Everquest Offers Weak Free To Play Options

oppp7

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Aug 29, 2009
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Batsu-sama said:
oppp7 said:
Which response do you choose?

Sounds awesome! We should make a user group!
I'll probably try it, since I'm a fan of EQ2 and hear about this all the time.
I'll try it, but probably won't put any money into it, since I'm already playing EQ2
Who would actually go for EQ1 when the second is out already?

I choose green.

Edit: Also, the plan isn't that bad if it's similar to EQ2's setup.
Where is the "I refuse to so much as touch it because I am already a recovering MMO addict" option? >_>
Which response do you choose?
I like MMOs... :(
What MMO were you addicted to?
They aren't that addicting...
Ya, MMOs do kinda suck.
I choose blue I guess. I'd ask green but it was probably WoW.
viranimus said:
oppp7 said:
Which response do you choose?


Who would actually go for EQ1 when the second is out already?
I sincerely found this humorous considering how downright bad EQ2 is compared to EQ1. Well its not really that EQ2 is bad. More that EQ2 essentially bastardized the lore of EQ further than SoE taking EQ over from Verant did.(even if it IS an alternate time line or what ever half ass excuse they used to justify it)and left it as something much more bland and infinitely less interesting.

There are some disadvantages where EQ came before WoW in that the game does not have some of the advents that the WoW generation of MMOs introduced. Things such as the easy quest system from EQ2 and Wow would be nice in the game.

However, comparatively, EQs AI system for NPCS blows every other MMO out of the water even to this day. Wow and its clones essentially destroyed one of the most satisfying "roles" ever created in MMOs. that of the puller. There is nothing like walking up to an enemy encampment, circling around the perimeter to assess the various mobs in the camp then finding the right angle to pull one mob out of the camp without the others noticing, then dragging it back to your party to destroy. Or behaving like a hunter out in the field and silently stalking your prey, waiting for the perfect time in their patrols to tag your target so it does not socially link with all the other mobs around it. I REALLY wish a modern MMO would actually emulate that sort of experience.

Then there are the mobs themselves. There is no simply running 10 feet to get away from a mob that clearly has you outclassed. If you do not have a spell to snare/root, or get the hell out of the zone, you had better find a zone line quick and learn how to use local geography to help put distance between you and what is chasing you because its not just going to give up.

Or when your trying like hell to save your ass and evacuate with gate or the like and having to watch the mobs attack pattern and learn its rhythm so you can time your spell perfectly in the hopes that you can get the whole thing cast without being interrupted my the mob attacking you again. These are things you simply dont see in modern MMOs anymore.

But, the problem is, a lot of the good qualities in the game are now lost because they have been nullified for the desire to make the game more like WoW over the years. I remember in 2000 spending right around 2 hours getting lost in Timorous deep looking for the "fire pot room" that would allow you to quickly zone into any of the starting cities at the time. The only problem was that there was always a chance that once you got down there you might have to contend with a gigantic dragon waiting for you in this semi secret room. (Dependant on if the group that summoned it wiped in trying to kill it or not) Since then there was the Nexus and Plane of Knowledge that basically both destroyed any sort of sensation of travel.


That and the various hundreds of different factions the player has to be wary of (though after PoP factions pretty much went by the way side of relevance and simply turned into a time sink which is truly regrettable) Nothing quite like going to a new outpost to see NPCs who look like you but are really on the fence about if they should kill you or not. Or the joy to be had to be hated by every NPCs in the world if you decided to roll an iksar, essentially having 1 home city you could safely enter without being KoS.Or how at one time Iksar were prevented from wearing plate gear because it was illogical to put metal plates on a species that possessed biological scaled plates anyway. Or how the world seemed more like a world than a video game setting, with zones that interlinked to each other in multiple places, or getting lost deep in woodlands and trying to use real world survival skills like following water till you find civilization. Or to have this extensive hidden lore and hidden meaning behind even the most mundane of things. To have GMs come in and "Act out" historic events such as being able to witness the battle of Bloody Kithicor first hand. Or watching GMs play as Lanys T`Val trying to open the dragon gate in Skyfire mountains as she tries to enact her plan to wake Kerafyrm and fulfill the prophecy of Trakanon,or watching powerful druids saying prayers to their god that bestowed to them the ability for players to summon rain for all players to see on the fields of Karana. Or going up Stonebrunt mountains to find an empty tunnel with a rock that moves like a hidden passage way that allowed you to get behind it only to find the rest of the tunnel caved in and left to wonder would this be a pathway to a new land? Could this allow you access to the far side of the planet that is not on traditional maps? Or the notion of there being a dragon that exists that could defy the mechanics of normal NPCs and had the ability to zone. Also on Kerafyrm, having what was practically invincible dragon that an entire server had only one opportunity to go up against because once the beast was summoned it would go on a rampage and be perma removed from the game, Or for that matter the notion of having a mob in an MMO that it took 3 years, hundreds of dollars in sever switch fees, hundreds of players, many lost levels worth of exp and hours worth of fighting to use the last possible chance to bring down the sleeper and for players to beat. Or doing extensive in game lore research to realize that all the traditional maps of Norrath place Velious in the wrong locale as it is actually closer to the northern pole than the southern pole, but that fact was never put into place because SoE bought out Verant before they could progress that far with "The vision".

The game was far from perfect, but honestly many modern MMOs need to go back and relearn some of the things that made EQ truly awesome.(not the least of which would be allowing the players to craft the narrative of the game, instead of force feeding it in instances, quest dialogs, cutscenes, etc. In some ways it was better than any MMO that has been created since. However, making the game F2P is really not going to help. You simply cant play EQ now, because EQ is barely a shadow of its former glory. From the mines of gloomingdeep to mercs and monster missions many of the charms and challenges simply dont exist now, even if the content is still there its simply never able to be the same. That content eroded with the passage of time and wore down to the point of irrelevance. Why spend hundreds of hours working on gaining cabilis faction, to do a 7 tiered quest line to gain the glorious Blade of Greenmist, when you can simply go to the Bazaar and pick up something for 100 plat that has 10x the stats of greenmist. Even if you miss out on one of the most compelling story arcs in the game, to most people that level of effort for a useless trinket is simply not worth it. No. it wouldnt matter of EQ was made 100% completely free, A player today can never experience EQ, because it is impossible to play it today and get the same experience one got from it back when it was still a relevant force on the landscape.

Anyway.. getting back on my train of thought.. Just because its newer, does NOT mean its better. Not by a long shot.
Which response do you-
Ok ya that won't work here...

I don't actually hate EQ1, that response was just the best one to be a red option. I figured that most people would think that anyways. I don't actually think that though, since I didn't pick that option. It was just part of that RP gimmick I'm trying.

As for stuff not related to my stupid forum roleplaying BS, EQ1 probably would be more immersive since older MMOs used to be about that, but I don't have too many problems with EQ2. But like I said, I'll check it out.

And ya, I know about the original storyline being abandonned. TV Tropes told me all about that.

Also, that edit in my last post was originally a rant about how the F2P options weren't as bad as the Escapist is saying they are.