In all sincerety, I'm a bit biased when I say that EQ2 truly holds no interest to me. From the over rated graphics, to what will inevitably end up being a game which hordes of obsessed gamers hunt for treasure and treasure alone, EQ2 will, in short, piss me off as a mmorpg as I'm sure EQ did for most people during its decline in quality. And no, I'm not trolling for trouble people; EQ2 just seems like the pretty little prom queen ya pat the head of and then send her on her way. (No offense to any potential/prom queens out there.) All pretty, no substance.
With WoW, I know I'm at least getting a badass storyline. Myself, popping a stiffy for the substance of the game, feels that when I play my Orc hunter and do those quests I am pledging my life for the horde. It's not just "kill 20 mice and come back for some exp." It's "we need you to escort this cargo because rations are low in Durotar" or "some humies have landed near Razor Hill: go f*** them up." Those kinda quests just add a sense of patriotism to the game.
In any case, my life for the horde, folks. My life for the horde.
The first 4 points were ripped off from other games. Nothing wrong with that, but don't call something original that isn't. The Combat wheel is the biggest disappointment for me, it was a very dumbed down version of FFXI skill chains, then they dumbed it down even further a week before release.
As far as EQII crafting, it is the best innovation in the game. It is not SWG crafting in a fantasy setting. It's a mini-game with in the game and I found it very enjoyable. As you craft components and sub components, you can effect the quality of the items by applying various crafting actions during each crafting round. It's more art than science and there is a lot of give and take as you strive to get the best quality results. It's the best crafting system, so far, in a mmorpg.
In spite of that, I am still leaning towards WoW for a number of reasons, but I think EQII crafting is a real innovation and makes crafting fun.
As far as WoW crafting, things have changed since the original stress test. You don't have to progress in a non crafting profession to be a crafter. It's a heck of a lot easier if you have some combat skills, but if you could build up a good network of people to supply you with raw mats, you could craft pretty much exclusively.
I think Tailor is the hardest with out any combat skills, because Linen only drops from mobs, it can't be harvested. On the otherhand, Tailors are the only ones that can make bags and many trade finished bags for raw linen, allowing themselves to progress with out having to kill for their own linen.
Leathercrafter is easier if you have minimal combat skills, but there are usually low level creatures near the first towns that can be skinned. There are even non-combatant animals, like deer and sheep, that die with 1 hit and can be skinned, so if you are careful where you tread and avoid combat, you could progress with little or no combat skills. Of course, setting up a network of suppliers would also work here.
Blacksmith can mine deposits in the world, many of them can be reached with care, avoiding combat. You are disadvantaged if you have no combat skills, because there tends to be deposits in mob inhabited mines, but technically you can do this one as a dedicated crafter as well.
Ditto for Alchemists, harvestable plants are scattered about the land and you can get to these with care, avoiding combat.
All the crafting professions in WoW are much easier if you can also fight. Of course, the ingredients for higher level items drop in much tougher zones, but if you properly leverage your early level contacts by being able to provide useful items or cash in return for raw materials, no reason you can't maintain that network of suppliers as they progress as combatants and gain access to more goods you need later on.
Difficult to be a dedicated crafter? Yes. Impossible? No, but you need to be a outgoing, fair and shrewd businessperson.
Personally, I find the quests so fun, I would recommend that even people who are almost exclusively interested in crafting take time to do them over time. Your combat skills can progress with no grinding outside of what combat is required for the missions and being able to maintain some combat effectiveness would ensure you have access to raw mats, even when you network of suppliers can't keep pace with your needs.
Well guys, I don't think a player advancement system for tradeskill only players has any place in a warcraft mmorpg. Wow is World of WARCRAFT for god's sake, not everquest.
What I am saying here is this, warcraft is based on battles and it has always been based on battles. Sure there is a community there, but do you think someone who lived in a time like warcraft made swords and didn't know how to use them?
Everquest is totally different, it is based in a time of battle, sure. However the everquest community is very different than warcraft, it has a place in its storyline for people to be pure crafters. The difference is, in warcraft if you are a crafter you might just get your ass kicked in a city. In everquest you can just stand there thinking happy happy thoughts, craft some stuff, and continue to cyber with random crafter01 or whatever these people might do with themselves, who knows.
I will tell you this though, in WoW if you are a night elf, you know what it feels like to be a night elf. The same thing goes for every race in WoW.
You think WoW has bad graphics? Go check out some instanced dungeons.
You think WoW is not innovative?
Well I don't recall any other mmorpg having a quest system anything like WoW's. I don't recall any other mmorpg having gladiator battles in the arena's that you could buy tickets to watch. I don't recall any other mmorpg's having a seamless world where you only have to zone when you enter an instance or switch continents. I don't recall any other mmorpg that gives rewards for honor gained from PvP. Your characters have a really cool way to differ from others of the same class with talents. You can seriously play a warrior 2 times, 1 defensive and 1 offensive, and have a totally different experience.
You think I am an WoW fanboy? Well hell I am a fanboy of any game that gives me as much fun as this game does. If EQ2 is as fun as WoW, then it sucks that I missed it, but I am not gonna switch games when I found one that I love so much.
Originally posted by 9216544 innovative my ass, the took every mmorpg out there, stole their ideas, and polished them. Pretty innovative huh? Maybe the game had low lag, and very smooth, but the content sucked and could not hold my interest over 5 hours. I havent found Blizzard to be very innovative so far since they started WoW. Go head and flame me, I have been very nice about it and reviewed the game, yet people still call me an "EQ fanboi". I emailed G4TV and am trying to get them to air WoW full review, they just got to lvl 5 and reviewed it on Xplay. I hope they will at least read my email on The Screen Savers, so people dont blow their money on lies from Blizzard fan boys. Good review tho, you were correct in how the game was. EQ2 Qeynos Guild- http://www.imperium-arcanum.com
Why are you going out of your way to make WoW look bad? Oh that's right cause you ARE a EQ FANBOI! Geez, you make EQ players look bad go crawl under a rock and rot. No wonder they won't read your poo.. they can prob smell it the moment they opened their email and deleted it. yeesh....
"love how they make an announcement saying open beta will be coming soon, then turn around and say it won't be here for a while.. its like poetry, only it sucks.. " -About Blizzard and their concept of 'soon'
Comments
In all sincerety, I'm a bit biased when I say that EQ2 truly holds no interest to me. From the over rated graphics, to what will inevitably end up being a game which hordes of obsessed gamers hunt for treasure and treasure alone, EQ2 will, in short, piss me off as a mmorpg as I'm sure EQ did for most people during its decline in quality. And no, I'm not trolling for trouble people; EQ2 just seems like the pretty little prom queen ya pat the head of and then send her on her way. (No offense to any potential/prom queens out there.) All pretty, no substance.
With WoW, I know I'm at least getting a badass storyline. Myself, popping a stiffy for the substance of the game, feels that when I play my Orc hunter and do those quests I am pledging my life for the horde. It's not just "kill 20 mice and come back for some exp." It's "we need you to escort this cargo because rations are low in Durotar" or "some humies have landed near Razor Hill: go f*** them up." Those kinda quests just add a sense of patriotism to the game.
In any case, my life for the horde, folks. My life for the horde.
The first 4 points were ripped off from other games. Nothing wrong with that, but don't call something original that isn't. The Combat wheel is the biggest disappointment for me, it was a very dumbed down version of FFXI skill chains, then they dumbed it down even further a week before release.
As far as EQII crafting, it is the best innovation in the game. It is not SWG crafting in a fantasy setting. It's a mini-game with in the game and I found it very enjoyable. As you craft components and sub components, you can effect the quality of the items by applying various crafting actions during each crafting round. It's more art than science and there is a lot of give and take as you strive to get the best quality results. It's the best crafting system, so far, in a mmorpg.
In spite of that, I am still leaning towards WoW for a number of reasons, but I think EQII crafting is a real innovation and makes crafting fun.
As far as WoW crafting, things have changed since the original stress test. You don't have to progress in a non crafting profession to be a crafter. It's a heck of a lot easier if you have some combat skills, but if you could build up a good network of people to supply you with raw mats, you could craft pretty much exclusively.
I think Tailor is the hardest with out any combat skills, because Linen only drops from mobs, it can't be harvested. On the otherhand, Tailors are the only ones that can make bags and many trade finished bags for raw linen, allowing themselves to progress with out having to kill for their own linen.
Leathercrafter is easier if you have minimal combat skills, but there are usually low level creatures near the first towns that can be skinned. There are even non-combatant animals, like deer and sheep, that die with 1 hit and can be skinned, so if you are careful where you tread and avoid combat, you could progress with little or no combat skills. Of course, setting up a network of suppliers would also work here.
Blacksmith can mine deposits in the world, many of them can be reached with care, avoiding combat. You are disadvantaged if you have no combat skills, because there tends to be deposits in mob inhabited mines, but technically you can do this one as a dedicated crafter as well.
Ditto for Alchemists, harvestable plants are scattered about the land and you can get to these with care, avoiding combat.
All the crafting professions in WoW are much easier if you can also fight. Of course, the ingredients for higher level items drop in much tougher zones, but if you properly leverage your early level contacts by being able to provide useful items or cash in return for raw materials, no reason you can't maintain that network of suppliers as they progress as combatants and gain access to more goods you need later on.
Difficult to be a dedicated crafter? Yes. Impossible? No, but you need to be a outgoing, fair and shrewd businessperson.
Personally, I find the quests so fun, I would recommend that even people who are almost exclusively interested in crafting take time to do them over time. Your combat skills can progress with no grinding outside of what combat is required for the missions and being able to maintain some combat effectiveness would ensure you have access to raw mats, even when you network of suppliers can't keep pace with your needs.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Well guys, I don't think a player advancement system for tradeskill only players has any place in a warcraft mmorpg. Wow is World of WARCRAFT for god's sake, not everquest.
What I am saying here is this, warcraft is based on battles and it has always been based on battles. Sure there is a community there, but do you think someone who lived in a time like warcraft made swords and didn't know how to use them?
Everquest is totally different, it is based in a time of battle, sure. However the everquest community is very different than warcraft, it has a place in its storyline for people to be pure crafters. The difference is, in warcraft if you are a crafter you might just get your ass kicked in a city. In everquest you can just stand there thinking happy happy thoughts, craft some stuff, and continue to cyber with random crafter01 or whatever these people might do with themselves, who knows.
I will tell you this though, in WoW if you are a night elf, you know what it feels like to be a night elf. The same thing goes for every race in WoW.
You think WoW has bad graphics? Go check out some instanced dungeons.
You think WoW is not innovative?
Well I don't recall any other mmorpg having a quest system anything like WoW's. I don't recall any other mmorpg having gladiator battles in the arena's that you could buy tickets to watch. I don't recall any other mmorpg's having a seamless world where you only have to zone when you enter an instance or switch continents. I don't recall any other mmorpg that gives rewards for honor gained from PvP. Your characters have a really cool way to differ from others of the same class with talents. You can seriously play a warrior 2 times, 1 defensive and 1 offensive, and have a totally different experience.
You think I am an WoW fanboy? Well hell I am a fanboy of any game that gives me as much fun as this game does. If EQ2 is as fun as WoW, then it sucks that I missed it, but I am not gonna switch games when I found one that I love so much.
"love how they make an announcement saying open beta will be coming soon, then turn around and say it won't be here for a while.. its like poetry, only it sucks.. " -About Blizzard and their concept of 'soon'
Realmreaver formally of EQ, SWG, FFXI and WoW.
Malis/Pirotess of PSO.
Some named of Diablo 1 and 2
Grendel Kinguard of GW.