EverQuest 2 to add epic quests; bad memories of EQ1 epics come back
As Dan O'Halloran mentions in his write-up of the new EverQuest 2 expansion, Rise of Kunark. epic quests are coming to EQ2. If you played EverQuest, this could cause you to roll your eyes and exclaim, "Oh, no. Not this crap again!"
This is likely to spark some debate, but I think epics rank high on the list of "Worst ideas in EverQuest." People felt a sense of entitlement to the damn things. It wasn't uncommon for people to cause guild strife getting the fool thing, only to quit their "fun" guild and join the uber guild that smartly required people to already have the items so they didn't go through all that malarky. Not that I'm bitter about it. mind you.
It was the Cleric "click stick" epic that broke many guilds and player's spirits. EverQuest had a hefty experience point loss on death. The Cleric epic was a mana-less, instant-cast stick that gave you 100% of the xp back. [Edit: I stand corrected, it is indeed 96%. That's what I get for trusting my memory. What's 4% amongst friends?] If memory serves me right, it was also the only class epic that ended up being a have-to-get.
Originally, the Cleric epic required one horrifically long camp of Ragefire. The cleric had to sit there, wait for him to spawn, and then put out a call to all of his or hers guildies to stop what were they doing and come help kill him. This needed to be done before the other clerics camping him got their forces mobilized. It was not uncommon for people to give out real life contact info for when he spawned. This lead to a humorous story about what a guildie of mine was doing when the call went out. I'm willing to admit the following story may be a snow job, but it's still funny when you think of what games "make" us do.
Hottentot, our resident affectionately grumpy Druid, had given out his pager number. When the call went out, Hott was, well, doing that activity a man likes to do with his wife. Nudge, nudge, wink wink, say no more, say no more. Not that you need to be a man and wife to do that. Hott just happened to be married. He also stopped the activity he was performing to go kill Ragefire. Coitus interruptus, indeed. The fool even admitted to it on the guild boards. Amazingly, hits wife didn't cause bodily injury upon his person.
What's your fear with EQ2 epics, and what good EverQuest epic stories do you have?
