EQNext?

[stormlord]

Originally Posted by Taryth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Ok . . .so content at the VERY END of the game is difficult . . .wait a sec, you mean just like WoW and EQ2? Did you think the endgame dungeons/raiding were super easy for those games, too? And guess what people call those two games?

The entire game up to lvl 50 is grinding quests that tell you EXACTLY where to go. They highlight your map. You are handed gear almost every other quest. The game isn't anything before 50, and then at 50 it manages to simply be more guided grinding along a single path of progression.
That is the definition of an easy, lame ass, shallow game.

I played from b1-b7, that was all the "preview" (read: playing everything except endgame) I needed to form my opinion.


But go ahead and assume I haven't played it yet. Because it's just so good that nobody can dislike it, right? I'm not paying $50 to find out that I don't like the last level of the game (ok, I'm sorry, the last FOUR levels . . .I didn't include the other three because they'd be exactly the same as the first 46.) I don't even like raiding, which is why I never focus on endgame as a measurement of a game's quality.

It's hard to judge a game, like whether it has meat on its bones or not. Some people like one thing while they hate another and their friend is the complete opposite.

I'll have to point to Dungeons and Dragons because it's one of the modern MMORPGs I've played, as an example.

Things I like about it:
1) The quest dungeons can be seen differently depending on class, at least at first, and are fun to go through attempting to get better at it
2) The places look good (gfx) and at times even feel good - just to be there and watch things
3) The voice-overs for quest characters are interesting and I enjoyed watching hte scripted things unfold in front of me while I hear explanations in the background for what's happening
4) I hear there're some good stories out htere (mission packs) but some of them have to be purchased via the favor points. As for my experiences, I found myself sometimes growing attached to characters that were either in quests or just meandering aimlessly and saying the same hting but somehow it inspired in me something that's hard to put into words. It's nice to see NPCs that're not for quests that stand around or sit and at least have a few words to say. Having none to see would have been worse in my view. I'd just wander around looking at them and hailing them (clicking em) to see what they say. I'd just sit there in a place wondering what the designers was thinking, and it feel almost special. That's gotta be a good thing.
5) It adds replayability that you can combine classes for 20 different levels, so you could have a whole lot of flexibility - fun to play with it
6) Theere's a lot for a player to do that's not paying
7) If you level all the way up to 20 you can get a bonus to new characters and it's cumulative. Each class has its own version. This feature adds a degree of replayability.
8) Character creation is kind of fun if you know what you're doing. I always did customized characters. The appearance section can make some different looking characters even with the same race, but in some cases it's hard to get the look you want. But it's not hard to produce a character that looks unique. Players will piece together their character as they learn. Sometimes they'll make a new one to get benefits from the different races. But you can change most things you do to your character even at level 20 so mistakes are generally affordable.

Things I didn't like:
1) I hated being rushed through quests because they're not fun unless i can be a part of it and go at my own pace but unfortunately when you join groups in DnD you're almost always rushed through it - very big major disappointment. It's sad that I have to play solo to enjoy the quests. It's antithetical.
2) No player-made content like player-cities or player-homes. For me, this is a major negative.
3) The items are kind of boring and the level limits are restrictive. If the items were at least more interesting the level limits wouldn't be as much of a bother. I much prefer Diablo's item system or EQ's because there's more stat variety, and in EQ's case many items don't have a lvl limit either. To sum it up it felt to me like most of the items were homogenous, or closely tied. Just not fun.
4) Quest areas don't change much. While named will sometimes appear or not it doesn't really change how the area plays or feels. There's just not much variety from one play through to another until you do a completely different area. I wish there was more randomness like in Diablo. Too much randomness can be a bad thing, but I think having none can also be bad.
5) The instancing is overused. This is my opinion, but the cities are the only places that feel traveled. Every other place I've seen only exists within the group, and temporarily at that. There's no persistance or feeling of continuity. While it's nice to not have to fight over things with other players, it kind of ruins the idea that I'm in a world with other people. I wish there was a better in-between. You would think with all of the smart people out there that they could figure out a way to do this without making it feel compromised.
6) The chat window is hard to use. I can't begin to explain it, but I always ended up saying things in the wrong channel or missing something because I was using it wrong. It was cumbersome and not fun.
7) Not much fluff. No fishing, no pottery, no houses, no boating, no chess boards to play chess, etc. The game is pretty much what you have in front of you. It's all game and no fluff. It feels kind of shallow. I like playing games, it's a big reason I play, but sometimes I just want to waste time.

Does DnD have meat on its bones? Depends who you ask. IMHO, it has some, but a modern version of EQ in its best days would beat it, and if you added extra fluff it'd be no contest. This is my opinion. I'm not saying everyone feels this way. I have my own set of preferences. DnD is an ok game, but no extras.