Oh, and other games should learn from AoC's example in one respect, the ability to choose whether you want to quest in a solo or group based zone, rather than the current MMOG method of just throwing in a few group quests into zones which are essentially purely soloable. I find this very annoying; if I'm soloing then I run into quests that I can't complete, and if I'm grouping then the solo quests are all incredibly trivial. AoC solved both those problems, and I'd like to see the same incorporated into WoW (and new emergent games) using the phasing technology.
Can you elaborate on this? I'm curious.
When you enter a zone, you can choose between Normal or Epic. Epic is harder mobs with better drops - a group based zone.
The day/night cycle in AOC was horrible. Talk about removing any bit of immersion that game was attempting to acheive. Besides, the quests even though you were in essentially a single player game still weren't as good as WOWs. I was paying a monthly fee to play a single player RPG that wasn't as good as most single player RPGs...NICE job Funcom. And they wonder why they lost 90% of their players.
Phasing tech is far more effective than just removing yourself from the world entirely.
I think you misunderstood. We're talking about choosing between Normal and Epic instances of a zone, not the Day/Night content.
-- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG - RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? - FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Originally posted by LynxJSA Can you elaborate on this? I'm curious.
When you enter a zone, you can choose between Normal or Epic. Epic is harder mobs with better drops - a group based zone.
Yep, that's pretty much it boiled down. When you enter a zone you pick:
Normal - (mobs that can be solo'd by any class)
Epic - (mobs that need a small group to kill).
The quest content is identical regardless of which zone you choose, so say for example you get a quest to kill <insert generic evil dude> he will be soloable in Normal mode, but will be "elite" in Epic mode. I'm primarily a solo player, but did enjoy the occasional group questing session in Epic mode zones.
The down-side was that each zone was just that; a separate instanced zone rather than a seamless world like WoW, but with the new phasing tech that Blizzard is playing with, I imagine that they'd be able to accomplish something similar to AoC's system while still maintaining that feeling of seamlessness.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
and collect quests, and delivery quests and all the other "crap" in mmo's today. Well I have yet to see a better idea come out of anyone's keyboard on these forums for a better quest. How about instead of bitching and moaning about how much you dislike all the bland mmo content that is offered today you try to come up with a better idea. If you hate all these quests then please...tell us what type of quest you would like to see. Hell...make up the entire quest and post it on here so we can read about how much better of a quest designer YOU are than the people who are currently creating them for our mmos that we play today. I cannot possibly think of a new idea for a quest. I have tried and put plenty of thought into what would be considered a "cool" new quest. They all boil down to the same exact thing...go here, kill this or collect this, bring it back to me. One of my ideas was to have a character who wanted help building his house. What would be the next thing to do in this situation? 1) collect the lumber, nails, hammer, etc. (however deep you wanted to make gathering all this crap up to be) 2) bring all those items back to the character 3) turn them in, receive xp / loot / whatever you think is cool Basically it turned into a collect / delivery quest. It's not like your going to actually BUILD the house. You will not sit at your computer to "hammer" each nail in and help this character actually build his house. That would get way old and take an extremely long time.
I'm not exactly sure what you people seem to want, and I don't think the game developers know either because you cannot seem to focus your energies on new ideas; however, you are all pretty much experts in the bitching and moaning skill set. I'm done ranting...try being productive and help the devs learn what you want instead of bitching about what they put out.
and collect quests, and delivery quests and all the other "crap" in mmo's today. Well I have yet to see a better idea come out of anyone's keyboard on these forums for a better quest. How about instead of bitching and moaning about how much you dislike all the bland mmo content that is offered today you try to come up with a better idea. If you hate all these quests then please...tell us what type of quest you would like to see. Hell...make up the entire quest and post it on here so we can read about how much better of a quest designer YOU are than the people who are currently creating them for our mmos that we play today.
Give DDO a trial best quests by far.
It is sort of what it is, quests after detailed quest all handcrafted. Making that level of content is hard work and people aren't really fussy, which is why devs chuck out bucket loads of shite, because that is what people will eat if there is plenty of it.
I can elaborate but easier just to see for yourself.
Better to have lots of good quests with some filler if you CHOOSE, and I highlight CHOOSE, to do them. The alternative is mindless mob grinding to fill in the gaps. Well, we already know that most people prefer doing. Even in a game with quests, the people who HATE THEM, still do them, even when you can get better experience grinding. Shocking!! Is killing 10 goons creative? No. But if you're killing those 10 while on 2 or 3 other quests, then you're not JUST killing 10 whatsits then 15 whosits. Its all about quests dispersal and how some MMOs do it a whole lot better than others.
Again, you never HAVE TO do them. Go grind like in EQ if thats you're thing. No one is stopping you. Its pretty unrealistic to expect every quest to be some mindblowing story with world changing elements. Single player games even have filler. Don't like em, don't do them. They're not going anywhere. Its not a sign of lazyness. Its choice. Its ONLY lazyness if thats the ONLY type of quest.
I'm going to try to do you a favor here, and please understand that I'm saying this to help....
Your idea is worthless. You would do yourself more of a service by explaining your concept and brainstorming with people to refine it and improve it than squirreling it away for that 'special day' when ConditionA and KeyPersonB appear before you.
Share it, develop it, and then build it. Then, after you've built it and realize how atrociously flawed most 'great ideas' are when actually put into practice, tear it apart and reconstruct it using all the knowledge you gained in that first horrific attempt. Discuss it with the people that playtested it and with outsiders as well.
After a few cycles, do you know what you'll have? Either proof that the idea sucked or a solid working example of your design/mechanic/system/etc.
THEN you will have something of value.
-- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG - RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? - FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
I'm going to try to do you a favor here, and please understand that I'm saying this to help....
Your idea is worthless. You would do yourself more of a service by explaining your concept and brainstorming with people to refine it and improve it than squirreling it away for that 'special day' when ConditionA and KeyPersonB appear before you.
Share it, develop it, and then build it. Then, after you've built it and realize how atrociously flawed most 'great ideas' are when actually put into practice, tear it apart and reconstruct it using all the knowledge you gained in that first horrific attempt. Discuss it with the people that playtested it and with outsiders as well.
After a few cycles, do you know what you'll have? Either proof that the idea sucked or a solid working example of your design/mechanic/system/etc.
THEN you will have something of value.
I agree. Why do you think I throw my ideas up here? We hash em over and make better shit.
Personally, I loved the old method of gaining EXP in MMO's. Getting together a group of several people and running wild through dungeons. That was back when MMO's were my favorite video game genre. I personally can't stand kill quests, playing solo in an MMO is only enjoyable for so long, I like to actually interact with other people. But unfortunately, MMO devs these days (Blizzard) choose to punish their players for playing together. I just don't understand why we can't have an MMO with kill quests for those who enjoy them AND a good grouping system with good rewards that encourage (Not force) their subscribers to play together. For example, I think Blizzard should add more EXP and drop bonuses to their instance (Just the 1-79 stuff, not epic raids) dungeons. It wouldn't cause any harm, it would just give the players more options. When I played WoW, I could only do kill quests for 1-2 hours straight before I got bored and logged for the day, meanwhile, back in DAOC I enjoyed spending whole days grouping with people.
Well I think that is because many people who play mmorpgs played many single player games with excellent quests like oblivion. For example some guy can run in front of you in the middle of no where being chased by some monster and you save him and he tells you his family got captured and taken back into the cave and etc, and you tell him you will find them.
Why do we have to be the ones giving ideas? You think that is going to help? It will not if developers where serious they would have already put really good quests with the freedom other games have had in the past, they do not care nor they will not until people stop paying for crappy mmorpgs, if people enjoy the linear reptitive quests then I am glad your getting your moneys worth the rest of you just need to stop supporting them if your not having fun.
We are the ones giving our money to these companies it is there job to think of innovative ideas but instead they waste there creativity by thinking of the cheapest way to suck us in and rip us off. So I think we have every right to complain about bad quality and it is not only in games it is almost everywhere now.
Sorry, for not reading this trough (will do a little later), but about the ideas... This one would be possible in my "dream project" (come on, everyone has dreams).
So, for example. There's a stagnating government. Say, in a city-state. You were ordered by your ingame NPC speriors to fix the situations. And it's not only you - the same general task was given to a bunch of others. Now, at this point players should cooperate and work on different levels - some may try to rally the underground and organise a revolution, or at least a "partisanian" movement. Some will try reasoning and diplomatic skills. Some will try to unite the people under the banner of other country. Some would disrupt the supplies of the city, and so forth - all doable, all interesting, all may or may not involve fighting.
Just throwing it in.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Personally, I loved the old method of gaining EXP in MMO's. Getting together a group of several people and running wild through dungeons. That was back when MMO's were my favorite video game genre. I personally can't stand kill quests, playing solo in an MMO is only enjoyable for so long, I like to actually interact with other people. But unfortunately, MMO devs these days (Blizzard) choose to punish their players for playing together. I just don't understand why we can't have an MMO with kill quests for those who enjoy them AND a good grouping system with good rewards that encourage (Not force) their subscribers to play together. For example, I think Blizzard should add more EXP and drop bonuses to their instance (Just the 1-79 stuff, not epic raids) dungeons. It wouldn't cause any harm, it would just give the players more options. When I played WoW, I could only do kill quests for 1-2 hours straight before I got bored and logged for the day, meanwhile, back in DAOC I enjoyed spending whole days grouping with people.
Damn Blizzard for only putting the best gear in dungeons, which are the most creative areas in the game, which forces people to get together in a group. Damn them all to hell. Those guys force you to get together, even though you don't have to if you don't want to. Sarcasm off.
I think you have it backwards. Back when you HAD TO group up just to gain a level, you were being FORCED to play together. You couldnt play alone. You had one playstyle. Camp a spawn point. Thats it. Not many options there bud.
Personally, I loved the old method of gaining EXP in MMO's. Getting together a group of several people and running wild through dungeons. That was back when MMO's were my favorite video game genre. I personally can't stand kill quests, playing solo in an MMO is only enjoyable for so long, I like to actually interact with other people. But unfortunately, MMO devs these days (Blizzard) choose to punish their players for playing together. I just don't understand why we can't have an MMO with kill quests for those who enjoy them AND a good grouping system with good rewards that encourage (Not force) their subscribers to play together. For example, I think Blizzard should add more EXP and drop bonuses to their instance (Just the 1-79 stuff, not epic raids) dungeons. It wouldn't cause any harm, it would just give the players more options. When I played WoW, I could only do kill quests for 1-2 hours straight before I got bored and logged for the day, meanwhile, back in DAOC I enjoyed spending whole days grouping with people.
Damn Blizzard for only putting the best gear in dungeons, which are the most creative areas in the game, which forces people to get together in a group. Damn them all to hell. Those guys force you to get together, even though you don't have to if you don't want to. Sarcasm off.
I think you have it backwards. Back when you HAD TO group up just to gain a level, you were being FORCED to play together. You couldnt play alone. You had one playstyle. Camp a spawn point. Thats it. Not many options there bud.
Now there's only one option as well - solo to level 80 and grind gear. Fun!
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Personally, I loved the old method of gaining EXP in MMO's. Getting together a group of several people and running wild through dungeons. That was back when MMO's were my favorite video game genre. I personally can't stand kill quests, playing solo in an MMO is only enjoyable for so long, I like to actually interact with other people. But unfortunately, MMO devs these days (Blizzard) choose to punish their players for playing together. I just don't understand why we can't have an MMO with kill quests for those who enjoy them AND a good grouping system with good rewards that encourage (Not force) their subscribers to play together. For example, I think Blizzard should add more EXP and drop bonuses to their instance (Just the 1-79 stuff, not epic raids) dungeons. It wouldn't cause any harm, it would just give the players more options. When I played WoW, I could only do kill quests for 1-2 hours straight before I got bored and logged for the day, meanwhile, back in DAOC I enjoyed spending whole days grouping with people.
Damn Blizzard for only putting the best gear in dungeons, which are the most creative areas in the game, which forces people to get together in a group. Damn them all to hell. Those guys force you to get together, even though you don't have to if you don't want to. Sarcasm off.
I think you have it backwards. Back when you HAD TO group up just to gain a level, you were being FORCED to play together. You couldnt play alone. You had one playstyle. Camp a spawn point. Thats it. Not many options there bud.
Now there's only one option as well - solo to level 80 and grind gear. Fun!
I did every dungeon on the way to 80, thank you. What, you couldn't find any firends to play with=)
Personally, I loved the old method of gaining EXP in MMO's. Getting together a group of several people and running wild through dungeons. That was back when MMO's were my favorite video game genre. I personally can't stand kill quests, playing solo in an MMO is only enjoyable for so long, I like to actually interact with other people. But unfortunately, MMO devs these days (Blizzard) choose to punish their players for playing together. I just don't understand why we can't have an MMO with kill quests for those who enjoy them AND a good grouping system with good rewards that encourage (Not force) their subscribers to play together. For example, I think Blizzard should add more EXP and drop bonuses to their instance (Just the 1-79 stuff, not epic raids) dungeons. It wouldn't cause any harm, it would just give the players more options. When I played WoW, I could only do kill quests for 1-2 hours straight before I got bored and logged for the day, meanwhile, back in DAOC I enjoyed spending whole days grouping with people.
Damn Blizzard for only putting the best gear in dungeons, which are the most creative areas in the game, which forces people to get together in a group. Damn them all to hell. Those guys force you to get together, even though you don't have to if you don't want to. Sarcasm off.
I think you have it backwards. Back when you HAD TO group up just to gain a level, you were being FORCED to play together. You couldnt play alone. You had one playstyle. Camp a spawn point. Thats it. Not many options there bud.
Now there's only one option as well - solo to level 80 and grind gear. Fun!
I did every dungeon on the way to 80, thank you. What, you couldn't find any firends to play with=)
Hm... No. I don't have friends who play MMOs, and my girlfriend is a slow leveller. Oh, no, wait, I have one... But he refuses to play anything, that's not in Russian. Shame, really...
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Dude I do not want to hear that load of nonsense, in everquest you got to choose where to camp and spawn there where so many maps way way way way more then wow have or probably ever will have.
But you could always have mature chats and truly interact with others and the game did kind of have forced grouping depending on your class but exp was really fun and fast in groups and ldon came out and made it even easier some of the first instanced stuff to come out in mmorpgs, in wow you cannot interact socially without allot of incredibly stupid nonsense and hateful comments going on.
The only problem was the game was so time consuming even to travel far away, but it was never boring and it was never boring in groups nor a repetitive task unless you went to the same places over and over. And there was a large variety of gear, in many many areas and you could buy some pretty powerful stuff but it was expensive.
Comments
Can you elaborate on this? I'm curious.
When you enter a zone, you can choose between Normal or Epic. Epic is harder mobs with better drops - a group based zone.
The day/night cycle in AOC was horrible. Talk about removing any bit of immersion that game was attempting to acheive. Besides, the quests even though you were in essentially a single player game still weren't as good as WOWs. I was paying a monthly fee to play a single player RPG that wasn't as good as most single player RPGs...NICE job Funcom. And they wonder why they lost 90% of their players.
Phasing tech is far more effective than just removing yourself from the world entirely.
I think you misunderstood. We're talking about choosing between Normal and Epic instances of a zone, not the Day/Night content.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
When you enter a zone, you can choose between Normal or Epic. Epic is harder mobs with better drops - a group based zone.
Yep, that's pretty much it boiled down. When you enter a zone you pick:
Normal - (mobs that can be solo'd by any class)
Epic - (mobs that need a small group to kill).
The quest content is identical regardless of which zone you choose, so say for example you get a quest to kill <insert generic evil dude> he will be soloable in Normal mode, but will be "elite" in Epic mode. I'm primarily a solo player, but did enjoy the occasional group questing session in Epic mode zones.
The down-side was that each zone was just that; a separate instanced zone rather than a seamless world like WoW, but with the new phasing tech that Blizzard is playing with, I imagine that they'd be able to accomplish something similar to AoC's system while still maintaining that feeling of seamlessness.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
Want ideas? Here is the guide to a recent 5 hour quest runehq.com/guide.php
sdfsdfsfdsdfsfd
Why would I give my ideas away on a forum?
Give DDO a trial best quests by far.
It is sort of what it is, quests after detailed quest all handcrafted. Making that level of content is hard work and people aren't really fussy, which is why devs chuck out bucket loads of shite, because that is what people will eat if there is plenty of it.
I can elaborate but easier just to see for yourself.
Better to have lots of good quests with some filler if you CHOOSE, and I highlight CHOOSE, to do them. The alternative is mindless mob grinding to fill in the gaps. Well, we already know that most people prefer doing. Even in a game with quests, the people who HATE THEM, still do them, even when you can get better experience grinding. Shocking!! Is killing 10 goons creative? No. But if you're killing those 10 while on 2 or 3 other quests, then you're not JUST killing 10 whatsits then 15 whosits. Its all about quests dispersal and how some MMOs do it a whole lot better than others.
Again, you never HAVE TO do them. Go grind like in EQ if thats you're thing. No one is stopping you. Its pretty unrealistic to expect every quest to be some mindblowing story with world changing elements. Single player games even have filler. Don't like em, don't do them. They're not going anywhere. Its not a sign of lazyness. Its choice. Its ONLY lazyness if thats the ONLY type of quest.
Voyage Century quests are cool.
Exploration and trade quests, and the treasure hunt quest are awesome too.
Why not?
I'm going to try to do you a favor here, and please understand that I'm saying this to help....
Your idea is worthless. You would do yourself more of a service by explaining your concept and brainstorming with people to refine it and improve it than squirreling it away for that 'special day' when ConditionA and KeyPersonB appear before you.
Share it, develop it, and then build it. Then, after you've built it and realize how atrociously flawed most 'great ideas' are when actually put into practice, tear it apart and reconstruct it using all the knowledge you gained in that first horrific attempt. Discuss it with the people that playtested it and with outsiders as well.
After a few cycles, do you know what you'll have? Either proof that the idea sucked or a solid working example of your design/mechanic/system/etc.
THEN you will have something of value.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Why not?
I'm going to try to do you a favor here, and please understand that I'm saying this to help....
Your idea is worthless. You would do yourself more of a service by explaining your concept and brainstorming with people to refine it and improve it than squirreling it away for that 'special day' when ConditionA and KeyPersonB appear before you.
Share it, develop it, and then build it. Then, after you've built it and realize how atrociously flawed most 'great ideas' are when actually put into practice, tear it apart and reconstruct it using all the knowledge you gained in that first horrific attempt. Discuss it with the people that playtested it and with outsiders as well.
After a few cycles, do you know what you'll have? Either proof that the idea sucked or a solid working example of your design/mechanic/system/etc.
THEN you will have something of value.
I agree. Why do you think I throw my ideas up here? We hash em over and make better shit.
Personally, I loved the old method of gaining EXP in MMO's. Getting together a group of several people and running wild through dungeons. That was back when MMO's were my favorite video game genre. I personally can't stand kill quests, playing solo in an MMO is only enjoyable for so long, I like to actually interact with other people. But unfortunately, MMO devs these days (Blizzard) choose to punish their players for playing together. I just don't understand why we can't have an MMO with kill quests for those who enjoy them AND a good grouping system with good rewards that encourage (Not force) their subscribers to play together. For example, I think Blizzard should add more EXP and drop bonuses to their instance (Just the 1-79 stuff, not epic raids) dungeons. It wouldn't cause any harm, it would just give the players more options. When I played WoW, I could only do kill quests for 1-2 hours straight before I got bored and logged for the day, meanwhile, back in DAOC I enjoyed spending whole days grouping with people.
Well I think that is because many people who play mmorpgs played many single player games with excellent quests like oblivion. For example some guy can run in front of you in the middle of no where being chased by some monster and you save him and he tells you his family got captured and taken back into the cave and etc, and you tell him you will find them.
Why do we have to be the ones giving ideas? You think that is going to help? It will not if developers where serious they would have already put really good quests with the freedom other games have had in the past, they do not care nor they will not until people stop paying for crappy mmorpgs, if people enjoy the linear reptitive quests then I am glad your getting your moneys worth the rest of you just need to stop supporting them if your not having fun.
We are the ones giving our money to these companies it is there job to think of innovative ideas but instead they waste there creativity by thinking of the cheapest way to suck us in and rip us off. So I think we have every right to complain about bad quality and it is not only in games it is almost everywhere now.
Sorry, for not reading this trough (will do a little later), but about the ideas... This one would be possible in my "dream project" (come on, everyone has dreams).
So, for example. There's a stagnating government. Say, in a city-state. You were ordered by your ingame NPC speriors to fix the situations. And it's not only you - the same general task was given to a bunch of others. Now, at this point players should cooperate and work on different levels - some may try to rally the underground and organise a revolution, or at least a "partisanian" movement. Some will try reasoning and diplomatic skills. Some will try to unite the people under the banner of other country. Some would disrupt the supplies of the city, and so forth - all doable, all interesting, all may or may not involve fighting.
Just throwing it in.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Damn Blizzard for only putting the best gear in dungeons, which are the most creative areas in the game, which forces people to get together in a group. Damn them all to hell. Those guys force you to get together, even though you don't have to if you don't want to. Sarcasm off.
I think you have it backwards. Back when you HAD TO group up just to gain a level, you were being FORCED to play together. You couldnt play alone. You had one playstyle. Camp a spawn point. Thats it. Not many options there bud.
Damn Blizzard for only putting the best gear in dungeons, which are the most creative areas in the game, which forces people to get together in a group. Damn them all to hell. Those guys force you to get together, even though you don't have to if you don't want to. Sarcasm off.
I think you have it backwards. Back when you HAD TO group up just to gain a level, you were being FORCED to play together. You couldnt play alone. You had one playstyle. Camp a spawn point. Thats it. Not many options there bud.
Now there's only one option as well - solo to level 80 and grind gear. Fun!
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Damn Blizzard for only putting the best gear in dungeons, which are the most creative areas in the game, which forces people to get together in a group. Damn them all to hell. Those guys force you to get together, even though you don't have to if you don't want to. Sarcasm off.
I think you have it backwards. Back when you HAD TO group up just to gain a level, you were being FORCED to play together. You couldnt play alone. You had one playstyle. Camp a spawn point. Thats it. Not many options there bud.
Now there's only one option as well - solo to level 80 and grind gear. Fun!
I did every dungeon on the way to 80, thank you. What, you couldn't find any firends to play with=)
Damn Blizzard for only putting the best gear in dungeons, which are the most creative areas in the game, which forces people to get together in a group. Damn them all to hell. Those guys force you to get together, even though you don't have to if you don't want to. Sarcasm off.
I think you have it backwards. Back when you HAD TO group up just to gain a level, you were being FORCED to play together. You couldnt play alone. You had one playstyle. Camp a spawn point. Thats it. Not many options there bud.
Now there's only one option as well - solo to level 80 and grind gear. Fun!
I did every dungeon on the way to 80, thank you. What, you couldn't find any firends to play with=)
Hm... No. I don't have friends who play MMOs, and my girlfriend is a slow leveller. Oh, no, wait, I have one... But he refuses to play anything, that's not in Russian. Shame, really...
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Dude I do not want to hear that load of nonsense, in everquest you got to choose where to camp and spawn there where so many maps way way way way more then wow have or probably ever will have.
But you could always have mature chats and truly interact with others and the game did kind of have forced grouping depending on your class but exp was really fun and fast in groups and ldon came out and made it even easier some of the first instanced stuff to come out in mmorpgs, in wow you cannot interact socially without allot of incredibly stupid nonsense and hateful comments going on.
The only problem was the game was so time consuming even to travel far away, but it was never boring and it was never boring in groups nor a repetitive task unless you went to the same places over and over. And there was a large variety of gear, in many many areas and you could buy some pretty powerful stuff but it was expensive.