HEHE alot of people did not play WoW at relerase it was one of the worse releases i have seen. It was almost unplayable... infact Blizz numbers did not begin to sore until  they got double the amount of servers online.   Bugs were bad 1/2 of the higher end content was not in.  Loot lag  was god awful.  However, it was easy to play and the core combat system worked well. Cabe seems to understand this to some degree.

EQ2 does lack something ill agree with that its not a bad game but it not one of those  , this game stands on top in any catagory. (To me) This does not mean its not worth playing , just that a lot less will play it and hold it in high regards.

EQ1 was one of these games, DAOC was one, UO was one, WoW is one, and there may be a few more. But these are games that defined MMOs in a  new way.

Still i think  WoWs sucess is large due to 3 main factors:

1) Popularity of Blizz / word of moth.

2) Core combat and class systems Work WElll  very well.

3) Vision of a game that is easy for noobs to start in , (solo with any class of the bat etc)    -  Someone said well you can't do that late in the game/ end game... it doesn't matter by then the player is hooked.

Originally posted by Moirae

Originally posted by arctarus

Please do not call others players who like playing the game that they like being rip off. 

WoW gives content without asking you to pay, but in Eq2 you have to buy every x-pac.

Ok, this is the first one that I felt replying to. You don't know anything do you? Have you even played EQ2 for any length of time? or are you just talking out of your butt?

We get constant updates. New content with every single release of the newest update. And WE JUST GOT A FREE EXPANSION PACK CALLED NERIAK. Next time, check before you say something stupid.

WoW graphics is a continue of their rts game, thats why the graphics is like that. But if you really play WoW you will really have to admire their detail in games. Every node, every block and miss is being show. But what i like in EQ2 is when you pass by a npc, it will turn his head and look at you, which is pretty amazing to me!

WoW made me want to rip my hair out. I was level 26 almost as soon as I started the game and I didn't even finish the free month they give. I will never play it again.

 edit: i dont like the harvest part of Eq2 where you are bending around and... i dont know what my chrac is doing...

Its better than having it suddenly appear. You're a crafter, this is what you'd have to do to craft.  The crafting in this game is excellent. You do more than hit one button and wait for it to finish. You're actually involved.

Regarding the new content, nope didnt stay too long for it to happen, And about crafting, its the gathering animations that i dont understand, why am i bending stretching both my hands? you call that gathering herb??? But i like the part where you really do the crafting where you will actually fail sometimes...

Originally posted by arctarus

 

Originally posted by Moirae

Originally posted by arctarus

Please do not call others players who like playing the game that they like being rip off. 

WoW gives content without asking you to pay, but in Eq2 you have to buy every x-pac.

Ok, this is the first one that I felt replying to. You don't know anything do you? Have you even played EQ2 for any length of time? or are you just talking out of your butt?

We get constant updates. New content with every single release of the newest update. And WE JUST GOT A FREE EXPANSION PACK CALLED NERIAK. Next time, check before you say something stupid.

WoW graphics is a continue of their rts game, thats why the graphics is like that. But if you really play WoW you will really have to admire their detail in games. Every node, every block and miss is being show. But what i like in EQ2 is when you pass by a npc, it will turn his head and look at you, which is pretty amazing to me!

WoW made me want to rip my hair out. I was level 26 almost as soon as I started the game and I didn't even finish the free month they give. I will never play it again.

 

 edit: i dont like the harvest part of Eq2 where you are bending around and... i dont know what my chrac is doing...

Its better than having it suddenly appear. You're a crafter, this is what you'd have to do to craft.  The crafting in this game is excellent. You do more than hit one button and wait for it to finish. You're actually involved.

Ive play my toon till lvl 24, hit crossroad and cant laugh about the same name as WoW, even both have WC. ha!

 

Regarding the new content, nope didnt stay too long for it to happen, And about crafting, its the gathering animations that i dont understand, why am i bending stretching both my hands? you call that gathering herb??? But i like the part where you really do the crafting where you will actually fail sometimes...

EQ 2is a bust down of a game and I'm an EQ and UO vet. It has less chance than vanguard of eever becoming a big hit like wow. My opinion please don't flame.

To those who claim that the only reason WoW is the most popular MMO only because of advertising, I have 2 words for you:

Sega Genesis.

Next.

When i played WoW for the first time, i got it simply because a freind of mine told me "if you like mmo's this one is going to be the best one out there" So funny story, I picked it up on launch day and my friend who had it pre-ordered didnt get his copy for about a week or so because of a screw up at gamespot. So I got into the game and I swear the first time I saw Ironforge, I was stoked! The first time I saw the Tauren starting area I was hooked. The game was more than just a "kiddy" game or "just another everquest clone" it was the real deal I could feel myself being taken in quick.

The game was not buggy at all for me, the only thing that was buggy to me was when i first started crafting I could not mine some copper ores outside of Ironforge because they were glitched. That only hindered me fro mcrafting not from enjoying everything else I wanted to do.

Plain an simply I came from SWG to WoW, It was nice to have something not ss complicated for a year or so, and its funny because If they would have simply added player housing and player controlled boats(VG-eque) I would stil lbe with WoW and would have been playing it the whole time, but unfortunatly they wanted to capitilize on their game, not turning into a bad game, just making it too much of the same.

I have now been playing EQ2 for about 3 weeks now and can honestly say I will be playing it for as long as I can until pirates of the burning sea comes out.

The MMO genre doesnt need more 5 star killer mmos like WoW. It needs more 3 Star SWG's and EQ2's.

-jive

interface customization, wow has it.

You have to feel sorry for those who call WOW's release BAD.  Having no frame of reference makes you ignorant.

To the guy who said it had no PVP.  Holy stupidty Batman;)  If it didn't have PvP, what the hell was I doing at lvl 20 fighting Alliance over quest mobs a few days after release.  Vangaurd had a bad release. AO had a bad release.  ShadowBane had a lousy release.  WOW"s was about as good as you can expect considering the pounding its servers were taking with 100s of thousands of players.  Other games with MUCH, MUCH worse launches were lucky to break 30k.

One thing that did the game in for me were the graphics, created by math rather than artists (which SOE must abuse regularly). Now don't get me wrong, I am a fan of  realistic art styles in games. EQ2 however, is HIGHLY unrealistic.  The american models are so god awful bad, and IMO are more cartoony and less realistic than WoWs. I mean have you ever looked at a male humans face? Triangle eyes and lips, no nostrils the speak of, and everyone has playdough hair. The game looks gumby.

On the other hand WoW, which they actually spent attention to on the characters, have things like nostrils and unique animations for each race (unlike EQ2 where every single race has the same exact animations). Another thing that puts the graphics in WoW way over EQ2 is just how the models are so much more alive and full of spirit, while the EQ2 ones are just drones and robots. The WoW models do things that real living beings do, like tail wagging, side scratching, stretching, looking around occassionaly. All I've seen the EQ2 models is stand in their lame triumphant hero pose 24/7 and breathe. Boring and highly unrealistic, a true mark of laziness.

Also the armor. Many EQ2 fanboys claim the armor is much more realistic than WoW's, sure some of it (which mostly looks boring, not to mention the HUGE lack of variety). Well I've seen several screenshots of armors even more tacky and colorfully mismatched than WoW's. It's hard to promote the game as realistic when you see gumby-esque characters running around in trashcan armor that looks like it was sprayed on with neon colors.

As for the gameplay, WoW is the typical same ol same ol crap, just super polished and extremely streamlined, so it would appeal to the masses. EQ2, seemed to me like it tried to be like that but just failed, and then tried to keep copying WoW till they got something right. Sure there are different features that set it different than WoW, but really it's nothing groundbreaking. Also alot of extremely gimmicky crap like WALL CLIMBING! WOOH SIGN ME UP, I CAN CLIMB UP WALLS NOW! MOVE BOXES IN DUNGEONS?! OH LORDY, I CAN'T WAIT!

Fortunately for EQ2 they got the SOGA models (still doesn't help the racial identification and animations problem), but the lack of armors and weapons is still a huge problem. Also who's idea was it to replace hair models with hat ones?

Wooh, kinda went off there. I just can't understand how people can put EQ2 american models in their sigs and think it looks great, with those wood elf michael jackson faces and playdough hair. An art style that's neither realistic nor stylistic, just pure amateur trash.

Timing. That's the only reason WoW is more successful.

Both games are polished and exceptional for their time. But WoW had no competition when it was released, and people were ready to move on from the previous generation of games.

- Phos

I have to say Blizzard had about as smooth a start as any MMO.  They almost all seem to have problems at the start except perhaps LOTRO.  WoW had all kinds of lag in beta and into release.  You would sit there waiting to loot something for a few minutes with the possibility of the server crashing and being restarted.  It also didn't have talent points for Paladins and Hunters.  This lead a great deal to the initial imbalance of the Paladin class as it wasn't really finished yet.  They decided to do  a complete Paladin revamp right at release including all new skills and abilities.  The Hunter was not a popular class at the beginning due to lack of talents.  Hunters were taken down very easily in PvP at the time.  The durability was added right at release!  I know really disliked that decision.  It took me a long time to get used to it.  The thing is the game was a lot of fun so I overlooked whatever problems it did have.  After playing EQ it was really nice to play a game with some direction and less grind.

I'd rather EQ2 not have the same success as WoW.  I'd rather it be populated by a few hundred thousand polite and friendly geeks than eight million screaming tardfarmers.  EQ2 is the game I play when I need to get away from WoW's "community."

Originally posted by Phos

Timing. That's the only reason WoW is more successful.

Both games are polished and exceptional for their time. But WoW had no competition when it was released, and people were ready to move on from the previous generation of games.

- Phos

 

So EQ2 wasn't competition?  Seems to me EQ2 released right before WOW.  What about Eve, SWG, DAOC or every MMORPG thats released since or before WOW? 

If WOW was succesful JUST because there was no competition, even though theres about 20 or 30 MMORPGs out there, why was UO succesful?  THAT's called timing. There was NOTHING out there when UO released.  WOWs success is due to creating a game that was heads and tails ABOVE the competition...and there was plenty of it 3 years ago and plenty of it now.

Originally posted by Josher

You have to feel sorry for those who call WOW's release BAD.  Having no frame of reference makes you ignorant.

To the guy who said it had no PVP.  Holy stupidty Batman;)  If it didn't have PvP, what the hell was I doing at lvl 20 fighting Alliance over quest mobs a few days after release.  Vangaurd had a bad release. AO had a bad release.  ShadowBane had a lousy release.  WOW"s was about as good as you can expect considering the pounding its servers were taking with 100s of thousands of players.  Other games with MUCH, MUCH worse launches were lucky to break 30k.

World of Warcraft had a decent launch.  CoH's was better, DAoC's was better, LOTRO was better. 

So that isn't the reason that World of Warcraft is so successful. 

LOTRO has everything that World of Warcraft has features wise and yet it isn't as successful. 

Everquest 2 has pretty much everything that World of Warcraft has as well.

And GL you can't compare the two.  Sega Genesis didn't have a free pool of people to bombard with advertisements like Blizzard does.  Like I said before the only real comparisons would be if Sony had the Playstation 2 and 3 load an advertisement everytime someone played any game on them.  Or if Microsoft had Windows play an add for an MMO game on loading.  That is the level of advertisements that Blizzard was able to use to launch World of Warcraft. 

No other MMO publisher has had that level of being in the public eye. 

(and no I am not an EQ2 fanboy.  I played up to level 38 and found the game too much like WoW and I was sick of WoW.  I am playing DAoC which I consider the best game on the market currently.  Too bad more people didn't agree with me )

Phos,

I'm sorry to say I think your logic may be flawed here.  EQII came out 2 weeks before WoW. 

if timing was the only thing, then EQ II would have came out on top, so it must be something else.

Cabe,

I just started playing DaoC a lot more as well, it's pretty hard to get back in the swing of things starting out fresh but it was a great game and I do enjoy my time there now.

Originally posted by Moirae

Originally posted by arctarus

Please do not call others players who like playing the game that they like being rip off. 

WoW gives content without asking you to pay, but in Eq2 you have to buy every x-pac.

Ok, this is the first one that I felt replying to. You don't know anything do you? Have you even played EQ2 for any length of time? or are you just talking out of your butt?

We get constant updates. New content with every single release of the newest update. And WE JUST GOT A FREE EXPANSION PACK CALLED NERIAK. Next time, check before you say something stupid.

You call that an expansion pack?  It was two small zones.  And the old Neriak was better anyway.

WoW is just a vastly superior game all around.  EQ2 was a competent MMO when it launched but since the gameplay standards for MMOs were lower back then, that's not saying much. 

Originally posted by Chieftan

 

Originally posted by Moirae

Originally posted by arctarus

Please do not call others players who like playing the game that they like being rip off. 

WoW gives content without asking you to pay, but in Eq2 you have to buy every x-pac.

Ok, this is the first one that I felt replying to. You don't know anything do you? Have you even played EQ2 for any length of time? or are you just talking out of your butt?

We get constant updates. New content with every single release of the newest update. And WE JUST GOT A FREE EXPANSION PACK CALLED NERIAK. Next time, check before you say something stupid.

 

You call that an expansion pack?  It was two small zones.  And the old Neriak was better anyway.

WoW is just a vastly superior game all around.  EQ2 was a competent MMO when it launched but since the gameplay standards for MMOs were lower back then, that's not saying much. 

 

No, no its not a vastly superior game. Its a sucky game. One of the worst I've ever played. You may be content with the bottom of the barrel but I'm not.

eq2 sucked.... thats all there is to it. Tried to change eq1  even on bits, but i think the developers minds was "we will make this a success because its the same name"

Originally posted by Moirae

No, no its not a vastly superior game. Its a sucky game. One of the worst I've ever played. You may be content with the bottom of the barrel but I'm not.

Luckily one persons opinion means very little compared to 8 million and a whole bunch of glowing reviews who agree its a damn good game.  

Originally posted by JackDonkey

interface customization, wow has it.

Originally posted by lomiller

Originally posted by JackDonkey

interface customization, wow has it.

 

So does EQ2, but since you can do almost anything you want with the EQ2 UI widgets right inside the UI there isn’t nearly as much need. There are a few customizations that you can make for WoW that you couldn’t make for EQ2 but that’s because they can be used to write bots. 

 

The real reason WoW for WoW's huge success is converting existing Battlenet users to a pay/play model.  This means you can't really compare it to other MMOs because the people who play it will never be interested in the MMO genre outside of WoW. 

Thank you finally someone who gets what I was saying.