Word: everquesters
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Dates: during 1999-1999
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...EVERQUEST Materializing out of thin air like a magic cloak, Sony's 3-D online fantasy world quickly stole the role-playing crown from Ultima Online. Creating virtual Dungeons & Dragons environments is all the rage--Microsoft has since started treading the same turf with Asheron's Call--but Everquest's superior software puts it sword and shield above the rest...
...worried parents, there's violence in Everquest. But the game's best post-Columbine feature is its marginalization of slaughter. In sharp contrast to Ultima, in which veteran players often murder "newbies" just for the thrill of it, Everquest, says producer Brad McQuaid, lets users choose whether or not to be "player killers"; only those who do can kill--or be killed by--others. Thus far only 15% have opted for killer status...
...Instead, Everquest thrives on the relationships that develop among players, who talk via chat windows in one of the languages spoken by the game's 12 races (elf, gnome, human, etc.). Players attend concerts, auctions and weddings; bicker over everything from wolf meat to scimitars; and pool talents and resources to quest for distant treasures. "Stuff like that," says McQuaid, "is more binding than shooting your friend with a rocket launcher...
Well, millions of Quake freaks would beg to differ, but there's no doubting the depths of the Everquesters' passions; already tales are circulating of companies' banning the game from their in-house machines and college girlfriends stealing the discs from their boyfriends' PCs. Last week eBay had 140 virtual Everquest items up for auction: weapons, spells, even the game's currency trading for U.S. dollars--what one might call a cyber exchange rate...
...players themselves aren't always quite what you'd expect. Kesselring, 32, for instance, is an Ohio computer-network engineer with a wife and three kids. "We all play together," he says. "For us, Everquest has pretty much replaced...