Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
I raise my glass to thee
Today my friend drove me to a coffee shop and when we got in his car he started up his CD player. The CD was full of game songs from various different games we've played over the years. Call it strange but he's one of the few hard core music listeners that would listen to the Bastion of Thunder music over and over and over for a 6 hour raid 
and like it.
Anyway, listening to the music got me thinking and for a moment.... I've decided to put aside my distaste of SOE and how horribly they've bastardized this once masterpeice to get all nostaligic on you my former EQ Friends.
I tip my glass to my fellow former eq players. To those that showed me around Kelethin before the maps. To the folks I grouped with at the Aviak's house in the Karanas. To the SOL B groups and the Mistmoore castle runs. To the person who showed me the "hidden" passage way in the Estate of Unrest. To those that came with me on the TOFS runs and Velks labyrinth. To the first lvl 65 pally who helped me take out d'lere. To Amabassador D'vinn (may you finally find peace from all the newbies). To everyone that ever cried "TRAIN TO ZONE" and even to the dwellers of Luclin and PC. And even to those that went in PoN (A and 
. To the plane of hate/fear break in groups and every cleric that went 23423,23423423 zones out of their way to give me a rez. To all the OT groups followed by the Dreadland groups..... to Veltar your rotten SOB I still hate you.
To Karnor's castle runs where the I truly learned the defnition of a "train".
To the anyone who ever got rooted by the spiders in FV and anyone else who med'd up in LoIO watching the wind mills going. To Mez and Haste and Slows and Roots and snares - are we really that much better off without those elements?
My goodness I could go on for days and days.....whatever dev's have been left to carry the torch for this game....whatever dev's were hired to make games like Eq2 and WoW and every other piece of crap game out there these days -- you just don't have what EQ offered back in the day (before it was killed by Smed and CO)....whatever it is, its gone......anyway, to all of those that I shared in my time with in this magical land known Norrath , I raise my glass one last time to the memories, the experiences and the adventure.
If you're feeling nostalgic I encourage you all to set aside for a while the opinions, and toss something into this thread that reflects the emotions you encountered when playing this game.
For me, I doubt anything will ever encapulate the feeling I had the first time I heard the EQ Theme play as the load screen (which always always always took for ev er!) and I logged into Gfay and Kelethin.
May anyone who reads this experience what us former EQ'rs had one more time in some game yet to be released because nothing out there at the moment comes close including EQ itself.
Comments
Cheers friend! This thread truly brought a tear to my eye.
Sager - 9800 S
To the first time I was guided through the qeynos hills at night and entered the giant mouthknown as of black burrow! ^_^
(I was a human and my gamma was not turned up...was soooo dark!!)
Hi! My name is paper. Nerf scissors, rock is fine.
MMORPG = Mostly Men Online Roleplaying Girls
http://www.MichaelLuckhardt.com
To the first qeynos to freeport run that we all did! What a big sigh of relief when we arrived safely at the other side.
And to my personal favorite race, the barbarian. How I cheered when I found one could slay the wolf npcs sitting in town, and then that first sight of the mammoths out on the snowy plains. Until I killed you, you were always on my mind!
What I tell all my guildies in WoW. Back in the day(old man here) We didn't have things to make it easier for us. They dropped us in a world and said "Go get um" and we did. We have a REAL community to rely on and that was there for the new people.
Now you'd be better off banging your head against the wall then asking for help.. Not that you really need to ask for help everything these days are given to you on a silver platter, there is nothing left to figure out.
I remember my guild was one of the first to do vindi on my server and sure we'd laugh at him now but back then he was tough. We had to figure out how to beat him. We didn't know he'd knock you back. We didn't know we had to pin the tank against the wall. We had to figure that out for ourselves.
When we went to ToV we didn't know the best way to pull or what not to touch or whatever. No one told us, we did it enough times and learned together. Those days will never be seen again.. Now everyone could know everything they wanted to about a game before they even buy it. There is no sense of wonder and discovery anymore. There is no sense of the unknown. Nothing is a surprise.
But EQ was. As a newbie everything was wonderous and new, higher people helped(Although when I started no one was even 30 yet). We were a tight knit community who loved to help and the rude kids who'd shout "SHUT UP!" when someone asked for help were quickly shot down and shunned.
Realize you were so very lucky to have those memories.
Ahh, truly a great post....it really took me back to the "good ole days" I too have many, many memories of EQ. One of me favorite is day 1. I had heard of EQ from a friend of mine, we had just missed the cutoff for Beta Testing, so we anxiously waited for the game to be released. In the meantime we would faithfully check the progress of the game online and stare in awe at the screenshots and wonder how the hell anyone could have graphics like that in an online game and still make it functional with thousands of people estimated to play this new online style of game.
Finally the release date roled around and the game was ours....after hitting 4 different stores to get it....EVERYONE was sold out, it was an insane scene. But finally we had a copy in our hand on opening day, we got lucky and found a store with a few copies left.
What character to create? I don't know they all look/sound so cool! Hmmm, well, our favorite characters we ever played in RPGs (D&D & Fantasy Hero) were rogues, so we made rogues. What class/race was good or bad, hell nobody knew, the game was the first of its kind. Like the previous post states, WE had to figure that out on our own! So, a human rogue it is to start!
This was the ONLY day in the long history of Everquest where EVERYONE that played was equal. ALL OF US WERE LEVEL 1! EVERYONE WAS A NOOB! It was fantastic. We finally found our way outside the walls of Freeport, HUNDREDS of people were fighting (with no lag I must add). Rats, snakes, spiders....corpses littered the ground, player and mobs alike. It was a sea of carnage! Nobody knew what lay ahead and couldn't wait to find out. /Yell "Where is the rogue guild!?" Here, I'll show you, I found it 5 minutes ago after someone else found it and showed me....it's behind a hidden wall! Thank you so much(I foget who you were now...hey, it's been 7 years).
The first week of the game was insanity! There was so much activity. Every aspect of the game was being discovered, the economy was being established, guilds were being formed....all of these were concepts never before tried. Everybody had crappy equipment and were thankful for it....my first pair of shoes I got from fishing!...I miss those moldy sandals. I couldn't wait to learn how to make patchwork armor.
I remember when I accidentally zoned into South Ro....I didn't know where the zone line between South Freeport and The Desert was... I saw a level 8 player, MY GOD, LEVEL 8 already, who could already be level 8 in just 3 or 4 days! I asked to group, and was informed I was far too low to survive what was out there....I wondered what beasts could be so deadly....so I watched (from a safe distance of course) OMG! There were GIANT, and I mean GIANT creatures....spiders and scarabs, I about crapped myself. I couldn't wait to tell my friends what wonders I had seen.....BTW, EVERYONE that isn't a dark elf hates Dorn! /Yell "Dorn to zone!"
All of the first discoveries were great....you could drink (and get drunk) in the game...the screen would all warp and darn near give you a headache. There were profession skills, there were all kinds of just "cool" things to discover on a daily basis. There were many helpful people and many people in need of help. As time went on we all quickly learned that the game wasn't perfect, many aspects were incomplete, or yet to be programmed. Rogue skills were pathetically left in shambles at realease time and we were promised that SOE was "looking into the matter" But hey the game was live, at least we were playing it. And at that time SOE DID really take feedback into consideration and many of the things that players asked for from all classes were implemented. We were riding as high as the .com bubble at the time. Eventually both would crash to the ground, but that is another story....
When major milestones would take place, people flocked to be a part of it. I remember the first attempt at taking down a sand giant. There were 30 people in on the attempt....and about 100 watching, cheering them on. Many brave souls lost their life in that fight, but the group was triumphant in the end! In those days, giants dropped ALOT of loot, it was a great goal to strive for. Soon after, another group was able to conquer that pesky griffon that would always kill you while you thought you were safe resting at the inn. I also found out that creatures much higher lvl than you can see through a rogue's hide skill....but I got the screenshot of the day on EQVault with a great close-up of the griffon!...seconds before dying.
I do miss that game. That game at that time will never be duplicated...it was the first and will be what all other games in its genre are compared to. In that aspect no other game will ever be as good.
Many changes have been made to the game over the years....some at first I may not have agreed with, but could at least understand.....the game was new to the developers as well as the players...mistakes were going to be made, we ALL were diving into the unknown. Some items were truly too powerful for what they were meant for, some things didn't work out as planned, so yes, some things needed to be changed back, or changed into something else.
Sadly the game has turned into what it has now....I haven't played in 2 to 3 years now, but all of us at that time (who played from or near the beginning) could see what was happening & the path the game was going down. Many of us quit and moved on. I still do wonder how my old friends are doing now, if they play anything at all. I would love to touch base with some of them and stoke up a conversation about the days of old.... "Remember when we had that train from hell in Runnyeye.....Or We got totally wiped out in Cazic Thule trying to get some Rubicite armor....or When that group trained that Spectre down beach and took out like 1/2 the zone....." Or "Remember when we finally cleared the Planes...Hate / Fear / Air....or NToV, or Karnors Castle, or we FINALLY got a rare drop off of anything in Lower GUK, MY GOSH, the Spawn rate / Placeholder rates were insane!!!!!.......
ahhh the memories flood back
Thank you for this thread line.....it takes one back to a time and place much sought after but never quite reached. The games today are good, many have aspects of them that are an improvement from EQ, but none have that magical "something else" that EQ had back then. If only a developer could take the best aspects of some of these games and combine them into the full potential of what a MMORPG could be......
Thank you for again for taking me back...to the days of the EQs birth. I miss all of you on the Povar Server....
Tanthalas (original rogue lvl 35....yeah I know he wasn't a rogue)
Shey(lvl 49, Elven Ranger)
Antibiotic(lvl 55 Dwarven Cleric)
Gadzylla (lvl 63 Iksar Warrior)
Fission (lvl 29 Human Wizard)
....other assorted alts
/Wave
Maybe this will make you guys feel better. I just got this off the patcher. I'm fairly new to the game. But I've heard from the others in my guild how it used to be. I still like the game though. It's more fun to me than WoW or any of the newer games out there...
- EverQuest turns 7! Starting on March 16th, join us for a month long anniversary celebration!
*** Anniversary Events ***
--------------------------------------------
- Double experience! To kick off the celebration, from 12:00 PM Pacific Time on March 16th until 12:00 PM Pacific Time on March 20th all normal experience rewards will be doubled!
- Fabled NPCs have returned! Many of your favorite NPCs from the original EverQuest zones and Kunark have been upgraded to Fabled versions that are tougher and tote better loot. And for the first time, they are joined by over a hundred NPCs from Velious!
- New scavenger hunt! NPCs in Thurgadin, Kael, and Skyshrine are looking for help finishing up some of their collections
It's not the same game, but it's still fun for me... so far. Although SOE seeks to personally offend me with each and every decision they make to change game content. They know my name, and have my house bugged. They seek to willfully and purposfully ruin the game for me in any way that offends me the most, and I think there ought to be a law against it.
Nope, sorry. I recently read they trashed the old UI and merged zones together???
Everything SOE touches turns to crap now.
To RoadRash --- wow I can only imagine what it must have been like wathcing the community grow from complete infancy. I truly envy you.
Keep the stories coming -- i love them!
Great post, rekindle and others, brought back many great memories.
To the first person who ever helped me with advice on classes, to the first guild who invited me accidentally because they thought I was someone else, who ended up becoming lifelong friends, to Bigskyn Biggerheart who gave me my first tradeskill help and advice, to every asshat I had to kick out of a group because he would pull at will when he wasn't the puller, to the person who told me about Aqua Goblins and helped me get my first half decent gear.
I too could go on for hours, but I raise my glass to Everquest; what once was the best and only MMORPG to play and which will remain so in the hearts of many!
UO doesnt compare to this, the feelings i had, from DING!ing for my first time, to crying when i lost my body and thought i would NEVER get it back. Thanks to all of you that are still there, just giving a shout out for old Blood of the Spider, and Keepers of the Oak, aka Guardians of the Oak. Death and Mayhem Nation, and all of those that I still game with from meeting with on this game. This will ALWAYS have a special place to me.
I've played UO, EQ, DAOC, EQ2, WoW, EvE, countless rpgs, and other games and the estate of Unrest remains my favorite zone of all time.
Just thought id add that in there....I think they changed it a while back so you could change your last name once a week or something.
Originally posted by Rekindle
I've played UO, EQ, DAOC, EQ2, WoW, EvE, countless rpgs, and other games and the estate of Unrest remains my favorite zone of all time.
Just thought id add that in there....I think they changed it a while back so you could change your last name once a week or something.
I've only played EQ and Eve (subbed twice to Eve after a 18 month gap) and I still think about EQ - especially the content. The Estate of Unrest was also my favourite zone (Kelethin my favourite city) - despite mumbled asperions that East Commonlands should be my favourite zone, given how long I stood there :P Damn you, Bazaar! - because it represented a real challenge and couldn't be mindlessly zerged without depopulating the whole zone.
It was a small, well designed zone which was notorious because 1. long, long entrance tunnel and 2. infamous trains - inc. the basement train (whee fun! Suck up another death) meant that it wasn't unusual to see half the player population in the zone on a CR or in Dagnor's Cauldron (spelling! Damn memory), waiting for the train to subside and the inhabitants of the Estate make their slow return to their locations.
For such a small zone, it possessed a very wide level range because the Entrance Yard [yard trash] could be carefully cleared by players in the mid teens (lvl 16 plus), you had different mobs, with different level differentials on different floors (ugh, basement!), as well as genuinely challenging rooms (Hand Room) that required exceptionally good pullers without causing a huge train that would depopulate the zone.
In short, two qualities that I seek from any title: challenge and FUN! I loved the fact that if you messed up just by an inch > .. < you could be eating a death. I remembered introducing an acquaintance and their friend to the zone. Within 10 minutes, the friend of the acquaintance had sucked up 3 deaths and complained LONG and HARD to everyone who cared to listen that the Estate sucked and he was going to level up in LOIO [Lake of Ill Omen] instead.
That for me is why I heart the Estate of Unrest.
Not to mention the cool scarecrows (dropping orange dye), and that semi-secret gnome that lived below the Gazebo. Yes, that's right! The Estate even had a Gazebo!
Regards,
Riotgirl
"If you think I'm plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in way over your head. I don't have a heart of gold or get nice. There are a lot nicer people coming up. We call them losers."
I played for 3+ years, almost everyday. I simply loved this game.
I started a troll shaman and ran (with my eyes closed, praying) through Oasis and Ro.
I parked my butt in the tunnel and everyone running by stopped to look at the green fatty
I know a lot has changed (I haven't played since Luclin really), but I just may try it out again now... This thread made me laugh and smile a lot
Thanks for the flashbacks!
datz muh name
killin froggies
datz muh game
I just installed Titanium. I'll play nothing other than my trolly
To all the other guilds I have known but I never became a part of (Grey Hawke, Night Eternal,...others...*sigh*)
To all those charm kiting bards that out shined my druids kiting.
To stepping back from raiding for awhile and exploring areas.
To all of our first experiences of Unrest
To JBoots!
To SoW!
To Clairity and beyond!
To Enchanters that did not ignore your request for Clairity!
To Clerics that did not ignore your requests for Buffs and Rezzes!
To kiting on the shores of Lake of Ill Omen!
To Kiting dwarves on the BB docks!
To all the Drizzt Drizzzzt Drizztt Dryzt Drizzit Drrizzt Dryzzyt Drizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt clones out there! You will truely go the extra mile to show your Salvatore allegiance even at the cost of being shunned by the entire population.
To the Guide program! You couldn't help us a damn but you at least tried....free labor...meh...
To 1st torch! To second torch! To 3rd torch! To all the spam accumalated in East Commons! The first Bazaar!
To chasing newbies while in treeform and scaring the living %$#%@# out of them!....before it was nerfed and you became sad unmobile tree.
To my retired druid that I had played until OoW and left my account to my ex.
To The Vision© and Brad McQuiad!
To the one and only Ranger to wield the Fiery Avenger!
To getting your surname at level 20 and GMs making a big deal out of it and advertising your achievement for all to see!
To what was once was but shall never be again.
To Verant.
Auldawyn Garamonde - Karana Server
Everquest Memory Album 1&2:
http://home.att.ne.jp/surf/mirage/memory_album.html
I haven't been here in a while and I came back to see this thread still kickin.
Thanks everyone for the memories. Logically I know this is a video game but when I think back the memories are just as real as any real world first kiss.
I found the very same feeling in Everquest. It's gone now, but I remember it as clearly as the day itself. Groups wouldn't be snorefestivals of pulling all the mobs in the room and waiting, it'd be a constant battle, every player thinking what they had to do, trying their darndest not to get everyone in the group, and possibly the zone, killed.
I miss those days. To all those who were around to share them with me, I kneel before you in humility and reverance.