The Spirit Realm

There have been ongoing pleas for a Classic EverQuest server, and the interest in such a server is now stronger than ever. As a service to both Classic EverQuest fans and to Sony Online Entertainment, a petition has been created as a tool to generate positive feedback, and to see just how strong the interest is. The petition was designed to establish that Classic EverQuest enthusiasts agree on a clear definition of what Classic EverQuest means, and to prove that there is enough interest for there to be a market for the game.

Those who long to stroll down Norrath’s well traveled paths once again are many in number, but it has remained a silent longing... until now.

How many class boards did you spam this across?

Well atleast he/she took the time needed to register, Id guess all of them as apparently the need to play in original days of EQ is a passion in their eyes. That kinda passion can change the world, or not as the case may be

Well, the word has to get out somehow, and there are a lot of people who want this type of server very strongly. I want to help them get what they want, but first they need to know that the petition even exists. I was hesitant to post on all the class boards myself, but if I did not post the message then I would be letting all those enthusiasts down after putting so much time and effort into the site. I wouldn't have thought of doing it but a prominent EQ player whose services you use recommended it, and again, the word has to get out somehow.

Posting on class forums for EverQuest may not be the most efficient way to spread the word, because the type of player that would be interested in a Classic server would likely not play anymore or visit those sites, but I did not want to post on boards for games I do not play. I'll leave that up to the other players who have played those games.

No need to because it can never be exactly like it was before and plus if there was really all this support for it then why are you the only poster supporting it?

WaringMcMarrin, I am not here to convince you that people want it, or to get you to want it. I am not here to argue with you. I do not understand why a select few argue vehemently against this idea, but there are many who do want it, and I am posting to appeal to those people. However, most of them probably have moved on to other games, which is why you do not see many other posts in support of it. I do not need to prove to you that people want this, I will let the signatures speak for themselves. To gather enough to make an impact however, the word needs to spread.

You also seem to forget the amount of dev time that would be used on this that could be better used elsewhere

I realize that it would take a lot of time to develop, and that is covered in the FAQ.

Time which takes away from what the vast majority of people want from EQ just so a few can try and play EQ with rose colored glasses on before they realize the game is much better today then what you are asking for.

I understand that there are people out there that want a Classic EQ server, but I have seen more posts on any board I have ever visited asking for the original Plane of Mischief to be reimplemented. The last I read over a year ago was that Sony was "working on" finding the zone files since they were destroyed and if they couldn't do so they were going to "try to" recreate the zone. Like I said, I read that over a year ago and I have yet to see any real update from anybody at Sony. I have not been actively checking on the status since I quit playing EQ, but I am going to take a stab in the dark and say it is not going to happen. This one zone ties into your petition for a Classic EQ server.

I think this "Classic Everquest Server" is a complete waste of time and resources. Especially resources that could be put elsewhere to benefit all EQ subscribers.

It will have a tiny population. Without a progression path it will die a death.
Progression is vitally important in EQ. Some classic server locked at kunark or velious where you stop at 60 offers no long term progression and players will become incresingly bored and leave.

Going back in time is a perfectly understandable desire (particularly if the time between THEN and NOW hasn't been good to you), and while I don't share it in this case, I see no reason to stand in their way. I would love to read why it is some people think that a Classic EQ server would be a particularly enjoyable experience (so many bad memories and carpal tunnel...), but the link the OP provided doesn't work. Kind of Ironic. I only wish the error page had said: YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED, that would be truly Old Skool

Old tradeskill combines... 9 items for Mino hero brew combine, picking each one up and putting then down in the tradeskill container then clicking combine.
Old interface with bugger all screen space for seeing things.
Staring at the spellbook.
Removing all the new quests, gear and spells. resetting the zones across norrath back - that's more zones and work that a whole expansion.
just think, boats, spending two hours running from Halas to greater fay to join your friends there.
just think no PoK type potions, no soloing for melees.
No AA's, so no Run Speed 3

The bolded point kills off the idea as suggested.

I see why there's a desire for an EQ classic server. Heck, I think I'd be one to give it a spin and go back to raiding some of the old school raid targets that I remember from my youth. However, I think i'd lose interest really quick. I would miss VP, DoTs with no DD components. I would miss all the things I can do now. That being said, I'd give it a spin though.

However, I wish to post my argument against this movement in general. You can't go back. Unfortunately, there's no time travel. We *might* be able to put the game back in place exactly as it was 9 years ago. However, you can't put the people back. That is the key. All the people I raided with all those years ago don't play anymore and I dont think a classic server would bring them back. And another reason it was fun was because it was new. None of us had seen anything like it before. Well, now its not new. You cant erase that fact that it is 9 year old content. And we put up with alot of shit back then because we didnt know any better. Can you forget all the neat stuff we have now? I think I'd have to forget how I play my shaman now to play my shaman as I did that long ago. Can you forget the 25% holiday xp bonus to go back to gaining 1 blue of xp an hour and thinking it wasnt bad? Can you spend 45 minutes running somewhere after being used to zapping just about anywhere at anytime? I would be able to if I wasnt used to zapping around these days, but I cant forget that.

That is not even getting to the massive amount of work that needs to be done to do it by the devs or any of the details. Sorry guys but you're going to have to convince me (and the EQ public in general) that it is more than a time traveling pipe-dream before much gets done on it.

When I was a kid, my game of choice was the Atari 2600. Man I would spend hours, days, weeks playing Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pitfall, etc. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and that I could play it forever and not be bored or grow tired.
My wife bought me an Atari 2600 a few Christmas ago, as I wanted to go back and relive these good times. I played it for maybe 1hr and it totally sucked and then she returned it. First the games are just down right horrible compared to what is available today and offer no challenge. And worse it lost some of the fond memories I had for it.
The original EQ was a good game, but wouldn't hold up against what I can do in today's EQ. There are very few 10 year old PC games I would pick up and play today and original EQ wouldn't be one of them.
Trying to relive the past is a waste of time and kind of pathetic.

Bigcat, there's a problem with your idea of a clean server. For one, the idea of defiant gear. The classic people want to go back to the days where +15 to any stat on gear was UBER and that +50-70hp with no other stats at all was OMG <drool>. The whole idea would be to go back to Naggy raids with only the gear that was available at that time. Or raiding Trakanon with only gear available in Kunark. Defiant gear would really screw things up I'm thinking. The challenge is part of the reason to do this, or at least it would be for me. And it wouldnt be progression server because they want to stay in the orginal content or kunark.

Here's my pipe dream for all those classic people out there. And this is probably worse than their idea for the devs Anyway, my idea would be 1 progression track per guild. What does that mean? Well, your GUILD would have to unlock the raids and zones in order to access the gear and zones. This would be exactly like a progression server, but my big problem was that things were unlocked too quick for my pace. And what was the point of raiding NToV if the top guild just unlocked PoP for everyone? You'd be able to transfer up guilds (like going from a guild at kunark to PoP) but not back down. Or maybe you can, but when you get the tag the zones will be locked and the gear will not have any stats for you (so you'd have to unequip it). That way i can be in a guild that is going at the pace that i want without having things opened automatically because of the 1 hardcore guild. And the people who want to stay in the classic only, they could as long as they dont finish off the expansion. In theory, you could stay in whatever period of time you liked best. I'm a fan of PoP, so if I could, i'd stay there. <shrugs> its a pipe dream and would be insanely hard to implement i think. And while I'm at it, I still want my damn TA

I also agree this would be a waste of time and resources. The early days seem like fun in retrospect. I expect most people will play and have tons of fun for like a month, then it would be a ghost town. Yeah I enjoyed camping Orc Hill in banded armor as much as anyone, but nowadays, gimme Paludal, I have better things to do.

Eventually people would quit it's that simple.

That said if they did another progression server (with next server release Sony mentioned) and perhaps put a time lock on each expansion release something along the lines of 4 months then I could possibly see myself playing over there for while. I love my 4 box crew at the moment but I could certainly enjoy that.

I just don't have the time/desire to run through eq like I did in the old days however. So I'd prefer to see some sort of time lock on each release although nothing to extreme.

I think the "time trial" version of progression (Combine) was super entertaining. I'd love to see them run it again with a little more forethought as to turning it into a show. Also it's a pretty cool way to send out more gnome masks / SoDs / first_win titles

Will never happen.