Why were we so bad in 1999?

[Bihlbo]

I keep thinking about this. I remember when EQ first came out I was playing on a buddy's computer (mine couldn't run it). I finally got started in earnest 6 months later, then my brother and I played incessantly for a little over two years. Never got to 50.

We spent a lot of time dinking around, enjoying the world. We explored the Qeynos sewers until we mentally mapped the whole thing. We roleplayed a LOT (my brother liked to convert elves to Bertoxxulous). When we were fighting things we were either going for wilderness creatures, loot for tradeskills, money, faction, or just curious fun. We didn't know about zone xp bonuses for a very long time, and thought of the whole game as an adventure that ends when you reach max level. We were trying to get the most content out of every level we could. We made alts just to see what the rest of the world was like or to see what a different class was like, and we played them all to 20-30. Shoot, I played on test server just so I could find out what it was like to share the world with less than 100 people.

It wasn't until I ran into a guy in Stonebrunt Mountains who was playing a twink that rocketed from 1 to 28 in just a couple of days that I encountered a min/maxer. He ticked me off for a long time, it was like he was taking all the fun out of the game by trying to bypass it all for nothing more than bragging rights. Then I got ridiculed for not knowing how to level as fast as he did.

The whole time we played we were going for the goals we had defined for ourselves. That's what kept us coming back to it. No one told us that we were required to raid, that we were n00bs for not having at least two lvl 60s, or gave us an obvious quest track with brightly-colored exclamation points over everyone's heads. We were being creative, building a unique experience in a game world. That was the whole reason to keep playing. When it became obvious that our kind of play wasn't welcome in any guild, and the game was about high-end content alone, we lost a lot of interest.

[Morratiz]

I have vivid nostalgic memories of chain pulling in OT wall groups. You pretty much had to otherwise you'd lose all the spawns to the 40 other OT wall groups. Also did the same in DL. (But eq was never that crowded back then according to some...)

[Khikik]

I was so bad at EQ in 1999 that I didn't even play a lizard

[SenoraRaton]

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

So, I played during this time period and one thing I remember even during luclin was that people almost never chain pulled. It was always camping just a few mobs generally and killing slowly one at a time, medding, and then doing it again. People would pretty much only fight at zone lines and the thought of a corpse run was a dangerous, complicated thing.

When wow released people brought in this eq mentality as well but it slowly got overtaken by speedrunning the instances where it was possible. Now eq in 2019 it's basically the wow mentality(not saying it's bad) - fastest exp/loot per hour, willing to take noticeable risk if you get rewarded for it. What in the early 2000s were we doing that made the game so much harder? Looking for honest thoughts.

Have you played recently? This sounds exactly like my groups. I pull every group I am in no matter the class, because people sit around and wait for full mana to pull....

[Ligma]

People weren't knowledgeable of their own class, and even less knowledge of the classes they grouped with. People didn't know how all game mechanics worked. So for a long time there wasn't a perfect idea of a min/max group because no one knew how to combine every power to form truly effective groups.

And people went LD, a lot.

[RealSmug]

Had groups that knew exactly what they were doing in 99, didnt make half the messes I see here in guktop/BB.

[Izmael]

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

Had groups that knew exactly what they were doing in 99, didnt make half the messes I see here in guktop/BB.

Generally speaking, BB on Green looks incredibly calm and organized compared to live in 2000 when I played there.

It was trains on trains on trains, nameds chain destroying noobs on the top level. There were noob gibs on the walls everywhere.

The commander room was a bloody mess. Noone knew what aggro was. Casters would overnuke and insta get aggro from mobs who killed them in 4-5 rounds.

People had no idea how to CR through the floor either.

Fun times though. It was amazing.

[bum3]

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

Had groups that knew exactly what they were doing in 99, didnt make half the messes I see here in guktop/BB.

Exactly. People are more ruthless now. With the mentality of, i can just train it if it goes bad. People also now... "i'll train the room to the zone while my group kills the named.. and every poor soul in between can deal with the adds."

[Swish]

I was like 19 and never played an online game like it before. The fact that it took me over an hour to get out of Felwithe as an enchanter probably sums up where I was [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Vizax_Xaziv]

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

I was like 19 and never played an online game like it before. The fact that it took me over an hour to get out of Felwithe as an enchanter probably sums up where I was [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Haha, same here! Only i was just 12 years old. I distinctly remember making a Gnomish Enchanter and dying to rats outside Ak'anon at LEAST 10 times in a row. That Enchanter would eventually reach level 17 and was given a Flowing Black Robe and a Staff of Writhing (with 9 CHA on it!) by a very kind elf.

I remember people would sit outside Felwithe and auction "language lessons" where you'd group with them and they'd spam the groupchat to train you in foreign tongues.

After finally convincing our parents to buy us the game AND let us use their CC to subscribe, installing the game etc etc, we realized that neither our PCs had a "3d graphics accelerator." We finally brought it to a friend's house who did and installed it there.

And man....this thread is really makin' me wanna play some Kunark!