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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."
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