EverQuest

EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost. It was developed by Sony's 989 Studios and its early-1999 spin-off Verant Interactive. It was published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE).

Since its acquisition of Verant in late 1999, SOE develops, runs, and distributes EverQuest. EverQuest's development is ongoing, and the 17th expansion, "House of Thule", was released on October 12, 2010. EverQuest has earned numerous awards, including 1999 GameSpot Game of the Year and a 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award.

EverQuest have been drawn from text-based MUD (multi-user dungeon) games, which in turn were inspired by traditional role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. In EverQuest, players create a character (also known as an avatar, or colloquially as char or toon) by selecting one of 16 "races" in the game, which range from elves, dwarves and ogres of fantasy, to cat-people (Vah Shir), lizard-people (Iksar), and dragon-people (Drakkin). At creation, players select each characters adventuring occupation (such as a wizard, ranger, or cleric - called a class--see below for particulars), a patron deity, and starting city. Customization to the character facial appearance is available at creation (hair, hair color, face style, facial hair, facial hair color, eye color, etc.)

A Sand Giant engaging a group in the Oasis of Marr, a desert zone

Players use their character to explore the fantasy world of Norrath, fight monsters and enemies for treasure and experience points, and master trade skills. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, prestige, spells, and abilities through actions such as defeating capable opponents, looting the remains of defeated enemies and completing quests (tasks and adventures given by non-player characters (NPCs).

EverQuest allows players to interact with other people through role-play, joining player guilds, and dueling other players (in restricted situations--EQ only allows Player versus Player (PVP) combat on the PvP-specific server, specified "arena" zones and through agreed upon dueling).

The geography of the game universe consists of nearly four hundred zones.

Multiple instances of the world exist on various servers. In the past, game server populations were visible during log-in, and showed peaks of more than 3000 players per server.

The design of EverQuest, like other Massively Multiplayer Online Games, makes it very group-centric, with each player having a specific role or function within the group.

Classes

The fourteen classes of the original 1999 version of EverQuest were later expanded to include the Beastlord and Berserker classes with the Shadows of Luclin (2001) and Gates of Discord (2004) expansions, respectively.

The classes can be grouped into those that share similar characteristics that allow them to play certain types of roles within the game when grouped with others. One way of grouping classes is described below.

Tank classes

Members of this group are those that have a high number of 'health points' for their level, and who may wear heavy armor. They have the ability to taunt enemies into focusing on them, rather than other party members who may be more susceptible to damage and death.

• Warrior: the prototypical "tank" class, able to avoid and mitigate more damage than any other class. In a way, this is offset by their inability to cast spells. Warriors were often designated as main "tank" due to a discipline they receive called Defensive Stance which mitigated a percent of incoming physical damage for a set period of time.
• Shadow Knight: a durable tank class; this Warrior/Necromancer hybrid has vampiric and damage-over-time spells. Shadow Knights have the unique ability to Harm Touch (do direct damage) every 72 minutes, the power of which increases in absolute terms but decreases relative to enemies' hit points as a player levels up. Since this class is a hybrid, they must wait longer than the Necromancer to begin receiving spells, and longer yet for the more potent incantations such as Summon Corpse and Feign Death. In most cases the level difference in spell acquirement is +25-30 levels. For example a Necromancer might learn a certain spell at level 4 that a Shadow Knight is unable to learn until level 34. Eventually - Shadow Knights are able to summon a weak skeleton pet, summon players' corpses who are in the same zone as them, and cast the spell feign death, similar to the monk's feign death skill. The feign death spell allows the Shadow Knight to function as a "puller" for a group when successfully casting the spell allowing them to clear their agro list by pretending they are dead. Their necromantic abilities give them great power over the undead, making them able to do more damage to those opponents.
• Paladin: the 'virtuous' counterpart to the Shadow Knight, a Paladin is a hybrid Warrior/Cleric. They were originally able to Lay on Hands (heal themselves or another player) once every 72 minutes (real-time); Lay on Hands is now available as an innate magic through the AA window; it maxes at rank 9 and can then be further enhanced through progressing it as an AA. At mid-levels, paladins can purchase some resurrection spells. Paladins are tough in melee with some healing, protective, and stun spells. At mid-range levels, they can purchase a "pacify" line of spells that allows them to function as a "puller" for a group. Like Shadow Knights, Paladins have powers which enable them to do comparatively greater damage to undead opponents.

Damage dealers

The following classes are able to deal high corporeal damage to opponents. Within the game, these classes are often referred to as 'DPS', which stands for Damage Per Second. It must be noted that there isn't a single overall "best dps" class, as depending on many factors which vary from one encounter to another (such as the enemy's armor, its positioning, and its magic resistance), one among Berserkers, Rogues, or Wizards may be the better dealer than the other two in a specific instance.

The melee damage dealers have a medium number of hit points per level, but cannot wear the heaviest armors and are less likely than a "tank" class to be able to survive direct attacks for a sustained period of time.

• Beastlord: A unique class which combines some powers from the Monk and Shaman classes along with a powerful pet. Beastlords can imbue their pets with powers and combat enemies with hand-to-hand skills or with weapons. They can "de-buff" enemies with spells, and possess modest healing abilities. This diverse array of skills allows Beastlords to be effective solo adventurers at many levels as well as being handy in a group.
• Berserker: A specialist form of the melee type, the Berserker is primarily a medium-armored, high-damage dealer that uses two-handed weapons and who can hurl axes and other thrown objects in the form of spell-like abilities, namely stunning and snaring their opponents.
• Monk: As masters of martial arts, Monks are the hand-to-hand fighting experts who can learn to use one handed and two handed blunt weapons and are a powerful melee damage-dealer. Monks get many, if not all, combat skills (dual wield, double attack, triple attack, etc.) before any other class. Monks have the ability to feign death with a high degree of reliability and other skills that enable them to be a strong "pulling" class. They have the ability to heal themselves, with a moderate cooldown, with the ability Mend.
• Ranger: A versatile hybrid class combining some of a Warrior's ability with a Druid's spells, Rangers are able to deal large amounts of damage both from a ranged distance and in melee. Their most unusual ability is to track unseen NPCs, for which they can be used as "pullers" in outdoor zones. Rangers also have the ability to "taunt" and a "harmony" line of spells (like "pacify", but only works outdoors) which allow them to play the role of "tank" to a limited degree. They can make use of archery better than any other class, and their line of snare spells (which slows enemies' run speed) is very useful in XP groups to stop enemies from running away when seriously injured.
• Rogue: With their backstab ability, which multiplies damage done to an unguarded enemy's back, Rogues are able to inflict a very high rate of damage, if they are in a party that can keep the opponent facing away from the Rogue. Later in life, with the help of alternate advancement abilities, rogues are able to backstab opponents even when facing them. Rogues have the ability to make poisons, pick pockets, and pick locks. Their abilities early on to sneak and hide allow them to walk past both living and undead mobs without being seen.

Casters

Caster classes have the lowest hit points per level and can only wear the lightest of armors. Casters draw their power from an internal pool of mana, which takes some time to regenerate and thus demands judicious and efficient use of spells.

• Wizard: The primary nuking class; these casters are able to deal catastrophic damage to enemies over a very short time from a distance, particularly with their Manaburn skill, although the length of encounters often makes manaburn inefficient to use. Wizards have transportation spells that facilitate group travel to particular locations, including designated "safe spots" when things go bad for the whole group. Wizards direct damage spells are generally from the fire, frost, and magic schools.
• Magician: Usually referred to as Mages, Magicians are similar to the Wizard class but with noticeably less direct-damage spell power. They are able to summon strong elemental pets, viz. Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. They have the capability to conjure pet armor and weapons, food, drink, and mod rods, which allow players to convert their health into mana. Magicians can summon party members to different parts of a zone with the Call of the Hero spell, which can be helpful in raid zones. Magicians' direct damage spells are generally from the fire school of magic.
• Necromancer: These "masters of death" are able to summon, buff, and heal powerful undead pets and use poison, magic, fire, and disease damage-over-time spells^. Necromancers are able to feign death, snare enemies, and summon players' corpses in-zone. They have a combination of skills and abilities, most notably the ability to snare (make a target run/walk slowly), fear (make the target run directly away from the caster) and lifetap (heal the caster and damage the target) that allows them to function as an effective solo class.

All caster classes have the ability to 'Research', an activity where all players can make spells for use by other players. These are made using assortments of different pieces of quest material found in the game.

Crowd control / utility

These classes share the ability to keep multiple enemies from attacking the party and have the ability to increase party members' ability to regenerate mana.

• Enchanter: A caster class that has few hit points per level and can wear only the lightest forms of armor, Enchanters are crowd control experts and are the most proficient class at Charming, Stunning, and Mesmerizing enemies. They have the ability to Memory Blur an opponent (causing them to forget they were being attacked) or Pacify an opponent (making them oblivious to antagonists in the area, but which has a small chance of backfiring), both of which may be extremely useful in avoiding unwanted skirmishes. Enchanters have a wide range of utility spells, including the Clarity (AKA "crack") line of spells, which when cast on a player allows them to regenerate mana at an improved rate. In addition to being able to both increase players' rate of attack (with the Haste line of spells), and Slowing that of enemies, Enchanters may also cast Illusions on themselves and others, which may have no real benefit (other than conferring a new look) or may grant tangible benefits such as underwater breathing, flight, or a vampiric touch. Lastly, Enchanters possess the unique Rune line of spells, which creates a magical protective buffer against all forms of damage until it has been worn down. This class is also uniquely suited for the jewelcraft trade, because it is the only class able to enchant metals. It is also one of the four classes able to make spells using the spell research trade skill.
• Bard: a jack-of-all-trades class with fair melee ability, good armor, and the ability to play songs that benefit all nearby comrades, such as "crowd control" effects as well as mana and health regeneration. Bards possess the unique ability to 'fade' from their enemies memories. This makes the bard an excellent pulling class. Bards possess lesser versions of many of the special abilities of other classes. They are known for their ability early on to increase the movement speed of their party faster than any mount or movement buff. Bards can weave the effects of up to four songs at once to confer the greatest advantage to their group. Bards themselves often do not receive the full benefit of their songs, but they can still be an effective solo class at many levels, especially with their strong "kiting" proficiency. "Kiting" is a form of attack based on drawing an enemy within the caster's spell range and casting to deal damage but continually running ahead of the enemy in order to remain outside the attack range of the NPC (or PC for that matter) allowing the aggressor to deal damage without taking any damage themselves. This method, which got its name because the player drags an enemy behind them like a person flying a kite, is used by many classes but happens to be especially effective with the Bard's class. For a very long time the Bard was generally considered the most overpowered class in the game, able to originally "stack" multiple versions of "buffs" and benefit from all of them while other classes could not. The Bard is also the only class able to cast spells from items while running at the same time.

Healers

Priest classes have medium level of hit points per level and have access to healing and "buff" spells.

• Cleric: The most powerful healer in the game, and for the first few years of EverQuest the only class capable of resurrection with experience regained, and the only class with the spell Complete Heal. As the game has changed, Complete Heal has become less effective compared to the cleric's many different lines of more powerful and quicker (albeit more mana-intensive) heals. Primarily healers, the cleric also have some "death save" spells, as "Divine Intervention" and can increase spell casting haste with "Blessing of Loyalty". Clerics can wear the heaviest plate-mail type armors. Clerics are great solo classes due to the introduction of the "Vow of Valor" line of spells, which provides the cleric with increased melee damage and a high rate of self regeneration, at the cost of halving their direct heals' power.
• Druid: A priest class that can cast healing spells, teleport, snare (to slow down enemies movement rate), and moderately-powerful nuking and damage-over-time spells, as well as charming animals to use them as pets. The range of abilities allows druids to play multiple roles in a group or to solo effectively. Their heals are lesser than clerics and better than shamans, but they share some of the healing/cures spells with the shamans. The Druid hitpoint (HP) spells, the "skin" line, also includes a mana regen component, and they can cast "Flight of the Eagle", the fastest group run speed spell in the game. Druids may only wear "leather class" armors. Druids also have a number of transportation spells that allow speedy movement throughout much of the gaming world, just as wizards, but the two classes have different zones or places in the zones that they are able to teleport to. Their combined tracking and foraging skills make them excellent trade-skillers, in terms of finding various components necessary for baking, tailoring, brewing and the like. Druids can, just like shamans, resurrect (rez) other players after a fight, but with the same experienced regained as a paladin, or a lower level cleric, can rez all the time. During the fight, the shaman and druid will instead use the AA "Call of the Wild) which calls the other player back to their corpse, without any experience regained, but the corpse can be resurrected later.
• Shaman: Shamans can take many roles, and are often considered as a "utility" class. They are excellent in soloing, group and raid situations. With smaller heals than the other two classes, a shaman often has to use several skills at the same time where a cleric could simply heal right through: keeping a heal-over-time (HoT) spell at the tank, slow the enemy's rate of attack, as well as using their ordinary heals. Their buffs are both long duration buffs, which increases hitpoints (HP), agility and mitigation, and short durations buffs, which need to be recast often. The short buffs can be divided into two areas, where the first one is enhancing their group members dps, damage by second, with spells as "Champion" and the "Talisman of the Lynx" and with their epic. This works especially well on melee groups. The other short buff area is mainly directed towards tanks, "Listlessness" is cast on tanks, and when the tank gets hit, there is a chance that the monster will receive a small pre-slow, and the tank will receive a HoT on them. "Wild Growth" is a spell shamans share with the druids, and is a large HP increase during a short time. While a raiding shaman will primarily heal and increase other classes dps, a soloing shaman or a shaman in a group will use their strong damage-over-time (DoT) spells, primarily based on poison, curse and disease. Shamans, or "Shammies" may cannibalize their health to restore mana which means that they are able to keep casting their spells for much longer times than clerics or druids. They wear "chain mail" levels of armor, and can summon a pet. Because of the range of Shaman's spells, they are sometimes considered a "utility" class. Shamans are the only class able to make potions with the Alchemy skill.

History

The design and concept of EverQuest is heavily indebted to text-based MUDs, in particular DikuMUD, and as such EverQuest is considered a 3D evolution of the text MUD genre like some of the MMOs that preceded it such as Meridian 59 and The Realm Online. John Smedley, Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Bill Trost who jointly are credited with creating the world of EverQuest have repeatedly pointed to their shared experiences playing MUDs such as DIKU and TorilMUD as the inspiration for the game. Keith Parkinson created the box covers for earlier installments of EverQuest.

Development of EverQuest began in 1996 when Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA) executive John Smedley secured funding for a 3D game much like text-based MUDs following the successful launch of Meridian 59 the previous year. To implement the design Smedley hired programmers Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover who had come to Smedley's attention through their work on the single player RPG Warwizard. McQuaid soon rose through the ranks to become Executive Producer for the EverQuest franchise and emerged during development of EverQuest as a popular figure among the fan community through his in-game avatar, Aradune. Other key members of the development team included Bill Trost, who created the history, lore and major characters of Norrath (including Everquest protagonist Firiona Vie), Geoffrey "GZ" Zatkin who implemented the spell system, and artist Milo D. Cooper, who did the original character modeling in the game.

EverQuest launched with modest expectations from Sony on 16 March 1999 under its Verant Interactive brand and quickly became successful. By the end of the year, it had surpassed competitor Ultima Online in number of subscriptions. Numbers continued rising rapidly until mid-2001 when growth slowed. Sony's last reported subscription numbers were given as "more than 430,000 players" on 14 January 2004. SOE released a Mac OS X version of EverQuest in 2003, incorporating all expansions through Planes of Power. Development of the OS X version has languished since then, but the server remains up and running, supporting a small but enthusiastic user community.

In anticipation of PlayStation's launch Sony Interactive Studios America had made the decision to focus primarily on console titles under the banner 989 Studios while spinning off its sole computer title, EverQuest, which was ready to launch, to a new computer game division named Redeye (renamed Verant Interactive). Executives initially had very low expectations for EverQuest but in 2000, following the surprising continued success and unparalleled profits of EverQuest, Sony reorganized Verant Interactive into Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) with Smedley retaining control of the company.

Many of the original EverQuest team, including Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Geoffrey Zatkin had left SOE by 2002.

Subscription history

Verant from 1999 to 2001 and SOE from 2001 to 14 January 2004 issued formal statements giving some indications of the number of EQ subscriptions and peak numbers of players online at any given moment. However, most of these announcements have been archived and are available only by seeking historical copies through online "internet archives" or other sources.

Accepting both Sony's press releases and the internet archives available today as accurate, these records show a rapid rise in subscriptions to "...more than 225,000..." on 1 November 1999. Sony announced the achievement of 300,000 subscriptions on 30 October 2000. By 2 October 2001, Sony stated that there were "...over 410,000...". On 29 July 2002, Sony announced that there were "...over 430,000..." and that for the 1st time 100,000 had played simultaneously. In preparation for the Fan Faire of 2003, Sony announced on 25 September 2003, that there were "... more than 450,000..." subscriptions.

With that single exception, from 13 March 2003 until the final reference on 14 January 2004, Sony releases that contained numbers referred only to more than 430,000 subscriptions, and/or more than 118,000 simultaneous logins. This leaves the peak and current number of subscriptions for EQ to secondary sources.