To the OP...

Big difference between like and prefer.

Do I like soloing versus the alternative of sitting idle for possibly months at a time because I cannot progress without a solid, full group?  Well ya, who including you doesn't.  This is in part what killed EQ and EQ2 shortly after launch, group play with no players in your level range.  Go try grouping in an established game  in those mid levels, near impossible.  With solo play a new player and alts can advance to where people are.  Also why WoW's slow release schedule is casual friendly... you can catch up even years later.  In EQ even active players could not keep up with the content and just kept getting further and further behind the top end.

Long story short... solo is required for those times when groups just aren't coming together.  We don't all have 24 friends on speed dial who play our favorite MMO at our beckon call ;)

All good and fine but at the end of the day... VISA put through the reversal, money is back in my account as of yesterday and that number is cancelled so Funcom can't bill me regardless of how they feel about it.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Agricola1

Originally posted by Toquio3

stealth.

 

Must agree here this is one of the most gay and annoying mechanics possible right up alongside any combat system that requires alot of button mashing (AoC being the worst button masher I've played to date).

I hate WoW's stealth, which is ridiculously OP, but Warhammer did it okay.

Go play EQ2 some time ;)  In EQ2 if you are stealth nothing is going to notice you no matter how many times you run through them :O  They 'balance' it by having some MOBs see invis.

The death penalty.  Easily the dumbest mechanic in an MMO.  Frankly the harsher it is... the more likely I am to cancel.

EQ, once games without one were released... cancelled.

Aion, cancelled.

VG, cancelled.

Must be doing something right because I have...

Phenom II X2 @ 3.8GHz

4 GB DDR2

nVidia 8800GTS 512 @729/1728/1080

Can't break 30fps at HIGH in most places.  Not alone if you check the performance forum thread.  Intel consistantly scores higher... in EQ2 ;)  In raids its hard to break 10fps.  Looks smoother, but F11 doesn't lie.

EDIT: Ressubbed yesterday for some testing and found nVidia driver 190+ to be a large drag in EQ2.  Going back to 186 restored the performance I remember having some time ago.  Still prefers Intel but its less gimp on 186.

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart2.html

I think  you need to tie down what you do and don't like in an MMO a little more.

Hate instances but like them here.

Not a fan of being on rails except in that one.

PvP hells ya, but PvE is sweet too.

EQ2 is a great PvE MMO as long as you have a great Intel PC.  Just doesn't run as well on an AMD rig, which sucks since I run a Phenom II rig.  Also be ready to run a lot of PUGs grinding shards to open up the dungeons.  Ie spending a lot of months in the same 2 instances to luck then next 6, then months for the next one la de da.

My top four are EQ2, LotRO, AoC, CO.  But Funcom burned me so guess I only have a top three now ;)

Aye but they really really need to hire better movie guys.  The tiny meaningless movies that play from time to time are well lacking.

Maybe get the people who did the SoM promos to work on it?

He is referring the the newsletter sent to accounts that are inactive.  Ie AA wouldn't have seen it ;)

And yes it lists a laundry list of bonuses for coming back including the "Free level 50 character" without fine print about how it only applies to people who actually have a 50 to begin with.  On that account my highest toon is 12? but there it is in the email saying a level 50 just for coming back.  And vet points and and and...

WoW was great in 2004.

But now its just dated.  Not any worse, actually quite a bit better but when you release dated... 5 years later you're really dated.  Basically if they release a graphics upgrade to WoW like they did to EQ oh boy.  Imagine AoC's poly count and colour variation while maintaining WoW stylized graphics =O  Pretty grab everyone who left by the nuts and drag them back.

But with D3 pushed back and Cat up next, a WoW 1.5 is years off =(

Many theme park MMOs are sandbox in the way that I like it.

What you describe is absolutely no fun for the player who is ganked, not a member of a never sleeps/works guild or just trying to explore unhampered.  It was fun in UO for about an hour before getting randomly ganked for loot got real old.

The sandboxes I like have PvE content and open worlds.  Read open, instances of open zones is fine by me.  No one complained about zoning when EQ was the only game in town.  No one dropped EQ for AC2 because AC2 offered an open sandbox and a reason to advance besides spending days fighting in one corner for loot/level.

Anyway sandbox in the current definition is just not something the masses, me included, are interested in.  But yes theme parks that are on rails are just as bad. Ie  Aion, Guild Wars, WAR.

Not sure why the "its your fault" crowd isn't getting it yet.

I am not saying Funcom is WRONG within the agreement in their refusal to refund the purchase I made by mistake, my mistake but a mistake none the less.

What I am saying is that they aren't doing anything RIGHT by me by chosing to keep my money under the agreement instead of refunding me thereby doing the RIGHT thing by my to... key word here... KEEP me happy.

$35 is a tiny ammount of money to lose a customer for life over.  Thats it, thats the whole point.  I do however think the offer should have been given to existing customers as thank you for seeing them through the first year.  Also not liking how the offer just keeps getting better and better over time.  Got another email for my other account today with the latest offer.  So first it was reduced rates, then reduced rates with minor rewards, now reduced rates minor rewards and the stuff you get from subbing anyway advertised as special somehow "Free Level 50 Character!"  err ya if you already have one ;)

Unless your cycle ended at the time of the offer how would you even know?  You either had no plan and got billed when you selected one or you had time left but so little that it fell within a couple day period?

Don't see how the system would act differently for different people.  Check your payment history, it will tell you when you were billed and I was billed the moment I extended despite having months left on my current cycle.

If you select 3 months, you get billed IMMEDIATELY for 3 months.  If you change to 1 year during the cycle you IMMEDIATELY pay for 1 year.  There is no free period, only extra days for BUYING time.

I like LotRO, I've resubbed for SoM but not just like every other MMO?  Really?  How?  Again I like the cookie, but its still a cookie.

If you select a three monthy sub, you are in it for the duration.  You can change to a 1 month after but it is not possible to get a pro-rated refend on your remaining months... you have to keep your 3 month sub.

Lots of good came from AC2 being canned, ie D&DO and LotRO which share the AC2 engine.  But I still miss AC2 for the unique game play options.  End game wasn't great but the trip was.  What I don't get is why can an MMO.  Just stop production and keep it running.  I could see a one MMO shop having to full stop, but Turbine also runs 3 other MMOs from the same data centre.  Not too hard to have exisiting staff push the reset button if the server faceplants ;)

Small correction my existing 3 month cycle started Oct 29.  The extention was "bought" on Nov 17.  Hadn't even gotton into the first month of play, have maybe 5-6 hours played total.

Either a lot of people didn't take the offer or already were on 3+ month subs and just stayed on it.

The default upgrade button brought you to a page to chose a sub plan along with prices and at the top was the adventure pack ad along with the price.  At the bottom it listed your total.

If you didn't realise the ad was actually part of your total... bam you now have the adventure pack.  I almost got dinged since it looked way out of place and not part of the sales portion but saw the total was wrong so I cancelled.  Using the reactivate or whatever button brought you to the same page minus the adventure pack ad where the total was just the sub plan selected.

I'm going to guess a lot of people took the out of place ad as just an ad and not a line on the sales slip.

The joke of course is today... you can't buy the adventure pack.  Or at least its no longer an option on my two accounts.