I was sitting here and look at some old pics from back in my EQ days, and had a few questions about this I dont rember and forgot about:

Where was the original starting area for the Froglocks?
Was there a raid window that showed all the members?
Who was the main boss for PoM?
Has anyone seen my corpse?

1. Gukta (which reverted to Grobb when the trolls took over again)
2. No, the raid window was added with PoP. Before that raids had to be conducted as groups that communicated through /ooc, /shout, or /auc
3. Bristlebane

Every now and again I'll open a notebook to find the groups that I made up for a Fear or Hate raid with names scribbled out and rewritten elsewhere, arrows drawn showing people moving groups, etc.
What a freaking mess that was. Yet we did it and didn't quite feel like we were missing anything w/o a raid window.

And what amazes me more is having done it without voice chat of any kind.

And what amazes me more is having done it without voice chat of any kind.

I know! When I went back to WoW and was raiding, voice chat was a MUST for a smooth raid. Then I started thinking about the long LONG EQ hours just blasting music and hoping everyone could type fast enough.


That said, though, I am now a very fast typer and I owe that mainly to EQ.

Old EQ fights were all about sustained execution, none of the do the hokey-pokey dance dance revolution stuff you get in WoW (and like, every other damn game) these days.

Before that raids had to be conducted as groups that communicated through /ooc, /shout, or /auc
Wizzie kill-steal group was awesome! You got to loot all the plat/gems from the raids. I was in Vallis Scortor pre-PoP. Jesslyne, Morella, Kadarya, Batevil, Oolong, Oipunx! We got to lewt everything :)

I know! When I went back to WoW and was raiding, voice chat was a MUST for a smooth raid. Then I started thinking about the long LONG EQ hours just blasting music and hoping everyone could type fast enough.


That said, though, I am now a very fast typer and I owe that mainly to EQ.

haha amen

Well that's true in a sense, but lets think about some of the toughest fights in the game early on. Tanks didn't really have to do anything but walk backwards into a corner. Melee and ranged DPS may have had to spam a clicky ring or something but generally it didn't matter what the fuck they did. Clerics had to click a button every 6 seconds (right after the person before them in the macro chain broadcasted that they were next to click). Bards were maybe a bit more challenging, but there was plenty of times I played the game absolutely unable to stand hammered and no one noticed much or cared (ah, college). Couldn't beat the guy with 20 people ... throw another 20 at it.

The real challenge was in getting the group together and mobilized, which can take a WoW guild AGES for some reason despite a fucking stone that can summon your entire guild to you right outside the place. Never mind the need for an instance portal because heaven forbid you have to kill half a dozen trash mobs between the entrance and the zone or it will take a week.

Clerics had to click a button every 6 seconds

Hey now, sometimes it was 5 secs or even 7. pause editing and management was serious business. staring at a wall while clicking your macro was a skill that only the most LeeT could truly master.

believe it or not i'm still miffed about them giving Grobb to those filthy little Frogloks.

Well that's true in a sense, but lets think about some of the toughest fights in the game early on. Tanks didn't really have to do anything but walk backwards into a corner. Melee and ranged DPS may have had to spam a clicky ring or something but generally it didn't matter what the fuck they did. Clerics had to click a button every 6 seconds (right after the person before them in the macro chain broadcasted that they were next to click). Bards were maybe a bit more challenging, but there was plenty of times I played the game absolutely unable to stand hammered and no one noticed much or cared (ah, college). Couldn't beat the guy with 20 people ... throw another 20 at it.

The real challenge was in getting the group together and mobilized, which can take a WoW guild AGES for some reason despite a fucking stone that can summon your entire guild to you right outside the place. Never mind the need for an instance portal because heaven forbid you have to kill half a dozen trash mobs between the entrance and the zone or it will take a week.

Reminds me of all of the Zeks fight and especialy the one that splits into 5 spawns and the main one that ended in the pit. Kitters FTW :D

Well that's true in a sense, but lets think about some of the toughest fights in the game early on. Tanks didn't really have to do anything but walk backwards into a corner. Melee and ranged DPS may have had to spam a clicky ring or something but generally it didn't matter what the fuck they did. Clerics had to click a button every 6 seconds (right after the person before them in the macro chain broadcasted that they were next to click). Bards were maybe a bit more challenging, but there was plenty of times I played the game absolutely unable to stand hammered and no one noticed much or cared (ah, college). Couldn't beat the guy with 20 people ... throw another 20 at it.

The real challenge was in getting the group together and mobilized, which can take a WoW guild AGES for some reason despite a fucking stone that can summon your entire guild to you right outside the place. Never mind the need for an instance portal because heaven forbid you have to kill half a dozen trash mobs between the entrance and the zone or it will take a week.

No kidding! And yet there are people in WoW that walk around like they just punched out Mike Tyson (Back in his hayday even) because they can raid it WoW. I'd like to see these "hardcore" peeps come to EvE and see how they make out. >:)

I read an article on mmorpg.com yesterday comparing MMOs to LARPing. They talked about how the biggest problem with any MMO is content development, and while its obvious this person never played Eve they had a pretty solid point. Everquest was very light in the content department, most of the end-game rush was centered around beating your rival guilds to the bosses. Killing something in Everquest, albeit comparably easy by today's raid standards, was far more dramatic than any boss fight in WoW simply because at any moment the group behind you would probably kill it after you died if you failed. Its what makes a game like WoW so much easier to walk away from (and probably why they have such high member turnover in most guilds) I think.

Killing something in Everquest, albeit comparably easy by today's raid standards, was far more dramatic than any boss fight in WoW simply because at any moment the group behind you would probably kill it after you died if you failed.

Or the rival guild would just train you :( But I totally agree, the 'uncertainty factor' involved with most of the EQ bosses is what made it fun for me.

Yeah, I never had that sense of panic in WoW that I did in EQ. The only other games to get my sweating and on the edge of my chair were EvE and Darkfall.

I am excited about Eve, just started playing it and its a lot of fun, can't wait until I get to the high level stuff!

Miss old school EQ though... Nothing like it and never will be imo

'Every now and again I'll open a notebook to find the groups that I made up for a Fear or Hate raid with names scribbled out and rewritten elsewhere, arrows drawn showing people moving groups, etc.
What a freaking mess that was. Yet we did it and didn't quite feel like we were missing anything w/o a raid window.'

- I think all of us guild officers who had responsibility for creating raid groups deserve a big, gold medal. It used to be a logistical bloody nightmare.

I found (and threw out) my old EQ notebooks when we moved back in November. I forgot all about those...the days before EQWindows, or at least mainstream EQWindows. Sections of maps, crafting recipes, quest guides, spell lists...ugh. Many trees were sacrificed for my EQ career.

Ahh yes. The classic days of Drizzen's Pizza Box Raid Groups(tm).

I found (and threw out) my old EQ notebooks when we moved back in November. I forgot all about those...the days before EQWindows, or at least mainstream EQWindows. Sections of maps, crafting recipes, quest guides, spell lists...ugh. Many trees were sacrificed for my EQ career.

I still have my stuff tucked away in a box in the garage. I should probably pitch it but whenever I think of doing that I think of all the time I spent neatly organizing it and I want to whimper at the thought of destroying it.