Introduction
EverQuest
has been out for just over two years now, and it's gone through
some major changes during that time. Many of the changes have
been good, but just as many appear to be both poorly thought out
and not implemented properly, to boot. Since I don't assume that
everyone is familiar with the game, my intent is to cover the
original game and both expansions to date.
I went down to my local software store recently and took a look
at their EverQuest stuff. There were three different boxes on
the shelves. There's a small EverQuest box, a standard-sized box
which includes everything in the small box plus the Ruins of
Kunark expansion, and the box for the Scars of Velious
expansion.
As I stood there looking at this array of options, I was struck
by one thought: people who buy the small box are getting the short
end of the stick. Ruins of Kunark is not sold separately any more,
so those who purchase the small box to get started will then have
to buy the standard edition if they want to add the Kunark expansion.
Simply borrowing a friend's Kunark CD to install RoK will not
do the trick: the software must be enabled on Verant's servers
as well, which requires the CD key from the jewel case.
My own experiences with the EverQuest software lead me to believe
that it would behave very badly if someone installed the Scars
of Velious expansion with the small box version while bypassing
Ruins of Kunark. Now, Verant will deny this until they're blue
in the face, but it's a matter of record that many of the graphics
"fixes" they've installed of late only fix things if you have
SoV installed.
History
EverQuest was one of the first entries in the new genre known
as massively multiplayer online role-playing games or
MMORPGs: it has no single
player mode. In addition to whatever fees you pay for the necessary
internet connection, there is a service fee of $9.89 per month.
Although you can play it on a modem as slow as 28.8Kbps, your
enjoyment will increase exponentially as you improve your connection
speed. I play over a cable modem.
Developer Verant learned several lessons from Origin's experiences
with Ultima Online, and from other online games. Most
notably, EverQuest provides the option to play on servers where
player killing (Pking) or player vs player (PvP) is not allowed
except in certain areas. Other EQ servers do allow this type
of interaction, but I will come back to that subject in the
Game Details section.
Verant Interactive decided to go with relatively low end graphics
initially. This was so that the required hardware baseline wouldn't
be out of reach financially for most gamers. Even today, the
developer has tried to keep the minimum system requirements
fairly low. Technically, the game will run on a system with
baseline specifications. However, the game is much smoother
with more RAM and a faster hard disk.
More recently, they've begun requiring DirectX 7, which has
definitely improved the quality of the graphics even though
the polygon count is the same. What this means is that it doesn't
look all that great; certainly not if you compare it to most
of the games that are out today. However, if you take into account
that the game is two years old and still going strong, it's
not that bad.
The Kunark expansion added much higher quality graphics to
the new sections of the game. Velious has done the same. These
additions have come at a price, though, as older video hardware
simply cannot handle the new graphics.
The sounds in the original game were not that bad either.
With the expansions, they've gotten even better. If you use
your ears, you can hear a monster in the area before you can
see him. This is a useful thing.
EverQuest has a lot of different music available. As you travel
through the world, it will change to reflect your location.
I find it a little distracting on the default volume, but once
it's turned down a couple notches, it adds atmosphere.
Game
Details
I have played EverQuest off and on for the last eighteen months.
It starts out, like many RPGs, with the player generating a
character. You must first select your gender, race (twelve are
available in the basic game), and your class (there are up to
fourteen choices, depending on the character's race). The Ruins
of Kunark expansion added an additional race, the lizard-like
Iksar. For the most part, the limitations are well thought out.
Once the player
has chosen a gender, race, and class, he or she will need to
set up the character's basic vital statistics. These attributes
are similar to those found in other RPGs, and include Strength,
Stamina, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
Verant is pretty close-mouthed about which value does what,
though most are self-explanatory. For example, Strength determines
how much the character can carry, and affects the ability to
fight in melee combat. Stamina affects how tough you are, how
long you can hold your breath, and a few other things.
Once you have created
your character and started the game, you find yourself in the
middle of a city. Your first task is to explore the city without
getting killed, and find your Guild. If you look in your inventory,
you will find a note telling you who your Guild leader is. Then
it's a matter of locating him or her. The maps that come in
the game manual are worthless for the most part. If you're a
do-it-yourselfer, you can explore the city on your own, but
if you want to jumpstart your game, go to EQ
Atlas, and print some of Muse's maps.
Social
Dynamics
There's a lot of difference of opinion as to what makes EverQuest
fun. A great deal of the game is about killing monsters
and going up in level, but there are other things to do. Many
times I'll log on and spend a couple of hours just chatting with
friends in-game. If a monster wanders by, we'll whack it, but
that's not what we're primarily interested in. If you play EQ
purely to level up as fast as you can you'll miss out on a lot
of what the game can offer.
Much of what
EverQuest is about is interacting with other people, generally
cooperatively. Banding together to tackle monsters that you cannot
hope to beat alone is known as grouping. Verant states that their
vision is to encourage grouping, so the game is deliberately skewed
with that in mind.
| Character
Races
Barbarian
Dark Elf
Dwarf
Erudite
Gnome
Half-Elf
Halfling
High Elf
Human
Iksar *RoK
Ogre
Troll
Wood Elf
|
If you don't enjoy playing with other people,
you won't enjoy EverQuest much. It's a very social game in which
cooperation with others works much better than being antagonistic.
Unfortunately, there are players who get their kicks by trying
to ruin the fun for everyone else. Some try to excuse it as role-playing;
this is where problems arise. If you are hunting a monster and
someone else kills it, that is known as kill stealing or "KSing,"
in EQ parlance. For all that this practice is verboten, it is
still widespread, mostly due to the ineffectiveness of Verant's
customer service.
Personally, I have had few direct problems with Verant's customer
service department, but others haven't been so lucky. On several
occasions, Verant has banned players for supposedly cheating,
only to discover a bug in their programming that made it appear
that those players were cheating. Although these players were
eventually compensated for the wrongful banning, they got nowhere
with their protesting until they made their situation publicly
known by posting about it on several of the EverQuest fan sites.
Now I don't believe everything I read on these fan sites. But
when many people, some of whom I know fairly well, state that
something happened, I tend to believe that something did happen.
What I have found during the times where I have had to deal with
Verant's online customer service representatives is that you are
much more likely to get what you want if you remain polite and
friendly. The worst thing you can do is to verbally abuse the
rep.
Elves in Underwear
There's little to no marketing toward women in EverQuest. Although
there are female models for all races, the majority,
especially brand new characters, are clad in their undies. The
cover art of the boxes hypes sex in the form of a scantily-clad
female high elf that looks nothing like the character generated
by the game.
Given the social aspect of the game, you will often find immature
folks online who enjoy harassing those who play female characters.
Those who report this behavior as offensive are often accused
in turn of being "overly sensitive." Often, nothing is done about
it, despite Verant's stated policies that it isn't tolerated.
Unfortunately, this is consistent with their history of terrible
customer support.
The Test of Time
EverQuest has improved with age. Because it is an older game,
most of the "kids" have moved on to other games, and I wish them
joy there. The expansions have added new areas to explore, new
cities, and even a new starting race! Requiring DirectX 7 has
meant improved graphics. Also, Verant regularly brings new servers
online to allow for its expanding player base. These are all good
things.
My primary quarrel with the game involves the design decisions
of the developers. The Scars of Velious expansion was geared entirely
towards characters of level 30 or above. Much of the revamping
of existing areas has been to increase the numbers and difficulty
of the monsters, again making them more useful to the mid-to-high
level players while taking them away from the low-level players.
Further, I would rather they make a concerted effort to fix known
and admitted bugs in their current product rather than focusing
on new expansions.
Links of Interest
Official
site
EQ Atlas
EQ Traders
Corner
