Those things which ignite those first day feelings!

[neonspacedolphin]

I remember getting EQ like, WAY back in 1999. You know, when I was still wandering around strip malls with my friends and heading to Blockbuster to rent obscure RPGs on super nintendo to play all weekend staying over at my friend's house. Using JUNO to email my friends crap for the novelty of it. Screwing around on Sierra's The Realm, not really knowing what I was doing as a little kid... I remember Diablo coming out, I think everyone does, and it being such a big deal. I remember getting ICQ to chat with online friends...

Anyway, I remember my dad taking me to the mall to get EQ shortly after we got a cable internet modem. I remember the big, geeky guy that looked like something from the Simpson's standing behind the counter at the game store picking up the EQ box and saying "Everquest huh? Well, it's healthier than crack!" and tossing it into a bag for me.

I was about 16 at the time.

I remember loading up the game, making a ranger that started in qeynos, and struggling to wander around and see anything. I remember it was so dark; i was probably human. I remember being so confused about spells and what the heck I was doing. I was in a general teen haze at that point... I remember going to Blackburrow. I remember a druid coming into Qeynos with a Glowing Wooden Crook from Lockjaw in Ro, and everyone in the zone swarming around the druid to see the glowing weapon. I remember people calling out to form full groups just to travel, on foot, from Qeynos to the next city over.

I think, beyond playing, the thing that is most nostalgic though is reading this webpage... I don't remember the name of the site, but it was like an EQ player's journal, sort of written in first person. I remember spending a lot of time reading those journal entries about the dangers of traveling between cities, and encounters that the guy had.

The whole thing was so apropos, though... You know, I had been growing up on Enya and the jazz station's new age morning music playing around the house, going camping with my two brothers and my dad over the summers and wandering around the beaches in the dark at night, reading magazine articles about Diablo for months and sucking it right off the tap when it came out. Getting lost in Sierra's The Realm and dealing with a whole new level of weird internet creeps who played female characters...

ANYWAY

[WarpathEQ]

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

I remember people calling out to form full groups just to travel, on foot, from Qeynos to the next city over.

So good, true classic right there. Something about the early days of a new game when nobody knows anything and nobody has anything yet. EQ has always been a very unforgiving game.