EverQuest- Almost A Different Game

I was just thinking, the other day, how far EverQuest has come. I managed to pop in for a bit last week and though it is still a slower paced game than most are today, well, it has come a long way. I mean, remember (if you actually played back then, if not then you can pretend and just imagine this), when you really had to have a full group to get anything done? You absolutely needed a tank, needed a healer, unless you were kiting, or in a kite group, then it still took ages sometimes someone would die if a snare broke and you'd be looking for a healer anyhow because you needed a rez so you didn't take a full xp loss.

You just killed mobs wherever you felt like it, camped an item, maybe sitting there for hours on end, or perhaps checking back in every few hours or so. There were quests but those were mainly for really awesome or hard to get items, or even faction. Not really a 'Lets go quest' deal. If you wanted to sell back in the day you had to travel into the EC Tunnel (though some servers varied, basically you met up at the same place to sell) and auction your items, while some people cherish those days- I would like my time back please! I will admit I am glad to say I was part of that, even if I wouldn't go back to those days I have a lot of great memories. Maybe I would.... I had a lot more in-game friends back then. Things seemed so much friendlier.

There were no instances, you had to be aware of your surrounding and those around you. Travel took a long time, it wasn't quick, it wasn't easy, if you died it could really mess things up, causing a lot of time to be added onto a trip to wherever you were heading. Even sometimes needing assistance from other players to travel or retrieve a corpse.

Anyhow... We really have some great things these days. We have housing, cosmetic gear- as of this year, armor dye, questing, instances, broker system- getting an offline trader system this month (OMG!), quick travel in guild halls, portal stones and other quick means to travel.

We have raid chat, something most people  take for granted. Twelve years ago I remember shouting, yes shouting was how we did it. ALL CAPS IN RED! So everyone around could 'hear' us! We have chat channels... This wasn't always the case, we had /ooc say shout and that is about it. We had raids but we didn't have raid groups, not exactly, we had groups that was it.

There wasn't soloing for many classes. Now any class can solo, thanks to our new mercenary friends. I suppose we also had longer friend lists back then too. But now we don't have to waste time looking for a silly group, or if we want to we can solo while we look. I do like the latter aspect.

We don't have horrible corpse runs. This is a bonus, I had some truly horrifying moments and even lost several corpses and levels because of the old system. Even to the point of tears. Yes, I had tears stinging my eyes, threatening to flow over if I couldn't get back. Now we can summon our corpse to the guild lobby, it's that easy! For a small fee of course. Then we can get a merc or another person to rez us in the lobby!

We don't die from our characters holding too much weight or because we have too much coin on us. Say what? If you were too heavy and went over a small bump in the road you could fall to your death, I've had it happen, forgetting I had too much money on me while on a mount. Just a TINY bump in the road threw me to my death. While hilarious now, it wasn't too funny at the time.

And we have mounts! Back in the day we ran everywhere on foot and begged for a SoW! Mounts help us meditate and regen as if we were sitting, while in a group this is great, there are (even some which levitate now, what I would have done for a levitating mount back then! I fell to my death so many times!)  because sitting causes, well, sit aggro! So mounts were a wonderful addition! Speaking of sitting, who remembers sitting and medding with a book in your face? You couldn't see ANYTHING! What was that noise? Was it footsteps?! At level thirty we were able to meditate without our noses in a book, that was a big moment for any caster.

Ah, the days of the past. I remember them fondly but now things are so much easier. I was just sitting and remembering the good ol' days and how much the game has changed!  I sometimes feel like I am missing a completely different game, I log in and it feels so different. I miss those old haunts, the old zones. Things are better in many ways but different. Who else remembers those days, do you miss them or are you glad for convenience and much change?