EQ - Its "THE GAME"
Some of you might remember playing an original classic like Super Mario Brothers
on an original Nintendo box, or playing a table-top video game in a restaurant.
Or further down the road, when FSP's come out, like Doom, Halo, etc.
What our main goal ? Most often to "wrap" the game and move on to something
else. The games had various levels to get through. Spending hours just getting
through a more difficult level. Then we moved on to a different game or the next
version if it was out by the time you wrapped the first one. Our shelves would
get stacked with boxed games we bought and played, got bored and bought
another one. Then came MMO's .......
I remember the first few days playing Everquest. (wasn't until PoP), but I
was someone who was totally new to any MMO. I was always an FSP "shootem up"
type of gamer.
One of things I never liked about the common FSP, is the world areas/levels,
(what we would call zones here), were always too small, never far to run around.
When I first zoned in to Misty Thicket with my new halfling, I thought, gee I
like the larger area to run around. Then when I got to zones like South Karana,
(this was my third day with EQ), I was hooked. There was so many places to
run around, just in one zone, I couldn't of found a better game.
Then I started learning about all the things one can do in a game like EQ, from
tradeskills to quests and setting up a trader to sell things. It literally became
a hobby, more than just a game to play. When I first started playing EQ, before
I understood the basic concept of the goals, my mind was still a bit stuck on
that "see how long it takes to wrap this game" haha
One thing that EQ did, was teach me patience playing a game. My priority of
getting to the next level, no longer prevailed over my enjoyment of the game.
It took a bit to sink in, but realizing, there was no hurry to get leveled. The
content and the rest of the game was already overwhelming. No hurry at all.
Even though one could play this game for weeks, months or years, I see it in
a way that some others might not. There is NO END to this game.
Some players I know, who played EQ for many years and they admit, they did
not have time to explore every little nook and cranny in world of Norrath.
A couple people told me that they went so hard leveling, they missed out on
a lot of content at lower levels.
Everyone has their own preferences for strategies and game play. One could
spend all their time leveling up to max, then start working on their AA's
Some might get bored, start up another toon to try out a different class, but
there is so many different things to do in this game, so many different ways to
do them, there is no such thing as "wrapping the game."
Even leveling a toon up to max, with uber gear and max AA's, you've accomplished
a great thing, but if that was your only toon, it's only a fraction of what one
can experience in this game.
For some people, it can be a lifetime of entertainment. Sure, there is many
different flavours out there for MMO's but EQ is like that one particular brand
of coffee you love the most. Thats why we are all here.
That and so much more, is why I call EQ "THE GAME"
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