If you don't understand it, you either weren't there or weren't active on the forums. SOE had a long history of bad/adversarial relations with their community. It had some ups and downs, even some highpoints at the Fanfests, but the lingering "bad impression" of SOE in the minds of many "old schoolers" is very very real and was caused by some real mis-steps by SOE in customer relations.
I'm not trying to say it's some kind of all consuming hatred or pure vitriol like many still feel for say FunCom - but it does make you think twice about any new title from that company.
PS It's *not* logical. It's a lingering emotional reaction based on past negativity. It's like avoiding a restaurant where you had a bad argument with the staff over a badly cooked meal once three years ago, even though the place has changed owners twice since than and the entire staff is long gone.
Bad launch. It tried to appeal to a more "hardcore" element, which is a small minority of the MMORPG community.
That is it, in a nutshell. SOE originally designed a (hard-core) product to update EQ1, right at the point that Blizzard was discovering that a company could make a trillion dollars by simply making an MMO accessible to more people than just the "hard-core" crowd.
Since then, EQ2 has changed tremendously, and is now in truth a very fine game. But you only get one chance to make a first impression.
Add to that, it was released early and unfinished, because SOE wanted to beat WoW to market (the Smed himself admitted this). EQ2, as it launched, is very far removed from the game it is today.
Most of EQ2's mechanic changes were driven by WoW's success. No MMO will ever compete with WoW by playing catch up. Nobody is going to leave WoW to play 'WoW but with different graphics'.
EQ2 never even reached the success of EQ, even after it was made into a WoW clone.
Originally posted by Elikal Personally I only felt three things which irked me a) lack of diversity in gear: its always the same robes with different colours, same to plate and the rest. Quite absymal b) Zoning; not everyone likes it c) my biggest gripe: quests. Those EQ2 quests are TOTALLY complicated. Without a huge, very active guild and a monthly schedule you can mainly do trashy solo quests with even more trashy rewards. (I just say "Beetle herding".) When you want ANY cool stuff you need lotsa people and good organized people and HECK ALL of those complicated quests have 432 steps and involve 8-hour-long dungeon runs or what. Ok I exaggerate, but only a little bit.
Those are the 3 biggest reasons why I got tired of EQ2.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
If you don't understand it, you either weren't there or weren't active on the forums. SOE had a long history of bad/adversarial relations with their community. It had some ups and downs, even some highpoints at the Fanfests, but the lingering "bad impression" of SOE in the minds of many "old schoolers" is very very real and was caused by some real mis-steps by SOE in customer relations. I'm not trying to say it's some kind of all consuming hatred or pure vitriol like many still feel for say FunCom - but it does make you think twice about any new title from that company. PS It's *not* logical. It's a lingering emotional reaction based on past negativity. It's like avoiding a restaurant where you had a bad argument with the staff over a badly cooked meal once three years ago, even though the place has changed owners twice since than and the entire staff is long gone.
I played EQ2 since day 1 for 4+ years and SWG a few months after release for about 3 years and I never head special reason to be mad at SOE. I had a great time in those years. *shrug*
Yes, I wasnt in the forums, as I was using my time playing their games, rather. Which used to be quite enjoyable.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I feel personally that sony is doomed, and here is why.
Many people are angry because of Star Wars Galaxies, and the things they did, and quit.
On top of that they offer absolutely no support for their arcade games.
On top of this, they Put in an items store in everquest 2, and cause me to ever give up hopes of ever playing again, giving people real money trade, and unfair advantages. Sure I dont mind account sellers, or character transfers, but real money trading is bull, like for those special items and stuff.
Planetside has no Updates ever, But dont worry guys, we have GLOBAL AGENDA comming soon, that will completely wipe out sony most likely, even if they did manage to update it finally, I wouldn't trust them (:
Everquest 2 Character Models look like crap, they need to completely get rid of everquest 2, everquest, and redo Everquest 3 complete new graphics rundown and all DX10 supportive, better than AOC's graphics its self before they will make it big.
The agency was delayed too because they realised it was a failure, new mmorpg's are comming out like AION, Startrek Online, Crime Craft, and many other games that are way better, not to mention WOW is still top of that food chain.
Item shop games, I simply will not play anymore, and Its too late for everquest 2, even if they removed the item shop, I would not play it, as too many item's have been cheated in it by rich kids, they would have to roll back all the servers for me, or remake an entire new game everquest 3, and thats all I have to say period.
So out of all what do we vote for sony ? Failure? 5 stars out of 5?
2. EQ2 was way too demanding on almost everyones system......They basically designed it to take advantage of hardware that wasnt even on the market yet......
3. Terrible Launch......Theres been alot of debate about it but really I think they were just trying to beat WoW to market and released a poor game that was not ready.
4. WoW.......Came out a couple months later.....Many of us were already in beta for it and knew that EQ2 was having major issues.....I didnt try EQ2 until almost 2 years after its release.
5. SOE.......There are some players that flat out refuse to play SOE games....Many of these players are former SWG and EQ players that felt burnt by SOE practices
because EQ2's target audience is still playing EQ1.
Playing: EVE Online Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2 KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
Long time ago, I tried EQ2 couple months. These things were driving me away from game:
Avatar clothes were basically using same model with different textures.
Characters were ugly.
Same old repeative holy trinity and forced grouping like in all other MMORPG games.
Station exchange servers (they were published around time when I was playing EQ2).
SOE was constantly publishing small expansions to game. If I would have wanted to continue playing game with my friends, I would have been forced to pay monthly subscription + buy new expansions 4 times in year.
Eventually SOE did publish NGE and after that I haven't followed their games. Zoning wasn't never problem for me, I did get used to it with Anarchy Online and City of Heroes.
"I know I said this was my last post, but you my friend are a idiotic moron." -Shadow4482
If you don't understand it, you either weren't there or weren't active on the forums. SOE had a long history of bad/adversarial relations with their community. It had some ups and downs, even some highpoints at the Fanfests, but the lingering "bad impression" of SOE in the minds of many "old schoolers" is very very real and was caused by some real mis-steps by SOE in customer relations. I'm not trying to say it's some kind of all consuming hatred or pure vitriol like many still feel for say FunCom - but it does make you think twice about any new title from that company. PS It's *not* logical. It's a lingering emotional reaction based on past negativity. It's like avoiding a restaurant where you had a bad argument with the staff over a badly cooked meal once three years ago, even though the place has changed owners twice since than and the entire staff is long gone.
I played EQ2 since day 1 for 4+ years and SWG a few months after release for about 3 years and I never head special reason to be mad at SOE. I had a great time in those years. *shrug*
Yes, I wasnt in the forums, as I was using my time playing their games, rather. Which used to be quite enjoyable.
While I don't think that the soe brand is what held eq2 back initially, I think behind the scenes it is the root cause of this games problems even prior to its release. This might be a little long, but I hope it is a good read.
I understand that there are people the don't have problems with soe and enjoy their games. However it is hard to not acknowledge that soe has a very bad reputation in the industry far and beyond the nge. Read just about any game site interview with soe and you are almost guatenteed to read something about soes misdeeds or negative relations with players, even when it is a positive article. That is just the reality of the situation. The nge was just so bad it overshadows many of the other incidents.
As to my point, and this is just my personal views of what/why/how, there was some sort of major philosophy shift at soe prior to eq2 releasing. At one point soe was king of the hill and the place everyone wanted to work at. They had dominance over the market, the biggest, best and most successful mmo developers, IPs and anything you can imagine. There was a deffinate vibe that they were making "games" and not just making products.
Something somewhere changed. I can only speculate as to who did what, but that is unimportant. Soe started doing something that chased away major talent and players. Brad and Raph left who were big leaders in the industry and at soe. It was around this same time that things visibly started changing with soes games and their direction. At the time it didn't matter, because soe was gaining more people than it was losing as the market was growing so fast and there was almost no competition at that time.
Most people note the change in EQ with luclins release. Rushed releases, angry players, boycotts, bugs ignored in favor of working on expansions, massive time sinks in place of content, etc.
SWG also started ignoring fixes in favor of creating expansions. Changing the game to attract new players instead of fixing the game they had made. It was very obvious the games direction was being changed constantly and much of the time it was against what the playerbase was asking for. The entire undertone was one about generating more money regardless of the effect on the game or the concerns of the customers.
EQ2 took this to a whole new level. Everything came with a price tag. Advertising in game, premium website for additon fee. Endoresed RMT transactions in game. Mini expansions that cost $8 a pop on top of full expansions. There was so much focus that first year on taking money above and beyond the a flat subscription which I think was the driving force behind the games problems. The worst of which was forcing the game to release based on marketing demands and ignoring the condition of the game.
At some point soe stopped focusing on making games and started focusing on all the potential money that could be made in this industry. That is why so many of their projects have gotten released half finished and under achieve. Almost every major snafu points to upper management decisions and not the grunts actually making the games (which always have had lots of potential).
Soe for years has had this attitude that they know what players want more than what they actual players do. There are so many examples of them flat out ignoring their customers and simply acting like it is still 1999 and they are the only choice in mmos.
its combat was rubbish and it had no real vision for the game. It just thought it could recreate areas of Everquest, add a load of quests and some random fantasy areas and it will be a success. Not so.
Ya know, looking backwards now with a distance, it is STILL a question which hugely puts me at odd. (Moderator: pls keep it here, cause I want answers from all players, not just EQ2 folks, thanks.) I had played EQ2 around 4 years until almost a year ago or so. I had a blast in that time, but after 4 years I just had seen the same enough. I went in to see the new races and places with 2 weeks look-ins, but it was just the same old then. What I dont get is, why EQ2 never really got out of it's niche. It had a quite ok start, no big catastrophes at least, it has tons of classes and races, tons of stuff to do, and while not the biggest beauty, there sure are a lot more ugly games. Personally I only felt three things which irked me a) lack of diversity in gear: its always the same robes with different colours, same to plate and the rest. Quite absymal b) Zoning; not everyone likes it c) my biggest gripe: quests. Those EQ2 quests are TOTALLY complicated. Without a huge, very active guild and a monthly schedule you can mainly do trashy solo quests with even more trashy rewards. (I just say "Beetle herding".) When you want ANY cool stuff you need lotsa people and good organized people and HECK ALL of those complicated quests have 432 steps and involve 8-hour-long dungeon runs or what. Ok I exaggerate, but only a little bit.
Today, when you enter EQ2 and dont know anyone, you wont anytime. The circles are closed and everyone just seems to play with people they know of old. I tried. All my old friends were goners and I could cry out my lungs with LFG no matter if for my 44 Ranger or 70 Pally. I mean, sure, EQ2 isnt perfect; but why it always stayed in such a relatively small niche... especially when we see what tons of real cheap games exist in comparision... I dont get it.
To be honest I think you have 2/3rds of it.
As far as zoning, I don't really think that is a game killer. Sure, not everyone likes it, but there are zones in Oblvion and there are so many people who like that game. Guild Wars as well. Heck, LOTRO as well.
But as far as the gear and outfits and weapons, they really were incredibly bland. So horribly bland. It's almost like the developers never really fell in love with what they were making. Everything just seems horribly boring with many of the same meshes used for different weapons.
And the quests were sort of bad. At least from those that I wanted to do. I love how some of the classes play. I have a shadow Knight, a Sorceror and a Paladin. They feel comfortable and they are enjoyable. But even as of a few weeks ago, I would sign in and try to find quests that I wanted to do. But for some reason they just never appealed to me. Some of the quests I had done on my shadow knight resulted in a lot of running all over the place. I level him by mostly grinding.
And that's when I could even find quest. I know it's ever "quest" but I just never found a huge plethora of quests that I could get into. I avoided one in Nektulos forest that required me to get Griffon eggs so I could use the flight tower. I then said "no, I will do this" but after I found 2 I just moved on.
Also remember that the requirements for EQ 2 were a bit steep when the game came out and that many people had issues running it. I think part of this was so that the game would be relevant on future machines but to be honest, it looked atrocious on lower lvl settings. Seemed that it required too much for what you were getting.
Lastly I would say that the game is a bit too precious for my tastes. It is too whimsical. As I mentioned on the Vanguard forum, it has one too many "mr. puddle jumper is missing his thumpdometer and "oh" whatever is he going to do!" moments.
It almost seems like it would be good for kids. Except it's not.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I was very disappointed with EQII because I felt it wasn't a continuation of -- or even related to -- EQ. It was a totally new hacked up collection of unrelated zones that they tried to pass off as EQ. I never felt like I was on Norrath. I was in Generic Swamp Zone 3 which I had to port to from Generic Desert Zone 2 with no transition.
Character models that redefined ugly.
Uncompelling characters classes that were echoed on each faction.
Groups of random heroic ^^^ mobs 1/2 of the way through a quest or instance that brought all progress to a halt.
Complicated quest chains that made it difficult to sync up with other players.
WoW
Excessively-zones cities.
--- I ask for so little. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave.
Well, I suppose if that's EQ 2 then that looks better from way back. But way back when you needed an incredibly beefy machine in order to run at those graphics. I have to admit that now I run mine at practically highest graphics (those pictures I posted weren't at highest graphics) and it still doesn't look like that so I suppose those must be DX 10 graphics?
In any case, the initial machine required to get anything that looked great was quite impressive and most likely added to it's lack of popularity.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
With the next live update (this week) they've deferred the shadows to the GPU rather then CPU, and changed from stenciled shadows to soft shadows. Everyone on test was saying the performance differance is amazing. Mine looks this good when I have shadows on, and come next live update they'll be on all the time .
There are some things I miss. My Fae ranger. I love Fae and I love rangers! Also that Sarnak race was cool, something quite unique unlike "oh another human with different ears/skin/hair/whatever". Also I generally like Norrath, the lore and setting.
But thos ABYSMAL armor & clothing! Even after so many, many years it still all looks awful. Some pieces are tolerable at best. You'd expect a 5 year old MMO would have had the time to add some really cool looking gear, but NOOO.
The SOGA models looked quite better, but I know they are not everyone's taste. Still WAY better than those SOE-model faces who look like wet dough. ><
But I miss some moments I had there, some really nice ones. *sigh*
WASN'T I CUTE!?
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
1) Performance sucked. It was ok by myself, but get in a group and it became very laggy.
2) Too many loading screens. I like an open world.
3) Characters were ugly. It's strange a company with such deep pockets couldn't afford better artists.
4) Armor ugly and redundant.
5) Quests sucked. Many of them had me running from zone to zone, thus emphasizing of so many load screens and destroying the illusion of living in the world.
6) Progression slowed to a crawl around level 20. The game began to feel tedious.
HAHA, I LOLed. XD "Like hell you are." ^^ cool you have more somewhere? ^^
Well thank you young sir ; )
I do as a matter of fact.
A while ago the Lineage 2 test server was successfully hacked. This was while one of the chronicles was in the process of being tested. They closed down the game for a few days and then everyone who wanted in had to use their birthdates in order to get their accounts back.
Problem was, for some reason, mine (and many others) wasn't working. It took me several days to actually contact customer service, but moments to get my account activated.
During that time I played a little EQ 2. As I mentioned, I love the way that my chosen classes played but couldn't get into it, especially the art design.
Because I couldn't get back into my beloved L2 for quite some time I imagined what might have happened to my "Sovrath" character. I then imagined that he was thrown from Aden to find himself in Norath. What then follows is a series of cartoons while his new "dark elf" friend takes him on a journey across Norath in order to find a way back.
Here are two more ... sorry for the thread derailing but it seems sort of apt.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Comments
If you don't understand it, you either weren't there or weren't active on the forums. SOE had a long history of bad/adversarial relations with their community. It had some ups and downs, even some highpoints at the Fanfests, but the lingering "bad impression" of SOE in the minds of many "old schoolers" is very very real and was caused by some real mis-steps by SOE in customer relations.
I'm not trying to say it's some kind of all consuming hatred or pure vitriol like many still feel for say FunCom - but it does make you think twice about any new title from that company.
PS It's *not* logical. It's a lingering emotional reaction based on past negativity. It's like avoiding a restaurant where you had a bad argument with the staff over a badly cooked meal once three years ago, even though the place has changed owners twice since than and the entire staff is long gone.
That is it, in a nutshell. SOE originally designed a (hard-core) product to update EQ1, right at the point that Blizzard was discovering that a company could make a trillion dollars by simply making an MMO accessible to more people than just the "hard-core" crowd.
Since then, EQ2 has changed tremendously, and is now in truth a very fine game. But you only get one chance to make a first impression.
Add to that, it was released early and unfinished, because SOE wanted to beat WoW to market (the Smed himself admitted this). EQ2, as it launched, is very far removed from the game it is today.
Most of EQ2's mechanic changes were driven by WoW's success. No MMO will ever compete with WoW by playing catch up. Nobody is going to leave WoW to play 'WoW but with different graphics'.
EQ2 never even reached the success of EQ, even after it was made into a WoW clone.
Those are the 3 biggest reasons why I got tired of EQ2.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
Game(s) I Am Currently Playing:
GW2 (+LoL and BF3)
I played EQ2 since day 1 for 4+ years and SWG a few months after release for about 3 years and I never head special reason to be mad at SOE. I had a great time in those years. *shrug*
Yes, I wasnt in the forums, as I was using my time playing their games, rather. Which used to be quite enjoyable.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I feel personally that sony is doomed, and here is why.
Many people are angry because of Star Wars Galaxies, and the things they did, and quit.
On top of that they offer absolutely no support for their arcade games.
On top of this, they Put in an items store in everquest 2, and cause me to ever give up hopes of ever playing again, giving people real money trade, and unfair advantages. Sure I dont mind account sellers, or character transfers, but real money trading is bull, like for those special items and stuff.
Planetside has no Updates ever, But dont worry guys, we have GLOBAL AGENDA comming soon, that will completely wipe out sony most likely, even if they did manage to update it finally, I wouldn't trust them (:
Everquest 2 Character Models look like crap, they need to completely get rid of everquest 2, everquest, and redo Everquest 3 complete new graphics rundown and all DX10 supportive, better than AOC's graphics its self before they will make it big.
The agency was delayed too because they realised it was a failure, new mmorpg's are comming out like AION, Startrek Online, Crime Craft, and many other games that are way better, not to mention WOW is still top of that food chain.
Item shop games, I simply will not play anymore, and Its too late for everquest 2, even if they removed the item shop, I would not play it, as too many item's have been cheated in it by rich kids, they would have to roll back all the servers for me, or remake an entire new game everquest 3, and thats all I have to say period.
So out of all what do we vote for sony ? Failure? 5 stars out of 5?
None of my friends had computers that could run EQ2 descent back then. We could run WoW though.
There were alot of factors really.......
1. It wasnt EQ1.....
2. EQ2 was way too demanding on almost everyones system......They basically designed it to take advantage of hardware that wasnt even on the market yet......
3. Terrible Launch......Theres been alot of debate about it but really I think they were just trying to beat WoW to market and released a poor game that was not ready.
4. WoW.......Came out a couple months later.....Many of us were already in beta for it and knew that EQ2 was having major issues.....I didnt try EQ2 until almost 2 years after its release.
5. SOE.......There are some players that flat out refuse to play SOE games....Many of these players are former SWG and EQ players that felt burnt by SOE practices
because EQ2's target audience is still playing EQ1.
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
cus its shit
The biggest complaint I've gotten when trying to get people to download the free trial is the graphics suck.
Two problems with EQ2.
1) The graphics don't appeal to all the new mmo fans WoW brought in.
2) The Game isn't as immersive or as challenging as EQ1.
It's kind of like How WAR is DAoC Lite. WAR and EQ2 are great games just not as well done as DAoC and EQ.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
Long time ago, I tried EQ2 couple months. These things were driving me away from game:
Eventually SOE did publish NGE and after that I haven't followed their games. Zoning wasn't never problem for me, I did get used to it with Anarchy Online and City of Heroes.
"I know I said this was my last post, but you my friend are a idiotic moron." -Shadow4482
I played EQ2 since day 1 for 4+ years and SWG a few months after release for about 3 years and I never head special reason to be mad at SOE. I had a great time in those years. *shrug*
Yes, I wasnt in the forums, as I was using my time playing their games, rather. Which used to be quite enjoyable.
While I don't think that the soe brand is what held eq2 back initially, I think behind the scenes it is the root cause of this games problems even prior to its release. This might be a little long, but I hope it is a good read.
I understand that there are people the don't have problems with soe and enjoy their games. However it is hard to not acknowledge that soe has a very bad reputation in the industry far and beyond the nge. Read just about any game site interview with soe and you are almost guatenteed to read something about soes misdeeds or negative relations with players, even when it is a positive article. That is just the reality of the situation. The nge was just so bad it overshadows many of the other incidents.
As to my point, and this is just my personal views of what/why/how, there was some sort of major philosophy shift at soe prior to eq2 releasing. At one point soe was king of the hill and the place everyone wanted to work at. They had dominance over the market, the biggest, best and most successful mmo developers, IPs and anything you can imagine. There was a deffinate vibe that they were making "games" and not just making products.
Something somewhere changed. I can only speculate as to who did what, but that is unimportant. Soe started doing something that chased away major talent and players. Brad and Raph left who were big leaders in the industry and at soe. It was around this same time that things visibly started changing with soes games and their direction. At the time it didn't matter, because soe was gaining more people than it was losing as the market was growing so fast and there was almost no competition at that time.
Most people note the change in EQ with luclins release. Rushed releases, angry players, boycotts, bugs ignored in favor of working on expansions, massive time sinks in place of content, etc.
SWG also started ignoring fixes in favor of creating expansions. Changing the game to attract new players instead of fixing the game they had made. It was very obvious the games direction was being changed constantly and much of the time it was against what the playerbase was asking for. The entire undertone was one about generating more money regardless of the effect on the game or the concerns of the customers.
EQ2 took this to a whole new level. Everything came with a price tag. Advertising in game, premium website for additon fee. Endoresed RMT transactions in game. Mini expansions that cost $8 a pop on top of full expansions. There was so much focus that first year on taking money above and beyond the a flat subscription which I think was the driving force behind the games problems. The worst of which was forcing the game to release based on marketing demands and ignoring the condition of the game.
At some point soe stopped focusing on making games and started focusing on all the potential money that could be made in this industry. That is why so many of their projects have gotten released half finished and under achieve. Almost every major snafu points to upper management decisions and not the grunts actually making the games (which always have had lots of potential).
Soe for years has had this attitude that they know what players want more than what they actual players do. There are so many examples of them flat out ignoring their customers and simply acting like it is still 1999 and they are the only choice in mmos.
its combat was rubbish and it had no real vision for the game. It just thought it could recreate areas of Everquest, add a load of quests and some random fantasy areas and it will be a success. Not so.
EQ2 was rushed. Blizzard never rushes their games, that is why they are so polished.
PBBG List.
To be honest I think you have 2/3rds of it.
As far as zoning, I don't really think that is a game killer. Sure, not everyone likes it, but there are zones in Oblvion and there are so many people who like that game. Guild Wars as well. Heck, LOTRO as well.
But as far as the gear and outfits and weapons, they really were incredibly bland. So horribly bland. It's almost like the developers never really fell in love with what they were making. Everything just seems horribly boring with many of the same meshes used for different weapons.
And the quests were sort of bad. At least from those that I wanted to do. I love how some of the classes play. I have a shadow Knight, a Sorceror and a Paladin. They feel comfortable and they are enjoyable. But even as of a few weeks ago, I would sign in and try to find quests that I wanted to do. But for some reason they just never appealed to me. Some of the quests I had done on my shadow knight resulted in a lot of running all over the place. I level him by mostly grinding.
And that's when I could even find quest. I know it's ever "quest" but I just never found a huge plethora of quests that I could get into. I avoided one in Nektulos forest that required me to get Griffon eggs so I could use the flight tower. I then said "no, I will do this" but after I found 2 I just moved on.
Also remember that the requirements for EQ 2 were a bit steep when the game came out and that many people had issues running it. I think part of this was so that the game would be relevant on future machines but to be honest, it looked atrocious on lower lvl settings. Seemed that it required too much for what you were getting.
Lastly I would say that the game is a bit too precious for my tastes. It is too whimsical. As I mentioned on the Vanguard forum, it has one too many "mr. puddle jumper is missing his thumpdometer and "oh" whatever is he going to do!" moments.
It almost seems like it would be good for kids. Except it's not.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
1. Too little solo content
2. Graphics made ugly toons without doing so on purpose, they look like plastic
3. Storyline is too difficult to find, no point in a lot of the quests
4. forced grouping, this = fail in all the new mmo's
5. SOE as publisher, honestly too many hate this company for many many justified reasons, they need
to try and work on their reputation but everything they do just makes it worse. RMT is a good example.
6. Blatant lies to the community has not helped advertise the game
lol, funny you should say that... I made this quite some time ago...
edit: sorry had to add one more...
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I was very disappointed with EQII because I felt it wasn't a continuation of -- or even related to -- EQ. It was a totally new hacked up collection of unrelated zones that they tried to pass off as EQ. I never felt like I was on Norrath. I was in Generic Swamp Zone 3 which I had to port to from Generic Desert Zone 2 with no transition.
Character models that redefined ugly.
Uncompelling characters classes that were echoed on each faction.
Groups of random heroic ^^^ mobs 1/2 of the way through a quest or instance that brought all progress to a halt.
Complicated quest chains that made it difficult to sync up with other players.
WoW
Excessively-zones cities.
---
I ask for so little. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave.
Yeah, check out this guys post. He takes pics while he plays and posts them. This is what MY game looks like when I play, not all grey and gloomy.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?&topic_id=344003
Arioc Murkwood
Environment Artist
Sad but true.
Well, I suppose if that's EQ 2 then that looks better from way back. But way back when you needed an incredibly beefy machine in order to run at those graphics. I have to admit that now I run mine at practically highest graphics (those pictures I posted weren't at highest graphics) and it still doesn't look like that so I suppose those must be DX 10 graphics?
In any case, the initial machine required to get anything that looked great was quite impressive and most likely added to it's lack of popularity.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
With the next live update (this week) they've deferred the shadows to the GPU rather then CPU, and changed from stenciled shadows to soft shadows. Everyone on test was saying the performance differance is amazing. Mine looks this good when I have shadows on, and come next live update they'll be on all the time
.
Arioc Murkwood
Environment Artist
Sad but true.
lol, funny you should say that... I made this quite some time ago...
edit: sorry had to add one more...
HAHA, I LOLed. XD
"Like hell you are." ^^ cool you have more somewhere? ^^
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
There are some things I miss. My Fae ranger. I love Fae and I love rangers! Also that Sarnak race was cool, something quite unique unlike "oh another human with different ears/skin/hair/whatever". Also I generally like Norrath, the lore and setting.
But thos ABYSMAL armor & clothing! Even after so many, many years it still all looks awful. Some pieces are tolerable at best. You'd expect a 5 year old MMO would have had the time to add some really cool looking gear, but NOOO.
The SOGA models looked quite better, but I know they are not everyone's taste. Still WAY better than those SOE-model faces who look like wet dough. ><
But I miss some moments I had there, some really nice ones. *sigh*
WASN'T I CUTE!?
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Not necessarily in order of importance:
1) Performance sucked. It was ok by myself, but get in a group and it became very laggy.
2) Too many loading screens. I like an open world.
3) Characters were ugly. It's strange a company with such deep pockets couldn't afford better artists.
4) Armor ugly and redundant.
5) Quests sucked. Many of them had me running from zone to zone, thus emphasizing of so many load screens and destroying the illusion of living in the world.
6) Progression slowed to a crawl around level 20. The game began to feel tedious.
7) I hated how the auction house was implemented.
8) I didn't like the crafting system.
Well thank you young sir ; )
I do as a matter of fact.
A while ago the Lineage 2 test server was successfully hacked. This was while one of the chronicles was in the process of being tested. They closed down the game for a few days and then everyone who wanted in had to use their birthdates in order to get their accounts back.
Problem was, for some reason, mine (and many others) wasn't working. It took me several days to actually contact customer service, but moments to get my account activated.
During that time I played a little EQ 2. As I mentioned, I love the way that my chosen classes played but couldn't get into it, especially the art design.
Because I couldn't get back into my beloved L2 for quite some time I imagined what might have happened to my "Sovrath" character. I then imagined that he was thrown from Aden to find himself in Norath. What then follows is a series of cartoons while his new "dark elf" friend takes him on a journey across Norath in order to find a way back.
Here are two more ... sorry for the thread derailing but it seems sort of apt.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo