EverQuest is 5 years older than WoW, and still chugging along. They aren't doing two expansions a year anymore like they did from 2003-2007, but they have done one a year from 2008 onward (the 2018 expansion is coming out next month).

There was some worry earlier this year that it would abruptly die because of US sanctions on Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg who owns the investment group Columbus Nova. The sanctions were freezing assets and blocking payment processing.

There had been earlier reports that Daybreak Games, the company that acquired EverQuest years ago from Sony, had been bought by Columbus Nova. Daybreak later clarified that the person who bought them had been a partner at Columbus Nova, but he bought them personally, not for Columbus Nova, and he was not under sanction.

That was 10 months ago, and they still have their assets and can still accept payments, so apparently they were indeed not part of Columbus Nova. (Although at the time they were bought, a lot of Daybreak people did mention that name, rather than the name of the partner who now they say is the owner, so it is all still confusing).

Anyway, EverQuest today is worth a look if (1) you used to play and want some nostalgia, or (2) you never played but would like to see what one of the classic MMORPGs was about, or (3) if you would like an interesting game, good for grouping or solo play, that has a massive amount of content even if you are playing free.

There were three big changes on the "live" servers (which are distinct from the "progression" servers, which I'll describe later) that made the game a lot more friendly for casual and solo play.

First, a few years ago they added in-game NPC mercenaries that you could hire (one mercenary at a time per character). You can hire a tank, healer, melee damage dealer, or ranged damage dealer, and the AI for the mercenaries is pretty good. They "understand" group play.

With mercenaries, a whole lot of formerly full group only content can be taken reasonably by a couple players each with a mercenary, and even a lot of it can be done with one player with a mercenary, at least up to level 60ish if you are playing free, and up to at least mid 90s if you are paying [1].

Second, they introduced a new line of armor and weapons, Defiant Armor and Defiant Weapons. These things drop from a lot of normal encounters, but the stats on this stuff is comparable to top raid gear from a few expansions earlier. With Defiant, you don't have to dedicate your life to equipping your character to be able to handle the top content from an older expansion. It's only the people who are chasing the leading edge that have to make EverQuest a second career, unlike the old days.

Third, on the role playing server, Firiona Vie, there is a big experience bonus and very very items are marked NO DROP. So if you do need gear better than Defiant gear, you can trade for it or buy it from other players. Mana and healing rates are also higher than older players will remember.

Fourth, there are some new great quests. You start out with a book called the Tomb of the Heroes Journey in your inventory. When you open it, it tells you several zones that would be good at your level. If you open when you are in one of those zones, it suggest several NPCs who have task, quests, and problems you might help with. Just following the Heroes Journey will give you plenty of fun stuff to do, and that is only the tip of the iceberg.

With a mercenary and a free account on FV, you've got an excellent solo game for a long time. Even better for a group of friends.

For those who played before, and are nostalgic for the old days, they have "progression" servers. There are several, but the overall theme is the same. A progression server starts with some old version of EQ, and then progresses through the expansions. Progression servers do not have mercenaries, or Defiant armor. Heck, they are even missing later UI features when they start, such as the wonderful multiple target tracking system that the live servers have.

Progression servers have others rules, varying depending on server, to try to recreate the classic EQ experience that server's players want. For example, one of them is a "true box" server. That means you can only play one account per computer at a time. If you are one of those people who wants to play N characters at once on the same server, you have to have N physical computers if you are on a true box server.

They also differ in when when expansions become available. Some do it on a fixed time schedule. Some do it when the endgame content of the previous expansion is defeated. Some do it by vote. They also differ in how far they go. For example, Agnarr unlocks expansions on a schedule, but will stop at Planes of Power plus the two smaller expansions that followed that. Many consider that the best era of EQ, and Agnarr will be frozen in that era.

Progression servers are not available to free players.

So for those who want a shot of nostalgia, or who never played and want to check out the classic game, the best thing to do is watch for the next progression server launch, and subscribe. A new progression server is always a high population server, with population density comparable to the old days.

[1] The difference is mercenaries. There are apprentice mercenaries, with 5 skill levels (tier I to tier V) and journeymen mercenaries (tier I to V). Free players can only hire apprentices. Around mid 50s a tier V apprentice starts to struggle.