Do you feel like the early days of EQ are forever lost to time?

[Ciderpress]

Yeah the magic of early EQ was largely in how unknown everything was. I remember full groups of naked barbs teaming up to take down wooly mammoths in everfrost, which would be unheard of today cause it's an insanely inefficient way to get loot or xp, but we just didn't know better and it was fun as hell. I remember everyone being horny for minotaur axes, which are horrrrrible weapons lol. It was a magic time though.

I know what you mean about a lvl 20 seeming like a high level player. It probably took me a month on my barb warrior to get 20, and I thought long and hard about what I wanted my surname to be cause it was a BIG deal.

I remember forming a pickup group in EC, and we were deciding where to go, and somebody was like "I heard there's some lizard temple a few zones away" (CT), so we ran all the way there as a group and it was packed to the gills with players. Sigh... I miss those days.

It's sad too because even somebody who's never played EQ before can't get that experience really, because they'll be playing in a world where everyone else knows every single thing about the game. There's not gonna be any wooly mammoth assassination squads for them to join. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

When I think about it though I was really just insanely lucky to be the age I was (15) when the game launched and to have played it through planes of power. Not some TLP, it was the real shit. I kinda feel bad for people who can never experience how fun that was.

[Duik]

I remember everyone being horny for minotaur axes

Best quote ever Cider.
I hope you meant it.

[Ciderpress]

They're not even magic! Everyone on povar wanted one so bad for some reason.

[Jimjam]

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

They're not even magic! Everyone on povar wanted one so bad for some reason.

One shots decayed skeletons. Do you have any idea how many bone chips that is?!

[Ciderpress]

True didn't think of that!

Heh it's funny to just think back on how naive I was about the game. I remember thinking that really expensive statless fine steel armor you can buy from vendors was the end goal of any warrior. I was like wow I can look like the guild trainer in halas, cool! Derp.

[One Tin Soldier]

All this talk is why I'm looking forward to Monsters and Memories. I know it won't be the same as when we were all newbs back in the day but it's probably the closest we'll ever get. An EQ type game but with different zones, different items, different quests and different mobs.

It should at least be fun for few years before it becomes saturated with twinks and powerlevelers. Which I wouldn't necessarily have anything against but in a grouping game it does kind of ruin things when there is too much of that going on.

[Jimjam]

The interesting thing about that armour is the sell back ratio for it was pretty good, so really a 500pp bp is just 50pp with 450pp refundable deposit (something like that).

[Zuranthium]

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

They're not even magic! Everyone on povar wanted one so bad for some reason.

There weren't many options for a low level upgrade; it was either buy something better from a vendor (people didn't have the money), or get a better drop from Crushbone throne room (highly contested), or Trumpy Irontoe quest (people didn't know about it). Thus the Minotaur Axe became the most achievable weapon in circulation up through the teens.

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

All this talk is why I'm looking forward to Monsters and Memories. I know it won't be the same as when we were all newbs back in the day but it's probably the closest we'll ever get.

Eh, it's possible to do a lot more than what they're trying to do if the goal is to get closer to what very early EQ felt like, and make it even more engaging in some ways and more of a constant mystery.

But yeah, it won't ever be the exact same, since part of the awe-factor back then was being the first game of its genre. It literally felt like stepping into another world, into the fantasy novels we read and wanted to see brought to life. Maybe a very young kid these days would still get that same feeling with the right game, if you keep them away from other media beforehand. But even then, with the overall mechanics of an MMO now being more understood, and voice chat existing and videos and other info being put up online everywhere, the community as a whole won't ever play these games exactly like it was in the early days.

The NPC behaviors and quest/item drops need to keep changing for an MMO to prevent everything from becoming quickly "solved".

[Ciderpress]

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

There weren't many options for a low level upgrade; it was either buy something better from a vendor (people didn't have the money), or get a better drop from Crushbone throne room (highly contested), or Trumpy Irontoe quest (people didn't know about it). Thus the Minotaur Axe became the most achievable weapon in circulation up through the teens.

Hah yeah I do sometimes forget just how grueling the early game could be. It felt like a big deal the first time I ever saved up 50 plat. I was like oooo, what shall I splurge on??

[shovelquest]

Do you feel like the early days of EQ are forever lost to time?

Only until there is a little neuralnet switch that lets you forget selective memories.