Honestly, I had no idea the game was still being supported. What's the population like right now? Isn't it hard to chat and such using a PS2 controller?

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Originally posted by jaded_sword
Honestly, I had no idea the game was still being supported. What's the population like right now? Isn't it hard to chat and such using a PS2 controller?

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I would imagine it supports a USB keyboard, the same as FFXI on the PS2 does.

Chris Mattern

EQOA on the PS2 does indeed support any type of USB keyboard, and chatting is actually easier in this version than on the PC.  Actually, game play in general is actually easier and more intuitive that an the PC, since all the necessary bottons are on the controller rather than the keyboard.  It's actually pretty ingenius...instead of having to search for the correct letter key for an attack or command, it's either the X or O button, or with the direction buttons.   Anything needs some getting used to, but I never found myself trying to keep my eyes on the screen while poking around the keyboard for some button on EQOA.

It is still supported as well, and last night there were a surprisingly high number of people logged in...I couldn't belive it myself!

I myself have though about returning to this AMAZING game many-a-times, but decided against it since i would have to relevel a character.  I loved spending many hours kicked back in my bed, keyboard at my side, controller in hand, nearing the point of passing out, grinding in this game.  Its so much easier to lay back with a controller and play then sit upright in a chair and play on this radiator of an alienware laptop i have.

Those of us who play FFXI, either on the PS2 or the PC, are familiar with the joys of playing an MMORPG with a game controller :-).

Chris Mattern

What the difference between the pc verision and ps2?

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Originally posted by Devalon
What the difference between the pc verision and ps2?

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The biggest difference is that you can have a much, much higher resolution on the PC (especially if you change the registry entries yourself or use a 3rd party tool like MogToolz to do it, instead of just accepting the limited options provided by the official configuration tool). Other than that, not much. USB game controller is fully supported and works just like the PS2 controller on the PS2 version.

Chris Mattern

Played for 2 years, love the game.

Oh man, it is SO much more comfortable laying in bed or on the couch with the controller and the keyboard next to me! ;-)

It is a great game, and I still can't get over how many people still play....the first server, Castle Lightwolf, was PACKED last night...with low-level toons too.

Originally posted by Devalon

What the difference between the pc verision and ps2?

1. Trading system, or "Auction", works exactly like eBay.  No keeping all of your wares on your toon's body, and staying logged in for days at a time to sell your stuff in the bazaar.  No complicated search functions...just straight up, easy-peasy.

2. Class Mastery System - This beats AA points by FAR.  It's a really cool system that allows you to divert some or all of your experience earned toward stat increases, new abilities, specializations, etc. that allow you to differential yourself from other toons, as well as focus on certain parts of your character that you enjoy.  This is a welcome change to purley raiding or farming once you reach the highest level (60), since at that point, 100% of your xp automatically goes toward CMs.  It's just a much more fun, intuitive, and flexible system than AAs. 

3. More grouping, and more interaction with other players at all levels.  When I played EQ, everyone solo'ed to at least 40 before grouping.  Why not just play FFXII or something?

4. Were-forms: The ability to complete quests to morph yourself into a werewolf, werelion, wererat, weregator, or werebear, or even were-hunter.  Pretty sweet way to further customize your character.

Other than that, it just has some great storylines, a nice history of Norrath before EQ1, and some cool people playing.

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Originally posted by LOTDN

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Originally posted by Devalon

What the difference between the pc verision and ps2?

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And also, the PS2 version does have some nice differences from the PC version that really keeps me coming back to EQOA:
1. Trading system, or "Auction", works exactly like eBay. No keeping all of your wares on your toon's body, and staying logged in for days at a time to sell your stuff in the bazaar. No complicated search functions...just straight up, easy-peasy.
2. Class Mastery System - This beats AA points by FAR. It's a really cool system that allows you to divert some or all of your experience earned toward stat increases, new abilities, specializations, etc. that allow you to differential yourself from other toons, as well as focus on certain parts of your character that you enjoy. This is a welcome change to purley raiding or farming once you reach the highest level (60), since at that point, 100% of your xp automatically goes toward CMs. It's just a much more fun, intuitive, and flexible system than AAs.
3. More grouping, and more interaction with other players at all levels. When I played EQ, everyone solo'ed to at least 40 before grouping. Why not just play FFXII or something?
4. Were-forms: The ability to complete quests to morph yourself into a werewolf, werelion, wererat, weregator, or werebear, or even were-hunter. Pretty sweet way to further customize your character.
Other than that, it just has some great storylines, a nice history of Norrath before EQ1, and some cool people playing.

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OK, when I initially answered this question, I thought he was asking about the differences between FFXI on the PS2 and FFXI on the PC; now I'm not so sure. Which was it? In any case, my answer was directed towards FFXI, where both are clients to the same game and the only real difference is the PC's prettier graphics.

Chris Mattern

me and my bro played this (he played like 6 mor emonths then i did) and it was for both of us are truely first MMORPG. my bro started playing on dial up, and every night couldnt wati to hop on and grind away w/ his guild. i jumped on a few months later when we finnaly got cable and loved it. then we go all crazy about FFXI, and most of the ppl on EQ that we knew were jumping to that and for me personaly im a huge FF series fan so all the more better. again he got the jump on it (i had to wait til Xmas for cash) so he got a few moths jump start. that game basicly took over our lives and we both played for a couple yrs a peice. after that he stopped playing MMOs really, just couldnt find the time, he now mostly spends his extra time building this corney little 2D MMO, while i try other games. Sience then there hasnt been any MMOs really for consoles after those 2, cept  PSU wich is more action small group style, wich i played but got bored of quickly. now we both have comps to our selves and i decided to find the next best thing. he bought LOTRO w/ his laptop, only to be quickly dissapointed and i tryed out free games, and later bought EQ2, wich shortly after bored me (lot less grouping,button mashing, far to heavy on just quests) to this day im still hunting and waiting for somthing that will bring back the FFXI and EQOA feeling, but nothing has, and ive been waiting forever for a new console MMO, but the futrure looks grim atm. ahh, the old days, wish i could get um back =/

Originally posted by ChrisMattern

 

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Originally posted by LOTDN

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Originally posted by Devalon

 

What the difference between the pc verision and ps2?

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And also, the PS2 version does have some nice differences from the PC version that really keeps me coming back to EQOA:
1. Trading system, or "Auction", works exactly like eBay. No keeping all of your wares on your toon's body, and staying logged in for days at a time to sell your stuff in the bazaar. No complicated search functions...just straight up, easy-peasy.
2. Class Mastery System - This beats AA points by FAR. It's a really cool system that allows you to divert some or all of your experience earned toward stat increases, new abilities, specializations, etc. that allow you to differential yourself from other toons, as well as focus on certain parts of your character that you enjoy. This is a welcome change to purley raiding or farming once you reach the highest level (60), since at that point, 100% of your xp automatically goes toward CMs. It's just a much more fun, intuitive, and flexible system than AAs.
3. More grouping, and more interaction with other players at all levels. When I played EQ, everyone solo'ed to at least 40 before grouping. Why not just play FFXII or something?
4. Were-forms: The ability to complete quests to morph yourself into a werewolf, werelion, wererat, weregator, or werebear, or even were-hunter. Pretty sweet way to further customize your character.
Other than that, it just has some great storylines, a nice history of Norrath before EQ1, and some cool people playing.

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OK, when I initially answered this question, I thought he was asking about the differences between FFXI on the PS2 and FFXI on the PC; now I'm not so sure. Which was it? In any case, my answer was directed towards FFXI, where both are clients to the same game and the only real difference is the PC's prettier graphics.

Chris Mattern

That's because you're on the wrong board..... This is a discussion about EQOA, not FFXI.

Played for 1 years, love the game.

Man, i LOVED this game... Played it for YEARS! I haven't been able to find a game NEARLY as good since. I just wish they would update it. I REALLY wish they would make an EQOA 2 on the PC or maybe even PS3 with updated graphics and content. Lol... Speaking of graphics, looking at the screenshots, i don't remember the game looking THAT bad... Lol...

Yeah this game was amazing to me i LOVED it. I remember when it first came out i was addicted to it, then the next day i would go into class and talk about it with one of my buddies who also liked mmo's. I remember getting into little debates with him about how good this game was, though he never tried it he would always say there is no way this game is that good. He was playing eq on the comp and had all the expansions so he would just say no way its as good as the eq on the comp. They were both great games this was just a nice refreshing game for ps2 imo.

Originally posted by LOTDN

 

Originally posted by Devalon

What the difference between the pc verision and ps2?

And also, the PS2 version does have some nice differences from the PC version that really keeps me coming back to EQOA:

 

1. Trading system, or "Auction", works exactly like eBay.  No keeping all of your wares on your toon's body, and staying logged in for days at a time to sell your stuff in the bazaar.  No complicated search functions...just straight up, easy-peasy.

( you havent played EQ in awhile, this has been changed)

2. Class Mastery System - This beats AA points by FAR.  It's a really cool system that allows you to divert some or all of your experience earned toward stat increases, new abilities, specializations, etc. that allow you to differential yourself from other toons, as well as focus on certain parts of your character that you enjoy.  This is a welcome change to purley raiding or farming once you reach the highest level (60), since at that point, 100% of your xp automatically goes toward CMs.  It's just a much more fun, intuitive, and flexible system than AAs. 

(wheres the part thats diff. then AA's?)

3. More grouping, and more interaction with other players at all levels.  When I played EQ, everyone solo'ed to at least 40 before grouping.  Why not just play FFXII or something?

(soloing or grouping are optional in most mmos and depend on class, in my exp only probs finding a group are at higher lvls mainly due to needing an item or quest for keying and what not)

4. Were-forms: The ability to complete quests to morph yourself into a werewolf, werelion, wererat, weregator, or werebear, or even were-hunter.  Pretty sweet way to further customize your character.

(in EQ pc as well)

Other than that, it just has some great storylines, a nice history of Norrath before EQ1, and some cool people playing.

basicly if you have a nice comp,good connection and a compfy chair play the PC vers.

if not and you got a ps2 go for it, its fun albeit a little dated.

Sorry to necromance this post, but wow....just logged back onto EQOA for the first time in almost 6 months, and I gotta say it's still my favorite MMO.  And this is after lvling a toon to 70 in WoW and playing EQ1 & EQ2.

I logged onto the Castle Lightwolf server, which is the only server many people still actively play on.  I read the game has an account population ~20k, and I'd say the vast majority of these players have at least one toon on this server.  This being the case, the in-game activity is very high, and much like a moderately populated WoW server.  So, it may be a "dying" MMO, but as the players have taken it upon themselvers to all migrate to the one server, it's actually really bustling ;-)

And the best reason I still love this game - started a new toon, and within 15 minutes, found another player with a new character, we became friends, and did all the low-level starting quests together.  And after heading to a main city, I almost immediately had a group invite from a few people, and we leveled together all night.  I pretty much went from 1-70 in WoW without talking to a single person.  My friends and girlfriend aren't MMO geeks like me, so I have to rely on people I meet in-game for the sense of community that are (should be) central to any MMO. 

If you decide to come back, or are just sick of WoW and the other crop of current MMO's, look me up on Castle Lightwolf - the name's Skotch.

Have to say, it was my first mmo and it's what got me hooked to them. It was very addictive at the time, and the community was good, though there were asshats there too..you can never get away from them.

But to the question asked a year ago, lol

The diff between pc and PS2 version, is that EQOA was a PS2 only game. It wasn't EQ, so you couldn't play with them. Unless you used a PS2 emulator. 

I found, however, that it was a huge grindfest, and if you didn't have the groups to camp grind out the xp, you were didn't get far. Though the exploration was amazing in there. Best to date, though I think it's due more to the fact that it was my first mmo than in comparison to newer ones.

Not sure if I'd enjoy an EQOA type mmo now, as I've changed since, but I'd have to try one to see whether or not I could still find that addictive yearning and immersion.