FFXIV has lost it's magic

[Reslin]

I know FFXI is apparently 'ruined' (never played it; however thats what lots of people keep saying) but last I checked EQ is still running and even got another expansion recently. I never understood people who go on about how great it was while never wanting to actually touch it again.

Used to play EQ and I left after POK so did many people I know. Why? EQ focused a lot on adventure. Want to take a ship to somewhere else? It wasn't instant. You actually rode on a boat. Riding on a boat and chatting with other players was unique. Also npcs that aren't of your race could be hostile to you. As an "evil aligned" character you had to come up with interesting ways to get onto hostile boats such as using invisibility, stealth, or other means. You could buy from "good aligned" merchants by hiding your identity. There were no maps originally. You had to learn the environment to know where to go. Mobs didn't stop chasing you when you went too far. Want fast travel? Wizards and druids could provide teleports but most players charged for their services. There was economy for these services. Make said wizard angry and they could even trick you into teleporting to a very hostile/dangerous zone if you weren't careful. Death meant having to find your corpse. Didn't find it in time? It decayed causing you to lose what was on it. Traveling was dangerous but exciting. Not to mention you had to buy spells if you used spells. Some spells were only sold in certain towns. So you had to travel to these cities to purchase them. Some in hostile cities so you had to find other means to get them either working with another player who isn't hostile to purchase said spell for you or find another way to obtain them. In POK? You can buy everything.

When POK came out all of this changed. They added maps so you could see where everything was at and put pok books in every zone. No longer did you need to seek out other players in order to teleport somewhere. No longer did you have to worry about the dangers of death as you could just simply walk to the book and teleport out. No longer did you need boat rides. The sense of adventure was destroyed. That being said, I also wouldn't go back to vanilla EQ either just providing insight why some people like EQ but don't go back. There's a big clamoring with players asking for an EQ classic server. Just like there's FF11 players who want pre abyssea.