What's the goal?Follow

Kill, maim, destroy, loot, rinse, repeat as ubah loots required. Came from D2 myself. Was tired of killing Baal over, and over, and over. Mephisto? /laugh. Unlike D2, some mobs here require 30+ people to even attempt to take down. Abilities, Tradeskills, making fat cash, friends, socializing, and of course, to be the most ubah <insert your desired class here> on <insert choice server>.

I think that the beauty of EQ is that one sets one's own goals, and that it allows one freedom to do what makes one happy.

In my case, when I want exp, I can either group up or solo depending on how social I am feeling. When that gets old I tuck myself in front of an oven or forge or my research tome and combine away. When that gets old I find some interesting quests to do. My toons aren't 65 (or even 50) but they might get there sometime and I don't feel rushed to do so, and I've never felt like I'm missing out by not being a high-end player.

Don't underestimate the power of exploring new zones though (as long as it can be done relatively safely). I've seen some really neat stuff by just heading off on an expedition.

The goal is simple...

Have fun!

You have to set your own goals. The possibilities are mindboggling.

*Do all the quests.
*Level to 65 with all AA's
*The most uber gear
*Master at all tradeskills
*Max all your combat skills
*Bazaar your way to riches
*Max your faction with XYZ groups

The nice thing about goals is it is not important that you actually achieve them, merely that you try hard to do so. That's where you have fun, in the process of achieving the goals, not in actually making them.

Diablo2 was *all* about gear. Advance in power, to get gear. Lather, rinse, repeat. Coming from there myself, I found the easy ability to set a million long-term goals absolutely amazing and fun.

If you're not sure what to do, then I'd say level up. Many more opportunities at lvl 25 than lvl 10. You'll figure out what would be fun to do as you go.

All of the above and any other reason that you can think of...

EQ is a very diverse game. It's up to you to make of it, as you will.
For me, well I am more of a casual player. i like to log on, group with friends or starangers, bash out 3-4 hours of exp and hopefully have a fun time doing it. I also like to catch up with friends and chat.
I raid about once every two weeks, do LDoN from time to time. Never realy been to any of the high-end zones or joined a large Raiding guild and honestly winning at EQ and getting the best gear, just doesn't interest me at all.

I've been playing EQ since Sept 2000 and my highest level character ever is lvl 56. I should break the lvl 60 mark sometime in Oct 2007.

Edited, Sat Mar 13 00:07:05 2004 by lagduff

The best "goals" arise from playing the game.

Once you have been kicked in the *** by D'Vinn (Crushbone) or the ridiculuosly underconned Dorn B'Dynn (North Ro) they will make it probably on your "list" and even if you have nothing better to do you will not forget to revisit them from time to time until you can show them the difference between PC and NPC *lol*

Gear you see on other toons will make you probably have it yourself or - even better - loot it yourself from the mobs corpse. =) Which will give you motivation to collect information, visit the zone, gather people to assist you, etc.

Also you will sometimes come across a piece of gear and later on learn it's player crafted - such occacions motivated many players to learn a TS themselves in the first place.

Just be open for anything and enjoy :))

Let me answer the question this way.

The very best parts of Everquest are in places and encounters that require groups of people to work together in close co-operation and using what are sometimes very complicated strategies in order to succeed.

This has always been true, and so now some of these places and encounters can be trivialised by characters who have progressed and become very powerful, this tneds to make people think there is some sort of linear progression thing, where you must just level to 65 as fast as possible so that you can join "an elemental guild" and go to the Plane of Time. (The most recent supposed "end game"). This is not correct.

Even in Velious, a place considered "old hat" by many new players, there are still major encounters that are challenging and rewarding and huge entertainment. But even these are places and events that require the multiple groups working together in the way that I mentioned above.

For this reason the "goal" of Everquest is about developing a character that is a valuable member of a team and to work with that team to be able to take on the challenge of those special encounters.

This means building a good reputation, forming friendships and alliances that will last, developing your tactical and technical skills so that you not only are able to pull your weight in a team, but you are sought out as a valued team member.

So you can simplify it down to being all about "character development".

PS... this should not be interpreted to mean character development = equipment. Equipment is important, but it is balanced by the equal need for both character skill development and player skill development.

Some good, well though out, quite deep replies.

Thank you.

I'm finding,as you say, the more I play the more things I find to do and the more things I want to do.

Goals are self creating.

Marvellous.

Lance

Ya ******** about SOE is like the national pasttime of Norrath: everyone does it, but excessive use is passe.