I was so hooked on EQ I didn't play anything from about 1999 to about 2002 which meant I missed out on a lot of real classics. Baldurs Gate etc. So I made sure I played everything
I love so many games outside of EQ. C&C, SupCom, MTG, Age of Wonders, Arma, some space stuff etc, that new Microsoft Flight Sim is great. I like games lol. But I know this is sacrilege to a lot of people.... but for me EQ kind of made RPGs obsolete. EQ is just so much bigger and more advanced. Skyrim is gorgeous with mods and I love how slick everything is, and when I'm tired/stoned/grumpy/whatever then sometimes it is nice to run around squirting fire on bad guys. But the rest of the time I need some meat on the bones of my game, so I always go back to EQ
I like the tactical RPGs like Icewind, Baldurs, Blackguards, etc. They are cool, but even those games I have to compare to EQ + MQ2...
As for MMOs, I played most of the big ones and some smaller ones. I had fun in most of them but after a month I always feel like I've done everything. They also generally are too easy and too shallow, mostly in the combat department. I think EQ was just so good... set the bar really high.
There are things and ideas from new MMOs that I really like though. I did WoW for a month, adored the PVP and arenas and especially the battlegrounds! Doing Capture The Flag FPS type stuff but with MMO characters is so great. Also the Druid class was one of the best things I've ever played, especially in pvp, sneaking around jungles as a stealthed lion and then backstabbing real players who I stalked... So damn good!! Then they beat on me so I turn to a bear, etc. Then boomkin. That class was amazing. I also loved some of the dungeon bosses and things.
But I missed the 'real' dungeons of EQ where everything wasn't hand placed to be an easy pull etc... I missed the chaos and intensity of trains and how pulling took some skill and how things could go wrong like runners, breaking mez, shit coming through the walls etc. EQ can be a handful and I love that and other games feel too kind of child-proof and you can't really go back can you? I played Rift for about a month too, loved it as well. Beautiful, loved the spooky zone, loved the classes and the way the combat works and you can respec at almost any time, love building up combo points with a class and then making a tactical decision on what to spend them on, etc. So many great ideas. But not much content. And again, it just doesn't have that depth and the edge and the challenge that EQ has. I actually multiboxed most of the dungeons in Rift using isboxer and it was fun. I loved a bunch of stuff in TESO (some bonkers design choices too though). Secret World had some amazing atmosphere and I enjoyed some of the boss fights. ArcheAge, Black Desert, I didn't care for. DDO, LOTRO, both ok. GW1 I missed
GW2 was ok, I liked it in beta when the mobs used to kick my ass. But at release they made it easy and that spoiled it for me. (Rift did that too :/)
tl-dr They all had some ideas that I really liked. Some did a great job. But EQ just spoilt me so now other MMOs generally feel like slimmed down Fisher-Price versions of EQ. :/
p.s. The exception was Vanguard imho. That could have been a big deal but, you know.. Also EVE looks amazing but I'm too lazy to even try it.
almost forever. It dropped my play time to once a week with the guild on the weekends when it came out. It was a lot of fun and enjoyed playing it more than
