Going back to EQ or EQ2 but -- which server?

SOE's new Living Legacy event seeks to lure people back to their two main EverQuest games (EverQuest Online Adventures for the PS2 and EverQuest Macintosh Edition get no love here) by using shiny new armors and abilities and super-fast leveling. Both EverQuest and EverQuest II have changed in so many fundamental ways in recent years that SOE really wants you to come back and try the games again.

Which server to play, though? Both games have many servers. Nothing like World of Warcraft's hundreds, but enough so that its not immediately obvious which one to choose. SOE has prepared a couple of pages that briefly list the servers and tell you what the odd letters next to their names mean, but in this article, we're going to try to examine servers a little more deeply, so that you can create your character knowing the sorts of people you'll find. More details -- LOTS more -- after the break.

First, any MMO is more fun if it is played with friends. If you have a friend who plays, get in touch! Find out what server they are on and make a character on that server! There is nothing more important when choosing a place to spend your time.

If you're starting fresh and don't know anyone else who plays, decide whether you would like to play in a world where your only enemies are the monsters, or one where you are in constant danger of being slaughtered by other players as well (or where you would be doing the slaughtering?). The PvP in both games is more or less tacked on -- you can't take enemy cities, there are not any instanced battlegrounds (though both games have PvP-enabled arenas), your faction is not in a war with another.

If PvP is your thing, EverQuest II has only three choices; Nagafen, Venekor and Vox. Vox is a Station Exchange server -- one in which most items and characters can be bought and sold for real money. Venekor is a roleplay-preferred server, and is fairly empty. Over the time since SOE implemented PvP in EQ2, Nagafen has become the most popular server for PvP in that game, with decent opportunities for grouping for both PvE and PvP at most levels.

Over in EverQuest, this decision is rather easy. A couple of years ago, SOE combined all four PvP servers -- Rallos Zek, Tallon Zek, Vallon Zek and Sullon Zek -- into one server called, simply, Zek. Zek is a free-for-all PvP server. Anyone can attack anyone else at any time. PvP in EverQuest has taken many hits over the years, but a strong core of PvP fans still keep the fires burning ... each other.

Tired of looking in shadows for other players? Relax. EverQuest and EverQuest II are famous for their PvE content. But you still have a decision to make. If you're someone who plays MMOs as a social experience, where relaxing and swapping stories with a drunken troll in a dockside tavern would be as much a good evening as slaughtering a legion of orcs, well, you might like to try out a roleplay server. EverQuest has just one, Firiona Vie. FV is a server with a whole list of special rules, including knowing only your racial language at the start, only being able to have one character, very little no-trade gear in the world, and many, many other rules. It's a distinctive server with a character all its own. The prices of goods in the player economy is also highly inflated, since items may be used and then sold to someone else, instead of being bound to that person forever.

EverQuest II has two roleplay servers, Antonia Bayle and Lucan D'Lere. AB is EQ2's most populated server. It also has, by far, the most events, including the annual Festival of Unity being held all this week, run entirely by players. If deep roleplay and lots of people to play and group with is your thing, you may want to make AB your new home. As EQ2's busiest server, though, any server hiccups that would be a minor inconvenience on another server, are magnified on AB. Lucan D'Lere is, by contrast, one of the least populous servers.

Want to buy or sell items and characters for cash but don't want to be ganked while doing it? Vox has a PvE companion in Station Exchange land, The Bazaar. Both Vox and Bazaar were due to have their RMT operations run by a third-party, which went live a few months ago. SOE plans to roll what they do there to many of their new games, so playing on Vox or The Bazaar is a peek into SOE's future RMT strategy.

You don't know anyone who you would like to play with, you don't want to roleplay, PvP or buy your way to power via RMT. You just want a regular, PvE server, one with lots of people to group with. You can hardly ever go wrong by logging in at the time you would want to play, and choosing the busiest server.

Both EverQuests are far more enjoyable when there are lots of players around with which to group. Sure, you might face some competition for spawns, but isn't that better than doing everything alone?

Unfortunately, EverQuest has long since stopped listing the population for each server, or grouping them by population at all, aside from one little hint: Servers listed as "Preferred" servers are lowest in population. There is a single EQ server in that section, The Combine. This was a progression server, where content was unlocked as players defeated challenges one expansion at a time. It has long since joined normal servers as far as that goes. If you play in European prime times, you will probably want to choose the Euro server, Antonius Bayle. Otherwise ... roll the dice. Every server has its own character which won't be apparent until you have spent quite some time in the game, so you may want to look at their community boards and see how active they are, how friendly the people and so on.

EverQuest II still sorts their servers by population. EQ2 also has a European server, Splitpaw, if you play on or around GMT and would like the server to be busiest when you play. Other than that, choose a server near the busy end of the spectrum, create your character and prepare for adventure (and see you in game!)