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Everquest 2 vs. World of Warcraft

Posted by Zonk on from the xtc-vs.-adam-ant dept.

Gamespy has a piece up today comparing and contrasting the feature sets of Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft. It's a pretty thorough story, covering the newb experience, combat, character customization and more. From the article: "In one corner, you have EverQuest II, the sequel to the undisputed heavyweight MMO champ EverQuest, the game that has probably caused more divorces than any other video game in the world. In the other, you have the challenger, World of Warcraft, the first MMO created by Blizzard Entertainment, the development house best known for StarCraft, Diablo, and the original Warcraft RTS games."

6 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Groups vs Solo by comforteagle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I love playing EQ until I got to the levels where I had to group. I always found that to be a PITA. Must you group to proceed past the newbie levels in WoW?

    1. Re:Groups vs Solo by Mitijea · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well... The other chars around you will say more than two sentences before repeating. For myself, I've always enjoyed mmorpg's more for the occasional interaction with more than preprogramed npcs, not to work with them per se, but something to add to the in between times when I'm tired of the mill - socialization if you will. Personally I'd much rather solo when it comes to leveling; I enjoy having others around for variety, but too much is not my style. And grouping is usually too much for me. I just like having other real people around to fill out the world. Sometimes it's fun to chat with someone, maybe help them find their way to some obscure location, or swap advice. But then sitting there grinding with them, ehhhh... that's when I'm ready to head off on my own. Basically what I enjoy most about mmorpgs has everything to do with other people being around, but none of it involves grouping. This level of interaction just isn't available in a "normal" rpg.

  2. Good? by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 3, Interesting
    "the game that has probably caused more divorces than any other video game in the world."

    And this is a good thing? I mean, I know what they meant...but I always thought a game was supposed to be something fun that gave you a break from life, not something that consumed your bank account, hurt your health, and destroyed your marriage.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  3. A comparison that leaves out a LOT... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've got a few disputes with this review.

    Crafting system, not deep in WoW?

    The things they mention (Having to find new recipes), about EQ2, are present in WoW. I'm thinking they only played WoW until mid-level. While yes, you do have to go collect your materials (or buy them from a player who does), I think THIS adds more depth than could be added by buying all of your raw materials from NPCs, as I can only assume EQ2 (and just about every other MMPORPG but UO) does. There are also rare items required for recipes that require players to communicate and *GASP* trade for! There is a LOT more social trade going on simply for -crafting- in this game than any other MMPORPG I've played - excepting early UO, where people actually set up real storefronts, took orders for items, etc etc.

    Back End Support

    While indisputibly EQ2's servers have stayed up through hell and high water - this article fails to mention the COST of this. That is, every single ZONE is instanced! There are 12 or 15 different copies of the main city floating around, and you'd be lucky to get in the same one as someone you're trying to meet (I'm speeking from speculation, unless SoE has implemented a way to find someone like this)... It also prevents you from randomly running into someone and having a spur of the moment roleplaying moment. WoW has also recompensed those who started their accounts within 3 days of launch with extra free time.

    Role-Playing

    As mentioned above, the fact that every zone is instanced in EQ2 can be a huge detriment to roleplaying. The only other thing it has going for it is housing and .. uh.. wide open spaces. Whereas Inns, while slightly small in WoW, have LOTS of functional seating, and cozy atmospheres! There is also a very large meeting hall that currently no NPCs reside in, off from the dwarven district of Stormwind. As a side note, I love how the reviewer compares the population of roleplay servers between the two games to determine the quality of roleplaying.

    PvP
    While it gave WoW winning marks for this, I really think they underplayed the PvP aspects of WoW. The only gripe I have about PvP is that if it's anywhere near a town or graveyard, it's pretty much "who can kill the other side until their equipment runs out" ... there is definite strategy for each class concerning PvP play, though, and outright duelling does NOT determine how well a class will do in PvP.

    Graphics

    Firstly, my main gripe is about the screenshots they chose to compare. One is of a head in some water and some landscape far away, with an admittedly nice reflection in the water of the landscape. But uh, not of the head: it actually kinda looks like it was -photoshopped- on. The World of Warcraft screenshot however, makes me upset too! They used pretty low detail settings for that screenshot, looks like they turned all the shaders off. World of Warcraft succeeds in making you feel like you're in a comic book. Everquest succeeds in making you feel like you're in a CG movie with bad animation and character interaction. If you're going to make your CG "Realistic," you need to make the way they interact with everything (especially combat) realistic. Otherwise it just ends up looking... silly. And un-executable on a vast majority of systems.

    Transportation
    While they effectively describe WoW's transportation, I am having a hard time following what they're trying to explain in terms of EQ2s. Granted, I haven't played the game, but ... if there's just two cities, what transportation do you NEED? the main transportation you need is from the city to outlying areas where you'll be fighting monsters; not from different areas in the city to different areas in the city, which is what it sounds like they're describing here. And, uh, what's with comparing the art direction (color-themed areas, transitions, etc) in the travel section? Dur, who's the retarded reviewer?

    Character (not physical) Customization

    They really

  4. Re:The fact that they are comparable.. by space_jake · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The ability to teleport from anywhere to anywhere removes any sense of scale and destroys the economy.

    If you've ever played Eve Online you understand this too well. Trading was a big part of the game and being a lone manufacturer in a isolated part of space used to have its benefits. Often it would be a good 15-20 system travel to get the parts you needed. Or if you were a trader / seller you would buy things at low cost and travel 20 - 25 hops to sell them for profit. Until the developers introduced the "Super Highway" which connected all of the main systems together in one series of jumpgates. Well 25 system travel routes turned in 4-6 hops at worst. All of a sudden people selling goods at manufactured cost were available to everyone in civilized space. No one could sell for profit. And everything was always sold out for trade because the trade routes were so easy to profit on. Funny enough though as long as I played the game the player based courier option never took off due to this.

  5. Having only played WoW by Dekks · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was in the WoW beta and had a blast, I also played SWG for over a year, so assuming SWG is somewhat similar in nature to EQ being by EQ and all, I find that WoW was more lighthearted and fun, whereas SWG was a little deeper (for the first 3-5 months) and serious. Anyone here who plays both able to say if EQ 2 is for the serious players and WoW for the casual?