With the world and his wife all out front of Old Skool Qeynos, trying to batter the same fire beetle, what better time to have a look at the EQ forums? Personally, I’m right there with Spinks, in that you couldn’t pay me to go back to “Grind: 1999” either. I’ve done my time and am on the whole quite pleased with what Progress has given us over the last 12 years. Still, many folks are interested in this grand exercise in nostalgia. Some are new to it, having missed out on it the first time and wanting to see why people like me keep having post-traumatic stress disorder based flashbacks and shrieking in my sleep about it. Others are themselves veterans and masochists, and lament the modern trends of comfort, convenience, enjoyment and accessibility, so thoughtlessly offered as standard in most contemporary MMOs!

I kid, I kid. Enough personal bile, let’s see what the forums are saying! EverQuest is quite canny here actually, and they have no ‘General Discussion’ forum at all – the first I’ve seen to do this. Instead, all of their forums have a specific theme or purpose. This works well to diffuse the general malcontents, and make people think about what they’re about to rant, and where should it go, rather than just dump it all in the obvious ‘main’ forum. Clever, and something more forum admins should consider.

I’ve gone with the most busy of the sub-forums; ‘The Newbie Zone’, and have picked the usual two busiest non-stickies:

EXP too slow on Fippy

Which frankly, had me giggling uncontrollably until I realised it wasn’t giggling, it was sobbing. 100 replies, 7 pages, it turns out that Hard EQ is Hard! The runners are out of the starting gate and apparently, it’s taken the OP two and half hours to reach level two. Much as I like to mock, even I’d have to admit that this is a touch on the slow side, even for circa 1999 EverQuest. It’s more like 1:45 on a good day! Apparently, the problem isn’t necessarily that you need to kill a million (kicking!) moss snakes to ding, its that there are over three hundred players all trying to kill the same snake. See? Instances aren’t such a bad idea now, are they? Wait til they all get to Lower Guk at the same time!

Clearly an unusual situation that even it’s heyday, EverQuest was never designed to be able to handle. Modern MMOs cover this kind of thing up in Phasing, Multiple Layers, Cloned City Zone Instancing and the like, which is a more elegant way of coping with massive point load, but ideally, these games are best designed in a way that encourages players to spread out. Mind you, even on “No Expansion” rules, EQ has something like twelve starter areas, so those having troubles might want to try a difference Race. I expect players in Ogguk and Grobb aren’t seeing this trouble, Ogres and Trolls being somewhat less attractive playable species.

Community Manager Piestro pops in to reassure folks it’ll pass as people disperse, and warn players to specifically avoid Greater Faydark, the shared Wood Elf and High Elf starter zone, a particularly badly designed one, in that the town is directly above the newbie hunting area, in the treetops, in the same zone. Busy busy!

Interestingly, as the thread moves on, people report from less busy zones that no, actually the EXP gain is really slow, even if you can chain-kill unopposed. This is me grinning and nodding in text form. One commenter actually suggests that people with only 2-5 hours a night shouldn’t bother with this server. This is me grinning more and nodding more. The thread becomes a combination running commentary on the fastest levellers, an old duffer’s ‘In My Day…’ pipe-smoking session and a vigorous debate on Game Progress vs Game Fun. One chap gets Empirical, (of which I thoroughly approve) and calculates an eye-opening 40 minutes from Level 1 to Level 2, in uncontested hunting areas, and one sage chips in with the Mantra of EverQuest, ‘Dude, join a group’. It was ever thus, but Modern Day Tim has trouble believing you need a six-man XP grinding camp group at Level 2!

Mostly it seems a large number of people used to more modern games discovering first-hand just how hardcore things used to be, and a lot of EQ regulars looking on with amusement, and no small amount of smug contempt. Me? I remember and need no reminders… YOU WEREN’T THERE MAN! I WON’T GO BAAAAACK!

Meanwhile, but not unrelated:

Free Time added to several Accounts – Yet no Email Sent Again!

An initially mundane administrative matter, the OP does have a point. I noticed the reactivation 9th Feb while on my way through the Station Launcher to PlanetSide, tweeting my surprise at the time. I’d already missed three of the supposed 14 days even then. I did get an email on the 11th telling me about the reactivation, but by then, I’d only got nine days left, and you’d have to take another off of that to get the client download done. Six days gone before I might have known about it at all. Mind you, my initial reaction on seeing I had free EQ time was to curl up into a foetal ball and whimper myself sick, so it’s probably not that big an issue for me.

Not so everyone, and a somewhat exasperated comparison of note takes place. People checking existing account, old accounts, ancient, dusty accounts buried in tombs, and so on. I’m somewhat startled to see that one chap has seven EQ accounts, but happily all seven have the correct free time on, so that’s okay! This isn’t the first time such promotions have gone under several people’s radars, and SOE’s mailing system is called into question. Helpful reminders are also given, that if you tick the No! Bog Off And Leave Me Alone! box at the bottom of the subscription page, you’ll probably not be notified of free game time, which is after all, promotional material! Also, check the junk mail folder from time to time, that helps!

Still, in view of thread number one, I wonder how useful fourteen days of free time on Ye Olde EverQueste even is. Played continuously, that’d just about get you to level fifteen, or far less if you are weak and require sleep and full-time employment!

Undeniably popular, the Fippy Server is even now being joined by a second progression server, and over the next three months, our teams of Elite Spartan EQ-o-nauts will be embarking on one of the most demanding endurance challenges known to MMOs of past, present and probably future ages. Not all of them will make it. Many of them will fall by the wayside and be trodden into the dust, their bones a reminder to future generations! Or something! I salute you all!

It’ll be interesting to revisit the forums and see the mood when the first, player-voted, expansion gets added. Will any iron-gamers be left to greet it? For now though, a rare glimpse of how things once were is currently available for all to see!

(Also, you don’t see anyone clamouring for a FFA PvP Ralos Zek type Progression Server, do you? Now THAT was hardcore!)