Brad McQuaid Site Updated

[Drave]

Originally Posted by Ancalagon

In sum, saying all that was right with EQ was unintended is being far too jaded.

Some say that "pulling" was unintended... and designers (of many other games) have since gone through great lengths to stop pulling/splitting mobs. (Yes, I'm aware of both sides of the argument.)

However, imho, it's damn shame to kill it. It was one of the ways players had a chance to demonstrate skill (or the lack there of).

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

Here's where I find fault with this sort of thread (In addition to the lame ass drug jokes).
EQ did NOT have a lot of awful ideas that should have never made it, none. There were some design flaws, some tech issues, bugs for sure, exploits? Yep.

But for what it was, when it was, it was 'perfect' to us. We had no barometer, nothing to go off of, and that in and of itself takes HUGE balls and HUGE vision.

Say what you want about his post EQ career, I didn't follow him much and never met him until right before VG launch. At that point I felt sorry for him because I was looking at a person who was on the precipice, and burnt out in ways I hope I never experience.

But what he did, and they did, with EQ was genre/industry changing in ways no one here, including me, had even a smidgen of talent to know or create.

I tip my hat to him and his team for creating one of my all time favorite gaming experiences, because like many of you no matter what I play or when I'll always have the 'man I remember Blackburrow....." to hang on to.

What the fuck are you smoking dude?

It was not "perfect to us". Maybe if you were a class that was overpowered or well off you might have seen it in that light, but I played a Ranger.

And do you know what Rangers did? We bitched about how fucking stupid and shitty the class was and we bitched constantly. I bitched so fucking much about how terrible shit was. There was many bad and horrible things wrong with that game and we constantly pointed them - be it terrible classes or terrible mechanics.

Shit, the only reason most of us enjoyed the game at all was because we either smoked weed from sunrise to sunset or because we were alcoholics with access to prescription drugs.

[Kuro]

If Gnomes could have been Rangers, the perfect Death Touch Sacrifice would have been born.

[Ngruk]

Originally Posted by Sean

" We bitched about how fucking stupid and shitty the class was and we bitched constantly. I bitched so fucking much about how terrible shit was. There was many bad and horrible things wrong with that game and we constantly pointed them - be it terrible classes or terrible mechanics.

Yet you played, and played and played and played, and didn't stop playing until EQ2 or WoW. It might have 'sucked' or been 'shitty' looking back, but it sure as hell wasn't when it came out.

It was a blast to play, a total blast. I can remember my RotWF, that damn Raster camp (which btw now a days would elicit 1-2 million CS complaints a day) I can remember my first Naggy raid, I can remember Guk, damn, I can remember all of it. I don't remember hating any part of it. I do remember going back after the fact, after my EQ2 and WoW days, DAoC, and more and thinking, wow, that sucked!

Sort of like catching 10 minutes of "Top Gun" now, and watching it, and the entire time thinking "At no point in man kinds history could ANYONE EVER consider the acting in the movie to be even REMOTELY worth 2 seconds of my time, or a penny of my money"

But I'll be damned if I didn't hang out with a buttload of people that at one time or another called someone they liked "Goose" or "Maverick", and it was cool.

That's sad in ways I cannot describe.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

Fair enough. VG, like a lot of MMO's in recent memory, suffered from having a handful of good idea's drowning in a sea of shit. Things like virtues in LOTRO, AP in WAR, auto-loot in Spellborn, etc...

Diplomacy was one of those things where if they had pulled it off, it would have been pretty tits and I liked how it eventually evolved. It's just a shame it never went anywhere.

all to do with how the fucking game engine was. Its beyond repair. They went to far with making graphics loook good on highest settings. They should have settled in the midde. Graphics were just to much. THey look really really good in very high settings, but you just cant take it there yet no matter what kind of computer you have and expect it not to hitch to hell and back. haha

We all discussed this shit to death though.

I dont wish no ill will on some people and i wont make fun of someone that has had a drug problem. I been there myself when i was young. Shit isnt easy to overcome. Anyways, we will see what happens, i think we all know he's going to bust out over here sooner or later. In one of his last messages to me pm's anyways, he said he's taking a break but he will be back here. haha

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

Yet you played, and played and played and played, and didn't stop playing until EQ2 or WoW. It might have 'sucked' or been 'shitty' looking back, but it sure as hell wasn't when it came out.

It was a blast to play, a total blast. I can remember my RotWF, that damn Raster camp (which btw now a days would elicit 1-2 million CS complaints a day) I can remember my first Naggy raid, I can remember Guk, damn, I can remember all of it. I don't remember hating any part of it. I do remember going back after the fact, after my EQ2 and WoW days, DAoC, and more and thinking, wow, that sucked!

Sort of like catching 10 minutes of "Top Gun" now, and watching it, and the entire time thinking "At no point in man kinds history could ANYONE EVER consider the acting in the movie to be even REMOTELY worth 2 seconds of my time, or a penny of my money"

But I'll be damned if I didn't hang out with a buttload of people that at one time or another called someone they liked "Goose" or "Maverick", and it was cool.

That's sad in ways I cannot describe.

Dude, I was smoking weed sunrise to sunset and had nothing better to do. No exaggeration. It's the only reason I put up with that shit. I sure as fuck would not have put up with it while sober.

[Araxen]

Brad to his credit did admit they should have scaled back on the graphics and that it was a mistake among other things.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

Yet you played, and played and played and played, and didn't stop playing until EQ2 or WoW. It might have 'sucked' or been 'shitty' looking back, but it sure as hell wasn't when it came out.

It was a blast to play, a total blast. I can remember my RotWF, that damn Raster camp (which btw now a days would elicit 1-2 million CS complaints a day) I can remember my first Naggy raid, I can remember Guk, damn, I can remember all of it. I don't remember hating any part of it. I do remember going back after the fact, after my EQ2 and WoW days, DAoC, and more and thinking, wow, that sucked!

Sort of like catching 10 minutes of "Top Gun" now, and watching it, and the entire time thinking "At no point in man kinds history could ANYONE EVER consider the acting in the movie to be even REMOTELY worth 2 seconds of my time, or a penny of my money"

But I'll be damned if I didn't hang out with a buttload of people that at one time or another called someone they liked "Goose" or "Maverick", and it was cool.

That's sad in ways I cannot describe.

haha, you do have a point there. Damned good one. If i see something that kills the game for me, i am done. Cut my losses and move on. I just did this recently with a game i invested to much time on. Once i seen stuff was not going to be fixed i packed my bags and bye. I be damned if i am going to pay for something that makes me that upset to the point where i lose the fun in it.

[Tobin]

She's lost...no she hasn't... I hate it when she does that.

Yeah, I have nothing to add.

[Peon-Leon]

Originally Posted by Tobin

She's lost...no she hasn't... I hate it when she does that.

Yeah, I have nothing to add.

You waited 3 years for that?

[Tobin]

Originally Posted by Peon-Leon

You waited 3 years for that?

Dude, I loved Top Gun.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

Yet you played, and played and played

I don't think many of us were overly conscious of it. It was more of a push button-receive bacon kinda experience, though the bacon dispenser was broken and would sometimes instead eject hot glue into our waiting hands intead.

1999 was kinda slow on RPG's that year (I think Planescape Torment was pretty much the only one released that year of any notable quality) as well so it's not like we had much better to do. Meridian 59 had even worse game mechanics if you can imagine that.

Couple that with 90% of us were guilded with stoners, college kids, college kids who were stoners, bored housewives, and bored housewives who were stoners and you can see how most people would look past the terrible gameplay.

Ultimately, and I've said this before, you can tolerate almost anything if you like the people you play with. In fact, terribleness is one of the things we can even appreciate when we're with friends. Spending two hours with a friend laughing and pointing out how terrible the Dungeons and Dragons movie was was fun, even if the movie was terrible and I sat through the entire goddamn thing.

If I had gone alone I probably would have walked out after about 15 minutes, if that.

[Bongk]

Originally Posted by Sean

Dude, I was smoking weed sunrise to sunset and had nothing better to do. No exaggeration. It's the only reason I put up with that shit. I sure as fuck would not have put up with it while sober.

you are definately not the picture of the average EQ gamer either though. EQ msot definately had issues but what game doesn't?

It really did not have any other game to look to for mistakes either, UO and the such were far to different gameplay wise.

While playin on SoD recently from MMOg boredom I realized something that msot here will not agree with but... I prefer the group, camp, grind gameplay design far moreso than quest driven solo leveling.

I tried Runes of Magic last week and while it is an "ok" game, I cannot do the whole solo 90% of your online gaming time and just follow the quests gameplay type anymore.

The only thing that sucks with grouping intended to level games is when you can't get a damn group!

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Bongk

you are definately not the picture of the average EQ gamer either though. EQ msot definately had issues but what game doesn't?

Dude, I don't know about your guild, but most guilds I knew were full of almost nothing but stoners, alcoholics, drug addicts, and really, really stupid girls (with rare exception, hi Rav!) and maybe, just maybe a couple normal people.

Thems some strong rose-colored glasses people wore.

[Bongk]

Originally Posted by Sean

Dude, I don't know about your guild, but most guilds I knew were full of almost nothing but stoners, alcoholics, drug addicts, and really, really stupid girls (with rare exception, hi Rav!) and maybe, just maybe a couple normal people.

Thems some strong rose-colored glasses people wore.

Oh I agree with that, but I cant play WoW unless high either. I was referring more to your problems with balance and the such being so cutting edge on content.