Feldon 
When you see one occurrence of something, it’s unique. Two occurrences can be ascribed to coincidence. But three, that’s a pattern. What are we seeing? The replacement of progression. We’re seeing the abolishment of stratification and in its place, bland, uniform, one-size-fits-all rewards.
It began with the starting gear acquired by new players in the four (originally six) starting cities. Rather than bringing parity to the items, which would have retained the uniqueness of items to each home city, this variety was paved over with one set of gear for everyone. The result was the absurd reality of Sarnak or Frogloks wearing furs and coon-skin caps. The unique appearances of the original gear were replaced overnight with wall-to-wall New Halas looks.
The second and most publicized example of the gutting of choice has been the Destiny of Velious itemization. The items have been so formulaic that players pressed Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson for an explanation. He eventually admitted that the items originated from an item-generating script. He insisted that the generated items were supposed to be a starting point, with better items getting finessed and customized for each class. To date, we’ve seen little of this ‘finesse’.
Our third example, showing a clear and present pattern, is last week’s mount revamp. While we were excited to see 2 new mount types — Leapers and Gliders — bring more variety to an area of EQ2 that has traditionally lagged behind, we were a little puzzled at some of the runspeed numbers. But our surprise gave way to shock at seeing every ground mount in the game being set to 130% runspeed.
Maintaining some semblance of stratification between lower levels and higher levels, effort and non-effort has been tricky in the face of the instant gratification that StationCash brings. At one time, faster speed was a badge of honor worn by Bards and players in productive Guilds. The erosion of progression has happened slowly. Our first recollection was the D.I.R.T.Y. carpets, which granted 35% runspeed to any character who participated in a few TSO preamble quests.
We were relieved to see that the in-box The Shadow Odyssey mount was a scaling one. The TSO bear didn’t attain full speed until your character reached higher levels. There was still a reason, albiet a smaller one than ever, to complete previously landmark mount quests like the Sinking Sands carpet. The cloud mount in Kingdom of Sky was a quest that many people did not only for the appearance but to have a nice runspeed.
Fast forward one year and Sentinel’s Fate abandoned all restraint by granting 70% runspeed to anyone that bought the Collector’s Edition, regardless of level. Aspirations towards getting certain mounts became limited to choice of appearance. We thought the introduction of Flying Mounts at level 86 with a lengthy quest would mark a return to form, with a real progression from lower to higher levels. And the idea of Leaper and Glider mounts at level 30 and 60 would, at first glance, have provided a clear, obvious ramp-up from lower levels to higher. But then the other shoe dropped. Every mount starting at a 1 silver 75 copper horse purchasable at level 1 in Qeynos or Freeport was retroactively adjusted to a base runspeed of 130%.
If you told me one year ago that there would be a 7 page thread on the EQ2 forums from players asking for a slower mount, I would have thought you had desert fever. Yet there it is, right next to a thread asking for all ground mounts to have the same price — 15 silver — since they all have the same speed.
We see this as a sign of a bigger problem. EverQuest’s strength was not giving players one choice, but many choices, each with Pros and Cons. Yet, we are seeing an unavoidable erosion of this approach. We don’t wish to lambast the Golden Path, as it steered players towards what even we must admit was the most well-written, polished solo content in the game. But it raised red flags for some players, and in hindsight, those warnings seem to have been prescient.
People throw around the term “Dumbing Down” to describe many different phenomena in games. But our definition is this: Removing choice in favor of one obvious path. The more you remove options, branches, and choices and put a straight path, the simpler your game gets. The simpler your game gets, the less incentive there is to play it.
It seems like many EQ2 players, along with many people that post here on EQ2 wire, haven’t figured it out yet.
SOE is doing this so they can continue to compete. This day in age people want instant gratification. The player base for MMO’s is no longer hardcore players. That’s not where you make your money. You make your money in the casual gamers. Casual gamers don’t want to have to wait and wait and wait to get the best rewards. They want it yesterday (meaning they want it right now for the slow people out there).
If you want to keep the majority of the gaming market, you have to design your game around them, or miss out on the ton of money that’s going to keep your company afloat, your game alive, and you keeping your job.
I don’t care what you say or what you think, every MMO on the market has to compete with World of Warcraft. If you can’t compete with it, then you might as well not even bother releasing a game. In order to compete you have to go after their market, which is the market that contains the majority of players, the casual market. Instant gratification is how you do it.
End of story. You have now all been educated. Thank you.
Good article.
EQ2 has long been on this path since the original team left and it’s been more accelerated with Smokejumper. There was a clear move away from the holy trinity (tank, healer, slower). The classes (and races) used to be more clear (and fun imo), with each one having some desirable specialties. It’s really only now that it’s hit Bard-like speed.
Once Smokejumper was brought on board, that really cemented EQ2’s direction in making it fantasy version of FreeRealms.
I don’t see how making all mounts ground speed the same is removing choice. You do infact have more choices. If you liked the old mount over the rugs and other things you can use it and it doesn’t slow ya down. Otherwise you’re forced to use the fastest ground mount you have. So now they can use the old school one or the over blown fancy ones.
My guess is most of the “epeeners” probably got their ego pricked when everyone got access to a fast mount… Even though they still can’t get the “best looking” ones the “epeeners” have.
WoW has pretty much destroyed what future MMOs had.
I now longer look forward to the upcoming MMOs expecting innovation. They will all have to compete with WoW and wind up being a steaming pile of crap.
What could have been in the MMO market died the day WoW was released.
Sorry, but I just don’t see the connection between these things like you do. Each of these examples has a reason behind why it was done the way it was done. Some made sense, some were mistakes. Lets go through them.
1. Starting gear. Bringing parity to all the items would have taken even more time than the time spent doing what they did. The overwhelming cry from players was that they shouldn’t even be spending the little time that they did on the starting zones, much less spend MORE to bring parity to the existing items. So they were pretty much in a lose, lose scenario with that one and went with the less time consuming option.
2. Destiny of Velious Itemization. The reason behind this debacle is that they didn’t give itemization the priority and attention that it deserves. They screwed up. They’ve spent plenty of time and effort after DoV launch dealing with this mistake. Hopefully they have learned their lesson and will pay more attention to itemization in the future. I actually looked up prices on custom printed post-it notes because I wanted to send some to the EQ2 team that had “ITEMIZATION MATTERS!” printed at the top but they were more expensive than I was willing to spend. 🙂
3. Mount Speed. This is one I’ve commented about in various places over the years and I’ll repeat my sentiment here. Travel time is a trick that MMO developers use to keep players from noticing that there isn’t all that much actual content. In the early days on an MMO, there are only a certain amount of things to do. If you can breeze right through them, you’d log off after the first month and never log back on again. So they have to insert artificial road blocks in place to slow you down. Things like travel time, MOB spawn rate, etc. Remember camping Bloodtalon in TS? Caveroot Horror in Stormhold? How about how long it used to take to go from Qeynos to Freeport? Access quests for Everfrost and Zek? If you wanted to run a zone, it could take 15 minutes for everybody to get to the entrance to the zone. That’s 15 minutes of sitting there with your thumb in your orifice of choice doing nothing. As expansions come out and more and more content is available, these artificial road blocks are needed less and less. What was once a needed trick to keep you from rushing through the content is now simply a hassle. In EQ2, over time, they have made transportation quicker and quicker. This latest change is simply the latest in a long line of changes to get you to where you want to be quicker. Although the saying goes, “life is a journey, not a destination”, in an MMO, I’m not logging in for the journey between where I am and where I want to go. I just want to get there. When I started playing my tank many years ago, for the first month, all I did was log in, go to Antonica, then harvest for rares. Whatever I got, I sold. Eventually, at level 14, I saved up enough plat to buy an Eldarian Charger with a 40% run speed which was the fastest non-faction mount you could buy at the time. I didn’t do this because I liked to harvest or for the challenge. I did it because I hated all the time wasted simply trying to get from point A to point B. So instead, I suffered through a month of logging in, doing something I didn’t want to do, then logging out. The choice shouldn’t be to suffer like that or take forever just to get to where the action is. So their eventual solution was to remove the hassle of getting from point A to point B.
You said this:
This is true. However, it misses the other part of this:
I bought 4 copies of the collectors edition for SF. The ONLY reason I did so was for the run speed from the mount. And the only reason I wanted the run speed from the mount is because it’s a pain in the rear and boring running from point A to point B. I’m glad they’ve upped the run speed on the mounts even if it trivializes the hours and hours I spent grinding rime faction just to buy the Icemare mount for the runspeed or the month I spent harvesing for a mount at level 14.
They are now talking about tweaking all the level 20-80 gear so that you have more valid choices than just the Golden Path. That will be adding choices, not taking them away. Even the Golden Path was actually adding choice. You still had the choice to do it the way you always had, but now you have the additional choice of running questlines designed to get you close to max level. I disagree about the warning signs of what all this means for the game.
Where I sit, watching things unfold, what I see (except the itemization debacle) are changes designed to make the game more fun and to get new players to actually stick around once they try out the game. During the downtime, I tried out several others and none of them grabbed me like EQ2 has but EQ2 has plenty of places that could be improved. Overall, the changes I see taking place are moving EQ2 in a direction I agree with.
As Dennis Miller used to say: “But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.” 🙂
my hoverpad still 68 speed
\aITEM 581334232 -1404334358:[Hotwired Gnomish Hoverpad]\/a
Agee,
See today’s update notes
Dethdlr,
Interesting response to say the least. 🙂
I don’t believe that copying WoW is the answer any more than Ferrari should copy Ford. People play EQ2 because it’s not WoW and because of it’s uniqueness.
Copying the market leader may be sound business advice but it ignores what made your audience come to you in the first place.
The field is littered with failed merges of American mass produced cars and European design.
Every retailer is not copying Wal-mart, but there will always be some exec or consultant telling them they should. Being unique is not the easy choice but I think it’s the right one.
Are they making all of this easier for us…or them?
I found myself agreeing with everything Feldon said… and with everything Deathdlr said. I had to go back and re-read carefully to figure out where I stand, since you were both so convincing! For my part, I’m with Feldon on wanting more appearance/differentiation on starter gear. I could care less about the stats, but I think the differences in visual style are important when you’re in those “formative moments” with your character. For Velious itemization we can all agree we were horrified. And as for mounts, I’ve been disappointed for a while and this just makes it worse. I am one of those (rare?) people who don’t like silly things in my games. I vastly prefer the “realistic fantasy” (oh, the oxymoron!) approach to games that I felt EQ2 had when it began. Enter the goofy outfits, house items, and eventually… goofy mounts. The result? These days, the appearance tab is the only thing keeping EQ2 from looking like a Lady Gaga concert. Except when you’re on aforementioned goofy mount. -_-
I find it a shame they didnt just double the run speed, that would have put them a lot more in line with stuff and leave the diversity between mounts. Now it’s all appearance only, and perhaps one or two item you wear for the stats (like the 300 hp / power one i prefer for raiding).
I fear it just makes it less interesting for new players, sure they get to move super fast pretty soon … but after that only thing to look forward too are mounts that can fly, not one to improve your speed… oh and remove spells like pathfinding now that they are useless anyway :p
Well I think they are trying, albeit in a way that is a bit hard to understand from time to time. As I see it the complexity and strengths of EQ2 are unimportant in a situation where you as a new player has to solo to 90, I canceled in Nov 2010 and came back for the 45 days, if anything the game is even more top heavy (AB server).
And few wants to play a game as a newbie where the selling points are “this great content is here but you can not do it because it requires a raid or several dungeon runs in groups” “This interesting weapon you can not get either by the way” “This content would be fun for you to do, if you got a group”.
Either the population problem must be solved or the problem of the “grand tour of marvelous content you can not do nowadays” must be solved. Or all get a free 90 toon.
After giving it a long hard thought over the past year, the only thing I could come up with as that the “normalization” is actually being done on purpose; But they are riding the line to make it as unnoticeable as they can. Which of course a lot of us live and breath the culture, so that would be ridiculous to think we wouldn’t 🙂
But that said, if you were to go though a normalization phase it would create a situation where you can then reset features that have been getting out of hand. Then you then can introduce something so epic and unique that will increase game play overall – but would be impossible without ditching conflicting features. I strike it up to a strategy to keep the game interesting for long term growth by deprecating certain features\stats\things to make room for something even more awesome!
I hope I’m right… because if I’m not I will feel pretty let down.
I would agree completely with Dethdlr here, the issues here all have seperate causes and reasons.
Firstly the itemisation problems are correct, but we should keep in mind the state EQ2 was in before they were made too. After SF and Brenlos chickening out of tackling the problems of stat inflation and capped stats the changes Velious brought were great, but they still need work, and they do lack imaginaton.
For the mounts all being 130 I think this is good and bad, I also think Smokejumper is the big driver behind it, he has said in the past that he hates travel in MMOs timewise at least so given a choice we can expect him to minimise it.
The real reason it has been done though is that without it there is no appeal for anything but a flying mount, I understand that, but do wish that there was still some token progression left in, and more speed for things to grow in future (maybe add an exhaustion bar for mounts to limit the speeds?).
Overall since Smokejumper took over I’d say EQ2 was on a upward trajectory, whereas it was downwards with SF. With the servers I see money being invested too by SOE, although we are lacking both a push to advertise and a clear direction for the future (although no MMO has ever had a clear direction it seems!).
@Sigtyr I think the lower levels right now are hurt most from poor itemisation, no doubt the 20-80 revamp in the works will suffer from a bit too much sameness (unless they have actually added in some randomness to that script) but it will still help.
The other problem with the lower levels though is mentoring, I think the dev team see it too, nothing low level can be special if a 90 can mentor down and do it in a trivial manner. It is also not fun for low levels to group up with someone who can tank,dps and heal themselves solo through the content.
At the least we need a option to mentor down without being OP, although for the health of the game they either need to remove OP mentoring or (most) of the levels altogether.
I found a speed hack out there just because the speed of getting to places was just SLOOOOOOOOOW. Have used the speed hack for years to have that 130% run speed. Now I don’t need it anymore. This was a good fix.
Feldon,
While I agree that EQ2 should not be copying WoW, that doesn’t mean that just because a feature exists in WoW, it should never be implemented in EQ2. Some ideas make sense regardless of who came up with them.
To use your auto industry analogy, in 1974 GM offered air bags as a regular production option for some Buick, Cadillac and Oldsmobile models. That doesn’t mean that Ferrari should never implement air bags because they would be copying GM. Same thing with in car CD players. Somebody came up with it first but that didn’t stop the rest of the auto manufacturers from adding that feature as well because the feature also made sense for their cars.
I’ve played WoW for a grand total of about 2 hours. That was about as long as I could stand playing it because I had already been spoiled by EQ2. I knew what a good MMO could be and WoW wasn’t it. I don’t see these changes as copying WoW. I see them as changes that make sense for EQ2. The fact that a feature exists in WoW is not, in and of itself, a reason why it shouldn’t be implemented in EQ2.
As much as some people hate EQ2X (I’m not a fan either because of it’s effect on the live servers), some good has come because of it. With a F2P game, you need to have the begining levels worth playing or else the MMO tourists aren’t going to stick around very long. Because of this, there has and continues to be some focus on cleaning up the begining levels and the leveling process. This is good for both EQII and EQ2X. But with limited development resources, staff reductions, etc. a lot of time couldn’t be devoted to cleaning up the starting levels. So Smokejumper made the hard decision to axe the starting islands and copy around the gear. I loved the starting islands and started 4 of my 6 level 90s there (one was created in GFay when EoF came out). However, about a year ago, I started my coercer at level 1 in Gorowyn. The leveling up process for the coercer was much better than my other five characters. From experience, it wouldn’t have been as entertaining, immersive, etc. had I started where I wanted to: on the island. The gear used to be more unique, yes, but again, they’re dealing with a finite amount of development time to do everything that needs to be done in the game. So for the short band-aid, axe the islands and copy gear. That’s not a good long term solution but it’s better than leaving things as they were. They can then put a long term fix into the development schedule and fix things the right way. The fact that they are revamping the 20-80 gear sounds like the beginings of that long term fix. So why did they need to do the quick band-aid instead of just waiting until they had time to do it right? Because every day they waited saw more potential customers try EQ2 and make a decision on whether or not it was a game they wanted to continue playing based on that starting content. Those customers are going to be REALLY hard to convince to try EQ2 again once they’ve made that decision. Based on my own experience, if I had to rate the starting experience in Gorowyn with the starting experience on the islands, Gorowyn wins hands down. It took me from level 1 to 20 in quite an entertaining way. I believe the other starting zones have similar experiences now as well, even if they do have copied gear. That solution was, IMO, better than the alternative of allowing things to continue like they were.
So where are all these changes taking us? Where are we headed? If I were Smokejumper and were brought in to run EQ2 and try and make it the best MMO out there here’s an overview of what I would do. First off, it’s pointless to do massive advertising until we fix the starting and leveling experience. That needs to be smooth or else everyone we convince with the ads to try the game, isn’t seeing the best of what it has to offer. Second, take out the things that aren’t fun but are just frustrating. Improve the travel system, improve mount speeds, get people to the fun content faster, remove currency items and mount items from peoples bags, etc. Third, enhance some of the things that make EQ2 unique like housing. Allowing people to own multiple houses isn’t something that many (if any) other MMOs can do. Instead of reducing the number of classes down from 24, come up with a plan for what each one is supposed to do (this is the class manifesto that we’ve heard about but haven’t seen). Soon, they’re even adding a class. Next, make the heroic zones more fun by adding in more scripts and things other than simple tank and spank encounters. Upgrade the servers to get rid of server lag. Once we get all our ducks in a row and we feel like we have a polished product, then and only then will it be time to attempt an advertizing push.
Will this last thing ever happen? Who knows? I’ve got my fingers crossed that this is the path down which Smokejumper is trying to take EQ2. Most of the decisions I see him make can support this theory. But that doesn’t prove anything. He could be trying to do what I believe he’s trying to do. He could be trying to turn EQ2 into a WoW clone. Only time will tell. I’m along for the ride. 🙂
I haven’t played eq2 for 6 months, but I’m going to just put a general response in here about my feelings on this.
I agree with both feldon and dthdlr. Deth you make a good point about making eq2 the best MMO out there starts with the starting and leveling experience, yet in your first response you stated:
“Starting gear. Bringing parity to all the items would have taken even more time than the time spent doing what they did. The overwhelming cry from players was that they shouldn’t even be spending the little time that they did on the starting zones, much less spend MORE to bring parity to the existing items. So they were pretty much in a lose, lose scenario with that one and went with the less time consuming option.”
How can you make a good starting experience if everything is obviously copy and paste from Halas? To me a good starting experience is created with the uniqueness of each area….if I am in tropical TD, why would I be wearing furs?
I agree that mounts should be fast, travel time bites…however, unless you change the prices of the mounts across the board to be the same, then why even have more than one mount?
I guess in the end, I see feldons point more that varity is the spice of life. You are taking away choice as he stated because there is one thing true to most Gamers…they usually will take the path of least resistance. All mounts now 130%? Let me go buy the 15s one. All armor is copy and paste? Let me go get the cheepest easiest to get kind.
These types of changes were one of the many reasons I stopped playing. I loved EQ2 in the beginning, now…it kinda feels like everything else on the market. And I’m not just saying wow.
Starseeker wrote:
I agree completely. But there’s the matter of time. It comes down to whether it is better to have gear that looks good but doesn’t work good, or gear that works good but doesn’t look good. So they had a few choices:
1. Leave the gear looking good but not functioning as well as it should
2. Redo the stats on the good looking gear in each of the other starting zones and delay work on other features
3. Copy the gear around and go back and fix it when time allows
They decided that option 3 was the way to go. It remains to be seen if the “go back and fix it when time allows” part will actually occur or if it’s just wishful thinking.
Starseeker wrote:
This one, I don’t quite agree with as much. Changing the run speed on the mounts isn’t taking away choice. It’s adding choice. Before, if I wanted the fastest ground mount in the game, I had a limited number of mounts to choose from and then did whatever I had to do to get that mount. Now, if I want the fastest ground mount in the game, I can do any number of things since all of them are now the same speed. I’m now choosing based on appearance/stats vs. speed. I wanted a fast mount a few expansions ago so I did the rime faction grind to get an Icemare (I lost count of how many sokokars I killed). If people want the Icemare appearance, they can still go grind rime faction and get that appearance. But now they don’t HAVE to do it just to get that run speed. That’s adding choice, not taking it away. Yes, some people will opt for the 15s mount and get the 130% run speed. Others will pay a premium for the look they want. That’s their choice. If they removed everything but the 15s mounts, THAT would be removing choice. The pricing structure may not make as much sense anymore because now, you’re paying for the looks/stats instead of the speed, but you still have the option of buying them if you choose to do so.
Starseeker wrote:
There really isn’t a good way to debate this one since it really comes down to personal opinion. Both of our opinions are just as valid as anyone elses. When the servers were offline for several weeks, I tried out several other MMOs. LotRO, Rift, and a few others. For ME, they just didn’t stack up to EQ2. But that’s just me. It’s possible that for me, as an abstract, the way an MMO COULD BE ranges from 1 to 200 with 50 being the perfect MMO for me (note, these numbers are just points on a line with higher or lower numbers not meaning better or worse). EQ2 is at 70 and the changes are bringing it closer to 50. Other MMOs are at 30 and are working their way towards 50. Others are at 120 and working their way towards 150. Still others are at 120 and working their way towards 90. For you, your perfect MMO is at 90 and EQ2 is working its way away from what you want.
There are a lot of people who complain about the “dumbing down” of the game and how it’s ruining EQ2. Depends on what you like. Some people like having to periodically go to a bank (or do a trick with a mailbox) to convert your copper into silver, gold, and platinum because you are overburdened from the weight of the copper pieces you’ve picked up from killing things. Some people like having to do sub-combines while crafting and to have charts to see what things you have to make before you can make what you really want to make. Some people like waiting on a boat to get from one place to another. Some people like camping a mob for hours/days in order to progress a quest. Some people like looking like you’re wearing a clown outfit because none of your armor matches and there aren’t appearance slots because at least then, people can “see” what you’re actually wearing without having to inspect you. Some people like these things and long for the days in the begining when this was the way of the world. I don’t. I’m glad all these things are behind us. I find the game much more enjoyable without them. But that’s me. It doesn’t make the opinions of people who miss these things any less valid than my own. I’m just in the lucky position of liking the changes going into the game rather than disagreeing with them. 🙂
Hey all!
Guess what i’ve been playing the last couple weeks.
World of Warcraft LOL – seriously, i am
I figure if you can’t beat em, join em. /jk
Honestly: my eldest boys want to play it (peer pressure to fit in maybe as i’ve no idea where their desire to play it came from), any-who i decided to join them, and atm i’m enjoying it much more than i thought i would, all i’m going to say.
Also played a ton of Minecraft aways back and been recently warming up my Rift account again.
Its really simple they are under staffed and so dont have the time to make us cool loot anymore instead just put a cookie cutter mold of gear for everyone out there, the game is becoming very bland. I dont even log in to run the instances anymore whats the point , run Drunder 50 times to hope and get enough crap to break down to have a crafter make something that sucks compared to the raid gear Im looting? Total waste of time , plus you gotta have delta force 6 go on them drunder zones to get the crappy gear WTH whos runnin this game now days and do they even play?
Hell raiding is the only reason I log in cuz I run a fairly successful raid guild but hell hard mode mobs are bland to who wants to kill the same exact mobs just have a little bit harder stats / scripts and the HM loot other than the 3 slot adorn stuff is really bland and tbh not a huge upgrade for the effort. Drunder feels total fail no one wants to go waste the time somebody better turn this ship around otherwise were gonna see even more drops in player base.
I got a new perspective on the game last night which directly applies to this post. My wife came back to the game last night after about a year off and was impressed with the “simplification-with-purpose” changes that have happened since then. Here was a veteran of the game who used to go on corpse runs with me. It made me re-think some of my more negative thought about EQ2 over the past year. Her thoughts were more in line with Deth’s comments. Strange how that happens.
Excellent comments Dethdlr.
My one addition is a warning. As a very long time SOE MMO customer, I sincerely hope that SOE does not oversimplify EQ2. I agree that mounts at the same speed revitalizes older mount options. (BTW, you can quest for simple mounts in Halas and Greater Feydark that will give you 130% so you don’t even have to buy them.) However, in SWG we saw a massive simplification in both itemization and class structure which had a dramatic negative effect on the game. As long as EQ2 does not oversimplify (all “words” from leadership say they will not do this) then we should be OK.
There is something to be said about tailoring the game to the Instant Gratification Generation but EQ2’s base of players is not that and I hope they can balance quality of content with their need to keep us in the game to make money.
I don’t have time before work to read each comment in it’s entirety. I just want to say that I don’t want to see EQ2 become a one path to the end game. I’ve played EQ2 since beta because of the variety in this game. I’ve tried other MMOs from time to time, but they tend to be too linear-follow this path to level up then you get to PvP the rest of your days. I get quickly bored with a linear game. Two weeks of Rift beta was enough to convince me not to waste my money following one path to leveling and doing some Rift events for diversion. I’ll admit my alts are taking the easy path to 90 and sometimes I’m actually sad to be bypassing the content Ellebeth spent several years doing.
I need goals in a game whether it’s getting to a certain level to be able to do or have something that level can have, obtaining a certain item by completing a quest or running a dungeon repeatedly till it drops, or getting a faster mount because 32% run speed increase just sucks. I hate the amount of time it used to take to get around, and yes I’m sure it was a time sink to keep us playing, but having earned a mount by harvesting and selling stuff till I have the plat or doing a quest to earn it brought me the satisfaction of owning it. It was something meaningful. Not all the changes were bad in my opinion. Not having to spend days camping Bloodtalon is nice for the alts.
I just don’t want to see EQ2 become a linear, I can accomplish it all in a month game. It would destroy what is unique about this game and what has kept me here almost 7 years.
Sadly, my sons play WoW but I am not about to leave EQ2 for it ever.
My take on this is:
EverQuest One is and was all about the raid game, thus the journey to max level is not as important as getting there. I haven’t played for many years now, but it was always the raid game that was the focus there.
WoW is all about the raid game/heroic dungeon game. Again, get to max level with the best gear you can (and that’s not gotten in the solo game) as fast as you can. Then raid, all the time.
EverQuestII was unique in that you could enjoy the journey to max level. It was worthwhile to spend time getting a mount as a reward in itself. In the past, six man dungeon runs at all levels were the focus (Stormhold, Runneye, Cazic Thule, all the haunted dungeons). Recent changes have indicated that perhaps EQ2 is now all about the end game, with linear gear progression being the focus, just like WoW.
That’s a shame. I suppose it all comes down to expectations, however. When you compare competing products, game play uniqueness seems to be very far down the list of development priorities. The Rift team had a chance to create something brand new, and instead, trotted out the exact same cookie cutter game. I get it — it cost a million plus dollars to make, and it better make a profit quickly. All those innovative ideas don’t attract the casual gamer. And that’s where the dollars are.
Today’s development mantra seems to be, make most of the game easy, grab those casual players, get them leveled up quickly, and then make progressively harder dungeons at the top level — requiring insanely powerful cookie cutter gear acquired in a linear progression — to keep them playing. In the meantime, get those folks opening their wallets and spending real dollars on your virtual items.
Thus, the quest to work for a better mount does not fit into the producer’s vision. It doesn’t help you progress directly to the end game, and takes up time you could be following that one linear path for the gear you need for the end game dungeons. 130% run speed gets you there quicker, with less distractions.
“EverQuestII was unique in that you could enjoy the journey to max level. It was worthwhile to spend time getting a mount as a reward in itself. In the past, six man dungeon runs at all levels were the focus (Stormhold, Runneye, Cazic Thule, all the haunted dungeons).”
Oh man you said it all right there, I’d do anything to play that EQ2 again. The problem today is that for us who were there when EQ2 meant something are groaned at by these new pups who think we are bitter people, completely untrue, you would be hard pressed to find anyone from the EQ2 glory days tell anyone that EQ2 is a better game now. Well unless they are a really in love with wow style, then yeah i guess it would be a better game now.
I’m playing Wow atm with my boys and i hate to say this but I’m not understanding the difference between it and EQ2 in it’s current state anymore, for all intents they are the same style games now. I really hate when i read people say “I play EQ2 because it’s unique” WTF???? are you talking about? No it’s not, its a wow chaser and that is hardly unique, if you said EQ2 was unique back in 2004 to around 2006, into 2007 then yeah I’d completely agree as that would be true.
Lately though; there is no difference here than anywhere else, seems all mmo companies will eventually p’o that certain base that was there at a certain time. SWG i was there at launch, same with EQ2, there was a glorious year in there when i had EQ2 and SWG screaming for my attention, i literally had to choose every night which one to play or play both and felt like if i was playing this one too much the other was suffering, looking back all i can think is what an amazing time that was, i was on a cloud and didn’t even realize it at the time, it was so difficult to choose between them, very difficult right up until the NGE hit then the choice was clear, EQ2.
As with all MMORPGs, the game is subject to change, the mmo landscape is longer what it once was, simple fact, but no matter the game all one can do is be thankful they were there when it was the game you enjoyed.
I found it interesting that SJ admitted on the Fanfest keynote that he preferred playing FPS.
I say get a producer that likes MMOGs. Perhaps one day one of those ladies on the staff will become producer (Tiffany, the “Brasse” lady can’t remember her name, Domino, etc).
@ITP: Pretty sure that was Smedly, not SJ that said he preferred playing FPS. But I could be mistaken.