So a buddy of mine asked me the pros and cons of EQ, EQ2 and WoW. I decided to blog 'bout it, and add a few more games. I'm also adding a "niche" for each MMO, which is universally neither pro nor con, but could be either for specific people based on their specific interests.
EverQuest
Pro: Tons and tons of content. Some of the most interesting and complex raid encounters in the MMO industry. A fairly mature community and extensive legacy.
Con: Old. Though it does have a huge amount of content added over the years, and the devs have done a good job of keeping it up to date, much of the content is still outdated, and a lot of the older content is desolate.
Niche: Hardcore pve.
EverQuest 2:
Pro: Beautiful graphics, an amazing soundtrack. The coolest crafting system I have ever seen in an MMO. Tons and tons of quests, and while it is guilty of having bland "kill 10 of these and collect 5 of those" quests at times, it also has plenty of really cool ones.
Con: I'm actually having trouble thinking of one. Honestly, the only reason I'm not playing EQ2 right now instead of *shame* WoW is that most of my friends play WoW while everyone I know who plays EQ2 quit. The raids are much smaller than in EQ1, which could be a con to some depending on preference, though I haven't actually done the raids myself so I can't comment on the quality.
Niche: Casual pve, crafting. It's one of the few games where crafting is more interesting than "have components, press button, receive item."
World of Warcraft:
Pro: Polished content, frequent content updates, phenomenal attention to detail for both gameplay and lore.
Con: A fairly immature community. Before I played WoW, I heard my friends complain about the community and thought "Oh they're just exaggerating, it can't be that bad." Then I played and realized it wasn't. It was worse. There isn't as much room for skill in playing classes as in other MMOs. Skill does make a difference, certainly, but not nearly as much relative to gear as in other MMOs. (For example, I can regularly outdps players in far better gear than me on my EQ1 Magician just by staying on top of things and using a better spell weave, but that doesn't really happen in WoW.)
Niche: Very casual pve with a bit of pvp thrown in. Despite the unique gimmicks that most fights have, there are very few encounters which will truly challenge skilled MMO players, so it is a nice game for casual players who just want to beat up a few zombies with friends but won't appeal to hardcore powergamers as much.
EVE Online:
Pro: The most amazing economy in any MMO in the history of ever. Dynamic and player controlled world. Shifting territory wars, huge battles, complex strategies and all sorts of shiny things. While classes in most MMOs boil down to "tank, healer, dps, crowd control" EVE boasts a far greater variety of possible roles to play in fleets.
Con: It's a pvp game, and pvp at attracts jerkfaces. While there are plenty of cool people in the world of New Eden, there are also plenty of griefers intent on ruining your day.
Niche: Hardcore pvp. Strategic combat. Trigonometry for fun. Spreadsheets in space. Or just playing the market. You can make a healthy amount of ISK (the game's currency) without even undocking if you know how to study and manipulate the market.
Rift:
Pro: A very interesting class system. Neat public group and raid encounters (the Rifts for which the game is titled). (It automatically forms a public group with anyone near the rift, so you can just jump in and have fun without having to organize a huge raid.)
Con: Ultimately just a WoW/War hybrid. It has little original other than the class system. The rifts are cool, but not as dynamic as I was hoping.
Niche: People who sorta like WoW but got tired of it.
Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising
Pro: A really cool squad system that lets you command a customizable team of NPCs. Also an evolving player owned estate that changes as you complete quests to upgrade it.
Con: Not much else. Sadly the population is very low, and nothing about the game other than the squad system is very noteworthy. Yes it has a big world and lots of quests and customizable character talents, but that's kind of expected in MMOs nowadays. The squad system is the only thing that really hooked me.
Niche: People who like to have lots of characters on screen. The squads open up a lot of possibilities for people (like me) who like that sort of thing.
City of Heroes:
Pro: The coolest character creator ever.
Con: Little else of note.
Niche: People who like superheroes? Admittedly I haven't played this one for some time, and I hear they've added some fancy new stuff since then so my spartan review might be a little unfair.
Dungeons and Dragons Online
Pro: Tons and tons of dungeons. Also a cool system of dungeon bonuses. Each dungeon has mini achievements (smash X crates, kill Y monsters, don't die more than Z times) that boost the xp gain of the dungeon run.
Con: Not solo friendly at all.
Niche: People who enjoy dungeon grouping. Hopefully you have a group ready.
Forsaken World
Pro: Free to play. Beautiful graphics.
Con: Similar to Gods and Heroes. It's not that it's bad per se, just that it doesn't have a unique hook to it. It has quests, and talents, but again you find those just about everywhere nowadays.
Niche: Hard to say. People who like free games I suppose? =p I'd certainly suggest trying it at least once, especially since it's free and easily available on Steam.
Showing posts with label eq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eq. Show all posts
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Oops
Oh wow. Has it really been 3 weeks since I posted anything here? I'm bad at this game. I've had a few things come close, but I guess nothing has inspired me to a furious blog rant in recent weeks. Maybe I'll actually write something *gasp* positive for once.
In other news, one of my old EQ buddies resubscribed while drunk, and though I was sober at the time, I decided to jump in as well. Somehow, the rest of our old EQ circle decided to join us as well. It's been pretty neat. I haven't regularly played since February I think, and they'd been gone even longer. (Warband grabbed my interest away, then some Oblivion, plenty of Minecraft and I'm ashamed to admit I might have played some WoW in there too.) It took us a moment to remember what abilities we used and what they did, but once we remembered the right tricks we got back into things fairly well, clearing our favorite missions and trolling the trolls in general chat. It's almost like we never left. Well, except that all the people who used to get upgrades from our rot loot are now way better geared than us, but eh, we'll catch up.
tl;dr 2 paragraphs is too long? Stop being a slacker.
In other news, one of my old EQ buddies resubscribed while drunk, and though I was sober at the time, I decided to jump in as well. Somehow, the rest of our old EQ circle decided to join us as well. It's been pretty neat. I haven't regularly played since February I think, and they'd been gone even longer. (Warband grabbed my interest away, then some Oblivion, plenty of Minecraft and I'm ashamed to admit I might have played some WoW in there too.) It took us a moment to remember what abilities we used and what they did, but once we remembered the right tricks we got back into things fairly well, clearing our favorite missions and trolling the trolls in general chat. It's almost like we never left. Well, except that all the people who used to get upgrades from our rot loot are now way better geared than us, but eh, we'll catch up.
tl;dr 2 paragraphs is too long? Stop being a slacker.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
for_profit = true;
I am consistently amazed by how grown adults utterly fail to understand the workings of the business world. Why do people demonize for profit corporations for doing, well, exactly what they were made to do?
A common trend on the forums of video games (though I'm sure it's prevalent in other industries too) is "omg, [big corporation here] just wants money!" This is often a last resort when the arguing party has run out of viable arguments, an attempt to gain some imagined moral high ground by casting the big bad evil corporation in a negative light for only caring about dollar signs but . . . that's why corporations exist. Do you really expect to get products for free? I suppose some unhappiness when a price is raised is understandable, but it's unavoidable. As the cost of living rises, wages must go up and as wages go up, development costs go up which in turn leads to increased prices. It's just how math works.
Now, I'm not saying that all big corporations are pristine paragons of virtue. Sure, stuff like the Enron debacle happens, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking solely about big companies that offer a product or service for which they charge a reasonable fee, not crooks with their hands our wallets when we're not looking.
What's even more ridiculous is when these complaints are roused by a new product. The inspiration for this post, though by no means unique or the only case of this happening, came from a Facebook comment thread following an announcement by SOE that they would be selling wall posters with art from some of their games. Amid the "Oh neat, I'll probably buy one" comments, there were a handful of "Great, Sony just trying to get more money!" as if this was some horrible thing. I can understand some of the frustration at a product's cost going up, or its features being cut to reduce costs, but what cause do we have to complain about a company offering an entirely separate product? If you don't like it, you certainly don't need to buy it.
Of course, this is mostly rhetorical, as we already know the answers: people have obnoxious senses of entitlement and thing they should get everything they want for free and hating big corporations is "trendy." Also ranting on a blog is therapeutic.
A common trend on the forums of video games (though I'm sure it's prevalent in other industries too) is "omg, [big corporation here] just wants money!" This is often a last resort when the arguing party has run out of viable arguments, an attempt to gain some imagined moral high ground by casting the big bad evil corporation in a negative light for only caring about dollar signs but . . . that's why corporations exist. Do you really expect to get products for free? I suppose some unhappiness when a price is raised is understandable, but it's unavoidable. As the cost of living rises, wages must go up and as wages go up, development costs go up which in turn leads to increased prices. It's just how math works.
Now, I'm not saying that all big corporations are pristine paragons of virtue. Sure, stuff like the Enron debacle happens, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking solely about big companies that offer a product or service for which they charge a reasonable fee, not crooks with their hands our wallets when we're not looking.
What's even more ridiculous is when these complaints are roused by a new product. The inspiration for this post, though by no means unique or the only case of this happening, came from a Facebook comment thread following an announcement by SOE that they would be selling wall posters with art from some of their games. Amid the "Oh neat, I'll probably buy one" comments, there were a handful of "Great, Sony just trying to get more money!" as if this was some horrible thing. I can understand some of the frustration at a product's cost going up, or its features being cut to reduce costs, but what cause do we have to complain about a company offering an entirely separate product? If you don't like it, you certainly don't need to buy it.
Of course, this is mostly rhetorical, as we already know the answers: people have obnoxious senses of entitlement and thing they should get everything they want for free and hating big corporations is "trendy." Also ranting on a blog is therapeutic.
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