@@xersis31 well back then , we used to group regularly almost nightly with a few others and we became close in game. In between pulls and questing there’s lots of time to chat and connect. That’s what happened to me and my paladin friend. And over time we wanted to find out if we had the same connection outside of EQ. But it was different back then and kinda terrifying because you didn’t meet people from online. “It was crazy and careless”quote one of my family members. We did meet soon after 9/11 . Life is short and we were ready to start another adventure together. It was 1999 when we met in EQ and in real life in the fall of 2001. I moved in with him in the spring if 2002. We’re together still and enjoying our new hobby together : learning guitar Well that’s it I guess, I still love EQ and watch streamers play classic.
This might be one of the most important interviews ever conducted with regards to the MMO genre. Geoffrey has forever shaped the genre, and it is fascinating hearing him talk about it.
My favorite episode of this series. Watching him describe how they fully explored the limitations to create gameplay mechanics helped EQ “click” for me. This has fundamentally changed the way I play EQ. Enjoy this!
i loved how the spell fx for a spell got bigger and bigger, the higher your level! sow, for example, started off simple and ended up like an amazing light show
Often surprised how young many of the EQ guys still are, considering. It was the game of my childhood, yet I think I'm closer to his age than my niece's.
To me what EQ did well graphics wise was that it created a tangible sense of scale. You felt like you were in a forest or climbing up a hill with scrub trees or stranded on an island. I haven't seen another game since that has replicated that.
My favorite aspect was that the absence of formalized websites meant that much of the game remained mysterious. I believe I played 75% of the zones, but it felt like I had only played 10% of the zones. Lacking the knowledge necessary to see the boundaries played a major factor, I beleive.
Wow.. these are so interesting. I remember playing Mudds and Doom in college and wishing someone would make a game that combined the two. Years later I read a newspaper article at the coffee shop about this Everquest game that was addicting people all over the world. I went home and started looking into it. I went to GameStop and bought it only to find out my dial up sucked. When I got DSL and logged in I realized how gimp my computer was. I played looking at the ground, spell effects off and lagggggged like hell. 😂. I finally got a new computer and just had a blast exploring and learning, how to group, how to tank, what the heck was a train, what different classes would do. Got invited to a wedding from someone I grouped with and put on my friends list. Got invited to their guild, ended up growing into a raiding guild (nothing huge or leet) and had a blast. I’ve never played a game since that held a candle to the awe and mystique of exploring a new world. Like wandering out of EC into dark elf territory at lvl 7 and met my first DE guard. Yikes what a heart thumping experience that was. Or getting stuck behind a locked door in Befallen with a gang of skellies beating on you, fumbling for your key. Trying to spam the /ooc hot button “TRAIN TO ZONE!” so at least other players had a heads up. Or my first trip to Hate when our guild started breaking in. I was lvl 43 when they first started talking in /gu chat and I was so jealous. I pushed so hard to get 20% into 46 so I could go with. Huddled in the zone in, staying away from the walls while our monk figured out how to pull those zone... So much fun, so many memories, so long ago. I think if I had a time machine I would go back and do EQ again. 🤣
There were many memorable moments for me in EQ. One was getting on the boat for the first time, another was the terrifying trip from Kelethin to Qeynos at level 5 with no clue where to go, and having to be escorted through High Pass by other players. (Then spending two hours begging Qeynosians for a bind.) Another was when I first got my wizard portal spells, and of course everyone remembers when they got their Epic. The big one for me though was the spell Ice Comet after doing the requisite quest. I did what I'm sure every wizard did when they got it, which was immediately find some poor low level victim to flatten. The moment that thing dropped from the sky and shattered on the poor hapless mob, you couldn't get a wider smile out of me if you tried.
Upper and Lower Guk are my favorite dungeons of all time. Sebilis is my next favorite after that. The Spells and spell lines in the game are also better than anything out today. I also maintained a journal of quests and did every quest I could find in the Qeynos area.
yeah keeping a ton of notes, where to get stuff, which quests was ongoing, which items where needed + printed out spell lists from Casters Realm, and reading hunting guides and so on and so on... it was amazing times
One of the best parts of EQ in the old era is that the chemistry mix is infinite. You win not by having the right class combination, which has been a death trap for most other MMOs then and now, but by being creative. Any mixture of classes, be it a duo, trio, full men group, COULD work.
19:05 the sound in EQ was really effective, even though it was obvious that the development resources were limited. I wish more companies focused on gameplay rather than expensive effects.
Been playing since Dec 99 and I won't stop till the lights are turned off. This is one of the best interviews I've seen on UA-cam. I love how you let him run with what he's saying, and not interrupting him like other shows do. I really appreciate that. Great video. Keep it up. Bring more!
@@SanctuaryLife me and my brothers used to run a server of of own without any limits. Man it was crazy fun. Look up some videos on the game called The Crew when that company shut down the crew one nobody was able to continue is there a personal servers because the gaming company canceled all licenses which completely destroyed online community for that particular game
For 20 years I've searched and searched trying to recreate the magic of EQ but alas it seems like a first kiss or a first love the experience can't be duplicated. It seems you really can't go home again.
Wurm Online gave me many feelings of EQ. Skill gain, corpse runs, basic but beautiful. It was the precursor to minecraft. It didn't have the massive multi-player draw EQ had. It was very niche. But being able to dig the dirt, cut the trees, mine the rock, farm the fields, breed the animals, and smith the equipment made it one of the most amazing games. Just much much slower than minecraft. Those 2 games always get me thinking about the good old days.
I've felt this was about EverQuest, StarWars Galaxies, and The Matrix Online. Thankfully I can still get back into EQ and experience it. Absolutely loving the TLP grinds. It feels like home with a lot of QoL improvements.
This was so informative, this guy is great. I love his explanations, especially designing a game for your intended audience. I'm that dude that just wants EQ 1.2 (classic-velious), same game, better graphics :P
I would even argue that the number of spells was never the point, wow (modern) failed in the design department as in instead of having this spell do this that spell doing that it was just bloat 5-10 spells that did absolutely the same thing with slightly different numbers. At one point it went down the road of pressing a huge number of buttons which was lame, it was never about pressing a bunch of buttons it should have been in pressing the right button in the right situation. Something that EQ did very well from the get go.
I have watched most of these interviews you have published over the years, and while I have enjoyed each of them, some of them being good, others great even--this interview with Geoffrey is nothing short of exquisite. So far as I am concerned, this man hold the keys to the castle of mystery that is EQ. I very much loved EQ's caster classes and overall breadth of effects and utility. It had more spellcasting classes than any other game I had played by far, and each one was different from each other. The nuts and bolts of the systems of games are definitely something I have always taken keen interest in, and this interview of the man who fathered in so many of the systems I have spent countless hours theorycrafting, in my all time favorite game... well, it was a joy to behold, to say the least! This series of interviews is greatly appreciated by this aging gamer, thanks for creating them!
As somebody who's never had a time with a game like I had with EQ, and who recently got into P99, I have a ton of appreciation for this team, and this guy was such a huge part of it. I bet when the team were struggling to bring this to life, if you told them they'd have 27 expansions and still be going 23 years later, they'd probably all have soiled their shorts.
I know I'm waaaay late to this party, just discovered your channel, but I like to say I'm glad you're playing the best class of EQ. No other game since EQ has made a class like the EQ Necro. A Jack of All Trades that's an army unto itself.
For me, Lower Guk was my first high risk/high reward zone. It was very intimidating and at times incredibly dangerous, especially back in 1999 when players we're "elite" like they are on P99. Corpse runs into Lguk were super scary and required other people to come help, and when you spent a night grinding in Lguk, got some nice drops, and then ended with a fight back to the zoneline, it was a massively rewarding feeling. That feeling I've found very rare in other games, which is why I still play on Project 1999, although I'm considered a filthy casual due to having to be an adult :)
@@alovingrobot406 Very interesting! I joined up for the email updates, would love to see what you guys put together. The focus you talk about on your website is much the same feeling I have. Games are no longer rewarding and group focused. It's all a quick rush to end-game content played solo anymore. If I had any expertise in game development, I might throw my hat in for the next opportunity, but looks like you have a solid group of people. I noticed in several of the teams' bios they mention MMOs (particularly EverQuest). I'll keep up with where you guys are. I have a ton of MMO experience (MUDs, EQ, WoW, FF, Black Desert Online, Destiny, Guild Wars, and lots more), maybe I can help test some gameplay? :)
Classic EQ's spell particle effects were pretty revolutionary at the time. I've read and watched many interviews over the years, and my understanding is that EQ originally was intended to be software rendered (think Diablo 1 & 2). Going fully 3D was a *_very large risk_* at the time, as "3D Accelerator Cards" were *_brand new_* on the consumer market. EQ changed the entire gaming industry. It demonstrated just how *_incredibly_* profitable online-only, subscription-based games could. Also, The Ruins of Old Guk is one of the *_ALL TIME_* best MMO dungeons, especially in the context of the game it was within.
It is funny to hear him talk about the Graphics cards. EQ is how I convinced my parent to get a graphics card for my personal computer (we already had one on my dad's home computer as his did graphical work already). What a trip down memory lane.
I remember a time when Old Sebilis was frequented by normal parties. Then it was discovered that a group of 3 enchanters and 2 wizzes and a mage (or three wizzes) could pull the entire zone. The chanters would stun, and the AoE casters would rain, rain, rain. The experience was incredible, as was the character XP. It was AMAZING! They quickly nerfed this, but it is an experience that stands out that I remember to this day. A MASSIVE crowd of froglok mobs, shoulder to shoulder, getting stunned and unable to attack, any one of which would rip through a party of casters in less than a second. They would shift in the blue haze of stuns as the rain came down. Amazing.
Just wanted to thank you for these.. recently got back into EQ again (test server) and it's been just.. awesome listening to you and the people who worked on the game i spent countless hours playing and telling people about as i grew up. I started just as PoP released when i was ~9 years old and just turned 30 and am still playing occasionally and telling stories about it to people who never experienced it. My main has always been a Druid, (Tarew Marr - Mildarsan) i'd be interested in hearing yours and every other devs favorite classes to play.
Thanks! I'm glad you like them. I mained a Warrior at launch through roughly LDON, but have really enjoyed Cleric a bit on Aradune, and Necro on P99. 😊 Several of the dev reference their toons in the videos. We had a few high end Monks, Clerics, and just about everything else.
Thank you for this interview. Listening to it made me really happy. It reminded me of old times, when people like this existed and created such beautiful things.
Having Geoffrey chuckle about /pizza reminded me of when /gems was introduced. I didn't know who came up with the idea to program that instead of just increasing mana regen, but I can say that I spent many hours playing it while soloing in The Overthere back in Kunark. "The Vision™" has been thrown around loosely over the years, but this is a real world example of it in action that I didn't know about until today. It makes sense in a roundabout way I guess? I really enjoy hearing the 1st person stories about the history of the game, and I look forward to whoever you get to interview next. On a side note, the volume levels are perfect now. 👍
Your game has been a part of my life since before Kunarks launch. I've gotten every epic weapon for every class. Ive completed every major quests for every expansion through depths of darkhollow. I came back during the fippy tlp and everyone since!
I've watched a bunch of your videos and this was my favorite so far. Incredible insight into the making of EverQuest. Super fascinating listening to Geoff's stories and explanations for things - guy is an absolute genius.
This was such an enjoyable listen! Thank you! And yes, I really do hope that one day there will come an EverQuest 3 that embraces the spirit of the original EQ. Project99 shows that the formula still works ... for some of us ;)
Fantastic interview! Hope you have him back on soon. One question I have is how much rotation and synergy were thought about in the making of the spells initially. It seems like the spells were made to fulfill a role and a fantasy but were left open ended in how the player would use them. Modern mmos attempt to create an ideal rotation and synergy off the bat which often leads to less dynamic gameplay. But now that we have this standard it seems challenging for a modern designer to throw in a bunch of fun spells like they used to without out trying to manipulate an outcome. Also, would love to hear more about what the energy of that early team was like and what Brad brought to the table to inspire the team. His role is still somewhat nebulous to me even after watching all of these fantastic interviews. Thanks!
I ultimately found that forming groups was so difficult that I had to get into multiboxing and Macroquest programming. That was fun too, but it wasn't exactly the intended game.
just finding your channel. love this interview. about to eat all these interview videos up. this is some great content. Thank you for taking the time to track these guys down and do the interviews.
Excellent video, I really enjoyed the old way of doing quests in everquest. It made you pay more attention to what was going on and less being spoon fed. The lack of exclamation points above-head and the need for repeating catch phrases helped with that.
When I got into EQ I bought a brand new pc and called my internet company for the faster upgraded internet speed option. It was a bit of a fight. He came to my house and wanted to go on my pc to make sure it was good enough first. I asked him to please just hook me up and that I don't mind paying the extra w/e per month. He would not let it go so I let him on my pc and he was shocked how good it was. I wanted to port him to hate and leave him there but I didn't...
We're still playing it. I'm on the TLP server Mischief and I leveled up a LOT in Guk, Bedroom, Ass/Sup., Frenzied Ghoul, and King in lower Guk.We're on Kunark right now and Velious comes out on 8/18/2021.
This was so awesome. I can't get enough classic EQ content in my veins and hearing behind the scenes stuff from one of the original people really made my day. Thank you for doing this. This guy seems like a legend and I'm gonna try to support the stuff hes doing now. PS I have the same framed vanilla portrait thats behind him along with up to PoP. :D
Spell sound effects were great and really conveyed a sense of power. I still miss the original spell graphic effects. They might have been a system hog but they were ahead of their time.
Mine was Gemstone III, on AOL. It got me so hooked into tech that I got my first "real" job working in PC repair. When EQ launched, it was a social movement. We (18-30 somethings) would kill time swapping adventure stories and tips. Customers would ask for tips, etc. It was a perfect moment of social/technological harmony.
You know what would be super cool with folks like Geoffrey, is in addition to these straight-up interviews to then also tour through a zone or dungeon they were involved with and see what jogs their memory and recall about interesting tidbits they remember. Even a simple texture stuck on a wall might make them suddenly recall "Oh, that was supposed to look like a vampire's open mouth". In Geoffrey's case, one obvious one is to walk through Upper and Lower Guk and let him stop you at various spots and diatribe about what he recalls in the design and implementation tricks, war stories, odds and ends, etc. Maybe an adjunct series of videos each of which is about a certain zone, which is an actual walk-through of it, both in god mode and also maybe with some game play going on from p99 era where needed. And include whichever of these folks was materially involved in designing, implementing, populating, balancing, etc that zone. Sort of a mix and match follow-up to these initial awesome interviews.
I wonder if Guk was initially imagined as an important high level dungeon. From the early sketches it sounds like it was just going to be some small forgotten dungeon like Befallen, but then it evolved into something much more.
It sounds to me like Guk was going to be nearly a gamelong dungeon crawl for levels 20-50. If there were no zonelines between Uguk/Lguk, Lguk would be INFINITELY less accessible, think about how many people get to lguk just by training the zone lines.
Wow great interview. Funny he mentioned enchanter right then when I was thinking about it. This is a class that's/archtype that really hasn't been in any game since. Loved that class and idea, but never got around to playing one. I played a shadow knight. One thing I remember was clinging darkness/disease cloud had such high agro (despite being like lvl9 spells) that shadow knights were usually preferred for non raid tanks over warrior because of how they could maintain agro easily, then group that with feign death ability like monks, it was a no-brainer. Wonder how much of that was intentional, because those spells without high agro and shadow knight might not have been preferred group tank (warrior was still raid tank)
BRAD was spot on. Hp and Mana regen is when u speak with and get to know other people!!!! Huge part of the game if not the biggest and most important!!!
Lol you people still tell yourselves that don't you? It was an artificial timesink. So was having spawns at 48 hours, it required people to stay playing and stay subscribed. That was nothing other than a business decision.
@sabbracadabra Yes keep convincing yourself that artificial time sinks were anything other than business designs to make more money. Mmhmm. Dying and being completely naked with no gear and expected to get back to all of your stuff was enough of a difficulty challenge and penalty for going gung-ho and no-fks given. Losing experience because you died was NOTHING other than a time sink.
@sabbracadabra What a hot take. Imagine reading everything I've written and taking up a straw man argument that I've ever taken the position that everything should be easy. Are you able to think critically?
@@anotheryoutubed Med breaks were social, and added much value to buffs like KEI and Chloro. The game had solutions. Have you ever played Terraria? The middle difficulty has corpse runs, and if you die in lava and your gear isn't fireproof... it will melt. This interesting decision makes the gameplay better. Why did people PVP in hardcore mode in diablo 2 when you loose all your gear and character dies forever? Why did WOW keep the corpse run but as a wisp when they streamlined and attempted to remove much of the complexity in systems found in EQ? The problem with the corpse runs: they didn't scale well. As the world grew, and expansions took travel time up and up and population declined, the CR did become too punishing. Eventually the ingame map became an important feature but for the original trilogy... I loved that there was no map. I think reducing the penalty was a good decision, but at times still miss it and think it was reduced too much.
I think HP and Mana regen were an important part of making the classes play together. Brad did say that he wanted people to slow down while playing the game. Modern games could learn a lot from classic EQ's interclass dependance and slower gameplay experience. Slowing down causes people to interact with eachother, and it causes the player to focus on the journey rather than the destination. Slowing down the leveling process also forces players to stay in the same zone for longer amounts of time. A lot of players take pride in how well they know certain dungeons - myself I find it really fun to take newer players through Guk, showing them the good hunting areas and safe spots. The game is not without its flaws - the classes are poorly balanced (enchanters are wildly overpowered, while warriors lack unique utility). The amount of time one must invest in a camp for a certain item to drop can be absurd. Leveling could also be brutal, my warrior easily took 5x as long to hit 50 as my necromancer.
Guk is such a great dungeon. There just isn't anything else like it in EQ, but maybe Chardok comes close. Guk is just so accessible, interesting, and fun to play.
This was excellent! I sat through the whole thing and there was a constant drip of good, interesting info. I didn't get to see it Live, but my QUESTION for next time would be: Who came up with Complete Heal? Did you realize it would fundamentally change the game (raiding) and would you do something different looking back? I've heard people say it 'ruined' the game and others that love it.
Fun Fact: I was chosen to participate in the Star Wars Galaxies beta program and I petitioned that they include the mouse steering technique used by Everquest, hold right mouse down to steer and strafe with A & D keys and with right mouse up turn left and right with A & D. They decided to include it and the rest was history, literally. I did play the game at launch for a couple weeks but kind of lost interest. Ok, enough with fun facts LOL. Brilliant interview, mesmerizing!
I always wanted to know if the “camp” was the standard way of playing they intended players to adopt, or if they had initially designed the game thinking players were going to just run around and dungeon crawl in order to get xp.
@@alovingrobot406 Thanks so much! I am actually starting my journey as a game composer and developer. I have music on this channel: ua-cam.com/channels/QfcXjxadDM1-44TUd7VMqQ.html and more to come!
I'm sorry I guess I should not post real names. I knew Maso, he was a friend of mine. I recall him fondly. Even from his early days playing EQ, he always helped me out. A very kind person.
I would have loved some randomization when it comes to stats in EQ, not so much that you could end up with 50% less hp than another level 50 of the same class, but some would've been nice.
@@sterlingcampbell2116 Doesn't need to be at the beginning only, can be every single level the amount you gain is random as well. Also, there are ways to stop people from re-making characters, such as locking you out of keeping your name for instance.
Dark souls' appeal is that you cant button mash yourself through encounters. You learn to play as the developers intended or you die and start over. And your reward is not only the satisfaction of success, but also to see and experience more of the amazing original world they made. I largely quit gaming like 10 years ago, due to lack of time and mostly a lack of interest. My first discovery of dark souls was through its art book. I found that and flipped through and was in awe of the creativity and the quality of the designs, and had to find out more, but was wary to set my expectations too high because the games industry are all hashing out the same engine with a different face. When i got my hands on a copy of dark souls, it was true joy to play something that actuslly felt new! (though really its a glorified remake of ghosts and goblins lol)
Met my husband in EQ ,I was his healer. Together for 21 years now.He is still my Paladin.
The best kind of duo!
How does that come about? I'm genuinely curious
@@xersis31 well back then , we used to group regularly almost nightly with a few others and we became close in game.
In between pulls and questing there’s lots of time to chat and connect.
That’s what happened to me and my paladin friend. And over time we wanted to find out if we had the same connection outside of EQ.
But it was different back then and kinda terrifying because you didn’t meet people from online. “It was crazy and careless”quote one of my family members.
We did meet soon after 9/11 . Life is short and we were ready to start another adventure together.
It was 1999 when we met in EQ and in real life in the fall of 2001. I moved in with him in the spring if 2002.
We’re together still and enjoying our new hobby together : learning guitar
Well that’s it I guess, I still love EQ and watch streamers play classic.
That is a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing. 😊
Amazing. Met many great people from EQ irl also, we used to have meet ups from the guild “The Southern Legion” which was an Aussie guild.
This guy's finger prints are all over EQ. It would not have turned out to be the masterpiece that it did without him.
G. igantic Z. weihander
Should get an honorary comp sci degree
This might be one of the most important interviews ever conducted with regards to the MMO genre. Geoffrey has forever shaped the genre, and it is fascinating hearing him talk about it.
As someone whose played eq and p99 since 2000 this guy is a legend
My favorite episode of this series. Watching him describe how they fully explored the limitations to create gameplay mechanics helped EQ “click” for me. This has fundamentally changed the way I play EQ.
Enjoy this!
i loved how the spell fx for a spell got bigger and bigger, the higher your level! sow, for example, started off simple and ended up like an amazing light show
That was one of the coolest parts of EQ1 for sure.
Often surprised how young many of the EQ guys still are, considering. It was the game of my childhood, yet I think I'm closer to his age than my niece's.
Aging is funny that way. 😀
But yeah, everyone was pretty young back then. Most of us were doing this as our first gaming gig.
I was thinking the same exact thing!
You have to do another interview with this guy. He's amazing!
Guk is an absolute masterpiece of a zone. Those frogs man . . . haha
To me what EQ did well graphics wise was that it created a tangible sense of scale. You felt like you were in a forest or climbing up a hill with scrub trees or stranded on an island. I haven't seen another game since that has replicated that.
My favorite aspect was that the absence of formalized websites meant that much of the game remained mysterious. I believe I played 75% of the zones, but it felt like I had only played 10% of the zones. Lacking the knowledge necessary to see the boundaries played a major factor, I beleive.
Absolutely
It was also because the game was first person but yeah they made the scale so much larger than the player in most cases
Wow.. these are so interesting. I remember playing Mudds and Doom in college and wishing someone would make a game that combined the two. Years later I read a newspaper article at the coffee shop about this Everquest game that was addicting people all over the world. I went home and started looking into it.
I went to GameStop and bought it only to find out my dial up sucked. When I got DSL and logged in I realized how gimp my computer was. I played looking at the ground, spell effects off and lagggggged like hell. 😂. I finally got a new computer and just had a blast exploring and learning, how to group, how to tank, what the heck was a train, what different classes would do. Got invited to a wedding from someone I grouped with and put on my friends list. Got invited to their guild, ended up growing into a raiding guild (nothing huge or leet) and had a blast.
I’ve never played a game since that held a candle to the awe and mystique of exploring a new world. Like wandering out of EC into dark elf territory at lvl 7 and met my first DE guard. Yikes what a heart thumping experience that was. Or getting stuck behind a locked door in Befallen with a gang of skellies beating on you, fumbling for your key. Trying to spam the /ooc hot button “TRAIN TO ZONE!” so at least other players had a heads up. Or my first trip to Hate when our guild started breaking in. I was lvl 43 when they first started talking in /gu chat and I was so jealous. I pushed so hard to get 20% into 46 so I could go with. Huddled in the zone in, staying away from the walls while our monk figured out how to pull those zone...
So much fun, so many memories, so long ago. I think if I had a time machine I would go back and do EQ again. 🤣
There were many memorable moments for me in EQ. One was getting on the boat for the first time, another was the terrifying trip from Kelethin to Qeynos at level 5 with no clue where to go, and having to be escorted through High Pass by other players. (Then spending two hours begging Qeynosians for a bind.)
Another was when I first got my wizard portal spells, and of course everyone remembers when they got their Epic.
The big one for me though was the spell Ice Comet after doing the requisite quest. I did what I'm sure every wizard did when they got it, which was immediately find some poor low level victim to flatten.
The moment that thing dropped from the sky and shattered on the poor hapless mob, you couldn't get a wider smile out of me if you tried.
Upper and Lower Guk are my favorite dungeons of all time. Sebilis is my next favorite after that. The Spells and spell lines in the game are also better than anything out today. I also maintained a journal of quests and did every quest I could find in the Qeynos area.
yeah keeping a ton of notes, where to get stuff, which quests was ongoing, which items where needed + printed out spell lists from Casters Realm, and reading hunting guides and so on and so on... it was amazing times
One of the best parts of EQ in the old era is that the chemistry mix is infinite. You win not by having the right class combination, which has been a death trap for most other MMOs then and now, but by being creative. Any mixture of classes, be it a duo, trio, full men group, COULD work.
Man behind EQ magic and Lower and upper guk. Fock me i loved that dungeon and lvled so many chars down there. MAD RESPECT Geof :)
19:05 the sound in EQ was really effective, even though it was obvious that the development resources were limited. I wish more companies focused on gameplay rather than expensive effects.
EQ downtime was where the fun and memories truly happened
I am so sad that I no longer have the time to enjoy and be captured by such a brilliant and enjoyable game.
Been playing since Dec 99 and I won't stop till the lights are turned off. This is one of the best interviews I've seen on UA-cam. I love how you let him run with what he's saying, and not interrupting him like other shows do. I really appreciate that. Great video. Keep it up. Bring more!
If they ever turn the lights off it’s easy to get set up on P99 blue server and green server have a fine population at times.
@@SanctuaryLife me and my brothers used to run a server of of own without any limits. Man it was crazy fun. Look up some videos on the game called The Crew when that company shut down the crew one nobody was able to continue is there a personal servers because the gaming company canceled all licenses which completely destroyed online community for that particular game
For 20 years I've searched and searched trying to recreate the magic of EQ but alas it seems like a first kiss or a first love the experience can't be duplicated. It seems you really can't go home again.
The closest I have come to just pure enjoyment is Skyrim, totally different experience but a similar lvl of enjoyment.
@@skepticalllama2484 I agree with you 100%! When I'm missing EQ I load up Skyrim. Its the closest thing out there.
Wurm Online gave me many feelings of EQ. Skill gain, corpse runs, basic but beautiful. It was the precursor to minecraft. It didn't have the massive multi-player draw EQ had. It was very niche. But being able to dig the dirt, cut the trees, mine the rock, farm the fields, breed the animals, and smith the equipment made it one of the most amazing games. Just much much slower than minecraft. Those 2 games always get me thinking about the good old days.
Man, that's 100% truth, man
I've felt this was about EverQuest, StarWars Galaxies, and The Matrix Online. Thankfully I can still get back into EQ and experience it. Absolutely loving the TLP grinds. It feels like home with a lot of QoL improvements.
I still play Project 1999 EQ to this day. That game and HMM3 are classic 90s games I just keep coming back to over and over again. Fantastic games.
This was so informative, this guy is great. I love his explanations, especially designing a game for your intended audience. I'm that dude that just wants EQ 1.2 (classic-velious), same game, better graphics :P
Love that we still have a gazillion spells in EQ and not gone the WoW route and prune stuff.
I would even argue that the number of spells was never the point, wow (modern) failed in the design department as in instead of having this spell do this that spell doing that it was just bloat 5-10 spells that did absolutely the same thing with slightly different numbers. At one point it went down the road of pressing a huge number of buttons which was lame, it was never about pressing a bunch of buttons it should have been in pressing the right button in the right situation. Something that EQ did very well from the get go.
A good team has many different mindsets. It benefited Everquest greatly that they allowed all these different viewpoints to have a place.
We need another EQ history episode with this absolute legend.
I have watched most of these interviews you have published over the years, and while I have enjoyed each of them, some of them being good, others great even--this interview with Geoffrey is nothing short of exquisite.
So far as I am concerned, this man hold the keys to the castle of mystery that is EQ. I very much loved EQ's caster classes and overall breadth of effects and utility. It had more spellcasting classes than any other game I had played by far, and each one was different from each other.
The nuts and bolts of the systems of games are definitely something I have always taken keen interest in, and this interview of the man who fathered in so many of the systems I have spent countless hours theorycrafting, in my all time favorite game... well, it was a joy to behold, to say the least!
This series of interviews is greatly appreciated by this aging gamer, thanks for creating them!
As somebody who's never had a time with a game like I had with EQ, and who recently got into P99, I have a ton of appreciation for this team, and this guy was such a huge part of it. I bet when the team were struggling to bring this to life, if you told them they'd have 27 expansions and still be going 23 years later, they'd probably all have soiled their shorts.
Super cool that you're playing on P99 now!
I know I'm waaaay late to this party, just discovered your channel, but I like to say I'm glad you're playing the best class of EQ.
No other game since EQ has made a class like the EQ Necro. A Jack of All Trades that's an army unto itself.
what another fantastic interview. i obviously love hearing about magic's influence on EQ, but it's even cooler that EQ came full circle to affect D&D.
For me, Lower Guk was my first high risk/high reward zone. It was very intimidating and at times incredibly dangerous, especially back in 1999 when players we're "elite" like they are on P99. Corpse runs into Lguk were super scary and required other people to come help, and when you spent a night grinding in Lguk, got some nice drops, and then ended with a fight back to the zoneline, it was a massively rewarding feeling. That feeling I've found very rare in other games, which is why I still play on Project 1999, although I'm considered a filthy casual due to having to be an adult :)
Maybe give the game we're working on a look as well: monstersandmemories.com/ (or search for Monsters & Memories here as well)
@@alovingrobot406 Very interesting! I joined up for the email updates, would love to see what you guys put together. The focus you talk about on your website is much the same feeling I have. Games are no longer rewarding and group focused. It's all a quick rush to end-game content played solo anymore. If I had any expertise in game development, I might throw my hat in for the next opportunity, but looks like you have a solid group of people. I noticed in several of the teams' bios they mention MMOs (particularly EverQuest). I'll keep up with where you guys are. I have a ton of MMO experience (MUDs, EQ, WoW, FF, Black Desert Online, Destiny, Guild Wars, and lots more), maybe I can help test some gameplay? :)
Classic EQ's spell particle effects were pretty revolutionary at the time. I've read and watched many interviews over the years, and my understanding is that EQ originally was intended to be software rendered (think Diablo 1 & 2). Going fully 3D was a *_very large risk_* at the time, as "3D Accelerator Cards" were *_brand new_* on the consumer market.
EQ changed the entire gaming industry. It demonstrated just how *_incredibly_* profitable online-only, subscription-based games could.
Also, The Ruins of Old Guk is one of the *_ALL TIME_* best MMO dungeons, especially in the context of the game it was within.
It is funny to hear him talk about the Graphics cards. EQ is how I convinced my parent to get a graphics card for my personal computer (we already had one on my dad's home computer as his did graphical work already). What a trip down memory lane.
I remember a time when Old Sebilis was frequented by normal parties. Then it was discovered that a group of 3 enchanters and 2 wizzes and a mage (or three wizzes) could pull the entire zone. The chanters would stun, and the AoE casters would rain, rain, rain. The experience was incredible, as was the character XP. It was AMAZING! They quickly nerfed this, but it is an experience that stands out that I remember to this day. A MASSIVE crowd of froglok mobs, shoulder to shoulder, getting stunned and unable to attack, any one of which would rip through a party of casters in less than a second. They would shift in the blue haze of stuns as the rain came down. Amazing.
Just wanted to thank you for these.. recently got back into EQ again (test server) and it's been just.. awesome listening to you and the people who worked on the game i spent countless hours playing and telling people about as i grew up. I started just as PoP released when i was ~9 years old and just turned 30 and am still playing occasionally and telling stories about it to people who never experienced it. My main has always been a Druid, (Tarew Marr - Mildarsan) i'd be interested in hearing yours and every other devs favorite classes to play.
Thanks! I'm glad you like them.
I mained a Warrior at launch through roughly LDON, but have really enjoyed Cleric a bit on Aradune, and Necro on P99. 😊
Several of the dev reference their toons in the videos. We had a few high end Monks, Clerics, and just about everything else.
Thank you for this interview. Listening to it made me really happy. It reminded me of old times, when people like this existed and created such beautiful things.
Having Geoffrey chuckle about /pizza reminded me of when /gems was introduced. I didn't know who came up with the idea to program that instead of just increasing mana regen, but I can say that I spent many hours playing it while soloing in The Overthere back in Kunark.
"The Vision™" has been thrown around loosely over the years, but this is a real world example of it in action that I didn't know about until today. It makes sense in a roundabout way I guess?
I really enjoy hearing the 1st person stories about the history of the game, and I look forward to whoever you get to interview next.
On a side note, the volume levels are perfect now. 👍
Very cool to hear about the core design of the game. This is the good stuff!
Your game has been a part of my life since before Kunarks launch. I've gotten every epic weapon for every class. Ive completed every major quests for every expansion through depths of darkhollow. I came back during the fippy tlp and everyone since!
I've watched a bunch of your videos and this was my favorite so far. Incredible insight into the making of EverQuest. Super fascinating listening to Geoff's stories and explanations for things - guy is an absolute genius.
Glad you like them! Don't forget to subscribe if you like the videos!
This was such an enjoyable listen! Thank you! And yes, I really do hope that one day there will come an EverQuest 3 that embraces the spirit of the original EQ. Project99 shows that the formula still works ... for some of us ;)
Wow! What a legend. His designs have been used by millions as most of it was carried over to WoW and other MMOs.
Fantastic interview! Hope you have him back on soon.
One question I have is how much rotation and synergy were thought about in the making of the spells initially. It seems like the spells were made to fulfill a role and a fantasy but were left open ended in how the player would use them. Modern mmos attempt to create an ideal rotation and synergy off the bat which often leads to less dynamic gameplay. But now that we have this standard it seems challenging for a modern designer to throw in a bunch of fun spells like they used to without out trying to manipulate an outcome.
Also, would love to hear more about what the energy of that early team was like and what Brad brought to the table to inspire the team. His role is still somewhat nebulous to me even after watching all of these fantastic interviews. Thanks!
Thanks! For more on the early team vibe check out Jeff Butler's interview, as well as the upcoming video with Michelle Butler.
I was in Guk last night, crazy zone.
I ultimately found that forming groups was so difficult that I had to get into multiboxing and Macroquest programming. That was fun too, but it wasn't exactly the intended game.
just finding your channel. love this interview. about to eat all these interview videos up. this is some great content. Thank you for taking the time to track these guys down and do the interviews.
Thank you! Don't forget to subscribe and share.
I appreciate the comment!
I've never played another game that gave you such freedom to use spells, especially utility spells in unexpected ways. Fun times.
Thank you for this. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it brings back great memories!
Excellent video, I really enjoyed the old way of doing quests in everquest. It made you pay more attention to what was going on and less being spoon fed. The lack of exclamation points above-head and the need for repeating catch phrases helped with that.
When I got into EQ I bought a brand new pc and called my internet company for the faster upgraded internet speed option. It was a bit of a fight. He came to my house and wanted to go on my pc to make sure it was good enough first. I asked him to please just hook me up and that I don't mind paying the extra w/e per month. He would not let it go so I let him on my pc and he was shocked how good it was. I wanted to port him to hate and leave him there but I didn't...
This was one of the most interesting interviews I’ve ever watched. Thank you for providing such amazing content!
We're still playing it. I'm on the TLP server Mischief and I leveled up a LOT in Guk, Bedroom, Ass/Sup., Frenzied Ghoul, and King in lower Guk.We're on Kunark right now and Velious comes out on 8/18/2021.
Fun and all. But TLP ain't even close to classic
I enjoyed the hell out of this! thank you!
would love the sequel to this conversation and the "parkinson stories". i know you guys are busy.
So cool you did these. I just found this series and am really enjoying it. Thank you.
this is an excellent interview, props to both of you guys
Guk is such a trippy zone.
One of the best zones in the whole damn game lol
I love how tarkov made its way into this conversation lol :) playing eq as I type... Ive missed it too much...
He created the enchanter! He is truly a GEM behind this iconic game!!
This was so awesome. I can't get enough classic EQ content in my veins and hearing behind the scenes stuff from one of the original people really made my day. Thank you for doing this. This guy seems like a legend and I'm gonna try to support the stuff hes doing now. PS I have the same framed vanilla portrait thats behind him along with up to PoP. :D
Spell sound effects were great and really conveyed a sense of power. I still miss the original spell graphic effects. They might have been a system hog but they were ahead of their time.
My first online gaming was MUD. I played a modified Diku/Circle called TERA. That was some of the most fun I've ever had :)
Mine was Gemstone III, on AOL. It got me so hooked into tech that I got my first "real" job working in PC repair. When EQ launched, it was a social movement. We (18-30 somethings) would kill time swapping adventure stories and tips. Customers would ask for tips, etc. It was a perfect moment of social/technological harmony.
EQ still looks amazing!
You know what would be super cool with folks like Geoffrey, is in addition to these straight-up interviews to then also tour through a zone or dungeon they were involved with and see what jogs their memory and recall about interesting tidbits they remember. Even a simple texture stuck on a wall might make them suddenly recall "Oh, that was supposed to look like a vampire's open mouth".
In Geoffrey's case, one obvious one is to walk through Upper and Lower Guk and let him stop you at various spots and diatribe about what he recalls in the design and implementation tricks, war stories, odds and ends, etc.
Maybe an adjunct series of videos each of which is about a certain zone, which is an actual walk-through of it, both in god mode and also maybe with some game play going on from p99 era where needed. And include whichever of these folks was materially involved in designing, implementing, populating, balancing, etc that zone. Sort of a mix and match follow-up to these initial awesome interviews.
Patiently awaiting those Keith Parkinson stories !! Great interview =)
this man created the enchanter class. immense talent and influence.
I wonder if Guk was initially imagined as an important high level dungeon. From the early sketches it sounds like it was just going to be some small forgotten dungeon like Befallen, but then it evolved into something much more.
Yeah, I'm unsure. It's a great question!
It sounds to me like Guk was going to be nearly a gamelong dungeon crawl for levels 20-50. If there were no zonelines between Uguk/Lguk, Lguk would be INFINITELY less accessible, think about how many people get to lguk just by training the zone lines.
@@anotheryoutubed probably one of the top ten worst zone lines to go AFK at... 😀
that's alot of cool info! thanks for sharing!
Guk is one of the best zones in all mmos.
Wow great interview. Funny he mentioned enchanter right then when I was thinking about it. This is a class that's/archtype that really hasn't been in any game since. Loved that class and idea, but never got around to playing one.
I played a shadow knight. One thing I remember was clinging darkness/disease cloud had such high agro (despite being like lvl9 spells) that shadow knights were usually preferred for non raid tanks over warrior because of how they could maintain agro easily, then group that with feign death ability like monks, it was a no-brainer. Wonder how much of that was intentional, because those spells without high agro and shadow knight might not have been preferred group tank (warrior was still raid tank)
Great interview! Would love to see a follow up if you two ever get around to it.
Amazing interview. Also, imagine being able to say you used to whoop Brad Mcquaid's ass in age of empires lol. Actual legend status.
BRAD was spot on. Hp and Mana regen is when u speak with and get to know other people!!!! Huge part of the game if not the biggest and most important!!!
Lol you people still tell yourselves that don't you? It was an artificial timesink. So was having spawns at 48 hours, it required people to stay playing and stay subscribed. That was nothing other than a business decision.
@sabbracadabra Yes keep convincing yourself that artificial time sinks were anything other than business designs to make more money. Mmhmm.
Dying and being completely naked with no gear and expected to get back to all of your stuff was enough of a difficulty challenge and penalty for going gung-ho and no-fks given. Losing experience because you died was NOTHING other than a time sink.
@sabbracadabra What a hot take. Imagine reading everything I've written and taking up a straw man argument that I've ever taken the position that everything should be easy.
Are you able to think critically?
@@anotheryoutubed Med breaks were social, and added much value to buffs like KEI and Chloro. The game had solutions. Have you ever played Terraria? The middle difficulty has corpse runs, and if you die in lava and your gear isn't fireproof... it will melt. This interesting decision makes the gameplay better. Why did people PVP in hardcore mode in diablo 2 when you loose all your gear and character dies forever? Why did WOW keep the corpse run but as a wisp when they streamlined and attempted to remove much of the complexity in systems found in EQ? The problem with the corpse runs: they didn't scale well. As the world grew, and expansions took travel time up and up and population declined, the CR did become too punishing. Eventually the ingame map became an important feature but for the original trilogy... I loved that there was no map. I think reducing the penalty was a good decision, but at times still miss it and think it was reduced too much.
I think HP and Mana regen were an important part of making the classes play together. Brad did say that he wanted people to slow down while playing the game.
Modern games could learn a lot from classic EQ's interclass dependance and slower gameplay experience. Slowing down causes people to interact with eachother, and it causes the player to focus on the journey rather than the destination. Slowing down the leveling process also forces players to stay in the same zone for longer amounts of time. A lot of players take pride in how well they know certain dungeons - myself I find it really fun to take newer players through Guk, showing them the good hunting areas and safe spots.
The game is not without its flaws - the classes are poorly balanced (enchanters are wildly overpowered, while warriors lack unique utility). The amount of time one must invest in a camp for a certain item to drop can be absurd. Leveling could also be brutal, my warrior easily took 5x as long to hit 50 as my necromancer.
Guk is such a great dungeon. There just isn't anything else like it in EQ, but maybe Chardok comes close. Guk is just so accessible, interesting, and fun to play.
This was excellent! I sat through the whole thing and there was a constant drip of good, interesting info. I didn't get to see it Live, but my QUESTION for next time would be: Who came up with Complete Heal? Did you realize it would fundamentally change the game (raiding) and would you do something different looking back? I've heard people say it 'ruined' the game and others that love it.
I'm amazed at how close in age I was to these guys when the game came out. I guess I assumed a bunch of 30-40 year olds were making this thing.
Fun Fact: I was chosen to participate in the Star Wars Galaxies beta program and I petitioned that they include the mouse steering technique used by Everquest, hold right mouse down to steer and strafe with A & D keys and with right mouse up turn left and right with A & D. They decided to include it and the rest was history, literally. I did play the game at launch for a couple weeks but kind of lost interest. Ok, enough with fun facts LOL. Brilliant interview, mesmerizing!
This was epic!
I always wanted to know if the “camp” was the standard way of playing they intended players to adopt, or if they had initially designed the game thinking players were going to just run around and dungeon crawl in order to get xp.
I'm not sure, but I'm assuming dungeon crawl. I sure loving camping though!
Don't forget to subscribe!
@@alovingrobot406 i remember seeing somewhere that it was emergent gameplay and the first occurence was in crushbone and devs were like, wtf?!
Let's get him on again !!!
man without this guy eq would not have been eq without him the 4tf wheel of holy trinity wouldnt exist
Awesome video. Thank you!
I've watched a bunch of these now and find it interesting that all the creators call them monsters and the players call them mobs.
I cycle between monsters, mobs, and NPCs. Even if some people only use the latter for non-player "characters."
44:35 Ezreal (the designer) mentioned this about Fizz in his forum posts
Monks responsible for greatest trains of all time lol
Seeing a single monk on Faydwer was like an ill omen (no relation).
The magic system of EQ is what sets it apart from the other games. The support roles are amazing.
Absolutely! We discuss this a ton on our Discord.
Thanks for the comment, and don't forget to subscribe!
P99 is my favorite game
Nice music on your channel!
@@alovingrobot406 Thanks so much! I am actually starting my journey as a game composer and developer. I have music on this channel: ua-cam.com/channels/QfcXjxadDM1-44TUd7VMqQ.html and more to come!
@@alovingrobot406 Just subbed this channel. Do you play P99 Green?
@@rossthemusicandguitarteacher yup! I have a couple of mid-level characters there.
Shareware wow haven’t heard that word since back in the early internet days 96-97ish
Legend of the Red Dragon and Usurper :D (I never got into Armageddon)
The guy who should be running Visionary Realms...
EQ 1 quests were the best any game has ever had. You didn't need better support for quests.
I'm sorry I guess I should not post real names. I knew Maso, he was a friend of mine. I recall him fondly. Even from his early days playing EQ, he always helped me out. A very kind person.
I would have loved some randomization when it comes to stats in EQ, not so much that you could end up with 50% less hp than another level 50 of the same class, but some would've been nice.
People simply would have remade their character over and over until they got good stats.
@@sterlingcampbell2116 Doesn't need to be at the beginning only, can be every single level the amount you gain is random as well. Also, there are ways to stop people from re-making characters, such as locking you out of keeping your name for instance.
Now I wanna hop back into P99 again
This is the best one.
I want to find the guy who did the voice work for getting damaged as a human. "Ughhh" "Ahhhk" Ahhh"
Circlet of Shadows :D (pre-nerf)
This discussion is amazing. Did you know John Hall? He was a part of EQ around the time you were. I think he served as a GM for a while.
54:00 is the best part
Dark souls' appeal is that you cant button mash yourself through encounters. You learn to play as the developers intended or you die and start over. And your reward is not only the satisfaction of success, but also to see and experience more of the amazing original world they made. I largely quit gaming like 10 years ago, due to lack of time and mostly a lack of interest. My first discovery of dark souls was through its art book. I found that and flipped through and was in awe of the creativity and the quality of the designs, and had to find out more, but was wary to set my expectations too high because the games industry are all hashing out the same engine with a different face. When i got my hands on a copy of dark souls, it was true joy to play something that actuslly felt new! (though really its a glorified remake of ghosts and goblins lol)
Damn Geoff, looking great my guy. Seriously would put you around 35 tops lol