Ive been playing Warhammer Online  since it launched and Ive been thinking about MMORPGs in general. Where they were, how far they have came. Thinking about MMOs always bring me back to my first MMO experience, which is of coarse Everquest. Now Ive played a lot of MMOs since Everquest, looking for that one game to give me the same satisfaction and enjoyment that Everquest brought me but I haven’t found one yet. Everquest wasn’t without its problems. There was some good and some bad. Here, I’m going to look at what I liked and disliked about Everquest and compare it to the what I would consider the 4 most significant MMO releases. DOAC, Everquest, World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online.

What I liked about Everquest.

The World

The very first time I logged into Everquest, there were people all over the place, there were shops with vendors, guard walking around (or just standing there). Even though right now things would seem a bit dated, The city of Queynos felt like a real city. The warrior types had an area with lore to back it up, the Clerics and Paladins had their church, the mage classes had an area, Even the rogue and warlock classes had their own hidden area underneath the city. If you venture out from the city you would see the outdoor classes (rangers and druids) had their own home. Depending on where what classes/race you picked you were in a different place but for me Queynos was the beginning of my Everquest journey.
The combat

Combat in Everquest was pretty simple. You auto attack and that was your combat. Some melee classes had extra attacks, such as bash or kick. It was enough to feel like you were doing a little more than just watching the game play itself. With some of those extra attacks, there were added effects that sometimes add a little strategy to your play. Bashing a guy as he was casting a spell for example. The bash skill stunned your opponent so they couldn’t cast.
The dungeons

I really adored the dungeons in Everquest. Blackburrow, Mistmoore, Lower Guk (cant remember the exact name), Sol B. I have very fond memories of being in groups, chatting away while we kill the monsters over and over again to get exp or items. Camping is what it was called, and I really enjoyed it.
Armor/Stat counting

This changed a lot as the game started getting expansion packs, but one thing I liked was how you can build your character to have certain strengths by choosing to wear armor with certain stat bonuses. What your character can do was the same for everyone of that class/race but you can be really creative with your equipment to get different performance out of your character. For example, You can choose to focus on items with strength attributes so that your character will hit harder, Or you can focus on items that had hi fire resistances so you can fair a bit better if you are going into a dungeon where the monsters do a lot of fire damage.  After an expansion pack or 2, the game got to where you needed X gear to perform well and everyone wanted the same thing. But before then, I loved the configurability of your character by your equipment choice.
Factions

The first time I went to Freeport, The guard there frowned at me and wouldn’t talk to me. I had to go out and help their cause by killing monsters and bringing proof. I basically had to gain their trust. After that was done, then they started talking to me, giving me quest etc. There was even a time when I took a good aligned character and built up enough faction with an evil city that they didn’t try to kill me every time I went past. I loved that little meta game. It made for some interesting choices later on as some of the quest offered forced you to decide on keeping in good grace of the city or fighting for the greater good.

What I hated about Everquest.

Random Instant Deaths

One thing I hated about Everquest was how some area’s had low level monsters and really high level monsters roaming the same area. Theres nothing I used to hate more than being level 15 fighting level 15 alligators and all of a sudden die because a level 38 giant wandered up behind me and killed me in 2 hits. Or fighting level 10 Gnolls and get killed in the same fashion by a level 33 Griffon.
The death penalty

The death penalty in Everquest was horrible.  I still remember at about level 44, fighting in Sol B for 6 hours, gaining a good amount of experience (for what it was) and getting killed. If there was no one there to resurrect me, I had to take about a 15-20 minute trek from the nearest town back to Sol B to retrieve your corpse (and all your items). No weapons, No armor, and if its night time depending on which race, you may not even be able to see what you are doing. Not only that, you also loose the whole 6 hours of exp you just made, sometimes more. And if attacked by a monster on the way back, with no armor or weapons you may just die again.
Leveling

Leveling in Everquest took way too long also. As you got higher in level, it took longer to get to the next level which makes sense, but it makes no sense when it start to take 8 hours or longer of straight play to gain one level.

Balance

This game was horribly unbalanced. Back to those level 38 giants again. I remember always looking forward to the higher level druids coming to that area to kill those giants, that way the giants wasn’t killing me. Those Druids were about level 30 or higher, and I always thought “when I get that high level, Im going to come here and spend a few hours killing those giants to get revenge”. Did that ever happen? Nope. The first time I tried was at level 40. I Picked a level 35 giant, thinking it would be an easy kill. I died. Then I figured if I wait till I get to 50 I should beable to kill them. Nope, at 50 I went to kill those giants and still couldn’t kill them. If I found a level 33 giant I can kill one with a sliver of health left, but other than that, it was a no go. Some classes was just clearly a lot more effective than others and it stayed that way for a long time.

Forced Grouping

After about level 25, You couldn’t really do anything in the game unless you had a group. It got so bad that there was actually lines outside of dungeons where people were waiting for a group. At around 40 I couldn’t kill anything that would give me experience solo so I was forced to wait for openings in a group if I wanted to advance.   This reason alone is what enevitably made me quit the game.  I realized I was doing more waiting than playing.

In the next part I will compare a few of the MMORPGs that has released since Everquest to my likes and dislikes of Everquest. Check back soon for part 2