EverQuest

Choreographed forty-person encounters: the only real orchestra the medium has.

Released 1999 Developer Verant Interactive Publisher Sony Online Entertainment Platform PC Genre MMORPG Era The 3D rupture Website everquest.com ↗

Mechanics this game introduced

These are recorded as first appearing here. Each links to a full history of where the idea went next.

Combat & Conflict · 1999

Ability Cooldown Economy

An ability cooldown economy gates powers by time rather than by a resource pool, so each skill returns after a fixed w…

Origin: EverQuest

Multiplayer & Social · 1999

Coordinated Raid Encounters

Coordinated raid encounters are large scripted fights that require dozens of players to execute assigned roles in sequ…

Origin: EverQuest

Mechanics it built on

Ideas EverQuest inherited rather than invented — each traceable back through the ontology to a root.

Experience Points and Levels ~~1980~~Character Classes ~~1981~~True Polygonal Free-Look Space ~~1996~~Persistent Shared World ~~1997~~Player Guilds and Clans ~~1997~~

Descends from

Ultima Online ~~1997~~

Directly influenced

World of Warcraft ~~2004~~

Look this game up elsewhere

Official site ↗Steam ↗Wikipedia ↗MobyGames ↗IGDB ↗Giant Bomb ↗

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