Why EQ2 over WoW

ive played both games off and on since they launched. this is my rundown.

wow is easy enough to learn how to play, runs on just about any machine for the most part, and appeals to many MANY people. the graphics are rather well done even if the style isnt up to everyone's tastes. they were cartoony on purpose.

the flaws however i notice with it were as follows...

they nerf the hell outta pve for the sake of pvp balance, and they still cant get it right. i dont like pvp, but currently the easiest way to get good gear is to afk in battlegrounds or arena.. and arena is another dogpile.

the arena system favors certain class/spec combinations. if you arent one of these, good luck getting anywhere.

currently the content isnt released fast enough. there are hundreds if not thousands of people on my server that refuse to group or raid or do anything but grind gold, because the expansion isnt coming out for 6 months and they're bored of doing it all already. slowly, they're quitting.

eq2 is more complex, and the sounds sometimes drive me nuts.. i figured out early on to turn some of them off, or down, so i didnt hear them. the combat is a bit more interesting and the crafting actually means something.. see a max level crafter and you know they did more than buy a few hundred gold worth of materials off the ah and afk while spittig out combines till their inventory was full of crap praying they get a skill up. no matter your profession you can make some form of income off it.. even if its not the best. theres a niche market for everything.

i levelled two characters to 70, 70+ aa on both of them and left when eof came out because i was bored. im back, its a bit more interesting now. and not the same monotiny that was wow after 8+ months of waiting for an expansion to release because the only new stuff they added after bc released was raid content most players havent even seen yet.

/rant off

Praetorate@Nektulos wrote:

This honestly tells me you haven't raided in WoW that much. It's basically the same. How many hits can your tank take, DPS like mad, heal like mad. There are stupid little twists here and there, but not much really. the KJ fight is a really complicated and well done fight, but it's one of the few.

Masakari@Antonia Bayle wrote:

1.) Wow has more players. Right now yes they do but alot of those players will likely be leaving due to boredom, lack of content (last content was over a 1 year ago) and a changing focus towards a PVP game. The expansion will not cure the problem as it looks to even more screwing up classes in order to add more PVP to the game.
2.) Wow is more fun. Wow was fun leveling up to 70 the first time. At max level you are left with grinding for gold, grinding for PVP honor, leveling alts, or raiding end game content designed only for the hardcare raider with the exception of maybe only a couple raid instances. You can argue that EQ2 has alot of alts too but the game world is larger with a substantially larger quantity of quests which easily blow wow out of the water in that area. EQ2 has alot more character customization thru AA than wows talent system.
3.) EQ2 is harder. It is somewhat harder is some ways. Getting around the game world has some aspect of danger to it and it takes some effort to reach your destination versus WoWs' summon them over concept. Mobs repawn in EQ2 zones fairly quickly and you have to move at a decent pace. In wow the same non respawning mobs are in the exact same spot everytime in every instance and once kill they dont come back at all or on very lengthy timers.
4.) EQ2 crafting is better. It has more depth than wows get materials click combine and walk away while you get chances at skill ups. WoW has possibly the worst crafting system in any MMO I have seen.
5.) EQ2 crafting is better for about 1 - 30. Crafting becomes repititious no matter how it is implented at least EQ2 requires some interaction.
6.) Graphics. EQ2 graphics are more realistic looking but take a better computer to render. One thing about wow graphics that bugged me was mobs did not occupy space and you could walk right through them.
7.) Gameplay. WoW has a much less robust User interface by far. All spells and abilities are on a 1.5 second global cooldown except for a few. At least some thought was put into how long before reuse should occur in EQ2. Wow has the same amount of other "crap" to do especially if you raid. Dailes come to mind as the most boring one.
8.) PVP. I hate PVP anyway but form the amount I have done it turns it a huge grind with afk players. PVP games dont mix with PVE ones and never will as the player base is too different in what they want out of the game.

Drakosani wrote:

Having level 5 toons to 70 in WoW till I quit last December, I have been watching this thread rather closely. This post says it all pretty will. Nice job, well said. It's too bad WoW seems to have soo many people brainwashed that they won't even think about trying EQ2. It's a sad thing.. If ignorance is bliss they must be pretty darn happy.

Drakosani wrote:

Masakari@Antonia Bayle wrote:

That made me giggle. Thank you for that. "Robust" and "Great Rewards" are two terms I would never expect to see in the same sentence. A game with a "robust" PvP system doesn't need "rewards". It is the reward.

So far ive played this game on and off since release, as well as a rather long stint at WOW.
This game pulls me in everytime, i can cancel my subscription. And a month later i will be back. The only thing i think WOW has over EQ2 is its open zones, however with that comes a whole range of issues.
Other than that EQ2 pulls me back in, even though crafting is now comparitivly simple. Not at all like it was when the game released. Or levelling became so much easier once ROK came out.And zones have been simplified. This brought people in to play EQ2,so for a small trade we got a whole lot of new players, it was worth it.
Personally ive played EQ,EQ2,WOW,DAoC,LOTRO and Tabula-Rasa. And this pulls me in everytime.
Great Game


Edited for spelling (Im Australian and a just woke up)

As time goes on, I find it harder and harder to come up with an answer for this question.

Masakari@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Masakari@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Vhivi wrote:

Well said. Quantity does not equal quality, it just means Blizzard pwns SOE at marketing. And it seems like the Heroic Oppurtunities were misunderstood or something as the spell still does exactly what it says its going to do...but with a benefit of bonus damage, power regen, etc. And it is interactive with other people in the group, I fail to see how anyone can see that option as a bad thing. =/
Some concepts of both EQ2 and WOW sound great (or horrible) on paper but when it comes to actually experiencing it, it's much different.

People saying that more players does not make a better game are only half right. We are playing an MMO. Massively multiplayer. The game is enhanced when you have people to play with. In EQ2, especially at the low levels, groups are relatively hard to come by. This is especially true if you are trying to group for something specific, like a quest. In WoW, finding a group is very, very easy. There are so many people to play with. In EQ2, I have difficulty finding groups. Even during prime-time. And I play a templar!

Riliszkas@Splitpaw wrote:

Well I guess we have had different experiances. for example;

I have played WOW making a rogue, Shaman, and a druid, And played each class to lvl 20 and had only 1 group in that time period of 2 months. I even tried starting groups, and never had any luck getting groups. Once I even got a message while on my rogue, stating "why should I waste time playing with a rogue" And never found out why that was stated.

My real life friend also plays EQ2 and WOW and prefers WOW beacuse she don't like grouping, and is never asked to group there, where here she is asked often. SHe is a mage in WOW and a wizard here.

I do find though at lower levels it can be a little hard at times to find a group. But I'm always making alts and I find at lower levels I start forming the group, I state where I want to go, what quest I'm working on and how long I plan on playing, I usually get a group in a short period of time.

But I do agree that having more people would help with grouping, but it also depends on the type of people playing. Here I think the population is just better/easier to deal with than in WOW's.

So I hope your grouping goes better.

Isoloki@Oasis wrote:

Agreed.

I'm always of a Quality vs. Quanity state of mind. I have played WoW at the lower levels and while groups are easier to find, I've often found that consuming rusty razor blades might have been more enjoyable during those experiences.

More people doesn't always equate to more fun. More people just means more melon heads to deal with. Wasn't really an experience with lack of adequacy or anything. But, the use of l33t speak, language that would make Andrew Dice Clay blush, and the hyper sensitives screaming like they just died in real life after our group made a mistake.

My experience in a highly populated MMO with endless grouping opportunities meerly left me wanting to punch puppies or kittens for a little release. Go figure.

What I don't miss from WoW's official jungle...er forums is the demand for new servers so people and start fresh and level their chars from 1 to max level.
This used to happen on a daily basis and would be posted by 5000 people demanding it (or one desperate player)

I don't think I can say one is clearly better then the other. I have been playing EQ2 again for about 2 months now and I definately enjoy it. WoW has some advantages. The one thing that game offered (me) was the ability to accomplish something in a short period of time. I find that in EQ2 I cannot do the same. Now, granted, I am new to EQ2 so there is possibly a piece to that I am missing, but so far I feel like if I cannot invest a good 1.5 hours on EQ2 I will only get minor stuff done, or at least some tradeskilling stuff (which can feel like something)..

Wow became too focused on PvP and that is what killed it for me. Rather then doing the smart thing and having a PvE and PvP ruleset, they are attempting to shoe horn it into one rule set. That is just plain stupid. I hated that they nerfed xxxx skill since it was overpowered in pvp. So correct it there and leave it the hell alone.

I don't pvp in EQ2 and don't plan to. All the pvp I did in wow left a bad taste in my mouth.

Wow has a clear advantage in the information that is available for the game. I use the EQ2 wiki thing and that seems to be about all the info that I can find out there. The depth of information is disappointing to me. It almost makes it feel like the game is nearing an end (people are not investing time in information).

EQ2 has a clear advantage in crafting. You can harvest anything and you specialize in one trade. In wow you only specialize in two things (can only have two professions and harvesting a node type is considered one just like the ability to make something). I do find the crafting process in EQ2 to be rather boring. I enjoyed watching TV while I crafted in WoW, in EQ2 you cannot for the most part.

I LOVE player housing! I think the broker system is pretty good too compared to the auction system in WoW. The auction system has its advantages, but for me the auction system was more annoying then helpful (such as not being able to cancel a bid while the seller can cancel the auction, what kind of logic is that??).

Combat is about the same. Then again as mentioned earlier, I am returning and my character (main) is a defiler about to turn 34 so there is much left to see. I like that there are far fewer trains in this game then in EQ1. I hated that. I also love the nestalgia feeling I have as I play EQ2. I so cannot wait to see things that were in EQ1 even if they don't look anything like they did in the old days. Still a great feeling to rediscover it!!!

Chat is the same. "Mature" is relative and I see just as many a-holes in the 1-9 as I did in the city chat or barrens chat in WoW. There is no difference there at all to me!

Anyway, that is my 2cp for the time being. I might add more later, as I gain more insite into EQ2. Still a noob sadly.

Riliszkas@Splitpaw wrote:

I don't know when you last played WoW, but even on a highly populated WoW server it is near impossible to find groups. The biggest reason for this is that no tank class characters are willing to group with other players anymore or very rarely at best. You can't successfully handle most of WoW's group content without a tank. It can takes hours to find a group due to this reason and often the groups break up before finding a tank. PVP lured all of the tanks away from PVE and now there is none. In this regard, the 2.5 million U.S. players is doing nothing to make grouping easy.

Drakosani wrote:

I played WoW a month ago, and yes, getting groups was quite easy. I PuGed a lot, so I ended up getting to know a lot of different tanks that I could ask to group with me. I played a healer, and all of the tanks I played with enjoyed running with me because I was a good healer. So, I never had problems finding a tank.

Nimeesha@Befallen wrote:

Referring to the bolded parts...the fact that "bugged" you is funny. That was actually a great innovation. You could walk through players and mobs. Remember the Bazaar in original EQ

"Could you please move, you're in the way of the exit"

...

"Could you move? I can't exactly WALK THROUGH YOU"

...

About this time you realize that the people blocking the way are all afk...

Seriously, if WoW didn't have this, it would be unplayable. That was an example of a good change. I'll say that it would be a good idea to take it out of PvP, but that kind of thing needs to stay in.


As to players being "brainwashed" about EQ2...well, you can blame that on the original Everquest and the fact that EQ2 didn't know what the hell it wanted to be in the beginning. The original EQ was the most grind-heavy, cat-assing load of hogwash ever. You couldn't even blow your nose unless you had your guild help you do it. People were ready for a change after that. I can remember people complaining about WoW's raid-heavy end-game before the expansion. They were literally calling it "Everquest 2".

The first iteration of EQ2 was esentially trying to "win the previous war". If it had been released without WoW as its competition, it would be doing a lot better. Unfortunately, it was stuck back sometime in 1999 when people actually put up with forced grouping and grinds all the while WoW provided a much easier alternative.

EQ2 is perfect as it is now. I hope they don't make too many changes. I've been having lots of fun so far. The thing is, it should have been this way in the beginning!!!

Isoloki@Oasis wrote:

Grouping in WoW, other than instances, is pointless. You are much better off on you own. For instances, you are much better off with your guild. Pickup groups are horrible. Saying you got your druid, rogue, and Shaman to 20 might as well be saying you got them to level 2 and neve had a group. You can get to level 20 in just a few hours on your own. Grouping at that level would literally be slower unless you have every quest memorized. Even if you did group, it would be quicker to split up a bit and just do quests on your own so they go twice as fast. You'd be soloing but just getting credit for your group member's kills. It would be more efficient for a level 15 warrior and priest to just kill mobs on their own than for the warrior to kill while the priest heals, belive it or not.