WOW or EQ2Follow

The advantages to WoW are that it has depth of play, is pleasurable to play AND manages to be extremely popular with both casual and hardcore gamers. EQ2 seems to have mysteriously avoided these admirable traits.



Edited, Jan 1st 2007 9:26pm by Krago

I'm playing EQ2 now while I wait for the Burning Crusade and it's a nice game but...well...it's no WoW. The thing I'm hating most are spawns. For example, one of the newbie zones is called The Graveyard and you have a quest to kill 10 rotting zombies. The zone is quite small, you can cross it in about 20 seconds. There are usually 2-4 other newbies in the zone, also doing the same quest. There are THREE places where a Rotting Zombie can spawn - one behind a crypt, and two next to a dead tree. When something spawns there, it has about a 50% chance of being a Skeletal Priest and a Rotting Zombie. Thus, it can take you about 45 minutes NOT COUNTING INTERFERENCE BY OTHERS ON THE SAME QUEST to kill whatever spawns at these three little spawn points in the hopes of getting to kill ten of these Rotting Zombies. It's not realistic at all and it takes you out of the "mood" to really get on with this big dramatic and important quest. It becomes less of a crusade against dead paladins your city wants you to get rid of and more of a camping experience, trying desperately to claim ten rare spawns that aren't even rare at all - they're just regular mobs, one of a dozen other types of zombies wandering the graveyard.

It's pointless to me. Sony could have populated the graveyard with fifty-something spawns of just three or four types of undead. A zombie, a skeleton melee fighter, a skeleton mage, and a wraith...it would have been much easier to rack up the kills and remain "in the mood". But instead, they created around fourteen or fifteen varieties of skeleton for these fifty-odd spawns! This leads to there being only three or four POSSIBLE spawns for a given type. And then you get quests asking you to kill ten or fifteen of them. It's pissing me off. I currently have a quest that requires you to kill a certain type of pirate for a CHANCE at getting ONE piece of a four-part treasure map. You get one about once every ten kills - and there are only two of these guys on a five-minute respawn timer. How damn ridiculous.

Edited, Jan 2nd 2007 12:01am by Reinjin

EQ2 is run by SOE. That means no matter how good it is at any point, it'll be significantly worse in the future (see also: SWG).

Well, EQ2 is your game if you like forced-group scenarios. 80% of WoW's content can be done solo and a lot of the game's players like soloing. You can definitely find groups for anything if you look hard enough, but EQ2 has more group action. Regardless, I think WoW has BETTER group action and dynamics. But EQ2 makes you group more often.

I bought Echoes of Faydwer a week or so ago. It came with the original game and the first two expansins. $40. Basically contains everything but the three smaller "adventure packs". Still, I'll be getting out of EQ2 as soon as the Burning Crusade comes out. When I get bored of that, maybe I'll return. So far it's not impressing me though.

great thanks for the information

I personally have to disagree with that... I was able to complete a good deal of the quests solo, but there were several that you had to group for juust like with WoW. EQ2 has a nice balance (imo) between the always solo aspect of WoW and the forced grouping of FFXI. They do like to mix in heroic mobs with normal mobs, which makes it a bit harder to solo, and do some quests, but you are by no means forced to group. Now, I can't speak for endgame in both games, but from what I saw in my time in EQ2 there were just good, if not BETTER group action and dynamics. You had the 4 main types, which broke down into smaller ones more specialized. This lets them add a lot of abilities and such to the game, and creates a nice diversity... besides the AA points too.

Even saying that though, I'll agree that the two games are vastly different. Some things WoW does better, some EQ2. It really varries. I like that in EQ2 (besides PvP servers) you aren't restricted to your own faction for talking and grouping. This justs adds even more dynamics to the game. But, EQ2 doesn't really hold you that much like WoW does...

My suggestion is to try both out. Like Reinjin said, you can get almost everything for 40 bucks, along with 30 days of playtime I bet. Not a bad deal for trying out a new game imo. Then you can make the choice yourself. You can also get a free trial called "Trial of the Island" or something like that, however that gives a VERY poor impression of the game imo. You're basically stuck on the starter isle, with a cap of something like 8 and not much to do. Even your first time through the starter isle you can get through in maybe 2 or 3 hours doing EVERYTHING and killing everything. You also don't get a good feel for the classes due to some of the changes that sony did. Used to be you just would start as one of 4 types, either a fighter (tank), healer, mage, or rogue (iirc) and then come level 20 (or so) you got to further "specialize" to become like a Brigand or Guardian or Monk, ect... so past 20 is when the classes/game really starts to open up in a sense. Up until then each fighter, mage, healer, and rogue basically play basically the same... besides a few small differences.

Try taking a look at this to help with the graphic settings. Also, depending on the area it does look a bit dark... for example here is textures on max, but in a house in Freeport (I think... it's been FOREVER since I played so the names are a bit rusty) and as you can see it is a little dark. It's just the feel of the game in places, very dark and such.

Can't argue about all the loading screens though... that does hurt, even if they are quick in some cases. But, on the flip side, once you get into the world the zones are HUGE. For example, the first zone you get into on either side (outside the city) is probably like 3-4 (or more) times LARGER then The Barrens in WoW. That keeps up even as you go up in levels also. That does make the game seem a bit longer also, though i've never noticed the thing with the spawns.

Anyways, I personally felt some awe when I first zoned into places in EQ2, though some of it was just graphic wise. For example in the Woodelf little starting town/zone thing, they have some BEAUTIFUL lighting effects with shadows and the trees and such. Of course, that takes a HUGE toll on the system, so many people wont notice the small details like that. If you don't feel that "awe" it is something personal though, and not anything that I could "argue" about

You know, come to think of it, i've noticed that too as of late... My PC has always been lightning fast (for WoW) but they do seem to be a bit shorter for me now.

i wish i would have read this before i went to best buy lol i just went there and didntbuy eq2 now i wish i would have lol always another day.

Wow is a much simpler game that can appeal to the casual and the hardcore gamer.

EQ2 is an advanced game that is for the more serious gamer. I played it when it came out and bit by bit they made it easier and easier to try to appeal to a broader base.

Two totally different communities too.

I agree with the above poster. Though it's great that Sony changed EQ2 to require less forced grouping and stuff, the changes have been so radical that 95% of all information on fansites is out of date. For example, when the game first came out, all players started as the Commoner class and later specialized to become one of four core classes (Fighter, Scout, Priest, and Mage) or something like that. Later you could specialize yet again (Scouts could become Predators or Rangers or something like that) and yet again later as well. It was all very confusing.

Though SOE did make changes for the better (now you choose your final class from the very beginning), even the in-game help system in EQ2 you access in the exact same manner as WoW's has this outdated info that ceased to be relevant around a year ago. Feels very sloppy to me.

I don't know, I can't bring myself to play the game. I'm too exciting for Burning Crusade. Perhaps blowing $40 on it was an impulse buy. I heard how similar it was to WoW, and indeed it is, yet that makes it harder to play because everything I do is so much like WoW except done in such a boring way. Every town I find is far from being another Goldshire or Razor Hill, every cave I enter is ugly and nothing like the caves from WoW that were reused dozens of times yet never got old, every quest I do that has me travelling across a region makes me run past mobs eight or nine levels above the quest level and just makes me yearn ever more desperately for the well-thought-out and just plain natural-feeling areas from WoW. I thought it would tide me over for Burning Crusade, but it's just making me want it more. >_.

I have another theory.

Remember those 70 gazillion addons you had? Well, now that most of them stopped working, your loading time is faster.