Here are a couple quotes about it dating from that time...
From the November 7th, 2001 patch message:
Quote:
** Project M Implemented **
Tonight we have patched something to the PvP servers that many players have been waiting for. The ability to play that gnoll, orc, or the cute and fuzzy rat. On your character select screen you will notice another button in the upper right part of your screen called "Monster". Clicking this button will randomly place you in a low-level NPC in a random zone. You will be given full control of the creature to do with it what you like. You may hunt and kill other creatures. You may even attack other players.
Some things to remember when playing your own personal monster (NPC).
-You will not be able to interact with players or NPC's other than moving and hitting attack.
-You cannot speak, trade, sell, or do anything else that a player can do.
-You will spawn with normal loot for the monster you are playing and Player Characters will be able to kill you for loot and experience.
-If you are a spell casting monster you might want to take a moment to memorize some spells.
-Once you die, you will return to the character select screen where you may choose to return as another NPC or play your normal character.
-You may gain experience, levels, and skills as this NPC, but once you die, it is all lost. You will need to start over the next time you choose to be a NPC character.
-You can't zone as a monster.
-Monster PCs (MPCs) can not loot, sell, or gain items. They only get what they start out with.
This ability to play a monster is being implemented for PvP servers only as we have no plans to implement non-consensual PvP on a non PvP server.
However, we are still working with this system. We may find other ways to implement Project M on the non-PvP servers that are acceptable. We aren't done looking at the possible uses of this new feature.
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And later that day in the EQ Developers' Corner forum:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Absor
I thought I'd pop in and explain to you all why you can't play as monsters at the moment.
When the patch went long today (I'm very sorry about that) the servers came back up pretty much at prime time. We decided that it might not be the best thing in the world to turn on project M right after a patch and to coincide with prime time. We thought that all of those factors combined might be a little more than the PvP servers or their players could handle.
We'll turn it on some time soon. And I'm probably not going to announce it…
Alan
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So there you have it. I never got a chance to try it out when it was up and running on Test, but it always sounded cool. To my knowledge, it never went live on the non-Test servers, though I'll admit that I could be wrong.