Profile: mlp071
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• • How come EQ II doesn't attract more players?

  • Originally posted by Theocritus
    

           I only played EQ for 6 months but did manage to get a Fury to 70 (pre RoK)........One thing I noticed is alot of people see this game differently........To me these are the weaknesses of EQ2 that could be an issue:

    1. It isnt EQ1. EQ2 actually started as a pretty hardcore game, much like EQ1, but never quite had the same feel to it that EQ1 had...The characters in EQ2 felt plastic and out of place with the world.....Also the lore felt like a different game in that when I made a Dwarf my home town wasnt kaladim......There were jsut too many things about the game that made me feel out of place.

    2. Technical issues....When EQ2 first released you basically had to have a super computer to run it....They said at the time that they were designing it to take advantage of PCs taht were coming in the future...The problem was that very few could run it well at the time and it turned off alot of people right off the bat.....Even now I still know players that leave EQ2 because they cant run it.....

    3. WoW. EQ2 rushed their game to beat WoW to market......It backfired.....WoW was much more polished and it had a much smoother feel to the gameplay......I think what shocked me most was WoW won over more EQ1 players than EQ2 did...SOmething I never would have guessed pre launch......

    4. Character models/graphics.......While the graphics were pretty good in the game I always felt the character models were flat out awful.....I tried tweaking about everything I could and my characters still felt "pixelated"......They always had a plastic feel that felt so out of place.......

    5. the gameplay. I felt there was too much soloing and that EQ2 was too centered on DPS and not enough  about strategy......There was no skilling to pulling like there was in EQ1......EQ2 felt too much like WoW in that everyone jsut grabbed their quests and went on their way to level 70......I always struggled to find groups and all my characters were in guilds.....The raids also were too much of a DPS fest where everyone just stared at the damage meter and made judgements on players based on wehre they ranked....IT didnt matter if you were debuffing, spot healing, buffing, etc if you didnt fall in the top few of the parse you sucked.......

     

     

    1) You are right about that. However only thing that bothered me was group penalty, and perhaps corps run. After KoS they gradually made game easy to solo, with RoK being purely solo , and thats what made me stop playing.

    2) Heh i remember when i couldn't run accros Begar's Court in FP due to being lagged out.It was mostly memory leeks ,but high requiremnts didn't help either.

    3) They did rushed out game because of WoW, not sure why , because those 2 are like apples and oranges.Most of EQ1 players were RPGers in heart and Lore in WoW was something to hard to resist.

    4) They did look "plastic", but SOE (can't believe that i am saying something positive about them) worked to fix that.

    5) That was change that came post-KoS and was SoE attempt to lure (assumed)kiddies from WoW, not quite it worked that way.In order to cater sufficiently for WoW players (mostly) you have to provide quick, flashy battle with big numbers. But EQ2 was not designed for that and it showed.

    Raids were noty DPS test for serious guilds, but inb order to finish certain raid , you need to achieve specific minimum of DPS.If not, you are not getting anywhere.However,  every serious guilds (i was in one )were also checking debuffs and such.

    It looks to me that guild you were in was heavily casual guild, or RL was not knowledgable enough,beacuse no other way that raid would not check all stats that you mentioned.

    Overall, raid is where EQ2 really beats WOW and such by high mile,content and strategy is just plain excellent.Almost every raid member has to multitask, which you can't see in WOW in that extent.

    I would still recomend EQ2 as MMO with most content , meaningfull and  overal.Exception would be VG, if it survives. That is what EQ2 should have been originally(meaning, if VG ended up what was suppose to be).

    For me recomending EQ2 over WoW and such is no brainer.No chance i can suggest WoW to someone with EQ2 being around.

    WoW on the other hand is cherfull game that is simplistic enough to provide interest for public from 5 to 75.

     

     

  • Posted: 10/21/08 7:17 PM
    Everquest II
• • Some interesting numbers

  • When i check your post history , i can draw conclusion(not saying that i am right) that you appear bored to death and looking for some extra excitement.

    It should be time to let it go already. People don't like  or like AoC, so let them be either way. I don't like AoC, but my cousin (who just started ) does. So what?

    I don't think that WoW and LOTRO could really challenge any brain cells , but i respect that other like to play it. After all, what is easy for some people could be very challenging for other, and they could find that enjoying.

    Plus, what numbers really mean ? I would play EQ2 anytime over LOTRO or WoW, since i prefer to use my brain while playing.

    P.S. EQ2 numbers will not show good on any  Xfire.Community is more mature and family oriented, and they don't tend to use it.After playing EQ2 from release till last year , i can say that  for sure.

  • Posted: 10/21/08 4:14 PM
    Age of Conan
• • How come EQ II doesn't attract more players?

  • Originally posted by ste2000
    

    
    

    
    I bought all expansions til Rok, but I am not coming back, and like me many veterans won't, because of RoK and how it killed the game for us.
    Also I don't see any hipe or interest in the new EQ2 expansion like previous years, so don't count too much on many new players.
    Anyway, SoE knows how many customers they are losing..........giving 2 months free play to old veterans like me to tempt them back is a sign that the game isn't doing well, no matter how you wanna put it.
     

     

    For me RoK was final nail in the coffin. I played game from release and survived all buges that came with it.

    Crafting use to be something, quests lines and leveling use to be more important, but after i leveled from 70-80 in less then 7 days after RoK came out, i knew it was time to go.

    It was not same game as it use to be.Even most recent 2 month free offer didn't even got me tempted for a bit.

    I would be more tempted with VG then EQ2 right now, but i believe that MMO' s that i like to play are thing of the past now.

  • Posted: 10/19/08 1:18 PM
    Everquest II
• • Thinking on Buying AoC

  • Originally posted by Malickie
    

    Originally posted by mlp071
    

    You know , i have been reading  all this with my cousin here, who is trying to figure out is this game for him or not.

    I am trying to stay neutral (didn't like the game but that was awhile ago), since i have no input if anything changed for good or worse(didn't play in months), but all this extreme pro and against is just making things way more unclear.

    While i can point out some bigger proponents and opponents of this game, and tell him to disregard those (just to have neutral view), it is impossible to make any reasonable assumption if game improved or not.

    Everything boils down to extreme  "I love.." and  "I hate .." without any solid facts or hard data.Not to mention that  Funcom doesn't  help with being so "secretive" about almost everything (server populations, lags spikes, etc..)

    Can someone please give some reasonably moderate view of game's current state with certain facts?Or point him on one already posted?

    Major proponents and opponents, as well  Funcom representatives please don't reply.

    Thanks

    P.S. even i am not trying to give him my opinion , i did suggest  him not to pay for trial , because that's something that is completely unethical imho.

     

     

    As far as improvements go, there have been some. Stability problems and memory leaks have mostly been resolved. The game has less holes in the content now as well, with more coming fairly soon (a new 55+ zone is on test live at the moment).  I must add, lag spikes are still reported, though not from everyone. PVP has some form of purpose now (levels, armors etc..), if that's what you or he seek. Look for the thread about update 3.0, for more in depth information about the changes coming. Crafting is also getting a much needed overhaul.

    There are still problems to work out (pretty much common knowledge now) so I won't bore you with to many details. However, if the game had released in the shape it is in today, things would be a lot different right now. They'd still have PR issues, but not near as severely IMO. The game is still AOC, so if instancing, the combat or the linearity bothered you before, nothing has changed there.

    An issue that needs addressing you asked about is population. There are a few servers with decent activity, not very many though. A few PVP servers, a few PVE and an Rp server. That information would be easier to find after subscribing (if he makes that decision) by testing the waters a little or on server specific forums.

    My personal feeling is the game is fun, but only if you have a decent amount of tolerance to over look much of what's missing. I'm not saying there's nothing to do while working your way to max level, there's quite a bit actually. There's still a large amount of things that are supposed to be there that simply aren't.

    Personally I'm waiting to return (last played in late september, after 2.0), for both merges and a more polished level 80 environment.

    I tried to present as many facts as possible without writting a book on the subject.  There's much more that could be said, however I'll leave that up to the next guy who responds.

     

    Edit- I forgot to add, if you have the discs you can lend them to your cousin with a buddy key and he wouldn't be charged.

     

    Thank you for fair presentation of your view.Reason why i needed someone else to share oppinion is that we have different taste, he likes WoW and i don't for example.

    I will give him my disc(he is visiting me here), since i really don't have anymore desire for  MMO's.I think 9 years was enough for me.

     

    cheers

  • Posted: 10/18/08 1:27 AM
    Age of Conan
• • Thinking on Buying AoC

  • You know , i have been reading  all this with my cousin here, who is trying to figure out is this game for him or not.

    I am trying to stay neutral (didn't like the game but that was awhile ago), since i have no input if anything changed for good or worse(didn't play in months), but all this extreme pro and against is just making things way more unclear.

    While i can point out some bigger proponents and opponents of this game, and tell him to disregard those (just to have neutral view), it is impossible to make any reasonable assumption if game improved or not.

    Everything boils down to extreme  "I love.." and  "I hate .." without any solid facts or hard data.Not to mention that  Funcom doesn't  help with being so "secretive" about almost everything (server populations, lags spikes, etc..)

    Can someone please give some reasonably moderate view of game's current state with certain facts?Or point him on one already posted?

    Major proponents and opponents, as well  Funcom representatives please don't reply.

    Thanks

    P.S. even i am not trying to give him my opinion , i did suggest  him not to pay for trial , because that's something that is completely unethical imho.

     

  • Posted: 10/17/08 10:37 PM
    Age of Conan