

Finally, and most importantly, Barbarian Shaman was my first fucking character early in 1999. I was in Blackburrow, and Qeynos Hills, and the Karanas, where ALL of the Human Druids were also starting out. There were more Shaman there than Druids (and more Rangers than Druids as well). Obviously there were a ton of Druids starting over in the Gfay area, but Shaman was not such a scarce class as you say (I saw a decent amount of Ogre/Troll Shaman when I found my way over to that part of the world), and Druids were not found in large quantities everywhere. Warrior was the class that was everywhere, and Ranger was next in line in terms of how many I saw being played during those months (they were basically "Warriors who can also cast snare and use tracking and forage food!" to most people who had progressed a bit, plus the RPG attraction...extremely popular).

I'd really like to know what servers you claim had 2x as many Druids as any other class, because that was not my experience, in any game era. Sure, they were a relatively popular class from the start and got even more popular as they became the class that casual players latched onto (ironically the one class who survived being called bad in Kunark, because despite their weaker power level at the higher levels, people still really liked their travel ability and self-dependability). It's even possible they were the most played class at a certain point, but it wasn't like that during early EQ, and that number you quote sounds overboard to me for later eras, because Druids did still have a stigma attached to them; there was a ton of talk as the Kunark era progressed, about how much worse they were than Cleric or Shaman as the defensive support for a team.

[DMN]

Originally Posted by Zuranthium [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That isn't true at all, LOL? First of all, plenty of people found Barbarians to have an appealing look (and as for Ogre/Troll, people had plenty of reason to play those races too, aka their stats, if not the fantasy roleplaying enjoyment of playing an Ogre or Troll caster). Second of all, Everfrost was an amazing starting zone. There was more to hunt there, and across a wider level range, than any other starting zone in the game, and the ambiance of the twisty icy mountains and danger of nighttime was quite enthralling (even if it was more difficult).

Everfrost was and still is absolute hairyass. Back then people were much more focused on how their characters looked and it heavily influenced not just race selection but class selection. A lot of people full intended to RP their characters
from day one and derp captain cave maaaan! didn't exactly appeal to them. And night blindness was a big, big thing back then, especially in everfrost and especially for a newb with limited game knowledge. Your corpse rotted a lot faster back then, especially at low levels.

Originally Posted by Zuranthium [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Finally, and most importantly, Barbarian Shaman was my first fucking character early in 1999. I was in Blackburrow, and Qeynos Hills, and the Karanas, where ALL of the Human Druids were also starting out. There were more Shaman there than Druids (and more Rangers than Druids as well). Obviously there were a ton of Druids starting over in the Gfay area, but Shaman was not such a scarce class as you say (I saw a decent amount of Ogre/Troll Shaman when I found my way over to that part of the world), and Druids were not found in large quantities everywhere. Warrior was the class that was everywhere, and Ranger was next in line in terms of how many I saw being played during those months (they were basically "Warriors who can also cast snare and use tracking and forage food!" to most people who had progressed a bit, plus the RPG attraction...extremely popular).

Druids were found fucking everywhere outdoors. People always used to joke about making sure "to get your druid spayed or neutered".

Originally Posted by Zuranthium [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'd really like to know what servers you claim had 2x as many Druids as any other class, because that was not my experience, in any game era.

Any time a new sever would go up I'd log on to check out what class players the first couple of 50s were shaping up to be. I also usually checked player populations for the hell of it as well and other things i was curious about, like how often would people roll a a non troll/ogre SK or barbarian instead of an ogre/troll. Turns out a fucking shiton. People cared a LOT more about looks than min max back then

[Zuranthium]

Originally Posted by DMN [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Everfrost was and still is absolute hairyass. Back then people were much more focused on how their characters looked and it heavily influenced not just race selection but class selection. A lot of people full intended to RP their characters from day one and derp captain cave maaaan! didn't exactly appeal to them. And night blindness was a big, big thing back then, especially in everfrost and especially for a newb with limited game knowledge.

Barbarians weren't "derp derp cave men", where you are pulling this bullshit from? That was not their lore and they had a very strong, outdoorsy look that appealed to plenty of people; Viking-esque or Game of Thrones-esque. It was quite an alpha male look, and female Barbarian characters were definitely admired (to say the least) for their very Hooters-esque features.

Everfrost was an amazing starting area, one of the best RPG experiences I've ever had, and same for most other people who got hooked on the game starting out there, when the zone was fully alive. Everything felt like a real adventure, it was so damn immersive and filled with suspense, and the Barbarian community banded together tightly and were spread throughout the zone. That right there was pretty much the height of the entire MMORPG genre to date. The difficulty of that starting area was just a good lesson for what was to come in EQ anyway. Other people who played Elves or whatnot missed out on some pretty crucial experiences, about how to survive in the game world, and were often worse players once they did move out of their safer spot.

Yeah, the night blindness was extremely difficult, but it was also galvanizing and added memorable scenarios and depth to the gameplay. Your argument that most people didn't play Barbarian because of night blindness does not hold water. Humans were by far the most popular race in the game and suffered from the same thing. I don't recall corpses decaying faster at lower levels either (and I'm quite sure that after no more than 4-5 months into the game's lifespan, all corpses were lasting for a week)? Most of the time I got my corpse within a day anyway, but I remember one time I lost it for longer than that in some Everfrost passageway I wasn't familiar with, and I was SO overjoyed when I eventually found it after thinking it would just be lost. Learning the lay of the land through these kinds of experiences was a pivotal part of what made Everquest such a powerful game.