EverQuest/YMMV

Alt-Itis: Playing alternate characters is commonplace for many players. It lets them play the game through different playstyles and even experience different types of content and cities that their main may not have been able to access.
Best Level Ever: If you played EverQuest, you probably had at least one zone you liked to visit on occasion just because it was so durn pretty. And in EverQuest II, not only does the same apply, but you don't even have to worry about getting swamped under a mob of grey cons.
Broken Base: A few examples.
- You know those vaguely caricatured statements on how people denigrated the changes that streamlined the game? There are people who actually, honestly think that the level of misery the game engendered was good for it.
  - And the funny thing is, their complaints are right in a very specific sense: back in the days of misery, you got good or you gave up. Of course, softening the games blows made it more accessible to casual players (that in and of itself bothers some people), and the calamities the old ways would have caused, such as a raid wipe in Veeshan's Peak, are no longer the kind that literally cause players to quit the game. The utter bastardry of the game also engendered a kind of camaraderie, since you were forced to work together with other players just to have a chance.
Complacent Gaming Syndrome: This happens a lot, especially when it comes to zones. In EverQuest I, for example, most players park themselves inside Paludal Caverns until they're in their mid 20s levelwise, and never budge. It's also a vicious cycle: people want to group and so they hang out in Paludal because all the groups are there, so more people come to Paludal, so even more of the groups are there...
Ensemble Darkhorse: Fippy Darkpaw, a level six gnoll who repeatedly committed suicide by charging headlong at the gates of Qeynos (which were guarded by level 50 guards). As the joke went, "Who wants to see The Fabled Fippy Darkpaw finally hack his way into Qeynos and take revenge for all those years of torment?". Not exactly a joke, since there was a Fabled Fippy Darkpaw during an event, who managed to get inside Quenyos. Many other Fabled creatures appeared, such as Fabled Ambassor D'vinn, or Fabled Garanel Ruskiff.
Fan Hater: EverQuest players do not like World of Warcraft. Bashing World of Warcraft is a common pastime in general chat.
Goddamn Bats: Many monsters will attack a player regardless of how much stronger he is. Most players have experienced at least once being killed by an entire army of creatures half their level.
Jumped the Shark: Most old school EverQuest players point to the release of the Plane of Knowledge as the place where the shark was jumped. Of course, you have people who point to Kunark as the shark-jumping moment, especially with regards to class balance, as well.
Memetic Mutation: EverQuest I is the originator of "Ding! (Grats!)".
Most Wonderful Sound:
- EverQuest is the codifier of DING!
- Grats!
Scrappy Mechanic: Whew.
- Back in the old days, EverQuest I had "hell levels", so called because the way the experience was calculated caused certain levels to take ages to clear. Specifically, multiples of 5 (30, 35, 40, etc...). This was removed after SOE took over from Verant Interactive and, among other changes, redid the experience mechanics.
- Trains. The provider of the page quote. Trains happen when a player or group is overwhelmed or overmatched and are forced to flee to the zone line. The group of monsters that attacked them, as well as any that get picked up during the run, are the train.
- Corpse Runs have been removed from the game. It used to be that if a player died, his corpse, along with all his/her weapons, armor and items, remained where he/she died. So if you died in the depths of a dungeon, retrieving your corpse was a very difficult proposition. Plus, in the old days, you could actually have your corpse decay if you couldn't get to it in a week, taking all your stuff with it. Literally many players left the game after losing a corpse in Veeshan's Peak or Kedge Keep or some other difficult dungeon.
That One Boss: Dozens of them, seriously. In an effort to make the game more challenging for the ever-increasing-in-power player base, boss mobs come equipped with debuffs of ever-increasing-nastiness.
That One Level:
- Deepest Guk (EverQuest I) is notorious for how close together the monsters are. It simply cannot be done without an Enchanter to "mez" and prevent "overpulls".
- Pretty much any level with a zone-wide debuff. Here's looking at you, Uqua The Ocean God's Chantry.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks:
- Many, many players long, or think they long, for the days when Verant Interactive ran the game, as opposed to Sony. I mean, who actually misses waiting 15 minutes for a boat while trying to build up your sense heading skill by clicking a button over and over and over and over again? Now we have teleporters for instant pan-oceanic travel, a default score of 100 at sense heading, which means the compass actually functions instead of spinning randomly. Who'd miss sitting and clicking? A bunch of vocal players, that's who. This troper totally misses spending the first 34 levels as a caster having to stare at his spellbook (opening it up so you could see nothing else on your screen but the chat windows, though you could still hear what was going on around you) and hit the "meditate" button in order to regenerate mana. The social interaction that EverQuest presented was one of the more fun aspects of the game. Players actually had to wait around for things to happen. This presented a great opportunity for players to make friends with others and help pass the time while waiting. Now though... The use of Instancing and instant transportation just takes all the fun out of it. It's like this though, guys. Instancing and instant transportation may lead to Complacent Gaming Syndrome and different (not exactly fewer) social interactions. But it also does away with those rotten days running from (for example) the snow orc temple in Everfrost to Highkeep looking for (and not finding) a group, and there's great satisfaction in getting a top quality group that can plow through four instances in a sitting too.
Unfortunate Implications: Some people felt this way about white people and black people being two entirely different races in EverQuest I. Whites were regular humans, while blacks were tall slender universally intellectual people called "erudites". In EverQuest II, SoE changed it so all humans, as well as half-elves and barbarians, could have various skin colors including shades of dark brown. Meanwhile, the erudites were changed to have skin in various shades of gray. They brought back the original style erudites in Sentinel's Fate though.