Farewell Everquest, I'm gonna miss ya.Follow

Bit of background....

I have been playing SOE's (previously Verant Interactive)games for around 5 years now. I started eq pre-Kunark and left just before Dragon's of Norrath and soon after GoD (Gates of Discord) expansions to come to EQ2. What I found I liked, but there were a few issues.

The main benefits I found were...

1. Good intro tutorial.
2. Amaaaayzing terrain and character graphics.
3. Large selection of spells and classes.

These, after a few months, revealed themselves to me in their true colours.

1a. Almost no emphasis on quests after the intro tutorial, instead on grinding.
2a. Dull, lifeless terrain with no thought put into it (tell me the commonlands are nice to look at and i'll laugh in your face).
3a. 4 classes

What I loved about the original Everquest, the diversity, the complexity, the freedom to do what you want with what skills you have, the obvious tender loving care that had gone into creating the game, the humour ("Teaching snakes to kick."), ALL of it had been leeched out in favour of egalitarian blandness. Where once, there were different items that did different things, now there were sets of items that you could get per level. Items per slot did all the same things, they did nothing different. Head items were ALWAYS +int +wis. Nobody levels in any way different to any others.

I ask, what was so bad about fear kiting that it was destroyed? Likewise, quad kiting, charm kiting, aggro kiting, bard dot kiting. There was nobody who was 'damaged' by these... sure, some people didnt like them because they were 'unfair' but there are always whingers. When I quad-kited with my druid, i was proud, yes PROUD because I was using all my abilities in the best way, as opposed to a far less imaginative route.

EQ2 destroyed everything in the EQ franchise that was dear to me. All those quirky little in-jokes that only people who played eq would know. I never once even heard about a virtual wedding taking place in the world of EQ2, yet I even SAW many of them happen in the original EQ.

It used to be fun. It used to be a hobby. It used to care about the game itself and not just for how many new people it can get to pay the bill. If you think I'm wrong, just look at "Trial of the Isle" and the recent Station Exchange. Sony have lost track of the original dream, perhaps this happened years ago... Personally I believe it happened when Gates of Discord came out. It has been changed into a commercial, bland entity.

I have tried to have fun. I have tried, since release, to enjoy Everquest II. I have failed. I used to think about EQ all the time, think about what I would be doing that evening, what amazing new thing I would discover and whether or not I would be able to get the BFG. Logging onto EQ2 was a chore for me.

The only, and yes i do mean ONLY thing that I enjoyed about EQ2 was doing big damage with my berserker. Now they have taken that from me and I can see no reason why I should keep playing.

I never thought I would do it, but I have moved to WoW. It is with great sadness that I write this, my lament to love's labours lost. That was what eq was, a labour of love. EQ2 is, and always was, a business opportunity.

Farewell.

Trahelion Skyeflyte, 63 Half-Elf Ranger of Morell-Thule. Proud member of Wandering Warlords.

Magefyre, 61 Erudite Magician of Morell-Thule. Proud Lone-Ranger and ************

Muluven Canabellum, 54 Wood-Elf Druid of Morell Thule. Proud founding member of Wandering Warlords.

Bruce Almightye, 39 Gnome Berserker of Befallen. Top Dawg of Legends.

Beatrice Russo, 27 Half-Elf Brigand of Befallen. Initiate of Bloodthirsty.

Tutenkhamen Ra, 25 Iksar Inquisitor of Befallen. Lone-Wolf.

I bid you adieu.

1a. You are absolutely, 150%, without a doubt, undeniably, inexplicably...WRONG!!!! There are now nearly 2500 quests to do. No emphasis on quests? You are out of your damn mind.

2a. Dull, lifeless, terrain in...the Commonlands? Of course there is. That is the whole point. It is the evil land. Good for SOE for getting it right.

I applaud your accomplishments in EQ. You, sir, need to look further into it's sequel before blasting it.

First, I don't understand how the trial of the isle is a bad thing....

Second, since someone always pops out with it,

Can I have your stuff :p

5 years in thats all the higher you got? No quests in EQ2? I guess if all you did was play the island then maybe you would think that, but thats like writing a book report after reading the front cover of the book only.

Oh well just put up your /LFG flag and got sit in PoK for 4 hours and do yourself a favor just don't talk about things you don't know about.

I agree with the blandness bit. EQ definately had something about it that EQ2 doesnt, but i cant quite put my finger on it. Maybe it was all the imperfections like KSing, Medding, Twinking, and having to flee for your life cos someone has just shouted "Train to zone!!!! move it or loose it!!". Hell i used to wake up screaming "SG by Docks".
Get a Imbued wand with a clicky proc if ya want to do a bit of kiting. Soloing with my mystic the other day and got down to 10% power with mob at 30% health and thought Ooops!! Anyway tryed a bit of old school EQ kiting running incircles, nuking with the wand and about 2 mins later it was toast. Even had a small audience and a pat on the back saying "Didnt think you were going to make that Bro" hehe.\
Yeh maybe it was all the things that used to drive you insane at the time werent really that bad after all and prolly even made the game that much better
Jus my 10 cents

"No emphasis on quests...a huge [aspsect]" Contradiction?

So if I understand you right, there are quests, but they have little impact on the outcome of the game?

I think that is the design of the game, sort of an open-end world where you can go in almost any direction you want. And there is something for everyone. If you want to grind, you can do that. If you want to quest, you can do that. If you want to tradeskill, etc.

Heritage Quests are a huge part of the game. If you've ever been to Nek Castle and tried to work that complex quest, you know what it takes.

And access to CoD for Octogorgon involves 6 or more pre-quests just to get to it. That's seems like a big emphasis to me.

So far nothing in this game has been handed to me. I've had to work, and many times die to get to where I am. As I look back at all I did, I am glad at the long hours it took, the seemingly endless camps for a rare spawn, the mobs that didn't go quietly.

Sure, there's things that can be improved, and I see improvements every day. Certainly this game is not perfect, but a scan at the computer store shelves doesn't bring up any game that is perfect. Maybe some day we'll have Nirvana, for now we have Everquest 2, and it's doing fine.

rate up tutan and broan!!!!! Ihave many little peeves with the game but i see alot of them cleening up. i used to say that sony has lost sight of the real gaol of the game... and thats to make a good MMORPG and not to just make a croud pleazer(sp) it feels alot like they don t care about us players in eq2 as they did in eq1..... people hated ksing trains and kitting(if you couldent kite) but you lived with it and loved the game for it. i remember pre-luclen when people petitioned verent to rename unrest central station...... its things like that, that make me smile and giggle. eq2 so far has none of this.... i dont know hard assness... i mean when you die you just lose a "spirit" shard and that i think is way to muhc of a minior thing. i liked having to run back to a zone filled with ultra meen agro happy mobs while i was naked.... it made me sweat and cures and shout but it was fun. i just hope that eq2 brings, some of thei exitment(sp) back to the table with this new expansion.


meh my 50,000pp

It's funny reading this post, I'm coming from WoW to EQ2 after playing WoW since BETA!

I enjoy WoW, it's a fun game that I'm going to continue playing when my team gets together - but I gotta tell you, the grass ain't so green over there bud either bud. Many things you pointed out in your post is true of WoW too.

I don't expect anything better than WoW by playing EQ2. I'm playing it just cause I refuse to take yet another char through the same content to the same poorly designed endgame Blizzard has made for us. I'd much rather go see Sony's broken endgame. :) (Least it'll be different, eh?).

EQ2 got issues? WoW has it's own and the next series of games will surely have theirs. Let's just hope they steal enough from each other over time to produce that MMORPG we're all looking for.

Interesting points. I played EQ1 for 5 yrs, beta on EQ2 and went to WOW few months ago (mainly cos all my friends quit eq2 for it).I've for to early 40s paladin on WOW. I only have limited amounts of time to play these days so flexiblity is important.

My thoughts: I liked EQ2 a lot the feel and look is great but i feel they rushed it out because of WOW. they made some of the old eq1 mistakes making the game too hard and not balancing solo vs group play enough but this may have been addressed since i played.

What I prefer in WOW:

the quests are are better designed - they take you from place to place as you level, but dont 'lead you by the nose'. the rewards and story are often fun and appropriate for level. After the early level in EQ2 i found the quests were less immersive and didnt hold together so well story wise.

Flair! wow has a great sense of fun especially with gnome and goblin stuff and often raises a smile, there was far less humour in eq2 - it was too serious. I agree it often felt bland.

For my style of play i like the fact that (so far) in WOW i can play for what ever time i have spare whether its 5 mins of 5hrs you can achieve something. That was impossible in eq1 but better in eq2.

The early game in eq2 was great but i think the large zones was a mistake. Antonica was huge and dull after the numerous small newbie areas. Black burrow was underwealming after the massive eq1 lair. I like the number of zones in wow (and eq1) all with their own flavour and look. There was too much running through huge city areas to get to quest givers.

EQ2 has its strengths though, wow is easy and i doubt id want to level up another character. EQ2 graphics are much better but they need more creativity in using it. WOW is cartoony but they have some great style and little touches that raise a smile.
EQ2 music is great - love the commonlands theme especially.

I think I'll go back to eq2 eventually, once they have refined it. first ill try out WOW's end game.

I must admit that there is a larger grind in EQ II, but the LFG's I've seen have always been for quests, not mob type or mob name. Only if a quest involves a specific mob like Bloodtalon or such, that's something else.

As for WoW, most people don't bother LFG'ing, much faster to just do the quest on your own. Seriously, the only LFG'ing for that game are some elite quests (not even all of them) and some instances. That is it, all the other quests are no problem to do on your own, at times it is even faster to do it on your own.



No offense, but the main reason I actually quit WoW was, apart from it being too easy, the fact that the game is nothing but bugged. I just hope that Blizzard gets to fixing them soon, those were extremely annoying, I haven't seen a comparable bug in EQ II with my 28 paladin as yet. I hate dying because the game isn't working properly, and that happening at a regular basis is too annoying for me.

Could be that other classes have bugs though, I've only played Paladin so far.

Ah well, Dungeons&Dragons Online is out soon :)

*Shrug* Why do so many people feel the need to announce when they're leaving a game? Let SOE know your issues/desires when you leave, they can actually do something about it.

This Thread cracks me up.

"EQ2 is, and always was, a business opportunity." - Monyetman

Uhhh, yeah. So is WoW, AC, FFXI, SWG, AO, UO, and any other subscription based MMORPG you can think of. Developers and CSR's need to eat too.

If you really want to play a game that is a "labor of love" go out and play some MUD's. Yes, there are still quite a few of those around with stable player bases and great content.


"SOE has a bad habbit of killing good franchises... to bad they have a monopoly on the genre.... " - celticprince

Right. Blizzard certainly doesn't have any impact on the marketplace with 4 million subscribers. Or SquareEnix with their half million or so... MMORPG's are all ruled by SOE.

Hate SOE all you want. But you are giving them WAY too much credit there.

I hope you enjoy your game. I have been to WoW and for me eq2 was far better. But that is what I enjoy I came from FFXI before that etc etc..

I can't say that I share your thoughts on just about all of your points. You picked a plate wearing tank and it shocks you that they took "some" of the dps away and geared them more back to being a main tank. If you are mting and using your buffs right you still do nice damage but you also take damage well you shouldn't be able to out damage a scout or mage or even the brawler class.

Now I will give you the point that the CL is ugly as sin. I hated that place but have you ever been through everfrost or the ice castles in perma.. lavastorm. EL rivevale (zek is ugly) and now the DOF which is breath taking..

When it comes to support for this game it is far above any game I have ever seen. 13 free huge updates each and everyone adding more and more content.. 1 expansion 2 adventure packs ( splitpaw was great bloodlines cool but since it doesn't scale limited in use)

A crafting system that has to be one the best I have ever seen in a game to date.

EQ2 is not however anything like eq1. I know two people that are level 50 and all the way to lvl 45 ish.. did nothing but quests of all types and helped others with quest.. next to some soloing never grouped and made it that far.. but you don't have to go that route you could duo trio.. or full group your way there

EQ2 was set up for all levels of gamers.. leaning more towards the casual gamer then its hardcore brother eq..

reguardless good luck..