As to the items issues, and selling on Ebay, the idea is quite simple. To get some of the items in the game, you will spend 6+ hours in game waiting for a creature to spawn that maybe has a 10% chance of dropping the item you seek. This doesn''t include waiting for someone else to give up waiting for that item.
The pvp, frankly sucks....the character classes were not balanced for pvp combat, and some have a great advantage over others.
Another problem is the the amount of twinking that goes on, and also the fact that some classes will have mucho trouble even advancing from scratch. (I personally tried to advance each class by myself without monetary or equipment aid...very frustrating).
Level gain is a slow ardous process, and it invloves using the same strategy over and over again for any creature. And if you crash and die, well there goes about 5 hours of work at higher levels. In fact a bad day may set you back a wholw week or more in terms of advancement.
Question is, why worry? Well my main perogative was just to see everything in the game and explore my possibilities. If you meet the right people to hook you up, you''re set. If not, well you''re dead.
Hmm quests...let me see basically Verant wanted to replace a rare spawn for an item with a quest..result, you have to go find a rare spawn that runs faster than anyone else in the game, then get a quest to go camp some ultra rare spawns (ultra hard too), and then encumber yourself with gold and return and try to catch the rare spawn again. (Jboots anyone?).
Also I''d like to point out Verant''s sweet customer service...I politely posted on their official board to please set up some pvp rules and post them on their website and to try to resolve those item camping deals. As a result my posts got deleted by their moderator and I logged into the game to find out that I had been banned from the pvp servers for 2 weeks.
I do have to admit I had some fun initially, but it soon got turned into a tedious monotony.

While EQ is a very, very good game, I have had a very bad experience, but yet a really good experience as well...

Bad Experience:
Travelin from Kaladim to Freeport, there was some kind of bug or something, and I just fell off the ship! I was sitting on the deck, then BOOM- swimming with the fishies. As it turned out, I was able to swim over to a small mountain, but it was way too far away to see a boat, and by that time, I had lost track of where the boats took course. Anyhow, in order to relieve the stress, I ended it all and smashed my head upon the rock that I spent the night on, and was sent all the way back to Qeynos.

Good Experience-
I had this EQ marriage with my girlfriend! I got her into playing EQ. She played (in more than one way) at my house until she got her dad to buy her a computer, and then she bought EQ. Ever since, we''ve been leveling together and helping each other survive througout the harsh lands of Norrath. The wedding was really cool- lots of alcohal and duels!

All in all, EQ is probably one of the best games I have ever played. I the only real, constant bad thing about the game is that it is way too addictive! I often wish I would be coding instead of playing EQ- while playing EQ! Usually I have the case of, just fifteen more minutes. Fifteen minutes pass, and the exact same thign repeats itself. It''s a maddening circle!

GO LEAFS GO!

My baby-druid actually just hit 19, so last night I took the very long trek out of Kunark to get my Ring spells. Tried them out... moving all the way across the continent in 45 seconds is something I can definately get used to! Not to mention that I''ll never have to take that freaking 20-minute boat ride again!! hehehe.

I have GOT to stop playing and do some code this weekend. Help me, fellow addicts!

-fel

Interesting perspective anonymous, but I must say that one of the biggest reasons I play Everquest is the fact that other people cannot kill me and take my hard-earned items. The PVP is the number one reason I left UO (and is the number one reason 10 of my friends have told me they left as well). I don''t mind dying because I did something stupid (like agroing a whole bunch of ogre lords) but being killed because 5 13-year-olds with power-levelled characters decided to mob me and losing everything I am carrying is really lame. I would still be playing UO if it weren''t for that. EQ has PVP servers for people who feel they must go kill others, and has PVP flags, and even has duels. The bloodthirsty 13 year olds can kill people all they want, on their own terms. I''m going to keep my character PVP-off, so I can sit at a tunnel healing and hasting people without fear, so I can talk to people in the middle of nowhere without being ready to run like crazy when they try to kill me, so I can group up with people I don''t know and get acquainted with them without them being able to kill me, so I can take risks to kill really hard monsters without someone coming in, seeing I''m almost dead, and finishing me off, and so I can drain a good deal of my mana to heal a total stranger that needs it without the fear of him turning around and killing me because he''s a slimeball. Consider this: a PK-wannabe being unable to kill his usual 5 innocent people a night makes one person (the PK) unhappy. The PK-wannabe being able to kill his usual 5 innocent people a night makes 5 people unhappy. PVP switches are just good marketing.

-fel

pvp Switches are good marketing, and that''s all. Frankly it is an easy out for many designers to go that way, or the UO way. (IMHO The game designers didn''t really put much effort into it) The main problem I have with that kind of pvp is frankly that being on a ''blue'' server just means killing mobs, without the extra challenge pvp offers. I don''t count duels because frankly you need both ppl to consent, and what are the chances of some 13 yr old killstealer consenting to duel you?
If you choke off pvp, you are choking off an essential part of gameplay. After all c''mon a thief that can only steal from mobs? That''s bull. A balanced pvp system integrated into the game would be a lot of fun, if it was fair. And you can''t get fairness in a game based on levels. Personally some of the most fun I had was defending myself against a mob of 4 people, sending 2 of them running after I killed the other 2.
Personally my opinion (and many pvp-server players will back me on this) is that if you can''t show enough skill to protect the items that you cherish, then maybe you don''t deserve them.
I''m sure there are many unfair fights that hold against you in this, and many that exploit pvp systems (ie, mules, scouts, spies). But this is frankly a design issue, and if the designer is too inept to have some hard-coded solutions made for in-game problems, then you should ask yourself if you really want to support someone not doing his/her job.
I think the main reason many ppl still play is the addictive nature of EQ, which is frankly common in any online RPG you can get into. But once something clearly better comes out, I''m sure 80% of the population will flame EQ and jump onto the newer game. Seen it happen before

I play on Vallon-Zek, which is a PVP-Teams server. I think, that THAT is the way to play!!

GO LEAFS GO!

Why do you think it''s so terrible to let the players choose whether or not they want others to be able to kill them? I get no enjoyment whatsoever from PVP, because I love to help people and do cooperative play, and I have found the two to be dimetrically opposed. Do you have any idea how much it sucks to have just healed someone on UO who was dying (hence draining most your mana) to have them turn around and kill you? Someone who does get enjoyment from PVP can turn on their PVP flag or play a PVP server. Someone who does not (like me and most the people I play with) should have the option to choose not to interact in that manner. PVP players who complain about this are complaining because they are losing victims, not because the PVP option has been removed, because it hasn''t. How much skill in UO does it really take to kill my miner and take all the metal I just spent an hour mining and smelting? It''s not a matter of skill, it''s a matter of wanting other players to suffer for your own selfish reasons. If you enjoy killing others, feel free to turn your PVP flags on, but I should not be forced to be a potential victim. If there is no situation in which I would wish to harm another player, there should be no situation in which they should be allowed to harm me.

-fel