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Everquest 2 vs. World of Warcraft Comparison
GinoMGG writes "My Guy Games has an interesting EverQuest II vs. World of Warcraft series that includes an interview with a level 50 EQII player and a level 60 WoW character. The series also has a side by side shootout between the two biggest MMORPG releases in November."
level 50 EQII player and a level 60 WoW character
I dunno if I trust his opinion if he plays MMORPGs that much, sheesh.
Since I've got a Mac, It'll definitely be WoW. Everquest 2 isn't available, and Everquest support for the Mac version was very poor.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Well so far I think I like WOW better.
I'm in the open beta for WOW and bought EQII. At level 9 I'm already feeling like EQII is a bit of a grind. WOW just seems to flow better.
That said, I'll be playing EQ2 until WOW is released and who knows. Maybe something will change my mind.
One should not theorize before one has data. -Sherlock Holmes-
Here's Google's text only cache of the downed site.
And I find that both can have a place on a gamers shelf. One can't really be compared to the other, as they are both MASSIVELY different in scope and design.
WoW: Great game, fast paced, very simple to understand and navigate. My only grief with the game is that the character development can be quite cookie cutter. The talents are pretty liner, and there seems to be preferred path for PVP performance. WoW does at least have a plan for PVP. Though, it's not all implemented, it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.
EQ2: MASSIVE world. Your put right in the middle of an epic-sized story that makes me feel as if I am a key part of the shaping of the world. The character development is quite profound, almost to the degree of Marrowind type games (though, not quite so flexible). I love this and it makes me feel that I am in control of my character and I can make something unique and interesting as I like him. The world is beautiful and I find it a pleasure to walk around and explore. I find that the death penalty is a bit rougher than WoW, and solo play is getting harder and harder at 13-14+. EQ2 has a really neat web-based character report. You can see almost all aspects of your character from the web site.
Here is mine:
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/ppla
All in all, I find them both a pleasure to play. I have spent the last few years playing another not-so-unpopular game with a very Realm-versus-Realm oriented aspect of endgame. I have found both of these games a huge upgrade over what I hvae been playing, and my wife might even play WoW with me which would be great. The barrier to entry to play previous MOG's where too great for her to feel like she was having fun.
I don't believe that casual or hardcore gamer types will be disappointed with either. Both of which would definitely give you the $50 retail value if only played for the 30 free days.
I will likely have accounts open on both of the games and try to divide my free time between them. I will let the game that has the best customer support, interesting game play and a company that cares about the long term playability of their game and not looking to make a short dollar today.
World of Warcraft /moderate the damn raid chat channel!
* Like: Graphics, they are bubbly and cartoony and match all the predecessors perfectly.
* Like: Gameplay, as always, Blizzard has reduced the normal 'level-grinding' down to almost nothing.
* Like: Mobs are rated accurately. Finally a game where if the mob is rated as "even" to me, it doesn't actually kick my butt.
* Like: Raiding! PvP and raiding with a group of people who actually listen and pay attention can be extremely fun!
* Like: Guilds, they're easy to create and control.
* Like: Instancing.
* Dislike: Method of selling crafts. Currently, as far as I know, there's only 1 auction house on each continent, and no method for players to 'display' their wares.
* Dislike: The auction house. While it is pretty and easy to use, it's barely adequate for doing any real amounts of selling. Auction times are not displayed, no history of items, or how much they sold for, etc etc, all make it hard to determine what the 'going rate' is.
* Dislike: Lack of control over raid groups. At least give the ability for the raid leader to mute
Everquest II
* Like: Graphics, very sharp looking game, especially when you turn up the juice in the settings.
* Like: Crafting, crafting, crafting. I love the crafting in this game. You actually have to pay attention and it is worthwhile to do it!
* Like: Class subsets. I really enjoyed knowing that I could reach major leveling milestones and still have choices about the development of my character beyond the original class choice.
* Like: Boat travel, I loved being able to go to a lot of different places via boat, instanteously.
* Dislike: Flying travel. The griffons, when they were working, looked terrible, had terrible clipping, and seemed slow.
* Dislike: Inventory control. I know you need to get bags for inventory space, but sheesh.
* Dislike: NPC hunting. WoW has this too, but somehow it wasn't so bad in WoW for me. In EQII, it really annoyed me.
There's a few a put together. Ultimately, being a long time Blizzardite, I'll play WoW. I'm a big time crafter, so the decision was actually hard, but ultimately I have more fun playing WoW, and I've been waiting a long time to play it. Plus the extras in the collector's edition are going to be a real treat!
- Ghent
I'm got in the WoW open beta, only level 15 so far, but it seems WoW is superior to every other MMOG I've played.
To start, it's actually fun. Like levelling up, that tedium in EQ you had to go through to get to where the real content is? Well it's like fun and stuff. Get this, you do quests, and most don't suck. You level up as a side effect of quests. Unlike CoH, you can actually (so far at least) solo all of the quests. There are tons of them, I have not run out (currently have 11 quests active). There are rumors of "elite" quests that require groups, but the one I had I was able to solo. I prefer to level up and quest alone, saving groups/raids for big events or RvR stuff.
Last night someone from the horde tried to attack us little night elves. I think it was a draw, they had levels on their side, but we had numbers. It was fun regardless. We're on a non-PVP server, which means it's totally optional whether to get involved with that or not, which I like. I didn't like the griefing and other crap in DAOC that you get from xp'ing in RvR zones. The PvP servers exist for people who like that, but I suspect that the non-PvP servers will be the more popular choice. If it's done right, the high level quests will lead you to want to kill the opposing faction NPCs, and draw you in to PvP. The bulk of the high level game will probably center around this. That seems like the way to go, and where I'd at least want to group/guild and spend time. It's a guess, but it sounds like it'd be fun.
The graphics are of course great, but so are CoH and EQ2. I think WoW has them beat in mechanics and artistry, but it's a judgement call. I think CoH landscape/pathing may be a bit better, but WoW complexity is much higher. I still play EQ for raids, and I have never been unsatisfied with EQ graphics so...
The tradeskill system seems decent. The system is similar but improved in mechanics from Horizons. You can't exclusively tradeskill, but to my mind that's not a rational plan for a fantasy/adventure game. It is TBD whether it is functional in terms of actually being useful to the game. No game has yet hit the mark on tradeskills except perhaps EVE, but EVE is a different type of game.
Raiding is still TBD. EQ in my mind is wearing the crown, it's unclear if it will be dethroned. If open beta ran longer, I'd probably be high enough to raid by early december (playing 3 hours a day mind you, in EQ it takes a year to do that). I suspect EQ mechanics will be better for a while, I think they'll end up having to tune WoW. It's supposition but I'm guessing that'll happen. Blizzard seems to have an eye on EQ for that judging by the competition going on, we'll see.
Anyway after EQ and the total disaster that was SWG, plus my limited but disgusted experience with EQ2...I'm giving that a miss. At this point I think I will be buying WoW. The most important criteria I have is that it seems well thought out, and the developers want the game to be fun above all. Most MMOGs miss that completely, or have only one or two elements that are fun (like say, raiding or RvR), while the bulk of the game is boring.
$.02
if the interviewees were capable of making coherent replies to the questions asked. I was expecting them to switch to 1337 at any moment. The WoW interview was the more painful, a sentence would contradict the one before and after it.
This is not a flame or troll, RTFA. There's valuable information in the interviews but these gamers lack the ability to express themselves and transmit the information...
What? I won't stand this unfounded adulation towards these "Dark Elf Shadowknights" and what have you. Let them match their worthless warriors against DocutronXP, my level 48 Hunter Strangler, hailing from the Land of Enchantment & Good Prices on Leather Sofas. You have never met a more brave and stunning Enchanted Motorcycle. Foes cower at my Level XXXVIII Clever Fellow. Those not vanquished by my level XXII Lockjaw will succumb to the one-two punch of my level XIX Animate Nightstnad and/or a Rabbit Punch from my +25 Custom Studded Titanium Gauntlets.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
OK, I'll have to give it a shot now.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy playing with other players, but I got extremely turned off by EQ 1's group requirement for later levels because I spent literally days (multiple 1 hour periods totalling probably >70-100 hours) "LFG" (announcing and flagged).
I've been in since April, and I can't think of anything the rabbits would drop that crafting requires. And if you weren't catching any fish, I'm guessing you were fishing in to high of an area for your skill level. It levels pretty smoothly in the right area. Though there are NO crafts that require fishing to level up with, so I have no idea why everyone felt they had to fish instead of trying to buy it from the auction house and didn't just go out and kill things.
I don't know what kind of person WANTS to wander all over Dwarf-Land looking for +2 Balls of Twine but from talking to the Diablo and Warcraft fans I met at that LAN party, it doesn't seem like much of Blizzard's fan base is going to appreciate the final WoW product.
Firstly, all crafting is voluntary and for fun. If you don't enjoy it, don't do it - there isn't anything crafting gets you that is required to progress that you couldn't buy off someone willing to spend the time. Secondly, the servers being overloaded from 500,000 trying to constantly play suggest you may have a very small sampling of Blizzard's fan base that doesn't scale to do projections very well.
The fact remains that MMORPG's are not for everyone, including some fans of previous Blizzard games. The general rule of thumb is if you wouldn't want to play a regular paper & pencil RPG, you probably won't like a Massive Online version either. It definitely sounds like the group you were watching is not the target audience, and the is nothing wrong with that on either side.
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
Um, yeah. No quests are required, you don't have to learn fishing (let alone use it exclusively for long periods of time), and there is no quest that I know of that asks you to kill rabbits.
/more/ than combat, so they are a prominent feature in the game. There are a few quests geared towards non-combat skills. There are also plenty of quests that ask you to kill things.
If you're not trolling, then the guys who were playing were either messing with you - or just total idiots. If some guy gives you a quest to fetch a ball of twine, nobody says you have to accept it. You can go on killing monsters and just do your own thing.
Crafting and non-combat skills are entirely optional, period. A lot of people like them. Some people like them
I don't know anyone who wants to wander all over Dwarf-Land looking for +2 Balls of Twine, either. A game that's like that sure would suck. It's a good thing that World of Warcraft isn't.
Another point is the crafting - it's fun and is a great way to break up the monotony of most MMO's; in which one spends the whole time camping a single location endlessly beating up on the same mobs that spawn time and again. In fact, the crafting system is the coolest part of WoW! Crafting is not just a way to get better l00t, it is an interesting pastime in and of itself. There are many quests to get rare and valuable items specifically for a craft skill.
As an example, with the Engineering/Mining skills you can make: Dynamite, Guns, Ammo, Defibrillator (for bringing people back to life), Land Mines, Bombs, and pet mechanical squirrels.
This game is amazing!!!
Fishing can be done as a diversion, a gag/joke/etc, but I have also found it to be useful for feeding "pets". Feeding your pet improves its morale/loyalty and this significantly increases its fighting abilities. It originally took about 10-15 minutes to get the fishing skill to the point where I can reliably catch fish anywhere I have tried.
Your post is simply an example of the blind leading the blind, assuming it is not a troll. Now there is nothing wrong with not being an expert in the game and your appraisal of yourself as someone who doesn't play many games is probably a healthy and wise attitude. However you may want to keep a more open mind when you are ill-informed. I've found many of my own initial ill-informed opinions to be wrong and had a great time learning how wrong I was. Good luck with whatever games/hobbies/diversions you choose to try.
Trying to powerlevel is missing the point of WoW, IMO. I know I got stuck in the "this sucks, im just doing what everyone else is doing" mood too, with my first character. So I started a second one, determined NOT to do what everyone else was doing. So instead of going to random caves in search of random quest items, I just go wherever the hell I want to. If that means wandering 10 miles off into the distance because I saw a really cool looking cliff, then i'll do it. I'll temporarilly abandon a quest in mid hunt, just to swim up a river and see where it comes from. I'll chase critters around the plains and skin their hides simply because I can. I'll jump off waterfalls for fun, swim along the coast until I find the perfect peacful fishing spot. I ran around a forest the other day for hours on end solely because I wanted a bear for a pet (and I found one too). I'll randomly group up with people just to do whatever they're doing for quests (as opposed to what I "should" be doing). I'm just exploring and soaking up the universe now. And let me tell you, the game is SO much more fun that way. Rather than trying to "win" the game, i'm just basking in it. Its the freakin World of Warcraft after all! I've wanted to run around in it since I played Warcraft 1! Why treat it like some ordinary hack'n'slash when there is SO much to see and do? Its not a game of numbers - its a work of art. Thats the beauty of WoW IMO. And thats why i'll be subscribing. :)