what made classic EQ so good was that it was so slow to level and so easy to lose exp if you didnt know what you were doing. This made it so that you would really develop your character and save up PP so you could buy and trade and sell. In a game like WoW you dont really have this long grind. You just sort of reach end game very quickly even if you are not hardcore.
In old EQ it was all about supply and demand. Something was hard to get and it was rare for it to drop. This increased the price of that item. It was actually rare. In WoW it doesnt even matter. When I quit the game it was on its way out (with the first expansion)
I really liked how hardcore old EQ was. If you screwed up and got killed you were punished. It actually meant something to die. Nowadays in MMORPGS everything is just... too easy. There isnt enough brutalizing punishment, and things are WAYYYYY to easy. The oldschool EQ crafting system is incredible and vastly superior to any other system out there. The best way to control a game is by making stuff rare and or hard to come by. I would be in full support of a game just like oldschool EQ where it was even harder to level up because as a casual player I was able to reach level 60 and then sort of feel like I had done all there was to do without even going to most of the world.
The world in classic EQ (well trilogy) is just so huge. This also contributed to the economy because most people back then didnt know where all of the loot came from. Often times it was from zones that I never even heard of. In WoW and new age MMORPGS you can explore the entire world in less than an hour.
Dungeons in old EQ are incredibly intricate. Nowadays dungeons are made up of a few huge boxy rooms. Very straight forward... Nothing elaborate at all - pathetic. Old EQ dungeons are like huge mazes. I easily can get lost in countless zones simply because they are so hard to navigate through and remember where you are (as it should be) This is yet another unmatched quality of classic EQ.
Classic EQ has boats instead of instant teleports - enough said
Raid encounters were EPIC and required tons of people. Id rather have an epic gathering of people who just zerg something than have an actual strategy. Its realistic. Absolutely awesome how old EQ raids used to be. Gather up all your friends and everyone and just run in and sacrifice yourself for the cause. It didnt matter what gear you had or what weapon you were using... awesome
Quests were awesome. Well most of them are silly but quests in classic EQ are really well done and you dont have some glowing path that shows you exactly where you have to go for each step of it. You are not spoon fed like in all these new MMORPGs. EQ was hardcore. Hell, I couldnt even imagine how the hell anyone could figure out how to get the veeshan peak key without a strategy guide lol.
So much content, so many zones, so many different options. Infinite stuff to explore... I have played the game a lot for a long time and there are still zones that I have never been to in Trilogy era. I would rather pay $50 a month to play a populated trilogy EQ server than get a lifetime membership to play every MMORPG out there!
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