Originally posted by hanshotfirst

This was funnier when Andy Kaufman did it twenty years ago.

Personally, and I know a ton of people share my feelings on this, but it wasn't funny when Kaufman did it either.  If this is a joke, it's not funny and it's just more annoying than anything.  Perhaps Athene gets his rocks off on being hated by being outrageously idiotic, but I don't think that's far from being true to what he's saying.  It's annoying, idiotic, not funny, juvenile, and intentionally meaning to cause controversy than anything else.  There's a reason why Kaufman is looked at by many who saw him at that time as a demeaning jack@SS, and that's because that's what he was whenever people saw him.  The same with Athene.

Don't care in the first place, but he really is what I hate most about MMO gamers in general. Too many competitive pricks out there that think we actually care what they do. Like a professional basketball player dunking on an elementary school kid on the playground and then acting like he won the playoffs all by himself.

Hmm... I hope if it's done well enough it might be available in the U.S.  I'm already interested in mythological/historical referenced games.

Originally posted by mamadragon

Seems only USA and Canada can subscribe to this magazine. As someone who lives in the UK this is yet another example of them and us. Can't say I'll be losing any sleep over it though .

As far as I can tell, this isn't SOE owned or funded, but we'll see.  Beckett does sports magazines (American Football, Baseball, Baseketball, etc.), so this may just be their attempt to branch out into the new 'online sport' of MMOs.

Originally posted by JK-Kanosi

Because of the way SOE does business, I won't play their games anymore. I give props to companies like Turbine that give players free expansions. That's a way to show us we are appreciated.

*chuckles*

You do know that both EQ and EQ2 are on 9-12 month expansion release schedules now?  And all of their games now focus on giving regular content updates of one sort or another (generally on a monthly basis)?  Heck, even Vanguard, which is barely limping alone, is getting content updates alongside bug fixes.

People were giving SOE money for everything they put out with EQ because that's what people were used to doing.  Over the years, though, they've realized that this isn't what the general majority of players liked and changed with the times.  The funny thing is that Turbine and other, smaller development teams would have been right along with producing massive amounts of expansions like SOE if they had the money to invest in such things.

Completely agree with the author.  For some reason rather than adding onto existing areas by expanding upward, downward, or outward, there's a need to justify having all those graphics people by making whole new areas every single time.  Hey, sometimes you need to create new areas, but with every expansion?

But, the good thing with expansions are the new levels and other forms of advancement as well as certain other new content.  Advancement is important and unfortunately is tied to expansions in most MMOs.  Would love to see a game with an extreme bell curve and core advancement system that didn't top off, but c'est la vie.  As far as content, new mounts, new quests, new gear and the such is great for adding to the game in large amounts with expansions.

As far as the period of expansion releases, even SOE has recognized that no one likes an expansion every 6 months and is starting a 9-12 month expansion release system.  Along with this, many developers realize the importance of continuing updates to the game.  EQ2, LotRO, and CoH/CoV have almost monthly updates (Note to above poster who mentioned CoH/CoV for this, they're not the first or the only ones with this type of 'updates' and they're not called expansions).

What truly needs to happen, though, is for the overall design of MMOs to change.  Purely Level-based systems of advancement, rat-trapped zones, and single-concept achievement recognition is keeping MMOs bogged down in doing the same thing all the time.  We may have a surge in MMO gamers in North America and Europe due to WoW, but that will quickly go away if the genre isn't truly advanced in the next two to three years.  Console games are advancing every year and will continue to do so with the added capabilities of the consoles available today.  Heck, you can freaking play the guitar on your Nintendo DS...

Originally posted by docminus

 

Originally posted by loki_d20

Surprised you guys are just getting to reporting this since it's been up for two days.

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=388193

But, not only are some people still evacuated, but there's a need to only use so much energy so SOE has stopped using internal servers/services as well.  So testing servers are down as well.  Luckily a good number of people are keeping us up-to-date via their forums.

they did:

 

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/152439

on monday.

 

Then I'm just confused as to why the reposting.  *confused*

Surprised you guys are just getting to reporting this since it's been up for two days.

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=388193

But, not only are some people still evacuated, but there's a need to only use so much energy so SOE has stopped using internal servers/services as well.  So testing servers are down as well.  Luckily a good number of people are keeping us up-to-date via their forums.

Originally posted by Kyleran

The best part about Dan's columns is reading all the serious responses he gets from folks regarding them.

Folks....he is pulling your leg.  This is his style of humor...yes, that's right...he's not really serious about these columns, he just writes them to get a rise out of self-rightous, sanctimonious people..... (though I'm sure he & Stradden laugh as hard as I do at some of the responses)

As Dan said at the end of this article... "This concludes my weekly waste of column space."

I agree with his last sentiment, his writing is a waste of column space, but wish MMORPG.com would focus on people who don't waste time on the most vapid of conversations without any purpose or meaning.  It's not even funny.  My post above may be more serious than his, but I don't come here looking for drivel of this sort as if the writer finds it funny that he can write a few paragraphs drawn from some nebula of what he calls imagination or creativity when in fact it just makes him look like an idiot.

Sorry, but this is an idiotic article.

First, why the heck would anyone get angry over a game they're obviously not going to play?  I hate Sims games, yet I'm not going to complain about them since I don't play them.  What do I care what they do with those Sims games, I don't play them.

Second, good job on the violent tendencies represented in your article!  That really sends your point home, how a game you wouldn't even play makes you want to act out violently, even if in a virtual world.

Third, your reason for hating these games (because you think others will see you as the type that plays these games that you don't like rather than the virile MMOs that you do play) is pure crap.  That's like saying people see me as the type that plays sport games because I play video games.  What do you care what someone who hasn't taken the time to learn what type of games you like to play cares anyway?  Some parent sees me at Best Buy looking at the game section and thinks I'm the type that likes to play the most violent games just bother me at all because I know who the heck I am and what the heck I like, as do those who I share my gaming experiences with.  All those other people are just generalizing me, like they do everything else, and that's fine.  I don't care, and neither should you.

Join the fight against happy games?  Can I join the fight against people who fight things they don't care about or even play while millions of others do?  Oh, wait, I don't care that you hate these type of games, so my comments here will be all I have to say.

Just an extremely idiotic article.

Is it me, or do all the major online game developers refer to themselves a the '...world's leading developer'?  Same for publishers?

Honestly, I'm not so keen that they got people from Blizzard since that tends to mean they'll be more likely to recreate games they've already made.  We need a lot of fresh blood out there, people who aren't stuck in their way of thinking about what MMOs are about and should have.

Originally posted by fantaros

The difference which displeases me is that all those twinks or w/e they r called dont log on their lvl 70 to pvp with the big boys, they just talk sh*t and grief noobs. If a lvl 70 kills me in sb i wont care cause when i reach that lvl i have an equal chance of kiling him back to get my revenge (if i want, which i usually dont but meh) hell i can even burn his city if i want to.

Nothing has changed.  You can get to level 70 and kill other level 70s.  Why you care about people who refuse to play at their level bafles me.  One of the first rules of PvP is that you don't let how others decide to play get to you.  In the end, all things even out on their own.  Don't stop at the beginning.

Originally posted by fantaros

I have not seen a single individual stop lvling in those games so he can kill lowbies, hell from my experience every1 is trying to get the pve part out of their way in order to get involved in those 2 games amazing siegefare.

 

Yet in eq2 people LVL LOCK and stop advancing so they can grief. Tbh i dont mind higher lvls griefing me, i even expect it to happen. But some1 in eq2 thought he should prevent that, so players now have STOPPED lvling and they do is grief.

 

How is it you can have a problem with a limited method of griefing and then say you don't mind being griefed by the highest level players?  Wouldn't you be here complaining about all the high level people griefing all the low-level people instead, as it typical with PvP servers?

Don't look at a mechanic that at least gives you a greater chance at survival as well as the ability to level beyond the occurrence fairly quickly and ignore the fact of what it has removed.  Is it 50/50?  Probably not most of the time in those situations, but it's much better than the next to nil chance you'll experience in other games.  And the chances of survival only increase as you level, not decrease.

Honestly, I'm not a hardcore PvPer and I don't really care for the lack of dishonor for certain actions in PvP today (thank you Blizzard for caving in to the concept of rewarding people for poor gaming behaviors), but when I play EQ2 PvP I don't experienced as many issues as I have had in DAoC (Andred, not RvR), SB, and Lineage II.  Truthfully, it's a huge breath of fresh air and there are guilds out there who discourage such actions and like other PvP games end up policing areas when things get out of hand and they have the manpower.

As soon as you hit level ten you will be pvp enabled for good....there will be level-locked twinks camping every griffon (flight path), city door, EVERY low level zone and just about anywhere you go thats not in your city. These level-locked twinks arnt like WoW twinks in BGs. The twinks in EQ2 can take out full groups of normal players solo.

Only at the lower levels.  As opposed to a level 50 doing that from levels 1 to 40 or 50 in other games.

If you mess up and roll the wrong class...solo pvp is totally out of the question for you.

EQ2 is not a solo PvP game.  It is a group-based PvP game.  Much like other PvP games where you get killed quickly by groups when you solo.  At the early levels you can level pretty fast even solo, but after level 20 you should have a guild or a group of friends and try and stick with them.

There are no battlegrounds and the only way to find pvp if you WANT to find it is run around aimlessly looking for an even fight.

Or... go to the dungeons appropriate for your level, which is where everyone goes for the best loot and experience.

Scouts have a skill called tracking so if they come anywhere near your area your name will pop up on their list and they (and their group of twinks) will come straight to you and 1-2 shot you instantly. This happens over and over and over and over and over.

And they must follow you through every single spot on every single continent.  I understand that gankers exist, but to belittle what happens in EQ2 in comparison to other open PvP games is ridiculous.  This happens must more often and on a much worse level in other PvP games, such as DAoC's FFA server and Shadowbane.
 

You will ask WTF in general chat and you will be met with rude comments about how you need to learn to "twink" yourself and fight back. So...thats what i did. I spent a month running around noob zones harvesting materials to sell on the broker.

Rather than just leveling up... in 10 levels you're going to want new gear anyway.  And, do you really think most people are just saving up money to buy gear when they could just go and loot the gear themself in much less time?  I mean, if everyone is just scrounging for money to twink themself, who's supplying all of the stuff that people buy and why aren't you out there contesting them for these items?

You cant really farm nameds if your not twinked (or the right class) because you will have to fight twinks for the nameds. In this game 90% of the instances your enemies can enter....now this sounds fun...but trust me...its total crap.

So... having to compete against people with better gear is something you don't want to do?  Or, you can't just use tactics with the right friends to overcome their group?  You're complaining that people are more organized than you?

About 1 or 2 times an hour normally you will harvest a rare that will sell for 20ish gold. That sounds great! well...to buy a level 12 mastercrafted chest piece it will cost you over 1 plat...that is over 100g....at level 12........ Thats just one piece of armor and you will need mastercrafted or legendary in EVERY slot if you want to kill ANYONE 1v1...no wait....if you want to have the CHANCE to kill anyone.

Again, 1v1?  This game is far from being about 1v1.  And, just to have the chance to kill anyone?  Total BS.  Yes, the game is focused on improving a character with spell levels and items, but it's not so great that a scout in not all legendary equipment and with adept I abilities couldn't take on others.  Now, can he take on someone specifically designed for 1v1 as a class and equipment?  No.  But, that's not the whole game and it sounds like you're letting the few who want the game to be 1v1 bog down the game and drag you into their own game.  They're going to win because they have created something specific for 1v1 or ganking.  But get in a group, come back and kill them.  One person isn't going to take on a small group of equal level players all on their own no matter how well equipped they are (well... unless the group has no idea what they're doing...).

If you cant find a group....your not going to do anything...because in this game, on pvp servers if your not grouped (no matter if your twinked or not) you have no chance...at all...period. Soloists consider yourself warned unless you choose to gank new players 24/7 like the rest of the total population. Back to the armor...after you come up with the ton of cash you need to buy the armor...then you will need full jewelery and adornments...so keep harvesting buddy.

We've found our issue! Of course you're going to need a group. And, as I mentioned above, by level 20, which is easy to get to, you should have a guild or at least some friends. If not, then you're missing the social aspect of the game and the fact that EQ2 in general is not designed for soloers but for groups and guilds

Now, in this game...everytime you get a new skill it will be apprentice 1. Here is the spell order of upgrades...

Apprentice 1 (given for free)

Apprentice 2 (player crafted and total crap)

Apprentice 3 (player crafted and total crap)

Apprentice 4 (player crafted and total crap)

Adept 1 (loot drop and crap)

there are no adept 2s....that makes sense.........not!

Adept 3 (player crafted very expensive and will be the minimum if you want to do any damage to a pvper whatsoever)

Master 1 (rare loot from named mobs)

Master 2 (every 15 levels or so you will get a popup on screen and you can choose 1 spell to upgrade to master2 for free)

You have to upgrade EACH and EVERY spell that you wish to use in pvp. This is not just combat arts, buffs, debuffs, ALL of it. So...keep harvesting buddy.

So freaking biased, it's not even funny.  Everything but adept III+ is crap?  Sure, if you plan on doing everything solo.  But the majority of abilities will more than suffice at adept I, some even at app1.  There is no 'need' except for a perceived need brought on by the want to be good at 1v1 PvP.

Ok....on to AAs (alternate achievment points) There are 2 AA pages and you need to have ALL expansions to unlock both. If you dont have these...do not even consider rolling on a pvp server. More about aa's in a second.

At level 10, if you wish to compete whatsoever, you need to disable your combat xp. That means when you kill a mob you get nothing but the crap loot it drops. No advancement. The only way you advance is to complete a quest or kill a named mob for AA xp. When you complete a quest you will still earn a small amount of combat xp so you will level very very slowly. Why would you do this you ask? Because your enemies will have their AAs maxed (i played fora month and no clue how they max them, its hard) and AAs are EXTREMELY Important.

Ok, lets say you made it to level 12...which wont be very fast, because you disabled combat xp at 10. By this time you may have...5-8 AAs if your lucky. Lets say you have done what your supposed to and harvested and crafted and done every single damn thing you could to earn money and buy the stuff you need (i doubt you even make it this far when you see what a total joke fighting the hundreds of twinks with level 70s backing them and feeding them cash)

So..lets say you made it. Your level 12 with a few aa's and you have mastercrafted or fabled gear/jewlery/and adornments on EVERY SINGLE PIECE thats allowed. You say...ok now time for revenge. Well, lol if you dont have a group to roll with 24/7 sorry bud...better go harvest and start earning money for the next teir. Take your time though, cus with xp disabled for maximum AA gain...its gonna take you one HELL of a time to get to level 22 for the next set of good crafted gear. And...while your harvesting lol have fun getting rolled every 2-3 min from people ganking you. Think you found a private space? Well scouts can exploit the tracking page and just fly around on griffons from point one to point two and as soon as they see your name on track...they just simply jump off the griffon...and send you back to a rez point......including taking 75% of the cash you had on you and an item or two. So...yep, you guessed it...get back to harvesting. In eq2 pvp you drop 75% of your money per death...so you better bank often..and i mean really often. God forbid you walk out of city gates after youve walked away from broker and forgot to go back to bank....ugh..it happens.

Ok...your level 12-14 by now...saved up some AAs, got some decent gear, youve now been playing for about 2-3 weeks. Dont listen to what others say about how they can do all that in a week. Of course they can. They know what named drops every single piece, they have guilds protecting them...and if it gets bad...they can just log on their alt. The amount of crap you have to learn as an average new player its not gonna happen in a week, sorry. OK, your 12-14 and its been engraved into your brain man...i cant do ANYTHING without a group...so....you ask in chat for a group. If your name isnt recognized you will be lucky to get an invite. 90% of the people playing are afraid of losing their pvp titles (more about this in a minute) so they are VERY cautious about grouping with anyone outside of their "twinked circle".

Lets say you find a group....well buddy, you better hope and pray they have went through the hell you have...because if they arnt twinked to the max too....your still gonna get rolled over and over.

 

Ok, lets say your a patient man, like myself. Youve made it to level 20. You have about 20-25 AAs racked up, good gear and you can at least live over 5-10 seconds in a 1v1 fight...well...that depends on who your fighting. In eq2 pvp there is a class called a fury. They nuke harder (yes harder) than wizards or any other mage class at that level bracket and they can heal very very well. Their class is a healing class...but for some reason...Sony decides to not care about balance on pvp servers. Id say, without exageration that 70% of the pvp server will be a fury..or maybe a warden (the exact same thing both are druids except wardens are more defensive)..so....umm...yea i wonder why. another 20% will be scouts...very very few will play a mage or tank...just because of the total crap you have to go through.

Ok, lets say you found a GOOD group. They have decent gear. You are all in your low to mid 20s and you say...well...guys lets go kill some heroic nameds for more AA xp. GOTTA GET THOSE AAs!!! Sure! everyone says. Lets take Stormhold instance for example. You and your group goes to stormhold.....well, guess what, the pvp range here is 8 levels...so you and your low level 20 group are going to get rolled over and over by low level 30 twinks. LOL and you thought all that work you put in would matter.

 

Wait a second......i was told if i put in all this work to earn gear/spells/adornments it would get better? Naa lol. Because ANY place you go thats designed for level 20 will be an exact repeat of what you went through at level 10...except this time...its not a 4 level range....its an 8 level range. Once again, you and your group have no chance whatsoever.

Before long you will start thinking...wow, ive played so many pvp games and ill admit im not the best...but ive never felt so worthless and incompetent in any game ever. This will continue for your whole career. I dont care who comes here and tries to sugarcoat it, its how it is. All of that time you have commited and finally found a good group of twinks to roll with and your only option is to go camp low level players like they done to you? Because if you go into zones your level the level 30s, 40s, 50s...well you get the picture.

Keep in mind there are NO battlegrounds. There is NOTHING to keep players busy so they have no choice but to twink out. After the mid 30s...the roving gank squads tend to slow down because 80% of the game (not an exageration) is pvping in teir 2 or 3. (levels 10-20ish). Why you ask? Because there is hardly any population at higher tiers. Anyone that stuck it out and got to 60 gets rolled by guess what...nope not twinks....raiders, super twinks. because by this time there is no level range.

Get this....lets say youve put in the time required to get the gear and you found a solid group and youve now found the enemy....all they have to do is run to a zone line and zone out and have full immunity from anyone for 30 seconds......you follow them? sure you will....they will just zone again for more immunity....this is called zone hopping and 99% of any players will just zone hop untill you go away because when you get killed in pvp you have a chance at losing your pvp (ganker) title.

Why doesnt sony see these problems? lol this is sony. if you dont already know about sony look up SWG and what they did there...or vanguard.

 

I cannot believe a company that large with that many games under their belt lets this happen...but i said the same thing when i logged onto SWG and found my class's were no longer in game..........................................

So, by this time you are SO mad about all the time youve wasted you just ending camping players lower level than you just like what was done to you......is this what i call pvp? Nope. My idea of pvp is a totally different thing. Why didnt i post this on the eq2 officail boards? lol it gets even better...

The forums on EQ2 officail page dont allow any negative posts. I met someone that was banned from forums for saying antonia bayle was ugly.......(shes the queen.just an npc..) So, dont go to the forums and address your issues because anyone who has a real life to attend to and likes pvp quit this game long ago, so you will be mobbed with disgruntled players because they dont want to end their "god trip" in the game.

All in all, i can see why every pvp server other than 2 across 2 countries have been merged and 1 of those is in DIRE need of more players.

Everything ive described to you i had to go through twice because i made a mistake and rolled on venekor first...put in my time...and then had nobody to fight...so i went to nagafen..and oh yea theres population....but i think you know what population im talking about. There are serious issues in any game if your population would rather stay at level 14 to gank level 10s coming into game than level up and play with the big boys. Its really really a sad situation and i will never purchase another SoE product...ever. After this joke and the travesty that happened to SWG i will not do it.

You may say can i have your stuff...go back to WoW...whatever. Ive played every MMO that was released in the last 7 years thats had pvp and ive never ever seen a pvp rule-set in such a sad sad state. I want the last month of my life back but thats not gonna happen. I suggest you dont let that happen to you either.

 Screw it, I'm going to skip to the end of this post since I see what the problem is.  You want EQ2 to be like the other PvP games out there that you've experienced without realizing that there are many ways to play PvP.  You say EQ2 is the worst PvP game out there, but what you fail to see is that you can't compare it to all of the PvP game options out there.

For you, which was better in DAoC - PvP server or RP/Normal server?  I'm going to have to say you were partial to the Normal/RP server and, heck, you may never have even played on the PvP server.  If you had, you would see that the normal servers had RvR, which was restricted PvP by areas and realms whereas the PvP server had PvP without restrictions.  Sure, both allowed you to kill other players, but they were vastly different and aimed at different types of PvP.

EQ2 is probably the fairest form of open PvP you're going to get.  They have ranges for attacking people within your level range.  They have fast leveling, lots of land within which to level, and other things to do other than just combating other players.  Are there people who have been there since the beginning, have the best gear they can get, tons of abilities, and max out all that they can?  Yup.  Can these people mentor down to lower level people to form a strong group within which to fight?  Yup. Does it suck to get rolled by one?  Yup.

But, is that any worse than other games of open PvP (WoW PvP servers, Shadowbane, Lineage I/II, and DAoC PvP servers for example)?  Heck no.  In every single one of those games and many more not listed, instead of even having a chance against that group, I'd get one-shotted by some high level toon in the best gear, with the best abilities, etc.  Is what EQ2 provides a hard fight?  Yes, but it's damn better than what you're going to get in the other open PvP games.

Don't compare this game to battlegrounds of WoW or the frontier of DAoC.  They are two completely different beasts and they're not called PvP servers for a reason.  These are very limited, situational forms of player versus player action, but do not embody the concept of a full PvP game.

Essentially, don't join a PvP server in a game, any of them, expecting a fair shake at equality when all MMORPGs equate power to who has the most time to spend gaining the most levels, items, and abilities.

Originally posted by wildgamer

ive played the card game for about 16 hours total. i can also say that if you dont spend RL cash your going to get nowhere, period. if you dont understand this you naturally havent played against someone that has spent 300 bucks on packs.

with all the issues in this game, why they would allow an outside developer to develope a card game that awards ingame items that mess with the balance of gameplay is beyond me. wait no it isnt...its just to make more money.

if you need me to post exact details on how these awards unbalance the gameplay, just say so, i can write you a thesis on it.

Uh... the items I've seen so far are subpar to raid drop items.  The coolest thing I've seen so far are just new illusions and styles.  Nothing I would wear into a raid.

Originally posted by fantaros

I still dont understand why all those idiots with twinks are bashing the op telling him to go back to wow.

 

Go try some other games with real end-game pvp like shadowbane or daoc before u post crap like that. U think u r 1337 just cause u r killing newbs? U actually think having w/e title on a lvl 17 player means something? Go play with the big boys imo and prove your skill against them.

 

I dont play eq2 and havent tried it yet, but in my eyes forcing a new player to twink his first toon just so he can compete in starting lvls seems absolutely retarded to me!

Flame away....

Right, END GAME PVP (which, by the way, Shadowbane doesn't fit into... you start PvPing in Shadowbane pretty early on and are in a world with PvP is FFA once you leave the beginning continent).  If you're going to compare the PvP of EQ2 to something, then you need to compare it to similar concepts.

Let's compare DAoC's battlegrounds (start at very low levels now).

How different are they when it comes to equipment?  None whatsoever.  Both are heavily equipment based for most classes, though casters tend to rely on it a lot less.

How different are they when it comes to alternative advancement/realm points?  None whatsoever.  Both make players with these items more powerful.

To the OP, I have to say that if you think EQ2's PvP is the worst because of the time investment and ability to twink lower levels, then I'd have to completely disagree with your assumption that you've been playing similar PvP games in the last 7 years.  You cannot compare EQ2's PvP to DAoC's end-game RvR (noticed it's called RvR, not PvP...) since you can PvE your way to the level cap without any problems.  Compare it to DAoC's battlegrounds, which happen at much earlier levels, WoW's FFA servers, and other games with FFA servers.  You will find in all situations that the problems you bring up occur in every single one of those situations and are not just an issue with EQ2.

The diference with EQ2 is that the twink squads tend to be in the first 20 levels and leveling past that is extremely easy.  The concept of gankers lives in every single PvP game out there.  Take your level 30 character in DAoC into the frontier and you can bet there will be plenty of level 50s out there that are RR5+ ready to kill you in one shot.

So... throwing money at people shows that you're a contender... but not necessarily for the best PvP game out there.  Doesn't matter, though, you'll get people to play the game because people love prizes.

Originally posted by Zarraa

 

Originally posted by spizz

Originally posted by turnipz

Im sorry but why has there been any hype for this game, its less fun than silkroad.  People were all talking how fast paced it was and how much action it had, its actually putting me to sleep playing it.  You just click the enemy and your guy does his action sequence for 30 seconds until something dies.

 

Anyways remind me never to look forward to a game.

Iam sorry, but why do believe every hype...same was about vanguard, dark & light and many other games, now draw your conclusions and learn.

 

Don't stop there...EQII, WOW, SWG, CoX, L2, EVE, Ryzom, D&DO,LOTRO etc fell prey to the hype machine too. Granted the majority of these are fine titles but not one has lived up to the hype.

Guarded optimism is you're best bet..

Sounds to me like every MMO out there hasn't live up to the hype based on what you're saying.  And, who the f*#& hyped Saga of Ryzom?  Heck, the thing was so unhyped that the Ryzom Vault was never completed and that was with 'encouragement' from the developers.

Zero problems here.

Why have crafting in games when it's purely optional and you can get better gear from the hardest content?

The reason to have it is so that players have an option.  That's all.  Don't like it?  Don't PvP.