True and False all at the same time.

EQ did not start the MMO, it just happened to be the biggest one to date. Ultima Online was the first MMORPG to actually take off and get a foot hold. It featured 3d graphics and already had an established community. It was out 2 years before EQ was. EQ came second in 1999. MMORPGS had already been out in China and the East before they took hold in America.

EQ was the second one, it just popularized the genre...it didn't create it by any stretch of the imagination. But, it was the most commercially successful for 5 years. Asherons Call came out just after EQ did too. Ultima Online, Everquest and Asherons call are the 3 big first runner games.

Dark Age of Camelot came out not too long after Everquest, about 2 years, and a HUGE amount of people bailed on EQ to go play that. Before that was Diablo 2 who had the had the backing of Battle.net behind them. Both became huge dents in the side of EQ with Dark Age of Camelot becoming the direct competitor of EQ putting a very nice sized dent in EQ's revenue.

Comparing EQ to WoW is actually a bit comical anyway. WoW is MUCH easier for the casual gamer than EQ ever could have hoped to be for one simple reason. Instances. Instances are a casual gamers best friend for raiding and gear acquisition. I don't know about yo, but "Spawn Camping" is NOT conducive to casual gaming in the least. The only "Spawn Camping" you had to do in WoW was world bosses. Then it came down knowing the spawn times and your guild being badassed enough to kick the ass of any guild that came to try to take them from you.

The only problem with WoW, which wasn't a problem with me, was 40 man raids. You had to really put some time into the game to be able to run 40 man raids. I was a guild leader so I had no problems and I always had people who were commited enough, an overabundance really. That's why my guild was first to MC, first to BWL, first to open AQ, first on world bosses, first through Cthun on our server and the first just keep coming. Those were fun days.

When they went to 25 man raids, I quit raiding hardcore. I did the grinds, Grand Marshall grind, I ground Sporagger rep with a prot warrior and a 2 hander....stupid stuff but didn't raid near as hardcore as I used too because half the fun for me was 4 hour raids trying to get 39 other people to bend to your will and do something at once without fucking it up.

WoW was much funner than any other game I had played to date and i've been gaming since Starcraft. Diablo 2, Dark Age of Camelot, LOTR, Warhammer, Eve, WoW, City of Heros....and on and on. Though I will say, PVP in DAoC was much cooler than WoW, i'll always think that.

So I hate to burst the bubble, but EQ doesn't hold a candle to WoW for ease of playing, ease of questing and ease of pretty much anything. Yes, it was a groundbreaker....when the ground was barren.

I will say this, without EQ, WoW would never be the smooth playable game it is, they learned alot from EQ's screw-ups. Go team Venture!