WoW

[Mistercreeps]

Anyone here play Worlds of Warcraft? Friend of mine got me a 6 month subscription to it for Christmas. Was wondering if any of you play or plan to play it. Been playing on the Hellscream server as a human pally named Malikar. Also have a Dorf hunter named Hecter. I have a few others I play from time to time but those are my mains atm.

[Soulrev]

I haven't checked it out yet.. I know someone who plays it, but I'm actually into Everquest 2... I might pick up WoW sometime though

[Daevion]

noooo more mmorpg's for me, I spent about a year playing SWG and now I've kicked the habit once and for all. I'm officially in MMOA.

believe you me, I was sooo tempted to get evercrack 2 and WoW.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I've "offically quit" MMORPGs probably 6 times now. (i "quit them forever" back before they were even called MMORPGs and the only thing we had was text-based muds)

I've played WoW durring beta, and have played EQ2 pretty extensively since its been out.

Generally for "semi casual" players WoW seems like the better choice. For progression focused gamer fanatics, EQ2 is probably better. EQ2 is a lot more "in depth" with tons more things to do and a more "mature" setup, with a heavy focus on the endgame, but also puts a ton more demands on your time.

Its fairly easy to sit down and play WoW for say 45 minutes then walk away. With EQ2 basicly your just getting started at the 45 minute mark.

If you have a pretty good computer the graphics in EQ2 set on some of the higher settings kills the generic WoW graphics pretty solidly. Although after a few months of playing graphics usually arent the reason you >keep

I tend to prefer EQ2 due to the older average age of EQ2 players over the generally younger WoW crowd. You dont see things like guys running through an area yelling "PS2 OWNZ DOOD!!" in EQ as often as you do in WoW. Although i do admit the low system requirements and the "ease of play" that wow (when the servers are stable) offers is seductive.

This WoW vs EQ2 thing is the source of endless debate on the various gaming forums.

WoW generally is rated higher by video game review sites http://Gamerankings.com is great. But, you have to take MMORPG reviews with a grain of salt, as the reviewers , for the most part arent in a position to play a single game consistantly for months and months are can only really review an MMORPG from a somewhat "casual" standpoint.

I sort of view WoW as the Mustang 5.0 and EQ2 as the Caddilac of the "next generation" MMORPGs.

[Mistercreeps]

I played EQ for 6 years and heard EQ2 was alot like it with the player downtime. Was told the graphics engine was super laggy and not that great unless you had a top of the line system. Even then I heard some of my guild complain about it. I haven't tried the game personally because I played other sony games and seen the customer support at it's best.

As for the age range in the games I can deal with the younger crowd. It's the

powergammers/pricks that ruined the game for me in EQ. They wasn't the young kids instead most of them where 30+. It was guilds like The Mistic Order, Realm of Ages, Akanon Alliance, Severed ect. that keep me away from EQ2. All those guild had one thing in common all power guilds. You could be sitting at a camp tring to get a mob to pop for 6 hours and they would come in and take it from you. They had no care of how long you have been waiting. Sony didn't care that you complained about it either. I had petitioned about Severed coming in to take the camp for my last necro epic item. What they told me was "Sorry nothing we can do at this time you'll just have to do more damage then they can". With support like that I'm supprised thier still around.

Maybe things have changed with EQ2 but for now I'm happy with the support of WoW. The servers mite not have been stable when the game was released but then neither was sony's first try. Alot of things that need to be fixed never really got tested. PvP wasn't near as rampant in testing as it is now. That's where all the server problems are coming from now.

Just a few of my thoughts.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

EQ2 is definetly geared more to the "casual" gamer than EQ1 was, but WoW is desgined, from the get-go to be a more simplified game with less of a learning curve.

WoW is sort of the Diablo of graphical muds. Were EQ leans heavily toward the old-style PnP long-fight , group-combat focus. (read, time consuming)

There is very little downtime in EQ2 , at least from an EQ1 perspective. You go from nearly dead, nearly zero "mana" to full health power (out of combat) rapidly, no matter how large your power / health pool is as you gain a certian % per tick as opposed to a specific number as in EQ1

The graphics engine, is pretty smooth if you set it on apropriate settings for your system. Its designed to play (at its highest graphic settings) on computers that dont even exist yet, in anticipation that it will be out for a long time to come. As such you have to set it (for most computers) to the lower settings , or you'll choke your computer.

"EQ Was ruined by powergamers" (so has every other RPG since the dawn of time, per the casual players) thats not a new complaint, every MUD/ MMORPG thats been around for awhile , has been "ruined" by powergamers. People were saying that , 10 years ago, before there even was such a thing as MMORPGs and we just called em MUDs. I remember guys saying "Powergamers Ruined Medivia!!" (Circa 1995) And that mud is still going strong heh. 10 years later. ;D

They were saying that about Paper & Pencil RPGs before that. Basicly its one group of people, not being happy with the way another group of people play the game.

Give it another 6 months, people will be saying the same thing about WoW.

If i had to suggest a game for more casual players, between EQ2 and WoW, who id pick wow pretty much without thinking about it. I havent played WoW since final release, basicly becasue i just dont have enough energy to support 2 mmorpgs at the same time, or id play both. As depending on my mood it would be nice to switch between the two styles of gameplay. (dont even really play EQ2 very much due to various issues, mostly health related)

[Mistercreeps]

Hmm maybe I will have to give it a try when I get back on my feet again. Sounds like alot has changed in the 2 games. Thanks for the info!

[Soulrev]

yeah WoW is definitely more suitable to the casual player seeing how if you log out with your character in an Inn (or while resting) you gain xp faster.. Though you can only get 3 levels worth of rested xp bonus.. Would be cool if it were infinite cuz my lvl 15 mage would have rested xp till lvl 60 by now.. Too busy with my warlock to play my mage..