I would check out the racial traditions for Dark Elf, Troll, Ogre, Kerra, Barbarian if you want to be a fighter. It is true that you can be successful with any race/class combo, but some of the races have much better bonuses for a particular class than others. Darf Elf "Fury of Innoruk" is huge, as is Barbarian's increased defense when their health falls below a certain level. Kerrans get speed bonuses in and out of combat which suits the Brawler class well. Trolls and Ogres have a fear and stun resist respectively that will save your bacon now and then.

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

Originally posted by Nadia

Station Cash is on all servers but its strictly fluff items - with the exception of experience potions

 

can view the latest items added here

eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm

 

LOL that's a huge exception.

Those xp potions aren't as popular since they sped up the leveling process. Actually the opposite is more common where people are turning off combat XP and/or quest xp so that they won't be gimped for Achievement Abilities when they hit 80. So much of the T8 content is designed with a minimum amount of AA points in mind that if you used those potions liberally, once you hit 80 you would have to spend a significant amount of time going back and completing grey quests for the AA as a level 80 with less than 120 AA will have a much tougher time doing anything except solo quests.

TO the OP: Children of Norrath are on Befallen, based in Gorowyn so that good and evil characters can both use the facilities outside our guild hall. Officially we are good, but it's a fairly even mix.

This is an ideal time to get back into EQ2. I came back about six months ago, joined a small but dedicated guild and have been having alot of fun exploring, questing, crafting, designing our guild hall etc. There is so much content now it's possible to level several different characters without doing any of the same quests. I decided to level-lock one of my toons at 15 so I could get ahead on achievement experience. Two weeks later he has done over 200 quests and has explored only about a third of all the Tier 2 content. I discovered many fun zones I never knew existed since one can fly through the level 10-19 content in Timorous Deep or Darklight Woods. The game runs  very smoothly and the community is very helpful. If you haven't started yet you are welcome to come check out our guild on the Befallen server. Name is Children of Norrath ... officers are Murch, Phawn or Onjo. Not a hardcore raiding guild. Just mature players hanging out having fun in Norrath. Hope you have fun with it!

Purely from a consumer standpoint, I can't see spending money on a product that could possibly have issues that prevent you from getting your money's worth. Unless you are a militant fan of the game, you can't believe with much certainty that you won't regret investing money in it. If the PR representative of an auto-manufacturer or investment fund communicated to the public in vague and contradictory statements as Tasos has, don't you think the prevailing wisdom would be wait and see first? If Open Beta were going on now, then I could decide for myself and if there ever is one I will. I hope DF succeeds since I know PvP players have very few polished options in the MMORPG market and there is a niche to be filled there. There's certainly a ton of buzz going on leading up to launch and they will get enough players at launch to have a fair shot at proving the game is fun. All the secrecy this close to launch has my guard up though. My MMORPG wish is that someday the standard is for a playable demo for new realeases (newbie zone only or 1st 5-10 levels) to be available for download for a small fee of $5 or so which would be credited towards a full purchase if you decide to sign up. That way we would all be having a healthy debate about the game itself and not speculating on what we think, hope or fear it might be.

I think your perspective on EQ2 depends on how deep into the game (and MMOs in general) you are. I do understand some of the frustration and disappointment from players who are very passionate about wanting a challenging, in-depth MMO that sets itself apart from WoW and its' clones. The game was much more challenging at launch and many aspects of it have been simplified. However, from a casual player's persepctive, I think EQ2 is the most in-depth, creative game on the market that also has a learning-curve that an adult who lacks some of the MMO experience of younger players can still access. However, there are still fairly frequent players who have been in since launch (Brasse for example) who play every MMO out there at one point or another and still call EQ2 home.

I started playing EQ2 a few months after launch and played for about 8 months before I took a break. I loved the game, but just needed to get some more sleep since I was flirting with addiction. About six months ago I reactivated my account and now I play about 8 hours/week. My main character was level 51 when I rejoined. I have played 2 weeks (about 16 hours) casually questing and gathering resources in Sinking Sands. I haven't even been to Maj'Dul yet, just the quests around the docks and the upper desert. I'm about 65% into Level 52 now and have been crafting and tinkering as well. I find the game visually amazing and am enjoying all the different aspects of gameplay there are. I'm having fun and that's what keeps me coming back. For me (39 y.o. with wife and three kids), EQ2 is everything I want in a game right now. I'll never get through all of the content because I don't play enough and even if I do, I'll never get all my alts to 80. I'm sure I'm in the minority of people who come to this site and post on forums, but I think there are lots of players like me who just play the game and nothing else...hence they are rarely heard.

Just a note that 750 new teams will be available for new owners starting tonight. In regards to getting a new player on to a human owned team, the best way to do it is to post in the Looking For Teams forum that you will play Season 1 at minimum salary. You will get many offers and can pick the team that looks like the most fun. Money is not important your first few seasons...experience in games is. Warning...it's addictive. Whoever thought of taking fantasy football and combining it with some of the concepts from MMOs has struck a goldmine. There will be a ton of spinoffs on this over the next year trying to cash in. If you don't like football, don't bother. It's basically just FF + experience points and levelling up, but the competition and camraderie among teams and forums + the strategy involved make it hard to stay away from. There are already some friendly and bitter rivalries just after one full beta season. If you are a fan of the game, chances are you will have alot fun with this. I swear I don't work for them or know anyone who does. I'm a bigtime MMO and Fantasy Football junkie who's just over-excited that someone finally thought of combining em.

I'm curious to know what your favorite MMO is Usualsuspect. I think your critiques of EQ2 are valid ones, but as has been stated above, there are few games that do not share the same drawbacks. From your original post, I would think Ultima Online (back in the day) or Eve would offer you more challenge.

Let's face it, if you really want to play a game where the more intelligent, creative, focused player always wins, you're pretty much limited to chess.

My MMO experience is limited to UO>EQ>EQ2>LOTRO so I'm coming from a limited perspective, but here are the elements that compel me to play and my opinion on which game captures each to its full potential.

1.) Community. An obvious one, but also fascinating when you consider the different "feels" each game has. UO had many levels of community. One around the major banks...one in the major dungeons...one in the PK wilderness...crafters...tamers...large guild halls with auctions and vendors etc. Interestingly enough, UO has the least sophisticated chat interface. Perhaps the inability to shout across a zone facilitates more virtual-world gathering places.

2.) Wonder. The feeling of excitement and anticipation entering a new zone. Not knowing how far you can venture in safely. Observing more experienced players to learn how to adapt to the more dangerous and lucrative areas. "Unrest" in EQ captures this perfectly. Even fighting yard trash takes practice and you can still wipe. The first time you entered the house really got your heart pumping. Keeping your eye out for the festering hag training to the zone, etc.

3.) Discovery. Stumbling upon a hidden cave in the wilderness leading to a new quest line. Finding a relic on the ground that has an inscription to heed. Knowing that if you really take the time to explore an area, chances are that you will discover something that would have been unobserved if you just ran through. EQ2 does a great job with this. I stumbled upon many unexpected locales, objects, instances that always made exploring on its own fun. I hope LOTRO develops more of this over time. There's not much point to random exploring at this point.

4.) Accomplishment. Some games you finish a quest-line or acquire an item and it's right on to the next thing. Others you get that fist-pumping, ale-guzzling need to celebrate and feel a true sense of accomplishment. The Epic quests in EQ2 are like that. Just reading over what you have to do for one of them is enough to cause many players to pass them over. Rare MOBs, grinding faction, timed races etc. Finishing one of those quests and getting a truly prized item was a great feeling. It facilitated a lot of group-bonding too if you did most of it with the same group-members. I remember the Level 15 class-armor quests were also much fun.

5.) Sandbox/Structure Balance: I think UO hits this perfectly. The skill point cap allows players to develop an infinite combination of skills although there are still agreed-upon archetypes. I love that you can be completely self-sufficient as a player, living solely off the land and your own resources. I had one character that never entered a town or used a bank...role-played a hermit. There is also logical loot. Any animal you kill can be skinned for hides used in crafting and meat used in cooking. An NPC attacking you with a halberd has a halberd to loot, along with the clothes they are wearing too! The ability to run your own store with vendors is a great facet of the economy. It’s the only game I’ve played so far where you could have a very entertaining and rewarding experience solely as a merchant. Plus they have fishing and treasure hunts! Hmm…did I just convince myself to play UO again? Nah…the memories won’t be as sweet if I go back but I sure wish other MMOs would take some pages out of the UO blueprint.

Those of you with more MMO experience than I feel free to list which games you feel really maximize the potential of the above elements. I'm not a big-time PvPer, so I don't feel I can comment on those aspects.

Originally posted by eagle4x4
I am having a blast

Yesterday, I decided that I would try and do all the quests in the shire just to see how many there are.  I am at 75 and I am still finding more!!  Thats JUST in the Shire....and I am enjoying the stories that go along with them.

The haters can go ahead and hate..I am having fun.

The one that you an your friends will have fun playing.

Well yes, of course...but hearing people's opinions based on their experience hopefully will help me shorten the search for the one that my friends and I will enjoy playing. There are so many out there now and you have to give a game some time and get into at least the intermediate levels before you can get a good feel for it. The poster who commented on Cryptic and CoH hit home with me. I want to know that the company behind the game is responsive to the player community and goes about it's business in a way that the players respect. From what I've heard so far SOE and Turbine do not fall into that category on a consistent basis.

OK so the title sounds like an Oprah topic, but I would like some advice from those of you with more MMORPG experience than I have. I have dabbled in MMORPGs for about 10 years. I played Ultima Online for a year around 1998, Everquest for a bit around 2000, EQ2 for nine months in 2005 and 10 days ago I picked up LOTRO to see what the fuss was all about. Briefly, my impressions of each game:

UO: I loved that you could develop your character's abilities independent of any preset class (has any other game used this approach?). Crafting was fun and challenging, socially it was active and people had good times hanging out in the towns shooting the breeze as much as hunting and crafting. Having a rune book to travel all over the world was very handy...marking the spots you could recall to etc. Treasure hunting was a blast. PvP areas added real fear/caution to the game. Player housing was also a big plus. One of the classics.

Everquest: Exploring the world and making in-game friends was the part I remember enjoying the most. Entering a zone for the first time where you knew you might be in trouble was exciting. The immersion I felt when first playing EQ hasn't been matched yet by another game. Not much in the crafting realm when I played, but that didn't bother me much. The camping was the biggest drawback for me...and corpse runs could be a bummer. The social aspect of hunting with friends was the strongest plus for me.

EQ2: The crafting was much more developed and the idea of reactives added a new wrinkle to it. You can actually make decent money selling stuff from your house when you were offline. Combat was fun for the most part and though there wasn't much of a social hang in the cities, I joined a guild and had a few friends in there that made grouping up for epic quests fun. I had some memorable times in-game and if I didn't swear to never play an SOE game ever again (they autocharged my account for another year (legally as it is in the small print of the user agreement but to have that included in there is slimy) 6 months after I stopeed playing) I might have given it another shot.

LOTRO: I really wanted to feel like this was the game to invest in long-term. I will still give it some time to see where it develops as it is still early. The fact that it's Middle-Earth and has well-designed graphics is a plus. The towns are basically refuelling stations with little interaction. The world looks great, but it feels impersonal. I like the Deed system alot, and combat as a Guardian is much fun. Socially it seems a bit cold so far. People I have grouped with are always rushing off to the next quest and I have yet to meet a role-player in-game or even someone who cracked some jokes though I do some of that myself. Never any need to talk to anyone without a ring over their heads or your trainer/vendor. Crafting needs an overhaul as it is pretty one dimensional and a money-pit. I don't want to pass final judgement until the developers get some time to respond to initial player-feedback so for now I'll say I'm a little disappointed but have hope.

I only have 1-2 hours each day to play, but I want to play one game for the next several years so i can actually develop some characters and reap the rewards of sticking with it. Maybe there isn't one out there right now. I'm just testing the waters and looking for opinions. So what I want to know from those of you who read this is:

1.) What game have you played that had the most in-depth/rewarding crafting system?

2.) Which game do you feel has the most social interplay and least power-levelling?

3.) Which game do you feel has the most varied character options in regards to class and abilities?

4.) What game made you the most excited about logging in and feeling immersed in the world?

5.) If you had to commit to one game for the next 3 years, which one do you feel has earned your loyalty?