EverQuest
Where one mistake might cause deaths that push you back..months of efforts.
Cause from level 1 to 30+ might only need a month on average, yet from 50 to 51 used to require a year of time-investment.
NO cheats or money-games, as everyone pays fixed monthly rate.
Deaths mean running naked back to a corpse, left still under the paws of surrounding monsters that just made you their biatc#bleep#
4-8 hours and you will lose that corpse, with Everything on it. ALL of YOU!
Of course..you needed Friends. True dependable battle-proven comrade-in-arms.
Reputation. Skills. Honor. Personality. Attitude. Matters.
YOU are Your Char or vice versa.
Bonds were for real and transference of relationships to real-life was the norm.
Anonymity was a disadvantage..at that time.
To Kill A Dragon (err this is not a movie title lol)..
you need a team of determined psychos with NO life!
A Raid-team maxed out at 40 members. 6 teams max for the dungeon-run.
6 x 40 = 240 nerds!
Usually took 4-6 hours clearing the babies monster fodders.
Then..a brief rest for the delicate Plan ahead.
Warriors will charged and sacrifices themselves. Magic attackers that couldn't controlled their damage got burned just from a glance.
It will take roughly 8 more hours for just this..one Boss.
IF..nothings goes wrong and everyone just follows orders.
But..accidents happens and morons are born a dozen a day.
So..Wipe-outs and heart-aches were common.
Most people Only could do One such Run..every few months or so.
Hunger. Anger. Bladder-accidents. Dehydration. Faints. Fists to monitors. Happened..a lot. Frequently.
All for bragging-rights (you actually WILL be minus in Exp coming out of it, as death was an almost guaranteed experience)
and a random 4-6 items drop.
Rolled with provided dice-algorythim in-game. Gambling and Stoopidity to The MAX!
A decade of playing this EverCrack only Won me ONE of those items.
A Dragon Belt. Woohoo..Special PoI instantly.
I once had Manastone. An item that can Convert your HP to MP.
Since I was a Cleric and could heal myself completely and cheaply..it was like Woaaah!
Yep. The item was removed from the game, except those few that were already owned by chars in-game.
Others need 6 persons to handle a dungeon-run.
My Crazy Cleric could SOLO Bosses as I also got The Hammer of Thor!
Imagine a Hobbit Healer..tiny and cute. But..wearing Full Plate-armor and got a Flying Hammer as a Pet.
Kiting and separating mobs with magic, then Pet tanked them while I kept healing it. If I aggroed too much, I got my plates Yo!
Also a back-up Doll, that could transport me back to home..in case of my mana/MP running out.
I used to perform for friends visiting on weekends and strangers in a particular dungeon.
Drinks with snacks at home and adulations in-game for something that should not and could not happen.
psst..the Hammer and Doll were actually Free. Quests rare and hard, but as long as we scoured the web and adventuring the world like an adventurer should..many wondrous items only need time and friends to assemble into one-of-a-kind Legend!
Yikes. This..turns into a Novel.
err Thats just..me.
A trip through memory lane, while typing it out.
*runs awaaay*