Everquest - a review? Not really !

                     From Alex van Kaam

Well it must have been 2 months ago that I got Everquest as a gift.
I'd never really tried an online RPG, I did some online Quake but
the phone bills soon stopped me from doing that.  But cable modems
have arrived and hey the first month was free.

So I installed it the game, ran it first time, it updated itself
for about 30 minutes and I was ready to go.  The first step was to
make an account, of course they needed my credit card, but about 10
minutes later I was on the screen with the 20+ server list. I
figured that I would be best off selecting the server that was
least crowded, I mean having to share all that loot and exp. with
2000 other players did not really seem fun so I selected the
Torvonnilous server, only about 600 people on there.  Much later I
learned that on the older servers there are also a lot of secondary
players (a second character of a player, you can make up to 8 on 1
server), which means you see a level 1 player walking around with
the most awesome sword you ever seen .  spoiling it a lot for the
real newbies.

Anyway back to where I was, at the character selection screen, of
course I went straight for a human paladin named Borimir, and off
to play I was.

My hometown became Qeynos. By hometown I mean the town you appear
in after you get killed. I started of with an simple rusty sword, 5
food and 5 water.  I left the city ASAP and once outside the gate I
saw my first enemy, a rat, ah I thought and I ran right for him,
about 30 seconds later he had called his rat friends and I was dead
... Duh !!!

Luckily you don't lose any exp. (not that I had any) if you die
before level 5, as a matter of fact when you die before that level
and you did not get any better stuff (which you probably did not)
you will come back to life with the full equipment you had when you
started the game.  This saves you from buying food and water.  Once

after level 5 it's smart to go back to your body and get all that
nice loot that you were carrying around.

About 2 days later I reached level 6, explored around Qeynos, had a
few coppers, even went into the sewers for a quest, got 2 int
earrings (from that same quest) and was having good fun.  I noticed
that lots of people group, meaning they form a party and share the
exp. depending on the level you are in the group.  I also noticed
it was hard to find a good group, many people would run when things
got ugly instead of sticking with you and just making it.

I soon left the "safe" area around Qeynos, really for 2 reasons, I
had seen it and I no longer got exp. from low level creatures, thus
forcing me to go out and get harder kills.  So I entered Qeynos
hills, to find wolves there, coooool I thought so I started killing
the first one I saw.. Just to learn that there was a NPC walking
around who liked wolves and did not like paladins killing them.
aaargh!  Anyway I came back to live in Qeynos and went back to the
hills, I reached level 8 there, and thanked my "lay hands" ability

for that, it's that special thing a paladin has that gives him back
full heath once a day (server day).

I then noticed all these wealthy looking players running into a
cave, and by wealthy I mean player with real armour.  So I followed
them to find myself in Black Burrow, home of the gnolls.

I stayed there from level 8 till level 18, getting killed about
1000 times, learning stuff, getting my first spells at level 9, and
my second bunch of spells at level 15.  I learned how to shout
TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN !!! being level 10 with 8 Elite Gnolls (level 15)
running after me while I was running to the zone.  Learned how to
help people, and how people helped recover my body.

It was a fun time, made 3 great friends there.  Wala a female
barbarian, Rolland a male barbarian and Calan a human Monk.  We
fought many hours together, we never left one of us behind if we
got into trouble, we would either get out together or die together.
Saved many newbies from death by engaging a train so he could run
and then get the hell out of there ourselves. Met a player who had
learned the skill of black smithing and bought a full banded armour
suite for 80PP (that is 8000 copper pieces !!!)

The best experience we all had was when we went into the "green
room" inside Black Burrow. This is a room with - at least - 5 Elite
Guards, 1 Commander and sometimes a Shaman.  Loot was great but
breaking the spawn (killing them in such away they don't pop all at
once after X times) was very hard, we must have tried it 6 or 7
times only to get killed again and again.  But then it worked, we
all focused on the same enemy, looted him right after killing him
then onto the next one, trying to ignore the other 5 hitting us in
the back.  Losing life fast, seeing the 2 barbarians go into
berserk, using my Lay on Hands to give full health back to the monk
just before he died, knowing my only way out was gone by doing
that.  Hacking and slashing with my 2-handed sword, casting small
heal spells on the 2 barbarians.. And then suddenly there were no
more gnolls to kill. WE DID IT.

The feeling was very hard to describe and none of us ever got that
feeling again.  We sat down and rested, I meditated to get my mana
up to heal the others.  A good team always has a few tanks (muscled
fighters) and a healer, I was both in a way.  We held that room for
6 hours real time.  We dropped loot we could not carry, the exp.
was fabulous.

After that Black Burrow sort of lost its appeal to me and I started
wandering, and that is where I noticed the most irritating part of
EQ ... Binding. Binding is a spell that binds you to a place, so
next time you die you appear there.  Druids can cast bind, and some
other magic classes, but others can't so you depend on other people
to get a bind.  And while those people that can cast bind can bind
themselves to any location they can only bind you close to a town.

Anyway we did some hunting in EverForest peak (close to the
Barbarian home and Black Burrow) but me and Wala wanted to see more
of the world, so we said goodbye and went onto the boat in Qeynos,
we soon reach some island only to get our butts kicked. a few hours
later we got our bodies and were back in Qeynos.  We did not see
each other for a few days so I decided to go cross the continent
from Qeynos to Freeport.

This must have been the most frustrating thing I ever did, I got
killed a few times, had to walk back to my body for about 45
minutes (real time!) with no weapons or armour (that was still on
my body) and only because I could not get a bind.  I did write to
the GM about having some sort of binding stone or NPC you can pay
to get a bind, but never got a response.

Anyway, two days later I reached Freeport.  A cool place and I
explored it and explored the area south till I reached Oasis.  Here
I found the boat to Kurnack.  This is some new evil(ish) continent
and I wanted to see it.

This is really where the mess started, I went onto the boat, zoned
to another area and got some system message about the boat being
replaced or something similar (forgot the complete message) and
suddenly I was on an shore close to a huge chess board.  I shouted
out for info only to learn I'd ended up in an area with level 60
monsters or close to that.  I was in deep shit for sure.  So other
players shouted back I should /petition the GM. I first logged off
to find a map of the area, which I could not so I logged back on
and /petitioned the game master.  Waited 30 minutes and there he
was, I explained it to him, he wanted proof, I told him I had none
and I sure did not walk here!!!  He could not help me !! So I was
left where I was.  By now I was kinda pissed off, partly from
losing a level by travelling to Freeport and not getting a bind
when I needed it and party because of this.

Luckily a nice player guided me, the only "safe" way was to swim,
avoid sharks and that huge boat should I see it (and yes I did !!!)
Anyway I swam for 15 minutes, saw my swimming skill go though the
roof) to reach an island with a dock.  The player who helped me
joined me there and guided me to Freeport from there.

I wanted to experience more, have that same feeling I had in the
green room, so I started the opposite character of a human paladin.
A DARK ELF SHADOW KNIGHT, now he is so opposite that he is killed
on sight in almost any town (except his hometown) and if you're
lucky a merchant will not kill you. I gave Xilanaz (that is his
name) all the equipment from Borimir and off I went.  The first few
levels were fun and easy, and I soon reached level 9 where I got my
first spells. Life as a dark elf has one big fun part, you can see
at night as well as during the day. So no more sitting around or
buying some expensive light source.

At level 9 I headed to Freeport (only 2 zones away from my hometown
so easy peasy) I noticed the guards did not like me but left me
alone so I went to kill some orcs pawns close by and headed to the
Freeport bank to drop off my money (a dark elf can't carry that
much) Of course I got killed.. by some stupid NPC paladin who hated
my guts. AAAAAaaaaargh

I got my body back with the help of another player. and uninstalled
Everquest.  I was sooo pissed off with it.  About an hour later I
felt a bit guilty, went to bed, went to work, got home, installed
Everquest again.. YES I AM HOOKED... geeeeeez

Luckily I could renew my subscription and Xilanaz was back on
route, I went to the Desert of Northern Ro, and with my experience
from Black Burrow I created a 6 group party, all around my own
level and we took over a Derv (thugs) camp, in a way it was similar
to the Green Room in Black Burrow but instead of being excited
about taking the room I was now having a great time commanding the
five party member and pulling Dervs to us (with my Necro spells).
We did this from 8pm till 3am, we grouped again the next day and
did the same. I reached level 14 (so gained 5 levels) in 2 days.
After that most left for other things since exp. from the Dervs
became low (instead of them being 5 levels higher then us, so
giving us w-a-a-a-y good exp., they were not the same level)

Calan and Rolland and I keep in touch by the /tell command, they
have reached level 25 now.  Borimir I deleted but may see if a GM
can get him back.  Wala came over to this side of the continent,
she still is level 19 (like me she explored and lost exp. as much
as she gained it) and she is waiting for me to get to a level where
we can join again and she does not drain all the exp. her way.

What can I say? EQ is a great game, but can also be very
frustrating. To get anything out of it you need a lot of time and
you need to get some good friends.  Out for the 100 people you meet
maybe 1 or 2 will be people you will fight with and who you can
trust your life to when needed.  It of course also depends on you,
like you others are looking for the same kind of person to fight
with , so if you think you've found that person then if needed
stick by his side even if it means you die with him. it will make
sure he knows he can count on you.

I am not sure if I will keep playing Xilanaz or get back to
Borimir, Being evil is much more fun then being a saint, but also a
hell of a lot harder!

If you ever come to my server, feel free to say hi to me - /tell
borimir hello or /tell Xilanaz hello will do fine.  And if you come
across Rolland, Calan or Wala, greet them for me.





                              - o -