Wow. Everquest sure was pioneering, in every rustic sense of the word.
I think I gave it a try back in the day. Had a free trial and after 45 minutes gave up trying to figure it out. When World of Warcraft came along, though... At least I didn't make The Wife a WOW widow--we played together!
WoW was much more accommodating, more friendly and handholding.
I too jumped on WoW in early 2004 and abandoned Everquest.. it amazes me that EQ is still going and producing new expansions.
I tell you it's nostalgic after almost 20 years going to these places again.
I didn't realize they were still producing new content. That is impressive.
It's funny how sometimes you just want a more challenging experience. Like, we tried Second Life for a while and the social bits were all right (mostly because we actually met a few decent funny people on there) but in terms of building or changing the avatar or even walking around... every single bit of it was difficult. And yet I know people spend significant parts of their lives in there.
I had a go at Second Life, people were buying bits of it at the time for dollars.., a strange concept as the devs can just kill the project and run for the hills!
It didn't grasp me at all, though I had American friends who loved it. Where were the monsters?
I think, in Second Life, the monsters are... within us...
Dum da dum....
We just happened to find this orientation island where a bunch of regulars hung out. A few folks from the UK, actually, and this raging ultraconservative supermarket worker from somewhere in the rural US. It was low-grade trolling and some actually decent conversation. Because The Wife and I never used voice, we were accused of being the same person. (Why were we only ever on at the same time...)
I haven't managed to find the same sense of fun on there since like 2012, though.