Evergrind II – a story of love and hate
I play EQ2 since day one, with breaks to this very day. EQ2 has matured over the years. It is one of the best MMOs out there, which says a lot about the bad state in which MMOs are right now. More or less, since the release of WOW we have seen only mediocre games at best, some niche hits like EVE, and nothing to really rejoice.
EQ2 has some things I really love. Many classes and races, each playing interesting, voiceover of most dialogue, a vast selection of quest types, many unique regions, and a decend housing system (I just love to place all that stuff into my manor!). Just the right difficulty, of not too easy nor too difficult. Also a nice system around the guilds, the entire status stuff gives some common goals to accomplish. You’d call EQ2 a solid game.
However, there are things which I hated in EQ2 from day one and which really bug me after three years still to no avail.
Armor for instance. Why was it not possible to make a REALLY big selection of armor after all those years? Its all those 2 plate armor models with some different colours, and that’s it. I got my cobalt armor when I got 50, now after a year being almost 60 (I had a long break in that year) and after 3 years after release it is still the best amor in the broker! I have looked, just for the fun, what other amor pieces the broker has. And to my horror I saw, the only other amor with really more protection was at level 70. With a SLIGHLTLY brighter blue tone, but despite that identical. That’s all. For 20 levels.
Now you might ask, hey what about all those fancy armours some people run around? Now, some just wear ragtag armor. They either don’t care or don’t know better. But 80% of those few in different looking armor went into raids. OFTEN. MANY raids. I cant overemphasize this. I asked them. And I hate raids. For me, raids are the embodiment of evil, of dull, uninspired gameplay. I am a group-player. I love the old fashioned, pen and paper based idea of taking your adventorous lot of 5-6 heroes and do some mission. Raids are mindless running, hack and slay and usually rather dull. Not to speak that you spent hours and hours for usually meager XP and more meager loot, which is in no visible connection to the ruckus you create. And the strenuous many hours you WAIT for everyone to come. I don’t know how many times you have to enter those mindless raids to really get your armor sets, but looking at their stats, I don’t feel like they are really worth the effort. Thinking of all the weeks of dull raiding to get some decend armor creates one of those moments I really start to understand people who just go to a plat seller and buy the shit. For me, the backbone of MMOs are groups and must always be groups. If I could I would just forbid raids and limit soloing.
Soloing, the other bane. Now I know, some people like soloing. I respect that. Give them some things to do, that’s alright for me. But Eq2 just overdid it, I think, because nowadays it seems to be impossible to find a GROUP, because 90% of all players of EQ2 are either in an endless raid hamster-wheel, or they solo. Calling in the three (!!!) really big guilds I am in (each around 300 members!) and STILL I spent almost the entire last week alone. I dunno WHAT people are doing, but calling in the various channels, the LFG system and the guild was not helping me at all. That’s exactly the reason I always left EQ2: I was alone. I just hate that. It’s the empitome of dullness. If there is one more thing more dull that killing flies for some man-sized frog’s breakfeast, its killing flies for some man-sized frog’s breakfeast ALONE.
I guess a big reason that its so damnable difficult to find people for your quests, is, the EQ2 quests are so complicated and intertwined, its easier to complete a study of interenational law that digging through this jungle of interwoven quests. To talk to NPC A you have to unlock dungeon B, but not before doing quests X, Y and Z to gather the 15 runes of humbug, and you get 40k faction with the Boolean Comedians. Oh and only of Fridays and Mondays, of course. Geez. How about some simple, elegant questlines? Why does EQ2 have to overcomplicate things? I mean, everytime I return to EQ2 I have that HUGE list of quests, and 90% of the quests I cant do for some reason. The most common reason: I just dont find out what to do. "Find shells at the beach of the Eye of Anook." Great. Where is that eye? No answers. Ok, I travel around, maybe I find such an eye. Nothing. Only my own sore eyes. I must admit, I am trying to find this eye and the shells for one and half a year now. I know, someday I will find it. I just dont look in the internet, call me stubborn, but IMO thats not the reason to play MMOs. Its one of those pen and paper day habits. When I met my friends, and the dungeonmaster had our adventure prepared, I didnt buy the book and read it all to find the way either! I wanted to be surprised! I want MMO quests to be self-explanatory. I mean, the desert is not THAT big, but come on, you COULD give me a hint. And its so with SO MANY quests. Fetch the idols X from the temple Y. Somewhere. Happy finding. I mean, its fun to have SOME quests like easter egg finding, but in EQ2 ALL THE FRIGGING quests are like that. I just see no sense in cheating and looking for a walkthrough, for as in solo games, there isnt a better way to kill fun that playing with those walkthroughs!
Storytelling wasn’t ever the strength of EQ2 either. Or any MMO. Before LOTRO. LOTRO really has the first storytelling of all MMOs I have seen. I love fantasy novels, and I am really easy to satisfy (man, I LOVED those cheap, cheesy Jedi Padawan!!), but the usual level of storytelling MMOs is so unbelievable dull and boring, I am sometimes onclined to drill a hole in my kneecap, just to verify I am awake and alife. I mean, who REALLY cares a damn about this gnome loosing his sprocket in a midst of snails or anything like it? I admit I rarely read the quests in EQ2, I acutally don’t care a damn, and that’s a pity, because it takes away a lot of motivations. Those EQ2 stories just all read like someone had fed a random story generator with a few donzen topics and spat them all out into Norrath. Not that any other MMO was any better. CoH at least had a very thin, somewhat coherent story-line, but before LOTRO I had not seen anything like a story at all in MMOs! (And its not because of the books! All that is good is what Turbine invented “between” the events of the books, so it’s as much creativity as writing it anew!)
So essentially, I always go back to EQ2, because everything else is even greater crap. But I am stuck in my 3 year old lv 57 paladin, moving ahead in baby steps, because I JUST CANT DO QUESTS. I find no people, or I find the most boring quests! Really, the guy who invented the quest “Beetle Herding” must be SHOT! I mean, whats the idea of making a quest with SEVEN parts, all contain to herd some skittish, stupid beetles to some Tarantulas? Over and over and over? And the gain? Armor pieces that look shabby and have stats FAR below anything you acutally wear at the point when you do it? Its 100% useless. I guess it took me about 18 months or so do make myself complete this utterly dull quest. No quest should be dull. There just SHOULD NOT BE filler quests! If its not interesting in itself and contributes to a bigger picture, replace it!
I don’t want to bore you overly. EQ2 is one of the best, but still after so many years and expansions there is so much crap. Where are all the really interesting quests? Where is the diversity in armor sets? And where is THE FUK EVERYONE ELSE? I am lost in this game, and lost why after all those years its like the same ugly wife you are married to for 50 years, but you always return, because you don’t know what else to do.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Elikal
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Comments
Not to be an A-hole or anything, but good God man if you're gonna write a thesis on or about the state of a "game" be it a MMO or whatever... You need to get out a bit more. Seriously man put forth this effort to words something a tad more intelligent.
not sure where you got that idea that there is no armor betetr than cobalt for 20 levels from. the next crafted set is xegonite armor (useable at lvl 62) like for all crafted armors there are now a few different versions (originally there was only 1 chainmail and 1 vangaurd set, but with the crafting revamp they added some more and you have now 4 chainmail and 3 plate sets that have different stats).
Thats the base, then there are tons of legendary armor drops that you can get from group zones and instances (some of this is no trade, some of these are rare, some are easy to get). And on top of that there are the legendary set items that you can get from eof groups instances/dungeons (mobs that drop set items now check which classes you have in your group and drop an item useable by one of these).I can say that gettign equipment upgrades is not that hard with groups, you won't get fabled items, but you also don't really need these if you don't raid. (you said you are lvl 57, and it is true that DoF was not that great for equippment it had some nice items from raids but the group instances and zones were not that good, the KOS and EOF zones are a lot better with a huge variety of equippment items.
If your complain is about the looks of the armors then you are right that most of it uses just the same models with new textures. The devs are working on a new skeletal model for the characters that should make it easier to add more armor models in the future, but right now they said it is a whole lot of work making a new model and fitting it for all races manually thats what is limiting the number of actual armor models.
if your big guilds don't help you finding groups then it might be better to join a medium sized guild cause these often have better communities with players knowing each other better and more personally, which makes grouping and getting help easier.
Just a final info the eye of annuk is a hole in sinking sands that leads down to the caves below the bay of anuk (north east of twin tears) its one of the named regions so if you get there you will see the name big on your screen. (its also marked on http://eq2.gamepressure.com/maps.asp?ID=105 as number 28). yes there are some quests that require a bit research on where to go or what to find/kill..., but in most cases thats not that hard to find out. (but yes there are also some quests especially in the epic questlines that really require you to search a lot or do the easy way and get help on web). On the beetle herding quest i have to agree it was a fun idea for the first 2-3 beetles that you lead over to the tarantulas but after that it got boring very fast so i never really bothered to copmplete that line cause the rewards were also not worth it.
On stories and lore there are some really nice quest series that hold a lot story and lore (especially the 4 epic quest lines) but also the solo lines in newer areas often have a good portion of that , so it is often worth to read your conversations with the npcs when you get a quest. The story instances in lotro are a nice idea, but for me they were also a part why the starter areas lost a lot replayability cause you had to do them to progress and the forced part was not that much fun.
I personally enjoy having a big choice of quests and places to go to so that i have options from which i can pick what to do.
Final point raiding, i personally enjoy to raid from time to time with my guild and its not only for the loot for me, its fun to do something challenging together and especially in zones that you have not cleared before where you still need to find your own tactics and ways to overcome nameds. I guess i would not enjoy raiding every day for x hours like hardcore guilds do it, but 2-3 raids a week where i have also the option not to join if i don't want or don't have enough time is a nice thing for me. Pickup raids can be fun too, but often they are not that enjoyable as a good guild raid where you know all people good.
Sorry to dissappoint your standarts, but I didnt want to write an entire scientific exploration into all aspects of Eq2. I wrote a personal impression, which has no desire for completeness or being representative. Its what bugs me, and maybe also others. Its not a flame nor a praise, so I think in the range of what can be reasonably said without overstreching things. If you agree with me you will find the points sufficient, if not, not 100 more points will persuade you.
@quaiky: Thanks for the info. I guess there are things there, like more armor. Just for the example: my cobalt chestplate has 392 mitigation, since lv 50. Now the lv 62 you mention ahas 412, thats mere 20 points for another 2 plat or so? Its just such a small step for so many levels. And it looks so unspectacular. I know there are sets in EoF. But somehow I dislike the idea of making a study of EQ2, making plans for weeks and months.Why are all quests so complicated? I mean, ok maybe I am stupid, but often read a quest, and say "huh? what do you want me to do again? Where the heck is that??" And I have to ask, or consult the web, and thats just so non-immersive. I mean, EQ2 has many friendly guys who will help me along, but thats not the point. I want to make the old fashioned way, and expect quests clear enough written that you CAN understand it without seeking a translation in the web into normal-speech. Thats all I mean with the quests.
EDIT: I have searched Allakhazam, and ALL better armor I found were raid items. Maybe their database isnt complete. Any hint for a lv 57 pally to get special armor with a normal group?
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Anyways TC, that was a really good read. Even though I only played for a couple months last year, I agree with most of your points. I'm in the process of getting started again because, as you said, everything else sucks, so hopefully this go at EQII will be better.
The main thing that I COMPLETELY agree with you on is the fact that people would rather solo than group. I loved the fact that in FFXI there were always groups to get into. All these newer games are so solo oriented that it's like playing a single player game with the option to talk to other people while playing the game. I wish people would group more but it seems that if soloing stays as easy as it is, nothing will happen.
Eikel, I don't even have the words....
You're better off finding another game. I happen to like this one and it just keeps getting better.
Try this site, best item site IMO, you can also link these items in the game from this site.
http://www.eq2idb.com/
I've been playing this game for about 3months now and I personally feel that it's one of the best games out there. The fact that you compare the Lotr storyline to Eq2 kinda bugged me. The ONLY thing Lotr has going for it....IS the storyline, thats it!
Other then that, all you have is a game that is an ultra grindfest with your very many clones and you running about doing quests. I would'nt doubt if the Asian community must be having a hayday with all the grinding, considering that they love to grind.
Eq2 storyline perhaps could have been better but it's been written by game makers, not novelists. That is why the actual game play is better then Lotr. This all will end up being a personal choice. Good storyline bad game VS mediocre storyline great game?
You complained about raids and then mentioned you like the old fashioned group play going on a missions. Are they both not the same? I guess you've just had many bad experiences with raids in general. I've had fun in raids. I like the idea of taking down a badarse boss every now and then. But again to each there own.
I could go on but your post started to sound more like a whine after the first few paragraphs. So instead, might I suggest you just take a long break from the game? Or better yet, try finding a better game out there right now.
Oh wait...there is none.
Your not an A-hole, because you are sitting where ever reading posts that resemble a thesis. I've always said, if your going to write, write about something your passionate about. I mean, your not going to get some car loving fanatic to write about wedding gown designs or the effects of global warming on the migration of penguins.
So how about we not worry about a MMO thesis and let people write about stuff appropriate for the site instead of giving them shit.
Point taken...