Happy 10th, EverQuest
EverQuest, arguably the most influential MMO in history, launched 10 years ago on March 16th, 1999. It took me a few weeks to leave Ultima Online and try this terrible, crappy, 3D game that required me to purchase a Matrox Mystique to play. And I found my second love. The game had a soul, and even though I couldn’t rampantly prey upon other players, I enjoyed the world and discovered my unflinching love for the Bard class. No game has matched the flavor and depth of EQ ever since. Well… not yet. Happy belated birthday, EverQuest.
Indeed, happy birthday to a game that provided many years of enjoyment and helped to define an industry.
Though, Chanters > Bards (though I do miss selos!)
Vald
Yes, happy 10 years EQ! Here’s to another 10 years!
monk4life
As much as people like to bag on EQ and how bad it was, every attempt since to make games “better” has mostly succeeded in destroying in-game communities. In EQ, it was rare to be a random group where no one chatted… in most of the games since, its rare to be a random group where people talk.
But the one thing people can’t take from me is that playing EQ made me a better typist. Juggling pulling duties with guild, group and a half dozen private chats, priceless.
I have no sympathy… I had to twist at least 3-4 songs AND type.
Funny that you post this. The new expansion for LotRO has me thinking back to the days of dying on the platform in Kelethin because I logged out of the game only to log back in to mid air. Caras Galadorn in LotRO is easily the modern day Kelethin and is worse in almost every way from a design standpoint that I miss Kelethin.
Anyway, was thinking about EQ last night. Ten years is so long ago and to think I cut my teeth on MUDs ten years prior to that…. I’ve been playing online games too long.