CraigB

@marino: I didn't remember Eastern Keep at all until I read that web page, and then when I was reminded of them, the only thing that came back to me was bad experiences in Velious, like how they used to come into Kael with 4 or 5 groups, when there were just a few people soloing and maybe a couple pick up groups, and they'd just take everything over. So you're probably right that I just didn't see them around that much before Velious. Anyway, I for one look forward to reading any posts you make about Old EQ :)

@poserwannabe: There were definitely some really terrible moments in EQ. Reading that archive post marino linked reminded me of a lot of things, about both myself and about others, that maybe I would have rather left forgotten. But there were also some real highs. And in my case on at least one occasion they came back to back. When I was new I was really into exploring. That's the main reason I always felt like I was a couple levels and a couple weeks behind the people at the front of the pack, even though I was putting in just as many hours as they were. That tended to get me into trouble, in addition to keeping me behind the curve. One example of when it did was when I was 20ish went into Runnyeye with a group of randoms who invited me soon as I showed up. I was relectunt to join cuz they were way far in, I didn't know any of them, and I was a stranger to that place. But they were persistent, so I joined. Long story short, things went sideways, I didn't even know which way to run, group disbanded and they bailed, leaving me naked outside runnyeye with my corpse and my stuff in the worst possible place. And at that point in the game there was only one person I felt I knew well enough to ask for help with something like that. And he wasn't online. One of the worst things that ever happened to me in EQ. I was sitting there contemplating what I was gonna do when I got tells from a couple people (learned later they were a couple in real life) I'd met in Crushbone (previous adventure as an explorer which went a lot better!) a few days earlier, asking what I was up to. Soon as I told my sob story they were on their way to me, without even being asked. Took many hours for them to get there (no fast travel then, nobody was high enough) and for the three of us to get down to where my corpse was, but we did it. And then the three of us held down that area where a full group of six had failed, and left there with some pretty good loot, which restored some of my hurt pride. And with that, one of my worst memories also became one of my best memories. I think that's part of the secret recipe that other games are missing. Without those brutal lows, the highs wouldn't be as spectacular. And for every sleazy creep in EQ, there was also a hero. Other games have the sleazy creeps but nobody really gets a chance to be a hero anymore, because nobody ever really needs help, anymore.

Great game! Very unique experience, playing that. I would have picked that as one of mine, except I actually did have high expectations for it when I bought it :)

I guess my number one pick would be the original Jagged Alliance, which I bought on a whim, and which turned out to be one of my all time favorite games.

@marino: Wow, so much drama on that web page! But that's the way it was in Everquest, wasn't it? On the other hand all those personality conflicts wouldn't have happened if people didn't care about the game and their place in it as much as they did. Reading that kinda brings home how muddled my memory is after a decade and a half. I can sure see why there's a question mark instead of a date for most that stuff. For instance, I would have sworn I saw Avatars of Discord guild tags in South Ro the summer of 1999, but it seems I'm prolly mistaken about that. I tried to look up dates for a lot of things but there's virtually nothing out there, and not just for Rodcet Nife but for EQ in general. All the message boards people used to post on seem to be just... gone. Anyway, while I was looking I found this:

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/history/patches.html

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/history/patches-1999.html

Seems to be an official patch history, from Smedley himself. But even that seems unreliable. For instance, notice he mentions in his December 8th of 1999 entry that both the plane of hate and the plane of fear were tuned to adjust drop rates, but no mention is made of the patch that actually added them!? My recollection is that one (Hate?) was added as part of a Halloween of 1999 event, but I'm not 100% sure about that. Also interesting, at least to me, is Smedley discussing the test fix for the "kill stealing problem" in November of 1999. Think they still had open looting (the original ninja looting) at that time, too, didn't they? And news release about the coming Kunark expansion in there, as well :)

Anyway, Dyvim always seemed like a big deal to me, ever since I was heading out with a buddy of mine to sneak onto a boat in Freeport to find this place "unrest" that allegedly had some loot we needed, and my friend bought Dyvim's old sword in East Commons on the way. He made us wait while he tested out his new one on a griffin, which seemed pretty amazing at the time, since word on the street was that a necro pet could beat a warrior, back then. Glad to see he has a prominent place on that web page. And I'd always thought Strago was the first level 50 shaman on Rodcet Nife. He sure was the first Shaman I saw with Blight Hammer of Scourge. I remember because I made it my mission to get myself one after I saw his. And I did! Then, a few months later, I lifted a Howling Harpoon off a random mob in Karnor's Castle, and it was better than Blight. So Blight went into the bank and was never carried by me again, after spending weeks if not months trying to get ahold of it. Oh well. It was still fun volunteering to go on all those dragon raids hoping to get that hammer. Anyway, I mentioned Strago because it seems a Shaman from Eastern Keep was the first to 50 on Rodcet Nife. I don't even remember seeing Eastern Keep guild tags until Velious days, but I was pretty casual and infrequent with EQ by then so I'm likely just not remembering things properly. Fitch, listed there as first rogue to 50, I recall... I think he may have been the first to get journeyman boots (the old way)? Not really sure. I'm surprised that's the only place he is mentioned, but then again, I guess he kinda vanished before most that stuff happened?

Found this on youtube, Dyvim is in there competing in the Best of the Best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r41O7tdPhaQ

Also found this on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsUDRW-82y0

Recollections of a Rodcet Nife player. Jeet on friends list, maybe you know them? I recognized Fargus and a couple other people, but I have a feeling most of that was from long after I stopped playing. Ragefire in it towards the end, too.

As for my character name, I'd rather not say, just in case somebody with a nerd grudge against me shows up here. I was nobody of much significance on the server, even when I was playing a lot :)

@marino: You do a great job telling these stories about early EQ! I've really enjoyed reading them. I even recognize some of the people you've been talking about. I remember Jeet from lower guk days when I was level 30 something and he was somewhat lower. A couple of the people in the group I was in were hating on him for some reason (think he may have trained us unintentionally) and somebody else in the group said to give him a break because he was only 14 (or something like that). How young that seemed, in Everquest! I remember Ravenmyst from your pained soul post too, and there's a pretty good chance I was in Sebilis while you were up above doing that camp. And I remember Dol Amroth too, though not sure why. The only other guild I can remember is Avatars of Discord. I can't even remember the names of the guilds I was in. How embarrassing. Anyway, I started on Rodcet Nife the day Everquest went live, with my one and only EQ character. I started fading when my friends started creating alts, which was just before Kunark shipped. Don't really blame them since they'd been level 50 a while and were all geared up but for some reason it bothered me, like they weren't supposed to be anyone other than the characters I knew them as. I bolted for DAoC with some other folks from Rodcet Nife, right when that came out. DAoC was sorely lacking in important things EQ had, though. Like, difficulty. Also, the social aspects. DAoC did have better graphics and some pretty great PvP but I ended up going back to EQ several times. It just wasn't the same after long absences, though. I always wished I'd just stayed put with EQ. Anyway, thanks very much for these old time EQ posts :)