Originally posted by daetheven

Originally posted by gameguy369

Nothing will ever beat Age of Conan in terms of infuriating me. If Funcom did the Blizzard thing and released it when it was ready, it could have actually competed with WoW.

wow was no where near ready when it launched constant crashes zone crashes instance crashes on and on not to mention the damn grind im sick of grinds in mmo's to me that is the one that sets me off more then anything its the devs way of being lazy and the 2nd thing is to compare every thing to wow ,  the thing they got right is the natrual desire of humans to have the best thigns , and since you need the best gear to be the best you will grind away to the point of over playing and ignoring things in RL.

and another thing about blizzard being a lazy game company is thier expan packs TBC wow insteed of new classes they gave us all the same classes yay  how  lame is that , when we heard TBC was comeing with two new classes i was like ahh snaps they need to give the horde a death knight ( my idea was like a pally but less heals more evil) but wh3en we heard its just they gave us two new races that one could be a pally (horde) and shaman (ally)  alot of us where very pist off since now there was nothing that seperated us as factions cookie cutter classes god i hate those

then WotLK came out and every one that has a 55 got a DK ( yes i played one too) they where fun as hell yes they pwned pve was soloing 5 player quests with ease , but thats as far as i could go no raid evey one of them had more then enough dks in  them, so went back to the mains and there it was again be this generic version of every other mage or shamman with either all ice or resto since even if you where good at dps no one wanted you unless you where exactly how they say you should be

that i blame on the fact you have no control over basic stats other then getting gear, and the lack of creativity in the class trees once they went to a aoe kill pattern ( like found in DaoC stacking nukes and every class just about had one just like wow has now) you have to be ice since flame strike does nothing compared to a blizzard's DoT and arcane explosion sucks due to a world cooldown timer you cant get it to pop off as fast as ice would either , so your forced intoa  class or play style you may not like.

now i hear about a new expack for wow and they are giving goblins to horde and some other race that i dont care about for ally , goblins have been used in every warcraft RTS , and when my friends where talking about wow i was like sweet i want to be a goblin.. no thay dont have those in , but so many years later and they now have the idea to put it in , ya no thanks im done i quit wow im sick on the wash rinse repete expan packs.

another poster wrote about asherons call that was my first mmo and i guess i was spoiled by turbine with there live update team that gave us new and exciting stuff to do on a monthly basis , sure there was alot of lvls gain in that game but it never flet like a grind, it felt like iw as working to something sinc ei was able to say what ,where and how much points i want to put into my stats , also the ammount of repeteable quests with reasonable timers on it

another poster wrote warhammer should be up thier, i played that and enjoyed it what killed it for me was the player base , to many wanted a wow game and when they got thier and found it nothing like wow they left , so there was hardly anyone to play with , i belive the killer of that game is the SC's they are done very poorly as in they give more xp then open RVR which is what i wanted the first two tiers was almost a joke to go and rvr in , since everyone and thier mom was in scenarios.

while yes some of the keep RVR dynamics where a joke and messed up to the point of exploitation it was still more fun then running a raid and waiting for your .5dkp to come from some ones gear that they won for some reason no matter how many raids i was in nothing i ever needed droped untill 4 to 5 weeks has passesd since i did get something, the keep drops was a nice change i felt i had a better chance, but then i won a  few bags and got the same damn item over n over no dev had the thought of putting in a code line thats say if  you have x item then these x items are avail from bag.

i have played ungodly ammounts of mmo's from closed to open betas to retail and what ive seen is a trend a trend of lazy devs doing as little as they can to make that 15$ a month from each player and throwing in the good stuff as a after thought but then its only one or two good things you pay another 40 bucks for in a expan pack, with the times we  are going thru and money is getting tighter for some families when will the bigger companys stop gougeing the player base for jokes of expan packs that really only add a few things where are the free updates anymore

i didnt have to pay more then 15 bucks till  AC:DM came out but that gave a lot more things to do and wasnt that costly

 

side note yes i have poor ghrammer and typing so to late flamers i dissed myself  , and to those that can over look those small errors i hope my statements ring true to you as they do me

 

2nd side note To any game maker or dev that may read this stop the damn grinds ( some grind is enevatable ) that make us go insane and give us grey hair , give us a world open to explore and the freedom to enhance our chars  they way we want to and not the cookie cutter molds that are far to rampant in games today
 

 

I agree. It's like watching someone build a house out of brick. The grind is the mortar they put between the bricks, not the bricks themselves. If you try and build a house out of that sandy/muddy grime, you end up with a pile of crap.

Just what you end up with with a generic MMO that doesn't take the time/expense to actually end up with a structure at the end.

But, while I agree that grinding sucks (at least when it is so insanely prevailent that you don't feel you can do anything else) I also feel you need a good balance. The reason for this is a lot more complicated than just a simple "it makes the game better."

You see, I think MMO companies have run to a trend of painting themselves into a corner over the last two decades.

The cost of developing an MMO is atrociously high. The reasons for this are vast, but you can sum it up to "No one wants to play  games with UO-graphics on their $3000 computer anymore." Gamers who use computers are by and large (justifiably) spoiled on the visual effects. Gamers will NOT buy games in large amounts if those games look like they were developed on a 10 year old graphics engine.

This means that a WHOLE team of people needs to be hired just to finish textures and lighting, concept art, world art, world design (Not even geometry and functionality, just the way it LOOKS) ON TOP of the physics engine, combat engine, exerience gain/level system, bug response for ALL of that... AND customer service to help keep customers. We demand the best, but the best ain't cheap =\

The unfortunate thing here is that we demand the best, but often developers will use this logic to excuse a complete lack of quality in their games. Vanguard is a fantastic example of this very thing.

Then there is also the problem of hiring droves of alpha/beta testers. For an MMO, the bigger the world/more complex the gameplay, the more PEOPLE you need to test the game. Sure, Mr. Random Developer who is writing the code and/or creating the concept art for the game MIGHT be able to test the game himself from time to time, but the problem is that his job, full time, is creating content, not finding or fixing bugs. Not to mention, everyone plays the game differently. A straight-laced dev isn't nessisarily going to pick up on bugs/exploits that a hardcore min/max full time MMO player would. So that's more money down the drain simply to make sure the game works.

On top of that, there is no way to distribute MMOs without spending an ungodly amount of cash. This isn't even making the game at this point, it is simply getting it to the customer. Valve's STEAM is a great platform to get games to consumers, but the problem is they are NOT very appealing to new/garage developers because of the cost for putting your game on  sale on STEAM often means that you need to sell a LOT of your game to see much cash for your work. And most programmers didn't become programmers to be starving artists, so yeah, money is a driving force.

Which brings me to my point. The brick and mortar is what you are aiming for as a game company. Something that makes sense, something that lasts, and something that ultimately will make you money. Every game company's main motivation is to make a product, sell it, and get money for it. The successful games are those that have a fair amount of grind AND a fair amount of innovation. Not TOO MUCH of either. Developers NEED the grind because without it, they end up having to code new content every month. This means that their company cannot focus on other things, such as pleasing investors, keeping money flowing INTO the company, and developing future titles/expansions. So generic grinds are a neccessity if the industry right now. The thing the industry needs is incentive to be innovative AND consistent, and tools to be able to be both without falling into the trap of constantly raising the price tag on their game development.

The goal is, of course, to end up with less of a pile of crap (grindfest) and more of an actual structure (a fun game). Getting there isn't going to be easy at this point.

And yeah, that was a long winded reply =P

Originally posted by Xersues

Eve would be on my list. Amazing depth with boring gameplay. Like an alzheimer patient, I play it for two week trial, enjoy it for 4 days, then realize it doesn't get any better. $#$@ me, I want my damn space sim.

Anyway, DAoC and the Trials of Atlantis expansion angered a lot of people. Mythic introduced asinine overpowered abilities with really boring and difficult hoops to jump through to get them. Screw that noise.

Never been burned too bad by an MMO. Here's to hoping CO doesn't turn out to be a flop. I actually enjoy it, but I don't see any of the problems in it that any of the other games have. The only huge $#@$% fest was about the RMT, which only the uninformed seem to be clamouring over now. It's aestetic crap. Even City Of Whatever has them, instead of letting you buy ingame credits using your cash, they let you buy a serial key with a mini expansion. 10 bucks for a little extra crap?

 

And no one complains about that? Funny how doing the same thing a lot of companies already do, but calling it the "wrong" word, pisses off the nest. Fun article.

Your "uniformed" is ironic.

I missed Mourning, aptly titled though. Good read.

I would  have added Horizons to that list.

Why?   The troubles with several of its ownership.  Locking entire access to forums, double billing and much more.  The up and downs of the promises of the content.   From what i have read, the new, well old, ownership is doing a better job, but as infuriating goes for a long time I would have placed it in this list.

Originally posted by Dayhawk2k

I would  have added Horizons to that list.

 

Why?   The troubles with several of its ownership.  Locking entire access to forums, double billing and much more.  The up and downs of the promises of the content.   From what i have read, the new, well old, ownership is doing a better job, but as infuriating goes for a long time I would have placed it in this list.

I still get emails from them now and again...it's like being contacted by the dead, it's creepy.

Originally posted by Shreddi

Originally posted by n2sooners

Originally posted by Lansid

Earth and Beyond's debt system worked as such...

You die, and lose, for example... 5000 of your total 10,000xp that you had total towards your next level.

To gain that xp back, you could either :

A. Go kill/quest to regain xp

or

B. Simply log off and it would regenerate back the xp you lost over time.

 

This was an awesome concept for me... because back in the days of early Everquest, you could play for 5 hours grinding to get a few bars of xp, and lose it all with a failed pull, bad spawn, linkdead cleric... ect. You could actually DELEVEL if you lost enough XP, especially if your corpse was in a bad location, people ragequit before they could get your corpse, ect...

Basically it allowed you to feel like you weren't being punished, but let you log off and take some time off without the obligation to grind so much.

 

I loved that about EQ. Sometimes is sucked, but it is the only PvE game that ever gave me that rush. Even after death lost most meaning like in other MMOs, I still got a bit of a rush when things took a bad turn. Of course that was then and this is now and I don't think I will ever have the time or the drive to go through all that again.

 

I Agree with ya all the way.  They laid something on the line.  So you really did have something to lose.  Motor City Online we got to Race for our Money or Even Pink Slips.   Motor City Online Was the biggest Rush of all.

Right, under normal circumstances that would be "thrilling". Again in the early days of EQ... it was rough, but it made for decent players (for the most part) and people who Knew Their Role. Seldom were there people playing their classes that were horrible beyond 15-20. Once people hit Crushbone/Unrest  it was the make or break training session there for everyone. There was no soloing after that. So after spending 5 minutes to half an hour advertising your level and class, you get into a group. You find a place to camp spawns at. Everyone learns about other peoples classes and their roles. Healing and damage mitigation, mezzes and when not to break them, what OOM medding meant... ect. THOSE were good times... that was fun.

Now when you have all that down to a science, but you now spend up to 1 hour looking for a party at Solsek A/B or Upper/Lower Guk, and are competing with guilds camping specific spawns to grab their "phat lewt" items because there was NO SUCH THING as instanced zones... and if they didn't want anyone near them then they would "Train" a bunch of mobs to you and usually have their monk Feign Death at your feet with the entire zone looking at you. That got old... quick...

All I wanted to do was play a game, not feel like I was going to work everytime I saw"

"Pain and Suffering tries to strike you, but misses!"

"Loading, please wait..."

Now Ultima Online on release was "a rush". popped my MMO cherry. My first encounter with a griefing guild, and open PvP.

Shadowbane was a massive rush. Flaws yes, but as far as adrenaline factor I got to experience watching over my shoulder while leveling, making war with other guilds, being beaten down by other factions, and even betraying my own Guild Master and killing him because the coward wouldn't defend our town against impossible odds.

But I regress... the original point was E&B had the best XP debt system... period.

Shouldnt the Title of the Column/Thread be " Five Infuriating MMO COMPANIES"?

Its not really the Games that are infuriating, but the Companies that made them.

SoE tops my list as most infuriating game company, followed by Mythic, Funcom and Aventurine. Ill never again play a game created by those companies.

Should also follow this up with a Column "5 Most Hated Devs/Producers"

My List- John Smedley, David Bowman, Brad McQuaid, Mark Jacobs, Tasos Flambouras

I remember following Dark & Light and all the buzz about how good it was going to be. Then I got an official invitation to D&L's "Settlers of Ganareth". I was totally baffled when I couldn't  find any way of downloading the client. I remember scouring the forums, which was full of glowing comments (nothing negative at the time) and not finding any links to a download !?!? I am soooo glad I did not pre-order, dodged a bullet there! I believe D&L is why I have never pre-ordered anything.

I also agree that SWG should've been higher on the list. I bought the original "An Empire Divided" thinking, "It's a Star Wars property, how could it be bad?". Wow was I in for a let down. Picture this:

1) It's the Star Wars universe and you start the game trapped on a brown blob of a planet. (Graphics weren't so hot, not awful, but not good either) NO Ships!!!!!??? I couldn't believe it. What is Star Wars without ships. A bad futuristic WoW clone.

2) Quests and cities were spread out so thin it felt like you had to run for days to get anywhere. I don't think I ever finished any real quests besides, "deliver this" quests that just gave you money as a reward. Storyline quests? Never came across them!

3) Randomly running into things that would kill you in one or two hits. Or getting ganked by the only player you come across in weeks. You couldn't tell what level things were or if they were PKers!!!

4) Everything was so expensive it felt like you'd never be able to afford a better... anything!!

5) It was so open ended (sandboxy), that it had absolutely no direction.

6) Imagine your favourite MMO releases a new class, but they won't tell anyone how to become this new class!! Forget becoming a Jedi. How to become one was a secret and no one was willing to share it. Some people claim they would remove any posts about "How to be a Jedi" from the forums. That was a very sore point for me.

Anyways, I slogged through my free month, eventually making some bone armor, running a few mining bots and buying a sand speeder and a house, but the experience was hostile and empty. I felt like SOE just slapped "Star Wars" on something with dollar signs in there eyes. It was bad, so I gave up and decided Sony would never get my money again. I know they added ships to the game and changed the core mechanics of the game(don't know how), but they will not sucker me again. What's that? Beta test PlanetSide for you? Well Sure I will!..... ugh.

Even after years I still remember the anger and disappointment like it was yesterday. Oh well, no big deal now.

I just replied to the main post, so if I have duplicated anyone else, my apologies. I will read the rest now. :)

Yes! Earth & Beyond, was a great game I played faithfully until they released an expansion that clogged the servers and lag became unbareable in some zones. It was soon to be shutdown by EA. Before the expansion my Progen Warrior Nanto had made it to 110, had a guild and everything. Loved the formation flying and the Self Destruct ability (which was pretty useless but fun). Then Poof! It was all gone.

They need to think more "Long Haul" for MMOs, but some companies are just looking for short term Cash-Cows. There will always be both, unfortunately.

Great article, Thanx!

I would've put SWG at the top of the list by far - all of us pre-CU and pre-NGE players got royally screwed on that!

But what's with the 4 relatively unknown games?  sure, for the elite out there, they're familiar titles, but those of us who only have a knowledge of AAA and AA titles, perhaps some others should have made the list. 

Here's my top 5:

1 - SWG - they screwed every player of the game in one fell swoop.

2 - Darkfall - "Epic Fail", "how not to make a game" - what ever you want to call it....this should be lessons learned for every game developer. In fact, there should be a text book based on this game and what you shouldn't do!!
 

3 - WAR - after years of watching Paul Barnett's crazy movies about all the awesome stuff going into the game, most of it doesn't make it in...and what does make it into the game becomes an extremely repetitve end-game.

4 - Hellgate London - Did you buy the lifetime membership?  So many examples of what not to do when developing a game!!

5 - AoC - even the prospect of gratuitous nudity doesn't compensate for the mess that is AoC.  Oh, and what's with the whole "buy the game, then buy time, then play" thing?  It really would be nice to get 30 days free play when buying this!

---

Originally posted by Silvermink

---

Originally posted by Dubhlaith

I have to admit that Dark and Light had my attention. I deeply wanted it to be a good game, but when SoG began, I began to see the writing on the wall. And I wept. But SOE is still the greatest company with regards to the utter disregard for the playerbase. And somehow, people continue to play their games. It is not only SWG, and I do not have any love for Science Fiction games, so I was not fortunate enough to enjoy that bit of evil. It is every game they have ever been in charge of. Vanguard had the potential to be a great game, I think, but they sadly did not have enough capital to complete their game. As a result, they had to let it go. SOE snatched it up like some leviathan taking beautiful things into its gaping maw, rending it into something unrecognizable and spitting it out, laughing at the terrified denizens of the world. I shudder at each announcement they give.
I think you should do a company-based thing like this. I am sure many people would be interested to read something about the five most hated game companies. Perhaps not even hate, but rather the most feared for their terrible decision making.

---

SoE got as screwed on Vanguard as the players. Brad sold SoE a sob story and they bought it.

---

Really? Something tells me that I do not have the entire story. Where could I go to find out about this?

Originally posted by Hodo

Those are decent choices... but I can think of a few more for that list...  WWII Online being one of them.

It had probly one of the most laughable launches in gaming history.... the game was in "beta" for almost a year.    Then when it was finally pay to play, the product was still far from what was promised on the box, or even in the manual for the game.   And 8 years after the launch it still doesnt have many of those features.   Its sad that that game had so much potential that was held back by the arrogance of a few of its development team.

I played WWII online for awhile, it's not that bad.  There are allot of dedicated players in WWII online.  When I played a few years ago, it seemed barren and took forever to get to a battle, but once I got there, I got my first kill.

As you stated about the features, I dont think the hardcore players care. 

I gave up the game to play Battlefield 2, it is free and basically the same game, in some respects.

EQ2 royally pissed me off. I beta tested it, liked it. Then they went all solo-content unfriendly with the newly chained mobs on release which made soloing nigh on impossible at the time. Given that getting a good group together took quite a while it killed the game for me having limited time to play.

AoC was fail of epic proportions. I agree, if it had another years development time it may have been a great. Nothing will erase my initial impressions of it, even though I played 3 months with a good group of friends it lacked any meaningful progression once you hit the level cap (which was easy to do). Sieges were a farce and pvp a joke.

AC2 was disappointing in that they cancelled it due to low subs. I liked the game and it had some innovative classes and features. Wasn't without problems, which I guess drove too many away.

Surprised UO trammel didn't rate the list. Next to SWG's NGE screwup, I think that impacted a lot of people and left a bad taste in the mouth.

Edit : How could I forget WAR... yup the sucky non-working endgame content. Same shit as AC2 just different packaging. To think I shelled out on collecter's editions of both games. Beh, never again!!!

Darkfall doesn't deserve the negative hits people enjoy heaping on it. Despite the hackers and exploits which still haven't been adequately dealt with, the game is enjoyable regardless... guess it all comes down to mindset (it isn't a game for everyone) & a good guild. Been playing since launch and probably will for a while more.

Later, developers changed the direction of the game significantly. So significantly, in fact, that they went so far as to offer refunds to their pre-payers. Things went downhill from there.

Between players complaining that the offered refunds were difficult, if at all possible to obtain, the eventual total cancellation of The Chronicle and the eventual closure the Rapid Reality as a company

I'd like to address this on just 1 level:

1) Who had trouble obtaining a refund?

I, PERSONALLY, refunded everybody who asked for one through PayPal.  The Company that was Rapid Reality did not refund people, their refunds came directly from my bank account.

I took a LOAN out specifically so I could continue to refund people at the time.  I told people to ask for the refund, so I could mark down and (hopefully) later be repaid by the company, through 3rd Party Forums, IRC, GTalk, MSN and on the phone.

The refunds were, in no way, difficult.  Everybody who asked for one got one, period.

If somebody is telling you that they did not get a refund, it is because they did not request one.

I would have listed Star Wars Galaxies higher too, not that I ever played pre cu personally but because it had a good subscriber base when the 'ripoff' happened so that rather than a few thousand spending a few dollars on prorders as far as I know it was a few hundred thousand spending hundreds of dollars each paying for the game and more importantly the time they invested in that game that can never be returned only for SOE to stick their middle fingers up at them.

I also wonder if star gate worlds will make it onto this list in future, unpaid wages, pyramid scams etc. and it's still unknown if the game will even release.

Same here, I would list SWG as the number one offender in this list. I mean SWG pissed off more people than all the other games listed combined! I would also include Vanguard since and maybe even AoC.

Originally posted by Nightbringe1

Originally posted by Dafong

I suppose EQ never made this list or two reasons.

 

1, No desire to put the same company on the list twice.

2, There was never a single large event in EQ that generated anger, it was absolutely every single thing the company did.

 

EQ is just slowly evolving in directions that not all of its players want to go. It has never pulled any real crash and burn stunts like SWG.

Hmmm...must not have paid the same Sony Online that I did back when EQ first came out.  We called it Never Quest because most of the quests were broken, meaning you would spend 60 hours questing a quest item to have it not be on the mob after killing it, or have it destroyed because you didn't have room in your inventory, or you repeat the words in [brackets] to the NPC but he just stares at you.  Same guys who did a 6 month subscription but who's online subscription service never seemed to work when you wanted to cancel.  It took me 3 months, server was always "down" and I didn't get my next automatic 6 month subscription back, Sony refused to pay me.  Servers were constantly crashing for the first year (if not longer).  You would log back in and not know where your body was a majority of the time.  Getting into the game of course was a privilege though.  The wait was usually 15 minutes to several hours.  Luckily, usually someone was crashing out so you could get in.  :)

Having said that, it was a trailblazer, and it was still EverCrack, so I don't really believe it belongs on the list.  Of course I have a sour taste for any Sony online game still.

Speaking of DnL. They are back at it again. talesofkalenor.com/

Taken from the message board at DnL original site (surprised it's still active)

sorry but Hellgate london should have atleast replaced SWG, I know people have issues with SWG but come on at least there is still enough of a player base to keep it going H:L crashed and burned, promised so much, delivered very little and pi**ed alot of people off, especially those that paid for a life time sub.......

Originally posted by Tycoda

I remember following Dark & Light and all the buzz about how good it was going to be. Then I got an official invitation to D&L's "Settlers of Ganareth". I was totally baffled when I couldn't  find any way of downloading the client. I remember scouring the forums, which was full of glowing comments (nothing negative at the time) and not finding any links to a download !?!? I am soooo glad I did not pre-order, dodged a bullet there! I believe D&L is why I have never pre-ordered anything.

I also agree that SWG should've been higher on the list. I bought the original "An Empire Divided" thinking, "It's a Star Wars property, how could it be bad?". Wow was I in for a let down. Picture this:

1) It's the Star Wars universe and you start the game trapped on a brown blob of a planet. (Graphics weren't so hot, not awful, but not good either) NO Ships!!!!!??? I couldn't believe it. What is Star Wars without ships. A bad futuristic WoW clone.

2) Quests and cities were spread out so thin it felt like you had to run for days to get anywhere. I don't think I ever finished any real quests besides, "deliver this" quests that just gave you money as a reward. Storyline quests? Never came across them!

3) Randomly running into things that would kill you in one or two hits. Or getting ganked by the only player you come across in weeks. You couldn't tell what level things were or if they were PKers!!!

4) Everything was so expensive it felt like you'd never be able to afford a better... anything!!

5) It was so open ended (sandboxy), that it had absolutely no direction.

6) Imagine your favourite MMO releases a new class, but they won't tell anyone how to become this new class!! Forget becoming a Jedi. How to become one was a secret and no one was willing to share it. Some people claim they would remove any posts about "How to be a Jedi" from the forums. That was a very sore point for me.

Anyways, I slogged through my free month, eventually making some bone armor, running a few mining bots and buying a sand speeder and a house, but the experience was hostile and empty. I felt like SOE just slapped "Star Wars" on something with dollar signs in there eyes. It was bad, so I gave up and decided Sony would never get my money again. I know they added ships to the game and changed the core mechanics of the game(don't know how), but they will not sucker me again. What's that? Beta test PlanetSide for you? Well Sure I will!..... ugh.

Even after years I still remember the anger and disappointment like it was yesterday. Oh well, no big deal now.

I just replied to the main post, so if I have duplicated anyone else, my apologies. I will read the rest now. :)

Yes! Earth & Beyond, was a great game I played faithfully until they released an expansion that clogged the servers and lag became unbareable in some zones. It was soon to be shutdown by EA. Before the expansion my Progen Warrior Nanto had made it to 110, had a guild and everything. Loved the formation flying and the Self Destruct ability (which was pretty useless but fun). Then Poof! It was all gone.

They need to think more "Long Haul" for MMOs, but some companies are just looking for short term Cash-Cows. There will always be both, unfortunately.

Great article, Thanx!

Lol, you're putting down what most SWG haters want back in SWG. Personnally, I agree with sandbox games having not enough direction even if "theme park" games have too much sometimes.

Originally posted by supernat07

Originally posted by Nightbringe1

Originally posted by Dafong

I suppose EQ never made this list or two reasons.

 

1, No desire to put the same company on the list twice.

2, There was never a single large event in EQ that generated anger, it was absolutely every single thing the company did.

 

EQ is just slowly evolving in directions that not all of its players want to go. It has never pulled any real crash and burn stunts like SWG.

Hmmm...must not have paid the same Sony Online that I did back when EQ first came out.  We called it Never Quest because most of the quests were broken, meaning you would spend 60 hours questing a quest item to have it not be on the mob after killing it, or have it destroyed because you didn't have room in your inventory, or you repeat the words in [brackets] to the NPC but he just stares at you.  Same guys who did a 6 month subscription but who's online subscription service never seemed to work when you wanted to cancel.  It took me 3 months, server was always "down" and I didn't get my next automatic 6 month subscription back, Sony refused to pay me.  Servers were constantly crashing for the first year (if not longer).  You would log back in and not know where your body was a majority of the time.  Getting into the game of course was a privilege though.  The wait was usually 15 minutes to several hours.  Luckily, usually someone was crashing out so you could get in.  :)

Having said that, it was a trailblazer, and it was still EverCrack, so I don't really believe it belongs on the list.  Of course I have a sour taste for any Sony online game still.

Well in the earlier days of mainstream MMO's, After Ultima Online there was Evercrack or Asherons Call... and most remember "Neverquest" (yes I remember that lol, and the cackling klaknak website) TUMPY TONICS FTW!!! Ooooh or how about the old gem.... "BOOOOOOOOAAAAT!" and the fear of after having traveled 30 minutes that when you zone into Freeport you'll go linkdead and only be able to log back on AFTER you zoned back into the Ocean of Tears? Yeah... downtime and grind was the name of that game... and gave up after Kunark. Best of times, worst of times... though personally I think FFXI surpassed EQ in Group Pressure and grind in early days.

In response to my quote:

LOL, thanx.

Don't get me wrong, sandbox is nice, but without some direction to generally wander toward, it seems pointless.

Like I said, I couldn't even find any kind of storyline quest back then.  Who knows, maybe I'd like SWG now, but I lost all respect for SOE after the NGE curfuffle, or is it CU, or WTF , FFS? ... I don't know, and don't care.

Thanx for the read