The game seemed a bit fun, but so far it seems WoW and LotRO are the most polished games out there, AoC is making a come back also. EQ2 kicked my comps teeth in where as I can play LotRO on Ultra High DX10 and play it flawlessly.
Was nice having talking npc's though, I'm lazy and usually skip reading quests.
WoW is hardly polished; there's nothing to polish, there never was. Lotro is also a farcry from the level of refinement in EQII.
I admit that WoW (though I've only played the initial 30 days way back when) must be the superior MMO because its so popular. But I've read from other players that it could also be because it tailors to the 'lazy' crowd that like the easy MMO and its also on a good engine that doesn't take a lot of PC power to push well. Though at the same time it doesn't really impress me graphic wise. IMO LotRO looks WAY better and that game is optimized well too.
I played LotRO for 1.5 years so I'll be the first to admit that its a great MMO and was my favorite for a long time. Some things that I hated about that game though: Character customization is lacking, environments are really lacking artistically as well. Dungeons are just bland and tbh most in-door environments are quite bland/ugly. The art style just is...blah. Also I really hated the healing class (which is my fav to play). Now I do have a mid level Ruin Keeper but tbh its not the healer I was looking for but it was a good start. So many things I liked about the game but there was always something missing.
Now that I've been playing EQ2 for awhile I must admit that it has its good points and bad points.
Graphics are a mixed bag. Most everything looks awesome but then some textures are just bad. Most environments are done very well and the artistic style of the game is beautiful. I get the feeling of being in a real world. Sound is wonderful for the most part. Characters look awesome and character customization is pretty damn good. Creatures looks great in EQ2 and there are some very detailed and creative beasties. Thats a big plus in my book.
Resource gathering is easy but not as fun as lotro and not being able to sell resources to a vendor bothers me as thats how I made a lot of money in lotro. Crafting is a mixed bag as well. It takes time and having to make adjustments on the fly while crafting means I can't just get up and walk to the kitchen to get a drink or snack while my toon crafts. In EQ2 I have to sit there and watch while I craft and make those adjustments during the crafting process. BUT it does make crafting less boring.
I'm not the biggest fan of EQ2's market and I prefer lotro's Auction house better but this isn't a deal killer for me. PUGS are a little harder to come by in EQ2 as well but if you are in a good clan then getting grouped isn't too hard.
This game is very CPU dependant and requires quite the power house PC to push it along and considering how old the game is it really isn't acceptable BUT if you have a powerful PC then you might not notice. Still its a shame and I'm sure many people have left the game for that reason alone.
All in all I really enjoy EQ2 more than any other MMO to date but I admit it has its flaws.
You are correct that WoW's popularity is in it's 'laziness' appeal. It also strikes a chord with people because it's cartoony.
LOTRO is definatley not a shining beacon of optimization(whether MMO or not).
The nice thing about the Minstrel, is that unlike all the other MMOs, there's no typical magical caster healer. The bard makes more sense given the Tolkien characters. However, the Lore-Master was defiantley lore-breaking. Rune Keeper and Warden are just half-assed classes to give something people to do.
The theme and style of the art is quite superb. It's realistic and proportionate to it's surroundings and your character. There's none of that overly extreme shaped nonsense as in WoW or asian games.
The best thing it has going for it visually speaking is the texture resolution(high), WHEN and IF it shows up. A lot of times the system has a poor time dynamically switching from low to high resolution, and there's no in between variations.
You point out a lot of key points. WoW in it's beginning days was great IMO. Going from Planetside (which I thought was a BLAST the first FPS full all out war game was fun as hell) to a bit of EQ which was fun but required SO much time compared to Planetside then moving to WoW which i felt was a nice balance. In the beginning WoW was a tough raider, with 40+ raids and required a lot of time to get what you needed...Blizzard made it a bit lazier so they could accustom it to the laid back gamer.
I have enjoyed EQ2 so far, as I enjoyed Lotro, i have yet to experience the new Expansion material tho. Still it is hard to have an MMO captivate me when it has to much going on, and a community that seems sort of weak and sad. and I have found that with EQ2, LOTRO, Vanguard, AoC, WAR, and even WoW with the latest expansion's.
While each game has it's plus's and minuses it is hard to stay attached to one MMO without losing interest and I believe part of that is with the actual community and if the game provides a challenge anymore. I really wish I could find something that I can sink my teeth into and enjoy..but I keep faltering with each MMO I have tried. I seem to enjoy EvE Online more and more with the free expansion's they put out..and I wonder if anything will break the next barrier such as WoW did when it was first released.
Back on track with EQ2 I made a char on Crushbone. Does anyone know if the whole Evil/good thing makes much of a difference in gameplay?
Good eye about the fact that each has it's slight differences, yet you still cannot enjoy it for too long, before considering returning to another, based on those slight differences. Which is the crux of it. They're all copies of one another.
This is why Darkfall is so awesome but at the same time such a failure. It's great because it breaks so many modern MMO old-hat traditions, and does immerse you; yet it's also just an FPS shot up with a steroid mix of RPG elements and lots of traversable land, with just a pill or two of MMO influence. Which in the end means it's not what MMO players want, it's what FPS players want, and they got that backwards.
So, here's to hoping Darkfall's concepts are picked up by someone who's willing to go the full distance in the genre; maybe Bethseda...
I love EQ2
