This is the first discovery of this channel for me. H O L Y. Thank you for breathing life into a game that was central in my families life for so long, so long ago. EQ 1 will forever remain my family's best online experience that we still have connections to today. I look forward to your next videos. Subscribed!
I still have some of the original artwork for EQ Next hanging on the walls in my office. Was such a cool idea...I was so stoked for it....devastated when it didn't happen.
Your shows are all so well done and impressively produced. Loved the segment with Geoffrey Zatkin. He did an interview with AlovingRobot here on youtube that is incredible as well. He was responsible for so many of the spells and game mechanics that made EQ what it is. The guy is brilliant.
Thank you. Great show. It is nice to get some background story on the game. You really nail that well by interviewing developers, componists and other actors around the EQ franchise. I enjoy watching every minute 👍
Guk was the original uber dungeon where the server's cool kids would hang out. A year later, Sebilis not only matched it but even surpassed it, becoming probably the best zone the whole franchise would ever see. Those damn frogloks!
Thank you all for stopping by and watching the show! There's so much more planned for the next episode! Make sure you subscribe so you'll receive our new Episodes as well as our weekly updates of This Wee! in EverQuest! NOTE: There is an error in the super for EverQuest Ii... it should read November of 2004. Verbally the info is accurate.
It took me until 2020 to play Champions on PS2, a girlfriend at the time had it and wanted me to play with her. Of course I did. She had never played the original MMO, sadly.
I always look so forward to anytime you release new video's about my favorite game, I love when you travel to other places interviewing people who also love the game and we get to hear their story about making longtime friends and how EQ has impacted their lives. Please keep them coming Fading, it's just so nice to hear there are many more fans than we even know that are out there.
I'm glad I got to play/beta Landmark. I was full into that vision, bought the collectors edition to support its direction. At the time I was heavy in to Trove which has vastly changed from it's early days a voxel builder/resourcer and did find landmarks toolset for building rather rough in a lot of places needing a lot of polishing. But yes, Landmark not fun? /headscratch... I still have my EQ rewards from being a Landmark founder, though they are more a sad memory of what could of been.
I only tried Guk once - a buddy dragged me over for an Upper group and I was dismayed to find out that my reputation with the frogs dropped to hostile by the time we made it to the camp. I could never get my rep back up after that lol
Great Vid! Thanks! Now for nerd comments... the info says EQ2 was released 2/11/03 but I'm glad you actually say aloud November 2004 i was confused for a sec...lol. I assume the date used was one of the original EQ2 release dates that got pushed back a few times lol. Just some fellow nerd critiques for ya Fading. Keep up the astounding work tho we appreciate it!
@@archon5951 Haha no, I played for probably 6 years and never stepped foot in Guk, or Unrest for that matter. I played an Iksar so it was hard to get anywhere lol, at least before PoK portals.
I fondly remember being alternately frustrated and elated with Legends of Norrath - it may not have been the best (digital) card game ever produced, but the art was spectacular, and I felt that it made a fine secondary contribution to the story (lore). When LON was sunset, my interest in EQ II waned considerably. I probably won't play EQ II again, but I'd leap at the chance to play LON as a standalone game.
I just want to say that I don't like videos or comment but you definitely deserve my likes and subscribe, your videos are A+ man, very good job, I hope to see allot more content from you because your doing an amazing job, thank you for everything you do
Thanks! There's a LOT more content coming this year! I can't wait to bring you more from these interviews! Thank you so much for watching and supporting the channel!
First story on the episode. And we'll be hearing more from Geoffrey Zatkin in Episode 15, how he created the spell system and defined the classes. This episode i kept it solely to his discussion of Guk.
It was a damn shame that EQ3 got cancelled. I played 1 all through the original game, all the way up until Luclin. Then played EQ2 for a long time. After putting it down I waited for years to see EQ 3 only to have it snatched away from me for some reason or another. I wanted that old EQ magic back. I miss that.
I actually did the EQNext/ Landmark play and it was really fun. I was working on building a house on the side of a cliff. I was so amazed at the things people created. I can't believe they had the nerve to claim it wasn't "fun" at the time but I did understand it not having the "EQ Feeling".
@@ganelon I also played next for a little bit on a friends computer. I thought the whole voxel thing was pretty neat and I liked the idea that if you camped a mob he would eventually stop going through that area because why would he want to get killed for the 40th time in one day?
@@Trollioli Yea. I think that's why I liked the title being EQNext, as in something new. The idea of the mobs changing routes and stuff sounded great, on top of npcs giving quests and if you don't help or failed it could lead to different events happening like stopping a scouting group from signaling an invasion of the town but if failed the town got sacked. I think it was more them being afraid of time and budget to pull it off and potential failure more so than "fun" being the issue.
I tried to play LoN a couple of times and simply couldn't understand the gameplay. I benefitted from the loot cards, for sure. My rogue still loves his flying dragon illusion.
I just spammed EQ2 Maj Dul about this show. In general there is a discussion going on about the smash and dash with Landmark and EQNext. There was an EQ rep at Fan Faires and SOE Live named Jace who was trying to start up something like you have. Did you work with him? What ever happened to him. Having been to 5 EQ events I’m sure we’ve met. I miss the Vegas Fan Faires.
We were duped with EQN. It has come out years later that they never even had any combat or anything for the game. Nothing of the game was ever done. It was only ever what we saw in Landmark. Literally that was ALL they had for EQN. Kind of sad.
Landmark was outstanding in its own right and its loss was nearly as great as that of EQ Next. If the current owners don't have it in mind to rebuild EQ1 into a new engine, one that easily accommodates raising character level limits to a thousand or more, and has a zone designer tool available for those willing to compete to get their designs incorporated into the game, and to have it ready in time for the 25th anniversary of the game that will not die, they are missing a big bet. Sure, your players are still there at level 120 or whatever, but opening day the level cap is 200 and we increase it by 5 levels every six months. But monthly content developed for very little by hordes of enthusiasts, coupled by newer raid zones automatically scaled up 1 level per game year (so five times in a six month period--i think that's right) eventually giving guilds the choice of hundreds of potential raid zones on any given night. Yes, it would be a massive project, but it would preserve the current player base and potentially bring in many new faces, eager to see what a quarter century of hoopla and loyalty was all about.
This was only counting video games. But! We did cover the table too rpg in Episode 5 and the Gift Ideas Special ua-cam.com/video/Y3lCLR-WdmM/v-deo.html
re: why EQ Next was cancelled - it's not that it wasn't fun. that's kind of a fluff answer that was given. 'fun' can be revamped and redesigned as needed. the IP and assets were sold, daybreak is in the business of milking the existing IP, not developing new content.
Losing LoN was sad. It was just a lazy way to cut costs. How much processing power did it really require to keep it running on autopilot? Fans could've easily hosted or played the game on their own computers. If you aren't profiting off it anymore, at lesat let the EQ diehards have the code and a kinda Fair Use agreement, or whatever terminology they use for EQEmu servers. Even without new content, it was a very fun way for card game fans to pass the time and earn in game loot. I was still halfway through the single player challenges when they shut it down. Its nice they recycled some art for Overseer but its not the same. /gems
@@EverQuestShow I understand the reasoning that this was only software based games in this episode, but your tagline question does not specify that in the video. You said “How many games are in the Everquest Universe, I bet it is more than you think.” The two pen and paper games are in the universe, so the count should stand at 16, not 14, as White Wolf (Swords & Sorcery) released EverQuest and EverQuest II as in universe pen and paper games.
Honestly, Gems was the first of a few reasons I quit EQ, I felt that instead of the devs improving downtime for players, they just threw a mobile gam at us to appease the time between combats...
Whew, it's hard to watch Smedley talk. The deep loss I feel and anger, watching that man's world record setting level of incompetence relegating an amazing franchise to obscurity due to insane levels of mismanagement.
I don't think the blame should be directed at Smedley. EQ would not exist without him. In fact, I'm working on a future episode story about Smedley being one of the main reasons that EQ was even able to get made. We, as fans, owe a lot to him. As for EQ Next, there's still a lot we don't know about what happened. Unfortunately being the head at the time, the buck does stop with him. But I hope I get to tell that story one day.
Whatever story you want to tell yourself. We all watched literally 100s of terrible avoidable bad decisions and petty drama ruin eq2 and turn it in to a niche product when it could and should have been a major game. I knew developers at the time who would give us insights to decision making from higher ups and it was so mind bogglingly out of touch with the player base wants and needs. Smedley is objectively one of the worst game managers in the history of the industry.
@@Shrugknight As cruel as you come across, I don't think you're really off the mark. A recent story announced that Smed left Amazon, where he led for ~6 years, and in that 6 years, there was no game released. While I do agree with Fading in that we wouldn't have EQ without Smedley, and we should be grateful to him for that, I do agree with you that he's sort of a dumpster fire....
1, The fact EQN was Voxel Base. 2,We Really should of never had Landmark since though were the tools to make EQN. 3,Bad leadership (The Fans will make the Game?) Other Developers: What No they don't. How hard was that to tell why EQN was Cancelled. Letting Fans mess with Landmark was not fun. Not that the Storybricks help anything in the End. In Fact the Company folded and now doesn't Exist.
I would have to slightly disagree. Landmark itself was fun. However it did not give that EQ Feeling though it wasn't meant to at that point anyways. And it wasn't so much that players would make the game itself but that they were planning to use some of the really really well done assets and buildings that people created inside of Landmark.
I had so much fun in Landmark. It was a bummer that it didn't ultimately result in a new EQ game but Landmark as a standalone game was really great for creatives.
Yup. I don't think I've ever been more hyped about an upcoming game than I was about EQ Next. When it went away, I was stumped... though when SOE became Daybreak, I saw the writing on the wall, especially once Dave Georgeson was let go. It felt like it was his passion project. When he was gone, I knew EQ Next probably was, too.
I feel like I'm the only one who's glad that EverQuest Next failed. And that's mostly because of personal preference. The art-style was being turned into a (again, purely opinion) shitty cartoony aesthetic, and what few instances of combat footage I've seen looked....... bad, to say the least. The most generic-AF "action combat" I've ever seen in my life :/ I would not have had high hopes for it even if it did launch, tbh.
Top three of EverQuest Show videos! Yeah yeah guk incarnations.
This is the first discovery of this channel for me. H O L Y. Thank you for breathing life into a game that was central in my families life for so long, so long ago. EQ 1 will forever remain my family's best online experience that we still have connections to today. I look forward to your next videos. Subscribed!
Welcome! Be sure to check out the previous episodes, and we've got a full slate of episodes coming up!
I still have some of the original artwork for EQ Next hanging on the walls in my office. Was such a cool idea...I was so stoked for it....devastated when it didn't happen.
Your shows are all so well done and impressively produced. Loved the segment with Geoffrey Zatkin. He did an interview with AlovingRobot here on youtube that is incredible as well. He was responsible for so many of the spells and game mechanics that made EQ what it is. The guy is brilliant.
Those rl hours i spend in guk. Next to unrest my most favorite classic zone
Thank you. Great show. It is nice to get some background story on the game. You really nail that well by interviewing developers, componists and other actors around the EQ franchise. I enjoy watching every minute 👍
Guk was the original uber dungeon where the server's cool kids would hang out. A year later, Sebilis not only matched it but even surpassed it, becoming probably the best zone the whole franchise would ever see. Those damn frogloks!
Thank you all for stopping by and watching the show!
There's so much more planned for the next episode! Make sure you subscribe so you'll receive our new Episodes as well as our weekly updates of This Wee! in EverQuest!
NOTE: There is an error in the super for EverQuest Ii... it should read November of 2004. Verbally the info is accurate.
Honestly, Lower Guk is one of the reasons why EQ Classic is probably my favorite "expansion" (base game haha) of them all.
It took me until 2020 to play Champions on PS2, a girlfriend at the time had it and wanted me to play with her. Of course I did. She had never played the original MMO, sadly.
I always look so forward to anytime you release new video's about my favorite game, I love when you travel to other places interviewing people who also love the game and we get to hear their story about making longtime friends and how EQ has impacted their lives. Please keep them coming Fading, it's just so nice to hear there are many more fans than we even know that are out there.
I miss playing EQ. Any time I try to go back, it's never the same.
I loved this dungeons!
EQOA and Champions 1 and 2 will forever be in my heart.
I started playing EQ on the Cazic Thule server back in 99. I still play off and on. Its a blast.
How am I just now learning about /gems *slaps forehead*
Champions of Norrath was so good!!!
I love this show so much. I sometimes wonder how many eq lore videos there'd be on UA-cam if had been around in the early days of the game
Thank you for the awesome research and backstory. Keep up the great work Fading!
The scene in your intro where your gaming has an incredible view of the city!!! Great video as always!!
That's my apartment view!
I'm glad I got to play/beta Landmark. I was full into that vision, bought the collectors edition to support its direction. At the time I was heavy in to Trove which has vastly changed from it's early days a voxel builder/resourcer and did find landmarks toolset for building rather rough in a lot of places needing a lot of polishing. But yes, Landmark not fun? /headscratch...
I still have my EQ rewards from being a Landmark founder, though they are more a sad memory of what could of been.
Great episode! I love Guk!
I only tried Guk once - a buddy dragged me over for an Upper group and I was dismayed to find out that my reputation with the frogs dropped to hostile by the time we made it to the camp. I could never get my rep back up after that lol
Guessing you went to live side...killing undead frogs raises faction (Factions Increased: Frogloks of Guk)
Thanks Fading, you da man! Love the show.
Who made Sebilis? Thats my favorite
Great Vid! Thanks!
Now for nerd comments... the info says EQ2 was released 2/11/03 but I'm glad you actually say aloud November 2004 i was confused for a sec...lol. I assume the date used was one of the original EQ2 release dates that got pushed back a few times lol.
Just some fellow nerd critiques for ya Fading. Keep up the astounding work tho we appreciate it!
Oh.... I'll have to check. It's possible the super has an error.
All I want is for Troll BL to have their crocodile pet back
I loved playing Gems while in EQ1 lol. Never did try Guk when I was playing it, might have to go back in and check it out sometime.
You monster. Must be a new player huh. Guk was the place to be for a very very long time.
@@archon5951 Haha no, I played for probably 6 years and never stepped foot in Guk, or Unrest for that matter. I played an Iksar so it was hard to get anywhere lol, at least before PoK portals.
This intro is awesome! Love the song and video compilation.
Then go check out the other episodes too!
youtube.com/@EverQuestShow
I just installed eq again,damn Nostalgia
i loved Landmark!!!
Fantastic work, Fading!
I fondly remember being alternately frustrated and elated with Legends of Norrath - it may not have been the best (digital) card game ever produced, but the art was spectacular, and I felt that it made a fine secondary contribution to the story (lore).
When LON was sunset, my interest in EQ II waned considerably. I probably won't play EQ II again, but I'd leap at the chance to play LON as a standalone game.
also EQIM for talking in game it was chat based contact via 2002-2005 ish range
PTSD thinking of oldschool LGuk corpse runs. Lol
I think I've spent more total time in Guk through the ages than I have in most jobs. :p
I just want to say that I don't like videos or comment but you definitely deserve my likes and subscribe, your videos are A+ man, very good job, I hope to see allot more content from you because your doing an amazing job, thank you for everything you do
Thanks! There's a LOT more content coming this year! I can't wait to bring you more from these interviews! Thank you so much for watching and supporting the channel!
Great vid!!!
More developer interviews please!
Soon! (tm)
I so want Champions of Norrath on PS5!!
Can we get an EQ3 already please!
Good Luck
You guys need to watch out for the stand alone being remade in unreal engine. Classic models and zones that look amazing but still classic.
Love this!
keep it coming!
Wait....I thought he was interviewing the guy who developed Guk. Did I miss it?
First story on the episode. And we'll be hearing more from Geoffrey Zatkin in Episode 15, how he created the spell system and defined the classes. This episode i kept it solely to his discussion of Guk.
It was a damn shame that EQ3 got cancelled. I played 1 all through the original game, all the way up until Luclin. Then played EQ2 for a long time. After putting it down I waited for years to see EQ 3 only to have it snatched away from me for some reason or another. I wanted that old EQ magic back. I miss that.
I actually did the EQNext/ Landmark play and it was really fun. I was working on building a house on the side of a cliff. I was so amazed at the things people created. I can't believe they had the nerve to claim it wasn't "fun" at the time but I did understand it not having the "EQ Feeling".
@@ganelon I also played next for a little bit on a friends computer. I thought the whole voxel thing was pretty neat and I liked the idea that if you camped a mob he would eventually stop going through that area because why would he want to get killed for the 40th time in one day?
@@Trollioli Yea. I think that's why I liked the title being EQNext, as in something new. The idea of the mobs changing routes and stuff sounded great, on top of npcs giving quests and if you don't help or failed it could lead to different events happening like stopping a scouting group from signaling an invasion of the town but if failed the town got sacked.
I think it was more them being afraid of time and budget to pull it off and potential failure more so than "fun" being the issue.
I tried to play LoN a couple of times and simply couldn't understand the gameplay. I benefitted from the loot cards, for sure. My rogue still loves his flying dragon illusion.
ive got eq2 on speed dial, everyday
I just spammed EQ2 Maj Dul about this show. In general there is a discussion going on about the smash and dash with Landmark and EQNext.
There was an EQ rep at Fan Faires and SOE Live named Jace who was trying to start up something like you have. Did you work with him? What ever happened to him.
Having been to 5 EQ events I’m sure we’ve met. I miss the Vegas Fan Faires.
We were duped with EQN. It has come out years later that they never even had any combat or anything for the game. Nothing of the game was ever done. It was only ever what we saw in Landmark. Literally that was ALL they had for EQN. Kind of sad.
Landmark was outstanding in its own right and its loss was nearly as great as that of EQ Next.
If the current owners don't have it in mind to rebuild EQ1 into a new engine, one that easily accommodates raising character level limits to a thousand or more, and has a zone designer tool available for those willing to compete to get their designs incorporated into the game, and to have it ready in time for the 25th anniversary of the game that will not die, they are missing a big bet. Sure, your players are still there at level 120 or whatever, but opening day the level cap is 200 and we increase it by 5 levels every six months. But monthly content developed for very little by hordes of enthusiasts, coupled by newer raid zones automatically scaled up 1 level per game year (so five times in a six month period--i think that's right) eventually giving guilds the choice of hundreds of potential raid zones on any given night.
Yes, it would be a massive project, but it would preserve the current player base and potentially bring in many new faces, eager to see what a quarter century of hoopla and loyalty was all about.
Did you forget the tabletop RPG, or did you leave it off because it wasn't digital? It was fun!
This was only counting video games.
But! We did cover the table too rpg in Episode 5 and the Gift Ideas Special
ua-cam.com/video/Y3lCLR-WdmM/v-deo.html
That was one of my favorite books of that time period!
why don't they update eq next and put it out it looks so good
re: why EQ Next was cancelled - it's not that it wasn't fun. that's kind of a fluff answer that was given. 'fun' can be revamped and redesigned as needed. the IP and assets were sold, daybreak is in the business of milking the existing IP, not developing new content.
Losing LoN was sad. It was just a lazy way to cut costs. How much processing power did it really require to keep it running on autopilot? Fans could've easily hosted or played the game on their own computers. If you aren't profiting off it anymore, at lesat let the EQ diehards have the code and a kinda Fair Use agreement, or whatever terminology they use for EQEmu servers. Even without new content, it was a very fun way for card game fans to pass the time and earn in game loot. I was still halfway through the single player challenges when they shut it down. Its nice they recycled some art for Overseer but its not the same. /gems
what about /overseer you mentioin /gems but not that
No love for the Everquest Roleplaying Game, the ttrpg by White Wolf?
These were just video games, but we covered the EQ RPG in Episode 6
ua-cam.com/video/Y3lCLR-WdmM/v-deo.html
wow, thanks for the reply. Just found the show, slowly getting caught up. I know what I'll watch next!
@@EverQuestShow I understand the reasoning that this was only software based games in this episode, but your tagline question does not specify that in the video. You said “How many games are in the Everquest Universe, I bet it is more than you think.” The two pen and paper games are in the universe, so the count should stand at 16, not 14, as White Wolf (Swords & Sorcery) released EverQuest and EverQuest II as in universe pen and paper games.
Honestly, Gems was the first of a few reasons I quit EQ, I felt that instead of the devs improving downtime for players, they just threw a mobile gam at us to appease the time between combats...
Wut?
Gems was literally around before today's brand of "mobile games" garbage became a thing.
Gems was made by 1 dev in a couple hours...
wat.
Former guide on Tunare here.
Whew, it's hard to watch Smedley talk. The deep loss I feel and anger, watching that man's world record setting level of incompetence relegating an amazing franchise to obscurity due to insane levels of mismanagement.
I don't think the blame should be directed at Smedley. EQ would not exist without him. In fact, I'm working on a future episode story about Smedley being one of the main reasons that EQ was even able to get made. We, as fans, owe a lot to him.
As for EQ Next, there's still a lot we don't know about what happened. Unfortunately being the head at the time, the buck does stop with him. But I hope I get to tell that story one day.
Whatever story you want to tell yourself. We all watched literally 100s of terrible avoidable bad decisions and petty drama ruin eq2 and turn it in to a niche product when it could and should have been a major game. I knew developers at the time who would give us insights to decision making from higher ups and it was so mind bogglingly out of touch with the player base wants and needs. Smedley is objectively one of the worst game managers in the history of the industry.
@@Shrugknight As cruel as you come across, I don't think you're really off the mark. A recent story announced that Smed left Amazon, where he led for ~6 years, and in that 6 years, there was no game released. While I do agree with Fading in that we wouldn't have EQ without Smedley, and we should be grateful to him for that, I do agree with you that he's sort of a dumpster fire....
1, The fact EQN was Voxel Base.
2,We Really should of never had Landmark since though were the tools to make EQN.
3,Bad leadership (The Fans will make the Game?) Other Developers: What No they don't.
How hard was that to tell why EQN was Cancelled. Letting Fans mess with Landmark was not fun.
Not that the Storybricks help anything in the End. In Fact the Company folded and now doesn't Exist.
I would have to slightly disagree. Landmark itself was fun. However it did not give that EQ Feeling though it wasn't meant to at that point anyways.
And it wasn't so much that players would make the game itself but that they were planning to use some of the really really well done assets and buildings that people created inside of Landmark.
I had so much fun in Landmark. It was a bummer that it didn't ultimately result in a new EQ game but Landmark as a standalone game was really great for creatives.
@@space.tel-e-grams Yes but it ended up in the same place. Canceled.
I love GZ, this is when the loot was unique. Now every single everquest expansion is a copy and paste, same with the loot. Very unoriginal
Make a new EQ
Yup. I don't think I've ever been more hyped about an upcoming game than I was about EQ Next. When it went away, I was stumped... though when SOE became Daybreak, I saw the writing on the wall, especially once Dave Georgeson was let go. It felt like it was his passion project. When he was gone, I knew EQ Next probably was, too.
missing 2 games there is a board game and a D20 table top game book
Technically this was a video game list. We covered the EQ RPG in season one. Check it out!
As far as I'm aware there is not an EQ board game. But if you know otherwise please share!
I feel like I'm the only one who's glad that EverQuest Next failed. And that's mostly because of personal preference.
The art-style was being turned into a (again, purely opinion) shitty cartoony aesthetic, and what few instances of combat footage I've seen looked....... bad, to say the least.
The most generic-AF "action combat" I've ever seen in my life :/
I would not have had high hopes for it even if it did launch, tbh.
GEMS > All