Since the servers and down, and since I feel the urge to write, I thought
I'd write about some of my Everquest "firsts".
I remember as a young DE Wizzie (my first and now abandoned toon) camping
for XP by the pyramid in Nek Forest. A necro and I were killing skeletons,
when suddenly a zombie appeared. That was way too much for us. The necro
asked in /ooc for someone to come kill it for us. A high-level wizard came
and killed it with one blast. That was the first time I'd seen something
killed with one nuke and it left me starry-eyed. I yearned for the day I
would be able to do that.
The first time a spell I cast was resisted was when I, a fourth-level
wizzie, decided to Root the Priest of Discord so I could kill him for easy
XP. I didn't even know spells *could* be resisted. That was a particularly
painful lesson to learn.
The first time I was summoned was when I took part in a GM event. I was a
level 32 cleric hunting for XP in Eastern Wastes. The head GM of our
server, whose name was Valindor, created a mid-level mob by the name of
"Valindork" and started shouting, taunting all the players in the zone.
Naturally we started responding, and I challenged him to show his face. In
response, he summoned me to him. That was *freaky* - without a "LOADING,
PLEAE WAIT..." I was suddenly in a new place altogether. Took me a few
seconds to recover from the shock. Eventually, about fifty players
converged and killed "Valindork". Valindor showed up to congratulate us on
a valiant effort. He left Drinal shortly thereafter; I think that event was
his "farewell" to the server.
The first time I got "sitting" aggro. This happened during a group in EW,
camping the Rygorr fort. The puller grabbed an Elite from the fortress, and
it ran up to *me* and started attacking. I was shocked, *shocked*! I had
no idea what had happened and was convinced this was some major new bug. It
took several repetitions in different situations before I realized that
sometimes it was wise to stand when the puller announced they had incoming
mobs.
The first (and so far, only) time I got scammed - I was level 58. I thought
I had been so careful, but then someone convinced our guildleader they were
the alt of one of our mains and got an invite into the guild. And because I
trusted guild members implicitly, I gave out some very valuable equipment I
never saw again. That was about the lowest moment in my EQ existence. On
the upside, lots and lots of people on Drinal were very sympathetic and came
through with very generous offers of plat and equipment to compensate for my
loss. I didn't accept any of the offers, but I did feel very buoyed by the
offers and got back on my feet very quickly. So overall it was a positive
experience - I got to see how nice some people can be right after I found
out how exploitive other people can be.
The first time I met someone who played EQ in real life - this I'm breaking
into two separate encounters. Once I was standing in line to buy Baldur's
Gate II. The guy at the register was talking with a co-worker about playing
an AE mez song to help with a bad Frost Giant pull. I quietly said, "But
don't play it near Thurgadin or the guards will aggro you." He got a good
laugh about that.
The second and more meaningful encounter for me was when I found that
someone in Monual's first guild was also from the Twin Cities area. He was
in Edina, and I live in Plymouth. We regularly called each other that by
the name of the cities we lived in. The very first Fan Faire I was
consciously aware of took place in Minneapolis. I looked for him there, and
saw his character's name on the nametag we were all given to wear. So I
grinned and called out "Edina!" He enthusiastically responded "Plymouth!"
That was a great moment - to know that there were actual people behind the
toons I dealt with on a regular basis. =)
Anyone else remember some EQ "firsts" for them?
--
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
High Priest of Rodcet Nife
Drinal server
This page is Copyright by Skaarak; Everquest (TM) is property of Sony Online Entertainment
All stories and art work are Copyright@ by the origial owner/writer.
Most, if not all stories, were taken from newsgroup alt.games.everquest (AGE), I recommend that anyone who gets a chance to read it should!