I started playing a game called EverQuest way back in January 2002 because my cousin was addicted to playing it, and I guess he just really wanted me to play it too because at the time we were reconnecting, and I think he just wanted to get me into something he was into. So, for Christmas 2001, he bought me the base game at Fry’s Electronics in Burbank. I came home from my visit, and I didn’t install it immediately. I installed it a couple days after New Year’s Day in 2002 and I believe there was a free trial, so I tried that, and I just didn’t get this game. I don’t know what it was about it, it just didn’t click for me. When the trial was about to end, I came back to give it another try and I actually started to like it, so I paid for a month and figured I would just try it out for a little while, and then the addiction hit and I played this game until 2008, but continued paying for it until 2009.

The reason I quit playing was because I had become so bored with the repetitiveness of the game. I was literally playing this game all day and ignoring everyone around me. I would stop playing just to watch my shows, and to eat food and to go to the occasional movies and whatever. But then I would go right back to playing. The guild I was in was pretty much a raiding guild, so I was expected to be in the game every day at a certain time to support other guild members who needed to do their epic quest or progression or whatever it was they needed to do. I would occasionally get support for myself for my epic quests, so I couldn’t expect anyone to help me unless I was going to help them, and that meant I had to help everyone else with their thing if I wanted their help with my thing.

Around the time when I quit playing, they had introduced new expansions and they were slowing my computer down so much that I wasn’t able to play as much. There was too much lag and in some cases the lag was so huge that the game would crash as soon as I got back into the game. I had to click a button in the character selection screen to send my character back to their hometown just to be able to get back into the game. I don’t see that option anymore, but I don’t think I need that option now anyway.

My character is level 85, but I believe he was level 65 which was the maximum level before I quit, and I think what had happened was they added a feature with a new expansion that allowed me to upgrade my character to level 85 for free, and in fact I had upgraded 3 characters to level 85. I upgraded my wizard, my warrior and my shaman. All 3 of those characters were useful for everything I needed to do in the game, and they were also sometimes useful for helping other people who needed those classes for their quests or just little fun groups.

Here I am 15 years later from the last time I played the game with a brand-new laptop that I received for Christmas. I wondered if this new laptop would run the game, and it does, so I figured I will come back and play for free since that is now an option, but I want to start over with a new character to sort of help me relearn how to play the game since it has been a long time since I played. But I didn’t have any open character slots available, so I started on another server with another Xanapus character, but this time he is a Necromancer.

So, I started playing this Xanapus on December 30th, and he is already level 60. I actually got him to level 60 in 1 month, and now that I have pretty much learned how to play the game again, I decided to go back to my wizard Xanapus and do some of the things I’ve been doing with necromancer Xanapus. They have a quest system now with a quest window and achievements that they didn’t have when I played. They actually introduced it when I quit. I got to level 60, and I also had earned quite a lot of AA points before going back to wizard Xanapus. So, when I’m not playing the wizard, I have my necromancer in the Bazaar selling stuff I had looted as well as food that I had made to get my baking skill up. Basically, I spent way too much platinum on baking, so I don’t have any money for spells, so I have to sell stuff for spell money lol. But I figured I’d rather go back to the wizard anyway because I had so many years invested in that character.

I’m back in the game, but I’m the only one in my guild. There are, I don’t remember how many, but probably around 300 people in my guild, and I seem to be the only active one. There were some officers who still played up until December 2022 before I started playing again. Who knows, maybe I might see them in the game, and we might play together for old times’ sake.

Anyway, I’m having fun again, but also at the same time not ignoring anyone. I can bring the laptop in the living room and play on the couch for a few hours doing quests for achievements and then stop playing and let my necromancer make some coins.

My Necromancer Xanapus character is on The Rathe server, and my Wizard Xanapus character is on the Xegony server. If you are in the game and you see me, say hello.