Interested in the Second Life Community? Participants required for study into online communities.

[MatthewBarrs123]

Thank you for taking your time to read this post. My name is Matthew Laidman and I am conducting research as a student of the University of Exeter, United Kingdom.

 

What is the study about?

The purpose of the study is to question the traditional geographical concept of ‘community’, within the quickly expanding world of online gaming and virtual environments. This research aims to decipher whether this concept needs to be re-evaluated by looking at different online gaming environments, and how different people, like yourself, interpret and conceptualize these environments.

 

The subsequent title for this research project is:

 

“Are online games and virtual environments challenging the geographical concept of ‘Community’?”

 

Through this research I hope to further geographical understanding of ‘community’ as a concept, and if required to change how social scientists view the new medium of online gaming and virtual environments.

 

What will you be asked to-do if you take part?

If you like the sound of this research proposal and would like to take part you will be asked to complete a short questionnaire or an interview about your personal gaming trends and any broader trends that you have noticed. The research process is short and will no longer than 20 minutes.

 

Further information about the study:

Responding to this post does not commit you to taking part in this study. So do not hesitate to get in touch and ask any questions you might have.

 

Contact

Email: ml355@exeter.ac.uk

Telephone: 07788244975

 

Thank you for taking your time to read this information sheet.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

Is there an incentive for us to participate?

[MatthewBarrs123]

Thank you for the reply,

Unfortunately due to the scale of the project e.g. me being a university student and this research not being funded I cannot offer any incentive at this moement in time. I have tried to factor this in and make when designing the research, keeping it flexible, hassle free and short as possible. 

Is this a project that still interests you?

Thanks again, 

Matt

 

[TristanMercer]

Must be thesis and survey time again. You really should do this in world as these forums have no where near the amount of people you will run across.

/me sighs and walks away

[Venus Petrov]

One way to gather the information you need for your paper is to actually go inworld (gasp!) and to a popular area (such as a fair, a dance club, a cafe..anywhere there are multiple green dots on the map) and ask around.  It would be far more interesting and give you a better sense of the environment.

[Morgaine Christensen]

Interesting concept to follow.  My question is, how do  you differentiate between virtual world results and those of say gaming worlds, like World of Warcraft for example? While there are some similarities between the two venues, there appear to be more differences than similaries.  I would also expect something like SL to be weighted more with females vs. WOW, which would be expected to have a larger population of males.  Have you built anything in  in relationship to age differences? 

[Dillon Levenque]

I think you might have a better chance of having people respond if you used one of the online survey sites like surveymonkey. Many people are unwilling to provide an email address (even an avatar's email address) to a complete stranger.

While it's true that SL lets communities form without regard to world geography, that is hardly a new phenomenon. There have been dispersed communities (scientists, for example) for as long as there have been ways to communicate. SL and other platforms that support social media certainly make it more common but it's not a new thing.

[Janelle Darkstone]

In the early years of EverQuest there definitely was a "community".  People helped each other, shared information and were always happy to group up to conquer the dungeons.  I'll never forget the pair of higher level characters that approached me, at half health and recovering, inspected me (which at first seemed very rude) and then handed me several piece of bronze armor they had looted in a nearby dungeon.  The kindness did not go unpaid when I became much higher level and capable of doing the same, many times over.

Years later, with the practice of merging servers (and with WoW's cross-server grouping feature), the name and reputation you built for yourself no longer mattered.  "Communities" were mashed together, jerk players soon had a new crowd of people who did not know them or their habits and the whole concept of good deeds and personal accountability was lost.  Especially in WoW, where you might queue for a group and form with good players and bad players and, after the dungeon is finished, quite possibly never see their names again.

In SL, where it's intentionally (and artificially) difficult to change one's name, reputation becomes important.  In a community, I'd say that's a huge factor.

[Czari Zenovka]

This concept is not particularly new; one of the first books I ever read when I first discovered the internet in the late 80's was Howard Rheingold's book, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier.   Rheingold is called "The First Citizen of the Internet" and I found this book, originally published in 1993, fascinating when I became a "Netizen."  I would consider this book excellent research and foundational material for your study.  A free online version of the book can be found here.  

So much has happened within the concept of virtual comunities since Rheingold's book, especially in the realm of communites that use avatars such as Ultima Online and others going forward such as Second Life, that it would be fascinating, I think, to do a compare and contrast study of how virtual communities have evolved over the years, becoming much more interactive.

At any rate, I wish you success on your study.  The one part of your proposition that keeps me from accepting the invitation to be a study participant is: 

If you like the sound of this research proposal and would like to take part you will be asked to complete a short questionnaire or an interview about your personal gaming trends and any broader trends that you have noticed.  As you can see from the quote by Philip Linden in my signature, I am one who draws a sharp distinction between computer "gaming" and virtual worlds such as SL, and I am a gamer as well, but the "gamer" title applied to virtual worlds just doesn't sit right with me.

[Czari Zenovka]

---

Morgaine Christensen wrote:

Interesting concept to follow.  My question is, how do  you differentiate between virtual world results and those of say gaming worlds, like World of Warcraft for example? While there are some similarities between the two venues, there appear to be more differences than similaries.  I would also expect something like SL to be weighted more with females vs. WOW, which would be expected to have a larger population of males.  Have you built anything in  in relationship to age differences? 

---

Interestingly, EQ & WoW may not be as heavily weighted toward males as one would think.  I posted the following in the EQ ZAM forums when someone began a thread on the average age of EQ users, with the assumption the mean age would be young.  The replies were opposite (of course we know that many if not most people in any venue make their ways to the forums) and while the subject was age, I found the info referred to in my post fascinating:

####

Interestingly, I recently happened across this quote in a fashion magazine. I clipped the article but threw away the magazine so I can't say with certainty which one it is from, but this is the direct quote:

POWER PLAYS

 

Once dominated by adolescents, online games are getting a face lift and becoming relaxation and entertainment for a booming and trendy female demographic.

 

WHO'S GAMING: Women are venturing into the gaming world in record numbers. "According to our recent survey, 71 percent of women playing computer games are 40 and older," says Jason Kapalka, co-founder and chief creative officer of PopCap Games. The survey showed that 88 percent of female gamers said they play to relieve stress, and 74 percent identified mental exercise as a significant benefit.

 

WHY IT WORKS: The games plug into sporadic pockets of time, granting access to a virtual world that provides cognitive exercise. Progress saves automatically, eliminating the need to restart. According to psychologist and author Dr. Carl Arinoldo, "Casual nonviolent word and puzzle computer games can also develop new cellular brain connections, keeping the brain healthy, active, and vital."

So, at least of the female gaming population, 71 percent are 40+ according to this survey. From personal experience, I find this true. I first became involved in online chat rooms via IRC (Internet Relay Chat) shortly after the IBM Personal Computer was introduced in 1981. Those that I chatted with on a daily basis were my age or older. As the PC clones began flooding the marketplace, driving down the initial price of an IBM PC - approximately $7500+ with 128k RAM when first introduced - making a PC more accessible to less affluent clientele plus software becoming more sophisticated, it would make sense that those of us who were adults when the PC was first introduced and enjoyed being online would continue participating in various ways, one of which is gaming.

 

I was invited to play EQ in 1999 by two friends from an IRC chat room. Because they were my age plus never having played an MMORPG before, I assumed everyone in the game were also adults. Thus I was quite taken aback when I was medding on the wizard spire in North Ro (not sure if it is still there) and was IM'd by a wizard asking if I would be his girlfriend and presenting me with a ring he had just fashioned. As I was formulating my answer, he continued, "How old r u? I'm 12." ACCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

 

The guilds I have been in were primarily composed of my age group. In retrospect this could be partly due to my joining casual, family-style guilds who were not interested in raiding.

 

I have been primarily a part of SecondLife the past 3 1/2 years. As SL is a virtual community and not a game, the age range is wide due to the vast amount of diverse content; however, due to the "adult nature" of some of the SL community, one previously had to be 18+ to join, with a separate teen grid for 12-18. That was changed about a year ago. The teen grid was closed, 16+ is now the new age limit, and everything overtly "adult" was moved to a separate region where one has to be age-verified to enter. Again, it could be due to the places I frequent in SL, but most of the people I encounter are minimally 35+ with most being older.

 

Me? A lady never divulges her age. But let's just say that 40+ is accurate.

 

EDIT TO ADDD: The mid-40's are among the youngest of the Baby Boomers; the oldest entering retirement age. This generation was also known as trend-setters. It stands to reason that this age demographic (in general) would have the interest, the income, and the time to engage in their chosen past times.

####

Ok, now that I re-read it I do see it more weighted toward age, but I do think there are a lot of women who play EQ & WoW, probably more so in EQ since WoW is a newer game comparatively.  I also played EQII and Star Wars Galaxies, but those two only briefly

Ah good times - now I want to log into EQ and visit some of my favorite locations. And I do agree with Janelle about community being much more common in EQ back in the day.  When I was very new to EQ (joining right around the release of Ruins of Kunark in 2000) I was a High Elf Pally (yeah, I didn't realize that race/class combo wasn't wise) totally lost in the deep woods of Greater Faydark.  Since I was all of perhaps Level 6 or so I knew one wrong step and I would be dead, which back then meant being teleported back to my home "naked" (all gear on the corpse) and then a usually very long "corpse-run" to find and loot my corpse, usually dying several more times in the process. 

Along came a "high level" Human Pally. (He was like level 15 - yeah, I thought that was "uber!")  It was night and this guy knew how to get back to my home, Felwithe, but couldn't see.  Being a High Elf I could see but had no earthly idea where I was.  Between the two of us we made it to Felwithe safely.  He then asked if I would like to join his guild.  I had no idea what a guild was but agreed and the next thing I heard was what sounded like "voices" (text) out of nowhere welcoming me.  My first introduction to guild chat.

Much like SL, one can never truly relive those first wonder-filled moments in a new game or virtual world, but they make wonderful memories.

 

 

[Janelle Darkstone]

Ah, corpse runs.  :smileytongue:

I know I've probably mentioned this story before but I think it's relevant here, 'The Night Starsilver Accidently Zoned Into The Plane of Fear.'

Starsilver was one of our human paladins, probably around level 50 at the time.  On this particular night he was soloing Cyndreela and her pet at the Plane of Fear portal for xp and gems.  On one pull she managed to cast a fear spell on his character and he involuntarily ran into the portal.  Well, of course he died almost instantly because the zone was fully respawned.  This was about 7 p.m.

He asked for help in guild and about ten of us showed up to attempt to break into PoFear, grab his corpse and drag it to the north wall, allow him to loot it and hold the camp long enough to allow all of us to port out safely.

On the second attempt there were a few more people who came and the rest of us all now naked and in need of recovering our own corpses.

On the third attempt there were about twenty naked avatars and some magician had the bright idea to summon gear for us, so this time we had summoned swords and bits of armor to attempt the break-in.

Sometime around 3 a.m. we made our fourth attempt with members from three other guilds and our force now numbering around 30-40 people, many with backup sets of armor they had in the bank.  By this time the creatures' numbers on the other side of the entry had been whittled and zerged down sufficiently so that on that attempt we finally managed to break in, clear to the north wall camp, drag dozens of corpses to safety and manage as many rezzes as we could before finally mass porting out.  Most of us then logged off and went to bed, worn out but with the satisfaction that we had succeeded.

During this time there was no talk of payment, or favors, or "what's in it for me?".  This was a tight-knit community of people all working together to help someone else.  I very much doubt you'd see that in any current MMO.

[Czari Zenovka]

Great story!!!

Those were great times and I agree that the sense of that kind of community likely no longer exists in most MMORPGs.  Maybe vestiges of it with long-term EQ players.  After playing EQ for 7 straight years, leaving when I joined SL, I went back about a year and a half ago and transferred all my avatars to the Firiona Vie server which, at the time I left SL, was a true RP server - one could have only one avatar, couldn't group with opposite factions, no common language - thus classes to "learn" other languages, etc.  I visited that server once and loved it but since my friends, guild, etc. were on another server I never played much on FV. 

I was so disappointed that for all intents and purposes FV is now like most other servers except some items that are no drop/no trade (I think I have that right) on the other servers can be sold/traded, etc. on FV.  If you have a toon on FV and want to run around Norrath for a bit...just let me know.

In WoW I'm on the Wyrmrest Accord server, another RP one.  That's the only server I've ever been on in WoW since I only played it for about 8 months.  I've thinking of going back soon and, for fun, trying one of two play methods (I tend to solo):

*The "Ironman Challenge" - Level up without dying - I don't think I'd be very good at that...especially in WoW that doesn't have the loss of experience liability that EQ has, I used dying as a strategy...lol.

*The pacifist route - Level up without killing anything by utilizing professions and trades.  That one could be tedious and tricky, depending on class.  I saw a thread on the Wyrmrest forums that a woman who plays that method was trying to start a guild of other interested parties.  Maybe I'll see if she's still around.

Oppppsss /hijck off :matte-motes-bashful-cute:

Edit: Typo

[Janelle Darkstone]

(PoFear -- WEST wall, not north wall. :smileysurprised: )

The one thing I wanted to do so bad on FV was twink a lowbie plate class with a BoE, among many other things (I still have mine in the bank for sentimental reasons).

I played on the Rathe and never had any reason to use languages except to max them out for the sake of my OCD, but I always wondered how useful they might be under different circumstances.  WoW is awful, I'd guess, because the two factions are also separated by the language barrier so they choose to laugh cruelly, taunt and /spit on the opposing side in battlegrounds.  Horrible behavior.  Although meeting a member of the opposing side out in the wilds tends not to be so malevolent.  It's nice to confront (and be confronted by) a PvP flagged character with a friendly wave and greeting instead of a kneejerk "OMG kill kill KILL KILL KILL!!!1!"

...most of the time.

A common language contributes to a stable community.  Language barriers make for bigger jerks?

I saw an interesting challenge on the EQ forums not long ago which consisted of stripping naked, banking all your armor and weapons AND money and then venturing out into the world to re-equip yourself.  That would definitely be a test of patience.

[Czari Zenovka]

---

Janelle Darkstone wrote:

 

The one thing I wanted to do

so

bad on FV was twink a lowbie plate class with a

BoE

, among many other things (I still have mine in the bank for sentimental reasons).

---

Well dang!  Now I want one of those!  I'm with you on keeping items for sentimental reasons; I still cherish the Jboots I procured for my alts.  (As mentioned, I began EQ as a High Elf Paladin and got really tired of slogging through what felt like quicksand with all that heavy plate so I put her on the shelf for awhile and created my main, a Woodelf Druid and later got Jboots for the Pally and one or two other alts.)

The last time I played EQ almost a year ago I was trying to complete the Prayer Shawl quest.  I have fond memories of going on my first multiple-group raid to help a guildie acquire the shawl. (And several embarrassing moments when I accidentally hit the wrong spell button and teleported my group out of the raid...a couple of times.  :matte-motes-bashful-cute:  Yeah, there's a reason I solo.)

Anyway, during that time (last year) was when Sony made EQ free-to-play (which stirred up major controversy on the forums).  It is likely a great way for potential new players to see if they like EQ but for older players with a lot of equipment it is a bit annoying.  In the past, whenever I wanted to play - maybe a month here or there - I just paid the $15.00 and logged in with everything intact; when I logged in on the F2P model my avatar was stripped of any really useful piece of equipment I had, my inventory slots were cut in half, same with bank slots and an avatar can only have a certain amount of coin.  I received a cheery notice that if I wanted all my items back to pay and then go to some merchant who was "holding" all my equipment.  I didn't have the patience that day to go through all that.

---

Janelle Darkstone wrote:

I played on the Rathe and never had any reason to use languages except to max them out for the sake of my OCD, but I always wondered how useful they might be under different circumstances.  <snip>

A common language contributes to a stable community.  Language barriers make for bigger jerks?

 

---

On FV before they changed, the language thing was part of the RP for the different races not to understand each other and was really a lot of fun.  Of course, due to all the limitations of that server, the only people who played on FV as their main server enjoyed the RP aspect.  The one time I created an avatar there way back when I was in Kelethin (another Woodelf Druid) and a Dwarf was trying to ask directions.  I used "sign language" (emotes worked) and I was able to answer his question; just took some creative thinking and patience...but that is the type play I enjoy as I detest raids and groups; I enjoy soloing or duoing with a friend.  I used to log into EQ and just travel around exploring or spend hours chatting in IM.  Anyway, the languge issue on FV didn't increase the jerk factor; it was great RP fun and as one learned languages over time, the barriers dropped.

 

 

I've been trying to recall the server on which I began but it went through a couple of server merges until I ended up on Drinal (I think) before transferring all avatars to FV.

---

Janelle Darkstone wrote:

 

I saw an interesting

challenge

on the EQ forums not long ago which consisted of stripping naked, banking all your armor and weapons AND money and then venturing out into the world to re-equip yourself.  That would definitely be a test of patience.

---

That looks like fun!  Thank you for posting that.

 

 

And since I've gone this far offbase in the thread....a true bit of nostalgia circa early 2000's...but still a classic EQ video, although very dated.  I still laugh everytime I see it.

"Has Anyone Seen my Corpse?"

[Dillon Levenque]

Janelle: "The one thing I wanted to do so bad on FV was twink a lowbie plate class with a BoE, among many other things (I still have mine in the bank for sentimental reasons)."

Czari: "I still cherish the Jboots I procured for my alts.  (As mentioned, I began EQ as a High Elf Paladin and got really tired of slogging through what felt like quicksand with all that heavy plate so I put her on the shelf for awhile and created my main, a Woodelf Druid and later got Jboots for the Pally"

Talk about a language barrier!

BTW you guys have derailed this thread into a whole new right-of-way. We should change the name to "Interested in the EverQuest Community?'

:smileyhappy:

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

---

Dillon Levenque wrote:

Janelle: "The one thing I wanted to do so bad on FV was twink a lowbie plate class with a BoE, among many other things (I still have mine in the bank for sentimental reasons)."

Czari: "I still cherish the Jboots I procured for my alts.  (As mentioned, I began EQ as a High Elf Paladin and got really tired of slogging through what felt like quicksand with all that heavy plate so I put her on the shelf for awhile and created my main, a Woodelf Druid and later got Jboots for the Pally"

Talk about a language barrier!

BTW you guys have derailed this thread into a whole new right-of-way. We should change the name to "Interested in the EverQuest Community?'

:smileyhappy:

 

---

Language barrier?

Word from the bird is you got the jets to get with it, Mommy-O! So think fast, you wanna be radioactive, not a nosebleed, baby. Tune up that classy chassis and razz their berries.

But don't let the mushroom people catch you staring past the mirror warmer to see the show. We didn't zoom our rag top rockets to the passion pit just to watch. While the Clydes, wet rags, cubes and hub caps are diggin the flick, we'll be letting our pinkies out of jail to play back seat bingo.

And whether it's a make out or a fake out, later we can share a slurg and a tube steak at Wayne's before sneaking back to our pads so's not to wake the little monsters.

[Janelle Darkstone]

:smileywink:

It's still kind of on-topic, sorta.  Czari and I were part of an online community that was probably more tight-knit than most.  Mostly because the game was such a PITA to play and you really had to team up and work together to succeed.  And even though Czari and I played on different servers I know I could group with her in a heartbeat and trust her with my life (and to hit the wrong key and accidentally succor the group out of the raid at the most inopportune moment).

The language, jargon and acronyms reflect the community as well.  Rez, rebake, AO, BIAB, blingtard, gesturbator, camping, limo, furvert, poseballs...

[Dillon Levenque]

---

Madelaine McMasters wrote:

 

But don't let the mushroom people catch you staring past the mirror warmer to see the show. We didn't zoom our rag top rockets to the passion pit just to watch. While the Clydes, wet rags, cubes and hub caps are diggin the flick, we'll be letting our pinkies out of jail to play back seat bingo.

And whether it's a make out or a fake out, later we can share a slurg and a tube steak at Wayne's before sneaking back to our pads so's not to wake the little monsters.

---

 

Friend of mine used to call the less family-oriented of our town's two drive-in movies the Finger Bowl. ;-)

[Madelaine McMasters]

---

Dillon Levenque wrote:

---

Madelaine McMasters wrote:

 

But don't let the mushroom people catch you staring past the mirror warmer to see the show. We didn't zoom our rag top rockets to the passion pit just to watch. While the Clydes, wet rags, cubes and hub caps are diggin the flick, we'll be letting our pinkies out of jail to play back seat bingo.

And whether it's a make out or a fake out, later we can share a slurg and a tube steak at Wayne's before sneaking back to our pads so's not to wake the little monsters.

---

 

Friend of mine used to call the less family-oriented of our town's two drive-in movies the Finger Bowl. ;-)

---

Oooh, I like that!

[Dillon Levenque]

 You're right, it is sorta on-topic and the community part was easy to see from your combined comments. I just couldn't resist commenting when you got so jargoned-up you were almost incomprehensible :-).

I get that same impression of Czari. I doubt anyone ever had to ask her, "Are you a good Druid or a bad Druid?"

[Czari Zenovka]

---

Janelle Darkstone wrote:

:smileywink:

It's still kind of on-topic, sorta.  Czari and I were part of an online community that was probably more tight-knit than most.  Mostly because the game was such a PITA to play and you really had to team up and work together to succeed.  And even though Czari and I played on different servers I know I could group with her in a heartbeat and trust her with my life (and to hit the wrong key and accidentally succor the group out of the raid at the most inopportune moment).

The language, jargon and acronyms reflect the community as well.  Rez, rebake, AO, BIAB, blingtard, gesturbator, camping, limo, furvert, poseballs...

---

Very well put!

Shouts: Train to zone!!!!!!

(I remember in my early EQ days just hearing that would have me diving for cover!)

[Czari Zenovka]

---

Dillon Levenque wrote:

 You're right, it is sorta on-topic and the community part was easy to see from your combined comments. I just couldn't resist commenting when you got so jargoned-up you were almost incomprehensible :-).

I get that same impression of Czari. I doubt anyone ever had to ask her, "Are you a good Druid or a bad Druid?"

---

"But I'm not a Druid at all." (Said in best Dorothy voice *Grins*)

Thank you Dillon; that was sweet. *Smiles*

[Janelle Darkstone]

---

Czari Zenovka wrote:

Shouts: Train to zone!!!!!!

---

I feel the need to explain this particular tidbit to those forumites here who have never had the pleasure of playing EQ:

Those of you who have played World of Warcraft and other MMORPG's know that, when you aggro any creature and decide to run away, that creature only follows you for a short distance and then "gives up" and walks back to its' spawn point.

EverQuest doesn't do that.  In EQ, if you decide to run away from a mob, it chases you and if there are any mobs along the way they will join in and chase you too.  And, if you are reasonably skilled or just extremely unlucky, you can have an entire zone of angry sword-wielding, teeth-gnashing creatures chasing you.  And one of the usual ways to escape this would be to run to the nearest zone line and enter the adjacent zone, clearing any aggro you might have had.

There was a particular zone which had a large, multi-story mansion in the center.  The courtyard was generally safe for lower-level characters but if you were too low level and you happened to enter the house?  Well... any monster who happened to be in range got *very* angry -- which also aggroed monsters from the second floor, and sometimes the third floor.  And the roundabout path in the mansion they took to reach you sometimes aggroed more creatures from the back room, the tower, the patio, the basement...

The zone line of this zone happened to be quite far away, through a dark tunnel with a couple of unexpected turns.  And it was usually here the "train" would catch up with the previously-intrepid hero and squish them.  After the character had either zoned or died, the crowd of monsters would stand there, soullessly-eyed, for a few moments, and then turn and casually stroll back to take their places in the mansion.

It was like a parade.

It takes genuine skill and deftness to pull a good train, the best trains with a varied assortment of mobs from all different areas of the zone and preferably a few NPC's sprinkled in for good measure.  A proper, epically awesome train is truly a thing of beauty.

[Czari Zenovka]

---

Janelle Darkstone wrote:

---

Czari Zenovka wrote:

Shouts: Train to zone!!!!!!

---

I feel the need to explain this particular tidbit to those forumites here who have never had the pleasure of playing EQ:

Those of you who have played World of Warcraft and other MMORPG's know that, when you aggro any creature and decide to run away, that creature only follows you for a short distance and then "gives up" and walks back to its' spawn point.

---

The last time I played EQ (1 1/2 - 2 years ago) and prior to my playing WoW, I ran into a number of WoW players new to EQ and the words of one person pretty much summed up the conversations I had with all of them: "This game (EQ) is HARD!!!  I would have been level 50 by now in WoW." (Said by a level 10ish EQ player who had been playing several days).  Experienced players of both games know tips and tricks to level faster but I had to chuckle at that comment, remembering that it took me seven YEARS to make it to level 65 in EQ - old school style prior to Mercenaries and all sorts of new additions that make leveling a lot easier, even for soloers.

When I finally decided to play WoW, I then understood the comment from the WoW player I met in EQ - leveling is a LOT faster in WoW.

---

Janelle Darkstone wrote:

 

EverQuest doesn't do that.  In EQ, if you decide to run away from a mob, it chases you and if there are any mobs along the way they will join in and chase you too.  And, if you are reasonably skilled or just extremely unlucky, you can have an entire

zone

of angry sword-wielding, teeth-gnashing creatures chasing you.  And one of the usual ways to escape this would be to run to the nearest zone line and enter the adjacent zone, clearing any aggro you might have had.

There was a particular zone which had a large, multi-story mansion in the center.  The courtyard was generally safe for lower-level characters but if you were too low level and you happened to enter the house?  Well... any monster who happened to be in range got *very* angry -- which also aggroed monsters from the second floor, and sometimes the third floor.  And the roundabout path in the mansion they took to reach you sometimes aggroed more creatures from the back room, the tower, the patio, the basement...

---

Unrest? *Grins*

---

Janelle Darkstone wrote:

 

It takes genuine skill and deftness to pull a good train, the best trains with a varied assortment of mobs from all different areas of the zone and preferably a few NPC's sprinkled in for good measure.  A proper, epically awesome train is truly a thing of beauty.

---

There are a few examples of trains in the video in my post #14 above. 

 

 

Speak of "beauty" - I used to see this back in the day, but saw a great example the last time I played: Dead Corpse Art.  I'm impressed how someone manages to arrange their corpses in patterns.  I guess they don't rez each dead corpse and drag them into a pattern.  At any rate, I saw this in the PoK (Plane of Knowledge) Guild Hall the last time I played:

 

[Janelle Darkstone]

Un-freaking-rest.  :smileytongue:  Easily one of my all-time favorite zones in EQ.  I didn't spend much time in Karnor's mainly because I wanted to maintain my VS faction, but I've heard the trains there were legendary.

On leveling, absolutely.  WoW was a breath of fresh air in that leveling and gear upgrades were so easy and dying did not carry anywhere near the penalty of that in EQ.  And it's too bad that we can always go easier but never regress to harder and more challenging.  I think it took me about two years to make level 45 back when I started (2002), and, while I look back with fond memories of that time I would never want to go through that again.

On corpse art.  :smileywink:  First thought is "Why on earth would anyone spend so much time and effort on something like that?"  And even with the video lag it creates, a mild annoyance at first and then a sneaking admiration for their work, if not for the art then at least their persistence.

On beauty: I think the most fun I'd had in EQ were raids -- and not when everything was going along smoothly, but when things became *chaotic*... when the main tank went down and the next closest would step in, when the healers would scramble to target the new tank and resume the healing rotation, when everyone was getting low, very low on mana, when casters were dying left and right, when the raid leader calls out in channel to prepare to camp a cleric.....

...those were the BEST times.  When you really began to see the mettle of your fellow guildies in how they poured in the extra reserves of courage and fighting spirit.  Those rare times in which we'd recover the fight and be able to hold the battle long enough to succeed in bringing down the boss mob, which, as we became better as a team and better geared happened more often than not.

...but even if we were wiped out, I was always proud to be a corpse alongside the rest of my friends and comrades.  There was no place I'd rather have been.