Originally posted by erictlewis
 I just downgraded my 6 month sub to silver, and removed my cc info. I dont want any of my info possibly passed to prosieben.sat.1 or alaplaya or whoever they are.

Im wary of that deal too - SOE knows its controversial and has been tightlipped about it so far

Its FREE.  YOu have nothing to loose but time it takes to download.  Like someone said earlier, try it out for a few weeks and see what you think.  Ive been on for about 6 months but I have station pass so I can play all SOE games.  From a fantasy RPG perspective it has massive amounts of content to keep you busy for as long as you like.

What typically makes or breaks this game for most is the client, its top heavy and resource intensive. Challenging to get the game to run at its highest settings.  And the combat.  It is hotkey/tab combat but was created waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2004 so it doesnt have the "bling" of recent MMOs.  Get around those two obstacles and you might enjoy it.

Cant wait to see EQNext, didnt know it was slated for this year?!   That gives me a full plate with Eden Eternal, Lime Odyssey(also this year), Guild Wars 2, TERA, and potentially Secret World.

I need to make some more time :-)

Originally posted by darkhalf357x

Cant wait to see EQNext, didnt know it was slated for this year?!   That gives me a full plate with Eden Eternal, Lime Odyssey(also this year), Guild Wars 2, TERA, and potentially Secret World.

I need to make some more time :-)

heh would be more than surprised if EQ3 got released this year, but SOE seem to be able to make MMOs rather fast with their new engine, but still... Id be happy if they can show off abit of gameplay at this years fan faire....

Originally posted by Hedeon

Originally posted by darkhalf357x

Cant wait to see EQNext, didnt know it was slated for this year?!   That gives me a full plate with Eden Eternal, Lime Odyssey(also this year), Guild Wars 2, TERA, and potentially Secret World.

I need to make some more time :-)

heh would be more than surprised if EQ3 got released this year, but SOE seem to be able to make MMOs rather fast with their new engine, but still... Id be happy if they can show off abit of gameplay at this years fan faire....

The only way EQ3/Next would launch this year is if they rename Vanguard to EQ3 and relaunch that. :D  

EQNext will not be seen this year

id be surprised if SOE even talk about it at Sept/Oct 2012 Fanfaire

you will see Planetside 2 before any other SOE game -- and that has no release date either

http://massively.joystiq.com/category/planetside-2/

People hate Sony because of the Cash Shop and SWG revamp.

However, my favorite times in any MMO has been in a Sony game.

The only reason I would avoid this game is because of its dated servers, e.g., blown economy, twinks all over, etc.

Originally posted by CyclopsSlay

Originally posted by Hedeon

Originally posted by darkhalf357x

Cant wait to see EQNext, didnt know it was slated for this year?!   That gives me a full plate with Eden Eternal, Lime Odyssey(also this year), Guild Wars 2, TERA, and potentially Secret World.

I need to make some more time :-)

heh would be more than surprised if EQ3 got released this year, but SOE seem to be able to make MMOs rather fast with their new engine, but still... Id be happy if they can show off abit of gameplay at this years fan faire....

The only way EQ3/Next would launch this year is if they rename Vanguard to EQ3 and relaunch that. :D  

and they probably could pulll it off to if they revamped the game engine and character models. a pity that sandbox  mmo's are so 1990's now.

Well EQ2 have changed during the last 8 months, I think it has changed for the better  but YMMV. The free to play works ok you can play totally free until 70 withouth having to purchase anything after that you will need some unlockers, but anyway.

Freeport and Antonia Bayle has good populations still but other servers are still viable, if you buy the AoD pack you can get a mercenary and that way do harder content, but you will have to solo all the way to the 80s and that is a drawback as no one groups below 80 (well it is at least rare), the Destiny of Velious expansion have been tuned to be more accessible and doable for casual players the quests are fun. As others say, try it, it is a long and lonely trek to the endgame but there is a lot to do and if you like exploring you will have a blast as EQ2 is BIG and has lots of content.

But do not expect to be able to powerlevel to 90 and then get into active raiding immediately the end game is quite different from the leveling game (especially since few people group).

Originally posted by Knytta

Freeport and Antonia Bayle has good populations still but other servers are still viable, if you buy the AoD pack you can get a mercenary and that way do harder content, but you will have to solo all the way to the 80s and that is a drawback as no one groups below 80 (well it is at least rare)

this is largely true for game being mostly solo under 90

but if you buy the AOD expansion for mercs and use the Dungeon Finder while leveling thru levels 30-80

you will find some groups (or at least another player)

I'm still leveling alts on the Freeport server and am always grouping with strangers thanks to Dungeon Finder

I know the EQ2 DF sucks but if you have a mercenary, its not so bad when you are grouped with another person

Ive done many dungeons under 80 w myself, the merc, and random players using the Dungeon Finder

Originally posted by Nadia

Ive done many dungeons under 80 w myself, the merc, and random players using the Dungeon Finder

Yes I think it is safe to say that if you are totally new Freeport is probably the best server, Antonia Bayle and Crushbone also  have good populations but other servers are certainly doable as you will be more unique as a newbie there. AB still has a somewhat overbearing attitude to new players although Free To Play have improved things.

I joined the game a couple of months ago been playing it off and on mainly, after the big failure of TOR, I needed a new MMO that offered as close as possible what SWG did for me I already had all of SOE's other games downloaded for free (the sunset offer for SWG players) I paid a year Station Access sub and now play DC Universe and EQII now, the community in EQII is very knowledgeable and friendly, (Everfrost server) created a new toon on Freeport server as well. One of the more friendliest communitys Ive been around in while compared to SWG, (TOR was very antisocial, people actually complained if people talked in chat) .

I am enjoying EQ II though has plenty of things to do, including housing and crafting,so I am happy for now I've been taking my time and doing every quest, doing lore and heritiage quests, language quests, collections. If you want a content filled game that has more to do than just kill stuff this would be your game :) , it just sucks right now cause SOE is down till 2am PST for maintainence :(

EQ2 is probably the best of the themepark generation (which it was the first release of technically, anythng after EQ2/WoW belongs to this generation) currently.  It has by far the most do, has an interesting selection of races and a large variety of content.  It is more difficult at the high endgame than WoW/Rift/SWToR.  The housing is astonishing, and while i think the craft ysstem is kind of boring the number of things for crafters to do with epic quests and mount quests and apprentices dwarfs any other themepark game.

EQ2s main issue is its combat, which has an exreme amount of ability bloat.  Youll have to contend with 4-5 hotbars of abilities, some classes even more and it doesnt have the amazing group mechanics its predecessor had (no game touches EQ in group mechanics) or the smoothness of WoW (its not clunky, but again its not WoW).