Days gone by

Yesterday, over at West Karana, Tipa made a post about EQ and EQ2 videos.  Naturally, this turned into a discussion about favorite old-school EQ1 videos.  In the aftermath, I spent a lot of time at home last night surfing around and watching old EQ1 videos which led to me scanning through all of my old EQ1 screenshots and the few EQ1 videos that I made for various reasons.

I am quite sure that everyone feels the same way about their first MMO regardless of what it is/was.  There is a definate sense of nostalgia for that first game and a feeling that really can’t be recaptured.  The first game is where most of the fondest memories come from and it is what we tend to look back on for years to come wishing that that first-time feeling could be recaptured.

I have said before that, in a lot of ways, I think it is very similar to the first time you fall in love.  Each time you fall in love, it is different.  Your past experiences have an impact, for good or ill, on all future experiences and so the way you react and respond changes every time.  Throw in a different personality with that other person and the experience is drastically different.  No matter how good future relationships are, we never forget that first love and we always hold a special place in our heart for that person.

As I was scanning my screenshots last night, I found a few that sparked particularly strong and fond memories.

The first set contained about 25 screenshots taken in The Hole.  This was my first ever raid and it was also my first time ever to enter this zone.  With every step we took, I was fascinated by everything around me.  I was snapping screenshots like mad because I wanted to capture every moment of this new and exciting experience.  Over the course of 6 or more hours, we crawled slowly through the zone stopping at several points along the way.  There was the long stop near the rats to get the drop for the SK epic.  Then, we had about 5 rangers with us ready to take on… I think his name was Jayle the Insane.  Finally, it was up to the top of the Undead Tower for the monk, shaman, and enchanter epic.

The entire journey was long and difficult back in those days.   We had a couple of wipes before finally reaching the top of the tower and ever considered calling off the raid a couple of times.  The day was full of fun, excitement and adventure though and it was my first taste of raiding.

The next grouping of screenshots were for a royals raid in Chardok.  With Chardok, I had never before been past the entrance and exit area, so I was very surprised when we delved deeper in and found a complete city.  I remember the library being a particularly nasty area and many difficult and scary moments ensued as we tried to control the massive number of mobs contained within a relatively small area.

The Plane of Growth was where I really cut my teeth as a raid leader.  I had already led a whole truckload of raids on Vox and Naggy, but Growth was to be my first long raid.  I had been up there a number of times looking around with my druid.  One day, I went up with my druid and took screenshots of every different mob type, every static camp, and every landmark that could be used.  I took those screenshots and wrote a very long zone guide for PoG using the screenshots to help.  I researched the different mobs to find out their basic forms of attack, resists, and all other information.  A week after posting my write-up, the raid was held.

It was the first of many raids I led in PoG and this was where I solidified myself as a raid leader.  I gained my confidence and the confidence of others through the research and planning that I put in and with the subsequent success of the raid.  On our third outing up to PoG, we dropped Tunare and cleared the entire zone.  Moments after Tunare died, the zone began to respawn.  I believe the respawn time was 8 hours, so that is how long it took.  By the time we left PoG behind, we were able to kill her just two hours after zoning in.

My personal favorite grouping of screenshots are of Trakanon’s lair.  Years prior to taking those screenshots, I had muddled my way to Trakanon’s lair on my guide avatar.  I had only heard of him at that point and had never even stepped foot in Sebilis.  At the time, I was working evenings and doing my guide shift in the early mornings.  Tickets were sometimes sparse, so it gave me time to roam around.  I decided one day to roam the halls of Seb.

It took me hours.  I kept getting lost and had no idea about the paths to get there.  I did eventually make it and took a screenshot of my avatar sitting beneath Trakanon’s mouth.  I figured this was the only chance I would ever have to see him.

Years later, I had been involved in several Trakanon kills, but this one was special.  This was Trakabard… for my epic.  Over the two years prior to this moment, I had led more than 100 raids for epic encounters helping friends and guildmates obtain their epics.  I had slowly worked on mine as well, but at times, I had nearly given up on it.  For days prior to this final fight, I had camped out in Seb using a questionable scouting method to watch for the Undead Bard to pop.  When he finally did, I was so excited that I nearly jumped out of my chair.

My heart dropped when I checked the guild list and saw only a couple of other people online.  One was the guild leader.  I sent her a self-pity tell saying, “Just my luck.  The undead bard finally spawns and no one is online to help.”

Minutes later, people are zoning into Seb by the dozens.  At first, I figured someone else had figured out the undead bard was up and another guild was about to go kill him.  Then, I really started to pay attention to who all was there.

There were names from a dozen or more guilds… all were friends… all were former members of my guild… all were people who I had helped get their epics or were people who had attended some of the raids that I led.  My guild leader, knowing that I would never start sending out tells to people asking for help did it herself.  So many people responded that we nearly crashed the zone.

The raid group option still had not been introduced to the game, so we just formed up groups and moved down.  More than 100 people divided into groups of 6 swept through Sebilis for the express purpose of helping me finally get my epic.  So large were our numbers that, when I spawned Trakanon, he lasted a grand total of about 4 seconds.

I sat speechless in my chair as the full scope of what had just happened sank in.  I was receiving so many tells of congratulations that there was no way for me to answer them all.  My chat window was scrolling with tells… all people congratulating me and thanking me for all the raids I had led in the past and help I had given.  For a very brief moment in time, I felt larger than life… felt that my actions actually did count for something.

I sometimes still miss those days.  I miss the days where server communities were so tight that you could make close friends from multiple guilds… where guilds would help each other out in times of need and there was none of the animosity of “we want that kill first” or “we are more uber than you.”

Those days are long gone and I learned to accept it long ago.  Still, it can be fun every once in a while to slip back in time and remember how things were that first time that you fell in love.