08-14-2022, 01:39 PM
EverQuest.
The Nostalgia is real. The grind is deep enough that, at this point, replaying takes at minimum a year to really deep dive. Meaning just replaying each class I'd have 20 years of content alone.
I've spent all kinds of time doing weird things in EQ, from building a character that won a lvl 1 tournament cross server, to running over 40 characters at once with macros.
Every time I play it I feel like a kid again. It's 1999. I'm coming home from the swimming pool with my grandmother. My eyes are neon red from hours of chlorine and sun. I'm logging onto my level 15 magician, ready to move beyond the Greater Faydark into a new realm, facing dangers that I'd be better equipped to deal with- by almost exponential amounts, at 16. (You got stronger pets every 4 levels back then).
I'd wander into Lesser Faydark, only to encounter a unicorn. Being new to this, I just saw a pretty cool looking new NPC and tried to approach. Only to proceed to get the ever-living gnome kicked out of me.
I spent well over 12 hours trying to recover my corpse that day. I remember a friend I had met, who summoned guildies to aide. A necromancer, who could help us find my body. A bard, for speed. a Ranger to track and ensure nothing deadly was nearby. Mind you, all this was during the days of dial-up. There was no voice chat or DMs to get friends from other games. This very undertaking itself felt legendary. And we didn't know it at the time, but the mob, pained unicorn, was actually max level, and intended to be part of a series of Epic quests. Which.... in and of themselves are deeper than any quest style reward I've gotten from a game. From being the only items in-game at the time with true particle effects, to having amazing game-altering effects. It meant something to obtain one of these. Even over 20 years on, I still only have like 6 of the epics in EQ. I plan to finish this collection slowly over the coming years.
The Nostalgia is real. The grind is deep enough that, at this point, replaying takes at minimum a year to really deep dive. Meaning just replaying each class I'd have 20 years of content alone.
I've spent all kinds of time doing weird things in EQ, from building a character that won a lvl 1 tournament cross server, to running over 40 characters at once with macros.
Every time I play it I feel like a kid again. It's 1999. I'm coming home from the swimming pool with my grandmother. My eyes are neon red from hours of chlorine and sun. I'm logging onto my level 15 magician, ready to move beyond the Greater Faydark into a new realm, facing dangers that I'd be better equipped to deal with- by almost exponential amounts, at 16. (You got stronger pets every 4 levels back then).
I'd wander into Lesser Faydark, only to encounter a unicorn. Being new to this, I just saw a pretty cool looking new NPC and tried to approach. Only to proceed to get the ever-living gnome kicked out of me.
I spent well over 12 hours trying to recover my corpse that day. I remember a friend I had met, who summoned guildies to aide. A necromancer, who could help us find my body. A bard, for speed. a Ranger to track and ensure nothing deadly was nearby. Mind you, all this was during the days of dial-up. There was no voice chat or DMs to get friends from other games. This very undertaking itself felt legendary. And we didn't know it at the time, but the mob, pained unicorn, was actually max level, and intended to be part of a series of Epic quests. Which.... in and of themselves are deeper than any quest style reward I've gotten from a game. From being the only items in-game at the time with true particle effects, to having amazing game-altering effects. It meant something to obtain one of these. Even over 20 years on, I still only have like 6 of the epics in EQ. I plan to finish this collection slowly over the coming years.
