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EverQuest is the most successful US
based MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) in the history of
online gaming. Its design was influenced by online text based games (MUDs) and
single player RPGs, the most obvious of which are Arena and Daggerfall (The
Elder Scrolls 1 and 2).
When you first enter the game you
have to create a character. This character can be one of 15 races and 16
classes, each race has limited customisation options ranging from eye color and
hair cuts to fur style (Vah Shir) and horn patterns (Iksar). Your class
determines the abilities you will gain and the skills you will learn. A Cleric
can obtain spells that heal themselves and others, Warriors learn how to handle
different types of weapon and so on.
When you have created your
character (if you don't choose to take the tutorial) they will begin play in
their races home city with a few basic supplies and a weapon. You will also have
a note that can be given to a computer controlled guild master who will be
located nearby. This gives you entry into the appropriate guild of your class
(i.e. The Temple of Life for a Human Cleric), this will be the source of your
first quest (a task given to you) and your first new piece of equipment (usually
a tunic of some kind).
As you complete tasks (usually
collect this item or kill that monster) you will gain experience and may receive
rewards (such as a new weapon). When you have done enough quests and killed
enough monsters you will reach the total experience required to increase your
level (known as a Ding). At this point you will be able to scribe (add to your
spell book) spells and learn any skills available for your new level. In
addition your character will be able to advance a little further in their skills
and be awarded extra hit points. (Hit points are temporarily lost when you are
hit by a monster, if your total hits zero you die)
There are a total of 65 levels to
advance through with an additional method of advancement known as Alternate
Advancement. As previously mentioned any quests you do and monsters you kill
result in experience points, when you reach 51st level a percentage of these
experience points can be used for Alternate Advancement. As with levels when you
reach a pre-determined total number of experience points you will Ding and gain
one AA (Alternate Advancement point). These AAs can then be spent on special
abilities and enhancements for your character, the specifics of which are
determined by your class.
It is possible for many classes
to reach level 60 alone but EverQuest is an online game that places you in a
world with hundreds of other players. You can team up with these players and
help them to complete quests and defeat monsters, some of which will require
more than a single party (a party is a group of 6 characters). Experience points
gained from defeating monsters while in a party is shared between the party
members and while in a raid (can be multiple parties) will be shared between all
the raiders.
When you reach level 60 a party
is the only efficient way to gain experience, as monsters get tougher than an
individual character can defeat. This is the point your characters effectiveness
becomes very item dependant. EverQuest has a great number of items available for
each class, many of which can only be obtained from very tough creatures and
difficult quests. To complete these quests only by forming groups of players you
have met can be time consuming and frustrating, this is one of the reasons
EverQuest supports an even bigger group than raids known as Guilds.
These guilds are different to the
class guild you join at the start of the game. They are run by players (not
computer controlled characters) and experience points are not shared between
members unless you are in a party or raid together. You can only join one guild
per character and a chat channel is provided for the entire guild to use
(accessed by the /guild command). This channel is often used to form a party or
raid and many players join a guild for this reason; guild members will usually
become frequent companions and learn to work well together.
So with thousands of groups and
raids, made up of individuals and members of player run guilds, all ready to
kill monsters and go on quests, there needs to be plenty of targets and tasks to
keep everyone occupied. EverQuests game world (Norrath) is split into areas
(called zones) that are designed to support a limited number of players, some
zones support as few as 15 while some are designed for 100 players and up. Each
zone has many creatures (both to be killed and get information or tasks from)
and these creatures are usually spread among 'camps' where they will respawn
(come back to life) when killed.
These camps can range from
supporting a single player to an entire raid and many have a 'boss' monster that
will spawn (commonly to rarely) either at a pre-set interval or at random. These
'bosses' sometimes have special items and are often much tougher to defeat than
normal spawns in that area. Players may target a particular creature and meet up
purely to hunt it, for experience and/or items; in some cases venturing into
further zones is difficult without certain items and at later levels players are
expected to have a reasonable standard of equipment to remain effective.
A characters goal (and their
'point of playing') will change during play; complete a challenging quest,
achieve a certain level, obtain a powerful item, defeat an ancient dragon, build
a successful guild or maybe to just explore and find new zones. Other characters
they encounter may have similar goals or be working on something very different,
becoming a better smith, travelling to a new land or simply talking among
friends. EverQuest provides the world and the structure, the player has to
decide what they want to make of it and why they want to play it.
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