SvennoJ said:
And then the best game ever released, Everquest, an unforgiving MMORPG yet so rewarding to play
Souls games are easy compared to the original Everquest, at first I didn't think I would ever get beyond lvl 10 since death takes your experience right back and you could easily lose your level again, as well as lose access to abilities and spells from the new levels.
There was zero hand holding, everything you needed to learn from fellow players. There were quests yet the only way to find them is to talk to unmarked NPCs and say (type) the right key words to them, then figure out what you needed to find where to have in your inventory and talk to the NPC again.
The game was huge already at the start, it literally took an hour or more to get to the other side of the world. You also needed to take a ship to cross between continents, a ship you had to wait for as it ran on a schedule. Also while fighting there was a lot of down time, meditating to regain mana and heal up. Yet all this downtime is what made the game. It really was more of a chat room with game play rather than a game with communication options.
I started the game in Qeynos playing an Erudite Enchanter. Which was actually my second character as I wanted a challenge and Enchanters were (are) by far the hardest class to play. The game was balanced to be played with 5 or 6 player groups, playing alone really wasn't an option, definitely not for enchanters as they were the ultimate support class. I was doing all the buffs, make warriors fight faster, make casters regain mana faster, protection buffs and remove status effects yet most importantly the Enchanter was responsible for traffic control.
The typical way to play was to join a group and pick a spot to camp so all the casters could regain mana while the warrior would look around and pull enemies to camp. The enchanter would then stun and mezz the enemies, slow their attacks and then the group could take them on one by one. That may sound easy but what kept it hard and engaging was that everything was still chance based as well as the duration of mezz (hold spell) and managing agro was extremely important. I also had spells to make enemies forget me as being traffic control make the enchanter the biggest target and easiest to die. I died so much lol.
Also because charm made for the best allies. Charming a high level enemy to help in combat was the ultimate risk vs reward, yet charm like so many other spells had a random duration. And as soon as it broke, this no super angry fully buffed mob would come right for me. That's where teamwork, hot keys and quick reflexes made all the difference. A druid in the group could snare the target giving me time to get the mob under control again. And otherwise the cleric in the group could resurrect me as it usually only took one hit to kill me. Resurrection gave 90% of the lost xp back so it wasn't that painful to die as long as you had a high level cleric around.
Anyway after I hit level 10 again in Qeynos a friend escorted me to Freeport, a long dangerous journey, to see what it was like there. That first journey across half the world is still fresh in my mind. There in Freeport I started grouping up with Shazzon in East Commonlands
That's the first screenshot I have with Shazzon in the text chat, who I have been married to now for 19 happy years. Yep all that down time had people chat a lot and you got to know each other really well while playing the game. Also the game was played by a lot of girls and couples, it was a very social game. My wife started the game in Butcherblock mountains, opposite side of the world. She took the boat to Freeport around at the same time I as I ended up there which made us meet up in the Commonlands. We started chatting, sharing our life stories and gradually fell in love.
Her preferred character was Reindrop, a wizard she made a bit later
A perfect combination where we could duo zones as well with perfect timing. I would mezz a mob while she nuked it with high damage spells. Basically blast and mezz right after each other. But it was always easy to find a group for us, enchanters and wizards were in high demand.
So much we ended up in the top 10 in the Lost Dungeons of Norrath expansion
An expansion with instanced themed dungeons, shorter adventures for alternative xp (a second leveling up system for special upgrades)
By this time we were playing side by side as she is who prompted me to move to Canada. After a long immigration process (18 months) I packed my bags and emigrated to Canada in 2002. There I worked from home (kept my job in the Netherlands flying back 3 or 4 times a year for a week) and we had our PCs right next to each other to play Everquest together.
The best was leading groups through old Sebilis, pulling all the mobs in range and chain stunning them while wizard area of effect kill whole groups. With 3 levels of stun I could keep up to 30 mobs under control while the group unleashed powerful aeo spells.
It was also the best method for power leveling. Every time my friends wanted to start a new character I quickly got them up to speed by pulling half the zone and keeping the mobs stunned while they used their aoe spells to get all the experience. As long as I didn't damage the mobs, all xp would go to them.
We made a lot of friends in the game. It also allowed us to stay in contact with friends. One of my best friends and colleagues at work moved back to the UK when I moved to Canada. He had a friend in Seattle he hooked up with and we all played together every night. Bulk and Gnomey
Oh yeah I had illusion spells as well, so we often played as scarecrows or frogs.
Eyevonna and Autumnist, two more friends we met in the game. Autumnist used to always be with Luwen, but he cheated on her and their marriage fell apart :( We continued playing with Autumnist, my wife will not play with cheaters. Yeah you got all the good and the bad of people's life while playing the game.
What an amazing game, what an adventure
From playing together as a duo to massive raids that could last up to half a day
Definitely my game of all time as it gave me everything, a new life with the girl of my dreams.
And arguably also the best supported game of all time
We played the first 8 expansions, until Dragons of Norrath. Our friends were moving over to WoW at the time and we were curious about that as well. So in 2005 we made the switch after just over 5 years of playing Everquest. WoW was great as well but never reached the heights of Everquest. The almost forced grouping is what made Everquest special. WoW was too easy to go at it alone and we often just played together without a group. Also WoW had a 5 player limit on groups while in EQ we could play as 3 couples which we often did. WoW was fun as yet the group dynamics in Everquest were the best part. Creating a balanced well oiled group was the recipe to success, which fostered strong bonds and people looking for each other to play together. WoW didn't have that as much and lost a lot of the social charm.
My vote goes to Everquest this year. And we're still planning to go back to it after the kids leave the house.
2019 also saw the birth of Everquest project 1999
You can still play the original game, awesome! |
