This game = FAIL

[Darwyn]

<p>I had a trial account once, but it was too limted for me to form any real impression of the game. I played for a coupe of days and quit, until I saw this Living Legacy promotion and decided to come back to give EQ2 a more fair try.</p><p>Well, I'm not impressed, to say the least. I can see now why EQ2 lost out so badly to WoW. I can't believe those few of you that still play EQ2 would want to pay for a game that is so riddled with technical and design issues.</p><p>The game stutters, freezes, and crashes. A lot. Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others. Most people who were affected probably quit over it a long time ago, but a minority of masochists are still begging for help in the tech forums. The help isn't coming. If SOE couldn't get the game out of beta in 4 years, they sure aren't about to do it now.</p><p>And talk about tragic design choices! Nothing destroys the continuity of a virtual world like loading screens. You'd think the designers would at least try to minimize their impact on player experience by giving the player fast transportation options and avoiding quest design that requires the player to repeatedly traverse zones. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Multi-zone FedEx quests abound. The player must suffer to stare at loading screens and landscape flowing by over and over for hours just to reach an NPC that will send him on the next leg of the infuriatingly boring journey. The new Void Storms world quest is a perfect example of this insanity. You call this fun?! If I get a real job with FedEx, at least THEY will pay ME.</p><p>Whenever I join a group to venture into one of the game's dungeons, I must spend an average of 15 minutes getting there across zones and loading screens. Guess what? When I join a dungeon group, I'm expressing a desire to to engage in some spelunking with other people, not to go backpacking. Designers, take note! Would it kill you to give the players group summoning and fast teleport or griffin from any zone to any other? What's that, you like travelng the way it is now? You feel it contributes to the "world" feeling? Well I got news for you: the "world" feeling went down the toilet with the loading screens. Why don't you give me fast travel, and you can still walk if you like it that much. Then we'll both be happy.</p><p>The dungeons themselves are a mad rush to farm the rapidly respawning bosses. No one bothers with the story or the quests there because they don't fit the pacing set by the mad spawn of loot-filled pinatas. Ugh! The pacing problems could have been solved by making most dungeons privately instanced rather than public, but I guess someone on the design team was going for that "world" feeling again. What happened? Oh yeah, the LOADING screens! Here's a hint: If you really want to create a "public" experience, put it in the world instead of a shared instance.</p><p>Then there are the useability problems: Hey, lets tie inventory capacity to Strength, that'll show those scrawny mage-types thier proper place! Seriously, which "genius" came up with that nonsense? Why would you want to penalize a player's ability to receive and carry loot rewards based on their chosen class arechetype? Do they desreve being rewarded less and frustrated more somehow? Why make something painful just for the sake of making it painful? Didn't your professor/boss/mom teach you to never compromise useabillity for flavor?  And how about the inability to spend Status Points unless you're in a guild? What? Why?! Not being in a guild is a valid gameplay choice, in fact it's the DEFAULT choice. Players can earn SP doing solo and other non-guild activities, why asymmetrically restrict them from receiving rewards for accumulated SP in the same way? I suspect the only answers are: "just because" and "our pet monkey George pulled it out of its rectum".</p><p>Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about EQ2, which is why I bothered to stick around long enough to form an articulated opinion about it. The race, class, and character customization options are excellent for example. The new-er starting areas are well designed and do a good job of guiding a new player through key gameplay and class aspects. But the good elements are drowned out by the sloppiness of implementation, bad design choices, and what seem like deliberate attempts to frustrate the player.</p><p>On the off chance that someone in Sony corporate management might be reading this, you need to dispatch a team of ninjas to your Austin development studio and administer a righteous buttkicking!</p>

[duuf]

Ok since I made Egchar upset I am modding this post.  Using  the word "fail" makes any argument following it specious. Change it to this game failed for you and maybe I and some of the rest of us EQ2 players will be more accepting of your arguments.Maintaining that "This game = FAIL" is an insult to all of us for whom it has been a great success.

[erin]

Bye.  I'd ask for your stuff but doesn't sound like you spent any time actually playing the game.

[Huene]

<cite>duuf wrote:</cite><blockquote>Go back to WoW troll you don't belong in this game.</blockquote>Troll trolls don't belong on the forum either, his post was constructive, read the whole thingUgh, that is not my signature :/

[Darwyn]

What, you got nothing to say to me besides making ad hominem attacks? Could it be because you can't refute any of my points and know I'm right?

[Yimway]

While I agree with many things stated by the OP, I do agree with SoE's choice of making status a guild funciton.  Guilds are a much bigger part of the game in EQ2 than other MMO's and I think thats a good design decision.  The player can certainly opt not to be in a guild, if so, I'd suggest just skipping doing writs or other activities that earn status with no other reward.Regarding crashing and freezing.   EQ2 does require more than a hamster powered emachine to play.  This has always been a large contributing factor to why they have low marketshare.  Darn near any off the shelf PC can handle the polygon count in WoW and it plays with reasonable performance.  EQ2 on the other hand does not.   And honestly the EQ2 client doesn't do a remarkable job at leveraging modern video cards as well.That being said, I run 40fps on three sessions all running on the same pc,  I do not stutter, crash or have any performance issues as you describe.Regardless, go try out AoC.  Its instance mad, and has little 'down time' getting between the action bits.  Its much better for the quick gratification player.

[Dasein]

1. Travel in EQ2 is quite fast - most dungeons can be reached in under 5 minutes, with a few exceptions, and travel hubs are quite centralized largely eliminating the need for fast travel. 2. Zoning can be annoying, but the current design trend is away from small zones and towards much bigger zones like you see in RoK. This is less a flaw and more a design choice - AoC, for example, also uses zones. There's trade-offs to both design styles, and players have their own preferences.3. In just about every game with a strength attribute, it is tied to the amount of weight a character can carry. If you find your low strength is becoming a major issue, get some strength gear, or a potions to tide you over until you get to your bank or a vendor. That carrying capacity is tied to strength is not a design flaw any more than magic damage being tied to intelligence.

[Tel]

So EQ2 isn't for you.  Big deal, a majority of EQ2 players don't really care about your opinion, as our opinions are opposite.  I played WoW for 3 years +, starting playing EQ2 and I must say that I played the wrong game for 3 years.Even with the little things like load screens. (As I do not have a crashing or any performance issues), I'll take the loading screens over the cesspool that is the WoW player base that includes you and your other "WoW is the bestest ever" fanbois.   Even if your post was formated and well written, it's still a pretty baseless post.Who in WoW cares about the lore of a dungeon?  It's only about farming it over and over again for loot.

[Yimway]

<cite>Thetmes@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>So EQ2 isn't for you.  Big deal, a majority of EQ2 players don't really care about your opinion, as our opinions are opposite.  I played WoW for 3 years +, starting playing EQ2 and I must say that I played the wrong game for 3 years.Even with the little things like load screens. (As I do not have a crashing or any performance issues), I'll take the loading screens over the cesspool that is the WoW player base that includes you and your other "WoW is the bestest ever" <b>fanbois</b>.   Even if your post was formated and well written, it's still a pretty baseless post.Who in WoW cares about the lore of a dungeon?  It's only about farming it over and over again for loot.</blockquote>potkettleblack

[Asif]

<cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I had a trial account once, but it was too limted for me to form any real impression of the game. I played for a coupe of days and quit, until I saw this Living Legacy promotion and decided to come back to give EQ2 a more fair try.</p><p>Well, I'm not impressed, to say the least. I can see now why EQ2 lost out so badly to WoW. I can't believe those few of you that still play EQ2 would want to pay for a game that is so riddled with technical and design issues.</p><p>The game stutters, freezes, and crashes. A lot. Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others. Most people who were affected probably quit over it a long time ago, but a minority of masochists are still begging for help in the tech forums. The help isn't coming. If SOE couldn't get the game out of beta in 4 years, they sure aren't about to do it now.</p><p>And talk about tragic design choices! Nothing destroys the continuity of a virtual world like loading screens. You'd think the designers would at least try to minimize their impact on player experience by giving the player fast transportation options and avoiding quest design that requires the player to repeatedly traverse zones. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Multi-zone FedEx quests abound. The player must suffer to stare at loading screens and landscape flowing by over and over for hours just to reach an NPC that will send him on the next leg of the infuriatingly boring journey. The new Void Storms world quest is a perfect example of this insanity. You call this fun?! If I get a real job with FedEx, at least THEY will pay ME.</p><p>Whenever I join a group to venture into one of the game's dungeons, I must spend an average of 15 minutes getting there across zones and loading screens. Guess what? When I join a dungeon group, I'm expressing a desire to to engage in some spelunking with other people, not to go backpacking. Designers, take note! Would it kill you to give the players group summoning and fast teleport or griffin from any zone to any other? What's that, you like travelng the way it is now? You feel it contributes to the "world" feeling? Well I got news for you: the "world" feeling went down the toilet with the loading screens. Why don't you give me fast travel, and you can still walk if you like it that much. Then we'll both be happy.</p><p>The dungeons themselves are a mad rush to farm the rapidly respawning bosses. No one bothers with the story or the quests there because they don't fit the pacing set by the mad spawn of loot-filled pinatas. Ugh! The pacing problems could have been solved by making most dungeons privately instanced rather than public, but I guess someone on the design team was going for that "world" feeling again. What happened? Oh yeah, the LOADING screens! Here's a hint: If you really want to create a "public" experience, put it in the world instead of a shared instance.</p><p>Then there are the useability problems: Hey, lets tie inventory capacity to Strength, that'll show those scrawny mage-types thier proper place! Seriously, which "genius" came up with that nonsense? Why would you want to penalize a player's ability to receive and carry loot rewards based on their chosen class arechetype? Do they desreve being rewarded less and frustrated more somehow? Why make something painful just for the sake of making it painful? Didn't your professor/boss/mom teach you to never compromise useabillity for flavor?  And how about the inability to spend Status Points unless you're in a guild? What? Why?! Not being in a guild is a valid gameplay choice, in fact it's the DEFAULT choice. Players can earn SP doing solo and other non-guild activities, why asymmetrically restrict them from receiving rewards for accumulated SP in the same way? I suspect the only answers are: "just because" and "our pet monkey George pulled it out of its rectum".</p><p>Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about EQ2, which is why I bothered to stick around long enough to form an articulated opinion about it. The race, class, and character customization options are excellent for example. The new-er starting areas are well designed and do a good job of guiding a new player through key gameplay and class aspects. But the good elements are drowned out by the sloppiness of implementation, bad design choices, and what seem like deliberate attempts to frustrate the player.</p><p>On the off chance that someone in Sony corporate management might be reading this, you need to dispatch a team of ninjas to your Austin development studio and administer a righteous buttkicking!</p></blockquote><p>Hmm the game runs fine for me might be time for a new puter for you, and the rest well it seems like it is not your game so why not leave no need to whine about the game like that. </p><p>Have fun with any game you play and nope i dont want any of your stuff either none of it would be any good any way  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[auvii]

<cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I had a trial account once, but it was too limted for me to form any real impression of the game. I played for a coupe of days and quit, until I saw this Living Legacy promotion and decided to come back to give EQ2 a more fair try.</p><p>Well, I'm not impressed, to say the least. I can see now why EQ2 lost out so badly to WoW. I can't believe those few of you that still play EQ2 would want to pay for a game that is so riddled with technical and design issues.</p><p>The game stutters, freezes, and crashes. A lot. Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others. Most people who were affected probably quit over it a long time ago, but a minority of masochists are still begging for help in the tech forums. The help isn't coming. If SOE couldn't get the game out of beta in 4 years, they sure aren't about to do it now.</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Never had an issue, played since launch and never heard of any issues.</span></p><p>And talk about tragic design choices! Nothing destroys the continuity of a virtual world like loading screens. You'd think the designers would at least try to minimize their impact on player experience by giving the player fast transportation options and avoiding quest design that requires the player to repeatedly traverse zones. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Multi-zone FedEx quests abound. The player must suffer to stare at loading screens and landscape flowing by over and over for hours just to reach an NPC that will send him on the next leg of the infuriatingly boring journey. The new Void Storms world quest is a perfect example of this insanity. You call this fun?! If I get a real job with FedEx, at least THEY will pay ME.</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Loading screens are not fun, this was the only statement I agree with throughout your post. However when EQ2 was launched it was something that had not been done before, at least not at the level they took it. Instancing was a big deal and so were the games graphics. Loading screens were unavoidable. I do not however think it ruins the game in any way. The new RoK zones are enormous and eliminate most load screens.</span></p><p>Whenever I join a group to venture into one of the game's dungeons, I must spend an average of 15 minutes getting there across zones and loading screens. Guess what? When I join a dungeon group, I'm expressing a desire to to engage in some spelunking with other people, not to go backpacking. Designers, take note! Would it kill you to give the players group summoning and fast teleport or griffin from any zone to any other? What's that, you like travelng the way it is now? You feel it contributes to the "world" feeling? Well I got news for you: the "world" feeling went down the toilet with the loading screens. Why don't you give me fast travel, and you can still walk if you like it that much. Then we'll both be happy.</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Really getting to dungeons is an issue? I have played tons of MMO's and would have to say getting to any dungeon in EQ2 is not a 15 minute ordeal by any means. I mean in WoW if you had to cross continents it required well over 20 minutes of travel.</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Again another fail for your lack of getting past what, 20?</span></p><p>The dungeons themselves are a mad rush to farm the rapidly respawning bosses. No one bothers with the story or the quests there because they don't fit the pacing set by the mad spawn of loot-filled pinatas. Ugh! The pacing problems could have been solved by making most dungeons privately instanced rather than public, but I guess someone on the design team was going for that "world" feeling again. What happened? Oh yeah, the LOADING screens! Here's a hint: If you really want to create a "public" experience, put it in the world instead of a shared instance.</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Most dungeons are instanced...Your probably humping about in WC.</span></p><p>Then there are the useability problems: Hey, lets tie inventory capacity to Strength, that'll show those scrawny mage-types thier proper place! Seriously, which "genius" came up with that nonsense? Why would you want to penalize a player's ability to receive and carry loot rewards based on their chosen class arechetype? Do they desreve being rewarded less and frustrated more somehow? Why make something painful just for the sake of making it painful? Didn't your professor/boss/mom teach you to never compromise useabillity for flavor?  And how about the inability to spend Status Points unless you're in a guild? What? Why?! Not being in a guild is a valid gameplay choice, in fact it's the DEFAULT choice. Players can earn SP doing solo and other non-guild activities, why asymmetrically restrict them from receiving rewards for accumulated SP in the same way? I suspect the only answers are: "just because" and "our pet monkey George pulled it out of its rectum".</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Another area where you failed to get to end game. Mages don't have problems with bags because later on most bags have weight reduction. Everquest is a game meant for groups. Its an MMO. If you want a solo game where your rewarded for being non social then go to WoW.</span></p><p>Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about EQ2, which is why I bothered to stick around long enough to form an articulated opinion about it. The race, class, and character customization options are excellent for example. The new-er starting areas are well designed and do a good job of guiding a new player through key gameplay and class aspects. But the good elements are drowned out by the sloppiness of implementation, bad design choices, and what seem like deliberate attempts to frustrate the player.</p><p>On the off chance that someone in Sony corporate management might be reading this, you need to dispatch a team of ninjas to your Austin development studio and administer a righteous buttkicking!</p></blockquote>You failed to talk about anything but new starting player issues. It shows that you probably made it to 20 maybe 30 and stopped. This makes your opinion a waste of time and useless. The game has already adapted to many players like yourself, requiring a held hand for everything. It doesn't need anymore hand holding so please return to WoW or My Barbie or whatever you play.

[Huene]

<cite>auvii wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I had a trial account once, but it was too limted for me to form any real impression of the game. I played for a coupe of days and quit, until I saw this Living Legacy promotion and decided to come back to give EQ2 a more fair try.</p><p>Well, I'm not impressed, to say the least. I can see now why EQ2 lost out so badly to WoW. I can't believe those few of you that still play EQ2 would want to pay for a game that is so riddled with technical and design issues.</p><p>The game stutters, freezes, and crashes. A lot. Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others. Most people who were affected probably quit over it a long time ago, but a minority of masochists are still begging for help in the tech forums. The help isn't coming. If SOE couldn't get the game out of beta in 4 years, they sure aren't about to do it now.</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Never had an issue, played since launch and never heard of any issues.</span></p><p>And talk about tragic design choices! Nothing destroys the continuity of a virtual world like loading screens. You'd think the designers would at least try to minimize their impact on player experience by giving the player fast transportation options and avoiding quest design that requires the player to repeatedly traverse zones. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Multi-zone FedEx quests abound. The player must suffer to stare at loading screens and landscape flowing by over and over for hours just to reach an NPC that will send him on the next leg of the infuriatingly boring journey. The new Void Storms world quest is a perfect example of this insanity. You call this fun?! If I get a real job with FedEx, at least THEY will pay ME.</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Loading screens are not fun, this was the only statement I agree with throughout your post. However when EQ2 was launched it was something that had not been done before, at least not at the level they took it. Instancing was a big deal and so were the games graphics. Loading screens were unavoidable. I do not however think it ruins the game in any way. The new RoK zones are enormous and eliminate most load screens.</span></p><p>Whenever I join a group to venture into one of the game's dungeons, I must spend an average of 15 minutes getting there across zones and loading screens. Guess what? When I join a dungeon group, I'm expressing a desire to to engage in some spelunking with other people, not to go backpacking. Designers, take note! Would it kill you to give the players group summoning and fast teleport or griffin from any zone to any other? What's that, you like travelng the way it is now? You feel it contributes to the "world" feeling? Well I got news for you: the "world" feeling went down the toilet with the loading screens. Why don't you give me fast travel, and you can still walk if you like it that much. Then we'll both be happy.</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Really getting to dungeons is an issue? I have played tons of MMO's and would have to say getting to any dungeon in EQ2 is not a 15 minute ordeal by any means. I mean in WoW if you had to cross continents it required well over 20 minutes of travel.</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Again another fail for your lack of getting past what, 20?</span></p><p>The dungeons themselves are a mad rush to farm the rapidly respawning bosses. No one bothers with the story or the quests there because they don't fit the pacing set by the mad spawn of loot-filled pinatas. Ugh! The pacing problems could have been solved by making most dungeons privately instanced rather than public, but I guess someone on the design team was going for that "world" feeling again. What happened? Oh yeah, the LOADING screens! Here's a hint: If you really want to create a "public" experience, put it in the world instead of a shared instance.</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Most dungeons are instanced...Your probably humping about in WC.</span></p><p>Then there are the useability problems: Hey, lets tie inventory capacity to Strength, that'll show those scrawny mage-types thier proper place! Seriously, which "genius" came up with that nonsense? Why would you want to penalize a player's ability to receive and carry loot rewards based on their chosen class arechetype? Do they desreve being rewarded less and frustrated more somehow? Why make something painful just for the sake of making it painful? Didn't your professor/boss/mom teach you to never compromise useabillity for flavor?  And how about the inability to spend Status Points unless you're in a guild? What? Why?! Not being in a guild is a valid gameplay choice, in fact it's the DEFAULT choice. Players can earn SP doing solo and other non-guild activities, why asymmetrically restrict them from receiving rewards for accumulated SP in the same way? I suspect the only answers are: "just because" and "our pet monkey George pulled it out of its rectum".</p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Another area where you failed to get to end game. Mages don't have problems with bags because later on most bags have weight reduction. Everquest is a game meant for groups. Its an MMO. If you want a solo game where your rewarded for being non social then go to WoW.</span></p><p>Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about EQ2, which is why I bothered to stick around long enough to form an articulated opinion about it. The race, class, and character customization options are excellent for example. The new-er starting areas are well designed and do a good job of guiding a new player through key gameplay and class aspects. But the good elements are drowned out by the sloppiness of implementation, bad design choices, and what seem like deliberate attempts to frustrate the player.</p><p>On the off chance that someone in Sony corporate management might be reading this, you need to dispatch a team of ninjas to your Austin development studio and administer a righteous buttkicking!</p></blockquote>You failed to talk about anything but new starting player issues. It shows that you probably made it to 20 maybe 30 and stopped. This makes your opinion a waste of time and useless. The game has already adapted to many players like yourself, requiring a held hand for everything. It doesn't need anymore hand holding so please return to WoW or My Barbie or whatever you play.</blockquote>No opinion is useless nor a waste of time.  It does however point out some things that may prevent people from sticking around when trying out the game (I am in no way saying change these things SOE) but some understanding such as mentioning weight reduction bags or something else during the tutorial may prove useful.

[Freliant]

<p>I checked out his other posts to see if this was an honest player or a troll... He has a laptop that is none-too-powerfull and that would be the main reason he has issues running the game. Had a tough time downloading, installing and playing the game. Doesn't seem like he got too far, and most probably never got used to grouping and playing the full gamate of options that this game has.</p><p>You are disappointed, and this game is not your cup of tea. You want a game that is spoonfed to your and that is not taxing on your system, so if you want, go ahead and continue your WoW days. But if you ever do get a descent computer and want to give this game an honest shot without pre-concieved notions of WoWdome, then you are welcome back. Else, enjoy your playtime someplace else. ^_^</p>

[liveja]

<cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite> <blockquote><p>Hey, <b>lets</b> <b>tie inventory capacity to Strength</b>, that'll show those scrawny mage-types thier proper place! Seriously, which "genius" came up with that nonsense?</p></blockquote><p>Most of what you said is either not true for me (at all) or isn't worth arguing about (like the "loot pinata" concept) for a variety of reasons. A couple of points -- inability to spend status points without being in a guild, the loading screen issue & zoning in general -- I agree with completely, so I won't bother with them, either.</p><p>But the comment quoted above made my head spin. What genius, you ask, came up with the <b>bolded idea</b>? The totally incompetent nitwits who invented D&D, that's who. The STRONGER you are in D&D, the more WEIGHT you can carry. It's sort of common sense, actually; forgive me for being an overly detail-compulsive "fantasy realist", but it just sort of seems right, don't you think?</p><p>As for your claim that Mages are being "punished" due to inherent flaws in their archetype, that IS nonsense. For one, not all Mages start off wimpy & scrawny; that's more of a racial thing. For another, there is nothing in this game preventing you from putting a few points into Strength. It's entirely your decision, as to how you develop your character, that will make you or break you. Can't carry enough? Put some points into the STR AA line, & you'll solve your own problem. Maybe you should try investing in some weight reducing bags, too. That is, unless you'd rather just think it's all the devs fault.</p><p>I've played WoW, & IMO it's decidedly inferior to EQ2, in almost every way.</p>

[Yimway]

Just wanted to add, I do strongly agree with the OP about a couple of EQ2 design elements that are just bad.'Fed Ex' quests.  Especially in the older newbie content.  Way too many quests that involve zoning and just running back and forth.  Later on in the game you deal with dragon runes, and SoD updates that require you to go run around 90% of the world.  The point of the quest it to make the player do something time consuming so that there is sufficient 'buy in' and investment to achieve the goal, however adding something actually difficult to do rather than something just incredibly time consuming for only the sake of being time consuming is a pretty weak cop-out in game design.   The game could be better in this regard.Strength / weight  / carrying capacity.  I agree with OP.  The game over penalizes certain classes especially at lower levels for reasons that don't really make a whole lot of sense.  Its fine to tie strength to carrying capacity, but make bags lighter, and offer more larger bags with weight reduction for lower levels.  I'm fine if every mage earned a box of nil space at level 10.  This would make the game experience better for these players without negatively impacting anyone.  Penalizing people for no good game mechanic reason is a poor design choice.So, yes thats 2 bad design choices, however there are many, many great choices as well.Good Luck in finding the write MMO for you.

[Huene]

<cite>Freliant wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I checked out his other posts to see if this was an honest player or a troll... He has a laptop that is none-too-powerfull and that would be the main reason he has issues running the game. Had a tough time downloading, installing and playing the game. Doesn't seem like he got too far, and most probably never got used to grouping and playing the full gamate of options that this game has.</p><p>You are disappointed, and this game is not your cup of tea. You want a game that is spoonfed to your and that is not taxing on your system, so if you want, go ahead and continue your WoW days. But if you ever do get a descent computer and want to give this game an honest shot without pre-concieved notions of WoWdome, then you are welcome back. Else, enjoy your playtime someplace else. ^_^</p></blockquote>/agree

[Tel]

<cite>Atan@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Thetmes@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>So EQ2 isn't for you.  Big deal, a majority of EQ2 players don't really care about your opinion, as our opinions are opposite.  I played WoW for 3 years +, starting playing EQ2 and I must say that I played the wrong game for 3 years.Even with the little things like load screens. (As I do not have a crashing or any performance issues), I'll take the loading screens over the cesspool that is the WoW player base that includes you and your other "WoW is the bestest ever" <b>fanbois</b>.   Even if your post was formated and well written, it's still a pretty baseless post.Who in WoW cares about the lore of a dungeon?  It's only about farming it over and over again for loot.</blockquote>potkettleblack</blockquote>lol - I'm not an EQ2 fanboi, I think both games have their great things, and their bad things, I'm really not a fan of SOE, where I've always like Blizzard. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Blizzard is taking WoW in a direction I do not agree with (E-Sport Arena pvp, blarg!)  So I left WoW and came to a game where I enjoy the leveling experience more. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />However, there is no one that has played either game that would prefer the WoW community as it is to the helpful and nice people you find in EQ2. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />If that makes me an EQ2 fanboi, then it's a badge i wear proudly.

[Kellin]

<p>Eh, the most immersive game I ever played was EQ1, and it was full of loading screens.</p><p>The zone thing was a design choice by the devs.  It allows for a much greater variety of terrain and mob design.</p><p>If the game stutters and crashes for you, that's a tech issue.  Whether or not your machine can play it doesn't have a lot to do with gameplay.  I'd check your system's specs against recommended.</p><p>Again, you seem to have a real issue with zoning.  Sorry about that, it's how the game was designed.</p><p>Weight?  Put one AA into strength, and you'll be fine.</p><p>Overall, I'd say, this isn't the game for you.  Sorry about that, but there's nothing out there that makes everyone happy.</p>

[Echgar]

Folks let's lay off with the insult flinging please.  You are welcome to disagree with other posters but please keep your posts on-topic, constructive, and courteous.  The personal attacks, insults, and namecalling I am seeing in various posts here are not really necessary.

[Ruann]

<p>Seeing as how most people decide if they're keeping an MMO subscription past the complimentary month have made that decision within two weeks, telling someone that their opinion doesn't matter because they're under level 30 sounds completely moronic on an epic scale.  I quit EQ2 within 2 months when it launched because it just wasn't playable in any casual fashion.  Now it is much more friendly to people who either don't want to group 24x7 or who can't devote the time all the time to it.  </p><p>But my highest is only 22 or 23. </p>

[Kaalenarc]

<cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I had a trial account once, but it was too limted for me to form any real impression of the game. I played for a coupe of days and quit, until I saw this Living Legacy promotion and decided to come back to give EQ2 a more fair try.</p><p>Well, I'm not impressed, to say the least. I can see now why EQ2 lost out so badly to WoW. I can't believe those few of you that still play EQ2 would want to pay for a game that is so riddled with technical and design issues.</p><p><span style="color: #ffff00;">"why EQ2 lost out to WoW. Right. Im sure that had nothing to do with the 80% of its players who play based on its huge Asian fanbase and ten years worth of RTS lore that it was built upon."  As for the "few of you " comment - by any measure EXCEPT WoW's numbers - the game is healthy and growing. And, unlike WoW - its CONSTANTLY ADDING CONTENT . WoW only seems to do so after SOE raises the stakes and level caps.</span></p><p>The game stutters, freezes, and crashes. A lot. Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others. Most people who were affected probably quit over it a long time ago, but a minority of masochists are still begging for help in the tech forums. The help isn't coming. If SOE couldn't get the game out of beta in 4 years, they sure aren't about to do it now.</p><p><span style="color: #ffff00;">EQ2 requires a stronger computer to play than WoW does. Im guessing your machine is either several years old, underpowered, or perhaps in need of some driver updates. There ARE technical issues but thats true of any game including WoW. </span></p><p>And talk about tragic design choices! Nothing destroys the continuity of a virtual world like loading screens. You'd think the designers would at least try to minimize their impact on player experience by giving the player fast transportation options and avoiding quest design that requires the player to repeatedly traverse zones. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Multi-zone FedEx quests abound. The player must suffer to stare at loading screens and landscape flowing by over and over for hours just to reach an NPC that will send him on the next leg of the infuriatingly boring journey. The new Void Storms world quest is a perfect example of this insanity. You call this fun?! If I get a real job with FedEx, at least THEY will pay ME.</p><p><span style="color: #ffff00;">Loading screens were a product of the technology that existed at the time the game launched. While they can be annoying, for most people they are gone in 30 seconds or less. If you are experiencing more  than that - its a hardware issue on YOUR side. If you dont like the Void Storms quests - there are something like 8000 others for you to do. </span></p><p>Whenever I join a group to venture into one of the game's dungeons, I must spend an average of 15 minutes getting there across zones and loading screens. Guess what? When I join a dungeon group, I'm expressing a desire to to engage in some spelunking with other people, not to go backpacking. Designers, take note! Would it kill you to give the players group summoning and fast teleport or griffin from any zone to any other? What's that, you like travelng the way it is now? You feel it contributes to the "world" feeling? Well I got news for you: the "world" feeling went down the toilet with the loading screens. Why don't you give me fast travel, and you can still walk if you like it that much. Then we'll both be happy.</p><p><span style="color: #ffff00;">I can get from the two furthest apart zones in the game, or ANY two zones for that matter, without a horse and without mage/druid travel in under 5 minutes. Again - it has to be your machine. </span></p><p>The dungeons themselves are a mad rush to farm the rapidly respawning bosses. No one bothers with the story or the quests there because they don't fit the pacing set by the mad spawn of loot-filled pinatas. Ugh! The pacing problems could have been solved by making most dungeons privately instanced rather than public, but I guess someone on the design team was going for that "world" feeling again. What happened? Oh yeah, the LOADING screens! Here's a hint: If you really want to create a "public" experience, put it in the world instead of a shared instance.</p><p><span style="color: #ffff33;">Please cite the research you must have done to conclude that "no one" bothers with the story or quests? Not all bosses repop quickly, many do not repop at all in instances. Some content is "public and shared" some isnt. Wow, imagine that - DEVs who cater to playstyles other than yours! Amazing! </span></p><p>Then there are the useability problems: Hey, lets tie inventory capacity to Strength, that'll show those scrawny mage-types thier proper place!  Seriously, which "genius" came up with that nonsense? Why would you want to penalize a player's ability to receive and carry loot rewards based on their chosen class arechetype? Do they desreve being rewarded less and frustrated more somehow? Why make something painful just for the sake of making it painful? Didn't your professor/boss/mom teach you to never compromise useabillity for flavor?</p><p><span style="color: #ffff00;">This feature was minimized a LONG time ago with the removal of coin weight. Please  - in your infinitely long experience, relate to me the specific class, level , race of your character and the items which you were unable to carry? </span></p><p>  And how about the inability to spend Status Points unless you're in a guild? What? Why?! Not being in a guild is a valid gameplay choice, in fact it's the DEFAULT choice. Players can earn SP doing solo and other non-guild activities, why asymmetrically restrict them from receiving rewards for accumulated SP in the same way? I suspect the only answers are: "just because" and "our pet monkey George pulled it out of its rectum".</p><p><span style="color: #ffff00;">Status points are designed to reward people who make the choice to play in a guild. Just like having a guild cloak or a tag under your name. There are advantages to guild playstyle. There are advantages, albeit more esoteric, to playing solo. But its a social game.</span>  </p><p>Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about EQ2, which is why I bothered to stick around long enough to form an articulated opinion about it. </p><p><span style="color: #ffff00;">How long was that, exactly? lvl 15? lvl 20? </span></p><p>The race, class, and character customization options are excellent for example. The new-er starting areas are well designed and do a good job of guiding a new player through key gameplay and class aspects. But the good elements are drowned out by the sloppiness of implementation, bad design choices, and what seem like deliberate attempts to frustrate the player.</p><p> <span style="color: #ffff00;">You cannot possibly believe anyone would "intentionally" frustrate the player. The vast majority of your issues sound to be either A.) Harware/connection related  or B.) uninformed. No flame or insult here, but Id hardly call your rant here "articulate" (unless theres some sophistication to George the monkeys rectum that escapes me). You want to make a detailed analysis, critical of the game or not, play for a couple months, see a lot more content and stop comparing design "choices" that werent implementable at launch. The technology for zone screen elimination didnt exist at the time of launch. Its like criticizing a corvette owner because his car cant fly.  Take the game for what it is, an immersive, fun, and elaborate game with a significantly more mature community than WoW.</span></p><p>On the off chance that someone in Sony corporate management might be reading this, you need to dispatch a team of ninjas to your Austin development studio and administer a righteous buttkicking!</p><span style="color: #ffff00;">Why? do you live next door? In all seriousness, I can respuctfully disagree with your arguments here. Clearly loading screens is a tech issue for you. They are never fun, in any game - but its way too late to er-do the entire game now to make it zoneless.</span></blockquote>

[Huene]

<cite>Kellin@Permafrost wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Eh, the most immersive game I ever played was EQ1, and it was full of loading screens.</p><p>The zone thing was a design choice by the devs.  It allows for a much greater variety of terrain and mob design.</p><p>If the game stutters and crashes for you, that's a tech issue.  Whether or not your machine can play it doesn't have a lot to do with gameplay.  I'd check your system's specs against recommended.</p><p>Again, you seem to have a real issue with zoning.  Sorry about that, it's how the game was designed.</p><p>Weight?  Put one AA into strength, and you'll be fine.</p><p>Overall, I'd say, this isn't the game for you.  Sorry about that, but there's nothing out there that makes everyone happy.</p></blockquote>I agree with EQ1 being the most immersive game I ever played as well, mostly due to everything being disconnected at the beginning of the game, since we couldn't easily leave Kelethin and join up with someone in say Qeynos (or Paineel to Neriak, or... etc) we forged new friendships, had plenty of time to take in the lore, and it was just fun.I know I'm a dying breed. I do long for the days where we had to wait 15 minutes at the docks encouraging discussions on the voyages across the ocean of tears, where the other person has been what they've seen.If I could choose one failing to be found in mmo's it would be that the multiple cultures of different starting cities are gone with the introduction of 2 minute transportation.Edit: That said the changes made have opened up a whole new area of people to the genre.  Is it worth the change? some would say yes.  Personally, I'm not one of them.  I don't have anything against the people.  The cost is just too high.

[Bloodfa]

On a laptop.  EQ2 on a laptop.  Hmmm.  Not bashing the fact that you're running it on a laptop, but a laptop meeting the specs of a pc game isn't going to actually perform as well as a pc with the same specs technical specs.  Especially if it's an older one with a 5400 rpm hd.  My cousin's got a decent gaming laptop and can't play EQ2 on it.  And that's a laptop that could play BF2142, BF2, EVE, and a few others without any hiccups or issues.  It's just rough on a machine when you start to turn things up.  But honestly, if you didn't care for it that's one thing, but if you've got a problem with performance then post your specs while you trash it.  I mean, if I tried running it on a 5 year old rig and wasn't pleased with the results, I'd be looking for some feedback as to whether it was me or the game.  But that's just me.

[Echgar]

<cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite><blockquote>What, you got nothing to say to me besides making ad hominem attacks? Could it be because you can't refute any of my points and know I'm right?</blockquote>A better worded subject line that didn't insult those players that are satisfied with the game probably would have helped a great deal.  Giving constructive feedback about a game that just isn't for you (for whatever reason) is certainly something the developers are interested in, but saying "this game = FAIL" is likely to generate some pretty strong emotions from players that feel otherwise despite those pesky <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=411000" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">forum rules</a> and moderators. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Huene]

<cite>Echgar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite><blockquote>What, you got nothing to say to me besides making ad hominem attacks? Could it be because you can't refute any of my points and know I'm right?</blockquote>A better worded subject line that didn't insult those players that are satisfied with the game probably would have helped a great deal.  Giving constructive feedback about a game that just isn't for you (for whatever reason) is certainly something the developers are interested in, but saying "this game = FAIL" is likely to generate some pretty strong emotions from players that feel otherwise despite those pesky <a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=411000" target="_blank">forum rules</a> and moderators. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></blockquote>Yes the title could have been phrased better, but in fairness, the OP did give constructive criticism towards the end.

[Noaani]

<cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite> <blockquote>The game stutters, freezes, and crashes. A lot. Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others. Most people who were affected probably quit over it a long time ago, but a minority of masochists are still begging for help in the tech forums. The help isn't coming. If SOE couldn't get the game out of beta in 4 years, they sure aren't about to do it now.</blockquote><p>While I, like many others, agree that this game has many flaws, I don't believe the ones you listed are particularly valid.</p><p>This game has issues with some specific pieces of equipment, so do most games. The vast majority of people that play this game do not have those issues, and of those very few that do, the technical team provide some of the best tech support I have seen (this is not customer support, that sucks and is one of the major issues of this game that you did not mention).</p><blockquote>And talk about tragic design choices! Nothing destroys the continuity of a virtual world like loading screens. You'd think the designers would at least try to minimize their impact on player experience by giving the player fast transportation options and avoiding quest design that requires the player to repeatedly traverse zones. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Multi-zone FedEx quests abound. The player must suffer to stare at loading screens and landscape flowing by over and over for hours just to reach an NPC that will send him on the next leg of the infuriatingly boring journey. The new Void Storms world quest is a perfect example of this insanity. You call this fun?! If I get a real job with FedEx, at least THEY will pay ME. </blockquote><p>FedEx quests are only an issue if you have computer issues. I zone in to any zone in less than 30 seconds, so they are not issues for me. If I have 2 instances of EQ2 running on one computer at the same time, and I am zoneing on both, I still manage to do so in less than 45 seconds.</p><blockquote> Whenever I join a group to venture into one of the game's dungeons, I must spend an average of 15 minutes getting there across zones and loading screens. Guess what? When I join a dungeon group, I'm expressing a desire to to engage in some spelunking with other people, not to go backpacking. Designers, take note! Would it kill you to give the players group summoning and fast teleport or griffin from any zone to any other? What's that, you like travelng the way it is now? You feel it contributes to the "world" feeling? Well I got news for you: the "world" feeling went down the toilet with the loading screens. Why don't you give me fast travel, and you can still walk if you like it that much. Then we'll both be happy. </blockquote><p>it takes you 15 minutes to get to a level appropriate dungeon? The only way I could see that happening is if you were at the end of either RoV or FG, had no evacer in group, your call was down, you had no cleric in group, you had no druid in group, you had no sorcerer in group, and you wanted to go to Crushbone. If you had any of the above, your travel time would be cut a lot.</p><p>Having your call up would mean a simple boat to TS, then take the boat to BBM from there or nek. </p><p>A cleric in your group could oddyssey you to your call point. </p><p>A sorcerer or druid could port you to about 3 minutes from crushbone.</p><p>An evacer could evac you to the entrance of FG, then you run to FP if you are evil, or the TT spire in CL, port up, port back to antonica and run to the griphon, then into NQ or SQ, take the bell to QH, then you can do the boat to TS/nek then on to BBM, take the griphon to the Gfay entrance, then the horse to about a minute from Crushbone.</p><p>As a wizard, I can get anywhere in game in about 5 minutes. I can also take a full group with me at no extra charge.</p><p>5 minutes to get anywhere in game is a realitvly short period of time for an MMO.</p><blockquote>The dungeons themselves are a mad rush to farm the rapidly respawning bosses. No one bothers with the story or the quests there because they don't fit the pacing set by the mad spawn of loot-filled pinatas. Ugh! The pacing problems could have been solved by making most dungeons privately instanced rather than public, but I guess someone on the design team was going for that "world" feeling again. What happened? Oh yeah, the LOADING screens! Here's a hint: If you really want to create a "public" experience, put it in the world instead of a shared instance.</blockquote><p>In lower level dungeons this is sometimes true. Sometimes you get groups that want to do nothing but grind out XP by mass killing mobs, sometimes you get groups that want to hunt every named in the zone for loot/AA SP, sometimes you get groups that want to do the quests a zone has to offer. Different groups do different things.</p><p>I fail to see why having named mobs with halfway decient drops on a semi regular spawn rate is a bad thing, especially with the amount of these drops needed by transmuters..</p><blockquote>Then there are the useability problems: Hey, lets tie inventory capacity to Strength, that'll show those scrawny mage-types thier proper place! Seriously, which "genius" came up with that nonsense? Why would you want to penalize a player's ability to receive and carry loot rewards based on their chosen class arechetype? Do they desreve being rewarded less and frustrated more somehow? Why make something painful just for the sake of making it painful? Didn't your professor/boss/mom teach you to never compromise useabillity for flavor?  And how about the inability to spend Status Points unless you're in a guild? What? Why?! Not being in a guild is a valid gameplay choice, in fact it's the DEFAULT choice. Players can earn SP doing solo and other non-guild activities, why asymmetrically restrict them from receiving rewards for accumulated SP in the same way? I suspect the only answers are: "just because" and "our pet monkey George pulled it out of its rectum"</blockquote><p> I am a mage, I carry 6 36 slot strongboxes around and have no issues with inventory.</p><p>There is nothing stopping you from spending status as a non guilded player, the only thing is you can not use status to purchase guild rewards. There are faction merchants in cities that will happily take your status points from you should you want to part with them, assuming you have faction. There are no places you can spend status that do not require either guild level or faction, which fits in to exactly what status represents.</p><p>When the game lunched, status was not able to be earnt by anyone not in a guild. Writ givers did not hand out writs, HQs did not give status as a reward and status items did not exist. SoE decided to change this based on non guilded players wanting to purchase status items that did not require a guild level.</p><blockquote>Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about EQ2, which is why I bothered to stick around long enough to form an articulated opinion about it. The race, class, and character customization options are excellent for example. The new-er starting areas are well designed and do a good job of guiding a new player through key gameplay and class aspects. But the good elements are drowned out by the sloppiness of implementation, bad design choices, and what seem like deliberate attempts to frustrate the player</blockquote><p>All this, and you have not yet even begun to see the real issues this game has, or the real enjoyment it has to offer.</p><p>Different people look for different things in a game.</p>

[Grakkan]

I gotta say, I came back to EQ2 from WoW because, well, I felt WoW was missing a lot and wanted to see what changes SOE's made.All I can say is EQ2 is a more intelligent game for more intelligent gamers.  WoW has every add-in to make questing/tradeskilling mindlessly simple; I can't stand that.to the OP, as far as the technical issues go, it's your machine.  Upgrade or deal with it.  This game isn't designed to run on every Dell from 2002 like the other MMO you're used to.I love this game and I'm going to stick with it.

[Laiina]

<p>"...Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others..."</p><p>Well, I am not so sure about "a bunch of others".</p><p>But eq2 for me is one of the very few games that does NOT crash and burn regularly on Vista - it almost never crashes. And it was one of the most crash free programs I used when I ran XP also.</p><p>The single most common causes of crashes are drivers, especially video and sound, if you have not updated those, that is probably half your problem.</p>

[Huene]

<cite>Laiina wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>"...Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others..."</p><p>Well, I am not so sure about "a bunch of others".</p><p>But eq2 for me is one of the very few games that does NOT crash and burn regularly on Vista - it almost never crashes. And it was one of the most crash free programs I used when I ran XP also.</p><p>The single most common causes of crashes are drivers, especially video and sound, if you have not updated those, that is probably half your problem.</p></blockquote>Likewise I have perfect stability in Ubuntu

[Nolrog]

<cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite><blockquote>The game stutters, freezes, and crashes. A lot. Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others. Most people who were affected probably quit over it a long time ago, but a minority of masochists are still begging for help in the tech forums. The help isn't coming. If SOE couldn't get the game out of beta in 4 years, they sure aren't about to do it now. <p><b>That's a problem with you, not the game.  What is your computer specs?  Are you below the minimum required to play?  What is your graphic setting on?  Did you try lowering it?  Have you tried seeking help on the Tech Support forum?</b></p><p>And talk about tragic design choices! Nothing destroys the continuity of a virtual world like loading screens. You'd think the designers would at least try to minimize their impact on player experience by giving the player fast transportation options and avoiding quest design that requires the player to repeatedly traverse zones. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Multi-zone FedEx quests abound. The player must suffer to stare at loading screens and landscape flowing by over and over for hours just to reach an NPC that will send him on the next leg of the infuriatingly boring journey. The new Void Storms world quest is a perfect example of this insanity. You call this fun?! If I get a real job with FedEx, at least THEY will pay ME.</p><p><b>If you don't like these type of quests, then don't do them. Quite simple really.  The majority of the quests that I've been working on lately keep you all in one zone, unless it's the quest that sends you to talk to the NPC in the next zone, to keep you moving along.</b></p><p>Whenever I join a group to venture into one of the game's dungeons, I must spend an average of 15 minutes getting there across zones and loading screens. Guess what? When I join a dungeon group, I'm expressing a desire to to engage in some spelunking with other people, not to go backpacking. Designers, take note! Would it kill you to give the players group summoning and fast teleport or griffin from any zone to any other? What's that, you like travelng the way it is now? You feel it contributes to the "world" feeling? Well I got news for you: the "world" feeling went down the toilet with the loading screens. Why don't you give me fast travel, and you can still walk if you like it that much. Then we'll both be happy.</p><p><b>If you're taking 15 minutes to get anywhere, then you're doing something wrong.</b></p><p>The dungeons themselves are a mad rush to farm the rapidly respawning bosses. No one bothers with the story or the quests there because they don't fit the pacing set by the mad spawn of loot-filled pinatas. Ugh! </p><p><b>Welcome to the world of MMOs.</b></p><p>Then there are the useability problems: Hey, lets tie inventory capacity to Strength, </p><p><b>I've never run into problems with carry capacity in EQ2.  In EQ, yes, but that's always remidied with a piece of STR gear or two, no matter what toon I'm on.</b></p><p>Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about EQ2, </p><p><b>None of which you mention.</b></p><p>On the off chance that someone in Sony corporate management might be reading this, you need to dispatch a team of ninjas to your Austin development studio and administer a righteous buttkicking!</p><p><b>EQ2 is developed in San Diego, not Austin.  I think it's SWG in Austin.  Are you still so bitter about NGE, that you want the ninjas to attack Austin based on your EQ2 comments?</b></p></blockquote>

[Cynziel]

Honestly I've felt the same way OP did a few times when I first tried to play this game in the past 3 years... But having played a plethora of other MMO's I've come to the conclusion that even though EQ2 has things that frustrate me, like guild SP points, I've also come to like aspects like traveling across the world and such. Graphically this game was a monster when it came out, it NEEDS loading screens to break it up or no one would be able to play. And you think this is bad? Go try Age of Conan... Oh wait you probably can't run that game. Back to the traveling bits, EQ2 has come a long way on making it easier for players to run around the world, someone has already enumerated them so I won't, I ge the distinct impression that you've played WoW and that's about it. I agree that group summoning would be cool, but it also take away from the immersion, and that's what it comes down to. It's not so much that it's painful, but it's believable and immersive. Maybe that's not a big deal to you, but to some of us that's everything. If I wanted instant gratification and instant grouping I'd go play Guild Wars. But I like having to learn teleport spells, and like to take griffons and boats. One of the most wonderful things about this game is the ever on going rich lore, all the books you can collect and read. I am an avid reader and I cannot get enough of this feature. One thing that I don't like is not being able to resurrect people in the wild, I see people lying face down in the dirt (or face up...) and would love to give them a rez but they have to be in my group... I understand this curbs the "I need Rezz plix plox" But still I thought it was a bit of a shame. Anyhoo OP, you don't have the system specs for this game or anything new, so please keep your beta comment to yourself I used to have issues with this game as well, but I've upgraded my components and now it plays just fine... <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />  Have fun finding something better suited to you and next time watch your tone you'll never get your point across with 75% of people with the way you've expressed yourself.

[Huene]

<cite>Nolrog wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite><blockquote>Then there are the useability problems: Hey, lets tie inventory capacity to Strength, <p><b>I've never run into problems with carry capacity in EQ2.  In EQ, yes, but that's always remidied with a piece of STR gear or two, no matter what toon I'm on.</b></p></blockquote></blockquote>Unless you were a monk, remember the magic number 14?  It definitely kept things interesting ^^

[Liral]

<cite>Darwyn wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I had a trial account once, but it was too limted for me to form any real impression of the game. I played for a coupe of days and quit, until I saw this Living Legacy promotion and decided to come back to give EQ2 a more fair try.</p><p>Well, I'm not impressed, to say the least. I can see now why EQ2 lost out so badly to WoW. I can't believe those few of you that still play EQ2 would want to pay for a game that is so riddled with technical and design issues.</p><p> <span style="color: #cc3300;">I've never had a problem with tech issues that affected my gameplay so much that it annoyed me. I've had almost none to be exact and what ones i did have were easily corrected with common sense or a question here. </span></p><p>The game stutters, freezes, and crashes. A lot. Maybe it doesnt do it for YOU, but it does it for me and a bunch of others. Most people who were affected probably quit over it a long time ago, but a minority of masochists are still begging for help in the tech forums. The help isn't coming. If SOE couldn't get the game out of beta in 4 years, they sure aren't about to do it now.</p><p> <span style="color: #cc3300;">Like I said, mucg of the time things are easily correctable. Quite frankly I've had more problems with other MMO's I have played than EQ2.</span></p><p>And talk about tragic design choices! Nothing destroys the continuity of a virtual world like loading screens. You'd think the designers would at least try to minimize their impact on player experience by giving the player fast transportation options and avoiding quest design that requires the player to repeatedly traverse zones. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Multi-zone FedEx quests abound. The player must suffer to stare at loading screens and landscape flowing by over and over for hours just to reach an NPC that will send him on the next leg of the infuriatingly boring journey. The new Void Storms world quest is a perfect example of this insanity. You call this fun?! If I get a real job with FedEx, at least THEY will pay ME.</p><p> <span style="color: #cc3300;">Travel is quite easy and efficient in this game. This is nothign more than a big whine from a lazy player who resfuses to learn how to travel efficiently.</span></p><p> Whenever I join a group to venture into one of the game's dungeons, I must spend an average of 15 minutes getting there across zones and loading screens. Guess what? When I join a dungeon group, I'm expressing a desire to to engage in some spelunking with other people, not to go backpacking. Designers, take note! Would it kill you to give the players group summoning and fast teleport or griffin from any zone to any other? What's that, you like travelng the way it is now? You feel it contributes to the "world" feeling? Well I got news for you: the "world" feeling went down the toilet with the loading screens. Why don't you give me fast travel, and you can still walk if you like it that much. Then we'll both be happy.</p><p><span style="color: #cc3300;">Again with the whining. Travel is not a burden whatsoever in this game. You want an easy button go somewhere else but the travel requirements in this game are not bad by any tretch of the imagination. What you want is the equivalent of having Tolkien have Gandalf teleport Frodo to Moutn Doom and drop the ring in in the first two pages, end of novel. Give em a break.</span></p><p>The dungeons themselves are a mad rush to farm the rapidly respawning bosses. No one bothers with the story or the quests there because they don't fit the pacing set by the mad spawn of loot-filled pinatas. Ugh! The pacing problems could have been solved by making most dungeons privately instanced rather than public, but I guess someone on the design team was going for that "world" feeling again. What happened? Oh yeah, the LOADING screens! Here's a hint: If you really want to create a "public" experience, put it in the world instead of a shared instance.</p><p><span style="color: #cc3300;">Awww..  poor guy and his group can't hadle mob spwans? Learn to be a better player and help other to be a better player and you won't have those problems. But, as with travel you want an easy button and don't want to work at all for anything.</span></p><p>Then there are the useability problems: Hey, lets tie inventory capacity to Strength, that'll show those scrawny mage-types thier proper place! Seriously, which "genius" came up with that nonsense? Why would you want to penalize a player's ability to receive and carry loot rewards based on their chosen class arechetype? Do they desreve being rewarded less and frustrated more somehow? Why make something painful just for the sake of making it painful? Didn't your professor/boss/mom teach you to never compromise useabillity for flavor?  </p><p> <span style="color: #cc3300;">Another shining example of a person who doesn't take the time to learn the game. But first off, you whine about immersion but then want a Rtonga to be able to carry the same amount of stuff as an Ogre right off the bat? Give me a break. I don't know about you but a Ratonga just isn't going to be able to carry as much stuff a an Ogre right off the bat. Much of this difference in strength can be overcome by a player who learns the game and what is available to them and such.</span></p><p>And how about the inability to spend Status Points unless you're in a guild? What? Why?! Not being in a guild is a valid gameplay choice, in fact it's the DEFAULT choice. Players can earn SP doing solo and other non-guild activities, why asymmetrically restrict them from receiving rewards for accumulated SP in the same way? I suspect the only answers are: "just because" and "our pet monkey George pulled it out of its rectum".</p><p><span style="color: #cc3300;">Because joining a guild was designed to have benefits and as such encourage peiople to jojnthem. I'm not a part of many groups and on't enjoy the privledges that their membership bestows. That's too bad for me but that's life and how it works.</span></p><p>Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about EQ2, which is why I bothered to stick around long enough to form an articulated opinion about it. The race, class, and character customization options are excellent for example. The new-er starting areas are well designed and do a good job of guiding a new player through key gameplay and class aspects. </p><p><span style="color: #cc3300;">I certainly agree with you on this.</span></p><p>But the good elements are drowned out by the sloppiness of implementation, bad design choices, and what seem like deliberate attempts to frustrate the player.</p><p> <span style="color: #cc3300;">No, to me it seems you want an easy button and not have to work for things or leanr things about the game. You also have very inconsistent ideas of "immersion" in a game</span></p><p>On the off chance that someone in Sony corporate management might be reading this, you need to dispatch a team of ninjas to your Austin development studio and administer a righteous buttkicking!</p><span style="color: #cc3300;">It's obvious how I feel about this part of your post. No need to delve further.</span></blockquote>

[Spyderbite]

One point that everyone seems to be missing besides the OP... Its <b>always</b> the Development Team's fault.<ul><li>Every game should be playable at highest quality on any system; even a 286 with 256k of RAM.</li><li>Every new player should be able to play the game using only one button. Learning how to play the game is an unnecessary inconvenience.</li><li>Levels are a waste of time. There should only be one level and that is "End Game".</li><li>There should only be one class. Mine. And, it should always be the most powerful class.</li><li>Any travel that takes longer than 5 minutes ruins my game. Allow me to teleport by simply imagining my destination.</li><li>I want to PvP. But, only if I win every single time.</li><li>I want to do Raids but I don't want to join a guild. Make all raids solo friendly. And again, I must win every time.</li><li>If I experience lag or any other game altering issue; I expect a SOE employee to come to my home and troubleshoot the issue. Cause its not my fault the code is bad.. nor is it my fault that my computer is a POS.</li><li>Any MMO that doesn't produce a new Expansion every 12 days is obviously suffering financial hardship and should hire 200 more developers. My boredom has nothing to do with my resitance to exploring new areas, trying all the quests, ignoring Tradeskills, or my hyperspeed launch towards End Game.</li><li>Reality in a game is stupid. I want to be able to carry 10 tons of equipment on my 70 pound Elf.</li><li>I pay $19.95/month for the best Internet connection in the world. I fully expect my 5 megabit connection which is shared by 3 city blocks of people to download all new content in less than 20 minutes.</li><li>I should be able to name my character whatever I want regardless of how offensive it is. GM's who change my name should be dragged outside and beaten silly.</li><li>When I post a demand in the forum I am using profane language and insults to emphasize my points. You will listen. You will make the changes I ask for. And, you will update me personally via courier pigeon with your progress.</li><li>Finally, my $15/month guarantees me a seat on the board of directors so I expect a luncheon invitation to discuss all future development plans. Please be sure that the President of SOE is present and ready to take notes.</li></ul>

[Asif]

<cite>Spyderbite@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>One point that everyone seems to be missing besides the OP... Its <b>always</b> the Development Team's fault.<ul><li>Every game should be playable at highest quality on any system; even a 286 with 256k of RAM.</li><li>Every new player should be able to play the game using only one button. Learning how to play the game is an unnecessary inconvenience.</li><li>Levels are a waste of time. There should only be one level and that is "End Game".</li><li>There should only be one class. Mine. And, it should always be the most powerful class.</li><li>Any travel that takes longer than 5 minutes ruins my game. Allow me to teleport by simply imagining my destination.</li><li>I want to PvP. But, only if I win every single time.</li><li>I want to do Raids but I don't want to join a guild. Make all raids solo friendly. And again, I must win every time.</li><li>If I experience lag or any other game altering issue; I expect a SOE employee to come to my home and troubleshoot the issue. Cause its not my fault the code is bad.. nor is it my fault that my computer is a POS.</li><li>Any MMO that doesn't produce a new Expansion every 12 days is obviously suffering financial hardship and should hire 200 more developers. My boredom has nothing to do with my resitance to exploring new areas, trying all the quests, ignoring Tradeskills, or my hyperspeed launch towards End Game.</li><li>Reality in a game is stupid. I want to be able to carry 10 tons of equipment on my 70 pound Elf.</li><li>I pay $19.95/month for the best Internet connection in the world. I fully expect my 5 megabit connection which is shared by 3 city blocks of people to download all new content in less than 20 minutes.</li><li>I should be able to name my character whatever I want regardless of how offensive it is. GM's who change my name should be dragged outside and beaten silly.</li><li>When I post a demand in the forum I am using profane language and insults to emphasize my points. You will listen. You will make the changes I ask for. And, you will update me personally via courier pigeon with your progress.</li><li>Finally, my $15/month guarantees me a seat on the board of directors so I expect a luncheon invitation to discuss all future development plans. Please be sure that the President of SOE is present and ready to take notes.</li></ul></blockquote><p>ROFL good one Spyder that works for me <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Huene]

<cite>Spyderbite@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>One point that everyone seems to be missing besides the OP... Its <b>always</b> the Development Team's fault.<ul><li>Every game should be playable at highest quality on any system; even a 286 with 256k of RAM.</li><li>Every new player should be able to play the game using only one button. Learning how to play the game is an unnecessary inconvenience.</li><li>Levels are a waste of time. There should only be one level and that is "End Game".</li><li>There should only be one class. Mine. And, it should always be the most powerful class.</li><li>Any travel that takes longer than 5 minutes ruins my game. Allow me to teleport by simply imagining my destination.</li><li>I want to PvP. But, only if I win every single time.</li><li>I want to do Raids but I don't want to join a guild. Make all raids solo friendly. And again, I must win every time.</li><li>If I experience lag or any other game altering issue; I expect a SOE employee to come to my home and troubleshoot the issue. Cause its not my fault the code is bad.. nor is it my fault that my computer is a POS.</li><li>Any MMO that doesn't produce a new Expansion every 12 days is obviously suffering financial hardship and should hire 200 more developers. My boredom has nothing to do with my resitance to exploring new areas, trying all the quests, ignoring Tradeskills, or my hyperspeed launch towards End Game.</li><li>Reality in a game is stupid. I want to be able to carry 10 tons of equipment on my 70 pound Elf.</li><li>I pay $19.95/month for the best Internet connection in the world. I fully expect my 5 megabit connection which is shared by 3 city blocks of people to download all new content in less than 20 minutes.</li><li>I should be able to name my character whatever I want regardless of how offensive it is. GM's who change my name should be dragged outside and beaten silly.</li><li>When I post a demand in the forum I am using profane language and insults to emphasize my points. You will listen. You will make the changes I ask for. And, you will update me personally via courier pigeon with your progress.</li><li>Finally, my $15/month guarantees me a seat on the board of directors so I expect a luncheon invitation to discuss all future development plans. Please be sure that the President of SOE is present and ready to take notes.</li></ul></blockquote>That's not a fair post, but that wasn't your goal. Quite a few are funny, and I'm sure I could add a few more if it was ment to be humorous by itself in it's own thread, but it's not.

[interstellarmatter]

I don't know..Spyder did have a point.

[Tel]

Again Spyder hits a home-run!

[Spyderbite]

<cite>Huene@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>That's not a fair post, but that wasn't your goal. Quite a few are funny, and I'm sure I could add a few more if it was ment to be humorous by itself in it's own thread, but it's not.</blockquote>Tough crowd, tonight. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Tel]

<cite>Huene@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Spyderbite@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>One point that everyone seems to be missing besides the OP... Its <b>always</b> the Development Team's fault.<ul><li>Every game should be playable at highest quality on any system; even a 286 with 256k of RAM.</li><li>Every new player should be able to play the game using only one button. Learning how to play the game is an unnecessary inconvenience.</li><li>Levels are a waste of time. There should only be one level and that is "End Game".</li><li>There should only be one class. Mine. And, it should always be the most powerful class.</li><li>Any travel that takes longer than 5 minutes ruins my game. Allow me to teleport by simply imagining my destination.</li><li>I want to PvP. But, only if I win every single time.</li><li>I want to do Raids but I don't want to join a guild. Make all raids solo friendly. And again, I must win every time.</li><li>If I experience lag or any other game altering issue; I expect a SOE employee to come to my home and troubleshoot the issue. Cause its not my fault the code is bad.. nor is it my fault that my computer is a POS.</li><li>Any MMO that doesn't produce a new Expansion every 12 days is obviously suffering financial hardship and should hire 200 more developers. My boredom has nothing to do with my resitance to exploring new areas, trying all the quests, ignoring Tradeskills, or my hyperspeed launch towards End Game.</li><li>Reality in a game is stupid. I want to be able to carry 10 tons of equipment on my 70 pound Elf.</li><li>I pay $19.95/month for the best Internet connection in the world. I fully expect my 5 megabit connection which is shared by 3 city blocks of people to download all new content in less than 20 minutes.</li><li>I should be able to name my character whatever I want regardless of how offensive it is. GM's who change my name should be dragged outside and beaten silly.</li><li>When I post a demand in the forum I am using profane language and insults to emphasize my points. You will listen. You will make the changes I ask for. And, you will update me personally via courier pigeon with your progress.</li><li>Finally, my $15/month guarantees me a seat on the board of directors so I expect a luncheon invitation to discuss all future development plans. Please be sure that the President of SOE is present and ready to take notes.</li></ul></blockquote>That's not a fair post, but that wasn't your goal. Quite a few are funny, and I'm sure I could add a few more if it was ment to be humorous by itself in it's own thread, but it's not.</blockquote>No, his competely accurate.  I'm not sure what changed in MMOs but the bulk of the genre is going to "hell in a hand-basket" because of this new "me me me no me first" mentality being displayed by a large portion of the players. (not all players, but a lot of new MMO players expect instant results, maybe it's due to the lack of "god mode" cheat codes or what have you.That and no one is allowed to be at fault, it's always someone elses fault.

[Soulforged]

<cite>Huene@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Spyderbite@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>One point that everyone seems to be missing besides the OP... Its <b>always</b> the Development Team's fault.<ul><li>Every game should be playable at highest quality on any system; even a 286 with 256k of RAM.</li><li>Every new player should be able to play the game using only one button. Learning how to play the game is an unnecessary inconvenience.</li><li>Levels are a waste of time. There should only be one level and that is "End Game".</li><li>There should only be one class. Mine. And, it should always be the most powerful class.</li><li>Any travel that takes longer than 5 minutes ruins my game. Allow me to teleport by simply imagining my destination.</li><li>I want to PvP. But, only if I win every single time.</li><li>I want to do Raids but I don't want to join a guild. Make all raids solo friendly. And again, I must win every time.</li><li>If I experience lag or any other game altering issue; I expect a SOE employee to come to my home and troubleshoot the issue. Cause its not my fault the code is bad.. nor is it my fault that my computer is a POS.</li><li>Any MMO that doesn't produce a new Expansion every 12 days is obviously suffering financial hardship and should hire 200 more developers. My boredom has nothing to do with my resitance to exploring new areas, trying all the quests, ignoring Tradeskills, or my hyperspeed launch towards End Game.</li><li>Reality in a game is stupid. I want to be able to carry 10 tons of equipment on my 70 pound Elf.</li><li>I pay $19.95/month for the best Internet connection in the world. I fully expect my 5 megabit connection which is shared by 3 city blocks of people to download all new content in less than 20 minutes.</li><li>I should be able to name my character whatever I want regardless of how offensive it is. GM's who change my name should be dragged outside and beaten silly.</li><li>When I post a demand in the forum I am using profane language and insults to emphasize my points. You will listen. You will make the changes I ask for. And, you will update me personally via courier pigeon with your progress.</li><li>Finally, my $15/month guarantees me a seat on the board of directors so I expect a luncheon invitation to discuss all future development plans. Please be sure that the President of SOE is present and ready to take notes.</li></ul></blockquote>That's not a fair post, but that wasn't your goal. Quite a few are funny, and I'm sure I could add a few more if it was ment to be humorous by itself in it's own thread, but it's not.</blockquote>It's actually quite humorous in this post, because it fits the general mood set by the OP.People (such as the OP) expect to get results from an MMO, no matter how many years old it is, within a week of buying/installing it, aren't willing to work towards it, and constantly pass off problems in-game towards the development team. ex as was used before: Your PC sucks? Dev's should have made it an easier program to run.

[Echgar]

As constructive discussion does not appear possible here, I think it is time to close this thread.