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EQ2 vs WoW: An Initial Comparison
fuzzbrain
Member Posts: 70
Now that I have a level 16 character in both WoW and EQ2, I thought I would offer a comparison of the two games for those that might be curious. I will try to be as objective as possible.
ARCHITECTURE
The richness of WoW is hard to overlook once you're placed into the environment. The WoW architecture is extremely creative and very vivid. I was very impressed with the Undercity and Thunder Bluff. Two very different types of cities with visual candy that can only be imagined. The architecture has personality! A job well done. The EQ2 architecture is more medieval looking and blocked, for the most part. Baubleshire was a nice change from say any of the Qeynos zones (South Qeynos, North Qeynos, and Qeynos Harbor). Overall there were differences but nothing to extreme aside from Baubbleshire as I just mentioned.
Winner: WoW
CRAFTING
The crafting system appears to be better defined in EQ2. I really like the fact that you have to depend on either your guildies or others to craft advanced items. WoW doesn't truly go this route since they can virtually create all the pieces to an item themselves. However, in both EQ2 and WoW, you can obviously buy a hard to find ingredient if necessary.
Winner: EQ2
GATHERING
As a crafter, you will find yourself gathering materials and ingredients for your items. EQ2 could have done better with the resources in the newbie lands. I understand they pumped up the resources but that still didn't help much considering the zone was full of people trying to take eathother's resource node. The best times to gather were late in the evening when most were not awake. But I still remember running endless laps around the newbie lands just to chop some wood, gather from an animal trap or mine a chunk of ore. That was frustrating. As like most of us in EQ2, reaching that golden number of 40 meant freedom....freedom to roam Antonica for resources. That was the number...40. How can we forget? That was so ingrained, I could not mistake that for one second.
Gathering in WoW isnt as competitve as EQ2 but its still competitive in a sense because you might have several people in a cave (not zoned) looking for copper, tin or other metal. There's so much more land to look through and you aren't restricted to a particular 200 x 200 yard cell. There are still level restrictions as to what you can mine though. For example, if you've selected one of the two professsions to be a miner, at level 1, you can mine copper, at a level of 75 in mining you can mine tin, at level 150, silver and so on. The beauty is you can roam wherever to look for the resource.
Winner: WoW
ZONING
The zoning in EQ2 puts a toll on you. In an attempt to resolve lagging issues, SOE zoned too much it seems. If you're in the Graystone, you have to zone 3 times to get to North Qeynos or take 2 zones if you travel via the docks. The experience is contrary in WoW. There is virtually no zoning done expect when you travel to other islands via the Zeppliin, the ship or instanced dungeons. Otherwise the world is seamless and you hardly ever zone.
Winner: WoW
LATENCY
Otherwise known as lag. Both games suffered lag at launch. That seems pretty obvious right? Now that the games have been in production and the servers have been stabilized, I can't honestly say one game is more laggy over another.
Winner: Tie
GRIFFON RIDES
Why not compare these two right? Both games have griffon rides to travel from point A to point B. The EQ2 ride seemed a little more rough then the ride on the WoW griffon. It just seemed smoother in WoW.
Winner: WoW
THE USER INTERFACE
Both UI's work pretty similar but EQ2 offers the customization that I enjoy and change as I see fit. I have yet to figure out customized UI's in the WoW UI. Perhaps its there but I just dont see it yet or has not been intuitive enough for me to notice it. I can't move windows in the WoW UI or again..have not figured out how to. Only thing I can do is launch them and close them.
Winner: EQ2
FISHING
Yes! Fishing! Both games have fishing and both use the fish to make food. However, the fishing in WoW is more interactive and you can actually catch various goodies (drops) and various fish. The fishing experience can be enhanced by using lures, night crawlers and bobbles. Its great to catch swords and armor that you could actually use....or sell back for coin. I have spent hours on just fishing for stuff. Sounds sick I know but I find it to be fun.
Winner: WoW
QUESTS
How can I not talk about quests. EQ2 wins this one and I'll tell you why. I have several reasons. The amount of quests you can collect is amazing. Double that which you can get from WoW. EQ2 allows for 40 and WoW allows for 20. Both games offer you the choice to delete quests. EQ2 makes you interact with the NPCs around you because they dont have a fat "!" hanging over their head telling you they have a quest. You actually have to interact with NPCs or walk in their vicinity to get the hint that they might have a quest for you. And they talk to you! There is spoken dialogue not just a written paper telling you of your quest. I really enjoy that from EQ2. It was immersive.
The types of quests you can do in in EQ2 also many. There are killing quests, collecting quests, crafting quests, exploring quests, and gathering quests. Am I missing any?
Winner: EQ2
WARRIOR CLASS/GUNS
As a Warrior in both EQ2 and WoW, I need to find a way to pull my mob when the monsters are tightly packed. Solution? The trusty musket in WoW. How many times have you wished you could have pulled a mob to you but couldnt because there were so many close together? No longer a problem. Shoot one! Mages and Hunters have their pulling mechanisms...and now so do warriors. So what if we're not meant to be pros at it like a hunter but the skill serves its purpose and I love it. By the way, you can buy various degress of shot depending what you can afford or what an engineer can make.
Winner: WoW
UNDERWATER
Both games offer you the ability to hunt, explore and swim underwater. Similar experience in both.
Winner: Tie
OVERALL GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE
I've been playing EQ2 for several weeks now. And been playing WoW for about a week. When you go from EQ2 to WoW, what really makes a huge impact are the colors and richness of WoW. And once you go from WoW to EQ2, you notice the washed out look of the environment. It almost has a bland feel to it. But aside from that, I felt the gameplay in Wow was a bit more enticing and fun to play then EQ2. Its hard to explain but you felt more welcome to play in WoW. The boat rides are cool. The Zepplin is fun. Running elevators going up and down. The Undercity is spooky and ghoulish (Imagine the Haunted House from Disneyland but spookier!) The seemless look and feel of the environment shows extra attention to detail and vivid with color schemes. Job well done Blizzard.
Overall Winner: WoW
Ulfaro
"Mature gamers from the Pacific"
http://www.californiagamer.com
Comments
Good, unbiased review.
Although I disagree on the latency part, EQ2 is much better for me, a European playing on an eastcoast server compared to playing on WoW on an Eastcoast server, EQ2 comes off with a lot less lag. And with that I mean internet lag, ofcourse.
As sick as I am of this type of thread, that one did seem worthwhile (not that I do more than skim these at this point).
"Don't blame me, I voted for Badnarik."
http://www.lp.org
Still waiting for my next mmorpg...
A definition of 'munchkin', origin forgotten: "A player who, when told that the game will involve political intrigue in 15th-century Italy, insists on playing a Ninja." -isomeme
WARNING: Spelling and grammatical errors intentionally left in document to test for Anal Retentive Trolls.
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_______________________________________________________________________________
"Arguing on the Internet is like running the Special Olympics. Even if you win you're still a retard"
"I have no prejudices, I hate everyone equally regardless of race or religion"
"Been there, done that!"
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Flamers, beware! when you leave this earth, there is a very special place reserved for you down below with romantic bonefires scourching you bones!"
"I have no prejudices, I hate everyone equally regardless of race or religion"
"Been there, done that!"
I have to say this doesn't feel like a totally unbiased review, but maybe that's because I'm biased the other way
. I did have some comments on some of your comments.
Originally posted by fuzzbrain
Now that I have a level 16 character in both WoW and EQ2, I thought I would offer a comparison of the two games for those that might be curious. I will try to be as objective as possible.
ARCHITECTURE
The richness of WoW is hard to overlook once you're placed into the environment. The WoW architecture is extremely creative and very vivid. I was very impressed with the Undercity and Thunder Bluff. Two very different types of cities with visual candy that can only be imagined. The architecture has personality! A job well done. The EQ2 architecture is more medieval looking and blocked, for the most part. Baubleshire was a nice change from say any of the Qeynos zones (South Qeynos, North Qeynos, and Qeynos Harbor). Overall there were differences but nothing to extreme aside from Baubbleshire as I just mentioned. Winner: WoW
I think you're missing a lot here. The style is a little more dark in EQ2 opposed to the light-hearted style of WoW. I mean if you look around in the towns of EQ2 with the castles, the ivy on the castles the stained glass windows, all make things very interesting. The NPC's (which you mentioned) also help with the feel of the town. I think EQ2 did an excellent job of capturing the feel of the medevil setting. I'm not saying WoW did a bad job, it's different style.
CRAFTING
The crafting system appears to be better defined in EQ2. I really like the fact that you have to depend on either your guildies or others to craft advanced items. WoW doesn't truly go this route since they can virtually create all the pieces to an item themselves. However, in both EQ2 and WoW, you can obviously buy a hard to find ingredient if necessary. Winner: EQ2
The whole reason I play MMO's is the interdependance on others. There has to be a reason for others to be online with me other than just socializing. This is one of my favorite things on EQ2.
GATHERING
As a crafter, you will find yourself gathering materials and ingredients for your items. EQ2 could have done better with the resources in the newbie lands. I understand they pumped up the resources but that still didn't help much considering the zone was full of people trying to take eathother's resource node. The best times to gather were late in the evening when most were not awake. But I still remember running endless laps around the newbie lands just to chop some wood, gather from an animal trap or mine a chunk of ore. That was frustrating. As like most of us in EQ2, reaching that golden number of 40 meant freedom....freedom to roam Antonica for resources. That was the number...40. How can we forget? That was so ingrained, I could not mistake that for one second. Gathering in WoW isnt as competitve as EQ2 but its still competitive in a sense because you might have several people in a cave (not zoned) looking for copper, tin or other metal. There's so much more land to look through and you aren't restricted to a particular 200 x 200 yard cell. There are still level restrictions as to what you can mine though. For example, if you've selected one of the two professsions to be a miner, at level 1, you can mine copper, at a level of 75 in mining you can mine tin, at level 150, silver and so on. The beauty is you can roam wherever to look for the resource. Winner: WoW
This is a little misleading. You can go to your starter towns and go to starter zones and get your skill to level 40. It is a pain and I hate it when someone who would have walked right past, but sees you gathering so they start. I wish gathering locked the resource like it does when you fight. Resource stealing is just as bad as kill stealing.
ZONING
The zoning in EQ2 puts a toll on you. In an attempt to resolve lagging issues, SOE zoned too much it seems. If you're in the Graystone, you have to zone 3 times to get to North Qeynos or take 2 zones if you travel via the docks. The experience is contrary in WoW. There is virtually no zoning done expect when you travel to other islands via the Zeppliin, the ship or instanced dungeons. Otherwise the world is seamless and you hardly ever zone. Winner: WoW
This is the biggest problem with EQ2. It is really annoying having to wait for a new zone (or 6) to load when trying to go anywhere.
LATENCY
Otherwise known as lag. Both games suffered lag at launch. That seems pretty obvious right? Now that the games have been in production and the servers have been stabilized, I can't honestly say one game is more laggy over another. Winner: Tie
This is the part where I think you're being a little lenient on WoW. EQ2 had very little lag at launch, WoW's servers were brought to thier knees. I would say WoW has quite a bit more lag than EQ2. It's not severe and I would gladly deal with it, if EQ2 would get rid of the zone every 5 feet.
GRIFFON RIDES
Why not compare these two right? Both games have griffon rides to travel from point A to point B. The EQ2 ride seemed a little more rough then the ride on the WoW griffon. It just seemed smoother in WoW. Winner: WoW
I haven't taken a Griffon Ride on either one, so I'm not sure what you mean by smooth, but I wouldn think ridinhg on the back of a Griffon would be bummpy. Again, I haven't seen the implimtation so you're probably right on this one.
THE USER INTERFACE
Both UI's work pretty similar but EQ2 offers the customization that I enjoy and change as I see fit. I have yet to figure out customized UI's in the WoW UI. Perhaps its there but I just dont see it yet or has not been intuitive enough for me to notice it. I can't move windows in the WoW UI or again..have not figured out how to. Only thing I can do is launch them and close them. Winner: EQ2
FISHING
Yes! Fishing! Both games have fishing and both use the fish to make food. However, the fishing in WoW is more interactive and you can actually catch various goodies (drops) and various fish. The fishing experience can be enhanced by using lures, night crawlers and bobbles. Its great to catch swords and armor that you could actually use....or sell back for coin. I have spent hours on just fishing for stuff. Sounds sick I know but I find it to be fun. Winner: WoW
This is right on. Fishing in EQ2 is just double click. WoW's is a lot more interactive.
QUESTS
How can I not talk about quests. EQ2 wins this one and I'll tell you why. I have several reasons. The amount of quests you can collect is amazing. Double that which you can get from WoW. EQ2 allows for 40 and WoW allows for 20. Both games offer you the choice to delete quests. EQ2 makes you interact with the NPCs around you because they dont have a fat "!" hanging over their head telling you they have a quest. You actually have to interact with NPCs or walk in their vicinity to get the hint that they might have a quest for you. And they talk to you! There is spoken dialogue not just a written paper telling you of your quest. I really enjoy that from EQ2. It was immersive. The types of quests you can do in in EQ2 also many. There are killing quests, collecting quests, crafting quests, exploring quests, and gathering quests. Am I missing any? Winner: EQ2
This is where EQ2 really shines. I mean there was a quest where you had to interview 3 people and figure out what really happened. All 3 had a different point of view. It was pretty cool.
WARRIOR CLASS/GUNS
As a Warrior in both EQ2 and WoW, I need to find a way to pull my mob when the monsters are tightly packed. Solution? The trusty musket in WoW. How many times have you wished you could have pulled a mob to you but couldnt because there were so many close together? No longer a problem. Shoot one! Mages and Hunters have their pulling mechanisms...and now so do warriors. So what if we're not meant to be pros at it like a hunter but the skill serves its purpose and I love it. By the way, you can buy various degress of shot depending what you can afford or what an engineer can make. Winner: WoW
Actually, the guns and Zepplins are some of the things that turned me off of WoW. It feels too steam punk and less Fantasy. In EQ2 you can taunt to pull one mob.
UNDERWATER
Both games offer you the ability to hunt, explore and swim underwater. Similar experience in both. Winner: Tie
OVERALL GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE
I've been playing EQ2 for several weeks now. And been playing WoW for about a week. When you go from EQ2 to WoW, what really makes a huge impact are the colors and richness of WoW. And once you go from WoW to EQ2, you notice the washed out look of the environment. It almost has a bland feel to it. But aside from that, I felt the gameplay in Wow was a bit more enticing and fun to play then EQ2. Its hard to explain but you felt more welcome to play in WoW. The boat rides are cool. The Zepplin is fun. Running elevators going up and down. The Undercity is spooky and ghoulish (Imagine the Haunted House from Disneyland but spookier!) The seemless look and feel of the environment shows extra attention to detail and vivid with color schemes. Job well done Blizzard. Overall Winner: WoW
This is where we really differ in opinions. I like the "washed out" look in EQ2. It makes it feel more like a serious game, and less like a cartoon. The quests and the dependency on other players are the two most important things to me, and we both agree that EQ2 does a better job at those.
DISCLAIMER: This was not meant as a flame, just to illustrate a different point of view.
And it was an interesting read Jodokai. If everyone could respond in such mature manner, people who are new to either game would trule get a really good look into both games and choose which would suite them best. And as they say, each player according to his (her) taste.
Audiatur et altera pars ; Latin mening something along the lines of: let both parts be heard, or listen to the other side as well (It's difficult to translate a translation
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Arguing on the Internet is like running the Special Olympics. Even if you win you're still a retard"
"I have no prejudices, I hate everyone equally regardless of race or religion"
"Been there, done that!"
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Flamers, beware! when you leave this earth, there is a very special place reserved for you down below with romantic bonefires scourching you bones!"
"I have no prejudices, I hate everyone equally regardless of race or religion"
"Been there, done that!"
Thank you. I've never really understood the mentality that WoW has to suck since I like EQ2 better or vice versa. I can like one game without having to bash the other. I mean I like Empire Strikes Back the best, but that doesn't mean Star Wars A New Hope was a bad movie.
I just like my games a little more serious than WoW, who takes more of a light-hearted approach (which shouldn't supprise anyone who played any of the other Warcraft games). One thing I think would have been hysterical, is if when you finished crafting something you heard that peasent voice saying "Job's done". I giggled myself silly thinking about that while playing the game
I have seen the Arctic Circle... And it is round.
I am only commenting on your WoW crafting comments as I have not played EQ2 and I am actually not that high level in WoW. But you make a distinction that EQ2 makes crafters rely on others to create high level items but WoW does not. I do not believe that this is the case in WoW. I believe that high level items do require materials from other professions in order to become completed. As an alchemist, some of my potions require materials from the mining profession, and my potions are needed in crafting some Blacksmithing and Leatherworking recipies.
Nice review however.
-----------------------------------------
World of Warcraft:
ChimolJin (horde side, ThunderLord server)
Petition Blizzard Entertainment to translate their PC classics onto the Nintendo DS:
http://www.petitiononline.com/blizzds/petition.html
-----------------------------------------
World of Warcraft:
ChimolJin (horde side, ThunderLord server)
Petition Blizzard Entertainment to translate their PC classics onto the Nintendo DS:
http://www.petitiononline.com/blizzds/petition.html
very good reviews!
I also purchased both titles and I am putting my money on WoW. Everquest just seems like a step up from what was already out there, while World of Warcraft hits the mark on something completely new. The only complaint I have about WoW, is the server instability. Well, mine at least. But, i think it is getting better. . .
Very good read. I appreciate threads where people use arguments instead of flames.
I am enjoying EY2 right now and love it. I haven't played WoW so far and wont do before it gets released here in Europe but i will give it a go to compare them for myself.
It seems like the games are both worth their money but have a somewhat different approach.
I am glad about this since i want to have something new if i ever get bored of EQ2.
The more good games the better.!