| I spent most of my time trading, and pissing off a lot of the people who actually worked hard for items. Having a COF and never even going to Lavastorm (let alone solusek) can make people jealous, espically since items like that were rarely traded. I had every commonly traded droppable item memorized, stats, weight, classes used, slot, price. On a good day, I could make from anywhere between 5-15k profit. (The more wealth you have, the faster you earn wealth in relationship to the average player. Buying a CoF for 200kpp and then selling it for 215kpp.) I didn't have any friends in game, since I was changing characters often to mask my identity. Someone who I underpaid from an item is less likely to deal with me in the future, hence, changing characters is the only logical option. I made the decision to start levelling my warrior up, searching for how the average gamer experienced fun in EQ.
A month later I finally got my warrior to level 40+ and I decided to see what it's like camping an item. Of course, I picked the FBSS. I didnt even need or want it for its physical value.
Not being the kind of person to quit, I camped the FBSS for 36 hours strait, and saw many go to druids who had only been grouped with us for less than half an hour and didnt even know what a FBSS was. This was back when there were 20 people waiting in line for frenzy, at least.
Finally, the frenzy spawned, and I died in the chaotic battle in the wee hours of the morning. My group members, knowing I'd been pushed to near insanity but wasnt even about to quit, let me have the FBSS on his corpse after the rez.
It felt really empty and stupid, which sums up the game rather nicely. The mystery and scaryness of guk was gone, I'd seen every corner of the dungeon. Likewise, i had seen everything the game had to offer, yet only continued to play out of some kind of compulsion. Everquest must be what it's like being a nihilist: believing in nothing, yet fullfilling ones existance because it's the only reality known to oneself. | 