[Hannar]

Most gamers have had marathon sessions in one MMORPG or another. Sometimes that ends up being just another grind fest, but in my mind there are several (like the EverQuest event that I borrow my “Camping Gynok Moltor” title from) that end up being memorable because a player isn't just camping or grinding exp, but because other events set it apart from a typical play session. Something keeps the player logged in for just one more spawn, or just one more pull. In the second of our community building series, we look to discuss the one marathon play session that is most memorable for you.

The aforementioned Gynok Moltor represents that experience for me. What could and should have been a relatively short quest camp in the progression towards earning a druid’s best friend (the Paw of Opolla), ended up being a night filled with newbie train wrecks, grave robbers, and visitors from above; not just another night in Befallen.

Any time a player sat down to camp Gynok, they did so with the understanding that they may be in for a dozen hour haul (or more). The severity of the wait is intensified by the dungeon’s inhabitants: Befallen is a low level dungeon, Gynok is a higher level quest mob. In general, there’s just not much for a player to do in the down time between placeholder spawns. That, however, was not the case for me on this fine evening.

I entered the small dungeon early on a Tuesday afternoon, just after classes had ended – roughly 48 hours before I had to be back at another class. Roughly 30 hours before I would log off again…

Befallen was basically a death trap for the young character in EverQuest. Countless new players stumbled into the trap filled dungeon only to find themselves receiving a one way ticket back to their bind point faster than you can say “SoW plz.” So for any self-respecting “good natured” character, like the Son of Tunare I was, it fell upon me to recover and drag copious amounts of corpses. Apparently there is some unwritten and unspoken “noob” network where low level characters secretly congregate, and when word gets out that a higher level character is available for quick rescues in a tight spot, said tight spot becomes even more popular for said “noob network.” In between the fifteen minutes or so that it took for Gynok’s placeholder’s to spawn, I would venture throughout the dungeon dispersing heals, buffs, food and drink, and the much needed corpse drag. +1 Karma. I’m just trying to be a better person.

For several hours I continued with this routine, expecting that at any time, Gynok would make his appearance and I would be on my way. About four hours in, two level 40+ characters wandered into the dungeon with intentions of their own to visit one Gynok Moltor. Much to my dismay, they were not impressed with my mid-30’s abilities, and on several occasions tried to convince me I would be unable to take down the fabled mummy. Once they realized I was determined to stick it out, they made an offer I couldn’t refuse: ten thousand platinum for the ring.

…

Money is not the root of all evil; a druid’s desire for money is.

…

Gynok showed up shortly thereafter and I collected the ring from his dead finger and provided it to the higher-ups in exchange for their coin and, with great resolve, vowed to stay online until Gynok made his appearance once again. And this, friends, is an example of youthful exuberance meeting pure ignorance. I continued my camp with the same routine: cycling between placeholders and running throughout the dungeon to help those around me. Hours passed by, the dungeon thinned out, and Gynok failed to make his appearance.

When the dungeon emptied, leaving only the placeholders and low level skeletons to keep me company, the reality of what I had done started to set in. In between spawns I found time to study for upcoming classes, watch several episodes of the Simpsons on DVD, and finally clean out that little mini-fridge that came with the dorm room… and Gynok still wasn’t ready to reappear. I mopped the floor, cooked dinner (then a midnight snack, then breakfast), and did everything short of carving the spawn count into the dorm room wall.

Just short of 20 hours had passed when another set of high level characters walked into the dungeon. This time, however, they were not nearly as cordial as the previous group. With only the three of us in the dungeon, they made it quite clear that it was their intention to take Gynok’s next spawn, and realistically there was little that I could do to stop them. It was the worst of feelings for me… 20 hours invested, a stupid decision to sell the first ring, and then having the camp swiped right out from under me.

Fortunately, my time spent in the early part of my camp helping the new characters around had led to a few friends in high places. One of new players I had run into had not been a new player at all, but a GM playing one of his normal characters. And it just so happened that I had crossed his mind when he logged on for his GM duties and he stopped by to see how the camp was going. Once he walked into the dungeon, the two grave robbers decided now would be the best time to exit. And the GM and I had the chance to sit and talk EQ issues for a few spawns before he was summoned off, leaving me to my camp once again.

Within another two or three hours the camp finally ended, and I was on to another step in the Paw quest (let’s not get into how long it took me to get the giant mushroom in Guk to spawn…). But it is still one of the marathon sessions that I remember most fondly. Camping in itself is not enjoyable; there are ways in which a game can implement it in a way that is better than what was demonstrated with Gynok here. But it does offer players the opportunity to slow things down, enjoy the environment around them, and interact with players they might not normally come across… both good and bad. So what aspects of MMORPGS have kept you in game far past your bed time? Tell us a little bit about the types of events and player interactions that keep you from typing “/camp.”

[Shelby]

Honestly I can't say I've gamed for more than 24 hours. I think maybe 20 at the most. During my EQ days, at any rate. Now I'm getting too old.

[Fub]

I guess my experience was just as much as a race as it was a grind fest. Way way back in the days of early EQ we didn't have to a crazy long quest for our J-boots. They were just a rare drop off a mob (Druzilla??) in Nejana.

Some people knew that the next patch was going to change all that....I didn't, but I just happened to be at the right camp at the right time. I finally got in the group camping her and we had the usual "whoever was here longest" rotation going. I was last on the list and it was 12 hours till the servers were going to come down.

The first boots didn't drop for quite some time but I think the second pair dropped almost right after the first. YAY!!! Things were looking good. We got more people in the group and kept the ball rolling........and it rolled all the way to 6 hours till the server went down before the next pair of boots dropped. At that point we had some people leave. I got bumped up another position!! We continued the grind and when the named was killed again someone jumped out of their turn to loot her!!!! This caused tons of drama and problems.......of course the guy said he didnt mean to do it (HAHA) and claimed it didnt have the boots anyways.

As late night turnes into early early morning, camping named mobs for loot becomes more of a game of Fear Factor than EQ. People start making comments to encourage the people ahead of the loot list to give up and call it a night.....it's such a cool tactic!! I think I was able to convince one guy that he needed to go to work in the morning instea of playing hookey


Well, long story short (too late I know) I got the last pair of J-Boots ever dropped in Najena on my server just an hour before the servers were to come down. It was a grind and a race and I won!!!

[Wolf216]

Excellent story Hannar! I think I will print and frame that on my office wall and tell anyone who ask me why I play so much to read that. I just do not know of a better way to make anyone understand it is not about grinding, or killing, or getting to the next level the fastest, it is all about the interaction, not the destination but how you get there.

For me I would have to say it was the day we established our “player city” in SWG. Perhaps not the longest I have been on in a sitting, but still quite a bit of online time by quite a few people.

Actually I did it twice. The first time was the day the patch was put in (I *sniff* was at home sick) but it was not just that day that was invested into it by myself and other. It was weeks heck maybe even a few months of time put into it for gathering up resources, making things acquiring other things needed, coordination of where and when to put the city. The big part of it was when the patch came out the race to make and lay the city as fast as you can (city placement limit) Needless to say it was a group effort and we actually felt very proud when we got it done.

The second time around was not so time restrictive, it was more of a “theme city” called “Mos. Vegas” (yea I know corny) that required a lot of the above resource but more time put into where buildings should go (the strip if you will)

In any case I am not even sure any of the cites are still there but I certainly remember the persons I spent all the time with and the feeling of accomplishment.

[Tindiyen]

I have said it before and I will say it again:

Stormfeather 3+ DAYS

[Dooya]

My wife and I had been playing EQ for several years, I played a bard and she a cleric. Her cleric was widely sought after in guild for raids, she liked to play and played the class very well. Time to get the Cleric "Click STick" this should be a snap we had the guide printed she was 65 I believe I was 60 at the time no problems. I dont know what kind of crack we were on but it must have been realy good.
Lake of Ill Omen was easy dare I say it toooo easy.This long quest wont take us but a few hours lol off we went to Sol Ro foe the next part. We set up camp and waited for the sure to quickly spawn mobs appearance. 15 hours later still no spawn time to camp and pick it up again after some sleep. After resuming play again after sleep 17 hours pass nothing to be had. One more crack at this guy till next weekend. We set up camp again and begin the vigil, we start getting queries from guild we tell them waht we are doing. Cool some friends are coming to help pass the time. A few guildies show up we decide to have a few drinks in game all is good. Slurred speech in guild has a funny reaction the next thing I know we have like 20 people around us at our camp and we all have severe tunnel vision and a bad case of the drunken side step. We kept this up for quite a while it was a blast. About this time the mob decides to spawn and agros on me. being afk for a bio I fail to notice.I hear my wife scream and I run back to the puter room, The mob is dead she has the loot she needs and everyone is back in POK including naked me. Why am I naked I ask no one knows they didnt even notice I had been killed in the drunken excitement of that mob spwning. In total we camped that mob for 37 hours roughly and only had to do one lil corpse run but was one of the most fun unplaned things we had ever done in game.

[Yeager]

38 hours killing Princess Mitty for her gold ring. I contacted the GMs every 6 hours to let them know I was still there killing Mitty every 16 damn minutes. At the 38th hour a GM showed up and made me a gold ring. All the while I was saying that the spawn is broken and they said no. Of course the spawn was broken and a sever reset fixed it.

26 hours waiting and camping Drez for the Jboots back in the day.

Never again though, I am too old to hang with those times and no sleep.

~Yeager

[Apostle]

Oh man.. ya that Stormfeather camp was the worst. I lost multiple days.. read: entire weekends at a time, and never to this day have I even seen that mob.

My favorite one was way back in the day camping Ghoulbane on my paladin. There were only a small handfull of palys who even had one on our server at the time, but a bunch of casters from my guild came down to help me. There was a picture of that day that one of the guys took that showed about 4 casters all standing with their backs against the wall and all of their hand held wands all at the same 45 degree angle. Thats when it hit me. Here I am a paly getting help from 4 guys that need absolutely nothing down here and spending an entire Sat. afternoon just helping me out.

I am not sure how welcome those marathon camps such as Stormfeather will be in my future, and Im not sure how prominent they will be in VG. I just know that when they were necessary in the past, you began to see who your friends were. (it also made you keep a mental list of who you had to repay in kind when the time came)

Apostle

p.s Fear was another marathon zone that gives me nightmares to think about.

[Golu]

My longest was on my planetside character on emerald (as a matter of fact this was just the other night) See Im in europe, and the prime time ends about 5 am here so i deceide "what the heck im on spring break" so i stayed up all night from about 5 pm to about 12 pm the next day. Thats about 31 hours hehe, i got br 13 14 and 15 in about that time so it was well worth it

[Skarlath]

Didn't the backwards and forwards of Planetside for 31 hours make you absolutely crazy and hate the game?!

[Golu]

Lol nope!! i just restarded so its got its lovability back... for now... and i have an awesome outfit so its 700X better

[Sunneydazze]

The High Pass part of the Testament of Vermeer(?) Verneer heck was a long time ago, decided to try this part alone as a too low level. Had my spawn in the first 30 minutes! Had my but handed to me in the first 15 seconds of the fight, wandering thief whacked me good. pop at High keep, head back and restart fight! Lost a level, died more times than I care to remember, but finally won the battle! +10 Wis was amazing in the day hehe; side note ran over and got a PGT as well from someone who had one already!

second Lower Guk Monk Epic froglok area! 37 hours straight with naps at the key board between spawns! and he never showed GMs stated working as intended! talked with the Monk who came behind me over 24 more and No Show Never did finish the Epic couldnt make myself go back again.

I completed some long quests and some hard ones but those two marathons stick in my mind heavily.

[Generalspuddog]

During the race to 50 i would spend 24ish hours quad kiteing raptors in Tim deep. When it got another jump i remember doing AoE groups in Old Sabilis, Chardok, and eventually in Fungus Grove. I didnt camp Phinny (for wizzy epic) straight though as he was a 12ish hour spawn but i must have killed him 40ish times before i got that damn staff. Thank you Multi questing!

[Annuna]

36 hours straight in UGuk camping the Fungus Mutant for that portion of the Paw of Opalla quest, killing him every 16 minutes I think it was.

Oh, that directly followed camping Gynok for 12 hours. So 48 hours straight for me.

[Danelle]

My longest was the AC in OOT, 15 hour camp to get him to spawn, and if Id ever saw another goblin/pirate or cyclops I would of cried.

But it was worth it in the end when I got my Jboots

Danelle

[Mack Bolan]

The best and longest camp was for the jboots in najena (sp). The boots used to drop in there, and i was in there for 36hours. I was the few necros (rallos) to get the boots. It was so back in the day, that people kept a list and actually /tell people it was their turn. I was in the group for 36 hours. I was at the point of "ok i am going to bed" and i was the next person to get them. Luckly for me, the guy that was before me, fell asleep, and i got them. WOOHOOOOO... that is one of the reasons i NEVER fell asleep at the keyboard.... LOL

But it was the best 36hrs of game time ever. People pulling from other places, I was lvl 18 at that time, and i was getting some nice experience, cause it was green to everyone else. Atleast that is what i remember, now that couldnt be the case, but then again it was what 7+ years ago.

[Klumpedge]

During a crafting stint in EQ2 they decided to give out double xp for the weekend due to some kindness or whatever, I am unsure of the actual reasons. I decided to take full advantage of the gift however and gained 21 crafting levels in just two days.
No, I dont believe I did much sleeping or anything else during that two day grind.

[Gallain Dryleaf]

My longest marathon was in support of my guild's clerics camping the original Zordak Ragefire spawn for the Cleric-epic Resurrection-on-a-stick. Then, the task was to fight your way deep through the fire giants of Nagafen's Lair to reach the old dragon's nest. Nagefen had to be killed in order for the spawn timer to start for Ragefire 72 hours later.

At the time, many clerics were after this spawn - in order to establish your 'claim' to the spawn, you had to hold the camp for the whole 72 hours. During that 72 hours, the fire giants had to be cleared so they would not come running in to assist Ragefire when he spawned - so you had to have a force capable of keeping the giants down.

If you noted my signature by now, you would see that this story is from the perspective of a supporting ranger. I was the 'radar' to help keep the group holding the camp alerted to the spawns of the giants once they were broken up. For me, this was a getting-to-know-you session. The giants would spawn every four hours, but in between, you just sat there and chatted with your guild and groupmates while annoucing to all who came and asked for a 'camp check':

/ooc RAGEFIRE CAMP!

The first Ridgerunner of Innoruuk cleric to camp for Ragefire was Angelika Lleopardbait. I learned that she and her husband played (he's Lleo Lleopardbait), and that he was playing from work (a video store he owned) and she was playing from home. For myself, I was working for a start-up telcom company in the throes of funding problems, so my absence wasnt adversely commented on the Friday morning the camp began. The Lleopardbaits would tag off each other controlling the cleric for the camp while various guildmembers put in appearances to hold the camp until the final hours. I managed to put in 23 hours to start the camp, then about 17 more hours after some sleep and then about the final 18 hours to get to the named spawn.

Right on schedule, 72 hours later, Zordak Ragefire spawned in his human form. In the hour before the spawn, the guild slowly moved into the lair for the fight. The fight was intense as I remember it now - all that time put in, nobody wanted to wipe-out and have another guild swoop in for the kill. In the end, Ragefire (dragon-form) was defeated, most of the raid force dead in Nagafen's lair, but Angelika did receive the quest piece. There was practically a parade to Timorous Deep carrying Angelika to the quest NPC for the final turn in for Water Sprinkler of Nem Ankh.

Now I've spun that tale to tell another...

Some weeks later, Lleo Lleopardbait began his 72 hour camp of Zordak Ragefire. Again the monotonous killing fire giants, fending off challenges to the camp and napping between giant spawns leads up to the Ragefire spawn. Again, the guild moves in to kill the human that becomes a dragon. And again the Ridgerunners of Innoruuk are victorious over the red dragon. Lleo loots the quest piece and..... YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED!

The server crashed just after we completed the kill and the cleric looted the quest piece, but because the server crashed, the event wasnt saved. We logged back in about an hour later to find all the player corpses in Nagefen's Lair, but no Ragefire, and no Shimmering Pearl Shard in Lleo's inventory. I think everyone there spammed Verant with emails about the injustice inflicted upon Lleo. About a week later, a GM spawned Ragefire for the Ridgerunners to take down again for Lleo. After that day, the watch-word for any major quest was Loot-and-Logout to force the save.

[bronstahd]

Longest for me was 77 hours without sleep, though only about 50 of it was in EQ - the rest in QWTF. Also pulled a 38 hour shift camping jboots. Ahhh youth.

[Blade Dancer]

My longest gaming session was on Eq, it was a fabled event when they first brought in the fableds.

Let me tell ya, its not a good way to enhance your marriage, nor keep the kids happy...

But on that odd occasion where you pull a solid 40 hours or so to get that item (in my case it was fabled flowing black silk sashes, fabled mithral bp's, fabled peggy cloaks that were the most time consuming. When youve done your 40+ hours with no sleep, and your Pickup Raid force gets to your spawn, and you know that your next to get it. For the time it takes your named to get taken down, you feel like a God!

And, when you get your item, and you look at it equipped on your toon, and your wife walks in with a disgusted look on her face and starts nagging you... you just look at her, and say, "Hi honey, would you like a cup of tea?" with a big grin on your face.

(In no way do i advise Anyone who is remotely sane to camp mobs for any sickening amount of time like I used to, I just hope in Vanguard there are no crazy respawn timers like in EQ)

On that note
Have a good one.
Bladesinger, lvl 70 Bard - 800+ AA's, Bristlebane
(will doof him off to someone when Vanguard goes live)