There is an important social aspect to EQ, which becomes evident at initial stages of the game. To progress and survive, one must make contact, talk and exchange information with other players. It is important to make friends as most adventures require three to six people and some of the larger adventures, known as "Raids", can take up to 80 players.
As such, the game can be described as highly interactive. .
The evolution of the EQ economy has an interesting history. In the early days of EQ, selling and buying equipment, weapons and other items was restricted to dealings with Non player characters or NPC's. However, since the introduction of the bazaar, a place for players to sell and buy wares, within the game, a new goal has manifested itself in the form of economics and trade. This new feature has captured a new type of player: the trader. .
There is always something to do on EQ. Activities range from guild raids, a group adventure or some trading to do in the bazaar, a player can always chat with other players. It is common knowledge that the internet is infested with chat web sites and this pass time has also been branded "addictive" by many groups. A search on the popular search website Google using the words "addicted" and "chat" will expose hundreds of sites providing help to people who are addicted to chatting online. It is ironic that these sites use the chat room format to combat an addiction to just that - chatting online. A game that has adventure, fun and excitement and a chat room facility does indeed have the making for a cyber utopia.
In existing research on video game addiction, there is a notable lack of opinion from the players prospective. On talking to players within the game about there view in regards to addictive nature of EQ, it was found that most players think they play too much, some playing more than 8 hours a day and other who are allocated time to play by loved ones or other commitments.