[zutfen]

I've been playing EQ since 1999 and EQEmu for well over a decade, so get off my lawn <shakes cane>.

I've played on classic restricted servers and boxed 48 at a time on others... but the system that is in place here is so rewarding that it's hard to put into words.

You look at the Rose Colored and Apocryphal items and the stats that they give and think "this will be too easy and no fun" but to a large extent you get to choose your own adventure. Having to unlock progression gives you something to work towards: you can do it via a fairly epic quest or by killing raid mobs.

You can, if you know what you're doing, do most things with a friend if both of you both 3-box, sometimes some outside the box thinking is required, but with enough AA and decent gear, even in-era you can do most content with 6 characters.

I haven't even mentioned the community, which is one of the best reasons to play here. Broadly speaking, most of the player base has been around the block a few dozen (or hundred) times, and we all want to be helpful to folks that start out fresh here. It's not uncommon to have new players ask for buffs and walk away with hand-me-down gear that makes the levelling far more enjoyable.

All said and done, I tip my hat to Aporia and crew for making a server where there's *just enough* of a grind to feel like EQ, without ever feeling oppressively grindy.