Why EQ1 was better then WoW - Fear.

[Kromtor]

Traveling 30 to 40 minutes through EQ to get to a great exp grindhole I thought was pretty awesome. Especially considering the trip itself was often quite dangerous, it was a rush just getting there alive sometimes. It was the very fact that so many people gave up doing the difficult things and that only a tiny percentage saw the most epic stuff that made it so rewarding to actually accomplish things in the game. In WoW we're all doing the same shit. The 17+ crowd is just doing it a few months before the 9+ crowd.

[Mosg2]

I think Kromtor hit the nail on the head. Lemme asplain (All thoughts are my own personal experiences):

When I logged into EQ to play I rarely had an agenda other than to have fun. The goal of the game was so loosely defined. Ultimately, of course, I wanted to be max level--But I had no game plan to get there. Sometimes I'd read some forum saying I should go explore this place and try out this spot or maybe go farm this mob for this item etc etc. Doing *anything* in the game was an odyssey. I remember farming up Wu's Trance Sticks and the ridiculous amount of time it took to get them. I remember farming Raster in LGuk for weeks. I remember trying to find 50+ people to do the raid bosses for my Epic. Looking back on all of these things one immutable thing stands out: They were each an adventure that I felt damn proud of for completing. They each took dedication and energy and friends.

WoW is nothing like that for me. Everything is just plain so easy to do. The two arguably hardest things to do in the game (achieve Gladiator status or complete all the raid hardmodes) actually come down to finding a group of other people that are as dedicated as you are. If you can find 2 other people that complement your class well and are willing to play 3-4 hours a day at the same time as you you can get Gladiator. With raiding you just increase that number to 9.

[Gomotron]

The "looseness" of EQ was also, to a certain extent, it's downfall. There was very little questing to be done, and most questing was for the class-specific epic items. The later expansions made questing a little more important, but quests themselves were never a good source of experience. It made grinding a necessity.

Honestly, I don't mind grinding. I can recall taking my group of 6 to Sebilis to camp this or that item, was great fun. Also, going invis to get across zones was awesome, especially when you had to invis 6 characters and there was no easy way to tell when invis was going to drop. The fixed timed invisibility spells later made things a bit easier, but they offset this by putting a lot more mobs that saw through invisibility spells.

My proudest moments in EQ were taking my group of 6 and "breaking" Fear for a low level guild that wiped. And Cazic Thule's Death Tough was awesome, seeing the zone-wide emote where he yells your name and you just fall over dead... good times.

[Mokoi]

could you imagine if wow content was actually difficult? all those idiots who cant even PuG a heroic would quit and blizzard would make no money.

As for what's "better" that's awfully subjective, and although I did not play EQ, i did play FFXI which sounds similar, the exp grind to max lvl was a different way to play the game.

WoW is not about lvling, and grinding, its about max level play. EQ and FFXI seem to be about the lvling, and then when you hit 75 (max lvl for ffxi) you did something else.

I miss FFXI for how fun it was, as it was my first MMO, too but I have a lot more pure fun, and less frustration and time wasting in WoW.

[JackBurton]

Man your making me miss EQ

[moosejaw]

A few things that come to mind from EQ.

/ooc camp check.

/ooc (pok) need a necro for corpse summons paying 100pp.

/ooc mgb kei at nexus stone in 5 min.

Switching to full aa's at L52 to make your character tougher before you went off to harder zones.

Tacking on a level by 30-40 % before switching to full aa's so you wouldn't de-level from a dying. LoL

Running my cleric back to unrest from PoK naked.

Having classes that were essentially dedicated to pulling. Loved my bard. This was a difficult transition for me in wow. Why is the warrior always pulling? LoL

/ooc train to zone!!

Having a right and left entrance to zones. Right side for entering and left side for exits so you didn't train people as they zoned in.

Never really knowing exactly where your faction was other than you weren't KoS. And having to /con city guards to see if they hated/liked you.

Waiting for ever for that npc in Nagafen's Lair to spawn for the cleric epic clicky stick.

It was some fun times, that is for sure.

[Kromtor]

some of the best times in EQ were actually DPS race fighting over camps. i enjoyed how the "he who does the most damage gets all the reward" system worked - it actually lessened killsteal griefing because there was a clear winner and loser and if you kept trying to irritate someone by attacking their mobs you'd actually be helping them rather than hurting them like in so many other MMO's where dealing damage robs them of exp. Fighting over the aviaks or the gnolls in the karanas were awesome. civility had it's place, but when that failed there was a way to resolve it that simply doesn't exist in many other games anymore.

that or there's simply no need for it. the whole instancing thing has it's advantages in terms of money making and keeping everybody content, but it definitely decreases the immersion factor. another immersion factor was first person perspective. i could be wrong, but in the beginning of EQ i'm pretty sure that third person cam views were either so bad or lacked UI and you were forced to be in first person. thats how i played at least for years. it's undoubtedly more difficult but i think definitely had a huge effect on the amount of fear you experience by not always being able to see behind yourself. playing with good stereo sound was important for positional awareness. when you think about all the scariest games that exist they're all first person. i actually wish there would be a mainstream mmo that would force first person.

[jinkobi]

WOW caters to the masses- which I think makes it a jack of all trades but master of none. It's really good at everything it put forth as a game. But it has to keep its customer base happy and harsh death penalties would drive people away in droves. Too many ways to die in WOW that sometimes just aren't your fault. Accidently dismount and fall to your death- would you want to be penalized for that? Durability loss and corpse running are strict enough for WOW.

Hardcore games with strict death penalties I've always been a big fan of them. I like the fear factor- but sometimes when that harsh penalty actually happens at high level you're pissed.

The very first multiplayer game I ever played was Scepter of Goth.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scepter_of_Goth). It had the harshest death penalties ever created. It was a text adventure game and the great grandfather to the modern MMORPG. Played on 300 baud modems over a phone line. The fee to play was 5$ an hour and this is 1980's money.

The penalties for that game were crazy and a guy even comitted suicide over them. In Scepter player killing was completely acceptable, and if you were killed, you lost all your gold and items. Plus you would lose levels and that could mean hundreds of hours and dollars down the drain. My friend and I eventually got banned from the game because we killed everyone we met and were putting the company out of business. People would see us log in and run to safe havens terrified that we were lurking around.

Anyways... That was some of the most exciting and engaging gaming that I ever played. Ultima Online would be up there too.

If a game developer these days had the balls to create another MMORPG with such harsh penalties. As much as I would LOVE the game it would be destined for failure. People these days and the majority of MMORPG players are well... Wimps

[moosejaw]

So I resubbed one of my EQ1 accounts. Lost my bank alt, that was L9, and most of my $$ in the character purge. /sob

Started a new character to get into the swing of things. Lots of gear for lowbies around. Low level gear vendor in PoK for reasonable prices. Mercenaries available if you have the appropriate expansion (I don't). Tons of players in the guild hall standing around (Luclin-Sromm) and lots of auctions going on.

Since I haven't bought Cata I have no problem taking off and trying something else for a while. I'll play EQ for now and see if I can like it again.

I can't believe I actually found my crib sheet with all my EQ1 account names on it. Talk about finding the holy grail after 5 years and 3 household moves.

[Toned]

So I resubbed one of my EQ1 accounts. Lost my bank alt, that was L9, and most of my $$ in the character purge. /sob

Started a new character to get into the swing of things. Lots of gear for lowbies around. Low level gear vendor in PoK for reasonable prices. Mercenaries available if you have the appropriate expansion (I don't). Tons of players in the guild hall standing around (Luclin-Sromm) and lots of auctions going on.

Since I haven't bought Cata I have no problem taking off and trying something else for a while. I'll play EQ for now and see if I can like it again.

I can't believe I actually found my crib sheet with all my EQ1 account names on it. Talk about finding the holy grail after 5 years and 3 household moves.

You can always do a recover on the sony website based off email. You will get a full list of all of your account names associated to that email.