RIP oldschool EQ before Daybreaker of Games took over and destroyed the franchise.
But the original one will still remain as the best MMO I've ever played in my life. All hail Rallos Zek PvP~
This game does not baby you. It drops you in a mysterious land where a bat can destroy you and takes 5 minutes to kill. But the progression is real -- you start as a weak peasant and turn into a powerful sorcerer or whatever your class is. Even spell effects progress: You won't see your level 60 fireball look like your level 1 weak one.
Death means something in this game - accomplishments mean serious business. Your inventory are trophies of where you've been. It's not like WoW where you can just auction house the best in the game for some gold that 1000 other people are selling competitively. None of that crap.
This is a brutal game. Consider it Dark Souls Online MMO in a fantasy land.