After my first article was published, a few players chimed in with comments that I could only best describe as hate. Hate of Sony Online Entertainment, developers and publishers of Everquest 2. Hate of the game itself. Even as I type this, I am watching what can only be described as an argument brewing in the comments section of "Through the Eyes of a Noob." This wasn't my first encounter with people complaining about the game. But I did want to know more, and most importantly, why?

My first trip was to Everquest 2 Flames, an entire online forum community that, for the most part, complains about SOE and Everquest 2, even to the point that they have created a "Declaration of the Populace," a crudely-worded mockery of the Declaration of Independence to SOE. There are also other posts - "Proof that providing sexual favors to SOE staff leads to employment," "I cancelled my account, and here's why," and "Stupid guild names." To the positive, however, EQ2Flames also does have in-depth discussions of the game itself, even going so far as to answer questions from newbies in their own forum, which is moderated. They offer their own caveat to people who register to the forum: "The profanity filter is disabled and strong language is used on this site. Do not read or use this site unless you are prepared to be offended."

My second trip was to the MMORPG.com Everquest 2 forum, but I really couldn't find the level of hate that was in Everquest 2 Flames, other than the "We're angry at SOE" thread, which encompassed more than just Everquest 2. I went to the official Everquest 2 forums, but I couldn't see it there, either. I did note that Sony has a strong moderation presence there, as well as a strong developer presence. The developers seem to keep up a good rapport with the players. I couldn't find any evidence of disgruntled players, but, as I previously stated, the forums are heavily moderated, so there is the possibility of any hate topic being removed.

I scoured the Internet for any other sources of large numbers of people that hated the game, but couldn't find any. As a matter of fact, I found more positive comments than I did complaints. This left me at an impasse - I see a strong presence from people that dislike this game, some for the most unusual reasons, but they appear now to be just a loud minority compared to the players that enjoy the game. There's just a lack of evidence pointing out any real reason why the game is bad. Here is where things get dicey. After all, it is a game, and the game can be stopped if it isn't good to you. But people seem to target anything positive about this game and try to stomp it flat, as if the good of this game were a dangerous insect.

I went to the sources of these negative comments, the players that made them. MMORPG.com user ohreally stated this, and was the first comment on my previous article: "SOE has bowed to the hand holding crowd who want their games to be fast leveling, no risk, with instant gratification. There is little to no death penalty in this game, you can play just a few hours a day and level to max in just a few weeks, and you can see and do most all of the adventure content in 3-4 months. Trade skilling (sic) has become nothing more than pressing a few buttons and running to the broker to buy ingriedients (sic). The market has dried up for most trade skill made items and only a few artisans can actually make any money with it."

Member ste2000 claims that Sony is making Everquest 2 more like Blizzard's World of Warcraft: "WoWisation gone mad, I mention it earlier[sic]. At launch EQ2 was a nice challenging game. Then Smedley decided to go where no one else went before (apart for other 200) and try to copy WoW by transforming EQ2 in a soulless game."

Still, for every argument these members had against the game, others such as rreston would stand up for it. "Besides, such an article is good for other newbies - which are, in fact, the new blood that may revive the game," he says to defend against a detractor.

"I too am new to EQ2 and have been finding it very enjoyable," says Voronwe. "I'm sorry to see there are some people who feel so personally slighted by SOE that they find it necessary to respond with massive negativity about the game in reply to an article designed for new players."

I believe that dgagley, however, summed things best with his comment: "people need to be less stressed about this, this is not the wife cheating, it is a game like many others out there. Find something you like and have fun." From what I've read from the wonderful members of the MMORPG.com community(yes, even the detractors!), it will take maybe getting further into the game for me to see all of the viewpoints in this situation, and I can agree. After all, I'm still new. But the debate rages on. We'll see, in future articles, on which side of the fence the grass is greener.

I was unable to speak, personally, with these members to delve deeper into their reasoning. I recommend reading through the comments of my previous article, "Through the Eyes of a Noob," to learn more.