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EverQuest 2: A New Look @ GameSpy
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Stranger In A Strange Land




Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia
EverQuest 2: A New Look @ GameSpy
   

GameSpy takes a second <a href="http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/693/693951p1.html" target="_blank">look</a> at EQ2 and the huge changes since the game first went live:<blockquote><em>Two of the biggest changes -- the complete reworking of the beginner's experience, and the introduction of real-deal PvP -- have been implemented very recently. The latter, specifically, was the single most gaping void exhibited by the game since launch. The Qeynos-versus-Freeport dichotomy that the game's story is predicated on begged for a meaningful way for players of opposing alignments to express their mutual hatred. SOE has delivered this, along with six PvP-enabled servers equipped with some pretty interesting rule sets. Meanwhile, the refined newbie experience introduces players to Norrath in a more interesting and rewarding manner, not to mention it's infinitely more effective at driving home the fact that there's a war going on.</em></blockquote>
Post Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:56 am
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10Ktrolls
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Still sucks... long live EQ1! All hail the king of the mmorpg genre.
Post Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:58 am
 
Kepler
Keeper of the Gates
Keeper of the Gates




Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 109
   

I thought I was a Troll. I defer to your omnipotence.

Define EQ1's kingly features please.
Post Wed Mar 08, 2006 12:02 am
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10Ktrolls
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It had everything a real mmorpg needs (except newbie ganking - pvp is somewhat limited). It has trains, mob camping, a death penalty that can actually level you down, the xp grind is incredible, you can twink as hell... the list is endless really!

But on a more serious note - despite all this flaws, I think it was the best mmorpg ever created - until SOE took over from Verant and turned into crap. It could be very frustrating in many ways and I know that pissed of a lot of players, but lets face it: At least you needed half a brain and both hands to play it.
Post Wed Mar 08, 2006 11:58 am
 
Lens
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A first love is always the best until you actually see her again and then scares the hell out of you.

The original EQ is a absurd grind with nothing but negative and punishing reactions from the game. You die? try finding your corpse again. You want this loot? try killing the mob that drops it. We make him spawn once every 3 days with a 10% dropchance. You want to explore? unless you run with your ass against some invisible wall all the time the locals with chew your head of in about 2 seconds.

That's not a difficult game nor do you need half a brain for it, what you do need though is a spanking fetish with a additional interest in whips.
Post Wed Mar 08, 2006 1:30 pm
 
10Ktrolls
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quote:
Originally posted by Lens
A first love is always the best until you actually see her again and then scares the hell out of you.

The original EQ is a absurd grind with nothing but negative and punishing reactions from the game. You die? try finding your corpse again. You want this loot? try killing the mob that drops it. We make him spawn once every 3 days with a 10% dropchance. You want to explore? unless you run with your ass against some invisible wall all the time the locals with chew your head of in about 2 seconds.

That's not a difficult game nor do you need half a brain for it, what you do need though is a spanking fetish with a additional interest in whips.


It's a very limited view on the good old EQ, I think. I mean you are true, the game could be very frustrating, but in a way it was also very rewarding. It took you fairly long to get an item but once you had it, you know you had worked for it and enjoyed it the more.
I cannot get rid of the feeling that you are one of the players that tried to solo most of the time when playing EQ. It's exactely what EQ wasn't made for. The emphasis clearly was on teamplay because then, most of the things that you found frustrating before turned into minor nuisances. Dying wasn't that bad if you had a priest who could ressurect you. Dungeons were far less dangerous if you had a strong group. Camping a mob wasn't really that bad if you had company with you or a guild you could chat to.
You see what I'm aiming at? Verant never intended to make a game for solo players... I guess at that time they didn't even really thought about how many people prefer to solo. Because in a way it's a fairly strange thing to solo in a MULTIplayer game, isn't it?
Anyway, I've heard this "first argument" so often, it begins to get on my nerves. It might be true for some, but not for me. I loved EQ because it was so hard and because you had to use REAL teamwork. Every class played differently and in spite of what you're saying, one needed more skill than in any other mmorpg to master the class one was playing.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to glorify EQ. It's just my personal opinion. I know alot of people didn't like it because they have a different approach. They log in and want to have just fun. They don't like the feeling that a game feels like "work" rather than fun (and I can understand that). But you know, work can be quite rewarding at times.

But, to be the troll I am, why don't you just ignore all the crap I wrote above and just read the summary:

I bet you never made it past level 10, whiner!
Post Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:45 pm
 
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Hehe yeah i only played a short while, a 46 or something cleric. I guess the cleric tells you that i didn't solo anything. Soloing in mmorpg's is quite boring, i rather play single player rpg's if i want todo that.

I'm just saying that they build the game on the concept of punishment and incredible timesinks. Of course all mmorpg's are timesinks but i rather spend the time hacking away in a dungeon with a pickup group in EQ2 then waiting yet another hour because the cleric/enc didnt log in yet. Fighting your way over to a npc for two hours only to find out that he has just been killed by another group and will spawn again in a couple of hours is hard nor difficult, its waiting.

I keep hearing the 'hard & difficult' argument of eq1/verant fans while all that difficulty ever was is nothing else but waiting. Difficulty should be something else, a little innovation would be so welcome in mmorpg land. Try the new one of verant when it comes out, i can tell you now already that the base of everything there is the timesink. They will get the mmorpg's dinosaurs with it im sure since they still confuse waiting with difficult and love a good spanking. Companies like blizzard have shown however, despite being simplistic and targetted at the 6-16 year old, that you can base your game on the concept of fun as well. The endgame raiding is still there only its about raiding, not waiting.

Anyway different people different interests i guess, having a good time in the game is all that counts in the end and if eq1 does that for you then thats perfect. For myself, i just rather play a game where i decide what todo instead of letting the game do it for me. There are plenty nicer and fun ways to implement timesinks then the same old respawntimers and corpseruns and crap like that.
Post Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:10 pm
 
Kepler
Keeper of the Gates
Keeper of the Gates




Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 109
   

Sony was a part of Everquest from Day 1. But I digress.
Post Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:48 am
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Ya well, 46 cleric... that isn't too bad, I guess. Though one of the greatest misconceptions of EQ1 was that the game began at level 50/60. It was clearly a game that was constructed around end-game content. I admit that my point of view is certainly somewhat distorted since I was in a large guild and spent most of the time doing higher level raid dungeons/planes/whatever. Many of the problems which you are describing just don't exist anymore in that area.
Bringing forward WoW as an example "how to do it better" is a tricky thing, at least in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I'm playing WoW myself but c'mon let's be honest: When it comes to complexity WoW is far behind the old Everquest. There is basically no strategy attached to combat... if at all it's a very simplified one. EQ on the other hand... I loved the uniqueness of classes there. Every class played totally different and had it's very own strategies. Just think about the bard class (<<< my class). I've never seen something like that in any other mmorpg. The whole concept of song-twisting and the possibilities it opened up were just amazing.
WoW is certainly easier to get into and it really is tremendous fun when you begin playing but it also seems to follow the principle of the star that shines twice as bright. Of course the end game content is there and some of it is pretty good but in my opinion is not really comparable to end game content in EQ. End game encounters are usually pretty straight forward and usually it's all about finding out THE ONE strategy to bring down a bossmob. Due to the fact that classes are somewhat limited in their abilities there is hardly any space for variation. Still, there are a few good ones - I don't want give you the impression that I'm all negative about WoW. It has of course alot of things that are superior to EQ, after all it was released more than 5 years after EQ.
Personally I'm looking foward to Vanguard which seems to be a bit more "back to the roots" from all you can read out of their faq.

@Kepler: True Sony was involved in EQ from the first minute. But for the main game and the first two expansions it was merely the provider of an infrastructure. The game mechanics were developed by Verant and not by Sony. From my point of view the game lost at least some of its appeal when Sony took over. But I guess me and Sony - that's a love/hate relationship. I really loved EQ but I despise the company behind it.
Post Mon Mar 13, 2006 5:32 pm
 



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