Recently celebrating its ten year anniversary, the popular online role playing game, Everquest has delighted many a gamer for all that time and remained a strong performer for Sony Online Entertainment.
What is Everquest?
Everquest, or EQ as it is affectionately known to those who play it is one of the many “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games” (MMORPGs) of the gaming universe. The setting is the fictional online world of Norrath, a diverse and beautiful land containing a myriad of mythical characters and creatures, good and evil and countless areas to explore.
There are 15 playable races within Norrath and 16 playable classes, each with their own special skills and attributes. Players create a character based on these races and classes and are able to alter their appearance to their liking, including choosing the colour of their armour and clothing. As each class is so varied with such specific skills and functions, there is literally something for everyone.
For those enjoying close range combat, the warrior, paladin or shadow knight are ideal; while those who would rather more of a healing or assist function could enjoy the cleric or enchanter. Those who prefer to fight from a distance might enjoy the ranger, wizard or magician and animal lovers will enjoy the druid,
shaman or beastlord. These are but a few of the available classes to play.
Gameplay centres around players obtaining experience and items for their character by completing quests and defeating enemies. Quests are widely varied, can be short or long, completed alone or in groups and can yield numerous different rewards, from items to increase character attributes and ability to ingame currency to access to higher level areas. In addition to quests and combat, players can learn tradeskills to create usable items ingame. Tailoring, pottery, blacksmithing, tinkering, fletching and jewellery crafting can be learned to create items for characters, while baking and brewing can ensure characters are always well nourished and research can create powerful spells to aid in defeating enemies.
What Makes Everquest So Popular?
Everquest stands out from other games in several respects, however perhaps the main reason it has remained so popular with the sometimes fickle gaming audience for ten years is its variability. It can be enjoyed equally by those who play many hours a day and those who play one hour a week. It is a game that can be played by all ages (although given it is still an online world, parental discretion is advised for young children).
While combat is a main feature of the game, the level of actual violence is very small and thus contains limited potential to cause offence. It is also played by people all over the world resulting in players from all time zones being able to log in, make friends and enjoy the game to its full potential.
Unlike other popular games, Everquest is not a game that one simply “finishes.” Even after a plater has achieved the current maximum level of 85, there are still thousands of alternative advancement points to be obtained which can further strengthen a character. There are also countless quests and missions to be completed, hundreds of zones to explore and literally a world of friends to make and play with.
Recently celebrating its ten year anniversary, the popular online role playing game, Everquest has delighted many a gamer for all that time and remained a strong performer for Sony Online Entertainment.
SourcesEverquest Universe, www.everquest.station.sony.com/
Sony Online Entertainment, www.soe.com/
