EverQuest

aka: EQ
Moby ID: 275
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

EverQuest is a fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

The game's basic concept is reminiscent of earlier MUD (multi-user dungeon) games, replacing text-based gameplay with a graphical interface. In the beginning of the game, players create their avatars. Character races range from traditional elves to creatures unique to the game's world, such as the dragon-people Drakkin. Afterwards, the player assigns a class to the avatar, choosing between several categories which include various types of warriors, spellcasters, and clerics. It is also possible to customize the avatar's physical appearance.

The player then ventures into the medieval fantasy world of Norrath. The basic gameplay is similar to that of most other RPGs: the player character fights monsters, accumulating money and experience points, and completes quests given by non-player characters. Trading with other player characters occupies an important place in the game; characters' trading skills can also be improved.

Social interaction between players is often essential to build a balanced, efficient party of characters in order to tackle dungeons and bosses as a group. Players can interact with each other and discuss strategies, as well as join in-game player guilds. The game mainly focuses on cooperative gameplay; dueling is confined to restricted PvP (player-versus-player) areas.

Spellings

  • エバークエスト - Japanese spelling
  • 无尽的任务 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 無盡的任務 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 에버퀘스트 - Korean spelling (Hangul)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

164 People (110 developers, 54 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 24 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 46 ratings with 9 reviews)

It's 2012 and I still haven't played another game as rich and compelling as this one

The Good
Where to begin? EverQuest was such an immersive, expansive experience -- it's essentially like a whole other world that players would routinely sink themselves into for three, six, ten, perhaps even twenty hours at a time. Of course it isn't nearly the phenomenon today as it was in for its first few years (1999-2002), in fact you might even call it irrelevant, but the fact that we've seen a dozen or more expansions demonstrates the enduring popularity of the game.

First and foremost, EverQuest was a grand social experiment. It was a compelling game that, when facing a horde of strong enemies, demanded cohesive teamwork, constant communication, and a deep understanding of your chosen class. You could muddle through if you don't know quite what you're doing, but experience will not flow in smoothly, and you will be going on plenty of corpse runs -- a sobering experience when your body is at the bottom of dungeon.

The game world of Norrath, and its associated moon and alternate elemental planes, are, in a word, vast.. It boasts over four hundred zones, and most of them take a player at least a couple of minutes to run across. This is profoundly large game world, and yet there is no lack of rich detail. You can tell that the creators of EQ really knew their fantasy inside out, from the creatures that populate Norrath to the massive array of magical spells to the 'phat lewts' that dominate the focus of the game for a lot of players.

The Bad
It's clearly past its prime. I haven't seriously played EverQuest since 2002, and that's a good thing. It used to be on the leading edge of social gaming, but then we had the banal, dumbed-down World of Warcraft to supercede it in 2004.

The Bottom Line
A majestic and very fun experience that has possibly entertained more people for a greater length of time than any other game in history.

Windows · by Chris Wright (85) · 2013

The End Of the Gaming Industry

The Good
In 1999 the concept of an MMO was still brand new. This was the first widely released game that incorporated the "ability" to play with thousands of other players in a huge gaming world. The "potential" for player to player interaction in this game was immense. In addition, for the day, the graphics were unbelievable, considering the scope of the game.

The Bad
Instead of leading the gaming industry into a new renaissance, this game literally destroyed the entire industry.

Why? It's complicated, but I will try to break it down.

1) The development team of this game released an absurdly unfinished product. Yet people played it anyway. I tried it in April of 1999, and dropped it by May 1999 because of how bad it was. Unfortunately I was in the vast minority.

This gave developers the green light to release games that were essentially still in BETA and have players actually fund their development. This problem still persists today!

2) While this game gave players the "ability" to play with other people, it was designed to be played by SINGLE player. Thus it was one of the first SINGLE PLAYER ONLINE GAMES. Why on earth would you pay a monthly fee for a game, when comparative single player games exist that do not require a monthly fee? Developers noticed how players didn't seem to care! Quite frankly it goes to show you just how stupid many of us are. :(

This gave developers the green light to build massive SINGLE player games, and yet charge a monthly fee for them.

3) The game itself is utterly dull and vapid. Even in 1999 people lamented that in Everquest all you could do was kill brown rats, to move onto white rats, to move onto black rats. After black rats you moved onto big brown spiders, then big red spiders, and then the cycle repeats.

I knew people who played this game while watching TV. One of my friends actually would watch TV, eat food, and play ANOTHER GAME, yet still play Everquest because it was so simple!

Not only that, but people would play these games for 12+ hours a day! Why would you do that to yourself?!

The game developers noticed how quite a few people responded to this completely boring design and thus started making every other MMO in exactly the same manner. Innovation was scrapped for blatant copying of an older boring design.

4) Everquest made huge amounts of money, and that is the single element of this game that killed the gaming industry as a whole. Previous to the release of Everquest MMO type games had existed (IE UO did well, just not this well). But this is the first one to REALLY cash in. At its peak this game was bringing in tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars a month, in addition to the CD sales! Compared to most games that relied entirely off of someone just buying a CD.

In the years previous to 1999 a new gaming genre was released just about every 3-4 years. These new genres were almost always a breath of fresh air. Just to name a few: side scrollers, 4x strategy, real time strategy, first person shooter, online first person shooter, clicking role playing games, etc, etc, etc...

But after 1999 there hasn't been a major new genre created. Realize the impact of that statement! In almost 13 years we haven't seen a new video game genre. That would be as if in 1999 we were all still playing ONLY side scrollers like Super Mario Bros!

Why did this game kill innovation in the gaming industry? Because everyone saw how much more money the subscription based online games were making and everyone in the industry dropped what they were doing to make them. So many flooded the market that the asking price for a subscription dropped to ZERO. Countless studios shutdown simply due to their greed and inability to manage programs of this scope. And countless more shutdown because they released "cookie cutter" MMOs that bored the tears out of the people who played them.

Instead of innovating, these companies simply copied a very expensive genre and it killed the entire industry.

Most of the companies left in the gaming industry do not make new games, they simply re-create games made AT LEAST 13 years ago.

The Bottom Line
Everquest was a blatant slot machine game that was easiest played by yourself. Players would kill red creatures until they leveled, then they would kill black creatures, then white, then purple. Once completed they would kill another creature in the red color and start the cycle all over again. This pattern would repeat for possibly 300-400 hours (or more in some cases). Some of us hated this type of game, but millions apparently loved this style of game.

This game made so much money that it killed the video gaming industry in the later 90's and early 2000's. Just about everyone in the industry dropped their innovative projects (because of greed) and tried to copy it's design. The vast majority failed miserably. And because of it we haven't seen a new gaming genre released in almost 13 years.

Welcome to the Dark Ages of gaming.

Windows · by Sean Johanson (13) · 2011

An oustanding gaming experience, but often criticized by those who don't understand the concept of "game balance".

The Good
The social interaction between players is one of the biggest draws of the game. Everquest was designed from the ground up to be a cooperative game which, in almost all cases, requires you to cooperate with other players in order to advance in levels (and, therefore, in power and ability). And this forced cooperation leads to online friendships, which gives you a reason to return to the land of Norrath again and again. I know many people for whom the game itself is secondary to the social aspects of simply hanging out with their friends and chatting.

The Bad
The thing that I disliked most about Everquest was the incessant whining and groaning and pissing and moaning that occurred in the online message forums and newsgroups. If you read the posts made in these groups and on these websites, you'd come away with the impression that people were being forced to play Everquest at gunpoint. Some people simply never seemed to grasp the concept that the game wasn't obligated to be all things to all people. Whenever Verant would adjust the game parameters to counter cheezy tactics or exploits, the cries of "NERF!" would begin, and whiners would come out in droves. It was demoralizing.

However, to be fair, it is also true that Everquest's biggest problem is Verant themselves. Somewhere in the development of Everquest, the design team got it into their heads that (A) the game should have "mystery," and (B) players were morons. This attitude continues largely unchanged to the present day, over two years after the original commercial release of Everquest. There have been many instances over the two years of Everquest's existence where the players themselves discovered bugs or game imbalances, but which would not be acknowledged (much less fixed) by Verant. Verant simply took the attitude of "You're wrong, and there's no way you could know nearly as much about the game as we do, so shut up about it already." On many occasions, however, it turned out that Verant was wrong and the players were right. Sometimes this would be fixed with a nod to the players. Most of the time it would be fixed quietly, without explanation, and Verant would claim that there had never been a problem in the first place. Occasionally, they'd fix it and claim that they discovered the problem independently of the players, and really, they'd never heard anything about it at all from the players (despite countless messages into the newsgroups and web-based message boards).

The Bottom Line
Everquest is a highly addictive experience for those who prefer to socialize via the Internet. It's also a powergamer's dream. But don't bother reading the message boards or the newsgroups. You'll just drive yourself mad and ruin the game for yourself.

Windows · by Afterburner (486) · 2001

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

EverQuest appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Controversy

Verant Interactive was in late 1999 and early 2000 under the suspicion of having based EverQuest on DikuMUD source code, which would be against the DikuMUD license since EverQuest is a commercial game.

This was a minor controversy, but ultimately led to Verant Interactive issuing a sworn statement to the Diku Group on March 17, 2000, that EverQuest was NOT based on any DikuMUD source code.

This statement can be read at: http://www.dikumud.com/everquest.aspx.

Novels

In 2005, CDS published two novels set in the EverQuest world: The Ocean of Tears, by Stewart Wieck, and The Rogue's Hour, by Scott Ciencin.

Title

Because of how addictive the game was to some people, players sometimes referred to the game, jokingly, as EverCrack or NeverRest.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2001 (Issue #201) – Multiplayer Game of the Year
    • November 2002 (Issue #220) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – #15 Top Game of All Time
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #65 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #33 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2000 - #28 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games Poll"
    • April 2005 - #24 in the "50 Best Games of All Time"
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/2000 - Best Online Game in 1999

Information also contributed by LepricahnsGold, Pseudo_Intellectual and xxxxxxxxxxx

Analytics

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Related Games

EverQuest: The Shadows of Luclin
Released 2001 on Windows
EverQuest II
Released 2004 on Windows
EverQuest: Depths of Darkhollow
Released 2005 on Windows
EverQuest: The Planes of Power
Released 2002 on Windows
Lords of EverQuest
Released 2003 on Windows
EverQuest: Gates of Discord
Released 2004 on Windows
EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark
Released 2000 on Windows
EverQuest: Lost Dungeons of Norrath
Released 2003 on Windows
EverQuest II: Desert of Flames
Released 2005 on Windows

Related Sites +

  • EverQuest Corner
    News and events relating to EQ.
  • EverQuest EPK
    Electronic press kit for the game released in 1998 before the games actual launch, featuring in-game footage.
  • EverQuest Stratics
    THE comprehensive source of statistics and advice for EverQuest. Also features news and message boards.
  • EverQuest Vault
    A glossy fan site specializing in the news, events and happenings of Everquest. Includes FAQs, advice and message boards.
  • This World is Your Playground
    An Apple Games article about the Mac version of EverQuest, commentary being provided by Director Richard Lawrence (March, 2003).
  • interview (March 23, 2009)
    for WarCry with artist Kevin Burns
  • interview (March 4, 2009)
    for Massively with artist Kevin Burns

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 275
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by nullnullnull.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper.

Additional contributors: Dan Homerick, PCGamer77, Unicorn Lynx, Attila, Jeanne, Apogee IV, Zeppin, Paulus18950, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.

Game added September 16, 1999. Last modified March 4, 2024.