Is it possible to get my non-gamer girlfriend into EQ?

[timhutton]

I tried to get my gf into it. We killed mobs outside the West Freeport gates for about an hour and a half and got to around level 5 at which point she proclaimed "I do not enjoy killing bats for this long" and logged off never to be seen in the world of Norrath again.

Do not make the same mistakes I did.

[Jetlag]

Zeonick, I was compelled to sign in to share my experience.

EQ is a tough game for even "seasoned" gamers by today's standards, much less for a non-gaming girlfriend. The gameplay is not intuitive and feels more like a text-based game accompanied by clumsy graphics. If you have played before, you know what to expect, but she does not.

Judging that you are level 23 and joined in July, you seem active. I was in a similar situation, gave her options and she chose human monk. We wasted 3 weeks getting to 32 as barbarian shaman & human monk before she said she had enough. She stated she would continue playing, but rather spend her time on something else. I could not agree with her more. We both abandoned our characters for 3 months. At first, it was exciting because she would get new abilities and we were saving up plat to purchase her first a Trance Stick, then a Quivering Staff. She enjoyed FD pulling. After 30, flying kick, and the dmg cap coming off...she did not have much to look forward to other than riposte & equipment upgrades (we couldn't afford the shiny stuff, so no real upgrades). Perhaps your experience will be different, but here are two observations.

Disclaimer: I'm a min/maxer and that kills fun for other types of players unless they too are min/maxers, so that was a contributing factor to us ruining it for each other.

1) Time-intensive. Things really start slowing down when the excitement/nostalgia fade and you have better alternative activities rather than a video game that sucks time into a blackhole because of its inherently slow nature. (6 second pulses, xp loss on death, class/race xp penalties) Nothing worse than setting aside 8 hours of free time that she could be watching her favorite show, going to the yoga studio, or surfing..but instead committed to grinding through some levels....only to gain 1 level because of travel time, multiple deaths/CRs, etc.

2) Repetitive gameplay. Having played before, I knew what to expect. But she quickly grew tired of chasing after runners in tight corridors. (If I rooted, she would take extra unnecessary dmg slowing our efficiency)


All I can say is, I wish you the best of luck and hope you two have fun!

[timhutton]

It's worth noting that whenever I am playing EverQuest or mention wanting to play EverQuest it is still referred to by her as "killing bats".

To be quite honest I'm not sure concepts such as "grinding" are understood and interpretted as fun by a normal member of the non-gaming community.

Best of luck though.

[Lyra]

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

Can we be friends?

Absolutely!

[Zeonick]

Wow thanks for the replies everyone! I feel like I can definitely learned from your experiences. I usually try to be somewhat of a min/maxer myself but I know this will never work with her. I will just try to keep it light and fun.

The fact that your gf still describes it as "killing bats" is hilarious, that made me laugh out loud because I can see the same thing happening. Right now she is on the goal of saving up bone chips to sell in EC, and she seems excited at the idea of getting a full stack and making some cash.

I am fairly active, but I should also mention we have a little girl together, and live together. So we will only really be playing at night together after the little one is asleep. I try to play as much as I can but it's usually only an hour a night, sometimes more. I was just hoping that grouping together and working towards goals together in something we can both enjoy may make us closer as we have a lot of stress in our lives at the moment. Here's hoping!

[Zyn]

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

Zeonick, I was compelled to sign in to share my experience.

EQ is a tough game for even "seasoned" gamers by today's standards, much less for a non-gaming girlfriend. The gameplay is not intuitive and feels more like a text-based game accompanied by clumsy graphics. If you have played before, you know what to expect, but she does not.

Judging that you are level 23 and joined in July, you seem active. I was in a similar situation, gave her options and she chose human monk. We wasted 3 weeks getting to 32 as barbarian shaman & human monk before she said she had enough. She stated she would continue playing, but rather spend her time on something else. I could not agree with her more. We both abandoned our characters for 3 months. At first, it was exciting because she would get new abilities and we were saving up plat to purchase her first a Trance Stick, then a Quivering Staff. She enjoyed FD pulling. After 30, flying kick, and the dmg cap coming off...she did not have much to look forward to other than riposte & equipment upgrades (we couldn't afford the shiny stuff, so no real upgrades). Perhaps your experience will be different, but here are two observations.

Disclaimer: I'm a min/maxer and that kills fun for other types of players unless they too are min/maxers, so that was a contributing factor to us ruining it for each other.

1) Time-intensive. Things really start slowing down when the excitement/nostalgia fade and you have better alternative activities rather than a video game that sucks time into a blackhole because of its inherently slow nature. (6 second pulses, xp loss on death, class/race xp penalties) Nothing worse than setting aside 8 hours of free time that she could be watching her favorite show, going to the yoga studio, or surfing..but instead committed to grinding through some levels....only to gain 1 level because of travel time, multiple deaths/CRs, etc.

2) Repetitive gameplay. Having played before, I knew what to expect. But she quickly grew tired of chasing after runners in tight corridors. (If I rooted, she would take extra unnecessary dmg slowing our efficiency)


All I can say is, I wish you the best of luck and hope you two have fun!

Wow interesting story.

I think the min-maxing may contribute to some constraints while playing. Again, I think a lot of it has to do with being a monk. As a caster in this game (WIS or INT), there is always new things to look forward with spells every few levels. That's why my first main on live was a Druid, then when I could afford to twink out a monk, I had a blast doubling the DPS of anyone else in my group (and I knew how to appreciate it)

All this being said, every girl/player is different. Ultimately she's going to like the game or not, there's only so much you can do to improve the experience.

[Zyn]

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

Absolutely!

are you Lyra in game?

[Zyn]

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

Wow thanks for the replies everyone! I feel like I can definitely learned from your experiences. I usually try to be somewhat of a min/maxer myself but I know this will never work with her. I will just try to keep it light and fun.

The fact that your gf still describes it as "killing bats" is hilarious, that made me laugh out loud because I can see the same thing happening. Right now she is on the goal of saving up bone chips to sell in EC, and she seems excited at the idea of getting a full stack and making some cash.

I am fairly active, but I should also mention we have a little girl together, and live together. So we will only really be playing at night together after the little one is asleep. I try to play as much as I can but it's usually only an hour a night, sometimes more. I was just hoping that grouping together and working towards goals together in something we can both enjoy may make us closer as we have a lot of stress in our lives at the moment. Here's hoping!

Keep us updated, if that's not creepy (not intended to be)

would love to hear how it's going for you two!

[Zeonick]

I was partly thinking with a caster too that spell crafting/questing for spells and what not may make her a little frustrated? I dunno, just as a new gamer it may seem like a lot to get your new shiny spells.

[Wotsirb401]

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

Hey everybody. Well I finally convinced my non-gamer girlfriend to give EQ a try, and I really hope she likes it. The only other game she has ever really played was Skyrim, and she says she likes how pretty it was and that you could make potions.

I'm pretty stoked that I got her to try EQ but i'm worried that she will give up once things get a little rough. Right now I pretty much have to sit with her when we play and tell her what to do, and she seemed to like it so far. She made a human monk which seems like a good first class to me.

I was really interested in seeing if anyone has been in a similar situation or if there is some general advice out there for making her experience more enjoyable. I don't really have much in the way of gearing her, and I was fearing that being so weak and vulnerable at first would deter her, but she seemed ok with beating on bats and skeles for awhile [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Make her your potion W3ore! lol lucky

Let me know what I can do to make sure she keeps playing! Once our ip exemption goes through we can play together. What class should I make with her? I know shaman is an obvious choice but my main is already a shaman so id rather play something else while we get to his level.

Thanks!