This applies more to older content than today's, unfortunately, but I loved that EverQuest was like an actual, living world. It went with the high fantasy feel and kept away from cartoonish models.

It had paths laid across the land that players could follow to get around. It made the world more realistic looking and welcoming of adventure and travel into the unknown.

The trails/paths/roads through zones made it appear as though people actually traveled using them (and they very much did), and oftentimes, NPCs actually walked along them, which was pretty cool. Qeynos Hills had guards that walked along the paths AND merchants that traveled using them. It made the world life-like. I loved it. And the best part was that some of those NPCs would actually show up in zones/cities at the other end of the road.

In the cities, you would have guards that rotated shifts and patrolled the cities. NPCs moved around and did "things". Time of day would actually matter sometimes.

Even though many of us have turned off sound and music due to repetitiveness and such, something I feel that is still pretty well done is the music and sounds in zones. They fit the atmosphere and bring the zones to life. Something that comes to mind is the sounds that are played in merchant / trading areas... PoK for instance... you hear the bustling sound of people and trade. The sounds in the game set the mood well.

I would love to see the use of portals and fragmented zones toned down a bit and a return to simpler landscape and the feeling of a small city or town again. Make the world alive again. I miss that.

Well, I'm not eligible, but here's some of mine.

• Bum-rushing skeletons launch week if they held staves - a cracked staff sold for 9gp!
• Seeing a level 30 in bronze armor running around GFay launch week; he was like a god
• Heading to Freeport to meet up with a roommate, but dying to an aqua goblin at the Butcherblock docks. Then being able to get re-bound at the BBM crossroads.
• My eldest kid, 12 years ago at the age of 3, drowning my main in Dagnor's Cauldron when I went AFK. The guild laughed way too much over that one.
• One-grouping trash mobs in EToV during the Velious era
• As a high elf, becoming KOS in Felwithe thanks to Plane of Growth, then fixing said faction with wolf form and muffins in Freeport (yeah, the FP militia hated me, too)
• Watching Riohki and Beniel, who used to run E'ci old school PoHate raids, dance nekkid on Maestro's organ while we were waiting for respawn... only to have him respawn, slaughter them, and attack us. Did I mention that they were also our MT and only healer, so my guildie Grobut had to necro-heal the ST through the fight?
• Taking part in the third ring war to be completed on E'ci. The whole experience was just fantastic.
• Still being IRL friends with some of my Primal Vengeance guildies!

Keep up the great comments, everyone!

Edited, Mar 16th 2015 6:40pm by Cyliena

No matter how long I step away for, there is just something about this world that keeps calling me back. I actually cried this last time when I saw my main looking back at me from log in screen, it was like she was saying welcome home. I have tried many other games over the years and even though there are frustrations with the changes I can still loose myself in Norrath and feel like I can make a difference. Thank you for many years of fun, games and long nights of laughs.

Going to crushbone for belts and turning them in for xp was the best lol all of us low level characters teaming up to get backpacks full of belts, at the time weight was a factor so sometimes we had to literally from crushbone to deliver them, would take foreeeeeeever lol

Got a couple- First starting out on my ranger in Kelethin & meeting a fellow ranger who helped me get my toon stronger. The other time much further in level - raiding with a good bunch of people to complete the task that was ahead of us.

Being a wee monk fighting the masses for any scrap of experience in Qeynos Hills only to find a mob, killing it to under 20 percent life when BAM! you either 1) get killed by Holly Windstalker or 2) Guard Nash KoS's your mob.

I also not so fondly remember the runs back from Qeynos (bindpoint) to original Cazic-Thule hoping no one killed the rubicite dropping name that your group had been waiting on for 4 hours. Although, those runs do have a special place in my memories.

I started my adventure on Bristlebane as a baby monk running through a new and amazing place.
The need to explore caught me so off I went. My home city, the vast and rugged Cabilis. I ventured around the zone looking at all of the wonderful merchants and camps.

After poking around for some time I found my way into a Guild, I looked around for a bit and before I knew it I was at the bottom of a pit with what looked like no way out! There I was trapped and shouting for aid!
"/shout Help! Is there a GM that can help me???"
Minutes later...
"/shout Someone please help me.. I'm stuck!"
~Player shouts: What's up?
Finally a reply! After shouting back and forth with this mysterious person I found myself embarrassed and /facepalming..
I was stuck at the bottom of a guild in a round room.. However I did not know there was a fake wall in the room..
The stranger informed me of this hidden exit and I was out in a flash!

I continued to chat with my savior and in no time we were friends.
This was over 10 years ago and we are still friends to this day. Both playing the game we love and enjoying the trip down memory lane with a smile and a laugh when Cabilis is brought up.

So many days of orcs in tunnel between the Karanas. The scary *** lions in the plains, trying to get from Qeynos to Freeport for the first time. DAMN GRIFFINS.

Good times, good times. :)

it has always been and will always be a way to connect with my son. He is always saying you know a druid isn't a tank right................... LOL

Back in the day, I was hungry for platinum and I figured out that rats in Freeport dropped rat tails which sold for 1 plat and some change. I would try to kill all the rats I could find. I also loved doing LDoN adventures when they were still popular.

I miss when D'vinn would camp near the zoneline in crushbone .... and then, in later years, firebombing the whole zone for revenge. :)

Nowadays, it seems weird that so many zonelines were created with right angle tunnels .... but back then, the game was so dark it really helped you know you were close, and then could have a 3 minute break while the next zone loaded up.

There are lots of reasons to love EQ, but i have a reason that is beyond the scope of just gaming and entertainment. a reason that will keep love in my heart for EQ for the rest of my natural life.
a very close friend of mine, someone i love very much drug me kicking and screaming into the world of norrath in dec. 2001. she was living with my wife and i because she needed someplace to go after the end of a very very bad marriage to a very very bad man. through EQ, she met a guy 4 states away, and they got as freindly as you can get over the internet. they eventually decided to meet someplace in the middle.

that was 14 years ago now, and she is as happy as she has ever been. she moved several hundred miles away to live with this great guy, and because of it she's had the opportunity to back to school and is now working in a job that makes her so happy it's annoy to the rest of us.

i've made a few friends in EQ, one very remarkable friendship even, because of EQ, but above the love of friends that *I* have found, the one thing that will keep me loving Everquest always is that EQ was instrumental in delivering someone that i love very much what she describes as 'a damned near perfect life'.

so, that's my something i love about EverQuest - it has the potential to create lasting friendships, and it has the potential to bring two people together who fit perfectly, who never would have met otherwise.

Free fun for the whole family!