ggwood's Journal: What is right with Everquest (Eq)

I just wrote a post about what is "wrong" with Everquest (Eq), and I felt rather guilty. I actually enjoyed Eq for quite some time now. I have played roughly 3 years so I have some perspective. I have introduced my wife, sister, mom, and two good friends to Eq. We all talk about it from time to time although sis didn't really take to it the rest of us played together quite a bit over the years. Actually, right now I have not played in some months and I can't really see playing further. Perhaps in a future post I will post what I feel could be great improvements to Eq.

1. Grouping with other players. This is by far the best thing Eq has going. There is a dramatic improvement to playing with others - you can kill more monsters (mobs) and get more treasure (loot) per unit time with other people than without. Some classes work better together than others, but in general more is better. There is a hard cap in Eq at 6 players per group. This forces tough choices when forming a group, but on the whole grouping is beneficial to all involved. There is some "downtime" in Eq, when nothing is happening more than people just resting to regain hit points (health) and mana (spell points), but in a good group it is pretty minimal, perhaps 1/5 of the total time, and it gives you reason to talk to your groupmates.

Most people are very laid back so it is very nice (at least for me) to hear about people's kids or dogs or just their little jokes. People flirt in Everquest - mostly during downtime. No one takes it really seriously. First, loads of people play across gender lines, so that hot wood elf babe may very well be a portly older gentleman. Second, you are anonymous. No one can contact you in real life unless you permit it. I have made real friends online in Eq.

2. Helping others - it is so easy to help out people in Eq. My favorite way is to cast beneficial spells on people who benefit from it (buffing). If you see someone running along a boring stretch of terrain, you can hail them and cast a spell to help speed them on their way. If someone is out there fighting hard a simple spell or two may make a great difference to them. The next way to help out is to give items. This is a bit more dicy and I rarely practice it unless it is pretty easy for me to get the goods and it would really help the other person out alot.

3. (Static) Content - there is TONS of content in Eq. I have not played, but have read reviews of other MMORPGs and there does not seem to be nearly as many distinct places to go and things to do. I do wish there was quite a bit more dynamic content because it gets rather old, and that people would take advantage of more of the space (zones), nonetheless it is out there.

4. Restricted PvP - I and most people I know do not want to have anything to do with PvP. I think there is a very vocal minority who heavily favor it. In Eq, there are specific PvP servers, there is also the ability to become a PvP character on a normal (sometimes called blue) server - but doing so is really not very beneficial. Yet even if you are not flagged as PvP and on a blue server, you can duel other people - and there are places where you can attack anyone you want (like arenas to fight in). Several recent MMORPG titles have come out with integral PvP elements. I am not buying. Just listening to my friends who have tried PvP on Eq is enough to warn me off it for good.

I would consider a game with specific PvP-free servers.

5. The Bazaar - this is a zone where players can set themselves up as merchants to sell to other players. This is a vast improvement over our previous system of just shouting (auctioning) what we have to sell, or what we want to buy. Prices on most items dropped tremendously as people realized the previous rules of thumb for pricing were way out of line - but some items (mostly consumable items) gained value, too.

5.x: Below are a list of minor but very nice ideas implemented in Eq. Not significant enough each to be a major point, but altogether they make a huge addition to the quality of the game. Implementing some of these, or at least planning for future implementation, is highly recommended.

5a. The MP3 player - Eq always had a CD player, but I never used it - I just dont keep a stack of music CDs by my computer. MP3's, however, are something I had anyhow. I have huge (40-60 song) playlists. I wish the playlist format was a bit more standardized so that I could create my playlists for Eq while NOT playing Eq...and use slightly more refined tools.

5b. Quick travel - Eq began with a great system of teleport locations which could take people anywhere. A couple classes could 'port and asked for small donations. Then, with the first expansion, we had to rely on boats, which were always buggy - in fact so buggy that last time I played they were removed altogether and replaced with little gnomes who would just port you to the other side. But the boats were pretty bad in that you still had no choice but to run long, long ways. Now we have horses and speed up boots which are pretty easy to acquire, and a system of porting locations. I suppose the thought on the first few expansions was that these should be exotic locations and hard to get to, but that was immensly annoying.

5c. No Drop/Lore/No Rent tags on items - these three "tags", or item properties, prevent a great deal of exploits within the game.

5.c.i. No Drop - by far the most important tag, this tag indicates the item cannot be transfered between players. If you see someone with a No Drop item, they were the one to originally either craft it or pick it up (loot it) off the corpse of the monster (mob) which drops it. Although this does not exactly guarentee the player earned it, as people sometimes kill a powerful monster (say a "level 45" mob) with a group of far more powerful characters (say level 55) but then allow a lower level character, who would normally never be able to get it (say a level 23) to loot it. Even this technique has limits: most good items drop in very dangerous areas thus characters of far lesser level simply cannot get to the mob's corpse. So good NO DROP gear indicates either personal ability, or at least powerful friends. Further, the non-transferability means: (a) there is no reason for a group to just keep killing a particular mob over and over (camping it) to get loads of the items, just to sell them. If it is a really nice item perhaps everyone in the party will need one, then they will move on. More likely it will only benefit one or two members.

5.c.ii. Lore items - this tag means a person can only possess one copy of the item. This is really nice because you can trade (buy or sell) the item, but there is no reason to keep camping it forever. It limits the ammount of this gear available.

5.c.iii. No Rent items - this is probably the least useful tag as it means the item will vanish half an hour after you log out. It is mostly used for summoned items. The summoner makes the items, yet does not put himself out of business because the items are not used forever.

5.d. The LFG system - currently there is a window you can use to find groups looking for your class/level range. Far more efficient than just wandering from zone to zone asking if anyone needs a level 47 rogue. Further, if you are in a group, you can use the LFG system to seek a particular class. Currently underused.

5.e. Raid groups - allows large groups of people to share experience and collectively get "tagged" i.e. identified as having achieved certain goals.

5.f. Custom chat channels - any player can form a chat channel and invite friends to join. Allows friends of very different levels to at least talk to each other, even if they are in different areas of the world. Earlier, guilds (associations of players) had their own chat channels, but these could easily become overburdoned in large guilds and many guilds become level restricted in practice, so if your friends can't all be in your guild you can still talk. Far easier than just sending individual tell commands to each.

5.g. Messaging into and out of the game is allowed. It should be connected to something like IRC (or ICQ or AIM...) but at least you can reach in game friends (particularly those who's phone line is occupied when they are online).

6. Risk/Reward - Everquest begins easy enough - kill 5 or 6 mobs near your starting city and ... ding ... level 2. For most levels it will take you around 5 hours per level - and with super duper help from friends may cut this in half or so but regardless, by level 40 you will have played for hundreds of hours. Then the game slows. You will have the choice to fight in very dangerous locations for a good rate of experience per hour (thus quicker leveling) or go to safer places and grind it out, slow and steady. Most people choose the later. But you don't have to.

There is a level cap but it is quite hard to reach. It has been increased twice: from 50 to 60 and recently from 60 to 65. Also, the rate of exp gain was slowed immensly very long ago as people just play for far, far longer periods of time than the creators imagined.

How is this a good thing? Sure, progress is slow but if you could reach the end quickly, there would be no challenge left. Further, there are lots of people at the higher levels so there are lots of groups available. Being outleveled by all your friends and unable to group together for mutual benefit is no fun.

I don't really like the methods, but the result of keeping everyone only so powerful keeps certain things perpetually challenging - and keeps players bunched together so that hords of people can work together to overcome a single mob. If everything you and your 14 close friends worked so hard to attain can be had easily by a level 92 guy, there is no reason to try it.

7. The players themselves - the bottom line for Eq is you better like people or you should not be playing. The only thing which makes MMORPGs great is certainly not the graphics, sound, gameplay, or puzzles. It's the people.

Like slashdot, you have a reputation in Eq. In /., the quality of posts when way up when there was a record of past behavior (and misbehavior). Even the ephemeral index of "karma" which is not even a number anymore just a single adjective is so powerful in keeping (most) people in line.

In Everquest, this role has mainly been taken on in two ways: first, you remember a list of "friends" and people to "ignore" - effectively your enemies who don't even have to listen to if you don't want. Second, players can form guilds and thus collaborate together. Guilds are, by default, responsible for their members thus being in an active guild carries benefits and responsibilities. Misbehaving members can be reported. Action can be taken. The system generally works. Unguilded players, or players in a very obscure guild, are unknown quantities. I usually play with no guild and I can pretty safely say that until the very high levels there is not much of a downside to it. (When you have played long enough you should find some buddies to join.)

Conclusion:
If you are making a MMORPG, or have any influence with people who are, please, please keep these seven ideas in mind. Certainly, they are just my opinions, however ignore them at your peril. People generally will not switch MMORPGs because of the immense personal investment we have in them, so very few will succeed.

Everquest came along and got very lucky. Ultima Online was plagued by PvP and Asheron's Call was too easy. Everquest had the right ammount of challenge, coupled with very cool content to attract a great fan base who, basically, made the game great by pointing out the problems, helping each other pass them, and sticking with it while the authors fixed the bugs and adjusted the difficulty and balanced the classes.

I doubt there will ever be another game equally successful, but I truly hope there is.