Related Podcast: Episode 4: What EverQuest Did Right That Other MMOs Ignored

I keep hearing terms like Frustrating and Time Sinks to describe the game EverQuest, and I guess to some this might be true. When I played however, those terms were never used in conversation, and therefore I never related one with the other.

Maybe I am a different kind of player, or maybe I am looking through rose colored glasses, or maybe I am more accepting than others? I do not know the answer. I just know that Norrath was a place of adventure, camaraderie, and most of all, purpose. There was always a purpose to log into the world. Whether it was to raid, go on quests, explore the unknown, crawl through a dungeon, or gain xp, you always found a reason to get onto your computer and enter the world of Norrath.

Now there are 2 things I'd like to bring up. First would be that all the things that I listed above you can pretty much do in any other game these days, so why did Norrath feel so much like a world and games these days don't?

Second, I'd like to point out that I never got seriously into D&D or any form of table top gaming. I also never played marathon sessions of EverQuest. In fact I play Vanguard just as much as I ever played EverQuest back in the day.

Now EverQuest is old and dated. A lot of its concepts are old and dated. This is why developers have been trying to take out the old and dated annoyances from EverQuest and create a brand new game. The problem with that is, developers can't seem to figure out where the annoyances stop and the essence begins.

Until they figure it out, maybe I will just go and put back on my rose colored glasses. At least it makes me feel happy, and isn't that what it's all about?