I played EQ for about 2-3 months shortly after it was released. Being my first-ever MMO, it certainly provided me with a "first-ever awe feeling" that no other MMO I've tried since has fully given me. However, my only being able to play off and on in a game that required a nearly 24/7 commitment to truly advance, as well as my taking the aforementioned "RP sandbox" nature of the game to heart rather than truly engaging in the XP leveling that eventually became the game's primary focus, pretty much explain why I really didn't get very far in the game and why I eventually couldn't justify continuing my subscription.
I had fun while I was there, though.
However, there was a situation that occured when playing WoW yesterday that reminded me of one of the things I
don't miss from the EQ days:
Basically, I needed to retrieve Catelyn's Blade from NPC pirate "Pretty Boy" Duncan near Booty Bay to continue a quest chain. I waited near the beach for him to respawn, having already taken out his fellow surrounding pirates in the process. Just then another player came by and waited some distance away, watching me take out the pirates without moving a pixelated muscle to help. Once "Pretty Boy" Duncan finally appeared, I alone fought Duncan until he had but a few hit point left and he started running away, after which the other player suddenly shot a bolt (or whatever it was) that took the weakened Duncan down. The player then got to Duncan first and kneeled over, trying to loot him - but to no avail... the game correctly determined that since I both hit Duncan first
and did most of the damage to him, that I got the Blade and whatever else was on him. I then mounted up and rode away back to Catelyn as that player was left there literally hopping mad.
As I made my way back to Booty Bay, I was reminded of this thread and thought, "As much fun as I had in EQ, thank God that this isn't EQ!", remembering that not everything in the "good ol' days" was always so good (which is probably true about life in general as well).
-G