Playing the first 3D MMO - Meridian 59

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Let's go back to 1996, spice girls, power rangers, tazo's.
And the very first 3D graphical MMO, Meridian 59.
I spent a few hours playing the pioneer of the 3D MMO genre and, it's held up surprisingly well, I can only imagine what this was like with more people.
The music still rocks.
Thanks to my Patreons and Twitch subs for supporting the channel!
#MMO #MMORPG #Meridian59 #joshstrifehayes

[@JB-bq5mt]

Meridian 59 vet - You can solo the door puzzle at the end of the tutorial by putting /use to hot keys and strafing between the two really fast. Used to be an old trick we'd use back in the day. It'll take awhile but it's doable

[@fus132]

Ancient wisdom.

[@testaccount4191]

@@fus132 all hail the old one

[@Krysnha]

I play Earth 2150, the first fully 3d or at least one of the first, but when i said first fully 3d, is the first with the unit and with the background, and it was amaizing, no ingame ads, an inmersive game,you have to actually think, you have to actually have a strategy, every time you do something or arrive to an important part of the story a nice cinematic, that was amaizing

[@crazymrcake]

Back to your room, grandpa.

[@TheBrazilRules]

@@Krysnha Your comment is not here nor there. That is an RTS game. He said this is the first 3D world MMORPG

[@SilverKnight16]

It's always impressive when games from 25+ years ago got the basics down so well that they're still pretty translatable even now. This game is old school as hell, but truthfully, it looks pretty fun to play. Playing a game for fun, at this stage, almost feels like it's been forgotten.

[@TheZenytram]

why make games to be fun, when you can make them to be the most adict possible and cash grab.

[@Krysnha]

Indeed a game, so people can have fun a game that is a game

[@DeathEatsCurry]

I think Doom is the best example of that. The granddaddy of FPS games still manages to be one of the best FPS games that, despite some aged graphics, holds up amazing in the gameplay department.

[@cheezdoodle96]

@@DeathEatsCurry I find the graphics stylised enough, whether intentionally or as a by-product of the era, to where they don't age. It truly is the perfect, timeless video game. Still easy and fun to hop in and run through a few levels. And it works as well, and is as fun to play, on the GBA and Switch as it is on PC.

[@RobotronSage]

Tell you what's not impressive: Watching developers in 2022 struggle to make functional ''code'' for the Unreal Engine when the entire industry has thrown away all their in house engines because they simply don't know how to code them anymore. When ''programming'' in 2022 means being able to drag and drop assets in an SDK with 0 knowledge of any sort of low level programming language. It's abysmal in comparison.

[@guysmith9264]

The best thing about Meridian, and I missed it when I moved to Everquest, was the sense of community combined with a healthy pvp dynamic. I remember ducking in and out of the pub because the town was taken over by a group of pvpers. And everyone being rescued when a guild coordinated attacking them.

[@reoryn]

Heh, was it during a Blood Frenzy? The community was absolutely what made Meridian what it was. The fact the servers were small enough that pretty much everyone knew everyone else. The scandal when someone betrayed your guild and let a PKer in to take your hall. Ahh, good times.

[@gerrygrossny]

@@reoryn lol i almost forgot about the scary red-named "PKers"

[@reoryn]

@@gerrygrossny Thing is, although some were a-holes, some were pretty decent, especially because of the server size and everyone knowing everyone. I remember one time I got PKed about 1 minute after I hit 30hp and became PVP flagged. Guy felt so guilty that he escorted me back to my corpse to get all my stuff xD

[@mrsnatural2368]

@@reoryn That reminds me of a time on Runescape where a fella saw me die, grabbed all my stuff, then waited at that spot and messaged me to come back there so he could give me my stuff back.

[@JamesNoms]

Anyone remember the Clone guild? they moved from server to server going pk and attacking people, I was Server 105 ;)

[@Patrick-go8ub]

I'm going to rally up a group of friends and give this game a go. Everything about it just seems so wholesome and charming to me.

[@ronlowry7073]

Yeah seems like a fun game

[@Blaze87540]

Have a huge group join the game all at the same time, see where it goes XD

[@ronlowry7073]

@@Blaze87540 wonder how that would go

[@rajaat11]

Makes me wanna join up and show ya how wholesome the PvP is (not). Just kidding. The penalties of death can keep people in the inns. 😂

[@ronlowry7073]

@@rajaat11 yikes that doesn’t really sound fun

[@Rengarsus]

Ahhh, this is such a refreshing video. No scammers in sight, no chinese corporations, no cashgrab games... Just a gameplay of a work of passion, a glorious relic of the past we should all be thankful for

[@ivanmonahhov2314]

No NORDVPN !

[@Nightweaver1]

No endless treadmill of $30 DLC expansion packs that render all of the previous expansion's gear totally useless.

[@FlamespeedyAMV]

Before the small hat tribe took over gaming

[@JB-bq5mt]

@@Nightweaver1 funny thing, M59 had 2 expansions that just opened up new content. One added in a whole new zone and another god to worship, and the other put in a faction mechanic (the guards Josh saw) and some new spells

[@super8bitvideos]

@@slevinchannel7589 I want to report you for this self sucking diatribe. Nobody care and everybody reports someone or another. Bots DO NOT care and will keep making new bots. Giving them attention is what they want.

[@wolframsteindl2712]

Man, imagine playing that game back in the days, with dozens of old-school roleplayers running around, making their own adventures. It must've been loads of fun.

[@fenrirsilver6441]

I find myself to some extent wishing I was born even just a few years earlier just so I could have had the chance to play it, just to so I could say I was there at the start, when I would come across this video xD

[@JamesNoms]

It totally was, I found a mansion in the woods with an old group content ghost in it who dropped Breastplates so me and some friends used to go every day and farm them for people to help them out ;)

[@silkyfi6652]

I would've absolutely loved this as a kid but unfortunately I had no idea it existed until years later. Didn't really know about online games back then but I remember thinking how cool it would be to play Daggerfall with other people.

[@Boston2George]

It was …

[@matthewcorley3764]

I was a young teen when I started playing M59 in beta. It was exhilarating. PVP would literally make you shake because there were such high stakes and you were very invested in your character. When you died in PVP you dropped all of your loot which would then be stolen by your killer. There were Random PKers (player killers) that would run around slaughtering lowbies. In return there were a group chats of 'Hunters' that were dedicated to tracking down and killing these 'criminals'. It was really a unique experience that really hasn't been recreated in any modern game. The servers were small and felt like really communities with all sorts of politics.

[@teos4664]

Okay. so. i downloaded this for shits and giggles. and holy hell it was amazing. this is by far the best game i've played this whole year or the past 5 years! i got in, struggled for 10 minutes to figure out how to talk, then 3 other guys popped in and we were all trying to figure out how the game works (it's f, the talk key is f) and then i went on an adventure with my newly found friend. a guy named "El Diablo" and i went off killing rats just outside the village gates, we got lost in a maze, found some dudes ring, chucked it away, since we don't know the guy and we are not charity, then i got separated from my friend and ended up getting gangbanged by like 6 frogmen. i did not survive. i spawned in HELL. yes literally. and went through the wrong door and got lost in a mountainous area. 10/10 El Diablo if you see this, i will remember you buddy. and i still owe you 2 gold coins for daring you to eat the giant turd pile in the starting town.

[@elijahhmarshall]

I hope you find your buddy

[@carrionstorm736]

I miss having the time to be able to jump into games and enjoy them with people like this. :(

[@theoperatripleaxel5417]

We mever find our budies in mmo's after is over.

[@TheAyanamiRei]

@@theoperatripleaxel5417 if you remember their username you could try to look them up. They might have reused it!

[@dvreaux]

@@TheAyanamiRei el Diablo is probably a really common username though

[@harrycelentano2206]

I had the oldest character in the game. In fact, I was awarded the title "The Elder" because of it. A title that I still use to this day in other mmorpg's. That was the only way you could size up your opponent, by looking at their bio and their in game age. Every month equaled 1 meridian year. When I stopped playing I was 40 meridian years or 40 months. Crazy! I finally was offered a guide position which I was paid to "police" the other players. You would put them in a virtual jail if they broke game rules or swore. The most fun was being able to teleport to any location as a guide. There were secret areas that you can teleport to which contained sprites and the most rare objects in the game like the golden sword and helm. After that, the game became boring because I now saw everything that there was to see. Becoming a player guide ruined it for me. Oh, and Everquest didn't help either. Last thing to add, my in game "best friend" was a character named Bronx. towards the end he revealed that he was actually the late actor Gary Coleman. RIP Buddy!

[@scotmcpherson]

Hi Josh, a couple of things I would like to point out. You mentioned the lack of players, but you forgot that you specifically chose the server that was decidedly more quiet and with fewer players on it. You could have chosen the other more populated server. PvP isn't enabled until one reaches 30 HP, so you could have had a PvP free experience up until that point. Also regarding logging out while in the wilderness was how the developers discouraged people from logging out of the game midfight. A death like penalty for logging out in the wilderness was an effective way to discourage that sort of behavior. Also, keep in mind your experience was rather short lived, and you probably don't realize that pretty much no matter where you are in the game, you are withing 2 minutes of walking distance to an Inn. you just have to know where they are, and people who played the game long enough to reach 30 HP (the point where this makes a difference), probably already know where most of them are. Regarding the tutorial and getting behind that wooden door, it is possible to open the door by yourself, however it is a pain in the neck with repeated failures until you get it, but the reward for doing so isn't necessarily worth the effort. You didn't really miss anything there. Additionally, there is very little group only content, just content that is EASIER to finish with a group. The guards surround the flags are actually part of the faction mechanics of the game. When you reach 40 HP you have the choice to join one of three factions which grant some light buffs, but if an area is controlled by an opposing faction, those guards will chase you and fight you like the monsters will. Opposing factions players can fight the guards and tear down the flag in a capture the flag type mechanic bringing the captured flags to your faction leader for favor. The lots of dead-ends were part of the design, as well running away from something (or someone) you could get yourself stuck in one of those dead ends accidentally. As you mentioned the music is rather iconic and still enjoyed by past and present players. It was adventure music like you just don't have anymore in MMO games. When the game was at it's height, there were enough players to require I think it was almost 15 servers to support the entire player base, and at that time a player was locked to a server so you couldn't bounce from server to server to avoid running into a player that you wronged. Everyone was assigned to their server permanently for the most part, though you were allowed to have characters on multiple servers, you just couldn't move your characters back and forth between them. People would FREQUENTLY start over a experiment with builds and it was part of the fun for a majority of the player base at the time. Regarding the Underworld (where you die), those portals don't really give you a fast travel option. The taverns that you spawn in through those portals rotate and every second or so (I don't really remember what the exact time frame is), the portals would shift to other taverns. You could therefore look at a portal, see The Limping Toad Inn, but when you walked through it, you ended up some place else because they had already shifted. The world itself was small enough that you could get from one end of the world to the other end within a few minutes of running, you just needed to know you way around. The mini map is useful in the beginning, but again because the world is so small, people learn to navigate through the main first person window. It gets easier to recognize where you are from memory. Also, that Chalice of Tears you could in the Orc Cave....That is actually a fast travel tool. You can pick it up, but it's a puzzle requiring a lot of fighting of Orcs, clearing out the cave and casting a spell which opens a portal BEHIND the chalice, but also allows you to pick the Chalice up. Meridian 59 was full of puzzles, not just monsters and exploration. There is lots of things to solve that aren't apparent at first, and some puzzles were never solved until the source code of the game was finally released to the public some years ago. Even so it's still a fun game to play, and as discussed in a previous conversation Meridian 59 is the inspiration for my MMO which is trying to recapture some of the lost spirit that modern MMOs just seem to lack.

[@Walican132]

Great comment. Makes me want to try this game more.

[@melsky]

Thanks for all the useful info. I really want to try this

[@theRealSlimGordon]

Awesome explaination! What's this MMO that you're working on? Sounds interesting.

[@natecw4164]

Something that never happens anymore sadly-- putting something, such as a puzzle or riddle in your game that you never intended players to solve. Love it, really good comment!!

[@ColinPoole]

@@theRealSlimGordon Dreamworld

[@chrisevans-nodd]

I remember when M59 first came out in the '90s. My buddies & I spent hundreds of hours playing. We had a guild hall, got our skills/magic up enough to adventure on the Island, had all the cool gear. It was a fantastic experience. Alas we eventually moved on to "newer" games like EverQuest & so on. Fast forward a quarter century & I noticed M59 was available on Steam! I had to give this another go for nostalgia's sake. The game seemed both worse & better than I remembered. The graphics were... way more chunky than I recalled but the game mechanic, that is in many ways superiors to many modern titles. For example the skills/spells system is just fantastic. This really did set the standard for many MMOs to follow. Anyway, once again I've moved on to other games but it was a fun trip down memory lane to get to play this again, this time as an old man :-)

[@pinewolfpresents]

"Death is essentially a realm where you can pick where to respawn from. Sort of like fast travel, but the cost is...well...dying." In America, that's called a Greyhound bus

[@nobodycares4321]

Oh this is the most underrated comment here.

[@Ascendance1992]

Oh jesus, the flashbacks

[@sponge1234ify]

I'm not European, do kindly explain the joke, if you please

[@nobodycares4321]

@@sponge1234ify you've clearly never had to ride public transportation either.

[@MagusLay]

@@sponge1234ify Long-distance/intercity bus farer (instead of train or flight) heavily corporatized and focused on profit over all, customer service doesn't exist and safety and routine maintenance is a commodity they cannot afford. It is cheaper to write off a wreck than to keep them running. Greyhound is going out of business due to "demand for long-distance travel declining" and definitely not because they are an awfully-managed company. Reviews range anywhere from "36 hours and we didn't get the bus after we paid because the driver quit, no refunds lol" to "I was arrested after racist bus driver called the cops to make more room on the bus and it took 8 months to get baggage back."

[@MrDrus]

I remember seeing Meridian 59 ads displayed during Might & Magic VI installation - and my disappointment when I learned I needed the internet to play it (mind this was when the modems sounding like Monty Python ping machine having a stroke were ubiquitous). Time passed, I forgot about this title (the GOG installer doesn't have the old ads), tried Everquest driven by nostalgia but something in my head kept on telling me this wasn't it. Aion, GW2, WoW - you know how it goes. And now I see this video popping up in my recommended list and, unironically shedding the tear of nostalgia - thank you, Josh. From the bottom of my heart, thanks for taking me back to my childhood.

[@LizzieShiro]

“Let’s go back to 1996.” Ah yes. I was one years old. Good times. Good times.

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

Yes. Eating, sleeping and not having a care in the world.

[@PSNMyfoot]

I was 8 ._. I saw this played in a friend's house but my pc would probably melt trying to run this.

[@Badusername2000]

I was -4, aka I wasn't born yet

[@rockyfalldownstairs]

*goes back to 1996 and ceases to exist*

[@grzzltn]

it's surprisingly rare to see someone else also born in 1995... for some reason I see people saying they were born in 96, 94, 91, almost every other year from the 90's than 1995.

[@PrettyGuardian]

I love how so many of these classic MMOs are actually still online. Ultima Online, Everquest, Everquest 2 (this one is starting to get into the modern iterations of MMOs like WoW), Meridian 59 etc.

[@ryjelsum]

yeah if i recall EQ2 and wow were pretty much contemporaries. my dad was an everquest guy so that was the mmo that we played the most though, so i have good memories of playing eq2 with him...

[@neiloch]

I used to work on EQ2 until Sony sold SOE off and became Daybreak. New owners laid off like 2/3's and everyone else was renegotiated. EQ1 still does surprisingly well for them, profit wise. LOTS of MTX

[@Rorther]

I still go back to Tibia (created on 1997) once in a while. It was the best multiplayer experience we had at earlier days.

[@Tobi-oi3uf]

Hey don't forget Tibia!

[@basedaf5580]

you forgot to mention Runescape. oldschool runescape is more popular than ever

[@natecw4164]

Considering I was obsessed with Legend of the Red Dragon at the time, this game would have BLOWN ME AWAY in 1996.

[@rajaat11]

It was an amazing time.

[@natecw4164]

@@rajaat11 It sure was. In those days it was amazingly fun to simply meet a stranger and talk about where they're from. Barely needed the game mechanics, it was an age of legit online communities!

[@RSProduxx]

@@natecw4164 yep.. I remember sitting around for hours and just chatting away with people from all around the world in DaoC back then... open dungeons where several groups grinded their spots... when someone in a group died, someone from another group fought their way to your spot just to rezz them... just like that, because it was a nice thing to do... all that died when WoW exploded into main stream...

[@davood123]

BBS user detected :D

[@KubinWielki]

I don't quite understand why, but videos like this one always plunge me into a sense of nostalgia for something I have never participated in, and had pretty much no chance of doing so. By the time Meridian59, or even the original Everquest (3 years after Meridian59) came out, I was very, very young and didn't know English yet, so there was no way I could've played those games, but seeing the footage now makes me deeply regret that I haven't had the chance to experience the MMO genre as it was budding, and all the games were designed with that "you need a group, you need to talk to people to be good at the game" mentality. I think the driving force behind that faux nostalgia is that today, many MMOs are more or less "together alone", where the only time you *need* to interact with people is either in PvP or some high-endgame content (like raids), but even those are more or less micro-communities - many within a single game. The oldest mmos tended to have one large community, split up into guilds and even if said guilds warred with each other, a new player was usually very welcome by all of them. Dunno, maybe I just miss feeling like the other players in a game are a part of the world that I can talk to, to learn about the secrets of said world, like talking to a mentor. Nowadays you get directed to wikis or youtube tutorials, and other players feel more like interactive decoration rather than an important part of the game's world.

[@swordmonkey6635]

I'm proud to say that I was a beta tester on the original Meridian 59 back in the 90s. Cutthroat free for all pvp and fun as hell. lol

[@Tiqabar45]

Also was a beta tester, can't remember if it was late 95 or early 96, had I think a 14.4 or 28.8 modem, truly was the revolution that started the MMOs we have today and this game will always hold a special place in my heart for my first online game where player interactions were one of the biggest portions of the game. It was sad to see 3do abandon the game back in the day and the subscription prices got to ludicrous dollar amounts for the late 90s but thankfully I also befriended some of the people who helped save the game and improve upon it in many ways.

[@aarons6935]

No you weren't.

[@kereminde]

Server 106, and fond memories of the day the first expansion launched and the server organized the massive effort to open the node at the Heart of Sorrows... the second expansion, and the mad dash for the new world through the tunnels to find that shit was crazy dangerous... ... the day we solved the second hidden puzzle in Ukgoth. God I was a young little idiot back then.

[@sdbarbour1]

I was a beta tester as well. I remember the first time I went into the orc cave and got lost. I found 3 people and asked for help getting out. Dre said I will show you....And killed me LOL I was shocked. Played it for years and still have a toon on 101. I still have the shirt we got for testing that said, I helped create the world.

[@killval849]

@@sdbarbour1 damn howd you guys access the beta for this? Must have been old school MUD players and heard thru word of mouth or something?

[@Mayhemzz]

Someone should organise an event where as many people as possible sign up and start playing this because it actually looks amazing to explore. Too bad I was 4 in 1996 I would've been all over it if I was a few years older.

[@BierBart12]

Absolutely, played it all the time when I was -1 years old!

[@iceghost1470]

I'm an old fogey that used to play on MUDs a lot over telnet in the mid-90's. When games like Meridian 59 and EverQuest came out, they were really exciting for me because it was essentially a graphical version of MUDs. Great video, Josh. Very nostalgic for me.

[@s.l.r.9407]

Hi! Sorry for my ignorance, but what is a MUD?

[@khaunleper]

@@s.l.r.9407 Multi-User Dungeon. Text based MMO basically.

[@s.l.r.9407]

@@khaunleper Thank you, very kind of you!!

[@Nightweaver1]

And here I thought I was an old man of KZbin. I didn't even get my first computer until 1997, and didn't play my first MMO until FFXI in 2004. Never did MUDs, though I'm almost old enough to have been able to in their heyday.

[@iceghost1470]

I'm going to really date myself, but my first real PC was a 286 in the late 80's. My father worked for a computer company, so he was able to bring home a lot of computer technology that my school friends could only dream of. When I got into college, the Internet was in its infancy and telnet BBS's and MUD's were all the rage among me and my nerdy computer science classmates.

[@keksittynimi]

Josh’s videos are in the rare category of ”like the video as soon as you start to watch it”

[@durpasaur3052]

I would argue you are being a better fan by actually watching the video and deciding if you liked it or thought it was well done before liking. Otherwise you are turning off your brain and not providing helpful feedback to Josh.

[@EmiFolkMusic]

Same. I need to watch without interrumptions so I like first :P

[@keksittynimi]

@@durpasaur3052 fair argument. I can always unlike the video if or simply remove the like if I feel that’s necessary. If i did dislike somethibg i would most likely still like the video and simply comment on the matter that did not rub right with me

[@MagicAlfi]

Just seeing places like that city, and the guestbook, and how players really played their character just to do that, and experience the wonder not to maximize a system and abuse it or get everything handed over but out of their own intrest, made me shed a tear. I also remember the time... when you could have a guestbook, and it was a great time to play an RPG. Because it wasn´t an MMO, it was an MMORPG.

[@alkebulanawah4242]

😭

[@PressStartToLaugh]

I love seeing people get into M59.

[@illford]

Why do you get to be on top just because you're verified?

[@reaperdestt5099]

@@illford just a coincidence probably, I've seen a lot of videos where big youtubers get pushed way down in the comments

[@yawasaginelums8666]

this looks fucking awesome

[@adianto1122]

I love refrigerator

[@sharktos3218]

Weird how this game looks more fun than some games that get made today

[@kirkendauhl6990]

I keep thinking of his Worst MMOs Ever series and the one called A Tale of Toast iirc where the grind was ungodly bad. If the pacing of a game from 1996 can garner more interest there’s something off about your development methods lmao

[@Static-EN-]

my situation's weird, watching this video makes me want to revisit osrs 😂

[@KlaussMarcellus]

Most MMOs we play nowadays are always the same experience and mechanics, so we get bored of it. Then when we see an old RPG we see something completely different, something new to explore and immersive ourselfs. And that's what MMORPGS are about, immersion and exploring.

[@theautisticartist9370]

Because mmos have garnered a reputation, and in that generalization lost a lot of it’s original charm.

[@CheqMaSwag]

@@Static-EN- yee straight up still play on and off, but nothing beats the og days. When no one really knew what they were doing, the wildy felt like a big scary place, and Zezima was the goat

[@Phex1]

The Logoff Penalty outside of Inns if because of PvP so people don't just log off when attacked. You have then 10 Minutes to come back, after that you "ghost" will disappear and you will lose some items. If you do this often, the penalty increases. "Logging" was a key feature in PvP, big battles around "ghosts" usually break out when one side tried to "pen" then and the other side tried to bring the character back online in Time. The Soldiers are part of the faction War, there are three Factions you can join and then you can find artfacts for them or conquer land for them to increase the bonus they give there members. Soldiers will only attack players of the enemy factions. The Spider Den has only one way to get out. Holy shit, you ended out on Brax, thats a high end Area of the game. RIP. In the Underworld is a hidden puzzle that gets you a Mananode by switching the torches in the right order. 20 People isn't that bad for Meridian 59, if i remember correctly you had 60-80 People on a full server, when the guides were hosting events that could go up to 120 but that was the max a server could handle. If you maybe realized around the cities the enemys are all very weak, to get in serious trouble with enemeys you have to travel at least 3 maps away from any city. In the Arena you could have clicked on the banners, they explain how it works. It was an option to train PvP without losing anything (excepts regs for casting). Players ofter hosted priced tournaments. To loot the Chalice you need to kill all enemys in the cave. If you cast the Spell "dispell Illusions" (Kranaan circle 4, so need some days to get it, maybe months back in the day) the wall disappears and you find an complex of tunnels that lead you into a "secret" island full of high end items, enemys and skills. Sadly, you didn't touch on the skill and spell system. Just in short, when you got enough % in a Skill or Spelltier you can unlock the next one and get higher with better weapons and spells. Spells cost regs to cast, so you are always busy out farming what kept the world alive and people traided a lot. It had one of the best economcy systems i ever saw in a mmo. Player also offers services like reapair weapons, open the secret passage to the island ect. The PvP System worked also very well, even it was harsh, but you could always close the client when attacked and avoid death in most cases and only took the "pen". When logged, people mostly logged on another toon and asked for help, so there was the constant battle of Playerkillers and Hunters. If you killed an innocent Player, you got flaged red and then any other player could attack you without penaltys. You also lost more skillpoints and Hitpoints when getting killed while Red. One Player on the Server could become the justicar, eject by others players and pardon red player back to lawful. As you mentioned, a lot of the game was about disovery, exploration and community. This game has so many secrets and shortcuts, it is really insane which how streamlined todays games are. I will never forget how a guildmember told me the secret how to take a shortcuts of around 8 maps while using blink in a special spot, or the first player ever got his Rijasword and undiscoverd a whole new magic school. I'm glad you enjoed your time. There are still versions of Meridian out there which still get updates and expansions. While i think they are too far away from the spirit of the original now, they are still have around 40-60 Players online at primetime.

[@kereminde]

You could logout unsafe without penalty once or twice per day, I believe. The first thing to go is items, progressing with more random items getting lost... and then random skill percent points. (This can be brutal because high percent skills can take forever to train back up.) It was rumored you could lose hit points but I don't think anyone actually logged out enough to hit that?

[@DxBlack]

> Keeps bringing up entering empty guild halls... > My brain keeps bringing up the major plot point to the Overlord Anime (Being the last player in the guild as the servers shut off, only to wake up stuck in the game world)

[@MelissiaBlackheart]

Meridian 59: Still better than a lot of MMOs today.

[@Trigarta]

Thank you for this video. This takes me back. Meridian 59 is how I started my MMO journey many many years ago and fell in love with the genre to this day.

[@1337penguinman]

But there's no cash shop. This clearly isn't a real MMO.

[@bekuta7223]

I've been playing for a couple days now, and I've already more fun in my short time here than I have in most other MMOs that I've played. It doesn't have a huge player population, but that just makes the interactions with other players more intimate. It's been a ton of fun, and I'd seriously suggest anyone who's even sort of interested in it give it a try. It might take a little getting used to the controls and how everything works, but it's worth it, and I can see myself playing this game for a long time.

[@kenjones2100]

I was 7 when this came out... I was barely learning how too type at school an having a PC was a luxury item that was crazy expensive for the average family. How times have changed.

[@SnowBunneh]

Depending on when exactly in 1996 this game was released I was either a baby or yet to be born

[@WakeUpUniverse66]

*if you are using windows right click the taskbar and go to taskbar settings and click on Hide taskbar while in desktop mode, that way you can play the game without the taskbar getting in the way just switch it back off when you are done.*

[@onomatopoeia7505]

If you're typing a reply to a video, you can use punctuation to make it readable. When starting a sentence, use an uppercase letter for the first word. Use a comma to have a pause in your sentence, and when ending one, use a period for a full stop.

[@TheZenytram]

@@onomatopoeia7505 Man you killed him. RIP WakeUU.

[@robertwright1084]

Me and my brother Beta tested this game, we were on the original 102 server. I had one of the oldest characters on 102 because I never rerolled my character after the server updates. It seemed like every time there was an update everyone would redo their toons to try to take advantage of some "new" options which would only be nerfed out on the next update. I just left my character the way it was when I started. We played the game until they switched the billing model to some outrageously priced time blocks model which drove a huge portion of their players away. Never looked back and eventually went to EverQuest when it released in early 1999. I still play on EQ.

[@sammikinsderp]

These old graphics are actually very charming.

[@TarlZaralka]

I remember being like 7 years old playing this game and I can still remember the packed cities and the community, it was really felt like a whole other world that you could escape to.

[@frankenbou]

More than 20 years later and I still remember this as a groundbreaking experience that brought me into the world of mmos.

[@josephmandarino2199]

Thank you for taking the time to do the review. Meridian59 at its peak was one of the best online experiences of all time. The PVP is still among the best of any online RPG, and the intensity of the player interactions created friendships that have lasted 20 years later.

[@kereminde]

Ultima Online's early years... and Meridian 59. They had me develop a love/hate relationship with PvP. More often than not, it was "fairly unfair". But the people who existed solely to run down those who stood no chance of resisting? That was what killed my desire to ever partake. Now, some friends of mine? Mastered those systems, and were not above vengeance on my behalf. Which was why I stuck with the games long enough to really enjoy them.

[@josephmandarino3775]

@@kereminde Sorry that you had a bad experience with griefers, I guess it comes down to whether the community is strong enough to self-police. Many Meridian59 servers were overrun with pkers/griefers. My server, 3do 103, had a very strong alliance of PK hunters and we never had a problem. In fact, when the game was winding down everyone converged on 103 from other servers.

[@kereminde]

@@josephmandarino3775 I was on 106. It wasn't terrible, until people got bored and started doing it... or until many of the PKKs (Player Killer Killers) moved on and there weren't people who policed them. The crux of the problem is, you don't have to be very strong to prey on the people who just lost their angels or to gank people hunting. You don't even necessarily need to be tough to build a dark mage type who can keep you paralyzed until they can kill you. These random PKers are also cowards, prone to logging off and taking the penalty (or lack thereof for the first one or two) when caught out. But in order to fight back, you do need to be a bit tougher and know how to do so. Killing off the younger players when the older players are bored of playing "whack-a-mule"... that's when the problem goes from a balanced ecosystem to fading. I had bad experiences starting off. But I persevered because I'm kinda stubborn and I liked the core gameplay. Other people might not like it as much, and won't suffer the losses over and over... And let me be clear: I think M59 and UO had the most fair PvP constructions you can get early on, but this is primarily because the worst things you lose are skill % (and a HP in M59 - that can be bad). The items are often easily replaced, even the rare reagents or supplies (Inky Caps and Feathers!) can be rebuilt in a matter of hours dedicated to hunting in the quieter hours of the day. And during the busy hours? Sit, practice your spells, socialize... maybe get a group to go do something? ... But this hinges on the "you lose stuff, but most often it's not permanently gone forever", coupled with "it's not common enough to get killed before you can work your way back up". Once you cross that line the PvP stops feeling... 'fair'. Being PK'd into the 30s in M59, or having your house camped in UO because people want to make it inside to loot your stuff just for the giggles? That stuff is what makes it not fun, and there's ALWAYS people who will do such things... and seldom ways to really stop it from happening. Mitigate, yes. Not stop. Reality has enough BS bullying like that without it needing to bleed over into my fun times.

[@Xegethra]

I like the sound of the levelling, it's a bit like the older Elder Scrolls games. You don't get better by putting points into something you've never used the whole game until now, suddenly you're a master at it! No, you do things and that skill levels up.

[@ExotikMiners]

this game looks genuinely great, especially for the time. pure gold of older MMO's

[@cowsforliyyfe]

Somebody was posting about Dua Lipa in the guild hall. Kinda mind blowing that she was born the same year they were putting this game together, now she's a global superstar lol. Just kinda trippy to think about.

[@CringeButFr33]

I just started playing this about 1 or 2 months ago, and I gotta say it has to be my new favorite MMO now

[@CringeButFr33]

also I wanna add you can resize the window but you have to use the very edge of it

[@SetzerII]

Who else remembers when Electronic Gaming Monthly had demo discs? This was on one of them. First comp was just bloated with demos for a while. But that's how you found some gems outside of a bargain bin.

[@kamenanew9867]

Egm and cgw demos were how i discovered so many games. And of corse ps1 and 2 demo disks.

[@SCShanks]

Glad to see this was looked at! I played on original Server 104. Looking back what made the game great was the community interaction. Its hard to replicate anymore because the truth is you HAD to interact with the community to know anything at all. The actual mechanics of things werent known by most people. So yes - fighting stuff gains you "improves". But does it matter what you fight? Is there caps? Is it better to fight x-monsters with y-weapon? What goes into causing that improve to happen. It also depended on who you asked. At one point it was popular to insist you would gain hit points faster if you fought stuff without armor(this was never true) so a bunch of people would just be getting beat on thinking it was the best way. People plain didnt know there were caps on improve %'s depending on the monster you were fighting. So either you did it and figured it out, or someone told you. And the low level pking was insane. You could roll a toon, choose a spell called touch of flame, and kill half the playerbase because of the interaction of "fire" spells and certain equipment. That went away as the players got s tronger, but early on pking was insane. It was glorious, frustrating, and the only time I was ever truly emotionally invested in an mmo. I still play today on 101 through steam, Shhans. Come join us!

[@acjshook]

This was my first MMO. This game was (and is) amazing - PVP was really decent, in that it was actually hard to be a player killer because of flagging, revenants, and the karma system. It's HARD compared to today's games, because Death(yes, with a capital D) has actual consequences. You die, go to the Meridian underworld and have to solve a puzzle to grab a portal near your corpse. Hopefully then you will make it back and loot your corpse before someone else does, or it decays. Because of this, friends (and guilds) are actually important. All that said, it was and is super fun, sure the interface is old, but it is still very engaging. I popped back in recently after Steam picked it up, and the community is pretty awesome.

[@1ostcat]

I had a press account for server 102 on Meridian 59 back in '96. I played it so much...I could still find my way from Marion to Cor Noth with my eyes closed. I revisited it a couple of years ago but I'm going to have to get into it on Steam again.

[@JoeyJoJoJoestarJuniorShabadoo]

Glad it's still up and running since at least it serves as a great interactive museum exhibit.

[@Siggi667]

I was one of the players. I loved that game so much. I was 14 back then, had to pay for the internet per minute and made friends for life. Good times.

[@nickdaniels2083]

Bought your minutes on a disc?

[@JB-bq5mt]

I was right there with ya and basically the same age. Was in 107 and 200

[@MagicAlfi]

man my mom was so pissed when the first few bills hit... still worth every minute ... also still have some friends from those and UO days.

[@grimmliberty7447]

Meridian 59 was my first closed beta NDA experience followed shortly by Ultima Online /edit Full screen on a second monitor solves the full screen "chat box/taskbar" issue

[@MaDDsHoTT]

From my experience years back. The reason it seemed so dead for you is because most of the population plays on the PvP server. Still friendly though. Not a gank fest like other open PvP games. All in all, great video my friend.

[@JDKDKDLDKDKDKDKKKDERYY]

@@slevinchannel7589 stop spamming.

[@slevinchannel7589]

@@JDKDKDLDKDKDKDKKKDERYY Thats it? Thats the best answer youve got? Thats what you have to offer via your thinking-capabilities, after i mention a highly complex topic? Thats your answer to me bringing up a complex subject? Wow!!

[@JDKDKDLDKDKDKDKKKDERYY]

@@slevinchannel7589 yeah, thats not derigatory at all... i don't give a single shit about what you say, if you're gonna spam it under every comment you see. And wheres that highly complex topic you mentioned? I cant spot it anywhere...

[@luisrobledo7947]

I remember when i finally installed it , and push the arrow up button first time and moved wow got excited

[@DynamiteLemming]

That overworld theme well and truly slaps.

[@MoxxyEvo]

I've only heard vague discussions about this from older MMO players but never looked into it myself. Pretty insightful video thanks for sharing!

[@reoryn]

Good times on Servers 107 and 101. The year I spent as a Bard, running events, has formed some of my favourite gaming memories.

[@gerrygrossny]

I spent all my time mending equipment for people and getting rich enough to pay pkers to camp my mending rivals lol The RP was real in this game!

[@ramonrodriguezist]

Sound and work as a really good game. 10/10.

[@Demonskunk]

That adventure music is a BOP.

[@slevinchannel7589]

Silly me, but i think this channel might have an intelegent audience, so i ask, as random as it may be: Can you report/flag some harmful content? I, with my hobby of reporting Scammers, Racists, P0rn, Spam-Bots and so much more, wonder if we shouldnt, as this KZbinrs Fans, report more? At least those of us who arent into 'looking away from Problems'? I mean, i got so many Scammers who try to rob Grannies and Grandpas deleted from Social Media, i even claim boldly to have stopped the Spam-Bots before they Unite and start calling themselves SKYNET! I try to be the Opposite of Cancel-Culture; sadly though, i am often judged harder about all this because Cancel-Culture is so raging... This really comes down to one question: Is our disagreement with the problematic content is just 'taste' and 'opinion' or is he 'objectively harmful' or such? Cause THAT makes the difference between Cancel-Culture and its 180 Degree Opposite. So? Of the many things i listed and also the things i didnt bothered to list: What do you take issue with? Shouldnt you report more than you do?

[@JB-bq5mt]

Thanks for doing this video, you hit me hard with the nostalgia. Fun things based on what you said Josh, a little over 100 people on the server was considered a good number in the hey day and the guards you ran into are actually part of a faction mechanic. At, I think 30hp, you can join a faction and you can claim the area. If you are of the opposing faction, the guards will attack you and your objective was to kill them and claim the flag for yourself. Which ever faction held the most maps meant there was a world wide buff for the people in that faction.

[@MichaelLuckhardt]

Ooh! Do Everquest P99 Next! Green server would be your best bet for the classic experience.

[@heraditestreamingarchive1100]

I don't think he'll do private servers ever.

[@MichaelLuckhardt]

@@heraditestreamingarchive1100 Oh yeah? Shame, it's heralded as the most accurate emulated server of the classic EQ experience. Kinda like a time machine for the game. But I understand why.

[@msolomonii9825]

@@heraditestreamingarchive1100 No reason not to since it is sanctioned by the official owners of EQ.

[@RaxiazRedux]

I love your videos. Very well written and executed. Thank you for doing what you do Josh!

[@insanemang9983]

I feel like an in game journal that auto populates when you fight a new enemy would be a great addition to the new games. Also it auto populates the kinds of attacks/spells it uses and only populates these when the attack/spell is used.

[@CaptainNoFace]

when this game first launched on Steam, I met another player in the tutorial dungeon and from what I recall, the final part of the dungeon with the 2 levers leads into a treasure room with some gems on the floor. I can't remember if there was any enemies or anything but it was certainly one of the more unique social experiences I've had in an MMO with another player, despite the low player base. This is a game anyone who enjoys MMO's should play for at least a few hours in my opinion to get an appreciation for where the genre stems from and the creativity in creating an online world.

[@MarakMocam]

There was a feature I only saw recreated once and not as well. A valley with a building in it where, if you were doing best at your game-class, a statue of your character would begin to form and anyone could visit it and see who the best player was - in game - of each class. IIRC it had both a "best" and GOAT slot. That was a LONG time ago.

[@bigsexy1105]

The first MMO I ever played.

[@rcjvet]

I was there the day it came out. I picked up the game after work. I have been playing MMOs ever since.

[@stefanmaier1853]

Ah the days of Meridian59. Challenge your foe to settle a dispute in the arena, stroll around and kill some trolls, eat some meatpies. Those were the days.

[@purplehaze2358]

Meridian 59 is a living piece of gaming history, the fact it's still online and playable is astounding to me.

[@kereminde]

I mean, the expensive part is likely the servers running... don't expect it has the same necessary tiers of hardware as anything which came later.

[@maiyannah]

This was a brilliant intersection between text-based Multi-user Dungeons (MUDs) and more modern MMOs. Seeing it takes me back. I feel old. But then there's still MUDs I play, so...

[@evandavis5223]

One thing I miss from old MMO's is the experience loss upon death. It meant dying had much more severe consequences. You didn't just respawn and try again, it meant you made a serious mistake somewhere and you needed to rethink what you were doing and come back when you were stronger.

[@shadowroses5]

I'm actually a fan of the way you get better at an attribute is by doing it in games, just as long as its done right and of course having other ways to increase it but have the actual thing be the main and most efficient way.

[@scrubkid6602]

You know what...I want to play this with a friend now

[@hankert0n]

Super fair assessment, as an original M59er. (sup server 102, The Reverend) Without people the game lacks direction but as a community it was beyond amazing and still the best I've ever played. Sidenote: incase no one answered, the "guards" by flagpoles are for the factions you showed, princess, duke, and jonas. They added a turf war scenario where you could steal territory with flags to get bigger bonuses from your faction you pledged for. Princess was more magic based, jonas weaponcraft, etc.

[@planescaped]

Oh yeah, this was the game every hipster in UO or EQ1 would talk about.... Damn I'm -old- middle aged now.

[@sneg__]

Don't worry, just think about how old those hipsters that kept talking about this game are now :P

[@TheRibbonRed]

#OldButGold gang

[@rajaat11]

That would be me at 40. I played this when I was 16. Lol

[@planescaped]

@@rajaat11 I "played" UO with I was 9. I remember being such a gullible mark and getting murdered in the woods so many times. XD It was a lot of fun, even if I was barely able to play the game. My older brother and sister were a lot more adept than I was. I think SWG was my first MMO where I really got involved.

[@TheVioletBunny]

Paused this video and checked on steam looks like it’s happening right now so I’m going to jump on this later brings back that old daggerfall feelings for me

[@Jokoko2828]

The OST is not just fire, it's a goddamn inferno, my soul starts burning while listening to it.

[@conkerthesquirrel4331]

Spot on description of 1996 my good man lol. You really brought the nostalgia on there.

[@satore]

This is getting out of hand. KZbin just handed me a Josh Playlist...

[@OverseerXIII]

Does his voice still echo in the back of your head?

[@satore]

@@OverseerXIII it critiques the god awful balancing of the guild wars pvp meta.

[@Phex1]

Still love this game and play it from time to time. It was so great and has so many good mechanics, but i already know you will hate most of it :P

[@masterxehanort3]

He actually didn't hate it.

[@RaxiazRedux]

I think there is value in games like these.

[@RaxiazRedux]

@@slevinchannel7589 are you responding to the right comment, mate?

[@solomonpardue3605]

@@slevinchannel7589 When your comment has not one but two errors in the way you spelled intelligent, is a reply to a comment with no relation to what you're talking about, and takes a weird turn to anti "Cancel-Culture" which isn't really an actual problem and is more of a hyped up right-wing bogeyman; I can't help but wonder how often you take your medications and if you aren't taking any which ones you probably should be. Edit: just saw that you are spamming this same comment under most other comments which reinforces the idea that you definitely need professional help.

[@williamhououin]

That was very interesting ! And those dance moves... you’re quite the dancer !🕺

[@humbdedumb6009]

Wasn't expecting a video so soon and here it is with such vitality. Thanks Josh and all his patreons. Btw consider bringing along one of your discord pals for content and stuff, that way you can open that door blocked by the double levers.

[@crimsonawoo8597]

There are guest books in FFXIV, it's called message books and you can write in them.

[@Sheevlord]

It's quite amazing that it's not nearly as archaic as one might assume. Well, except for the interactions with NPCs through a text parser. That's a relic from late 80s - early 90s adventure games, and it's surprising to see it in a game from 1996. It's even weirder considering that they don't even use its full potential. When an NPC has only 3 possible interactions with the player a menu is a lot more efficient than typing. I guess they really wanted to stick to the MUD formula in this regard

[@Amoreyna]

Yeah, when there's so few possibilities, a menu would of made sense, especially given the time period this game was made. I don't know the history of making this game so there may have been other issues or ideology influencing this choice. I honestly like the text parser over menu's for conversations. A lot of the old-school adventure/RPG games I played way back in the day often had little easter eggs hidden in dialogue, which was also a nice touch. But I always felt more immersed typing then I did getting through dialogue trees. Some remakes of really old games do give the option to have either, which is nice so players get the best of both worlds and can chose what they like. I felt like other remakes that dropped kicked the text parser to the curb lost something for me and felt more limited, especially if hidden interactions were blatantly spelled out by necessity or removed altogether.

[@davidskidmore3442]

Everquest, released in 1999, also used a text parser for NPCs; though they gave you a button to say 'Hail' to your target, which at least started conversations with most. It was more advanced than M59 in that there were key words you could respond with to have more in-depth conversations, and quest flags so the NPC would remember where you were in the process of a quest, for the more advanced ones. Others you could repeat over and over and over... some without the dialog, just handing the 'fetch' items to the NPC and receiving the reward in XP and items.

[@Sheevlord]

@@davidskidmore3442 Now that you mention it - I recall that Fallout 1 (obviously not an MMO but still a game from the 90s) had the "Ask about" option when talking to NPCs. There you could type a keyword, and the NPC might have a unique response that isn't accessible via normal dialog options. However, it wasn't necessary for beating the game, and I never used it. Not sure how many keywords they even recognized or how helpful their responses were.

[@blundy1]

Great video. I had heard of this game but I've never played it. A bit before my time as far as MMOs go - we didn't get well acquainted until about 2001. I really enjoy the format of your vids. Keep up the quality content!

[@coldyintiger]

That music... it is so nostalgic of 90's pc games... I feel so old. Thank you.

[@LikaLaruku]

The graphics are a lot better than I expected them to be. Puts the N64 to shame.

[@dairallan]

Back in the day, Merdian59 really was a pretty groundbreaking game. But it was never destined for any sort of mass market appeal and as well as the features and design of future games it also signalled the problems that games would struggle with for years to come, particularly with PvP. The game design was for open world, largely unrestricted pvp and that attracted the worst sort of player. The game was dominated by griefing and hunting griefers which, tbh, was kinda fun for some players, me being one At least its kinda fun for hunters, till you realise that 1. the time investment in hunting is many, many fold larger than that of griefing, both in character development time and in actually catching them (and you also have way more to lose in death penalties) and 2. you realise that everyone you know (more or less) including friends, are out griefing. Two is the real mind killer. The core problem with Meridian was that it couldn't build a player base. Griefers need sheep and people don't want to be sheep. Any casual quits pretty soon after trying the game when they see the horrific death penalty when some 30hp player killer catches them and one shots them. So the sheep dry up and then the griefers start losing their interest because there just arent enough sheep to satisfy their hunger. The game peaked with 11 severs, each server supporting a max of 200 active players (but seldom ever got close to this) which generally meant sub 2000 accounts per server. The thing is that pvp was the end game. It was just envisaged as huge guild conflict. And sometimes this happened and it was great. But the death penalty was so huge that even this was severely limited and people were very, very reticent to get dragged into a terminal long term conflict. Therefore, it was much less a part of the game than the griefing/hunter cycle. To the extent that they eventually added a griefer/hunter mechanic into the game. The game, however, was dead long before then. Unrestricted pvp just wasn't viable without alternative end games and opt out areas (such as instances).

[@traxcanonch.2421]

The gate with 2 levers, you can actually do it by yourself. You just got ro do it very quickly. Took me almost a hundred tries but I finally got in.

[@kereminde]

It helps to bind a hotkey in the F keys to "use". First thing I'd always do is set ones up for "use" "get" and "cast blink". Blink is just a useful spell, because it has several uses. It teleports you to a predetermined location in each map, but you have to concentrate for 10 seconds and it takes a lot of mana and vigor to cast. However, some maps this blink location can let you skip to places you would not ordinarily reach... and it also serves as a "oops I'm stuck in the geometry/behind a locked door" escape.

[@CosmicDuskWolf]

This is so gloriously 90s. I love it. A game made when you actually had to use skills to get better at it. It seems like the kind of game where some weapons are better verses some enemies than other weapons.

[@ryuzenn4438]

Ok everyone let's populate this game.

[@DaRealKakarroto]

be careful not to crash the server, it looks like (refering to other comments in here) that there is a maximum of around 120 players with 60-80 players being considered 'full' I might have a look myself if there aren't too many drawn in currently due to the video?

[@McDouchebag22]

Let's get the Everquest project 1999 video next!

[@slevinchannel7589]

Silly me, but i think this channel might have an intelegent audience, so i ask, as random as it may be: Can you report/flag some harmful content? ...I, with my hobby of reporting Scammers, Racists, P0rn, Spam-Bots and so much more, wonder if we shouldnt, as this KZbinrs Fans, report more? At least those of us who arent into 'looking away from Problems'? I mean, i got so many Scammers who try to rob Grannies and Grandpas deleted from Social Media, i even claim boldly to have stopped the Spam-Bots before they Unite and start calling themselves SKYNET! I try to be the Opposite of Cancel-Culture; sadly though, i am often judged harder about all this because Cancel-Culture is so raging... Of the many things i listed and also the things i didnt bothered to list: What do you take issue with? ...Shouldnt you report more than you do?

[@quack3891]

I still find it funny how a majority of the games of these days were actually more prone to be "3d" as they tended to use certain tricks to retain very high FPS and better graphics (relative to the games of the year) so it's interesting to see an older game that still retains a true 3d experience and knowing that this game helped inspire a lot of our newer MMORPG's today. I probably wouldn't be interested to play it but I can definitely understand that this game is legendary for the type of legacy that it has.

[@NaJk93]

Honestly gonna try this now. I have not seen an MMO do simple exploration like this in forever. The less i know, the more fun i have.

[@Infernal_Nipple]

This game seems to be pretty awesome! By the end it somehow reminded me of legend of grimrock. That one was a pretty cool revival of oldschool gaming aswell. Gotta give meridian 59 a try aswell :)

[@belgian_groenendael]

I played this game in its hey-day and it was busy! I think there was 9 servers. The way it worked was most people were PVEers and there was a small number of PVPers who only griefed players and stole all their stuff. On the flip side there was a large amount of roaming PVP player killer posse's happy to hand out justice. See when someone was murdered it was broadcast globally who was murdered. This game was nothing like modern MMO's, it was more like a 3D MMO Twitter. Ton's of people chatting, having cyber sex, lots of female players too, more than there are now in games as this game was played like a chat room. 2 things you didn't mention which are things you do when you get higher levels. There is a node system. Scattered throughout the world in hard to get locations are nodes. Once you come in contact with them, they will permanently increase your power. This game also has factions with the duke or the princess and some dude in Jasper. Later on you get to join one of those factions. When that faction is in favor you get bonus's that make you more powerful. So a lot of the game was people trying to gain political faction. The other thing was the spell system. Very difficult to level but the damage casters were totally OP when they got to a high level. Or they used to be. Great game mechanics that actually matter if you can look past the old graphics.

[@cradleofanal]

damn thanks for reviewing this.. I always wanted to play this game.. but it just so hard to learn it..

[@rajaat11]

Played this game from release till about 1999 with a few visits here and there but haven’t logged in since 2007. There was still action in 2007 but nothing compares to playing this as a bright eyed 16 year old with a queue to log in cause 200 people were online.

[@TheZenytram]

whoa, what a massive amount of players online at the same time hehe. It's so funny looking back and se how technology changed.

[@rajaat11]

Yeah it’s pretty tiny now but back then having a 200 player game was a serious upgrade from the 4 man games we’d be playing if we had been playing Golden Eye. Lol

[@krazykc6674]

You should check out Nexustk it released in 1996 and it was actually populated pretty heavily. People are actually still playing and alot of people are coming back to it! Love the videos!

[@Falzelo]

thanks for the kind reminder of how old we are

[@elitereptilian200]

Indeed..

[@Iantrypsk]

yep... when he died and went to hell with portals i was like, this need another player to ress him, has a portal or a timer? I learned how to Code because of Muds never played Meridian but looked like a familiar place (And i'm not even that Old only 30, is just that my teacher in School talked about Mud and i altavista that bitch up)

[@DoomGuy148.]

Jeezz can't imagine how great this game was back in 90s just imagine getting to the game with your homies was probably next level experience for them.

[@randzopyr1038]

This looks like some solid old-school fun. Gonna jump in a give it a look - kinda hoping that this video gave the community a little boost so there may actually be people around.

[@boot-strapper]

I consider eq the first fully 3d mmo

[@64and46]

Singing along with the spice girls 🤣🤣🤣🤣👍

[@geowa3724]

I remember spending much of my teenage years in the m59 world. Server 107 memories

[@RealProfessionalHumanBeing]

This game was my childhood. Thanks for giving it some attention. There is still a somewhat active community.