Tuesday, September 20, 2005
EQ2 vs WoW
I had played EQ2 less and less and a little over a month ago I stopped playing. After not playing a couple of weeks I finally bought WoW. Artistically EQ2 is a 10. It is a beautiful game. I was as high as second on the game-wide first finds and that was directly because I was the highest level chef in the game because I was working for access into the highest zones just so I could see them. I always thought it ironic that it wasn't some iconic fighter that led the way into the new zones, but a chef wielding a spatula. Once I reached 42, I went to Feerrott and Everfrost, took pictures, and went back to adventuring.
Nothing comes close to EQ2 visually. The other artistic half, the lore, is top notch too...especially with Tracy's writing skills. :) The "game" itself sucks. The collection and scrying stone quests, both thanks to Tracy's boyfriend Matt :), are good creative design that fit well. Unfortunantly good design was a rarity in EQ2. Much of my time there was frustrating, and my entire 40s sucked because of thoughtless game design. Level 50 players would not group or hunt content meant for their level but instead would mow down the 43 - 45 solo content which was what I needed. Why? Becuase the writs/money made that the most profitable thing for them to do.
WoW has graphics that seem on par with the original EQ's second generation. The reason WoW is hugely successful and still gaining subscribers (EQ1 after a year was still increasing, EQ2 started going downhill in only a few months as it took that long for us to lose half of our guild there) is because of how well designed it is. WoW has a max of 20 quests, 1/5 of what EQ2 did, but I have yet to run out of quest room. The quests are designed very well and lead you from one area of the game to the other doing an excellent job of matching your level progression. My EQ2 conjurer and WoW warlock are about the same level, 28. EQ2 she only used one pet spell since it was so much better than the others. The format was to sit in a safe spot, send pet out even half way across the zone, bonk critter, call pet back, tell pet to attack critter again, heal pet as needed. I would watch Tivo on my other PC while doing this. My warlock has several pets that are very different from each other AND all useful to play depending on the circumstances - whether it's group play and what pet best suits your party's needs, or solo play and HOW you want to play. Again, the design is excellent, and this is what I've found the game to be overall is just very well designed. No fantastic groundbreaking designs, just good design. Some of it the design is fairly simple, but an excellent simple design is far better than a bad complicated design.
I'll eventually buy the expansion and will keep my EQ2 account with its all access pass. Nifty thing that being able to have a subscription count for all three games even though the player is actually only playing one of them. :) I don't see ever playing either EQ again as the primary game. There's too much new stuff coming up in the next couple of years.
Nothing comes close to EQ2 visually. The other artistic half, the lore, is top notch too...especially with Tracy's writing skills. :) The "game" itself sucks. The collection and scrying stone quests, both thanks to Tracy's boyfriend Matt :), are good creative design that fit well. Unfortunantly good design was a rarity in EQ2. Much of my time there was frustrating, and my entire 40s sucked because of thoughtless game design. Level 50 players would not group or hunt content meant for their level but instead would mow down the 43 - 45 solo content which was what I needed. Why? Becuase the writs/money made that the most profitable thing for them to do.
WoW has graphics that seem on par with the original EQ's second generation. The reason WoW is hugely successful and still gaining subscribers (EQ1 after a year was still increasing, EQ2 started going downhill in only a few months as it took that long for us to lose half of our guild there) is because of how well designed it is. WoW has a max of 20 quests, 1/5 of what EQ2 did, but I have yet to run out of quest room. The quests are designed very well and lead you from one area of the game to the other doing an excellent job of matching your level progression. My EQ2 conjurer and WoW warlock are about the same level, 28. EQ2 she only used one pet spell since it was so much better than the others. The format was to sit in a safe spot, send pet out even half way across the zone, bonk critter, call pet back, tell pet to attack critter again, heal pet as needed. I would watch Tivo on my other PC while doing this. My warlock has several pets that are very different from each other AND all useful to play depending on the circumstances - whether it's group play and what pet best suits your party's needs, or solo play and HOW you want to play. Again, the design is excellent, and this is what I've found the game to be overall is just very well designed. No fantastic groundbreaking designs, just good design. Some of it the design is fairly simple, but an excellent simple design is far better than a bad complicated design.
I'll eventually buy the expansion and will keep my EQ2 account with its all access pass. Nifty thing that being able to have a subscription count for all three games even though the player is actually only playing one of them. :) I don't see ever playing either EQ again as the primary game. There's too much new stuff coming up in the next couple of years.
