So I already posted once, but that was my experience of playing EverQuest for the first time. It was not my experience playing from the comfort of my home at the time.
Fast forward a bit of time and my family had a computer. Pentium II processing, blazing fast 512Mb RAM, 20Gb storage, and both a 3.5" floppy drive AND an optical drive. Not to toot my own horn here, but I feel like we had a pretty sick machine for EverQuest if we had all settings on low, no draw distance, no particle effects, and ALWAYS looked at the ground if possible (especially in East Commonlands tunnels, which was my servers commerce zone of choice). Here is the thing though... We had no internet. This wasn't uncommon in the time, but it was a major issue for connecting with EverQuest and what felt like my destiny!
After having a taste at my friends house, I needed EverQuest. Luckily there was a way I could play without the need of internet. A little thing I like to call "The Tutorial". Ah yes, big brain me, I can get my fix and stave off the hunger for a bit each time. I was Soandso, champion of... well Tutorial Zone. (Screenshots I am about to provide are from an EMU server I am playing on called Dreadbox. Don't mind the, well probably everything about them).
I played the Tutorial at least daily. I explored every inch of this zone. Checked every nook, cranny, swam in the water, explored the graves, and every house/tent there was. Not's not saying a lot since the zone is rather small. I love this zone even to this day. Anytime I play a server where I can access this place It's fantastic, especially if they do something nice with it. That aside this is about my early childhood addictions here.
I walked across the bridge, hailed the NPC, sold the Ruby to the merchant. Did it all. I loved it. I would sit and imagine what it'll be like to make a character of my own. What race will it be? Not a Human, surely, that's silly right? Who would want to be a Human in a fantasy game. No thank you. Anyway, my step dad made all of his characters Human and some variation of his real life name.
Before long we had internet one way or another. As much as I loved this zone I could kiss it goodbye and explore the world proper! Nothing to set me back! The world would be my oyster! FREEDOM!
That's would I would have been saying if it weren't for one tiny little problem. What the heck was a subscription? I bought this game, and have internet now. I can blaze through the world wide web at 56 kbit/s. What do you mean I have to pay each month to play a game I already bought?! It was true. I had to pay $12/mo to play this game. The goalpost keeps getting moved. My stepdad, I had to get him on board with this. My mom didn't mind, but he was the one handling the money here. I had to get him to want to play this too. With all the time I spent oogling the manual you would have thought I had seen this all coming.
Luckily he wasn't a hard sell. He was into it, and worst case he would just cancel the subscription if he needed to punish me. I was a good kid, so I knew that wouldn't be a problem. I liked being home or playing with my friends. Playing Pokemon, watching anime, and now only ever playing Everquest always. FINALLY I CAN PLAY! Click launcher, no longer select play Tutorial, click play online. Oh, patching? What does that even mean. OH. MY. GOD. Literally hours? Sometimes an entire day of patching? What is this now? Oh man yes, patching on dial up was an experience. It was a true test of patience. I had never patched this game for live. So this was at least a 12-14 hour process which also involved occasional internet disconnects and restarting, not to mention someone needing to make a phone call. The expert strategy from this point forward was to leave all patching for overnight while everyone was asleep.
Now, the moment of truth. It's Friday afternoon. School is over for the weekend. I have no plans to go anywhere but home and finally play Everquest. It is magical. I actually got to get in this time. There I was, at character selection screen on the Ayonae Ro. What was I going to play? Maybe an Ogre with their ULTRAVISION? A Barbarian? No way they are just bigger more ripped Humans. At this point I was reading the 'Lost Years of Merlin' series of books. There was a character in the books named Shim, a tiny giant. I liked this name a lot so I was stealing it for sure. Yoink. What to make Shim though? Shim is small, so he has to be a tiny race. Dwarf? Halfling? Gnome? Well let's look at the classes first. There are so many that look awesome. Something about Magician really stood out. Maybe the promise of unlimited food, drink, a force of nature to defend me no matter what element I choose, and conjure weapons. I was sold. Who wouldn't like to use stamina to cast spells, right? That settled it was Gnome, because they were the only ones able to be Magicians.
Shim was born. What a feeling. Being in Ak'anon. All the ambient clockwork noises, steam, green neon lights. How awesome.
Check out my note, I have a guild master to visit. I learned from previous mistakes. I would not attack my guild master this time. Got a gross yellow robe and the promise of spells and skills in the future should I return with levels and money.
--- To Be Continued ---
I have some chores to take care of around the house and I'll be back a bit later.