EQ2 Goes Free to Play too

[Azazel]

Iy sounds to me like you got used to how it was using the old systems, and now you can;t be bothered retraining yourself to understanding the new systems. Which is a fair enough call, especially after time away and if you're not especially invested in the game or those characters.

[Lucas]

Oh, and the "disable combat experience" feature is one of the greatest ever (don't know if other less popular MMOGs before or after EQ2 implemented it), especially if it's your first toon or you enjoy exploring instead of rushing to the endgame, so that you don't have to worry about outleveling your zone or your crafting skills.

[Murgos]

Anyway, EQ2 ... I tried it again a couple of months ago, and while I find being a fairy monk hilarious, I just ... can't get into the game. I think it's because it has TOO much and it's overwhelming to me now? I have the same issue with LotRO these days, really, there's all this NEW shit and I don't GET it and fuckit I'll just play WoW and wait for SWTOR to come out. Does this mean I'm dumb? I think it might mean I'm dumb. :(

Sky and I (Sky more than me) kind of beat the drum for EQ2 for a while.  It really grew into a great, engaging game about 3 or 4 years ago.  They absolutely changed everything, I don't think there is a skill in the game now that was in there at launch.  They even changed the basic class structure when they let you pick your class right from launch.  They have repopulated, I think, every zone in the game and re-engineered pretty much every quest.

The way I got back into it was first to play a new character up to 10 or so in the newest newbie zone available.  Then I logged in my main and to took every skill off my skill bar and removed every quest from my questbook.  After that I went and found an area where things were trivial and experimented with each skill that seemed relevant to get familiar with what they do now.  Finally I looked up on the internet (there are some great leveling timeline resources for EQ2 out there) and found where I should be at a little below my level and went there.  Of course there were still a lot of systems I didn't understand until later but it didn't take that long to figure everything out.

All that said, at the moment I think LotRO is a better game than EQ2...

[Mrbloodworth]

It is hard to get back into a game after a long break, I think this is true for anyone one. Double time if the game is a MMO.

In fact, I had issues getting back into death-spank last night, I was completely lost as to where I was at. So no, your not dumb :)


Personally, I can't stand the new zones, WTF happened there.

[luckton]

I tried to play DAoC earlier this year on a whim of boredom.  After realizing they haven't moved one damned inch away from the "COMMAND LINE ALL THE THINGS!" way of doing things, I uninstalled promptly.

[Zetor]

I think I played EQ2 back in... late 2005/early 2006 with my guild. At that time it just didn't seem worth playing compared to WOW (for me), and soloing was such a painful boring slog that we quit in the 20/30s out of frustration. I hear they've gotten a whole lot better since then, but now they'll be competing against SWTOR / GW2 / etc if they want my $.

More importantly, this 'design your own dungeon' thing is intriguing -- is there more info out there other than the blurb in that writeup? Like whether you can have dialogues / scripts / triggered events, have NPCs say / emote stuff, objects you can interact with, secondary goals, etc etc. I've always been a sucker for player-created content in mmogs (from building/coding MUD zones to GMing at RP UO shards to huge player events in SWG to designing story arcs in COH's Mission Architect), so this one feature by itself may cause me to sub.

[Sky]

Oh, and the "disable combat experience" feature is one of the greatest ever (don't know if other less popular MMOGs before or after EQ2 implemented it), especially if it's your first toon or you enjoy exploring instead of rushing to the endgame, so that you don't have to worry about outleveling your zone or your crafting skills.

This is on the list of things I wish Bioware would put into TOR. Given it's a story based games that's supposed to be shared with friends (and that level ranges are so tight), you should put in every tool to make sure that we can stay in the same bracket. Hell, let me "bank" xp and level when I want to, so I could play through the story without being penalized for shutting off xp (if you leave it off too long, story elements would become unplayable without grinding). Blah.

For EQ2, it was a great feature, especially with so much content in each level band.

I played WoW for three months, didn't really like it. Didn't hate it, it's just clearly aimed at the LCD mass market and was pretty boring to me. EQ2's systems were so much better once they were able to recover from the bad launch, and I still use it for the benchmark for a lot of mmo game systems. The way abilities fired off, having individual refresh/recast timers that you could modify individually within the ability, I really hate the GCD. The full-on one-ahead ability queue. I bitched for soooo long to get that put into Rift, and I still don't like their implementation and end up hammering my abilities (I guess I should macro  ), it's fucking awful and a leading reason I've cancelled Rift before my second month is up, and really it was 5 weeks for me, so less than half of WoW's attraction...despite the phenomenal soul/role system. Anyway...the exp disable, as mentioned. The broker, SO MUCH better than the shitty AH, I hate that TOR is going to follow WoW's AH rather than the eminently more functional EQ2 broker.

Probably the main reason my ambivalence toward WoW (it's ok) is slowly turning to utter dislike is that "3rd gen" mmo devs are going the path of least resistance and adopting WoW features that other games have done much better. Just because EQ1 had everyone stare at a spellbook, and that's what 'everyone knows', doesn't mean you go ahead and adopt that into a 'next-gen' game. You take the best of the last generation and improve on it. Not just fully rip the 800lb gorilla and add feature x and y. Gah.

Sorry. I really liked EQ2's systems. The only thing I could really complain about would be that it (along with WoW) introduced the "elite" mob concept (or the "fuck you" mob as I call them, as a casual soloer).

[Merusk]

Familiarity is a powerful force to fight against.  Not only because you, the designer, have to forge ahead on other more unfamiliar paths, but you have to do it in a manner that won't confuse or alienate a customer familiar with the system you're abandoning.

Not that I don't think more should do it.. I just see why they don't.  This is the end result of big-budget games. They're all going to be as samey and formulaic as Prime Time TV.

[Mrbloodworth]

Familiarity is a powerful force to fight against.  Not only because you, the designer, have to forge ahead on other more unfamiliar paths, but you have to do it in a manner that won't confuse or alienate a customer familiar with the system you're abandoning.

Aye, I have to fight this daily working on a game with an old player-base. Sometimes, it really does not matter if the change is better. Its different, and thats all the reason needed to scream obscenities and talk about canceling  accounts.

[Sky]

Do you really think that the people who scream and cry like spoiled children represent the majority? I'd think most people would just adapt to the new system, and indeed, if you can improve on their previous experience it would be a barrier to exit back to the 800lb gorilla. Make it the same and why should everyone pull up their social roots just for feature X?

Not to mention, EQ2 isn't exactly a niche title. Rift in particular could've slid in a lot of EQ2 features without alienating too many folks (who would then lead the folks who hadn't played EQ2 into the 'new' systems).

[Mrbloodworth]

Do you really think that the people who scream and cry like spoiled children represent the majority?

No, but it doesn't mean you don't have to deal with it. Sometimes, its purely curmudgeon ideological, logic does not enter into the response.

[Nebu]

I think I can cover this in a nutshell:

WoW favors the achiever whereas EQ2 favors the explorer. 

WoW is more game-like (i.e. platform) in style, EQ2 is more immersive and world-like. 

I recently went back to EQ2 and can really see some of the differences clearly after playing Rift heavily.  The EQ2 world is rich and alive, but lacks the console-like fight complexity that I had grown accustomed to in WoW/Rift.  It's very eye-opening to play this game after doing so much dungeon/raid stuff in Rift.  Two very different approaches. 

[Numtini]

I hate you all. After escaping two years ago, I've been reading this,  perused the EQ2 boards and may have a raid spot if I grind to 90.

[Lantyssa]

You really should avoid any topic concerning EQ2...

[Hawkbit]

Silly EQ2, had you integrated your live servers with the EQ2Xtenz version, I would still play this today.  I just don't feel like rolling a new toon to play.  Oddly, I'd spend some cash in their store, too, unlike my experience with LotRO.

[Sjofn]

Anyway, EQ2 ... I tried it again a couple of months ago, and while I find being a fairy monk hilarious, I just ... can't get into the game. I think it's because it has TOO much and it's overwhelming to me now? I have the same issue with LotRO these days, really, there's all this NEW shit and I don't GET it and fuckit I'll just play WoW and wait for SWTOR to come out. Does this mean I'm dumb? I think it might mean I'm dumb. :(

Sky and I (Sky more than me) kind of beat the drum for EQ2 for a while.  It really grew into a great, engaging game about 3 or 4 years ago.  They absolutely changed everything, I don't think there is a skill in the game now that was in there at launch.  They even changed the basic class structure when they let you pick your class right from launch.  They have repopulated, I think, every zone in the game and re-engineered pretty much every quest.

The way I got back into it was first to play a new character up to 10 or so in the newest newbie zone available.  Then I logged in my main and to took every skill off my skill bar and removed every quest from my questbook.  After that I went and found an area where things were trivial and experimented with each skill that seemed relevant to get familiar with what they do now.  Finally I looked up on the internet (there are some great leveling timeline resources for EQ2 out there) and found where I should be at a little below my level and went there.  Of course there were still a lot of systems I didn't understand until later but it didn't take that long to figure everything out.

All that said, at the moment I think LotRO is a better game than EQ2...

Oh, I started fresh, believe me. My old EQ2 characters were all under level 20 anyway, so I just started some new characters because I was losing nothing by doing so. So I was basically going in as a fresh new person. But it just felt so meh and I didn't know what the hell was going on and I was, of course, all alone, etc. I think whatever window  EQ2 had to get me has just long since passed, I guess. Maybe if I had played EQ at all (DAoC was my first MMO), I'd at least have felt some attachment to the world, but I didn't even have that to help me out. If that makes sense.

[Numtini]

You really should avoid any topic concerning EQ2...

I dunno, the free to play announcement got me to avoid the game like the plague it was so bogus.

Bad news though, I have 45 free days to play.

[Surlyboi]

Meh, I may give this another go while I wait for Old Republic.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I patched my game last night (haven't played since February) just because I wanted something to do.  At least all my characters are still guilded, lol.  Patching didn't take long at all but my UI is bugged (can't chat) and I need to fix that.  Had to make a macro just to log out.

[Numtini]

As far as I can tell everything is still working. I got the new patcher for Profit and when I logged in everything was where I left it.

Check your accounts, I seem to have a month and a half on all games. Could that be related to the hacker disaster?

[Hawkbit]

Yep, they gave everyone that time for the SOE hack.  I played mine already, kinda wasted it.  Regretting that decision now, I am. 

[Sky]

Cool, I thought it was a static time frame, not dependent on activation. Good deal, just as I quit Rift, I'll jump into EQ2 for a month and a half! Now to see if BC is still in existence, hah!

[HaemishM]

This thread and talk of the expansion has made me want to go back to my EQ2X character, but luckily, I have so much other stuff to play, I don't have time for it.

[Nebu]

What's the difference between EQ2 and EQ2x?

[palmer_eldritch]

What's the difference between EQ2 and EQ2x?

EQ2x or Extended is the "free" server (in quotes because you still need to pay a sub if you want the full experience).

The traditional subscription servers are just called EQ2 or sometimes the "live servers", even though EQ2x is obviously live too. Hope that helps.

[Kitsune]

If they fixed their idiotic pricing, I'd be much more tempted to give it a whirl.  On their site they list $199 for a year as being the 'best deal' and '$70 savings'.  A year of $15 a month is $180 for the full normal game.  At $60/year or $99/lifetime, I'd bite.  $200/year just makes me laugh and go elsewhere.

[CharlieMopps]

I'd just like to point out that SOE was talking about "build your own dungeons" BEFORE RELEASE of EQ2. So, for them to pretend like this is a new revelation is just silly. They also talked about cellphone games for things like lock picking that would give you skill gain so you could still be playing while you were away from the game. They talked a lot of smack about a lot of things that might maybe make people not flee from their game in droves in the way they did. None of it ever came to be and the one, biggest thing they could have done to keep players... stop the constant and almost maniacal way in which they tried to price gouge and cheat their customers at every turn possible, wasn't something they'd even consider. Enjoy the last vestiges of a fan-base you somehow suckered into sinking $30+ per month into playing your game, the rest of us aren't coming back.

[Sky]

wat

[luckton]

I'd just like to point out that SOE was talking about "build your own dungeons" BEFORE RELEASE of EQ2. So, for them to pretend like this is a new revelation is just silly. They also talked about cellphone games for things like lock picking that would give you skill gain so you could still be playing while you were away from the game. They talked a lot of smack about a lot of things that might maybe make people not flee from their game in droves in the way they did. None of it ever came to be and the one, biggest thing they could have done to keep players... stop the constant and almost maniacal way in which they tried to price gouge and cheat their customers at every turn possible, wasn't something they'd even consider. Enjoy the last vestiges of a fan-base you somehow suckered into sinking $30+ per month into playing your game, the rest of us aren't coming back.

Tell us where the bad man touched you...

[Rendakor]

I'd just like to point out that SOE was talking about "build your own dungeons" BEFORE RELEASE of EQ2. So, for them to pretend like this is a new revelation is just silly. They also talked about cellphone games for things like lock picking that would give you skill gain so you could still be playing while you were away from the game. They talked a lot of smack about a lot of things that might maybe make people not flee from their game in droves in the way they did. None of it ever came to be and the one, biggest thing they could have done to keep players... stop the constant and almost maniacal way in which they tried to price gouge and cheat their customers at every turn possible, wasn't something they'd even consider. Enjoy the last vestiges of a fan-base you somehow suckered into sinking $30+ per month into playing your game, the rest of us aren't coming back.

u mad bro

[Fordel]

I tried to play DAoC earlier this year on a whim of boredom.  After realizing they haven't moved one damned inch away from the "COMMAND LINE ALL THE THINGS!" way of doing things, I uninstalled promptly.

DaoC is just really fucking old at this point. They keep slapping new paint on the models and stuff, but the actual mechanics haven't changed much at all since release.


/macro <assist> /assist Fordel /say I am assisting Fordel!!!

[Sjofn]

fordel
fordel
fordel

guys its not working

[Fordel]

Don't make me break out the melee healer.

[Numtini]

Don't make me break out the melee healer.

According to those I speak with, mystics are now uber.

Took long enough.

[Numtini]

SOE authenticators just appeared in the store for anyone that actually plays. Amazing how fast they got on that after losing a couple of months of revenue.