Just came back to EQ2 from WoW with a group of friends. I played both Betas, EQ2 for the first month of release and WoW up until now. The review was actually decent except in one area. Graphics. This should have been a tie. WoWs graphics are gentle to my comp, but on a high end machine, EQ2 makes WoW look like nothing by comparison. My recommendations for both companies: Blizzard: Make your character mean something. Everyone is Orc_Rogue_00456. Customization sucks graphically, and while talents were a neat idea, it had horrible execution, basically creating 1-3 builds for each class. Leveling is way to easy. Level 60s are like excrement; everyone has them, and they all stink. The vast majority of your player base couldn't spell at a 3rd grade level, but thanks to you giving them virtually no penalty for death, they still level up to screw up everything I try to do. Yeah we can kick them out, but they just keep coming like a stream of never-ending crap. Ever hear of customer service? Sony has, apparently you missed that memo after having SIX YEARS of watching EQ. Way to drop the ball and then kick it through your neighbors window. Hire some staff, you can afford it. Pull the stick out of yer **** and use a guide system. Sony: PvP. DO IT. This area is killing you and has been the hardest thing to for EVERY SINGLE person I have talked to to get over. I cannot tell you how many times I have told people the differences between the games and had them ready to run to a store to buy your game when, BAM! They ask about PvP and I have to drop the bad news. Boom, there goes your customer base. PvP is going to make or break MMOs because it allows another level of player interaction. Suck it up and make an auction house. You and blizzard "borrow" from each other so much, no one really cares anymore, especially when it comes to something like this. Work a bit on the combat, I could say this about WoW in some respects too, but overall, WoW has much better combat. Keep the HOs, those I have managed to sway from WoW have commented on how much they enjoy them, and trying to figure the things out. Overall I have been left with a bitter taste in my mouth from both companies. I expected a lot more from Sony, and after Diablo, I should have known better about Blizzard going after a non-RTS genre. WoW has the advantage of appealing to beginners and PvP, and they are going to milk that for all it is worth, but that well will run dry soon. That is going to give EQ2 a big opportunity. The question is will they actually do anything with it, or will drive their own game into the ground. /rant off Message Edited by vylo on 04-18-2005 09:12 PM
Played both. Content wise EQ2 owns, and although I found WoW fun for a few, when I got an error and noticed their tech page had 600 pages...YES SIX HUNDRED, and when a post was ever replied to, it was always the persons machine that was said to be the issue. So I tried everyhting they said to fix it, and they said that their game is a RAM hog and that my problem was RAM. I found that sort of weird since I never had those issues on EQ2, other than some lag. So to make a long story shorter, WoW was ok, but if you have a problem, forget it, just buy a new computer, cuz that is obviously the issue. Oh and BTW, back on EQ2, guess what NO PROBLEMS
I played WoW in closed Beta and enjoyed it. There were three main issues that worried me though. First was how “easy†the game was as far as leveling. Getting to 60 just didn’t take much effort. Second was the end game, or lack of one actually and third was the lack of depth with regards to gameplay. I figured that those issues were beta related, so I decided to wait until release to make final judgment. I didn’t buy WoW until a couple months after release, since I was not interested in dealing with the almost inevitable release bugs and lag. Sadly, even after I did buy WoW, the same problems that were in beta were in the retail version. Leveling was just way too easy. There was no sense of accomplishment in getting there. This concept, in and of itself, wasn’t all that bad; what made this such an issue for me was the fact that WoW has NO end game. There is just nothing to do at 60, unless your idea of fun is running the exact same 3 or 4 instances over and over and over and over again desperately hoping to get a drop. While I am not looking for an EQ1’esque style of raiding where you must dedicate 6, 7, 10+ hours a day to the game, I would like to see something more than the exact same 3 or 4 “end game†instances. WoW also suffers greatly from a lack of depth with regards to gameplay. The crafting system is not at all innovative. You collect a bunch of materials and then click the “combine all†button and wait for them to all get done. You can’t “fail†a combine either. There is just nothing to it. Besides tradeskills, there is just nothing much else to do in WoW. And then there is the WoW community. The WoW community is dreadful. I played on an RP server and since getting bored was so commonplace for people, they would resort to griefing just for fun. You would be shocked at what people came up with in their pursuit to annoy, harass and offend other people. It was Battle.net mentality at its finest. Granted, WoW has a lot of good points too. The game is fun, at least for a while, but I want something I know will hold my attention 6 months, 1 year, heck even 5 years from now. Blizzard seems to be relying almost exclusively on PvP to accomplished the longevity component of the game. Well, I don’t much care for PvP, so, in the end, WoW was not for me. EQ2, in my opinion, is a superior game. EQ2 has depth, a unique tradeskill system, a FAR superior community (both in these forums and in game), far more communication between Devs and the players and it is run by a company that I know can produce a very expansive endgame. I absolutely believe that EQ2 will develop an excellent “raiding†game for people who don’t have 10+ hours a day to play. All in all, SoE just seems more focused on making EQ2 the best MMO out there. It isn’t perfect, but for my money, it is a superior game to anything out there right now and it is headed in the right direction, which is forward. ^_^ WoW seems spends the vast majority of its time trying to balance the classes for PvP, and that just doesn’t leave much time for anything else of substance. If PvP is your thing, WoW is the place to be, but if you are looking for something more, EQ2 has a decisive edge, in my opinion.
IMHO two points were irelevant Newbie Zone PVP I have to disagree with the reviewer choosing WOW's graphics over EQ2 (Yes I've seen and played WOW) So my score is EQ2 6 and WOW 3
Hi All, I have to say that we've never played WOW, just looked at the screenshots, but personally i love the everquestII graphics.. I have to tell you that my husband and I both run 3.2 gb p4, asus mb, 2 gb dual channel ddr, 2/ 120gb hd's but we run the ATI X800 pro 256 mb DDR3 video cards and have beautiful graphics on one of the highest settings, we have yet to experience any trouble... we build systems and i have to say we personally prefer ATI over nvidia ... just a thought. Happy Hunting - Faren
Really stupid man I could tell this is from a perspective of a guy who like WoW more because of when he said WoW won on the graphics part i knew it was total BS I really enjoyed this until i seen that make another one this time from a person who loves eq2 and WoW
The thing is... Gamespy just write to whoever pays the most in marketing... hence the g0damaweful Driver3 given brilliant reviews.. and that terribble bugridden matrix game which also sucked.. I only use gamespy to find release dates now – before searching elsewhere for the real info. They have lost all credibility....
