r/everquest

Even though dated, this game gives me more feelings of adventure and Fantasy then any other MMO out right now. I am in love with this game and really hope some day we get another Everquest or western Fantasy MMO.

Is there any set like this in game? I am playing High elf Wizard on Firiona Vie server

Some of the most beautiful art ever done be Keith Parkinson, and perfectly embodies the fantasy and adventure of Everquest. I wish we still got new fantasy media like this particularly mmos. I know Monsters and Memories is coming out soon but honestly it's ugly as shit so hard for me to be excited for it. Every thing in fantasy looks so modernized now and devoid of the magic and life compared to the 80's and 90's. Sorry for the rant just wanted to get this off my chest.

I recently got nostalgic about Everquest and happened upon this subreddit, where  I’m surprised to see how much people still play and appreciate this game. So, I thought, maybe this community will appreciate my short story, and a few vintage screenshots.

With some effort I dug up some old, OLD screenshots from my original Everquest playthrough, that escaped deletion by a stroke of luck. Most of the screenshots from this period were not so lucky. I first played during the summer between high school and college, way back in 2000. I played a paladin named Ziefander on the Povar server. Around level 30-35 I frequented a couple of grinding camps in the Frontier Mountains in Kunark, and while farming the giants there, I met a cleric named Solovyov. We clicked right away, and on top of that, we just happened to find ourselves in the same group time and again, forming our own tank / healer backbone for many successful grinds. Solo would often call me to fill in for a tank that had abandoned his group, and I would do the same for his heals. We went pretty far out of our respective ways to rez each other a lot, in a time when it was common for people charge gold for rezzes. And I distinctly remember him chugging an invisibility potion to drag my corpse up from the Temple of Droga after I fell into a literal hole and died there. I don’t know if EQ players still face the prospect of losing your entire inventory to a corpse timeout, but it was a reality back then. My dude saved my virtual butt from probably quitting the game. We later made twink alts named Caleibro (WAR) and Veraken (MNK) and played through basically the whole game together again up to Velious.

26 years later, we’re still friends. We’ve played many games together since Everquest, we talk around once a week, and we’ve met a number of times in person just to hang out. He recently visited with his ten-year-old son, and we had a great time drinking and talking about games and life in general. It’s hard to imagine making a friend that way anymore. MMOs were just different back then. It makes me happy to have been a part of it, but also sad that things seem so different now.

Anyway, I’ve included a few original screenshots, which I hope the reddit community will excuse for being small, as they are still in the original 800x600 orientation of my tube-monitor from circa 2000.

I still compare many contemporary games to Everquest, and nothing ever seems to quite hit the mark the way that (this) game did. Threats don’t feel as threatening. Distances don’t feel as distant. No game feels as social, or as immersive, or as large, even when they technically are larger. EQ was really something special to me.

P.S. Some of the screenshots here show another player named Bunkey in the party window, whom Solo and I often grouped with to just run around. He was like us, always down for antics and exploring, looking for a way to escape the level grind and loot obsession that seemed to consume so much of the EQ community back then.

The three of us went from Freeport to Velious together for the first time, during which trip one of us fell off the boat, and the other two dove into the ocean after him, because obviously. We ran/swam the rest of the way together, through red-con things that should have killed us all, and ended the night by filling our inventory with booze and drinking all of it. We drunken-fist-brawled in Thurgadin with our screens swinging like we were on a tilt-o-whirl. It was one of the best gaming moments of my life, the night before I started college. I swear I had screenshots of the whole trip at some point, but I can’t find them now. Alas.

Solovyov and I both lost touch with Bunkey after EQ. The two of us went on to DAOC, Guild Wars, WoW, and many others. Hope you’re still out there, Bunkey, and hope you’re doing well.

I know this will seem humblebrag but I would really appreciate help figuring out all 21 signatures.

So far I believe I have Ronnie Ashlock, Bob Painter, Patrick Ho, Rick Johnson, Tim Petty, Cory Rohlfs, Alan Absov Van Couvering signing as Absob, and Game Master Ryan Barker.

That's 9 of the 21.

Some are really cryptic, like S.

I have to admit I didn't play, although I would have loved this at one point in my life but it wasn't invented or even dreamt of yet. This is one of those estate finds. Not open, and I will be listing it on ebay ...but...there's something important about getting the details right. I saw a lot of names on the list of people who worked on this. It would be great if someone recognized one, credit gets out. I love that a few of those names were not traditional boy names.

Seems like this was in the sweet spot in time when games were virtual but merch like maps and art and real world gear mattered.

If you know, maybe if you were at one of those roll out events at Frys or CompUSA, or maybe you were on the team or someone in your family was, let me know. I saw Absor is retiring. Amazing after all this time.

I have not played eq for about 20 years so it was complete shock coming back. I come from the days of currency having a weight and having to dedicate an entire evening to corps retrieval! I used chat gpt and asked to help me get set up because all the new AA just hurt the brain, this is cool and wanted to share!