Why does EQ succeed?Follow

It’s Friday, WOOT! I’ll try to refrain myself from typing out causeless, incoherent rants at certain anyones around here.

Zhasacoolclerics thread was interesting:

Zhasa writes a short essay to tell us that EQ is dying, but we shouldn’t discuss it anymore. I think the thread is now the 5th on the board about the death of Everquest? Darest there be a sixth? Will it be Zhasa’s?...or…or…does this latest essay entry of mine fit the category?!

Zha then proceeds to get into a battle of reason with the king…. Joph wins hands down as usual.

Coldhandluke, (who are you?) sneaks in a couple jabs, totally ignored by most.

Delian gave us a story of encouragement…good job.

Saeel interjects with the common sense most of us ignore when responding to a message board. The comments however, lacked the controversy needed to be carried too far.

Lastly, heitash takes the time to advise us who still play EQ, why we continue to play.

Is he/she right?

I do play other games as suggested by heit. I’m currently playing Vanguard and EQ. They provide me with very different kinds of entertainment. Vanguard is an escape from everything and everyone. I have no acquaintances in Vanguard, and no friends or family that play, so no obligations to anyone. The world of Telon is all new, exciting and full of challenge and adventure. I’ve made it a point to stay away from fansites, walkthroughs, spoilers, etc. for Vanguard. Hours can pass unnoticed while I complete a quest or two, join a pick-up group or just go exploring.

EQ is quite the opposite. Norrath feels very homey, comfortable and secure. I play with my husband and try and help manage a large and growing guild. I seldom decide what I want to do with my time in EQ. But! There’s still much I haven’t done or seen in EQ that I’m finally getting a chance to. I almost always have fun and often find myself accomplishing ‘something’ that I’ve been meaning to, or better yet, something I wasn’t meaning to and didn’t think I could. I like being a part, and hopefully an integral part, of something successful.

I probably spend ¾, or more, of my gaming time playing EQ.

I think the community, despite the recent rash of player complaints around here, is a big, perhaps the biggest, reason people keep playing. I think that most of the content that continues to come out is decent and worth spending some time on. I think the story of Norrath, the Nameless and all that has transpired through its make-believe history is intriguing and adds much to the flavor of Everquest. I think some still play because it’s a game that their computers CAN play and/or they feel like they have too much time and money invested in the game to quit and play something else. I think people, obviously, still enjoy EQ.

So, why you think EQ is still hanging on after all these years?

Why do you keep playing?

I am a late comer to the MMORPG scene, joining EQ from info from a few RL friends. If asked what makes me make my payement before tring WOW and Vanguard I think I would have given a different answer. WoW is well thought out and has lots of eye candy. It also does quite well with gratification, but at the end of the day (well, 3 months give or take) it was to simple and not enough challange. I think people misinterpret the fact that when populations of servers shrink that it always due to another game being better. I personally belive there are quite a few customers moving to WoW because they level up faster and that makes them feel "more accomplished" even though a level 45 EQ toon is more accomplised than a maxed WoW toon.

Vanguard is a bit different and if I had a system that exeeded their specs I might still be playing, but one thing was missing and that was the friends and guild members on my server. I have found that friends>content and if EQ has some things broke I for one really don't care and 1 post or a 1000 won't change the enjoyment I have with friends and the accomplishments both solo and with my guild (Old World Travelers on Maelin).

I realize some don't care for all my posts and I usually refrain from posting unless I have specific questions, but what gets my ire up is when a poster has asked a question and the peanut gallery chimes in with useless info and then can only come up with grammar or off topic rebutals.

Elinda, we have never met. I am Rigour Mortis, please to meet your aquantance.

I leave for the weekend, so I promise to make this as short as possible.

1. Wife. It is something that my wife and I love doing together. Before, I would play on the computer, and she would cross-stitch. Now we have computers two feet from each other, and have a blast together.

2. Awesome friends I met in game. For over five years, 5 of us group together 2-3 times every week. We have bonded in game, and outside of it. A great guild is a must, and we are lucky to also have that.

3. The challenge. I don't like having things handed to me. I want it to be tough. Wow didn't do that for me. I don't like ridiculous camps, but I want to have to work for something too.

4. Things to do. I am not even close to bored yet. We are delving more and more into TSS and are having a blast doing it. We just did the Arena challenge over a two night span, and had a blast doing it.

5. The lore. I loved reading up on all of the gods, and the history of Norrath. Especially the early lore.



Edited, Mar 30th 2007 4:38pm by mrwookie

I didnt say it was dying, i said wether or not it is it shouldnt matter, because its going to die someday like any other good thing. We should move on and play it until it does die, so that we arent spending the "possible" last few days saying how it should be fixed or how it is failing

Also, my main concern isnt about people "not discussing it" i just think it would be alot better for one thread to speak about all of the concerns except 4 or 5 threads.

Edited, Mar 31st 2007 1:59pm by Zhasacoolcleric

EQ works for me because it's difficult. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment when me and my friends finally achieve something.

After 5 years, I still have a sense of wonder when I enter a zone in EQ. I have met great friends here, and a fair number of weirdos.

The only thing I could really do without is the envy from people who have left EQ and still feel the need to come here and tell the rest of us we are wrong.

No thanks, believe I'll stick with EQ and be soooo glad I did...


...I have fun when I log in, therefore EQ succeeds...

EQ still evokes a sense of wonder for me when I log in. Never mind the "Oh, what am I doing tonight" questions, or LFG, or any of that. I can never shake the knowledge of the history of the game, its lore, and how our actions as players over the past several years has shaped that world around us in our own minds.

When you close your eyes and think of EQ, what do you see?

I can close my eyes and remember my first departure from Faydwer as a dwarf warrior heading to Antonica via the boat. Receiving a Frozen Longsword from a gnome mage in the Kelethin bank as a gift, attempting to gut Meldrath in Steamfont. Then as a new half elf ranger - attempting to fletch a Trueshot bow, fear kiting, bow kiting (horribly inefficient pre EQ!), the wonderfulness of getting a Tolan's bracer. Then later, going after Vindi in Kael, searching out dragons in ToV or Skyshrine, Ring quests for Thurgadin, seeing the dwarf armies for the 10th ring ... Then Luclin and Griegs, Umbral Plains, Dawnshroud, Netherbian, Ssra and the Cursed cycle - and up to PoP raiding, killing the gods, but still being able to enter Plane of Growth and sit quietly at the feet of Tunare. Getting both my 1.0's, finally, after camping Plane of Hate for ages. And up to now, where I'm in a family guild doing 1.5's on it seems a regular basis and still having fun. Getting chased through Riftseeker's, trying to stay one step ahead of the guardians of Ashengate, getting invited along to Fabled VT/NToV raids, and seeing those things which I haven't seen before - I'm constantly reminded of how much of this game I *haven't* seen. There's still more of that than anything else. And I do want to see it.

The reason I still play EQ is because of any of the (admittedly, rare) special events that come through every once in a while.

The DoN war events, while a crazy and mad clusterfloop at times, was FUN. Running away from evil armies in Rathe, sneakily bringing them to their deaths at the hands of barbarians? Excellent. (I know this wasn't the design - but I spent 3 weeks, solo, getting the Rod of Dark Commandments for my then wife's characters. I chewed up a good 30 deaths or so - and watched a mage pet pull the captains single - man, I wished I could do that!). The orc war events in GFay were even more chaotic - but fun.

The FV event(s) where she was trapped in ToFS - started finding pieces of FV's cloak, then went out and searched for new NPC's/etc. - I loved it. It was a new addition to my playing that week. Ended up going with a single group to escort Galeth from Thurgadin to Plane of Growth (and indeed, sent the script and text to Alla's after it was completed) - I still have the Lost guardian items (belt, pendant) in the bank. They're the only ARTIFACT ATTUNABLE items I know of. Unfortunately I was out of town when FV was freed.

Getting positive soulmarks for assisting GM's when they were doing low level GM events.

The original fabled. Sitting at the camp in SolB for a Fabled Mithril BP for 43 hours, FFBSS for 20ish, FJboots for...whoa, a LONG time..I've had a LOT of fun doing these.

It's wierd, but in most cases I only remember good times while playing EQ. I tend to forget / skip over the bad things (guild drama due to attention whores, guilds breaking up over it, etc.).

I miss people that have gone (either because I never see them online any more as they've up and sneaked away or because they've announced they're leaving) - I felt as they became members of an extended family for me. I can name a group of exceptional people I knew from when I first started (they left just after the PoP era) - I don't think I'll ever forget them. When my wife and I lived in Colorado (before moving back to Canada) we met one of our guildmates and became friends - when we weren't playing, we were out somewhere having fun.

It's hard to imagine that a "game" raises so many memories and feelings. I never would have imagined that this would have happened when I started playing.

To think that closing my eyes and I can retrace my paths through so many zones, events, scripts, and quests - what other word besides 'adventure' can be used?

I couldn't have said it better myself, Hicks. Best thread I have ever read on Alla's. Well done.

Wdor Nexaeon of Morden Rasp
70 Rogue
Povar

Great post, it's good to see something encouraging for a change, instead of the constant EQ bashing, but anyways...

I like EQ because, well, there simply isn't a better mmorpg for me right now, and probably won't be for another 10 years. Like others have stated I like a challenge. Nothing good comes easily.

I also like how huge it is, and i mean HUGE. A lot of people have forgotten how big this game really is and not just geographically, but quest wise and npcs. Theres just so much stuff. I probably have only seen about 25% of the zones, and have only really explored about 15%. Heck, i haven't even really raided anything.

And another thing, you play mmorpgs to play with other people, so grinding really isn't that bad when you think about it. I can't begin to tell you how many awesome people Ive meat grinding in some random zone. Even better are those times when something goes wrong, and you get a pop or add, and the adrenalines pumping as your trying to keep things from falling apart, and after about 10 minutes of the most intense experience, everyone comes out alive. That's why I love EQ, and that's why EQ will never die.

EverQuest appeals most strongly to the type of person who gets a great deal of satisfaction and a huge sense of accomplishment out of finally succeeding at achieving goals that take a long time, and substantial effort, to achieve.

Thus it appeals to those who have patience, enjoy challenging tasks, and are persistent and tenacious until they succeed, no matter how difficult it is or how long it takes. Within reason, of course. One of the main flaws of EverQuest is that there are lots of ENORMOUS time-sinks in the game that are overly difficult or time-consuming, which can eventually cause people to give up.

All the instant-gratification types of people are playing WoW. The people still playing EverQuest are mostly into long-term, slow, continuous gratification.

I love EverQuest! I just wish there were more people playing, so it wouldn't be so incredibly difficult to find groups to get things done.

Bravo!

Iluien took the words from my keyboard. That's why it succeeds for me.

lol your still living in 2001 still arent you? those nice people are few and far between in EQ these days . After you get through all the a*hole boxers who have accelerated the ruining of the game itself, there are maybe 1 out of every 20 people that you would actually ever want to rub shoulders with. Everyone else are a bunch of greedy and selfish s.o.b's who think the game is all about their own gear upgrades. I can picture some 30,000 HP warrior in a year or so with all his "leet" gear standing in a completely empty POK scratching his head wondering where all the people went. sony has outsourced the game completely to India in a move that will only speed up the death process. EQ = officially dead or dieing a slow death whatever way you wanna look at it pfft

Try Neopets, Linderman!