Why did some EQ players dislike WoW?

[magnetaress]

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

Wow was basically inarguably a better game. Like 90% of people switched. The only holdouts were that it was slightly cartoony and hand-holdy

*parts of wow are better especially when the difficulty is actually tuned up

[SantagarBrax]

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

Wow was basically inarguably a better game. Like 90% of people switched. The only holdouts were that it was slightly cartoony and hand-holdy

Not true at all when wow dropped. EQ shot themselves in the foot and the overall end effect may have resulted in 90% leaving to wow...but it had nothing to do with wow being a "better game" and that period of time took 2 years to occur.

[Cecily]

I saw all the systems blatantly stolen from EQ and the game was frankly boring. Run tl;dr quests for a week to max level? That's absolute hell to me. I actually enjoy exp grinding, so Lineage II was a way better fit for me. Multiplayer Diablo PK / castle siege game with a grind from hell and 4% exp loss on death, so getting PKed actually hurt.

[Danth]

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

I saw all the systems blatantly stolen from EQ and the game was frankly boring. Run tl;dr quests for a week to max level? That's absolute hell to me. I actually enjoy exp grinding, so Lineage II was a way better fit for me. Multiplayer Diablo PK / castle siege game with a grind from hell and 4% exp loss on death, so getting PKed actually hurt.

You aren't talking launch because nobody was hitting 60 in a week after Warcraft originally launched. Most folks took about two or three months. Not even the speedrunners were doing it in a week, not until the nerf parade started. It's easy to forget just how different that game was at first from what it decided to turn itself in to.

That brings my to my own gripe with that game. Problem with Warcraft was it started out pretty good then Blizzard began nerfing stuff almost immediately. Eventually it became the MMO that caters to bad players and little kids. I recall not playing for a few months pre-expansion, then going back to Scholomance and wondering where all the mobs went. They took 'em out--too hard. The art style was already stylized to start with, but seemed to get ever-more cartoony over time. By the time the second expansion dropped it was over-nerfed and outright boring trying to play it on top of being increasingly annoying to look at. I let my subscription lapse in early 2009 and haven't seen reason to go back since.

Insofar as I can tell, "WoW Classic" only got the watered-down 1.12 version of the game even in its pre-expansion version. Call it Warcraft-lite. No thanks, I passed.

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Lot of players were already thoroughly sick of Sony by the time Warcraft launched. I quit EQ for keeps in spring 2004, a good six months or more before Warcraft launched.

Danth

[Cecily]

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

You aren't talking launch because nobody was hitting 60 in a week after Warcraft originally launched. Most folks took about two or three months. Not even the speedrunners were doing it in a week, not until the nerf parade started. It's easy to forget just how different that game was at first from what it decided to turn itself in to.

That brings my to my own gripe with that game. Problem with Warcraft was it started out pretty good then Blizzard began nerfing stuff almost immediately. Eventually it became the MMO that caters to bad players and little kids. I recall not playing for a few months pre-expansion, then going back to Scholomance and wondering where all the mobs went. They took 'em out--too hard. The art style was already stylized to start with, but seemed to get ever-more cartoony over time. By the time the second expansion dropped it was over-nerfed and outright boring trying to play it on top of being increasingly annoying to look at. I let my subscription lapse in early 2009 and haven't seen reason to go back since.

Insofar as I can tell, "WoW Classic" only got the watered-down 1.12 version of the game even in its pre-expansion version. Call it Warcraft-lite. No thanks, I passed.

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Lot of players were already thoroughly sick of Sony by the time Warcraft launched. I quit EQ for keeps in spring 2004, a good six months or more before Warcraft launched.

Danth

I genuinely don't care what the actual time frame is. You're running fetch quests to max level the whole time. That's pure hell.

[Danth]

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

I genuinely don't care what the actual time frame is. You're running fetch quests to max level the whole time. That's pure hell.

The time frame matters because the situation you're describing wasn't set in stone yet. Folks ran out of quests and had to make their experience the old fashioned way grinding or chaining dungeons.

Danth

[SantagarBrax]

Easy mode, like I said, and we all knew it.

[Ooloo]

Honestly the main reason I didn't like WoW is because I *do* like the actual warcraft RTS franchise of games. WoW felt like they were just slapping that IP onto an incredibly lucrative model (everquest) for easy subs. Which is fine, that's their prerogative, but everquest's entire lore was created specifically to BE an mmo, so it feels much more authentic and has a genuine character.

Plus like most people who play here, I enjoy how brutally unforgiving EQ can be, because it makes your achievements feel significant.

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

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

Honestly the main reason I didn't like WoW is because I *do* like the actual warcraft RTS franchise of games. WoW felt like they were just slapping that IP onto an incredibly lucrative model (everquest) for easy subs. Which is fine, that's their prerogative, but everquest's entire lore was created specifically to BE an mmo, so it feels much more authentic and has a genuine character.

Plus like most people who play here, I enjoy how brutally unforgiving EQ can be, because it makes your achievements feel significant.

This gets us back, then, to our chief and central question.Who is the enemy?

WoW was a known franchise with big bucks that could welcome one and all. You can't fight the low-minded. It is folly. EQ, meanwhile, was old already, old graphics, still even clunky. And, in their wisdom, EQ2 was released as the counter. Take that!



Summon the Rohirrim! And remember, when confronting an enemy superior in numbers, always divide your forces into two fun-sized bites than can be attacked piecemeal!

So is EQ2 the enemy? I would argue EQ2 was an act of mercy. EQ2 is the adrenaline injection at the end of Million Dollar Baby. *Some of us* had fun with that momentary rush. So EQ2 is not the enemy. If anything, the dagger had already been plunged into the spirit of the game by other, even more malignant forces.


What demon seed laid waste to Norrath? For it could not be defeated excepted from within. Wow's persistent toddler pen drew the usual suspects, including Failure Planedefiler, who smelt himself a chump payday deep in the asscracks of WoW management. EQ2, for it's part, was for the elite. They fucked not this up.


I see it! I see it! I see it! I see the evil! I will te....


[message cuts out]

[Jibartik]

Has anyone mentioned how if you go off the rails in wow, there's nothing but dead NPCs and no loot?

But if you go back on the rails suddenly its a loot machine candy factory?

That I think is the big turn off for me.