Should I return to Everquest?

Recently Sony opened a new server for Everquest. It is what they call a progression server, but basically means that it is a fresh start to the universe of the game set back to day one when the game launched in 1999. Everything starts over, even the exclusion of all the expansions that followed.

The launch was so successful that Sony put up another server to handle the load. I cannot put my finger on it, but I believe each server can hold 5,000 perspective players (though don’t hold me to that figure).

Everyone who ever played Everquest was given 5 free days to try the server out, and boy the servers were packed. In zones that would be utterly empty on other servers were packed with more than 50 people.

Of course there were a handful of resourceful (cheating) players that ramrodded their characters to high level, but for most of us it seemed like a hard crawl to even get to 5th level. It is a tough game and it has only pulled a few punches — one of them is the corpse run which no one ever really enjoyed.

I played a couple of days and now wonder if I should return. On one hand I wonder why I would waste my time and money on a 12 year old game; on the other hand, if I am having fun isn’t that what matters? Does it matter I am playing a 12 year old game or the new fancy RIFTS? If I am having fun, then it shouldn’t matter what game I am playing.

What a dilemma — any thoughts?

First Impressions of RIFT

What is all this hooplah about the game RIFT? I started seeing advertisement on the game a couple of months ago. I was thinking it was referring to Rifts RPG.

I am completely naive about the game, and my experience is completely without any baggage.

Without revealing much, since it is in BETA and I am unsure of the total legalities of me talking about the game, I can relate my overall impression.

The download and installation was perfect. In game movies seems to stutter frequently, but after I had to update some video drivers and thus it may have corrected the issue.

Character generation seems obtuse but easy — The game seems very rich with a lot of details and possibilities.

The game runs well on my machine on a dual core with 3 gigs of ram and 800 megabyte video card (not specifically beefy any longer in this day and age).

The world seems very busy and animations abound.

Game play seems very straight forward and full of fun and excitement.

I will report more as I play — this first article was with no prior knowledge of the game and then only 20 minutes of playing it (before I had to leave for the real work of the day).

Troy

Return to Everquest

I am sure there are many of you out there that have heard of the new Progression server over at the Everquest MMO.

Like many of you, I have fond memories of stepping out into the wilds of Norrath to find glory, gold, and fortune. But like many of you as well, the trip back has not been as fun as I thought it would be.

Of course the first day back in the game is going to be rough — I forgot even how to move around, let along fight and cast spells. There was also a crazy amount of people in every zone, so it was tough just finding a rat to kill.

I doubt that I will stick around long. First that would mean spending 15 bucks a month on a game that is 10 years old, but also, to be honest, I did all of this 10 years ago!?! So have you, thus why do it all over again?

It is great fun talking about “the good ol’ days” but how actually fun was it?

I also am so afraid that the community and Sony will just blaze through the content and within a year the game will be right up par with the other servers — and again, I didn’t play Everquest because of many of their design decisions: Nothing has changed.

So here is a toast to the great “good old days” of MMOs — but I think I will keep looking elsewhere for fun.