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WoW has the success EQ2 should have
Shorun
Member UncommonPosts: 247
I think WoW has 9 million accounts, what's about 8 million players. Everquest 2 has about 270.000-300.000 players, which is, compared to WoW, not really much. But EQ1 was so succesful (for the year 1999 it had many players!), why isn't Everquest 2?
We start at the character creation. In WoW you've got 10 races, in EQ2 16. In WoW you have got about 10 things you can change at your character, in Everquest about 40. Then choose the class. In Everquest you have 24 classes (I think) in WoW 9.
It goes on with the "WoW is so beginner friendly". I tell you what! In WoW there is no tutorial and you have to choose a craft without knowing what it does. When my friend started he didn't know anything, and without my help (I played MMOs before) he would have given up early. In Everquest 2 you were on a ship (this tutorial doesn't exist anymore.....don't know why) and youhad a good tutorial. You got a book were every craft is explained.
You start playing. First impression of Everquest 2 graphics: This game has the best MMO graphics in 2007, and it was created in 2004! First impression of WoW graphics: A) Teletubbies Online or 
Blizzard's Starcraft 2 comes out in 2008 and looks like a game from early 2006, that tells you everything.
Now to the gameplay. It's not very different, but EQ2 gameplay is faster, in WoW you battle about 30 secs in EQ2 about 10 secs (Exception: Paladin).
The quests are not very different.
Crafting is bigger and better in EQ2. I don't have to tell you more. I think you all know it.
The world is big enough in both games, but I can't say one is bigger. But what I'm able to say is, that Everquest 2 brought 6 expansions in 2004-2007. In this time WoW had only one expansion. Blizzard is really slow. The content is the same lvl1-70.
Everquest is better than WoW in every way, so why don't have their success? Just only of the hardware?
Comments
Random reasons why I think Worldof Warcraft is more successful:
1.) Hardware requirements were and are low - EverQuest II's requirements were horribly high at release
2.) Blizzard has a fantastic name that stands for quality software - Sony Online Entertainment does not
3.) Warcraft is a longstanding, established franchise that people outside the realm of MMOGs know of - EverQuest is not
4.) EverQuest II became a great game, it did not start off very well, while World of Warcraft started out stronger
5.) World of Warcraft had a massive, fairly accessible open beta
6.) Most of World of Warcraft's success comes from overseas in Asian countries, places where EverQuest II is not appealing
Those are just some of many reasons, but the culmination is this:
7.) The snowball effect: when one game starts out really strong, it spreads faster due to friends staying together. This in turn makes more people join, to be with the masses. So, once you get big, you get bigger. WoW started like a juggernaut, and has become more of one (though it has leveled off). EQ2 did not start well, and even though now I agree it is a fantastic game, it cannot and will not ever catch up.
Sad, but true.
Having spent roughly 10 minutes in WoW I can't speak to it's gameplay, but I can say that visually it wasn't appealing to me. But to most young gamers it looks very similar to what console RPG games look like. The idea of a massive world where you can play with your friends is being discovered by millions whereas in 1999 only a few thousand really knew.
Surely much of WoW's success is due to their opening up the Asian market. Additionally younger gamers who previously wouldn't play an MMO are starting with WoW.
Only after seeing WOW's success did they add solo content. After that It was too late, I was already hooked on WOW. Also with no PVP at the start of EQ2, they lost customers also based on that fact. Had they released with better solo content and pvp, they would have done at least a little better.
If Warhammer or AOC arent that good, I may think about going back for a change of pace. However, I really dont like starting games that have been out a while. I like to get in at the begining.
After playing EQ1 for three years, I bought EQ2 at its release. The computer that I had at the time wasn`t capable of showing what EQ2 could really do graphically wise. I also was use to the EQ1 style of gameplay and since EQ1 was the only MMO that I had ever played I guess I didn`t like the new game style. I went back to EQ1 but I decided to give WoW a try about a month after its release. Wow just grabbed me from the start. The game ran great, looked great, and it played great. The games interface and controls were top notch. I didn`t expect the game to be EQ so I went in willing to accept the game. I loved the way you could solo, something that was very difficult to do in EQ1 and EQ2 (when EQ2 launched). I decided to give EQ2 another shot around the time EQ2 DoF expansion was released but I went back to WoW because I was use to the WoW style of play by then. And WoW was booming. EQ2 was still kind of tough to solo at this time and the population just wasn`t there. I played WoW happily but I started to feel the grind of WoW after about 1 1/2 years of playing. I liked the pve and pvp of WoW and I loved the Battlegrounds, but the raids were long and the lack of classes were getting old. The lvl grind got old too so I decided to log in to EQ2 to try one last time. EQ2 had changed.....for the better. I could now roam Antonica without all the ^^^ groups killing me constantly. I could solo. There were more people playing. I actually found out that my spells and combat abilities could be upgraded LOL. I bought KoS (it had been out for a while) and I haven`t stopped playing EQ2 since. EQ2 just grabbed me now. No more quests to be a Monk or Conjurer. Just so many changes to EQ2 to try to say here. Everything was changed for the better IMO. I`ve logged into WoW from time to time, I bought Burning Crusades. I just have a hard time enjoying WoW now. EQ2 is the best MMO I have ever played by far. I have a new computer now and that makes the game even better. I have all expansions and adventure packs; there is just so much to do. The crafting is the best I have ever done.
I topped out several toons on WoW (before BC) and I have 2 topped out toons on EQ2, but EQ2 hasn`t gotten old for me. Not even close. The game is just getting better.
I played the trial for everquest 2 really didn't like the art style. Maybe it's just the kid in me who hates realism and yearns for cartoon violence (thanks Warcraft and Warhammer) To each his own, a simple concern where the entire game I look at I guess..
The reasons why WoW has 9 million subscribers and EQ2 has only 173k are quite numerous but lets list them.
1. Polish at release. WoW was exceptionaly well polished at release with every little detail fantistically done from the wag of a Tauren's tail to little touches hidden in dungeons. EQ2 wasw rough and should have not been released for at least another year. Gamers will only give a game once chance. If your not ready at release you will never get a second chance. What is inetresting now is SOE is spending a ton oif money tryiong to convince people that EQ2 is making acomeback. They have given over 200k people free copies of EQ2 all the expansions and free play time in hopes of convincing people that there are people actually playing this game. Will it work? Maybe, its quite a good idea for a company that is in quite a desperate situation.
2. Fun Wow was fun, it had humor and played smooth. EQ2 was drab, boring and ugly and lacked severely in the fun factor. I played in both betas and I fully expected to hate WoW and love EQ2 but it turned out the opposite but EQ2 simply lacked that fun factor.
3. Quests While EQ2 to its credit tried to copy WoW's quest system late in beta and shift to quest directed gameplay it quests lacked the imagination, organization and design that WoW's quests had. WoW used centralized quest hubs to limit the running. EQ2 used a lot more Fed ex type quests with a lot more running and spread out over larger areas. EQ2 quests lacked the flow of WoW's quests giving the player a much more forced feeling. EQ2 spawns at release often did not have near enough spawns to handle their quests and often required a great deal of waiting for mobs to respawn. WoW's quests were also more complex and strategic requiring players to work their way thru mobs slowly and patientlky to their goal. Camps and quests were designed and arranged in such a way to require a progression and give a feeling of accomplishment rather than mowing down mindless mobs. This was really one of the brilliant achievements of WoW. The leveling time at release was not much faster than other games but the quest directed and progressive gameplay with constant achiement gave players the impression that were not grinding and that they were leveling much faster. WoW also used more modern technolgy at release wiyth many intersting clicky and suprise quests. Lastly the story in WoW's quests were considerably better.
4. Class Design Blizzard did a fantastic job of fleshing out their classes and making them unique and fun in their own way. EQ2 used the archetype system where classes werew all quite esimilar especially at release and not unique.EQ2 had 16 classes at release but it was more like 4 classes with small differences. I remeber being overwhelmed by how unimaginative and stale EQ2 classes seemed.
5. The World EQ2's world was boring, dark, drab, very small, lacking in variety, poorly designed and instanced. WoW's worlds was huge coompraed to EQ2, seamless, offering variety, wonder and containing many hidden nooks and crannies filled with suprises.
6. Details WoW's success was about detail. Every area, every character, every dungeon, every feature was broken down and polished to the smallest detail. Blizzard would introduce new content, polish it shine and it made sure it works fantastic before releasing it. At release rtaher than intoducing new content they went thru every quest in the game and made small minor changes such as movinga NPC to a better place even if only 10 feet. But the approach here was lets make it perfect before we start adding new content. SOE had the opposite approach. They would find an idea in another game put it into EQ2 with little thought how it would affect the world and not worry about bugs, polish, QA and then move to the next idea. No QA all quantity over quality. While some ideas shined like their quest journal most ideas were bland and boring.
7. Grahics EQ2's world was drab, boring and not alive. The character models are awful blocky, stiff and they look plastic. WoW's world and charcters look alive. The characters and sway when they walk and tun and the graphics and world are much more immersive. In the screenshots EQ2 looked great and much better than WoW but actually playing the games was the complete opposite. I remeber playing EQ2 after WoW and having to log out many times because the game just looked so ugly in comparison.
8. Open Beta Blizzard set SOE up. They knew they had the better game and they knew how greedy and impatient SOE was ands how much SOE wanted to release EQ2. They just waited and kept developing until EQ2 announced their release date then they lowered the boom and startd thier open beta for 500k people a few days before EQ2's release. Effectively killing any chance EQ2 would ever have of being successful a game. Ruthless.
9. Dungeons WoW released with many well done dungeons. EQ2 with few that were even mediocre.
10. Orginality WoW desigend itself for casual players, solo players and made its entire game directed around quests. Many people if not most people in the industry thought these ideas would fail miserably. By the time SOE found out how well recieved these ideas were it was to late fo them to change their game design and compete with WoW. Instead they just had to play catch up. The problem here for EQ2 was they were just trying to make their game be a copy of WoW without the resources, knowledge, or time to effectively replicate the game they were competing with.
11. Blizzard vs SOE Competence vs incompetence. Short term profits vs. long term profits. A desire to make fun games vs. A company that only cares about making short term profits. The biggest difference here is Blizzards number one goal is to make fun quality games. They know if they achieve this goal they will make money. This is a lesson SOE has never learned. If you design your games for fun rather than let your marketing department design them for hype you will make a lot more money in the long run.
12. Money Blizzard spent $75 million developing WoW and SOE reportedly only spent $25 million.
Whats intersting here is both games sold a ton of copies right away. After about 1-2 months both games had close to an equal amount of subscribers. WoW then desided not to release any new boxes for sale for a month or two so as not to stress their servers, staff and allow themselves to continue improving the game. EQ2 apoplogists trry to say WoW had all the hype but that is not true EQ2 was the bigger game and the game more people were looking forward to/ The sales and subs were even for for the first few months. What set the two games apart was not the hype but the quality of the two games, the design, the difference in company philosphies, the deatils, and most of all the fun factor. WOW was simply a well made fun game. If not for WoW EQ2 would have most likely been better received and a great success. WoW simply raised the bar of quality. One may not like their game design and I for one do not but I cannot help but acknowledge how well their game was made. WoW forced SOE to change the game design of EQ2 and redo their game to be more like WoW. They simply could not compete with WoW at release on those terms. There are no second chances. EQ2 will never be what it could have been.
It will be intresting to see if SOE's new strategy works. Trying to covince people to play EQ2 by telling them that its a growing game but its only growing because SOE is giving people the game for free. Its a pretty bold strategy. New players playing for free will obviously give the appearance of growth by repopulating the low level areas. But how long can they keep bringing in new free players to give the appearance the game is enjoying a resurgence. It really is SOE's only chance. They do not have another game with more than 50k subscribers and EQ2 is their only marketable game right now. Maybe in a year or two Vanguard or Agency might take over that mantle but for now EQ2 is essentially their only game. Although how much longer will it be before EQ2 is viewed as an old game that no one plays? One maybe two years? This marketing gamble is probably SOEs last chance to save EQ2. As much as this smells of SOE lies I think its a great idea and a chance to save a game that is really not that bad a game but rather a game that deserves better.
Fun factor? That all depends on what you are looking for. The questing in WoW makes it so that you progressively knock out an area then move to the next. In EQ2 you run around and do different quests all over. This makes it so you don't just beat the death a certain area and then never come back to it. Tell me, in WoW, do you ever run back to The Barrens at level 70 besides to get to the city? Nope. I have played EQ2 off and on and the ONLY difference in the quest systems were 1). Share button 2). Rewards shown 3). Tracking ...That was it. EQ2 took those and put it into their own game, yep, but they definitely didn't have mindless mowing of mobs as quests. I have beaten both games to death and I can tell you WoW has the mowfest of a lifetime. All you do is gather quests for the same mobs and kill them. Leveling in WoW was the easiest thing I have done since Tetris on my Nintendo. You could get to 50 in 4 days played or less, then to 60 within 2 more days of that! EQ took me DOZENS and EQ2 took me about 12-15 first time around!
Class design? Please! All WoW does is cover the basics and throw in a few hybrids. EQ2 released archtypes so players could decide exactly what they wanted to play. If they wanted to play a tank they would pick warrior. From there they would choose a DPS AE tank, Zerker, or the straight forward hate tank, Guardian. What does WoW offer? You can pick a warrior then choose his talent tree to decide what he is? What kind of variety are you getting by only being limited to a certain class then just jumbling their skills?
WoW's world is the same textures repeated and overlaid. That is how you get your huge world. You tell me you would rather play on a 1000 acre piece of white paper or a designed terrain that you can't just run across.
EQ2 character models, I will agree, do look like they have had plastic surgery. I will also say though that WoW's graphics are catchy to the young eye and require less stress on any PC.
WoW and EQ2 NEVER had the same sales or hype. WoW has been anticipated since the year 2000 when they released a trailer to the public. EQ2 was a short notice release that left many EQ1 players in doubt and questioned the new genre. The subs and sales for WoW were record breaking; it was insanely popular for being the first of its kind. Its the Blizzard name that got the game where it is today NOT actually whether or not it is the best game on the market. You really think that in China players will resort to Sony, a company that hasn't made video game appearances to their country, or Blizzard which has dominated the world since Warcraft 1? Here's an example. When the XBOX 360 released in Japan it was estimated that less than 10,000 units sold in the first month. You could walk into any store and pick one up. In the US the 360 sold millions and were not available anywhere. Reporters wrote stories of how the name of Microsoft is not affiliated with the country; players will buy games of companies they are familiar with.
Please don't post these misleading posts that have no backup. I, as many others, hate seeing false information that is no supported by any means.
I lol about you people trying to take the credit away from wow since it's really a very good game.
Im playing both atm ,on a pretty good pc. WoW still feels more alive, the asian market has around 50% of the playersbase(that's 4-5 mil)+ I know alot of people who tried/are playing wow.
I've been playing wow since feb 05' and most of the players i've met where in the 16-40 range. I've also played lot's of other mmo's in wich I've never met so many trash talkers,trolls etc. The chance of finding a "evul" person in wow is a lot higher since there's simply a lot of people playing.
To sum it all up. Wow is more succesfull then eq2 because : The art design is pleasing to the eye,makes you feel as if your in one of those fantasy tales you were reading as a kid. The gameplay feels right,like in any other action game:animations are smooth and interesting. Another important factor would be the warcraft ip. The content is ok,sound is also ok.
now to eq2. ok you got lot's of classes,you can customise your char but let's be serious. Most people who play games casualy simply can't be arsed to customise their charcter. The movement feels a little choppy. The areas of the game kinda look bland even on maxed out gfx. Was just going trought commonlands yesterday night and thought: My god ...it feels just like in classic AO. Another thing that I don't like about eq2 is the server population...you only find a decent amount of people on during prime time. If eq2 had a better engine like the one lotro has...it would have deffo had more succes.Tbh ...the main thing I don't like about eq2 are the graphics /
sorry for my awfull spelling(im in a big hurry:D)
I agree totally. I originally tried WoW out because well, um it's blizzard. Warcraft 1-3, Diablo 1-2, and Starcraft were all games that I liked and would actually still play if I wasn't spending my time of late playing other games. It wasn't my first MMO, but it is one that I still play. Mainly due to real life friends who continue to play. I joined guildwars also because Anet is basically made up of alot of folks who left Blizzard. I'll probably play Hellgate: London for the same reason.
Personally I feel that WoW is a very polished game for what it is trying to deliver. It may not be as complex as others, but I don't think that was the aim either. To find that type you have to join a niche game. Why? Because complexity is the venom in the snakebite when it applies itself to the larger MMO player base---------> THE CASUAL GAMER.
As far as those who think it's too easy, well....my personal opinion: I hate lvl progression in any game. Doesn't matter if 1-150, 1-50, 1-70 etc etc is hard or not, the in-between is for the birds. I never remember when I was like lvl 30, I could care less. My goal was always lvl cap. I think a game should be about content. Sure you need some sort of progression to make you feel as though your building a character. Imitating life so to speak, but what most MMO's including WoW lack is any type of feeling that your apart of a story. "Oh, it's an MMO...you build your own story", Which is precisely where I think this genre is lacking. Guildwars may have gotten this part right. The progression of the character was imbedded into a story. Then all the other fun stuff was end game.
But um...no offense, Sony can kiss my ass. They ruin games. Loved EQ1 tho. Matrix Online should have been an awesome game. It wasn't. SWG was a good game. WAS being key. I just will not support SOE anymore. I think many feel that way regardless of the title and game quality they may bring to the table in future endeavors. opinion of course. Truthfully speaking, they would need a grandslam of a game to change my opinion of them.
OK, i've read and seen both games...and from reading a lot of other posts, i see a rift. A rift between those of us that have played MMO's and those just coming onboard since '05 or so. EQ2 and other even older MMO's have CONTENT. WoW is a game that sells due to being a collection of gimics. Yes WOW plays on tired pc's, you know..the kind your parents have, that they see no need to upgrade and works fine for the business/personal reasons they bought it for. If, however you are a true gamer, you will prefer games like EQ2...why? CONTENT. WOW is what it is, a surface game. There is no depth to it. I, like many others gave WoW a chance...although it's an incrediblaly easy game to complete, i was always left wanting more..and WoW doesn't have it.
The numbers say it all, is the arguement. We are left here, the players wanting more...or happy with less. It's easy..if you are a follower that NEEDS to be powerleveled and constantly spam the general chat in main cities requesting entry into the "COOL" guilds then WoW is your game, play it and have fun. If you want to be truly challenged with storyline and content, play with a smaller but much more mature group then EQ, EQ2, DAoC ....obviously the list goes on an on...doesn't that say something?? So the arguement is moot, in the end. At this time i'm oversea's and do not play an MMO right now, when i return, i can promise you my choice would not be WoW.
I'm just not a follower, urning for an easy to play game with a lack of content...if 9mill. pple are happy being ripped off, then good for them. My 2 bani...
La Revedere!
DAoC since launch and Beta X3
City of Heroes Beta
Lineage 2 beta
WoW since launch quit soon after
WoW again at expansion quit again soon after
EQ and EQ2 off and on
WWII online off and on
Guild Wars...since beta quit soon after
Please do not call others players who like playing the game that they like being rip off.
WoW gives content without asking you to pay, but in Eq2 you have to buy every x-pac.
WoW graphics is a continue of their rts game, thats why the graphics is like that. But if you really play WoW you will really have to admire their detail in games. Every node, every block and miss is being show. But what i like in EQ2 is when you pass by a npc, it will turn his head and look at you, which is pretty amazing to me!
Ultimatly like what a few post above me says, the launch of the games fail EQ2, it doesn't cater to the majority of the casual gamers and that is where it fail. But it is still a good game now in its own right. Just enjoy whichever games that you are playing.
edit: i dont like the harvest part of Eq2 where you are bending around and... i dont know what my chrac is doing...
We are only gamers
RIP Orc Choppa
Ok, care to mention 1 expansion to WoW that is free?
Can you explain why you have to buy first wow for its retail price and then you have to also buy(!) the expansion pack for its retail price. While you can buy EQ2 all in one package(s).
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
Also note.. whether you think its good or bad, theres a higher percentage of people in WoW PvPing then there are raiding, so the lack of PvP in EQ2 could not of helped their sales any.
Ok, care to mention 1 expansion to WoW that is free?
Can you explain why you have to buy first wow for its retail price and then you have to also buy(!) the expansion pack for its retail price. While you can buy EQ2 all in one package(s).
If I'm wrong about some of those sorry... but I'm pretty sure those were all done through patches. I think I mightve even missed one or two.
Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Ruins of Lordaeron for PvP.
Zul' Gurub, Naxxaramas, Ahn' Qiraj, Black Temple, Black Wing Lair, and Dire Maul for PvE.
They're not free expansions but have all been released free through patches. I don't play EQ so I don't know if they release dungeons and stuff with their patches.
Edit: I play WoW because a lot of my friends play/played it. Also the only thing that kept me going with it is PvP. First BGs and now Arenas. I'm not sure if EQ has much PvP content... A lot of people probably are in the same boat as me. Why play EQ2 if a bunch of your friends are playing WoW? I would much rather play a game where i have many RL friends.
I think a point you forgot is the zones and how they broke up the world. If I really think about it, the two worlds might actually be about the same size, but it just seems like EQ 2 is very small.
I only have to go a few steps and then I am at another zone line. in Freeport is there 4 zone lines that seems like a lot for one city. Although WoW makes you zone into instanaces, and makes you zone into the outland other then that it's just one world and it's nice not to load so much.
Another point I think you might have forgotten is how alive the characters seem. EQ 2, no doubt, has the best pure look of a character. I have even spent over 30 minutes changing the look of my charater in the menu, but once they are in game they seems dead. The animations are limited and switching between animations seems poor. WoW doesn't look that great, but once that character gets in game they seem alive and the amount of animations added to the character is great and makes my character come to life.]
Sornin's second point was huge, the game quality on launch.
I think EQ 2 should stop trying to catch up to WoW, but instead should try to get more subscribers then ...
<FYI EQ2 is at 1.4 total MMO players, while WoW has 52.9% of the total people playing MMO's>
<source: http://www.mmogchart.com/ >
Ok, care to mention 1 expansion to WoW that is free?
Can you explain why you have to buy first wow for its retail price and then you have to also buy(!) the expansion pack for its retail price. While you can buy EQ2 all in one package(s).
He's talking about the patches that added Mara, BWL, ZG etc... The game had little to no end game content at launch, they had to release these as they were finished to prevent players from leaving in mass, it was so easy and took such little time to reach end game to leave players with nothing to do untill an expansion.
Back to the OP...
System requirments. If you had a pc, chances are you could play WoW... at max settings for alot of people. While the graphics were horrid from a technical standpoint they had supurb artistic design, players progressed from zone to zone quickly with each zone having a fairly unique artistic direction, in EQ2 you spent alot of time in commonlands and antonica and the zones are just blah after spending so much time there. The performance was poor at the time and system requirments were pretty high.
EQ2 wasnt even an afterthought for many due to zero pvp at launch, and no plans to add it. It wasnt untill they saw the runaway success of WoW that they realized to ingore pvp was a mistake.
WoW was just more accessible for people who had never played mmo's before. Anyone would start a toon and reach end game with little effort. The game held your hand the entire way. You could almost level up to cap on quests alone, and for the most part the quests led you from quest hub to quest hub, a player left not knowing what to do next was uncommon. EQ2 was not this way at launch, the noob island was pretty structured but that quickly changed. It took alot of grouping / grinding and some people just felt lost.
I think if EQ2 had launched in the state it's in now things would be alot different. I think WoW would still have more numbers due to system requirments and the fact it is still far more noob friendly than EQ2.
I'd just like to chime in on this, because I think this is just easy categorization, or even a widespread misconception. While it is true that WoW has a much much more newcomer-heavy player base, the sole reason for that is because it has created it! It has brought more newcomers to the genre than pretty much any other game, hence the number of the - I'm sure, lovingly-called - "newbies". I met many content old-timers (coming from UO, EQ, AC, DAOC, SWG) in WoW. I was one of them.
Some other misconceptions:
* It's not "just for kiddies". My guild's average age was 30+ when I was playing. My buddy list comprised players who were mostly in their late 20s and 30s - and older. Even when you changed servers, you easily found such guilds. The adults might not be in the majority, but still there was a great number of them.
* The cartoon style does not cater to the young only. In my experience, teenagers give much more import to high polygon count and "realism" than adult players do. Many of my old-fart friends loved the simple but effective character animations. The general artwork style was popular, too.
* WoW did not solely feed off the Blizzard tag. Yes, their reputation as makers of plain fun games must have helped, but I met relatively few people who were Warcraft, Diablo or Starcraft players. I was even surprised by the number of players who had no idea what a Blizzard is supposed to be other than a weather phenomenon.
* It is also not true that WoW had the advantage that everybody's system could handle WoW at the time of its release... However low the specs may be, still most of the people I know had to upgrade their systems to play it smoothly (especially in raids or group PVP battles). It's true that EQ2 had commercially shot itself in the foot with its system requirements, but just know that there *are* quite some players who went and upgraded their machines for WoW, too.
All this has nothing to do with the quality of either game, of course... I'm just trying to say it's simply not true that WoW ise solely for newcomers and veteran MMORPGers all look elsewhere for fun.
On top of that I recall trying both on release because they both came out around the same time and both were packed with people. The difference is that more people enjoyed Wow and it's initial population increased. On the flip side not as many people liked EQ2 and quit to go play WoW. EQ2 is better then it used to be, but I still don't find it as enjoyable to play as WoW of which I have quit about 5 months ago.
I also agree that there has to be a decent amount of older players playing it. For one thing it's easy to level quickly with all the quests. This appeals to those with full time jobs who can't play a lot. As said the cartoon graphics are not just enjoyable to kids. Once you get to be an adult "not teenager", you will probably come to realize that kid stuff is some of the most enjoyable stuff on the planet. I still watch old kids movies once in a while that I watched as a kid and now watch new kids movies like Shrek and Cars. There is just some simplistic enjoyment that you get of these type of simple kiddie things. Both myself and my boss played WoW for over a year.
EQ2 didnt launch a terrible game, it just didnt launch as a 'noob' friendly game. You cant knock the quality of a game by how many pc's can run it at high graphic settings.
I hope WoW has many good years left too... not because I think I'm better than WoW players, but because I do not want casual players to cause SoE to water my game down anymore than they already have.
So please by all means, do not play EQ2.
there are 3 reasons as to why wow has higher crowd then eq2
1: the warcraft series where really popular and had a huge communitie unlike eq2(same thing will probably happen with WAR mark my words...)
2: wow runs litterly on ANY system unlike eq2 where you need a decent/good system to run it
3: the launch of eq2 was shit...you could comper it with vanguard (imo) ...but unlike vanguard they fixed the game up pretty fast but with that they lost a lot of players
Those are the ONLY 3 logic reasons imo
since both games are pretty similar in other areas
- both have good contend / both have shity pvp / and both have maunts and all that other "i want" things etcetc....
I also guess the cartoony look has a great appeal. Not to me, but obviously to many.
Its indeed as someone said a snowball effect. Mass attracts more mass. Also take into account that the Warcraft games were very popular already.
Just by itself EQ2 is a far better game. But as the saying goes. "Eat shit. Billions of flies can't err."
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Its quite simple actually: Wow is more fun. In the end comparisions of numbers and values are just that: statistics. If people have more fun playing wow then it should be more successfull. Once Wow had 500k subs nothing could stop it and the sub number started to rise like mad. Even I as a pvper enjoyed the pve aspects of the game (level 1- 60, a few end game dungeons).
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Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Ok, care to mention 1 expansion to WoW that is free?
Can you explain why you have to buy first wow for its retail price and then you have to also buy(!) the expansion pack for its retail price. While you can buy EQ2 all in one package(s).
If I'm wrong about some of those sorry... but I'm pretty sure those were all done through patches. I think I mightve even missed one or two.
Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Ruins of Lordaeron for PvP.
Zul' Gurub, Naxxaramas, Ahn' Qiraj, Black Temple, Black Wing Lair, and Dire Maul for PvE.
They're not free expansions but have all been released free through patches. I don't play EQ so I don't know if they release dungeons and stuff with their patches.
Well they have released content through patches just as it has to WoW.
So is there a free expansion pack to WoW. (That is a retorical question.)
In reference to the statement and my questions one could put it this way aswell.
There are 3 expansions and 3 adventure packs to EQ2 while WoW with it's huge playerbase only have 1 expansion pack.
(Ah, yeah... that's why one can say EQ2 subscribers have to pay for their x-packs. That's why someone says well atleast in WoW we haven't got x-pack every years, sounding like it really is a good thing.)
Besides those hyped dungeons like Naxxramas, BWL, MC there have not been that much work put into the content of WoW. Those raid instances that caters for people opposite of the claimed casual player base, and target, of WoW. Regarding the free content I don't see Blizzard as being something special I just see that they only released one major content patch (expansion) after 2 years.
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
Ok, care to mention 1 expansion to WoW that is free?
Can you explain why you have to buy first wow for its retail price and then you have to also buy(!) the expansion pack for its retail price. While you can buy EQ2 all in one package(s).
If I'm wrong about some of those sorry... but I'm pretty sure those were all done through patches. I think I mightve even missed one or two.
Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Ruins of Lordaeron for PvP.
Zul' Gurub, Naxxaramas, Ahn' Qiraj, Black Temple, Black Wing Lair, and Dire Maul for PvE.
They're not free expansions but have all been released free through patches. I don't play EQ so I don't know if they release dungeons and stuff with their patches.
Well they have released content through patches just as it has to WoW.
So is there a free expansion pack to WoW. (That is a retorical question.)
In reference to the statement and my questions one could put it this way aswell.
There are 3 expansions and 3 adventure packs to EQ2 while WoW with it's huge playerbase only have 1 expansion pack.
(Ah, yeah... that's why one can say EQ2 subscribers have to pay for their x-packs. That's why someone says well atleast in WoW we haven't got x-pack every years, sounding like it really is a good thing.)
Besides those hyped dungeons like Naxxramas, BWL, MC there have not been that much work put into the content of WoW. Those raid instances that caters for people opposite of the claimed casual player base, and target, of WoW. Regarding the free content I don't see Blizzard as being something special I just see that they only released one major content patch (expansion) after 2 years.
I cant say the new raid content is not much work because i never see them before but i do agree with you that its not cater for the casual. But at least for all these its free. When ive bought EQ2 they havent come out of all in 1 pack, so ive to bought all till the desert of flames and expansion of sky.Maybe why there's no single pack that includes everything in WoW because they only have 1 x-pac now compare to EQ2. Just my thought...
RIP Orc Choppa