Online Memories: My Day As A Monster

It was Fall 2001. And before the World of Warcraft, there was Everquest, at the time it was THE online game of choice.

I never really used the Everquest test servers, but I heard talk of a new feature coming out called an MPC, or Monster Player Character. “Project M” it was called. As I recall, this feature actually went live for a day or two. If you were one of the lucky few lucky enough to see this fun fiasco, you certainly remember it.

The specifics are vague, but here’s how I recall it.

On the player log in screen, there was a button labeled “Monster” that you could click and be inserted into the game as a random monster. It was typically a low-level mob. That first day (and perhaps the only day) was absolutely insane. I had to feel bad for anyone who had happened to sign up that day.

There were rumors of swarms of rats and skeletons outside of the newbie area of Qeynos, waiting to attack unassuming low levels players who stepped far enough outside of the guard’s realm of protection.

I kept going into the game as different monsters, landing in different zones each time. I finally made it to Qeynos as a low level rat. I stood back and just watched, literally laughing out loud. I saw a low level character saunter out past the guards… and get ambushed and quickly killed by about 7 MPC rats. I noticed MPC rats attacking each other all around the area. Eventually one of the MPC’s attacked me and I died.

You could level your monster up during that session, but you couldn’t save your progress. Once you died, you were back at the character select screen and that monster was gone forever. MPC’s could not communicate at all. I recall another zone (can’t recall the name) and there were probably 15 MPC’s, waiting just behind a hill for someone to walk by. We couldn’t communicate, but somehow we all knew that we were there to cause havoc.

After a couple hours, I logged off, having had one of the most unusual nights I had ever had in an online game.

The next day I logged on and my beloved “Monster” button was gone. Apparently the powers at be never imagined swarms of MPC’s ambushing new players. Rumor was that it introduced a PvP element that the programmers had never intended.

It’s one of those rare events that is almost forgotten now.

There would be other unexpected one-time online events, such as the 2005 World of Warcraft plague that swept throughout the game. But for those of us who stood as rats outside of Qeynos back on that day, we’ll never forget that unique experience.