The simple fact that even if u have a pay account u will still be restricted on the x server is telling of how bad the SOE model of ftp/ptw is
Its the best value in the business for people wanting content for cheap. More content than WoW and Rift combined for the 10 buck silver membership? Unfortunately it doesnt work for most people because the fabled gear and master spells that arent remotely needed for 95% of the game can't be used. But if you dont mind not having the absolute best stuff then there is absolutely no better value out there.
However if you are going to sub, sub on the live servers. I doubt it was the intention, but that fairly trivial difference between gold eq2x and eq2live membership keeps people joining both services. If gold and live were the exact same almost everyone would go to eq2x for the larger low level population (although getting low level groups on AB is fairly easy if you set it up yourself and dont wait for it to come)
Also, EQ2x isnt pay to win. You will need a gold membership for the top 5% of content, but that content isnt adjusted so youll need the only 2 good performance items on the eq2x marketplace, health and mana potions with 5 minute cooldowns. Its sub to win if you want to look at it that way, but its not like games like RoM where you need to spend more than normal sub money to be effective. The gear on the eq2 marketplace is for lazy people really, you can get it in game without much effort, and tis not the top stuff in the game by a large margin.
I've been pretty pleasantly surprised with the setup since I'm back. I'm typically quite wary of anything to do with a cash shop, but it turns out SOE seems to have handled it pretty well in EQ2. Like Turbine with LoTRO and DDO, they've opted to keep an option that is, for all intents and purposes, a standard subscription in the form of their Gold membership, which is what I went with. It's basically just like a normal sub fee in that I get access to all the content I've already bought, but just have to purchase new expansions to get whatever is exclusive to them.
Since I'm on a gold membership, I automatically get 500 points a month to play with, which go pretty far considering there's nothing on the shop that I've seen that seems at all compulsory. I'm using them to get the reduction potions for the research skills, or buying nifty social gear. Nothing I've seen has seemed at all "pay to win" and so far I have not encountered any arbitrary road blocks in the game that require a cash shop purchase to get past. So, kudos to SOE on that as well.
Of course, I say this as a gold membership player. It's probably very different as a totally free player or even to a degree as a silver player. I thought about those options but, for me personally, if I'm going to play a game, I just want to play. "Take my $15, get out of my way and let me play uninterrupted", is how I see it. I'm not interested in patronizing an online shopping mall for my e-existence. I'm interested in settling in and "escaping" into a good game for an hour or three.
On a different note: I was watching a video where some SOE folk talk about the Freeport revamp and how they're all excited that it's going to bring people back to the cities to engage in more content and make them more of a social hub. I don't now if I missed the rush, or if it just never happened or what, but Freeport seems no more populated than it was last time I played. Aside from a regular group of players hanging around the ever laggy docks area of East Freeport, the city seems no more populated than it ever has to me. Seems SOE might have missed the target on their idea there.
I hope they can turn that around. One thing I've always enjoyed in MMOs, specifically those with a strong server community, is to see a bunch of random people, not just people from the same handful of guilds, hanging around in a central location, chatting, joking around, etc. It's something I've missed in MMOs of the last few years.
WoW has that kind of "people hanging around" thing, but it's not really in a social way. Those folks are either afk, checking their bank, checking the AH, or queued for a dungeon. There's usually flaming going on in the chat channels between a handful of people, so it's not like there's any real conversation or "community-like" activity going on. It's a huge, colorful mass of muted loners for the most part. That's not really what I'm hoping for in EQ2, heh.
On a different note: I was watching a video where some SOE folk talk about the Freeport revamp and how they're all excited that it's going to bring people back to the cities to engage in more content and make them more of a social hub. I don't now if I missed the rush, or if it just never happened or what, but Freeport seems no more populated than it was last time I played. Aside from a regular group of players hanging around the ever laggy docks area of East Freeport, the city seems no more populated than it ever has to me. Seems SOE might have missed the target on their idea there.
Pretty much the only thing that could turn cities back into social centers would be to thoroughly dud the guild halls (which have all the amenities of cities and then some). Not going to happen...
On a different note: I was watching a video where some SOE folk talk about the Freeport revamp and how they're all excited that it's going to bring people back to the cities to engage in more content and make them more of a social hub. I don't now if I missed the rush, or if it just never happened or what, but Freeport seems no more populated than it was last time I played. Aside from a regular group of players hanging around the ever laggy docks area of East Freeport, the city seems no more populated than it ever has to me. Seems SOE might have missed the target on their idea there.
Pretty much the only thing that could turn cities back into social centers would be to thoroughly dud the guild halls (which have all the amenities of cities and then some). Not going to happen...
Freeport and qeynos were dead before the guild halls. Kelethin andNeriak hurt as much as the guild halls, if not more.
It is true the draw of Everquest 2 was its community just like Everquest itself. After years of wandering about from game to game I have found that it is very seldom you come across a good community and without it a game is just lifeless.
Best communities in MMO.
EQ1.
EQ2.
LOTRO/ Laurelin Server.
Vanguard.
I have found the EQ2 community to be awesome, love it liek the old days in the MMO games. DAOC used to be on the good list of MMO communitys but thety all left. And know it`s all kids or pissed of vets.
On a different note: I was watching a video where some SOE folk talk about the Freeport revamp and how they're all excited that it's going to bring people back to the cities to engage in more content and make them more of a social hub. I don't now if I missed the rush, or if it just never happened or what, but Freeport seems no more populated than it was last time I played. Aside from a regular group of players hanging around the ever laggy docks area of East Freeport, the city seems no more populated than it ever has to me. Seems SOE might have missed the target on their idea there.
Pretty much the only thing that could turn cities back into social centers would be to thoroughly dud the guild halls (which have all the amenities of cities and then some). Not going to happen...
Freeport and qeynos were dead before the guild halls. Kelethin andNeriak hurt as much as the guild halls, if not more.
I guess I'm atypical, then. Back when I started on the Island, I'd run the first couple quests for the gear, then ditch the place for the Big City. I do the much the same thing now with the new starting areas, heading to the old main cities for the noob quests in the racial neighborhoods before heading back to pick up the later quests.
First time posting here. I have always come to read for info but never posted myself.
Anyway! Great read cyber, like you i came to mmo's from EQ1. And also when EQ2 came out i was there from day one. I only played about 1 month.
I'.m going to give it a try again today based on a lot of stuff read. One thing that stands out from all the posts here is the community. Coming from a long time WoW as a 39 year old it sounds refressing.
So now i ask, is the AB server one of the fuller one's to roll on? Also ill be starting out friendless! boo hoo. tried to get my wife to play other games but she is more about spending my money then playing MMO's, and my 2 kids are to young. Are there guilds still looking for new members ? I know some times games that have been out so long are harder to come by good guilds.
Last i would ask as far as the new class Beastlord. Is there a thousand of them running around now? And if so what is a good class to lvl up as a some what n00b. I might actually have a lot of rewards to claim since i got the CE when it first came out. I know tanks in the end game are probly set already in most guilds so i wouldnt want to roll one and not be needed.
Thanks again everyone and i hope to be in game tonight!!!
And one more thing. I have heard when starting out to set AA exp gain to 50%? that still the way to go? thanks!
It really depends on what you want to get out of the leveling experience. 50% is okay if you want to level reasonably fast while still getting a decent amount of AAs. I found myself adjusting the slider depending on the situation - e.g. I would always move it to 0% in dungeons.
If you want to see as many zones as possible move it to 80-90%
There is no one way to go. It depends on what you personally want and I think it's quite easy to figure out what happens if you reduce/increase the %age.
Note that you can only adjust the slider if you are a gold member. Otherwise it will be set to 50% and you will not be able to change it.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Returning to Norrath has been on my mind for quite some time.
I left EQ1 in Sep 2002 without rancour and regret. Still hands down my best on-line gaming experience, bar none (on par with MUDs in mid-late 90s). I tried EQ2 in early 2007 but found the experience beautiful but sterile. The original starting zones esp. revamped Commons, were horrid and bland. I made a pilgrimage to Holly Windstalker's grave then quit.
Last year my desktop refused to POST. Recently, I enlisted the support of a friend to diagnose the problem. We both think a major component (motherboard) is dead. Hence, I made the decision to buy an early 2008 MacBook Pro to become a fully paid-up member of the Jobsian cult (typing this post on my iPad2).
Last night, I tried EQMac. 9 and a half years later is an awful long time. The nostalgia wore off almost immediately: abysmal, blocky graphics and bereft of players in classic starter zones. EC, NRo and Oasis empty and lifeless. Paid my respects to the Shady Swashbuckler, made my way to Oasis docks and camped out for the last time.
So why even entertain returning to EQ2? Judging by the posts, it is still alive, full of rich, engrossing and compelling content, and the graphics hold up well today.
I have a couple of VERY overdue professional assignments to get out of the way. Given that my perennial search for Oriental women is /facepalm and /fail until I emigrate to Asia-Pacific, and I've finally laid the ghosts of EQ to rest, this thread has provided me encouragement to resolve my desktop issues to dive back into Norrath to re-ignite that old school community feeling that has been missing for a very long time.
Any advice for servers for GMT probably late Friday evenings and early / late Saturday evenings (unless my Oriental outlook improves)?
I'm looking for a classic experience i.e. no twinking, no PL's, more dungeon crawling, with AAs at 90% or thereabouts.
Cheers!
"If you think I'm plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in way over your head. I don't have a heart of gold or get nice. There are a lot nicer people coming up. We call them losers."
I would recommend Antonia Bayle.. Sorry havent been on this site for a few days, or i would have answered sooner.
The community seems very social and friendly . . Finding a group at lower levels of actual low level people can be hard though. I was lucky I came back to the game with friends. Currently we are in our 40s (running Cazic Thule). We are finding that more and more people at this level expand out from soloing and start grouping up more and have been meeting new friends. We also have a great guild we are part of, and the guildies alot of times offer to come join us.
Now as for grouping. YOu will get people that will offer to come join you by mentoring down to your level. However the mentor system IMHO is so broken its crazy. They might as well just sit at their level and power level you. If you do go this route you could feasibly put the person on autofollow and let them play the game for you. Mentors get xp for coming down to your level. It allows them finish quests etc etc they might never got around to finishing. However abilities in no way scale down appropriately.
Hope this has helped some.
If you are ever on Antonia Bayle. Look me up my characters name is Oricius
It would be good to meet up with a group of like-minded players, who want to explore content without being in an ungodly rush to 90th level.
I plan to play Troubadour this time round, and hope that there are enough low-level players on Freeport to support my preferred playing-style (exploration and dungeon-crawling).
It is a toss-up between AB and Freeport - however, reports mention more low-level players on Freeport. Also, I can no longer commit to a NA server due to GMT time-zone. During my EQ days, I played on a NA server and played a mixture of GMT and EST. The latter killed me, as I was often logging off at 03:00 - 04:00 in the morning.
First things first. I need to finish these damn assignments, then enlist my friend's support to properly diagnose which component has died, causing my desktop to fail to POST. So I expect sometime in April.
Cheers!
"If you think I'm plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in way over your head. I don't have a heart of gold or get nice. There are a lot nicer people coming up. We call them losers."
I just started playing EQ2 and frankly, I've experienced little of the game aspects OP discussed. Perhaps, that's just because I've only recently began my involvement in EQ2. But still, presently at level 6 - not to mention, on the game's supposedly most active server - I've encountered barren, desolate gaming areas.
Unfortunately I expect you'll likely quit shortly after reaching the level cap (if you make it that far). I leveled in EQ2 recently, to cap, and I must say the game is just boring. Another Copy of WoW believe it or not. Each day your instances reset and you run them again... Each day you collect tokens to buy better gear... Each day you grind out this or that to slightly improve your character...
From reading your initial post it seems completely based on the fact you're playing with friends. Take those friends out of the picture and you've lost just about all enjoyment you think EQ2 provides. I expect if you took your same group into just about any other MMO you would enjoy it just the same.
The one thing I do like about EQ2 is the AA system. It provides another way to advance your character AND a way to play the game with friends while staying equal to eachother in levels. Like you said, if you want to play one night and your friend or group is not available... Turn experience off and work on your AA. By the time I hit 75 (I think thats cap right? or is it higher?) I had less than half of my AA's and that was with my 50% AA bar on 24/7.
Anyway, i'm glad you're enjoying the stay, but I really feel it has everything to do with your friends/group and nothing to do with the game itself.
Another Copy of WoW believe it or not. Each day your instances reset and you run them again... Each day you collect tokens to buy better gear... Each day you grind out this or that to slightly improve your character...
Feel free to have whatever opinion you want about EQ2, but to call it a WoW clone is just being ignorant. EQ2 was released a week before WoW, and carries the questing and instance run formula from its predecessor which was released 9 years before WoW.
Another Copy of WoW believe it or not. Each day your instances reset and you run them again... Each day you collect tokens to buy better gear... Each day you grind out this or that to slightly improve your character...
Feel free to have whatever opinion you want about EQ2, but to call it a WoW clone is just being ignorant. EQ2 was released a week before WoW, and carries the questing and instance run formula from its predecessor which was released 9 years before WoW.
That's not really accurate. Original EQ's questing system didn't function much like WoW's nor did it have instances (at least back when I played). EQ2 may have been released slightly before WoW (I played both at release) but EQ2 has borrowed far more from WoW over the years than WoW has from EQ2. Not to mention Blizzard actually succeeds in implementing things well and doesn't leave them half-assed or barely functional.
I really want to like EQ2 and have gone back to it several times over the years but never stuck around for long. SOE is a horribly mismanaged company and they continue to alienate themselves from their fanbase. It's sad to watch them slowly ruin good games and it happens over and over again. I hope EQNext is good but I really don't have much faith in SOE anymore.
Another Copy of WoW believe it or not. Each day your instances reset and you run them again... Each day you collect tokens to buy better gear... Each day you grind out this or that to slightly improve your character...
Feel free to have whatever opinion you want about EQ2, but to call it a WoW clone is just being ignorant. EQ2 was released a week before WoW, and carries the questing and instance run formula from its predecessor which was released 9 years before WoW.
That's not really accurate. Original EQ's questing system didn't function much like WoW's nor did it have instances (at least back when I played). EQ2 may have been released slightly before WoW (I played both at release) but EQ2 has borrowed far more from WoW over the years than WoW has from EQ2. Not to mention Blizzard actually succeeds in implementing things well and doesn't leave them half-assed or barely functional.
I really want to like EQ2 and have gone back to it several times over the years but never stuck around for long. SOE is a horribly mismanaged company and they continue to alienate themselves from their fanbase. It's sad to watch them slowly ruin good games and it happens over and over again. I hope EQNext is good but I really don't have much faith in SOE anymore.
As the poster above mentioned, EQ1 did have instance grinding long before WoW was released. And EQ2 launched with the same systems as WoW a week before WoW launched. The only things that could be directly attributed as a copy from WoW instead of its predecessor EQ1 would be Battlegrounds and the relatively new Dungeon Finder (although the EQ2 dungeon finder is a complete fail and you are better off forming groups the old fashioned way).
The biggest thing holding SoE back is their greed, they have yet to learn that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. The F2P models they use are an abomination, they pick the most boring races and classes to be free, and make everything else premium then wonder why noone sticks around. And anyone that does stick around for a while soon finds out that they are completely gimped because they are limited in both gear and spell advancement.
If they removed gameplay restrictions and instead focused on making money with fluff items these games would be thriving.
The only things that could be directly attributed as a copy from WoW instead of its predecessor EQ1 would be Battlegrounds and the relatively new Dungeon Finder (although the EQ2 dungeon finder is a complete fail and you are better off forming groups the old fashioned way).
Guild Wars launched with Battlegrounds before WOW -- Blizzard didnt add BGs until summer of 2005
Reading this thread has brought back some fond memories of EQ2. While I do not have as much free time as i did when playing eq and eq2 at launch, I will be returning back this week to EQ2.
Any advice?
Going to sub as oppose to F2P. I used to have so much fun decorating my house with my carpenter.
Comments
no - AOD is not needed for raiding
the only thing AOD offers raiders is another 20 AA points
EQ2 fan sites
Thanks for fast answer, much appreciated.
I've been pretty pleasantly surprised with the setup since I'm back. I'm typically quite wary of anything to do with a cash shop, but it turns out SOE seems to have handled it pretty well in EQ2. Like Turbine with LoTRO and DDO, they've opted to keep an option that is, for all intents and purposes, a standard subscription in the form of their Gold membership, which is what I went with. It's basically just like a normal sub fee in that I get access to all the content I've already bought, but just have to purchase new expansions to get whatever is exclusive to them.
Since I'm on a gold membership, I automatically get 500 points a month to play with, which go pretty far considering there's nothing on the shop that I've seen that seems at all compulsory. I'm using them to get the reduction potions for the research skills, or buying nifty social gear. Nothing I've seen has seemed at all "pay to win" and so far I have not encountered any arbitrary road blocks in the game that require a cash shop purchase to get past. So, kudos to SOE on that as well.
Of course, I say this as a gold membership player. It's probably very different as a totally free player or even to a degree as a silver player. I thought about those options but, for me personally, if I'm going to play a game, I just want to play. "Take my $15, get out of my way and let me play uninterrupted", is how I see it. I'm not interested in patronizing an online shopping mall for my e-existence. I'm interested in settling in and "escaping" into a good game for an hour or three.
On a different note: I was watching a video where some SOE folk talk about the Freeport revamp and how they're all excited that it's going to bring people back to the cities to engage in more content and make them more of a social hub. I don't now if I missed the rush, or if it just never happened or what, but Freeport seems no more populated than it was last time I played. Aside from a regular group of players hanging around the ever laggy docks area of East Freeport, the city seems no more populated than it ever has to me. Seems SOE might have missed the target on their idea there.
I hope they can turn that around. One thing I've always enjoyed in MMOs, specifically those with a strong server community, is to see a bunch of random people, not just people from the same handful of guilds, hanging around in a central location, chatting, joking around, etc. It's something I've missed in MMOs of the last few years.
WoW has that kind of "people hanging around" thing, but it's not really in a social way. Those folks are either afk, checking their bank, checking the AH, or queued for a dungeon. There's usually flaming going on in the chat channels between a handful of people, so it's not like there's any real conversation or "community-like" activity going on. It's a huge, colorful mass of muted loners for the most part. That's not really what I'm hoping for in EQ2, heh.
Pretty much the only thing that could turn cities back into social centers would be to thoroughly dud the guild halls (which have all the amenities of cities and then some). Not going to happen...
Freeport and qeynos were dead before the guild halls. Kelethin andNeriak hurt as much as the guild halls, if not more.
I have found the EQ2 community to be awesome, love it liek the old days in the MMO games. DAOC used to be on the good list of MMO communitys but thety all left. And know it`s all kids or pissed of vets.
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Which FF Character Are You?
I guess I'm atypical, then. Back when I started on the Island, I'd run the first couple quests for the gear, then ditch the place for the Big City. I do the much the same thing now with the new starting areas, heading to the old main cities for the noob quests in the racial neighborhoods before heading back to pick up the later quests.
Hey all,
First time posting here. I have always come to read for info but never posted myself.
Anyway! Great read cyber, like you i came to mmo's from EQ1. And also when EQ2 came out i was there from day one. I only played about 1 month.
I'.m going to give it a try again today based on a lot of stuff read. One thing that stands out from all the posts here is the community. Coming from a long time WoW as a 39 year old it sounds refressing.
So now i ask, is the AB server one of the fuller one's to roll on? Also ill be starting out friendless! boo hoo. tried to get my wife to play other games but she is more about spending my money then playing MMO's, and my 2 kids are to young. Are there guilds still looking for new members ? I know some times games that have been out so long are harder to come by good guilds.
Last i would ask as far as the new class Beastlord. Is there a thousand of them running around now? And if so what is a good class to lvl up as a some what n00b. I might actually have a lot of rewards to claim since i got the CE when it first came out. I know tanks in the end game are probly set already in most guilds so i wouldnt want to roll one and not be needed.
Thanks again everyone and i hope to be in game tonight!!!
And one more thing. I have heard when starting out to set AA exp gain to 50%? that still the way to go? thanks!
It really depends on what you want to get out of the leveling experience. 50% is okay if you want to level reasonably fast while still getting a decent amount of AAs. I found myself adjusting the slider depending on the situation - e.g. I would always move it to 0% in dungeons.
If you want to see as many zones as possible move it to 80-90%
There is no one way to go. It depends on what you personally want and I think it's quite easy to figure out what happens if you reduce/increase the %age.
Note that you can only adjust the slider if you are a gold member. Otherwise it will be set to 50% and you will not be able to change it.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Returning to Norrath has been on my mind for quite some time.
I left EQ1 in Sep 2002 without rancour and regret. Still hands down my best on-line gaming experience, bar none (on par with MUDs in mid-late 90s). I tried EQ2 in early 2007 but found the experience beautiful but sterile. The original starting zones esp. revamped Commons, were horrid and bland. I made a pilgrimage to Holly Windstalker's grave then quit.
Last year my desktop refused to POST. Recently, I enlisted the support of a friend to diagnose the problem. We both think a major component (motherboard) is dead. Hence, I made the decision to buy an early 2008 MacBook Pro to become a fully paid-up member of the Jobsian cult (typing this post on my iPad2).
Last night, I tried EQMac. 9 and a half years later is an awful long time. The nostalgia wore off almost immediately: abysmal, blocky graphics and bereft of players in classic starter zones. EC, NRo and Oasis empty and lifeless. Paid my respects to the Shady Swashbuckler, made my way to Oasis docks and camped out for the last time.
So why even entertain returning to EQ2? Judging by the posts, it is still alive, full of rich, engrossing and compelling content, and the graphics hold up well today.
I have a couple of VERY overdue professional assignments to get out of the way. Given that my perennial search for Oriental women is /facepalm and /fail until I emigrate to Asia-Pacific, and I've finally laid the ghosts of EQ to rest, this thread has provided me encouragement to resolve my desktop issues to dive back into Norrath to re-ignite that old school community feeling that has been missing for a very long time.
Any advice for servers for GMT probably late Friday evenings and early / late Saturday evenings (unless my Oriental outlook improves)?
I'm looking for a classic experience i.e. no twinking, no PL's, more dungeon crawling, with AAs at 90% or thereabouts.
Cheers!
"If you think I'm plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in way over your head. I don't have a heart of gold or get nice. There are a lot nicer people coming up. We call them losers."
I would recommend Antonia Bayle.. Sorry havent been on this site for a few days, or i would have answered sooner.
The community seems very social and friendly . . Finding a group at lower levels of actual low level people can be hard though. I was lucky I came back to the game with friends. Currently we are in our 40s (running Cazic Thule). We are finding that more and more people at this level expand out from soloing and start grouping up more and have been meeting new friends. We also have a great guild we are part of, and the guildies alot of times offer to come join us.
Now as for grouping. YOu will get people that will offer to come join you by mentoring down to your level. However the mentor system IMHO is so broken its crazy. They might as well just sit at their level and power level you. If you do go this route you could feasibly put the person on autofollow and let them play the game for you. Mentors get xp for coming down to your level. It allows them finish quests etc etc they might never got around to finishing. However abilities in no way scale down appropriately.
Hope this has helped some.
If you are ever on Antonia Bayle. Look me up my characters name is Oricius
O nice storie there
Infact the storie was soo good reading I re activated my account after 5 years of inactivity
however ingame I think all the old friends have wannish out in thin air.
Thanks Cybertrucker.
It would be good to meet up with a group of like-minded players, who want to explore content without being in an ungodly rush to 90th level.
I plan to play Troubadour this time round, and hope that there are enough low-level players on Freeport to support my preferred playing-style (exploration and dungeon-crawling).
It is a toss-up between AB and Freeport - however, reports mention more low-level players on Freeport. Also, I can no longer commit to a NA server due to GMT time-zone. During my EQ days, I played on a NA server and played a mixture of GMT and EST. The latter killed me, as I was often logging off at 03:00 - 04:00 in the morning.
First things first. I need to finish these damn assignments, then enlist my friend's support to properly diagnose which component has died, causing my desktop to fail to POST. So I expect sometime in April.
Cheers!
"If you think I'm plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in way over your head. I don't have a heart of gold or get nice. There are a lot nicer people coming up. We call them losers."
I just started playing EQ2 and frankly, I've experienced little of the game aspects OP discussed. Perhaps, that's just because I've only recently began my involvement in EQ2. But still, presently at level 6 - not to mention, on the game's supposedly most active server - I've encountered barren, desolate gaming areas.
Unfortunately I expect you'll likely quit shortly after reaching the level cap (if you make it that far). I leveled in EQ2 recently, to cap, and I must say the game is just boring. Another Copy of WoW believe it or not. Each day your instances reset and you run them again... Each day you collect tokens to buy better gear... Each day you grind out this or that to slightly improve your character...
From reading your initial post it seems completely based on the fact you're playing with friends. Take those friends out of the picture and you've lost just about all enjoyment you think EQ2 provides. I expect if you took your same group into just about any other MMO you would enjoy it just the same.
The one thing I do like about EQ2 is the AA system. It provides another way to advance your character AND a way to play the game with friends while staying equal to eachother in levels. Like you said, if you want to play one night and your friend or group is not available... Turn experience off and work on your AA. By the time I hit 75 (I think thats cap right? or is it higher?) I had less than half of my AA's and that was with my 50% AA bar on 24/7.
Anyway, i'm glad you're enjoying the stay, but I really feel it has everything to do with your friends/group and nothing to do with the game itself.
Feel free to have whatever opinion you want about EQ2, but to call it a WoW clone is just being ignorant. EQ2 was released a week before WoW, and carries the questing and instance run formula from its predecessor which was released 9 years before WoW.
That's not really accurate. Original EQ's questing system didn't function much like WoW's nor did it have instances (at least back when I played). EQ2 may have been released slightly before WoW (I played both at release) but EQ2 has borrowed far more from WoW over the years than WoW has from EQ2. Not to mention Blizzard actually succeeds in implementing things well and doesn't leave them half-assed or barely functional.
I really want to like EQ2 and have gone back to it several times over the years but never stuck around for long. SOE is a horribly mismanaged company and they continue to alienate themselves from their fanbase. It's sad to watch them slowly ruin good games and it happens over and over again. I hope EQNext is good but I really don't have much faith in SOE anymore.
a year before WOW launch
EQ1 players were grinding instances for "adventure points" to buy gear from dungeon merchants with LDON (2003)
LDON was EQs 6th expansion and EQs first expansion to have instances
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest:_Lost_Dungeons_of_Norrath
LDON merchant database - what players could buy from each dungeon theme
http://www.cardplace.com/eq/ldon/list.cgi
I dont remember WOW adding a merchant system for grinding instances until Burning Crusade but I could be wrong
EQ2 fan sites
As the poster above mentioned, EQ1 did have instance grinding long before WoW was released. And EQ2 launched with the same systems as WoW a week before WoW launched. The only things that could be directly attributed as a copy from WoW instead of its predecessor EQ1 would be Battlegrounds and the relatively new Dungeon Finder (although the EQ2 dungeon finder is a complete fail and you are better off forming groups the old fashioned way).
The biggest thing holding SoE back is their greed, they have yet to learn that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. The F2P models they use are an abomination, they pick the most boring races and classes to be free, and make everything else premium then wonder why noone sticks around. And anyone that does stick around for a while soon finds out that they are completely gimped because they are limited in both gear and spell advancement.
If they removed gameplay restrictions and instead focused on making money with fluff items these games would be thriving.
Guild Wars launched with Battlegrounds before WOW -- Blizzard didnt add BGs until summer of 2005
EQ2 fan sites
Reading this thread has brought back some fond memories of EQ2. While I do not have as much free time as i did when playing eq and eq2 at launch, I will be returning back this week to EQ2.
Any advice?
Going to sub as oppose to F2P. I used to have so much fun decorating my house with my carpenter.