Greatest MMO features that somehow never got copied

[squong]

"EverQuest:
Vendors storing stuff sold to them, allowing other players to buy them back."

WoW uses that, just a fyi

[ziggyholiday]

Originally Posted by squong

"EverQuest:
Vendors storing stuff sold to them, allowing other players to buy them back."

WoW uses that, just a fyi

No, they don't. WoW allows you to buy back the last 12 items you sold to them. EQ allowed you to buy back anything and everything that was sold to them, including items that another player sold to the vendor.

[Elsebet]

So many of mine have been mentioned already, but...

EQ
Merchants having different theme music when during interaction
Vendors showing other player's sold items
Fun spells/items like "Whirl 'til you hurl" and Illusion masks

DAoC
RvR system

FFXI
Job system
Auction House

LoTR/EQ2
Deeds (well this one is newer, hopefully someone copies it) from LOTR and collection quests from EQ2 - similar feature

CoH/EQ2
Mentoring/Sidekick

UO
Housing

Anarchy Online
Missions

Horizons
Small run speed buff when using roads. :P

[Sunder]

DAoC
RvR system

Seconded. The rest of the game wasn't all that great, but the concept of certain areas being able to change ownership along with the relics giving bonuses was just spectacular. This needs to be copied into another game with better PvP mechanics.

[TheOkapi]

Originally Posted by Elsebet

EQ
Illusion masks

This x10000. As a former EQ rogue, I'm STILL an illusion whore. They are few and far between in WoW, and none are as cool, nor the status symbol that the illusion masks were in EQ.

[Cuppycake]

Originally Posted by Venjenz

whole zones underwater

Um, DIAF.

My vote is for casting while on horseback =)

And EQ2 mentor system and appearance tabs, like others have said.

[Zeste]

Originally Posted by Grizzlebeard

Vanilla EQ: The "sword on the ground" or "follow the clouds" trick for directions.

The fact that maps in early EQ were so woefully useless and direction sense was a skill that could lead you in completely the wrong direction if it wasn't levelled actually forced the players into learning every nook and cranny of a zone. In doing so you couldn't help but feel a sense of immersion in the world. Sadly, that would never wash now in the era of piss-easy transport but I still remember running around Greater Faydark spamming the fuck out of direction sense and /loc.

I have to agree with this. It was less so by the time I quit in 2003, but back in 99, I still remember the zones like the back of my hand.

Starting a high elf, the faydark and butcherblock were my first real experiences with having to recognize the zone landmarks and keep my sense of direction. Got even better in Kunark. As far as zones and a sense of "being there" go, I still remember Burning Woods (where'd it go?), Frontier Mountains, Dreadlands. It was serious business, since in EQ you died more crossing zones than anything else, especially in the beginning since we all wanted to explore but weren't quite high enough and gear sucked.

[Man0warr]

My first character in EQ in march 99 was a DE necro, it took me 3 days to find my way out of 3rd gate and into nektulos. I've still got my old binder with EQAtlas maps somewhere...

[findar]

Originally Posted by Man0warr

My first character in EQ in march 99 was a DE necro, it took me 3 days to find my way out of 3rd gate and into nektulos. I've still got my old binder with EQAtlas maps somewhere...

try being a human paladin starting in freeport. with an old monitor. at night. nothing is scarier then a black bear in ec coming out of nowhere with the sound on.

[Draz]

Or a Human monk in East Commonlands with no way to see, equipping fire beetles eyes in off hand slot so you could atleast see easier. Or bugging the ever living fuck out of every wizard you saw to make you the ultravison necklace. Then leaving corpses around with the necklace on it, so you could always see. Man being a human sucked back then hah.

[Grave]

While I can't necessarily agree that I'd like to see a return of the days of sense heading and /loc, I do think EQ benefited from greater immersion due to the lack of maps and not everything being spelled out for you. It would be nice to see that return in some other way.

On a similar note, I wrote a small piece in my blog about "mystery quests" a couple of days ago, and if I had to choose something that I wish would be copied from the old days, it would definitely be that. By mystery quests, I mean the EQ style quests where you had only a vague idea as to what the NPC was even talking about, and it took whole communities weeks just to find the next step.

Now, I'm not saying I want all quests to be like that, in the modern age of MMOs it obviously wouldn't work, nor should it. However, we've seen a total abandonment of any sort of mystery now in favor of quest logs, map markers and in the case of WoW even a QuestHelper addon which basically just does the quest for you.

I would like to see a few quests sprinkled here and there that reward the type of gamer who wants to solve a puzzle, is willing to explore every nook and cranny, delve into the lore to look for clues, etc. It wouldn't have to be as frustrating or impossible as some of the old EQ quests, but at least it would allow for a more engrossing and challenging experience than the quests we're seeing now.

[Jaded]

This x10000. As a former EQ rogue, I'm STILL an illusion whore. They are few and far between in WoW, and none are as cool, nor the status symbol that the illusion masks were in EQ.

The only reason the guise was a status symbol in EQ is because they fucked up and made it clickable from your inventory and had to fix it without pissing a bunch of people off.

Having said that, I really do wish they'd add some more in VG. I mean, if you're going to have one you might as well have a few others right?

[Sunder]

Originally Posted by Grave

While I can't necessarily agree that I'd like to see a return of the days of sense heading and /loc, I do think EQ benefited from greater immersion due to the lack of maps and not everything being spelled out for you. It would be nice to see that return in some other way.

On a similar note, I wrote a small piece in my blog about "mystery quests" a couple of days ago, and if I had to choose something that I wish would be copied from the old days, it would definitely be that. By mystery quests, I mean the EQ style quests where you had only a vague idea as to what the NPC was even talking about, and it took whole communities weeks just to find the next step.

Now, I'm not saying I want all quests to be like that, in the modern age of MMOs it obviously wouldn't work, nor should it. However, we've seen a total abandonment of any sort of mystery now in favor of quest logs, map markers and in the case of WoW even a QuestHelper addon which basically just does the quest for you.

I would like to see a few quests sprinkled here and there that reward the type of gamer who wants to solve a puzzle, is willing to explore every nook and cranny, delve into the lore to look for clues, etc. It wouldn't have to be as frustrating or impossible as some of the old EQ quests, but at least it would allow for a more engrossing and challenging experience than the quests we're seeing now.

OMG. A reasonable approach to some old EQ ideas without completely ignoring the excellent advancements in gameplay by recent MMO's and the gouge-my-eyes-out-with-a-spoon drudgery that made the EQ version absolutely horrible gameplay. Get the fuck out of this forum, sir. You obviously do not belong here!

Something else from the days of UO I thought of: player-made trapped chests. Good times had with those things, let me tell you.

[Inconsiderable]

Neocron
Housing (Best housing possible outside of empire-building-pvp-games)
Faction / PvP System

WoW
Quality of the game. Worth calling it a feature as no other MMOs seem to have it.

UO
Mounted combat (its there, but too rare)

[TheOkapi]

Originally Posted by Jaded

The only reason the guise was a status symbol in EQ is because they fucked up and made it clickable from your inventory and had to fix it without pissing a bunch of people off.

Having said that, I really do wish they'd add some more in VG. I mean, if you're going to have one you might as well have a few others right?

I was really more speaking of the other masks, not the the DE mask, which everyone had. The only mask I didn't get was the dwarf mask from Sleeper's Tomb, and that's only because I lost the roll. I had halfling, gnome, iksar, va-shir, half elf, high elf, barb, and erudite masks. Never got the AoN, either, but that wasn't a mask.