As for a couple of hundred thousand regular subscribers for an updated EQ, that sounds optimistic. I’m sure there would be some interest but I guess I’m wondering in what way EQ2 (and other similar style games like LOTRO) in particular fails to scratch the same itch?

I actually prefer EQ2011 to EQ1999. I love my mercenaries – the best addition to any MMO ever. All the same I’ve spent a lot more time already on Fippy Darkpaw than I planned or expected, for the simple reason that it’s just a boatload of fun. Extremely satisfying gameplay, that’s all there is to it. If someone would like to make a game with 2011 graphics and identical gameplay to EQ I think they’d have a couple of hundred thousand regular subscribers for a decade or so.

Thanks all! I don’t mind a difficult, or bad UI…..Xsyon (new) has a terrible UI and I’m managing to muddle through to give the game a chance. It just seems to be the 2-d environment of UO, but like I said I’ll give it another go.

@Sven- thanks, and welcome! I already have Pirates on my list (6). I saw Ryzon listed in MMORPG’s Under the Radar list:

(http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/36/feature/3690/Five-Under-the-Radar-MMOs.html)

Didn’t realize it was a sandbox, and I think I got fooled by the end bit when they said it closed down…..missed the ‘only to get resurrected’ bit. Will add it on, cheers.

In the early 90s, online chat rooms were just starting and it was magical. There was infinite possibility and a sense of common wonder. Nobody had done this so nobody was jaded and we were all just making it up as we went along. Several years on, the quality of the experience was notably lower and veterans recalled how good it used to be. Almost 20 years later and the bloom is gone. The chat software, the game environment, hasn’t changed much but the people have. We’ve grown up, we’re all internet veterans who know how the online world works. Virtual communities are not new; they’ve grown, faded and moved on to arise elsewhere in a new, fragile soil.

I went back to the game a couple of times over the years, but it did never lasted particularly long. Still some nice pieces in there, but also things that just feel awkward nowadays. And some of the old wilderness areas are not there anymore, because of everything that had been built.

Whenever they get their graphical/engine revamp done I might jump in again to have a look – although I suspect it might end up to be only a short visit.

I guess I want to see what makes a MMO “good”. It it just components that comprise it or something more than the sum of its parts? Seeing what the EQ community is like on the server and how we behave when forced to play together again will be really interesting too.

From time to time I feel vaguely guilty about this as people in the late nineteenth century may have done when remembering they used a Penny Black to mail a letter.

Thanks for restoring some sanity. After too much of the old school railing on why games can’t be like EQ again I do sometimes wonder if I’m mad and there’s a totally different virtual reality to the one I experienced.

I maintain it’s really a small niche audience, but hey, it’s there, may as well serve it. It will be interesting to see if it’s commercially viable.