Why didn't EverQuest remain as popular as other old MMO's?

[Evia]

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

Some naturally and some were induced to it.

That kind of buzz will cost you $7,000 dollars these days.

LOL [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[BradZax]

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

The graphics may be dogwater but the art, especially before Luclin, was amazing. It really nailed a vibe of little expertly hand painted dnd figurines. For me at least.

Yean me and you get it. But THEY dont. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Danth]

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

My theory is that the direction EQ went with the millions of different expansions that came out doesn't really appeal to veterans of the game, or younger / newer players. And P99 it just too difficult to install for the average normie. Game itself is possibly too difficult to play if you aren't familiar with it? IDEK.

All of these are also valid contributing factors, by the way. Part of P99's appeal to me is the fixed era. Every commercial MMO-RPG I ever liked eventually morphed into something I disliked due to the gradual patch creep. P99's installation is definitely on the technical side for a generation of players who can't even seem to run their own executables anymore and need a launcher to do everything for them. And EQ, while of only medium overall difficulty, is notoriously frontloaded in its difficulty and newbie-unfriendly. EQ also doesn't have a strong IP to help retain diehard fans like Star Wars or Final Fantasy or D&D or Lord of the Rings or Warcraft or even Ultima have. It didn't have competent management willing to address mistakes and change course like Runescape has. EQ has a lot going against it. I suppose in some sense we're fortunate P99, with its faults, exists at all. There are other games that I liked which are simply gone now, too niche to have even built enough of an audience to get emulators completed.

[Jimjam]

I found scribing and memming spells, moving stuff to hot bars, even finding where the abilities, combat abilities and social hotbuttons were in the actions window to be a nightmarewhen I got started. Like hotbuttons vs hotkeys and throwing in macros was so confusing.

It didn’t help that the ROK manual was full of out dated information/ misinformation.

Thankfully i found some of the zonewide broadcast channels and managed to ooc for help or I’da got nowhere.

So if that is confusing, I dread to think what a new player in 2026 faces.

[Eagish]

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

I think it is more generational.

Not as many people had PC's at home in 1999 as people did in 2004. Especially PC's with a decent internet connection. Anyone with a PC and internet at home in 1999 had already grown up in a world where PC games were esoteric, and there wasn't a large scale internet that had information about everything. So Everquest wasn't out of place compared to other games. That generation of gamers was used to figuring things out themselves.

I'd wager that more kids (and even adults) got their first home PC's that could play games with internet closer to 2004. So it was much more likely for a new PC gamer to start with WoW, rather than Everquest. This is especially true due to the success of Warcraft 3. A lot more gamers were primed for the next Warcraft game. Blizzard was probably the best PC game company during that era with Starcraft, Diablo 2, and Warcraft 3. Every internet cafe had those games.

In line with this, I started playing EQ in 1999 with a buddy at work, because our work stations had the graphics cards and the business had the internet connection. So we'd finish work, order a pizza, and play EQ for hours.

[BradZax]

This cool documentary on EQ might shed some light on the why.

[Evia]

^awesome video.
I thought I knew basically everything about EQs OG development, but I learned many things I didnt know.

[Defo]

I remember falling out of EverQuest as I got older and had less time to commit. when i was a Teenager, i had no problem coming home after school and blowing off my homework to grind exp in a HighKeep goblins group.

Think about how many dozens of hours we all spent on corpse runs alone in 2000, back during levelling not even raiding..

By the time Planes of Power came out and people were raiding: I was still level 60 because I couldn't find the time to quad anymore. I basically missed all of Luclin progression when I started working part-time, and only ever got like 12 AA.

WoW has way quicker gear progression, levelling is kind of on rails, and it had neat PvP. it offers something for the hardcores, the casuals, etc..

For a long time, before I discovered P99, WoW was my game that i'd play for 6 months than break for like 6 months on and off again.. for 10 years.. My best friend still plays WoW, he does exclusively world PvP to level and Arenas.. for like 15 years now..

The same type of person still plays EQ and still plays WoW... but WoW enticed a lot more of us folk with increased accessibility compared to EQ.

But you gotta ask -- what other 25+ year old game that isn't named Halo or Counterstrike still has a pretty fervent competitive scene? EQ is up there with outings from P99, TLPs, Quarm, etc.

[Evia]

Making EQ more "accessable" is what got us modern eq, or the live servers. People suggesting casual friendly changes to EQ dont seem to realize that it destroys the magic of EQ.

Half of what makes EQ so great is the warts, the timesinks, the grind, the CR's, the struggle. The harshness of the world also makes "victory" so much sweeter.

They have a game like EQ that removed all of that, its called classic wow. And its ok! Just not near as memorable as early era EQ.

[BradZax]

What i like about p99 no MMO has tried is, not making so many god damn expansions!

We kept the EC tunnel crowded for like 10 years with just kunark.

For some reason the server pop declined after velious, why is that i wonder?