The Norrathian Scrolls: A Study of EverQuest (Version 2.5) Nicholas Yee, 2001 http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/report.html “My husband played this game every night. Every. Single. Night. When he wasn't playing, he was talking about it, and I grew to despise it. Night after night of him being on the damn computer, while I sat downstairs watching the History channel. Out of sheer boredom, I'd go get groceries at 0100, or run to WalMart for something to do, someone to interact with, whatever. When a storm blew out my computer, and the grasping-tail simians at Best Buy took a MONTH to get the right part, I used my husband's computer. He encouraged me to at least check out the game, and I did. I didn't like it, but I played. It gave us something to talk about, and when I finally got my computer back, he asked me to start my own account. I gave in, and did, so that we could spend time together. This was in August of 99. It's February of 2001, and we spend hours - HOURS - every SINGLE day playing this damn game. My fingers wake me, aching, in the middle of the night. I have headaches from the countless hours I spend staring at the screen, and EQ works it's way into many, many more conversations than I'd like. I'm officer/coordinator of a modestly sized guild. I've designed and maintained a website and bulletin board for said guild. Sometimes things happen in game, i.e. being KS'd or dealing with some d00dspeak-spewing infant, and my heart begins to POUND, and I literally shake with anger. This scares me. I'm 30 years old, almost 31, and I'm a registered nurse. I take care of terminally ill patients, and I'm an EQ addict. I hate this game, but I can't stop playing. Quitting smoking was NEVER this hard.” [f, 30] 2 Table of Contents Notes...................................................................................................................................................5 Thanks.........................................................................................................................................................................................5 Copyright and Attribution .......................................................................................................................................................5 Quotations ..................................................................................................................................................................................5 Statistical Notes..........................................................................................................................................................................5 Personality Notes.......................................................................................................................................................................5 Contact ........................................................................................................................................................................................5 Methodology and Design......................................................................................................................6 Overview.....................................................................................................................................................................................6 Participant Recruitment............................................................................................................................................................6 Exclusion Criteria ......................................................................................................................................................................6 On Representativeness.............................................................................................................................................................6 Brief Lexicon and Game Basics.............................................................................................................8 RL Demographics .............................................................................................................................. 10 Age and Gender...................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Occupational Categories....................................................................................................................................................... 10 Marital Status........................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Do you have children?........................................................................................................................................................... 11 Annual Household Income.................................................................................................................................................. 11 Hours of Play-Time Per Week............................................................................................................................................. 12 Playing EQ with a romantic partner................................................................................................................................... 13 Playing EQ with a family member...................................................................................................................................... 13 Experience with traditional table-top Role-Playing Games........................................................................................... 13 In-Game Demographics...................................................................................................................... 14 Have you ever tried playing on a PvP server?................................................................................................................... 14 If you have tried playing on PvP, how enjoyable was the experience?........................................................................ 14 Visual Perspective................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Kunark Expansion ................................................................................................................................................................. 15 Velious Expansion ................................................................................................................................................................. 15 “Shadows of Luclin” Expansion ......................................................................................................................................... 15 Dragon Raids and Plane Raids............................................................................................................................................. 15 A character above level 50.................................................................................................................................................... 16 Leader of a Guild.................................................................................................................................................................... 16 Meta-Game ........................................................................................................................................ 17 Why does EQ appeal to you?............................................................................................................................................... 17 How much satisfaction do you get from … ?................................................................................................................... 19 How much does it bother you when … ?......................................................................................................................... 19 How appealing/unappealing would these changes be?................................................................................................... 20 Is EQ the best computer game you have ever played?................................................................................................... 20 Do people learn anything from EQ?.................................................................................................................................. 21 The Play-Nice Rules............................................................................................................................................................... 21 Would you hack the game if you could?............................................................................................................................ 21 Trust: Environment and Gender......................................................................................................................................... 22 Meta-Character................................................................................................................................... 23 What matters in character creation?.................................................................................................................................... 23 Level of most often played character................................................................................................................................. 23 Would you