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Everquest Journal One
Waiting for the boat to arrive was somewhat exciting because the Freeport docks were the only way to get to Faydwer so travellers from all over would gather. Regrettably like most players, as I played EQ over the years, the joy of taking the boat decreased exponentially. As the game advanced, the crowd at the docks would consist mostly of people going to Ocean of Tears or newbies unable to successfully beg for a teleport.
There was a wide assortment of other players waiting to take the boat. Elves and dwarves heading home to train. Halflings were there setting out on adventure like my group. Many of them there were interested in me and my dark elf friend. They thought we were invading the island. PVP wasn't fully understood in the game back then. Most people saw the server wide duel messages though. Usually two people who thought they were being clever by calling themselves Beavis and Buhthead. Once the boat arrived and we climbed on board I wrongfully assumed it would be smooth sailing.
Red Sky in The Morning, Sailor Take Warning
In the back of my mind I was aware that as a dark elf I would be killed on sight by NPCs, but I never had a real problem with it. Most NPCs that weren't meant to be killed for XP were just dubious to me, meaning they wouldn't talk to me, but they wouldn't attack me either. However, the bitch elf on the docks at the first island in the Ocean of Tears was plenty aggressive to me. I didn't even know that NPC existed, so I wasn't hiding when we pulled up to port. Suddenly I see an NPC spamming their iniate attack message, usually something inane like 'It was dark elves like you who ruined your own land, you won't ruin mine'. Once you play Everquest for awhile you have a pavlonian response to NPC attack spam. It makes you tense up and flinch because its usually followed by death. To add insult to injury, I died on the boat. My friends could only watch helpfully as my body slid off the backside and sank into the grimy depths of the ocean. Now I was naked with XP loss on the docks of Freeport. To any game designer who would even consider copying Everquest, just think to yourself how you'd like to suddenly be ganked by an NPC you had no idea would storm onto a boat screaming like a banshee punch you twice and swatting you dead like a gnat. Then you are suddenly alone and naked with no idea what just happen. Unless its called Sadomaschist Online, that sucks. Verant did wise up after a couple years, before I quit, they had made it so anyone on the boat was neutral to any NPC not on the boat.
I paged a Gamemaster(GM) because my body was at the bottom of the ocean and I had no idea how to find it. The GM who assisted me teleported me to Sister Island then retrieved my body. Grateful I was, with my friends I was not. Since I was stuck on an island with lots of bloodthirsty woodelves between me and the docks, I had no choice but to gate back to freeport and wait for the boat and try again. Essentially what started out to be an adventerous day has resulted in about 3 hours of wasted time all because of high level npcs in areas frequented by low level players. Not to mention that my friends are in Greater Faydark waiting on me to finally arrive. Once I got back on the boat, I hid below decks the entire journey. So instead of getting to watch the scenery pass around me, I can only stare at a wall of liqour.
Navigating Butcherblock mountains wasn't much fun for an Inkie either. There are tons of dwarf guards with axes all with an appetite for dark elf blood. It probably took me an hour even with directions from my friends, how to locate the zone into Greater Faydark. I had to backtrack several times to avoid being sliced and diced. It didn't help either that newbie dwarfs wanted to train me with their guards either. Of course it can be confusing to a player unfamiliar with Everquest to understand you aren't suppose to cause injury to other players even if they are considered an in game enemy. Still to this day, I don't quite understand the need for factions on the PVE servers of EQ because there are no differences between dark elf and a high elf actions in EQ.
With Everquest being in its infancy, Greater Faydark was 10x more annoying than it is now. You commonly saw the following phrases every 5 minutes, 'Wheres my corpse? Elfplayer01 is a KS'er! Selling rusty sword. Where is crushbone? Train to lift!'.
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