Without hesitation I can name the game that had the most profound affect on me as a gamer: Everquest.
Everquest was the first 3D fantasy-theme massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG for short) released in mid ’99.
I first heard about Everquest when speaking to a friend on a football pitch (of all places). I was in school at the time, and must have been about 14 years old. I remember it being hard to comprehend the idea of a semi-real digital make-believe world. The following weekend I bought Everquest (inc. Ruins of Kunark Expansion) and entered the world.
Since then, and still to this day, EQ has engrossed me more than any game ever has. I began playing with completely fresh eyes. I’d never played a real RPG before; never been interested in fantasy realms; I wasn’t even aware of the point in such a game.
I will always remember the initial experience of entering the world of Norrath following the creation of my first character late on a Friday night. I made a Dark Elf Enchanter, which was fundamentally a weak and evil spell caster. I entered the starting city for the character – I was online – with no idea what to do. After walking around attempting to start conversations with NPC’s (non-player characters who I thought were real people), I managed to find a way outside into the surrounding dark forest. It was an area known by the community as the “newbie ground”, where fragile new players kill stuff in exchange for experience (important to note that at this point I didn’t understand what experience was). Since I didn’t grasp the whole “newbie” concept, I just kept walking. Eventually I was traversing across a molten rock landscape. The sky was red, volcanic emissions were firing off all around me – it was like that scene in Forest Gump where he just keeps running as the bleakness of the terrain increases. To cut a long story short, I passed a campsite of Dwarves who killed me.
So I ended back in my designated newbie area. Eventually I was met by a friendly player who was just passing through – I told him I didn’t want to be in such a dark area. I remember being told to just type “/follow”, and then watching as he casted an array of spells, some of which made me invisible and speedy. Pretty soon he had taken me to the bright and cheery human city known as Freeport. I ran around browsing shops and talking to real people – it was much easier to understand basic gameplay functions here. On reflection I must have assigned a fairly holy religion in order for this virtuous city to tolerate my race. However, the lesson in opposing factions was learnt the hard way when a Dwarven shopkeeper murdered me (again!) on inspection of his items.
The following morning I started from scratch as a Human Enchanter in Freeport, which I eventually stuck with for years. I would gradually learn the game from this comparatively tiny segment of the world – gaining acquaintances and knowledge, as well as growing in power very slightly but steadily. I would venture into the surrounding areas at a slow hesitative pace; as I learnt of regions I should and should not be entering.
Everquest was made for what is now known as the “Hardcore Gamer”. In fact, I would dare to say that Everquest spawned the hardcore gamer within me. World of Warcraft, for example, can certainly consume more time/effort than I would ever wish to contribute. I actually really enjoyed spending the time to play it. However, it lacks the simple incremental features that Everquest had; which increased the impressiveness of the world, the community and the simple act of playing the game. I am obviously referring to Everquest and the first two expansion packs (often known as “Classic EQ”) – EQ is still currently alive but has had a massive graphics overhaul and significant gameplay changes to help it compete with WoW and other MMORPGs on the market.
I would like to point out some key factors that I feel added to a real-world atmosphere within the game, and ultimately made it feel truly epic:-
#1 Levelling was capped at 60 and took AGES. It took me well over a year of playing constantly to reach level 40. It got harder as the game went on, until each level became a slow hard slog, but I felt that this ensured the game wasn’t just a high-end end-game affair.
#2 Dying had severe penalties. A fatal encounter would cost you an evening (or more)’s worth of experience. You would respawn without any possessions at the point you were “bound”, which, for non-spellcasters, could be a long way away in the nearest city. This could lead to absurdly hard work to find your equipment-bearing corpse.
#3 Dungeons, towers, fortresses etc. where not instanced. This means that potential quest targets could already be killed and that upon entering a dungeon there is a very high chance that you will be passed by a fleeing group being chased by a gang of nasties, which will most likely attack you. It certainly made the secret dungeons worth finding.
#4 Travelling around the land was dangerous, long and unpredictable. This meant for memorable journeys and made the world seem enormous. It induced feelings of mystery for the player – the only available maps were user made and on websites.
#5 The economy of the world was entirely in the hands of the community. There was no auction house. Classes simply learnt a craft they were good at, then made/sold items. On our server the community chose a convenient tunnel which was near major good/evil cities (good for runs to the bank) and connected two highly populated low-level hunting grounds together (potential customers). I have memories of retreating to that tunnel in hope of being saved by my elders, and occasionally just hanging around to see the various powers on display of the higher level players.
Now, I know that traits such as these may sound bleak on paper – and in practice this could, to an extent, be the case. However, the implications of such factors had a positive effect on the level of involvement I experienced when playing the game.
It would mean that each player class was actually vital. For example, if your corpse was too hard to reach – a Necromancer could summon it for a fee. And if you lost a ton of hard earned experience, a Cleric could retrieve some of it for you. My role as an enchanter was pretty much an entirely selfless one. I could be easily killed in a few hits; I was virtually defenceless against a mob of enemies; and had the majority of the target’s hate directed solely towards me. However, I needed to be kept alive as my class was the only class capable of intricately crowd-controlling a gang of around 5 enemies that could destroy the team unless incapacitated by an enchanter’s magic. The threat mentioned in factor #3 could easily be avoided if an enchanter was kept in action.
The fact that the game was so hard and that levelling-up took so long strengthened the community. I can recount week-long periods of hunting in the same area with a specific group. Eventually you’d part ways but occasionally bump into each other in a totally distant part of the land. Bumping into people you knew was a nice surprise as traversing the growing world of Norrath had to be done almost completely manually. I would spend months in guild chat speaking with people before finally meeting by chance. The lack of any real “quick travel” functions (now added to contemporary EQ) would actually breed friendships, and ultimately community. Players would travel in tight packs together, sometimes only choosing to venture into areas that a specific group member is familiar with. Due to the harsh perilous environment and wandering predators most groups would watch over each other when making journeys, and upon reaching a specific destination most people would stick there for days/weeks until they were a level or two higher to start thinking about new destinations. Most groups would eventually disband at this point with perhaps a few members going off in search of new things together, but it was always nice to cross paths with old acquaintances – something that would often happen when journeying by foot.
Later in the game I would group with fellow guild members of a similar level. This was more of a long term affair and it resulted in our party of 5 sticking together for months whilst we explored new dungeons and generally entered nasty hard-to-reach areas.
The harshness of the game created a real role-playing environment which gave players enough exploitative scope to be complete jerks or absolute heroes. Those who put the effort in actually seemed powerful as opposed to mere cosmetic or statistic differences in their character. It actually spawned memorable rivalries such as the one I had for two years with an idiot Rogue that I had grouped with during my first week on EQ.
The fact that the quests were so hard actually once left me remorselessly kill-stealing a giant Cyclops (I turned a blind eye) that held a valuable component to a popular quest. It rarely spawned in a number of locations that are frequently watched over by other questers. Whilst waiting in one potential spot with a hopeful in-game comrade (a Bard who shall remain unnamed), I decided to set off to look for it by myself. Later that day I found it and obliterated it before a nearby Necromancer could damage it enough: he turned out to be hunting on behalf of his friend – The Bard! He had presumably been contacted by his friend informing him that some meanie had stolen his kill. I must had been turning in the quest items for my reward (
the sought after ‘journeyman boots’), when I received the message telling me that I had betrayed him and I will never be forgiven. He was still waiting at that island hoping for the "Ancient Cyclops" to appear in the next 24 hours. This was something I did feel quite guilty about, although it was more of a mistake that happened in the heat of the moment. I remember being reassured by my members of my guild that I had done nothing wrong. I think this is a good way of illustrating the scope of the game, and how you’re given the freedom to make important decisions that have consequences in true RPG nature.
I feel that in these sorts of games a severe environment is necessary in order for real villains to play their roles and real guilds to pursue their own agenda. I am adamant that this method of freedom provides an immeasurably deeper role-playing experience than simply increasing content and choice. In Everquest every player was different. Sure, there were times when I wanted to systematically dismantle my PC with my teeth, but that was the result of being so emotionally involved with such an engrossing experience.
Perhaps I should concede the possibility that I’m utterly blinded by nostalgia - just to add balance to the argument. There, done.
Currently I'm in dire need of a suitable arcade fight stick of some sort. Specifically to for Street Fighter IV. There is currently a few options available such as the Hori range or even the new Mad Catz sticks that were designed with SFIV in mind.
