30 captures

17 Aug 2000 - 25 Sep 2022

Jul	AUG	Jan
	17
1999	2000	2002

success

fail

About this capture

COLLECTED BY

Organization: Alexa Crawls

Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

Collection: Alexa Crawl AUG

Crawl AUG from Alexa Internet. This data is currently not publicly accessible.

TIMESTAMPS

A Monk's Tale.

Although it was quite difficult to get my bearings at first, I was able to find the house of the Ashen Order with the aid of a primitive map. I found Master Paub on the second floor, quietly contemplating the wisdom of Quelliuos The Tranquil, the deity who provides the divine inspiration for both the order I was about to adopt and my life's work.

Master Paub seemed pleasantly surprised to see me and gave me an unexpectedly warm greeting. With little ceremony, he swore me into the Order of the Ashen Hand and instructed me in its basic precepts. He could tell I was serious.

While I had joined a tranquil order, the world of Norrath is a less than peaceful place. Even between my fellow humans, strife is common, and there are a dozen intelligent races (including several types of elves, trolls, gnomes, and others) that live and die in varying states of conflict. And as many races as there are, there are even more religions questing for the souls of their followers - or those of others.

Thus, the mind and body must become a potent weapon, as both an aid to spirituality as well as a means to make the world a better place. To this end, Master Paub directed me to Velon Torresk, the trainer for new initiates.

After some basic instruction in the martial arts, Brother Velon gave me a small quest to prove my devotion. Outside the Western gates of Freeport, the world is in a state of chaos. I was instructed to bring back the fang of one of the menacing serpents of the area, a bone from the unholy dead that sometimes walk at night, and the scalp of a Deathfist Pawn, the lowliest and weakest of the orcs of Clan Deathfist.

I left the gates nervously, and almost immediately found myself faced with a rodent of unusual size. My skills were put to the test, and I was found to be worthy this time, dispatching the rat while only receiving moderate wounds. With newfound confidence, I boldly attacked more rats, my skills improving just a little each time.

But fate is not always kind, and a Deathfist Pawn spotted me and attacked. Although weak by orcish standards, he was more than a match for me. He was able to kill me before I could make it back to the protection of the city guards.

Fortunately, death is not permanent in Norrath. With some small loss of experience, I continued my training, a bit more wary this time. Eventually, after much practice, it was the Pawns who would run from me, and I was able to slay not just one, but several. Having also obtained Brother Velon's other items (all the while becoming more skilled and devoted), I returned to the Order to receive my reward: the white training sash of the initiate.

I wear that belt with pride, and I have learned a new type of round kick, but Brother Vaugn has more for me to do in this world and has assigned me a more daunting task before I can earn my yellow sash. I pray that I am worthy.

So, what can I say in this review of Everquest , a game (like Ultima ) that I could play for 200 hours and still see only a quarter of the online world, and only through the eyes of one human monk. I also long to play as a gnomish necromancer, a half-elf rogue, or perhaps a barbarian shaman.

I have played diligently (oh the sacrifices I make for you, dear readers) and while I have not mastered the game, I offer you my impressions.

Fist of all, the graphics and sound are great. The world of Norrath is in full 3D, and the graphical detail rivals the quality of the better first-person shooters out there. The difference is that anywhere from 500-2000 will be playing on your EQ server at any given time, rather than a fragfest of 8 or 12. To top it off, the graphics are far superior compared to new single-player RPGs that have come out recently, such as Lands of Lore III .

Aside from some bad server problems during the first week of release (oh, did I get lots of complaining e-mail from irate players who wanted to tell me their problems!), the Internet lag issues now seem to be solved and I rarely encountered any lag at all. The only pauses occur when you travel in-between different 'zones' of the world. Unfortunately, these 'loading times' can last a full minute or more. On the whole, however, the game is far, far less buggy than Ultima Online was when it first released. But like UO , it is very difficult and confusing when you first start.

For those of you playing Ultima now, Everquest is quite different. It is far more co-operative, and there is much less player-killing. But this comes at a price. There is also much less interaction with the environment; you cannot chop trees, mine ore, or build houses. The set of possible skills is smaller as well. Everquest is much more player oriented, while Ultima is more 'world' oriented.

Everquest feels much more like a classic D&D; style RPG. You can choose from plenty of traditional races and classes. You must specialize and form parties with complimentary characters if you want to get far. There are even quests, which was perhaps the fundamental flaw of UO (hmm . . . time to chop more trees . . . ).

As predicted, the pricing structure matches that of UO almost exactly. After purchasing Everquest , you have one month free on their servers. After that, you'll get charged $10 a month for your unlimited Visa to Norrath. A lot cheaper than visiting France.

I could go on for pages and pages, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface here. But, I hope my small story and experience in Norrath has encouraged some of you to try it out. Everquest is simply terrific, and if you have the time to spare, you should go scratch that surface yourself. Good journeys to you, and if you happen to encounter a somewhat modest monk wandering the lands, stop and say "hail" and join me for an adventure or two.