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1* {{Altitis}}: Playing alternate characters is commonplace for many players. It lets them play the game through different playstyles and even experience different types of content and cities that their main may not have been able to access.
2* AudienceAlienatingEra: ''Gates Of Discord'' is pretty much universally agreed to be the worst expansion, mainly because it and ''Omens Of War'' (the next expansion, which also increased the LevelCap from 65 to 70) were meant to be one expansion, but got split in two due to lack of manpower, funds etc. As such, not only is ''Gates'' really hard for it's intended level (indeed, the FinalBoss of the expansion wasn't killed until ''after'' ''Omens'' was released and raised the LevelCap), all of the zones look almost the same (with a few exceptions) and there are only about 10 different species of monsters in the zones.
3* BestKnownForTheFanservice: A lot of people knew Everquest as "that game which always has that blonde girl on the cover". In fact, SOE's decision to use the expansion's main antagonist on the box art instead of Firiona Vie may be because Everquest was getting bad press over their reliance on SexyPackaging.
4* BestLevelEver: If you played EQ, you probably had at least one zone you liked to visit on occasion just because it was ''so durn pretty''. And in [=EQ2=], not only does the same apply but you don't even have to worry about getting swamped under a mob of grey cons.
5* BrokenBase: A few examples.
6** You know those vaguely caricatured statements on how people denigrated the changes that streamlined the game? ''There are people who actually, honestly think that the level of misery the game engendered was good for it.'' This is one of the main reasons why Project 1999 and Project Quarm exist.
7*** And the funny thing is, their complaints are right in a very specific sense - back in the days of misery, you got good or you gave up. Of course, softening the games blows made it more accessible to casual players (that in and of itself bothers some people), and the calamities the old ways would have caused, such as a raid wipe in Veeshan's Peak, are no longer the kind that literally cause players to quit the game. The utter bastardry of the game also engendered a kind of camaraderie, since you were forced to work together with other players just to have a chance.
8** Several details regarding the game's first expansion, ''Ruins of Kunark'', drew a lot of ire from the player base due to what felt like forced incentive to buy the expansion.
9*** When it was first released, all of the zones from the expansion boasted an experience bonus, meaning anyone not able to travel to the expansion's areas was at a disadvantage while leveling up.
10*** The new playable race, Iksar, were seen as severely overpowered at the time. They were the only other race (besides humans) that could play as monks and they had a higher natural armor class as well as innate health regeneration, started off with maxed swimming skill and could hold their breath underwater for an extremely long time. The developers claimed that these benefits were offset by the fact that every other race would attack them on sight, but given that city factions mean practically nothing at the endgame and the fact that Iksar could easily hit the level cap without ever leaving their home continent, it wasn't much of a drawback.
11*** Another drawback stated by the developers was that Iksar couldn't wear plate armor. However, their natural AC bonus offset this somewhat, and since they got their own alternate chainmail version of the class-specific plate armors anyway, it didn't hinder anyone. They eventually tossed that idea out the window soon after anyway, and now Iksar can wear most plate armor without restriction.
12*** Lake of Ill Omen, one of the starting zones for new Iksar players, could take a player all the way from level 1 to their mid 30s, and was located adjacent to the Iksar city. Adjacent to ''that'' zone was another that could take you to the mid 40s, and within that zone was a dungeon that could take you to the level cap. It really took all of the sting out of that whole "you're hated on other continents" drawback the Iksar supposedly had.
13* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: This happened a lot, especially when it comes to zones. For example, back in the mid 2000s when grouping was still necessary, most players parked inside Paludal Caverns until they were in their mid 20s levelwise, and never budged. It's also a vicious cycle - people wanted to group and so they hung out in Paludal because all the groups were there, so more people went to Paludal, so even more of the groups were there... of course, now there are so few newbies that groups below level 90 don't really exist anymore, and [=SOE=] changes the "hot zone" semi-regularly to keep a wider assortment of zones worth exploring.
14* CompleteMonster:
15** Innoruuk is the [[GodOfEvil god of hate]] and one of four evil gods the players can follow. His [[EstablishingCharacterMoment first significant act]] is to kidnap the Elven king and queen from Takish'Hiz and subject them to 300 years of torture, until they eventually [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil turn into evil Dark Elves]], who Innoruuk uses to create the Dark Elf race, all [[DisproportionateRetribution because he was left out of the pact to create life on Norrath that the other gods made.]] As a god, he requires his followers to [[HumanSacrifice sacrifice people]] to fill his "Cauldron of Souls". He is also implied to be behind the haunting of the Estate of Unrest--a dwarf murdered everyone in the Estate, causing both him and his victims to become tormented undead. Said dwarf was apparently a NiceGuy who wouldn't harm a soul up until this point. While Innoruuk has a daughter. Lanys T'vyl, the goddess of malice and envy, at one point in the second game he has her [[OffingTheOffspring killed]] for [[YouHaveFailedMe failing him]]. At one point in ''The Planes of Power'' expansion, the Tribunal--gods of justice--even [[YouMonster point out that so many of the trials they preside over happen due to Innoruuk inspiring people to commit atrocities out of hate.]]
16** ''Omens of War'' ExpansionPack: [[EvilOverlord Overlord Mata Muram]] is the leader of the legion of vicious dragon race known as Muramites. A notorious [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave trader]], he intends to subjugate the best warriors from other races into becoming his own personal army. To that end, he used a planar creation known as Riftseekers in order to conquer and ravage as many realms as possible, one of them being the realm of Kuua, which becomes the land of bloodshed due to Mata Muram's machinations with several of the best warriors who were either brainwashed or blackmailed by Mata Muram. Despite rewarding his fiercest captains with treasures of war, he has no hesitation to replace them when they fall in the battle and it was also revealed that he used the lowest rank of the Muramites as a slave labor for Harbringer's Spire tower.
17* DifficultySpike: One of the things that's gotten more pronounced in the latter days of the game. Nowadays EQ holds your hand through your newbie days... and then suddenly kicks you in the nuts right around the time you hit level 25. In the old days, the game was happy to kick you in the nuts the second your brand-new character spawned, though, so this is actually a small improvement.
18* EnsembleDarkhorse: Fippy Darkpaw, a level six gnoll who repeatedly committed suicide by charging headlong at the gates of Qeynos (which were guarded by level 50 guards). As the joke went, "Who wants to see The Fabled Fippy Darkpaw finally hack his way into Qeynos and take revenge for all those years of torment?" Not exactly a joke, since there was a Fabled Fippy Darkpaw during an event, who managed to get inside Qeynos. Many other Fabled creatures appeared, such as Fabled Ambassor D'vinn, or Fabled Garanel Ruskiff. Fippy later reappeared in Underfoot as a raid boss, where it was revealed that his true form became more powerful every time he was felled in Qeynos.
19* FandomRivalry: ''[=EverQuest=]'' players do ''not'' like ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. Bashing [=WoW=] is a common pastime in general chat.
20* FanNickname: Even after so long since it was dominant, [=EQ=] is still known by many, fans and non-fans alike, as ''[=EverCrack=]'' and ''[=NeverRest=]''.
21* GeniusBonus: Cazic-Thule, the god of fear, is served by a race of CthulHumanoids called amygdalans. The amygdala is a part of the brain, which, among other things, allows you to feel fear an agression
22* GoddamnBats: Many monsters will attack a player regardless of how much stronger he is. Most players have experienced at least once being killed by an entire army of creatures half their level.
23* JerkassWoobie: The dragon Dozekar The Cursed is trapped in the Halls Of Testing in the Temple Of Veeshan, which is basically a place where draconic criminals are trapped and used as target practice for adventures. Not only are his ''tears'' a [[PlotCoupon quest turn in item]], one of the other dragons outright says that the HighPriest [[AndIMustScream resurrects Dozekar every time he dies, so his suffering never ends.]] Even worse, it's [[NoodleIncident never actually said what his crime was,]] although the most common fan theory is that he's the father of [[DraconicAbomination Kerafyrm.]]
24* MemeticMutation:
25** ''[=EverQuest=]'' 1 is the originator of "Ding! (Grats!)".
26** There was a quest down in Rivervale that was popular with people, and it was triggered by saying "What small favor?". Three guesses what falls under this category.
27* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
28** ''[=EverQuest=]'' is the codifier of '''''DING!'''''
29** Grats!
30* NarmCharm: most of the achievements have {{IncrediblyLamePun}}s as names, yet it's hard not to love the cheesyness of them.
31* NightmareFuel: Start with the Plane of Disease and work your way down...
32%%* QuicksandBox: Especially in the early days.
33* ScrappyMechanic: Whew.
34** Back in the old days, ''Everquest'' had "hell levels", so called because the way the experience was calculated caused certain levels to take ages to clear. Specifically, multiples of 5 starting at level 30 (so 30, 35, 40, etc...). This was removed after [=SOE=] took over from Verant Interactive and, among other changes, redid the experience mechanics. This was even more painful when the game included class-based experience penalties, which were 10% for arcane spell-casters, 20% for monks, and a whopping 40% for "hybrid" (ranger, paladin, shadow knight, and bard) classes! Combined with racial penalties, this could result in an overall experience penalty as hefty as 68%! It was not uncommon to hear of some race/class combinations (Troll Shadow Knight, anyone?) having to grind for days just to escape a hell level.
35** Trains. The provider of the page quote. Trains happen when a player or group is overwhelmed or overmatched and are forced to flee to the zone line, which the mobs cannot cross. The group of monsters that attacked them, as well as any that get picked up during the run, are the train. Trains can mean instant death to any unprepared adventurer in their path, and since the death penalty was so steep and trains were always someone else's fault... This was particularly bad for creatures that have "frenzied agro", meaning they would ''always'' attack the nearest target if the focus of their hatred moved out of range. This meant that sometimes, you'd be killed by the train even if the person responsible for it was still in the zone! Undead in particular were known for having frenzied agro mechanics. Special mention goes to Estate Of Unrest for being train hell. If you got within a certain range of any single mob in the house, you would bring the ''entire'' house down upon your group's heads. And if someone else pulled the house and trained to zone, and anyone was in the courtyard, they had to pin themselves against the walls to avoid aggro after the puller zoned.
36** Corpse Runs have been removed from the game. It used to be that if a player died, his corpse, along with all his/her weapons, armor and items, remained where he/she died. So if you died in the depths of a dungeon, retrieving your corpse was a very difficult proposition. Plus, in the old days, you could actually have your corpse decay if you couldn't get to it in a week, taking all your stuff with it. Literally many players left the game after losing a corpse in Veeshan's Peak or Kedge Keep or some other difficult dungeon.
37* TearJerker: The now obscure "Spirit of Garzicor" quest in Velious (which involves [[GhostlyGoals putting a ghost dragon's spirit to rest]] has a part where you give [[QuestGiver Oglard]] an axe that belonged to the dragon and he lets out a howl of unspeakable anguish, which the game describes as:
38-> Oglard examines the axe closely. The Wurm's eyes widen as he makes out the name of Garzicor and immediately\ raises his head to the ceiling, letting out a howl of emotional pain. Your bones shake with the screech, an image of a man in the midst of a rain of his own child's blood comes to mind, the agony is so great.
39* ThatOneBoss: Dozens of them, seriously. In an effort to make the game more challenging for the ever-increasing-in-power player base, boss mobs come equipped with debuffs of ever-increasing-nastiness.
40* ThatOneLevel:
41** Vex Thal was this when it was released. Just to reach the bosses that are the primary goal of the raid, you have to fight through hundreds of [[{{Mooks}} trash mobs]] with extremely high HP that drop nothing of value, which [[FakeLongevity serves no purpose other than to pad out how long it takes to complete the raid.]]
42** Deepest Guk is notorious for how close together the monsters are. It simply cannot be done without an Enchanter to "mez" and prevent "overpulls".
43** Pretty much any level with a zone-wide debuff. Here's looking at you, Uqua The Ocean God's Chantry.
44** The raid version of Meldrath's Majestic Mansion was reviled when it was current content due to the ludicrous amount of trash mobs in the zone, as well as ambushes from powerful mobs that would randomly occur whenever doors were opened.
45* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
46** Many, many players long, or think they long, for the days when Verant Interactive ran the game, as opposed to Sony.
47** Inverted considerably when many players attempt to relive the old days on some of the privately-run "pre-Sony" servers that emulate gameplay from the earlier years, only to give up within a few months when the rose-colored glasses come off and they realize that a lot of those "features" they enjoyed back then were really just barely tolerated because there simply wasn't anything more convenient at the time.
48* WoobieSpecies: Holy shit, the frogloks of Guk. They are a good aligned race who are only hostile to evil characters, but not only have to deal with the nearby trolls constantly trying to eat them, but in Lower Guk there is a [[ZombieApocalypse plague that has turned half their population into evil ghouls]]. Even worse, due to how [[PerpetuallyStatic Everquest works in general]], their situation is permanent and never gets any better.
49
50!!Tabletop Game
51* CompleteMonster: [[EvilSorcerer Miragul]] was an Erudite spellcaster, who wanted to study the art of {{Necromancy}}, which is considered inherently evil, and was thus banned by the mostly good-aligned Erudites. He and his followers still decided to learn Necromancy, sparking a civil war between his followers and the rest of the Erudites. Miragul eventually tired of the war and left, traveling to Everfrost Peaks and created an elaborate underground lair he dubbed Miragul's Menagerie. When he first arrived, the local Barbarians just ignored him, until he started creating an UnrealisticBlackHole that was going to turn everyone in the region into his [[NightOfTheLivingMooks undead slaves]]. The Barbarian Thalger managed to destroy it with the Spear of Fate, but Miragul survived and eventually became a [[OurLichesAreDifferent lich]]. In the Menagerie are numerous horrors, such as several people who are [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]] but [[AndIMustScream still conscious]]. While the [=PCs=] can free them, all but one are [[DrivenToMadness completely insane]], and even the sane one is mentally tormented. There's also a monk who has been trapped for ages and can only "escape" by entering a phylactery nearby; a tribe of undead petrified treants who are now evil; and "The Keening Woman", a tormented ghost who came to rescue her husband but died and became undead. Perhaps worst of all, Miragul is apparently working with Terris-Thule, the goddess of nightmares, to become a god.

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