EQ 10 years old today

[Numtini]

I don't think the nostalgia is misplaced, there are things that EQ did that you can't do anymore and they were really good things. But yes, they were reliant on a lot of bad things and we're past them. You can't have it back, nobody would put up with it. But there was something there that made the game more than just misery.

[raydeen]

I don't think the nostalgia is misplaced, there are things that EQ did that you can't do anymore and they were really good things. But yes, they were reliant on a lot of bad things and we're past them. You can't have it back, nobody would put up with it. But there was something there that made the game more than just misery.

The people you played with made the game more than just misery. I was very close to laying into WUA but held my tongue. I never got UO (and never will) much the same way he never got EQ (and never will). But I'm fairly sure he would say the people he played with in UO made it the game he loves and remembers and still sometimes goes back to. If I'm putting words in your mouth WUA, sorry. Frankly, solid online commradery is the one thing I find missing from recent MMOs. Everyone is pretty much able to solo and thus don't need to routinely group up and work togethor. I was in a guild called Lords of Drakova in EQ. Part of our 'game' was to go out and actively help others. I guess we were the ultimate carebears but we made a bit of a name for ourselves on Cazic-Thule back in the day. People were always glad to see us come and sorry to see us go. EQ may have been unfinished and rife with undirected content but it made things that much more open for players to do with as they saw fit. Everything nowdays is so 'on the rails'. There's got to be a happy medium between Russian Roulette and Candyland.

/suits up and quietly awaits the backlash.

[WindupAtheist]

It's not about UO versus EQ, or even any broader question of Diku versus sandbox. It's about nostalgia causing one to mythologize the cockstab. I love me some UO, but the game is/was full of cockstabs and I've never made any secret of the fact that I'm just waiting for someone to remake it someday, minus the stabs.

You're not going to catch me going "Man remember when the only way to ever own a house in UO was to find one about to collapse and then camp it for hours on end with a bunch of people and hope you were the one who got lucky? Man that sure built a sense of community and acheivement. I wish other games would have non-instanced housing with insufficient housing space for all the players!" Because I don't fucking like being stabbed in the cock, and I've never really been gone from the game for the years on end required to forget that.

Also, I don't get what's supposed to be so bad about Triforcer. Sure he can't resist spontaneously calling us pinko liberal commies from time to time, but getting upset about that is like getting mad at your dog for farting. He's much more civil than I am, at least.

[Arthur_Parker]

When a bunch of old geezers are reminiscing about how much fun they had in their Model T, that's one thing. When they begin expressing regret that the 2008 Mercedes doesn't have one of those awesome cranks on the front, it's time to call them dipshits.

Yeah, I don't mean to crap all over a nice EQ is ten years old thread, but there's quite a few people who hated EQ.  I tried it twice and lasted about 3 hours total.  But I was informed, I'd read lots from EQ players who did nothing but bitch about all the time sinks, staring at books or some shit, sitting chatting, playing a puzzle game, camping, having to click run every single time they logged in.  I still tried EQ twice because with all those faults, they still play, so it must be awesome right?  Zone, zone, zone, loading, heh no.

I remember clearing a dungeon in AC1 from start to finish, doing 3-4 complete runs, having a blast, trying not to heal or slow down as I cut through the place, I kept passing these two guys standing in one room.  Eventually I asked "what you doing?", turns out they were "camping" the single mob in the room waiting for respawn, totally insane, I'd kill 20 mobs in the time it took them to kill one, I was moving and actually playing the game, I didn't even need to ask what game they used to play.

[Sky]

I don't think anyone here is forgetting all the garbage that made us run from EQ to whatever came out for years after. Some people just like to celebrate the positive and not be douchebags. I could tell awesome nostalgic stories about UO, but it was overall a shitty game (and is worse now). But I would rather focus on the fun stuff and not take a big steaming shit on the thread like some people enjoy doing.

I for one am the explorer niche and would rather hang out in a dungeon that has a cool vibe than blindly follow quests to maximize efficiency like most mmodrones. S'why I dislike the new EQ2 starter zones: no dungeons, just a linear quest line to get you to 20 and geared up ASAP. *yawn* Why even bother playing, just start characters rolled at 20 with gear.

[Dtrain]

I don't think anyone has claimed that EQ was a great game by any modern standards (I certainly haven't.) It surely exists in a class of games that have not aged gracefully: the MMO genre. Other noteworthy entries include UO, and AC (which, sorry Arthur, is a monkey's ass covered in tapioca pudding.) It may not seem like it just yet, but I'm sure that we'll look back at WoW in a few years and think similar thoughts.

Also, just for shits and giggles, I grabbed a list of noteworthy games released 1 year before and 1 year after EQ. Some certainly hold up better than others, but it does make for some interesting comparison.

1998
March 29 – Parasite Eve (PS)
March 31 – StarCraft (Win)
April 30 - Panzer Dragoon Saga (Sat)
May 6 – Warhammer: Dark Omen (Win)
May 22 – Unreal (Win)
June 29 - Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64)
August 21 – Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Win)
August 31 - I-War (Independence War) (Win)
September 3 – Metal Gear Solid (PS)
September 10 - Spyro the Dragon (PS)
September 30 – Fallout 2 (Win)
September 30 – Pokémon Red and Blue (GB)
October 20 – Xenogears (PS)
October 30 – Grim Fandango (Win)
October 31 – Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome Expansion (Win)
October 31 – SiN (Win)
November 20 – Half-Life (Win)
November 21 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
November 30 – StarCraft: Brood War (Win)
November 30 – Starsiege: Tribes (Win)
November 30 – Thief: The Dark Project (Win)
November 30 – Baldur's Gate (Win)
December - - King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (Win)
December 10 – Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64)
December 20 – Myth II: Soulblighter (Win)

1999
January 31 - Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (PC)
January 31 - Silent Hill (PS)
February 8 - Mario Party (N64)
February 28 - Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (PC)
March 16 - EverQuest (PC)
March 31 - RollerCoaster Tycoon (PC)
April 10 - Warzone 2100 (PC)
April 27 - Super Smash Bros. (N64)
April 30 - Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (PC)
April 30 - Star Wars: Episode I Racer (N64, PC)
April 30 - Pokémon Stadium (N64)
June 1 - Heroes of Might and Magic III (PC)
June 14 - Descent³ (PC)
June 18 - Counter-Strike (original PC MOD)
June 30 - Kingpin: Life of Crime (PC)
July 31 - Outcast (PC)
August 11 - System Shock 2 (PC)
August 27 - Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (PC)
August 31 - Final Fantasy VIII - (PS)
August 31 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS)
September 7 - Sonic Adventure (DC)
September 8 - Soul Calibur (DC)
September 30 - Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (PC)
October 11 - Jet Force Gemini (N64)
October 31 - Half-Life: Opposing Force (PC)
October 31 - Ultima IX: Ascension (PC)
October 31 - Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
November 9 - RollerCoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies (PC)
November 11 - Medal of Honor (PS)
November 15 - Homeworld (PC)
November 26 - Unreal Tournament (DC, PC, PS2)
December 2 - Quake III Arena (PC)
December 12 - Planescape: Torment (PC)
December 31 - Battlezone II: Combat Commander (PC)

2000
January 31 - The Sims (PC)
February 29 - Resident Evil Code: Veronica (DC)

[Sky]

May 22 – Unreal (Win)
September 30 – Fallout 2 (Win)
November 20 – Half-Life (Win)
November 30 – Starsiege: Tribes (Win)
November 30 – Thief: The Dark Project (Win)
November 30 – Baldur's Gate (Win)

1999
January 31 - Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (PC)
February 28 - Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (PC)
March 16 - EverQuest (PC)
April 30 - Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (PC)
June 1 - Heroes of Might and Magic III (PC)
August 11 - System Shock 2 (PC)
August 31 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS)
September 8 - Soul Calibur (DC)
November 15 - Homeworld (PC)
November 26 - Unreal Tournament (DC, PC, PS2)
December 12 - Planescape: Torment (PC) 

Jesus fucking christ the gaming industry has gone downhill.

[Arthur_Parker]

AC (which, sorry Arthur, is a monkey's ass covered in tapioca pudding.)

AC was totally different but I'll save that for the AC 10 year thread, a thread which I'm sure will be completely full of positively glowing comments.

[Mrbloodworth]

I've had all I can stands, and I can't stands no more.

You blindly stuck with Ultima Online and did not try anything else, because you felt you had the One True Way and Everyone Else Was Wrong.

You became a standing joke for your constant ignorant comments about the EverQuest you knew nothing about. When WoW came along you kept playing UO as well, constantly dissing WoW for being more of the EverQuest you never played.

Then one day, years after it launched, you finally broke down and tried WoW, and after trying so hard to dislike it and posting your ridiculous noob experiences for everyone as if you were somehow special, you became a Blizzard fanboy.

And yet 10 years after the event, you still "can't stand" not commenting about the game you never played. But now it's in the context of "I never played it, but it must be inferior to WoW".

EQ has a lot of stuff that is there because it is there.  A lot of the time there was lore and background and everything to those places, and nobody knew anything about them because there were no good drops known there, and the exp/time ratio of camping there was bad, so the general populace never passed word of their existence around.  And sometimes those places had interesting things that went undiscovered for months.

Translation: SOE couldn't dream of producing enough directed content to push players through the everything in the world, and so you had lots of locations just going to waste. Er, I mean, waiting to be discovered and provide a moment's amusement to some fractional explorer niche of the playerbase.

No, they were the first 3D MMO so they made it like a PnP fantasy game, with lots of areas that were just for lore. Because lore is important to fantasy nerds creating an artificial world.

On another note, another thing I miss about EQ was finding an unusual object, then trying to figure out what it was related to.  That can't happen in WoW and most MMO's I've tried recently because of the annoying (to me, at least) mechanic that quest items do not drop unless you are on the quest.  Again I suspect that if newer MMOG's did put in things like this where there's no obvious sign in your face saying to do this with this, some of these things would take a while to discover, since such a huge portion of the playerbase simply wouldn't try.

Yeah, let's obfuscate all the content so that everyone can spend half their playtime with their browser open, trying to figure out what they're supposed to be doing. You can't hide anything from the players, at least not for very long. All you can do is make things more tedious. Shit, at this point Blizzard could go crazy and remove all the "GO HERE NEWBIE" directions from WoW and in no time there would just be an addon to put them all back.

You still have no idea what you're talking about. It's bizarre that you think you're some kind of authority on a 10-year-old game you never touched, to the point that you can't let its actual players celebrate it, even now.

I think some of you are attributing things to some grand design, that were simply lack of experience and precedence.

[Ashamanchill]

1998
March 29 – Parasite Eve (PS)
March 31 – StarCraft (Win)
April 30 - Panzer Dragoon Saga (Sat)
May 6 – Warhammer: Dark Omen (Win)
May 22 – Unreal (Win)
June 29 - Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64)
August 21 – Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Win)
August 31 - I-War (Independence War) (Win)
September 3 – Metal Gear Solid (PS)
September 10 - Spyro the Dragon (PS)
September 30 – Fallout 2 (Win)
September 30 – Pokémon Red and Blue (GB)
October 20 – Xenogears (PS)
October 30 – Grim Fandango (Win)
October 31 – Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome Expansion (Win)
October 31 – SiN (Win)
November 20 – Half-Life (Win)
November 21 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
November 30 – StarCraft: Brood War (Win)
November 30 – Starsiege: Tribes (Win)
November 30 – Thief: The Dark Project (Win)
November 30 – Baldur's Gate (Win)
December - - King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (Win)
December 10 – Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64)
December 20 – Myth II: Soulblighter (Win)

1999
January 31 - Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (PC)
January 31 - Silent Hill (PS)
February 8 - Mario Party (N64)
February 28 - Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (PC)
March 16 - EverQuest (PC)
March 31 - RollerCoaster Tycoon (PC)
April 10 - Warzone 2100 (PC)
April 27 - Super Smash Bros. (N64)
April 30 - Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (PC)
April 30 - Star Wars: Episode I Racer (N64, PC)
April 30 - Pokémon Stadium (N64)
June 1 - Heroes of Might and Magic III (PC)
June 14 - Descent³ (PC)
June 18 - Counter-Strike (original PC MOD)
June 30 - Kingpin: Life of Crime (PC)
July 31 - Outcast (PC)
August 11 - System Shock 2 (PC)
August 27 - Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (PC)
August 31 - Final Fantasy VIII - (PS)
August 31 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS)
September 7 - Sonic Adventure (DC)
September 8 - Soul Calibur (DC)
September 30 - Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (PC)
October 11 - Jet Force Gemini (N64)
October 31 - Half-Life: Opposing Force (PC)
October 31 - Ultima IX: Ascension (PC)
October 31 - Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
November 9 - RollerCoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies (PC)
November 11 - Medal of Honor (PS)
November 15 - Homeworld (PC)
November 26 - Unreal Tournament (DC, PC, PS2)
December 2 - Quake III Arena (PC)
December 12 - Planescape: Torment (PC)
December 31 - Battlezone II: Combat Commander (PC)

Holy crap this reads like an itemized checklist of my grade nine and ten years.  I'm with Sky on this one.

[naum]

Except for some snazzy 3D polygons, I really don't see evolution in action since this list… …granted, 3D has brought more realism to FPS and exploded the MMORPG genre, but was a regressive development for RTS/TBS games…

1998
March 29 – Parasite Eve (PS)
March 31 – StarCraft (Win)
April 30 - Panzer Dragoon Saga (Sat)
May 6 – Warhammer: Dark Omen (Win)
May 22 – Unreal (Win)
June 29 - Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64)
August 21 – Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Win)
August 31 - I-War (Independence War) (Win)
September 3 – Metal Gear Solid (PS)
September 10 - Spyro the Dragon (PS)
September 30 – Fallout 2 (Win)
September 30 – Pokémon Red and Blue (GB)
October 20 – Xenogears (PS)
October 30 – Grim Fandango (Win)
October 31 – Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome Expansion (Win)
October 31 – SiN (Win)
November 20 – Half-Life (Win)
November 21 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
November 30 – StarCraft: Brood War (Win)
November 30 – Starsiege: Tribes (Win)
November 30 – Thief: The Dark Project (Win)
November 30 – Baldur's Gate (Win)
December - - King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (Win)
December 10 – Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64)
December 20 – Myth II: Soulblighter (Win)

1999
January 31 - Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (PC)
January 31 - Silent Hill (PS)
February 8 - Mario Party (N64)
February 28 - Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (PC)
March 16 - EverQuest (PC)
March 31 - RollerCoaster Tycoon (PC)
April 10 - Warzone 2100 (PC)
April 27 - Super Smash Bros. (N64)
April 30 - Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (PC)
April 30 - Star Wars: Episode I Racer (N64, PC)
April 30 - Pokémon Stadium (N64)
June 1 - Heroes of Might and Magic III (PC)
June 14 - Descent³ (PC)
June 18 - Counter-Strike (original PC MOD)
June 30 - Kingpin: Life of Crime (PC)
July 31 - Outcast (PC)
August 11 - System Shock 2 (PC)
August 27 - Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (PC)
August 31 - Final Fantasy VIII - (PS)
August 31 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS)
September 7 - Sonic Adventure (DC)
September 8 - Soul Calibur (DC)
September 30 - Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (PC)
October 11 - Jet Force Gemini (N64)
October 31 - Half-Life: Opposing Force (PC)
October 31 - Ultima IX: Ascension (PC)
October 31 - Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
November 9 - RollerCoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies (PC)
November 11 - Medal of Honor (PS)
November 15 - Homeworld (PC)
November 26 - Unreal Tournament (DC, PC, PS2)
December 2 - Quake III Arena (PC)
December 12 - Planescape: Torment (PC)
December 31 - Battlezone II: Combat Commander (PC)

2000
January 31 - The Sims (PC)
February 29 - Resident Evil Code: Veronica (DC)

[Lakov_Sanite]

 
November 30 – Thief: The Dark Project (Win)

Better than EQ ever was.

[sam, an eggplant]

It may not seem like it just yet, but I'm sure that we'll look back at WoW in a few years and think similar thoughts.

Somehow I don't think so. EQ was never a particularly well-crafted game, even when it was king of the world. Quality control was laughably awful, external communication openly hostile, no concessions made to casual gamers, and entire low-level mechanics ripped wholesale from diku with no evaluation of their merits in a graphical evolution of the genre. Simply put, EQ was successful because it was first. WoW is successful because it's a great game.

[Shatter]

I have never felt the love for WOW like I did EQ.  I miss the EQ burning sensation of that cheese grater being slowly scraped up and down my scrotum, WOW cant offer me that.

[Simond]

It may not seem like it just yet, but I'm sure that we'll look back at WoW in a few years and think similar thoughts.

Somehow I don't think so. EQ was never a particularly well-crafted game, even when it was king of the world. Quality control was laughably awful, external communication openly hostile, no concessions made to casual gamers, and entire low-level mechanics ripped wholesale from diku with no evaluation of their merits in a graphical evolution of the genre. Simply put, EQ was successful because it was first. WoW is successful because it's a great game.

Ah, but to a whole lot of people, WoW was the first (or, at least, their first). There's already nostalgia threads on most WoW forums along the lines of "Hey, remember when the top hunter survival talent was a shitty version of Rend? Good times, man" and so on.

[Tale]

WoW is successful because it's a great game.

WoW was a great game. This year, it will be 5 years old. To anyone who's not still obsessed with WoW, it looks and feels that old. It's gone all mudflated and I got tired of it years ago.

It's holding up because nobody else has made a great game in the genre in five years. But I can't look at 10-year-old EQ and 5-year-old WoW in "then and now" terms. They're both "then". How I wish there was a "now" game.

[sam, an eggplant]

It's still a great game. They continue to innovate with technology like phasing, vehicles, etc, in the newest expansion, but even vanilla WoW is a superbly balanced, fast-paced, guided, great gaming experience. It all falls apart at max level of course, but leveling from 1-79 is a great game, and (in my opinion) is unsurpassed as far as dikuclones go.

[Tale]

The people who were still playing EQ five years ago said much the same to me when I evangelised WoW.

[sam, an eggplant]

When/if the next WoW comes out, you may have a point. I don't see anything even on the horizon except for possibly SWTOR, and that's 2011 at best.

[Tale]

Free Realms will soon captivate us with pixie wings.

[Dtrain]

Free Realms will soon captivate us with pixie wings.

I know you're all excited, but I have the feeling that Freerealms will appeal to only 2 groups:

8-12 year old  s
and  s of all ages

Can we have a  where the horse is a pink unicorn?

[SnakeCharmer]

I have never felt the love for WOW like I did EQ.  I miss the EQ burning sensation of that cheese grater being slowly scraped up and down my scrotum, WOW cant offer me that.

You're broken.

[WindupAtheist]

Someday WoW will be replaced by something better and more successful, and at some point thereafter a bunch of guys drunk on nostalgia will post about how they miss all the crap in WoW that turned out to be an evolutionary dead end and which the audience is past tolerating anyway. I will be there to piss on their parade, as well. It's not about the specific mechanics of the game in question.

[Tale]

Can I have a  grief avatar where the horse is a pink unicorn?

FIFY

Someday WoW will be replaced by something better and more successful, and at some point thereafter a bunch of guys drunk on nostalgia will post about how they miss all the crap in WoW that turned out to be an evolutionary dead end and which the audience is past tolerating anyway. I will be there to piss on their parade, as well. It's not about the specific mechanics of the game in question.

I keenly await the UO 15th anniversary thread.

[KallDrexx]

About the only memory I have from EQ was fighting mobs in that graveyard area with the curved walls.  Those mobs would always fall through the floor and you would have to zone out to get them gone.

That and the annoying trains in the gnoll dungeon are all that I remember from my short time.  I never did get why all my RL friends were so obsessed.  I went back to muds after playing it.

[WindupAtheist]

Arf!

Do you ever get tired of smiting me with the "But you never played EQ/raided/whatever!" attack in a fit of righteous indignation, only to have other people who did play come along and tell you that I'm right anyway? Because it's happened to you at least twice now that I can recall. Oh, and way to continue to ignore the substance of my statements even after I laid them out real simple for you.

But ha ha, WUA plays UO sometimes still! Whoo, that totally makes him a hypocrite! I mean if he wanted that sort of fluff-heavy sandbox MMO experience but WEREN'T a nostalgia-addled fool himself, he'd be playing... uh... er... an emulated SWG server? Fucking Darkfall, maybe? What?

Dipshit.

[Tale]

Do you ever get tired of smiting me with the "But you never played EQ/raided/whatever!" attack in a fit of righteous indignation, only to have other people who did play come along and tell you that I'm right anyway? Because it's happened to you at least twice now that I can recall. Oh, and way to continue to ignore the substance of my statements even after I laid them out real simple for you.

But ha ha, WUA plays UO sometimes still! Whoo, that totally makes him a hypocrite! I mean if he wanted that sort of fluff-heavy sandbox MMO experience but WEREN'T a nostalgia-addled fool himself, he'd be playing... uh... er... an emulated SWG server? Fucking Darkfall, maybe? What?

Dipshit.

You fail as a troll.

[Stephen Zepp]

Hindsight is 20/20 I guess, but I think a lot of people are simply misplacing the timeline of EQ compared to playerbase maturity.

They didn't know that players would camp a particular spot for hours and hours when all of those "out of the way, no reason to go there" stuff was designed and implemented--they were flabbergasted that players didn't actually see dungeons and zones as places to explore fully.

Look at the games that preceded it, such as Ultima Underworld--people didn't farm camps in UO, they explored and experienced new things--and that was what they expected players to do. Spawns didn't respawn so the same players could camp for hours and hours--they re-spawned so that new players would have something to experience.

For those players that both enjoyed exploring, and either were lucky enough to pick a class that could explore (monks or rogues basically), or had a group of friends they could explore with, that aspect was simply amazing. Personally, I absolutely loved exploring areas that most never even knew about, much less had experience with, and the lore stories that were uncovered were pretty damn cool to players like me.

I fully respect that my play style is a minority--most people are achievers or killers, and don't really care about anything but those things...but to me, EQ was Ultima Underworld I and II that never ended just because I finished a single main single player quest.

Did it have many things that sucked? Sure--especially if you were the type of player that just wanted to min/max, or get phat loots. There isn't anything wrong with that at all...but EQ wasn't written specifically for that.

Personally, I think WoW's success was not necessarily in doing things better graphically, or game mechanics wise, but in their research and understanding of the different types of players, and the way they spent hard work attracting as many types as possible. EQ designers in my mind never really grasped that well, but it doesn't change the fact that as Mr Bloodworth stated, there wasn't anything to learn from at that time in the industry.

[WindupAtheist]

You fail as a troll.

Hey guys, all that stuff I said about how a deliberately obscure presentation would just be blown by third parties? And that other stuff about how infrequently-used content probably needed more of a reason to be used? And that thinking otherwise is more a function of nostalgia than anything else? Yeah, all of that was totally destroyed by Tale and his insightful, engaging, and on-target debate. I couldn't say a word without him drawing upon his extensive playing experience to deliver a crushingly logical rebuttal in detail. Way to go, Tale.

Oh wait...

Here be flames!

[gryeyes]

snore...

[LK]

Someday WoW will be replaced by something better and more successful,

And if I was a betting man, it'd be something Blizzard produces.

[WindupAtheist]

I don't know. All they really did with WoW was take the existing market leader and copy it with more money and less cockstab. Doing new things isn't really their strong suit. It might be a very long time before even Blizzard can beat WoW with something.

[Sky]

For those players that both enjoyed exploring, and either were lucky enough to pick a class that could explore (monks or rogues basically), or had a group of friends they could explore with, that aspect was simply amazing. Personally, I absolutely loved exploring areas that most never even knew about, much less had experience with, and the lore stories that were uncovered were pretty damn cool to players like me.

I fully respect that my play style is a minority--most people are achievers or killers, and don't really care about anything but those things...but to me, EQ was Ultima Underworld I and II that never ended just because I finished a single main single player quest.

I'm on the same page you are, and definitely the minority. Kinda sad, since the result of the majority playstyle is a much less interesting or vibrant game world, but eh. Water long under the bridge.

I'd add necro to your list, corpse summoning ftw.

I don't know. All they really did with WoW was take the existing market leader and copy it with more money and less cockstab. Doing new things isn't really their strong suit. It might be a very long time before even Blizzard can beat WoW with something.

Oooh...good point. Please, Mr. Blizzard, work on Starcraft Online aka Planetside 2 

[Mrbloodworth]

Oooh...good point. Please, Mr. Blizzard, work on Starcraft Online aka Planetside 2 

I would play it.

[Dtrain]

Oooh...good point. Please, Mr. Blizzard, work on Starcraft Online aka Planetside 2 

I'd play the crap out of that. Sadly, I don't anticipate a good MMO FPS in the near future. Poor old Planetside - underappreciated through and through.