Before Blizzard released its MMORPG WoW in 2004, one game dominated the genre and was endlessly played by Blizzard employees: Everquest. Even 25 years after its release, Everquest is still being played. The developers have an explanation: It is simply brutally hard.
This is Everquest:
- Everquest is considered the game that shaped the entire “theme park” MMORPG genre, that is, MMORPGs focused on quests, raids, and bosses. The other direction, sandbox MMORPGs, was pioneered by Ultima Online back then.
- Everquest is clearly the spiritual predecessor of World of Warcraft. Blizzard employees who created WoW, like Jeff Kaplan, were avid (and very toxic) Everquest players. Blizzard took Everquest, made it prettier, more beginner-friendly and accessible, and had enormous success with it.
- But even 25 years after its release, Everquest is still played and receives new expansions. The 31st expansion “The Outer Brood” will be released in December 2024.
Why are old MMORPGs like Everquest still being played today?
MMORPG says: Its players want the “Dark Souls” experience
This is what the developers say: In an interview with PCGamer, design manager Adam Bell says Everquest continues to excite players today because it is so incredibly hard. While there are indeed comfort improvements, the principle remains the same:
“The fact is, Everquest 1 is a hard game. And we don’t want to make it easy because this difficulty is what our players want. Our players want a challenging game, the Dark Souls experience. If they wanted an easy game, they would go somewhere else.”
Bell says that in Everquest, you have to devise a plan even for the simplest NPC. You can’t just go up and kill him: If you don’t pay attention to your surroundings, don’t make a plan, kite an enemy instead of just tanking him, you will quickly find yourself in trouble.
Everquest demands teamwork mercilessly
How about solo play? In modern MMORPGs, you can do almost everything solo. In Everquest, this is hardly possible for many classes. While you can hire mercenaries as substitutes for players, they are deliberately not as good as real people. Mercenaries are only placeholders when you really can’t find anyone, Bell explains.
In Everquest, teamwork is a requirement. In the raids for 54 players, mercenaries are not allowed at all.
Why is this so? Bell says that just because the game is so difficult, it leads to a really great feeling when you achieve something. And it drives you to try again.
“The feeling of having accomplished something that players get when they overcome hurdles is such a fundamental part of the experience. If we dialed down the difficulty, it would take away that fun from Everquest – and in my opinion, destroy the whole game.”
The man behind Everquest, therefore, has the same perspective on his game as the head of Elden Ring: Head of FromSoftware: “If we wanted the whole world to play Elden Ring, we could make it easier”
