Sony have made a few of their games free-to-play (or freemium, if you like). One of which is Everquest 1. I played EQ1 between a little while after it came out in 1999 to about 2004 before I returned to Australia. Back then, it was about the only MMO worth playing, and for a while, it had no real competition. Anarchy Online could’ve trumped it, but never did.
The game was exceedingly addictive. Your every waking moment was devoted to it. Even at work, I was pining for the moment knock-off time came around and I could go home and get stuck into it. Gratefully, no game since has been anywhere near as compelling and captivating and trust me when I tell you that’s a good thing.
I downloaded it the other day (weekend of 9-10 June) and logged into the mule account the wife and I kept (I can’t remember the username or password I used for my main account). This is what I first saw:
Talk about 8-bit. It’s just old, and I don’t mean that in any particular positive way either. There’s been too much water under the bridge.
More pictures here.