yes but i've played EQ, EQ2, and WoW i felt that both EQ and WoW are much more fun than EQ2
after getting home from work/school i don't really want to stress myself about with crafting in an MMORPG, doing more "work" isn't fun in my book
in everquest after awhile they made the crafting system much more simpler and everyone in the game loved it. before you had to get all your ingredients (in the correct amount) in your crafting box and hit create, then you had to move the creation into another box in order to stack it, after SOE got rid of that it made crafting much more fun again
the minigames you have to play and the many many sub combines needed for some items are just no fun to go through
i don't mind how long it takes to level in EQ2 but the quests WoW are much more fun if EQ2 is for advanced players it must mean advanced players like games with good ideas but poorly implemented
You're right, but I also don't like having to just buy 10 herbs, hit one button and POOF, healing potion. I like to work for what I do, even if it's a game, especially a MMO-RPG.
I understand that people want to come home from work, school, etc and enjoy a game with their friends, craft and just do whatever on-line, but when you take all the work out of it, then it just gets boreing. To me it does.
EQ2 has been around for much longer then WoW, but WoW took all the good ideas and just polished them to a sparkly shine.
Originally posted by rr2real yes but i've played EQ, EQ2, and WoW i felt that both EQ and WoW are much more fun than EQ2
after getting home from work/school i don't really want to stress myself about with crafting in an MMORPG, doing more "work" isn't fun in my book
in everquest after awhile they made the crafting system much more simpler and everyone in the game loved it. before you had to get all your ingredients (in the correct amount) in your crafting box and hit create, then you had to move the creation into another box in order to stack it, after SOE got rid of that it made crafting much more fun again
the minigames you have to play and the many many sub combines needed for some items are just no fun to go through
i don't mind how long it takes to level in EQ2 but the quests WoW are much more fun if EQ2 is for advanced players it must mean advanced players like games with good ideas but poorly implemented
You're right, but I also don't like having to just buy 10 herbs, hit one button and POOF, healing potion. I like to work for what I do, even if it's a game, especially a MMO-RPG.
I understand that people want to come home from work, school, etc and enjoy a game with their friends, craft and just do whatever on-line, but when you take all the work out of it, then it just gets boreing. To me it does.
EQ2 has been around for much longer then WoW, but WoW took all the good ideas and just polished them to a sparkly shine.
yea in EQ you had to buy the ingredients from a vendor but in WoW you dont' you have to go around the world and farm the items for your tradeskill or you can take a hit in profit and buy them from the AH
when you add work that people dont' wanna do because they play a mmorpg to explore a world and become successful. when i come home i don't want to think about doing more work in a game. this is what i want from a crafting sytem, ease to make the item but work to beat competitive prices and become friends with buyers from your craft so they keep coming back to you
with more and more stress being put on kids these day it doesn't suprise me that they would choose WoW over EQ2 because it gives them a much easier world to unwind in
I personally like my real life job, and my ingame job [jeweler]. I enjoy going out, finding what's needed then selling it for a crazy price because people like yourself [nothing bad intended] don't want to do the "dirty" work.
So it's people like yourself who keep people like me in business.
Originally posted by VixenHeart To each their own. I personally like my real life job, and my ingame job [jeweler]. I enjoy going out, finding what's needed then selling it for a crazy price because people like yourself [nothing bad intended] don't want to do the "dirty" work. So it's people like yourself who keep people like me in business.
Originally posted by rr2real Originally posted by VixenHeart To each their own. I personally like my real life job, and my ingame job [jeweler]. I enjoy going out, finding what's needed then selling it for a crazy price because people like yourself [nothing bad intended] don't want to do the "dirty" work. So it's people like yourself who keep people like me in business.
you're in business because the system isn't fun
I find it to be fun... sometimes I feel like kicking my PC over, but I just keep cracking at it.
Originally posted by VixenHeart Originally posted by rr2real Originally posted by VixenHeart To each their own. I personally like my real life job, and my ingame job [jeweler]. I enjoy going out, finding what's needed then selling it for a crazy price because people like yourself [nothing bad intended] don't want to do the "dirty" work. So it's people like yourself who keep people like me in business.
you're in business because the system isn't fun
I find it to be fun... sometimes I feel like kicking my PC over, but I just keep cracking at it.
well you find work fun in a video game, i don't so i'll cancel my account and go back to WoW work is for RL not a video game
I guess you just want money to fall in your lap, I guess you just want to swing once, or cast one spell to kill an elite mob, I guess you want "click now for uber 1337 ring of doom" crafting.
Some work is fine, I'm not talking about 8 hours of work just for one thing...
Originally posted by VixenHeart I guess you just want money to fall in your lap, I guess you just want to swing once, or cast one spell to kill an elite mob, I guess you want "click now for uber 1337 ring of doom" crafting. Some work is fine, I'm not talking about 8 hours of work just for one thing...
PvP isn't fun in EQ2 either, i mean losing xp, money, and an item takes the fun out of pvp WoW is click here for uber 1337 of doom but you have to do work to get the components to make the items. that's how crafting should be not playing mini games which make craft take longer than it should the crafting for EQ2 was cool for abut 5-10 time times then you're just like ugg not this stupid mini game again. you just get tired of it quickly
simply put it although i have a lvl 60 char in WoW, i am in a raiding guild. so for me in WoW there is lots to do at end game
lvling in EQ2 was fun but since you're paying monthly for the game and the whole package you get isn't that great i feel that WoW is a much better game to spend my money on
Originally posted by rr2real simply put it although i have a lvl 60 char in WoW, i am in a raiding guild. so for me in WoW there is lots to do at end game
lvling in EQ2 was fun but since you're paying monthly for the game and the whole package you get isn't that great i feel that WoW is a much better game to spend my money on
Sounds to me you just want to get max level and raid. So stay in WoW, that's fine with me.
Originally posted by VixenHeart Originally posted by rr2real simply put it although i have a lvl 60 char in WoW, i am in a raiding guild. so for me in WoW there is lots to do at end game
lvling in EQ2 was fun but since you're paying monthly for the game and the whole package you get isn't that great i feel that WoW is a much better game to spend my money on
Sounds to me you just want to get max level and raid. So stay in WoW, that's fine with me. i want PvP also, i felt EQ2's was very poor
I liked EQ2. Its a good game.. of corse the graphics want to kill my computer, but i had a good time. The problem is SOE.. I liked EQ2, but i loved SWG, and that fact forced me to cancel the sation pass. Poeple are not scared of EQ2 ...they hate SOE.
Originally posted by VixenHeart Originally posted by Blurr I'm scared it will make me vomit all over my keyboard. Honestly I don't like the look of the graphics at all. I find they look too 'plastic-y' or to borrow someone elses analogy, like something that came out of a Poser portfolio. They tried too hard to make it realistic without actually accomplishing their goal. Also I just don't find the gameplay that entertaining.
I can not agree more about the damn Barbie Doll look, but I will have to disagree about the gameplay.
Have you even played EQ2 past level 6 [Free Trial limit]? The game is truly amazing and massive.
Doesn't it cost money to play past the free trial limit?
If SOE is so good about listening, then you should tell them to expand their free trial so players can experience a " truly amazing and massive game".
Seems to me that if what you claim is true, it would be a slam dunk marketing success in order to add subscribers.
"We feel gold selling and websites that promote it damage games like Vanguard and will do everything possible to combat it." Brad McQuaid Chairman & CEO, Sigil Games Online, Inc. Executive Producer, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes www.vanguardsoh
Originally posted by VixenHeart EQ2 has been around for much longer then WoW, but WoW took all the good ideas and just polished them to a sparkly shine.
2 weeks = much longer?
The fact is that EQ2 was pushed to release 2 weeks prior to WoW because SOE was scared about losing subscribers, which they did anyways.
EQ2 has been undergoing fundamental design changes since release in an attempt to mimic WoW's formula and it's success, while WoW's ideas wether original or not, have been implemented from the start. WoW certainly did not copy anything from EQ2.
I agree with you that overall WoW is too easy and not challenging but it certainly has a polished PVE game worthy of 6 months playtime. I can't say the same for EQ2. EQ2 pales in comparison to original EQ1, which was a quality game prior to the raiding-forced grouping expansions.
"We feel gold selling and websites that promote it damage games like Vanguard and will do everything possible to combat it." Brad McQuaid Chairman & CEO, Sigil Games Online, Inc. Executive Producer, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes www.vanguardsoh
Originally posted by pittel A lot of them you will find are just Sony haters. Some are WoW fan boys/girls and feel they have to flame all the other games in order to make the endless grind that WoW has feel like it has meaning.
Despit my ill will towards SOE, I would play this game in a heartbeat if it were fun. It just isn't. I hate almost all coporate swine, but I am intelligent enough to divorce the product from the organization. People play games for game sake, not the converse.
Well I played EQ for 2 years and I'll tell you why *I* never got EQ2.
Because the EQ experience already warned me that this is gonna be a group only game.
I loved grouping, but I can't be sitting around for long periods of time trying to find a group, and I'm not gonna play a class that I hate just to be in-demand.
I used to play a Mage in EQ1, there have been times I spent 45 minutes shouting for a group "sorry we need a healer" "sorry we need an enchanter" "sorry we need a tank."
In the end thats what made me quit, I'm not a social butterfly, I don't talk to people just to talk to them, I want to join up and kill stuff, I don't really have a comment about anything else, yes the sky is pretty but I'm not going to have a conversation about it.
In WoW I can go to an area with a theme that I find fun, and instead of yelling for a group over and over, I can sit at the entrance and pick off solo mobs, and if a group pass by and want to invite me, hey cool, thanks for the invite.
Its never a waste of time, there is never a time where I sit there for an hour waiting for group, I don't have to kiss anybody ass to get in a guild, I don't have to pretend to like anybody to make sure I always have a group in their social circles.
Believe it or not EQ is a very social game, your success depend more on your social connections than on your skills or your brains or your knowledge.
I played EQ live, EQ II from beta, Star Wars Galaxies and Matrix online. I think people aren't scared of Everquest II exactly, they are scared that after investing large amounts of time in character development that SoE will pull the rug out from under you. Think about SWG and CU, PRE-CU and now the NGE. They have been stringing people along for 3 years and now made the game into a FPS from a true MMORPG. EQ II did a full combat revamp, they constantly reuse models for zones and armor alike (instead of make new stuff), they change how equipment works in the game (how many of you bought accessories that had a clicky stat buff on them and got mad when they changed how the rings worked?)and a lot of people weren't happy with those problems, even though some were ok with it. Then they changed the class system entirely in EQ II and now on test server are some major changes to Mezz and Stuns in the game, that affect all classes. In the Matrix online they changed the combat system, a lot of people aren't happy with that one either.
SoE feels the need to constantly change their games in the name of balance, but I have often wondered if its actually been in the name of dollars, meaning that they want you to have to invest more time/real world dollars to play, to learn things all over again, replace the gear that becomes non-effective by changes and generally learn their games all over again. This reminds me of a strategy that retailers use to get people to buy more things, they move things around in the store every 3 or 4 months to make you really really have to look for stuff, and usually you end up buying more than what you really came in for, I think its SoE's strategy too. They know they have you hooked already, so it really doesn't matter to them, they know you'll still pay them to play. SoE is very unstable in the development of their games and communications with the player base in general and responding to what the community wants, they have given out a lot of mis-information, half truths and vague information with the purpose of misleading people until they are ready to drop the bomb about what they are changing.
Personally I hate raids, raiding, and raid guilds and won't pay money to a game where I'll just end up being a second-class citizen, forever behind raiders, especially when it has PVP as a selling point (since I'll be fighting against people in raid gear). That's why I won't end up in EQ2, it's pretty clear that you're always going to be just a target if you don't raid, and I don't raid.
I'm a recent 'WoW canceller' after a year and half of playing WoW. Leveling up a couple of characters to 60 was a lot of fun. Recently I've picked up EQ II and I can already tell I'm going to spend a lot of time in this game.
WoW really leaves most players in the dust at the end-game. The only players that it really caters to (in the end-game) is large-guild, hard-core players who have tons, and tons, and tons of time to devote to running the same dungeons over and over again - just to get an extra +1 or +3 piece of purple-gear.
The turn that my WoW guild took after a year and a half of playing was almost frightening. Once most of the members reached 60 the whole environment really took a turn for the worse. Suddenly the guild split right down the line between college/high school kids who could literally live on-line for 16+ hours over the weekend, and the rest of us who could not do so without the risk of losing our real life situations.
The last-straw for me was when my guild spent 15 hours straight in a single ZG instance. 15 hours straight! (needless to say I didn't attend) I mean c'mon!!! Then one of the guild members literally broke down in tears after a virtual piece of equipment didn't drop off of the last boss. It was at this point that I immediately cancelled my account. This is ridiculous. I can see a dungeon lasting maybe max 4 hours. But this pointless emotion, rage, and sillyness that accompanies people who try to make WoW (or any other game for that matter) the primary focus of their existance. It's scary to me...
I think it's amplified by the fact that the end-game in WoW is so pointless, and the players instinctively know it - but they want to keep hanging on anyway. It's almost like not leaving the theatre after the movie is over with. And Blizzard knows about and exploits these kinds of lost souls (imo) - by making the end-game instances so long, tedious, and fruitless...
Now I think that WoW is a brilliant game and that the developers at Blizzard are brilliant. However enough is enough. I've played and enjoyed it - and I do not regret it.
Trying out EQ II has been a breath of fresh air for me. The content is huge and there are just so many other options than WoW has to offer. The crafting is deep as are the quest options etc. The characters... I could go on and on.
Now will the same thing happen when I max out in EQ II? I don't know. But I plan on enjoying every minute of the gameplay until then...
...there are going to be a lot of people trying out/moving to EQ II from WoW - you just watch. Unless something else comes along... And it's going to be the more mature game player who is looking for a more well thought out game instead of a lot of kids who are trying to make the WoW end-game something other than it really is...(Hello! don't you know you're all going after the same high level gear in WoW- which looks the same - and acts the same - so I just don't understand the point and why everyone seems to live or die by it...)
I don't think people are scared. Just like said there are certain things people just don't like about it.
I've given Everquest 2 a few tries. I've come to the conclusion while they have changed a lot the things that keep me from getting into the game are just never going to change. They are the following.
1. Spell and ability setup 2. Mixing of solo and grouped mobs 3. Weapon and equipment setup
Let me explain a bit in how I see these things. The Spell and ability setup is the top major issue I have with Everquest 2. I can not tell you how much I can't stand how it's currently setup. Either having to check the broker for the spell or having to gather items to get it made. Then there is the levels of the different spells. All of it is a waste time. It's a huge timesink that no one seems to talk about it.
In everquest 1 you just had to buy the spell scroll from the merchants or if you were max levels you got them off of certain mobs. As you leveled, the damage you did increase to it's cap. It was simple, it made sense, it was effective, and it worked. All you had to worry about was getting enough money to get your spells at the next spell range.
With EQ2 if you don't craft you are shit out of luck at times. Even if you do craft your own spells you spend so much time doing that, that you don't adventure. Wasting more of your time on something you don't want to do. This isn't just for spells and abilities but with armor and weapons as well. I played on Crushbone I believe so I'm not sure how things were on other servers but brokers hardly had what I needed a the lower levels. If and when it did, the prices were in such a way that only those with alts coudl afford them. I tried armor and spell crafting on different characters to try and save money. All that did was cause frustration since I didn't really want to do these things. I wanted to log in, get a group, go hunt or do quest, sell my collected loot and then head to a merchant to update my armor or spells. I didn't want to have to go searching through the broker for an affordable price. Then have to take the extra and pointless step to maybe finding someone that had what I needed and try and talk him or her down in price or perhaps trade something else I had or woud have liked to keep.
The whole setup for all 4 parts of the game were a waste of time. I'm not sure if a lot of people overlook it or what. I have a feeling that it annoys a lot of people but they just dont' talk about it and it's factor in why they quit. No other game seems to waste time like this in it's gameplay.
It's the time sinks SOE puts into the game that gets to me. They set things up so that you have to waste time instead of being able to logon and just play and have fun. I have nothing against crafting mind you. It can be fun if that is what you like doing. To force players to adjust to it or to have to take part in it just to advance is wrong. I'd rather have crafting be pointless.
If you have time for crafting, a player crafting community is okay. I don't have that time. I pay my monthly fee, so that when I get home from work and/or school or out with family and friends, I can login find a group and actually play.
This is the huge problem I had with Horizons. To much of the game revolved around the player crafting that it wasted to much time. That's the problem I see with Everquest 2. It isn't the grouping or soloing. It isn't the graphics for me. Nor is it the class system. It's the wasted time that a player goes through unless they have someone to twink them out with gold or items.
I liked World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot (yes you had player crafting but you could get by with merchant equipment until the mid levels and even then you didn't have to waste time since you could armor from quest and then quested epic armor), City of Heroes, Everquest 1, Anarchy Online because I didn't have to go through this. I could get what I needed from merchants or off of enemies at any level it seemed. In CoH all you worried about was enhancements and temp power ups. I didn't have to spend time on doing something I didn't want to do and if I did craft it wasn't a frustrating situation and could be done quickly.
I am one of the many people that can't get the game to run on my PC with any sort of performance. To get any speed out of the game I have to set the graphics to horrible, and even that speed is not great. EQ looks better on my PC, and runs faster!
P4 2.4, 1.2gig ram, GeForce 5500 256meg
I am a computer tech for a living so I am not afraid to tweak. I spent about three hours over two weeks trying different settings without much success. I quit before my free month was up. There was a lot I liked about the game, but not enough to start buying new hardware. It seems many of the GeForce cards have problems with EQ2. Funny, they are the recommended card according to SOE.
Came back to try again recently, with the same results. So much for my hope that they worked the bugs out. Went to the forums and found the same thread I was reading after launch was still getting new posts from GeForce owners that could not get the game to work. No word from SOE about it yet that I could find.
I'm really suprised that with a rig like that EQ II doesn't run very well on your PC Techpriest? I have an:
Athlon 64 2 ghz, 2 gigs of pc 3200 ram, and an ATI Radeon X800 Pro
and it runs smooth as glass on my machine. I play one notch over balanced with specular lighting and other effects on. The only thing I turn off is shadows, they can eat up the frame rate. I also turned off smooth fonts because they eat up about 15-20 frames a second, something goofy in the UI causing that I guess? I stopped playing on May 7th, i've been playing since beta on the game, but I became frustrated by SoE's moves with all their games, like I posted earlier in this thread. I think SoE makes horrible decisions when it comes to their games and their management. I think they should just fire everyone a couple rungs below Smedly all the way up to him, because the upper management decisions have really sucked for the consumers as of late. Then I would fire the top level manager at each game and start from scratch, but thats just me and i'm not in charge over at SoE so I don't have a say in it LOL
Originally posted by Ironman2000 I'm really suprised that with a rig like that EQ II doesn't run very well on your PC Techpriest? I have an: Athlon 64 2 ghz, 2 gigs of pc 3200 ram, and an ATI Radeon X800 Pro
The problem with certain GeForce cards is still listed as a top known issue on their support site. They list the Development Status as "Investigating and taking input." An SOE Tech posted on 11-15-05 that SOE knew there was a problem and they wanted more information from those suffering. There are 190 responses to that post as of this writing, the newest one was posted today.
You can look through the posts at the link below and find people with much better specs then me that can't get EQ2 to work.
Comments
You're right, but I also don't like having to just buy 10 herbs, hit one button and POOF, healing potion. I like to work for what I do, even if it's a game, especially a MMO-RPG.
I understand that people want to come home from work, school, etc and enjoy a game with their friends, craft and just do whatever on-line, but when you take all the work out of it, then it just gets boreing. To me it does.
EQ2 has been around for much longer then WoW, but WoW took all the good ideas and just polished them to a sparkly shine.
You're right, but I also don't like having to just buy 10 herbs, hit one button and POOF, healing potion. I like to work for what I do, even if it's a game, especially a MMO-RPG.
I understand that people want to come home from work, school, etc and enjoy a game with their friends, craft and just do whatever on-line, but when you take all the work out of it, then it just gets boreing. To me it does.
EQ2 has been around for much longer then WoW, but WoW took all the good ideas and just polished them to a sparkly shine.
yea in EQ you had to buy the ingredients from a vendor but in WoW you dont' you have to go around the world and farm the items for your tradeskill or you can take a hit in profit and buy them from the AH
when you add work that people dont' wanna do because they play a mmorpg to explore a world and become successful. when i come home i don't want to think about doing more work in a game. this is what i want from a crafting sytem, ease to make the item but work to beat competitive prices and become friends with buyers from your craft so they keep coming back to you
with more and more stress being put on kids these day it doesn't suprise me that they would choose WoW over EQ2 because it gives them a much easier world to unwind in
To each their own.
I personally like my real life job, and my ingame job [jeweler]. I enjoy going out, finding what's needed then selling it for a crazy price because people like yourself [nothing bad intended] don't want to do the "dirty" work.
So it's people like yourself who keep people like me in business.
I find it to be fun... sometimes I feel like kicking my PC over, but I just keep cracking at it.
I find it to be fun... sometimes I feel like kicking my PC over, but I just keep cracking at it.
well you find work fun in a video game, i don't so i'll cancel my account and go back to WoW
work is for RL not a video game
I guess you just want money to fall in your lap, I guess you just want to swing once, or cast one spell to kill an elite mob, I guess you want "click now for uber 1337 ring of doom" crafting.
Some work is fine, I'm not talking about 8 hours of work just for one thing...
WoW is click here for uber 1337 of doom but you have to do work to get the components to make the items. that's how crafting should be not playing mini games which make craft take longer than it should
the crafting for EQ2 was cool for abut 5-10 time times then you're just like ugg not this stupid mini game again. you just get tired of it quickly
lvling in EQ2 was fun but since you're paying monthly for the game and the whole package you get isn't that great i feel that WoW is a much better game to spend my money on
i want PvP also, i felt EQ2's was very poor
I can not agree more about the damn Barbie Doll look, but I will have to disagree about the gameplay.
Have you even played EQ2 past level 6 [Free Trial limit]? The game is truly amazing and massive.
Doesn't it cost money to play past the free trial limit?
If SOE is so good about listening, then you should tell them to expand their free trial so players can experience a " truly amazing and massive game".
Seems to me that if what you claim is true, it would be a slam dunk marketing success in order to add subscribers.
"We feel gold selling and websites that promote it damage games like Vanguard and will do everything possible to combat it."
Brad McQuaid
Chairman & CEO, Sigil Games Online, Inc.
Executive Producer, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
www.vanguardsoh
2 weeks = much longer?
The fact is that EQ2 was pushed to release 2 weeks prior to WoW because SOE was scared about losing subscribers, which they did anyways.
EQ2 has been undergoing fundamental design changes since release in an attempt to mimic WoW's formula and it's success, while WoW's ideas wether original or not, have been implemented from the start. WoW certainly did not copy anything from EQ2.
I agree with you that overall WoW is too easy and not challenging but it certainly has a polished PVE game worthy of 6 months playtime. I can't say the same for EQ2. EQ2 pales in comparison to original EQ1, which was a quality game prior to the raiding-forced grouping expansions.
"We feel gold selling and websites that promote it damage games like Vanguard and will do everything possible to combat it."
Brad McQuaid
Chairman & CEO, Sigil Games Online, Inc.
Executive Producer, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
www.vanguardsoh
Because the EQ experience already warned me that this is gonna be a group only game.
I loved grouping, but I can't be sitting around for long periods of time trying to find a group, and I'm not gonna play a class that I hate just to be in-demand.
I used to play a Mage in EQ1, there have been times I spent 45 minutes shouting for a group "sorry we need a healer" "sorry we need an enchanter" "sorry we need a tank."
In the end thats what made me quit, I'm not a social butterfly, I don't talk to people just to talk to them, I want to join up and kill stuff, I don't really have a comment about anything else, yes the sky is pretty but I'm not going to have a conversation about it.
In WoW I can go to an area with a theme that I find fun, and instead of yelling for a group over and over, I can sit at the entrance and pick off solo mobs, and if a group pass by and want to invite me, hey cool, thanks for the invite.
Its never a waste of time, there is never a time where I sit there for an hour waiting for group, I don't have to kiss anybody ass to get in a guild, I don't have to pretend to like anybody to make sure I always have a group in their social circles.
Believe it or not EQ is a very social game, your success depend more on your social connections than on your skills or your brains or your knowledge.
Thats what turn people off about EQ/EQ2 I think.
I played EQ live, EQ II from beta, Star Wars Galaxies and Matrix online. I think people aren't scared of Everquest II exactly, they are scared that after investing large amounts of time in character development that SoE will pull the rug out from under you. Think about SWG and CU, PRE-CU and now the NGE. They have been stringing people along for 3 years and now made the game into a FPS from a true MMORPG. EQ II did a full combat revamp, they constantly reuse models for zones and armor alike (instead of make new stuff), they change how equipment works in the game (how many of you bought accessories that had a clicky stat buff on them and got mad when they changed how the rings worked?)and a lot of people weren't happy with those problems, even though some were ok with it. Then they changed the class system entirely in EQ II and now on test server are some major changes to Mezz and Stuns in the game, that affect all classes. In the Matrix online they changed the combat system, a lot of people aren't happy with that one either.
SoE feels the need to constantly change their games in the name of balance, but I have often wondered if its actually been in the name of dollars, meaning that they want you to have to invest more time/real world dollars to play, to learn things all over again, replace the gear that becomes non-effective by changes and generally learn their games all over again. This reminds me of a strategy that retailers use to get people to buy more things, they move things around in the store every 3 or 4 months to make you really really have to look for stuff, and usually you end up buying more than what you really came in for, I think its SoE's strategy too. They know they have you hooked already, so it really doesn't matter to them, they know you'll still pay them to play. SoE is very unstable in the development of their games and communications with the player base in general and responding to what the community wants, they have given out a lot of mis-information, half truths and vague information with the purpose of misleading people until they are ready to drop the bomb about what they are changing.
Personally I hate raids, raiding, and raid guilds and won't pay money to a game where I'll just end up being a second-class citizen, forever behind raiders, especially when it has PVP as a selling point (since I'll be fighting against people in raid gear). That's why I won't end up in EQ2, it's pretty clear that you're always going to be just a target if you don't raid, and I don't raid.
I'm a recent 'WoW canceller' after a year and half of playing WoW. Leveling up a couple of characters to 60 was a lot of fun. Recently I've picked up EQ II and I can already tell I'm going to spend a lot of time in this game.
WoW really leaves most players in the dust at the end-game. The only players that it really caters to (in the end-game) is large-guild, hard-core players who have tons, and tons, and tons of time to devote to running the same dungeons over and over again - just to get an extra +1 or +3 piece of purple-gear.
The turn that my WoW guild took after a year and a half of playing was almost frightening. Once most of the members reached 60 the whole environment really took a turn for the worse. Suddenly the guild split right down the line between college/high school kids who could literally live on-line for 16+ hours over the weekend, and the rest of us who could not do so without the risk of losing our real life situations.
The last-straw for me was when my guild spent 15 hours straight in a single ZG instance. 15 hours straight! (needless to say I didn't attend) I mean c'mon!!! Then one of the guild members literally broke down in tears after a virtual piece of equipment didn't drop off of the last boss. It was at this point that I immediately cancelled my account. This is ridiculous. I can see a dungeon lasting maybe max 4 hours. But this pointless emotion, rage, and sillyness that accompanies people who try to make WoW (or any other game for that matter) the primary focus of their existance. It's scary to me...
I think it's amplified by the fact that the end-game in WoW is so pointless, and the players instinctively know it - but they want to keep hanging on anyway. It's almost like not leaving the theatre after the movie is over with. And Blizzard knows about and exploits these kinds of lost souls (imo) - by making the end-game instances so long, tedious, and fruitless...
Now I think that WoW is a brilliant game and that the developers at Blizzard are brilliant. However enough is enough. I've played and enjoyed it - and I do not regret it.
Trying out EQ II has been a breath of fresh air for me. The content is huge and there are just so many other options than WoW has to offer. The crafting is deep as are the quest options etc. The characters... I could go on and on.
Now will the same thing happen when I max out in EQ II? I don't know. But I plan on enjoying every minute of the gameplay until then...
...there are going to be a lot of people trying out/moving to EQ II from WoW - you just watch. Unless something else comes along... And it's going to be the more mature game player who is looking for a more well thought out game instead of a lot of kids who are trying to make the WoW end-game something other than it really is...(Hello! don't you know you're all going after the same high level gear in WoW- which looks the same - and acts the same - so I just don't understand the point and why everyone seems to live or die by it...)
I don't think people are scared. Just like said there are certain things people just don't like about it.
I've given Everquest 2 a few tries. I've come to the conclusion while they have changed a lot the things that keep me from getting into the game are just never going to change. They are the following.
1. Spell and ability setup
2. Mixing of solo and grouped mobs
3. Weapon and equipment setup
Let me explain a bit in how I see these things. The Spell and ability setup is the top major issue I have with Everquest 2. I can not tell you how much I can't stand how it's currently setup. Either having to check the broker for the spell or having to gather items to get it made. Then there is the levels of the different spells. All of it is a waste time. It's a huge timesink that no one seems to talk about it.
In everquest 1 you just had to buy the spell scroll from the merchants or if you were max levels you got them off of certain mobs. As you leveled, the damage you did increase to it's cap. It was simple, it made sense, it was effective, and it worked. All you had to worry about was getting enough money to get your spells at the next spell range.
With EQ2 if you don't craft you are shit out of luck at times. Even if you do craft your own spells you spend so much time doing that, that you don't adventure. Wasting more of your time on something you don't want to do. This isn't just for spells and abilities but with armor and weapons as well. I played on Crushbone I believe so I'm not sure how things were on other servers but brokers hardly had what I needed a the lower levels. If and when it did, the prices were in such a way that only those with alts coudl afford them. I tried armor and spell crafting on different characters to try and save money. All that did was cause frustration since I didn't really want to do these things. I wanted to log in, get a group, go hunt or do quest, sell my collected loot and then head to a merchant to update my armor or spells. I didn't want to have to go searching through the broker for an affordable price. Then have to take the extra and pointless step to maybe finding someone that had what I needed and try and talk him or her down in price or perhaps trade something else I had or woud have liked to keep.
The whole setup for all 4 parts of the game were a waste of time. I'm not sure if a lot of people overlook it or what. I have a feeling that it annoys a lot of people but they just dont' talk about it and it's factor in why they quit. No other game seems to waste time like this in it's gameplay.
It's the time sinks SOE puts into the game that gets to me. They set things up so that you have to waste time instead of being able to logon and just play and have fun. I have nothing against crafting mind you. It can be fun if that is what you like doing. To force players to adjust to it or to have to take part in it just to advance is wrong. I'd rather have crafting be pointless.
If you have time for crafting, a player crafting community is okay. I don't have that time. I pay my monthly fee, so that when I get home from work and/or school or out with family and friends, I can login find a group and actually play.
This is the huge problem I had with Horizons. To much of the game revolved around the player crafting that it wasted to much time. That's the problem I see with Everquest 2. It isn't the grouping or soloing. It isn't the graphics for me. Nor is it the class system. It's the wasted time that a player goes through unless they have someone to twink them out with gold or items.
I liked World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot (yes you had player crafting but you could get by with merchant equipment until the mid levels and even then you didn't have to waste time since you could armor from quest and then quested epic armor), City of Heroes, Everquest 1, Anarchy Online because I didn't have to go through this. I could get what I needed from merchants or off of enemies at any level it seemed. In CoH all you worried about was enhancements and temp power ups. I didn't have to spend time on doing something I didn't want to do and if I did craft it wasn't a frustrating situation and could be done quickly.
Scared?
Ehh no, EQ2 has went down the WOW road, i.e aimed for kids.
when they dropped shard recovery and grp xp penatly I quit the game.
Some like easy gameplay, fast leveling, personaly I like a game where you have to think some..."grin"
peace to you all !
I am one of the many people that can't get the game to run on my PC with any sort of performance. To get any speed out of the game I have to set the graphics to horrible, and even that speed is not great. EQ looks better on my PC, and runs faster!
P4 2.4, 1.2gig ram, GeForce 5500 256meg
I am a computer tech for a living so I am not afraid to tweak. I spent about three hours over two weeks trying different settings without much success. I quit before my free month was up. There was a lot I liked about the game, but not enough to start buying new hardware. It seems many of the GeForce cards have problems with EQ2. Funny, they are the recommended card according to SOE.
Came back to try again recently, with the same results. So much for my hope that they worked the bugs out. Went to the forums and found the same thread I was reading after launch was still getting new posts from GeForce owners that could not get the game to work. No word from SOE about it yet that I could find.
I'm really suprised that with a rig like that EQ II doesn't run very well on your PC Techpriest? I have an:
Athlon 64 2 ghz, 2 gigs of pc 3200 ram, and an ATI Radeon X800 Pro
and it runs smooth as glass on my machine. I play one notch over balanced with specular lighting and other effects on. The only thing I turn off is shadows, they can eat up the frame rate. I also turned off smooth fonts because they eat up about 15-20 frames a second, something goofy in the UI causing that I guess? I stopped playing on May 7th, i've been playing since beta on the game, but I became frustrated by SoE's moves with all their games, like I posted earlier in this thread. I think SoE makes horrible decisions when it comes to their games and their management. I think they should just fire everyone a couple rungs below Smedly all the way up to him, because the upper management decisions have really sucked for the consumers as of late. Then I would fire the top level manager at each game and start from scratch, but thats just me
and i'm not in charge over at SoE so I don't have a say in it LOL
The problem with certain GeForce cards is still listed as a top known issue on their support site. They list the Development Status as "Investigating and taking input." An SOE Tech posted on 11-15-05 that SOE knew there was a problem and they wanted more information from those suffering. There are 190 responses to that post as of this writing, the newest one was posted today.
You can look through the posts at the link below and find people with much better specs then me that can't get EQ2 to work.
GeForce Issue