RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Type “World of Warcraft” into Google and you’ll come up with some seventy million results. That’s more than double the population of Canada, in case you were wondering. Now type in “EverQuest” and you’ll get a measly seven million results. With World of Warcraft boasting of some eight million users, EverQuest‘s comparatively tiny 450,000 users at its peak may seem like nothing, but back in the early days of the internet that was a lot, and without EverQuest, the Behemoth known as World of Warcraft would probably not have come to be.

This is Firiona Vie, the EQ mascot. She likes taking walks on monster-strewn beaches, romantic torch-lit dinners in monster-infested caves, and whacking enemies with her staff.

I’m guessing that the vast majority of readers are like me in never having played EverQuest (or I’m just a lot less cool that you guys, but let’s assume that  lots of you haven’t), so a short history lesson may be in order. EverQuest was launched ten years ago, back in 1999. To put that in perspective, think back to what was going on in 1999. Sega launched the ill-fated Dreamcast in North America; people everywhere were stocking up on water and canned goods in expectation of catastrophe resulting from the Y2K bug; and The Artist Formerly Known As Prince was making a mint off of 1999, which was to be played at nearly every New Year’s Eve celebration that year. Oh yeah, and EverQuest was released by Sony’s MMO division, Verant Interactive.

The game unabashedly borrowed from the conventions of Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop RPGs — as did the console RPGs we all know love, of course. Among the fourteen classes available in the original release are “warrior,” the tank of tanks, “paladin,” the healer/tank hybrid, “monks,” bare-fisted fighters, and “clerics,” healers par excellence.  Sound familiar? Anyone who’s played early Final Fantasy games will, of course, recognise these classes. What EverQuest brought to the table — or to the internet rather — was the massively multiplayer experience, all in 3D. And if you want to spare no expense to completely soak in the excellence of such a game, then it’s high time you play in the unparalled acer predator. But, not that it was the only one.  Meridian 59, released in 1996, is commonly credited as the first true MMORPG, and Ultima Online released one year later, surpassed it in popularity, but neither generated the hype, the numbers, or the controversy that EverQuest did.

Square was the look in 1999. No really.

Online gaming was still in its infancy in 1999 when the game launched, and it’s interesting to note how unexpected EverQuest‘s success turned out to be. Case in point, a little article by CNN highlighting the five “top computer-gaming prospects for 1999.” EverQuest only came in at number two. Of the four games, none became a household name like EverQuest did.

EverQuest managed to put online gaming in the spotlight with the now infamous case of Shawn Woolley, an obsessive and troubled EverQuest player who, at the age of twenty-one, shot himself at his computer. The media was quick to pick up the story. Even now you can find archived articles on the CNN and CBS websites about the incident. It may well have been the first time game addiction made national headlines. Psychologists were called in to discuss the phenomenon of online addiction and the particular case of “Evercrack.” More controversy followed with the advent of money-making macros which threatened the EverQuest economy, and players using real money to purchase high-level characters and items on Ebay. Any of this sound familiar? Controversies apparently never change. But EverQuest brought a lot of what is commonplace in the MMO world to the forefront so it’s fair to say that it’s a Game Changer.