« Crafting From Your Phone: A Convergence of Worlds | Home | A Small PvP Design Thought »
Cruising teh Interwebs
By Cameron Sorden | October 2, 2007
I’ve been uncharacteristically quiet lately (which means I’m averaging 3.5 posts per week instead of 5) because I’ve just been plumb tuckered out. Mondays especially are rough for me… I’ll do a proper and thoughtful post soon, but there are a few things happening I wanted to comment on in the meantime…
If you haven’t seen it yet, Ryzom might be shutting its doors– again. It’s sad to hear that. I played it for a few weeks and couldn’t really get into the radically foreign sci-fi atmosphere, but it has a strong community and does some remarkable things that you don’t see right now in most other games: player-created content with the Ryzom Ring, skill-based progression, in-game seasons, migratory animals, etc. I hope somebody picks it up, because even though it’s not my thing it’s a really unique offering on the MMOG landscape.
Pirates of the Burning Sea is doing their first stress test for Fileplanet subscribers. While this is a Fileplanet exclusive deal, I have to admit that I’m more than a little irked, on principle, that my “beta key” from PAX (which I registered with over a month ago) still hasn’t granted me beta access to the game yet and they’re already letting Fileplanet subscribers in. I don’t have the spare time to test it right now even if I got in, so it’s a moot point, but I don’t see the purpose in handing out “beta” keys that turn out to be “front of the line when we next allow subscribers in” keys that don’t even do that… *grumble*
Finally, there’s a Smedley quote from a recent WarCry interview that caught my eye:
“[Everquest II] was called a sequel, but in reality it was a different game set in the same world, just in the future.”
I find that really interesting, because that’s exactly how I’ve always felt about EQII. I played it in the final stages of beta, and then earlier this year I bought Echoes of Faydwer and got an Illusionist to the mid 20’s (my favorite EQ class was the Enchanter). Despite it being a really great game, as any number of bloggers will happily attest to, it just didn’t “do it” for me because it didn’t feel like EverQuest. I felt like it was remarkably similar to WoW, and I had a lot more invested in WoW than I did in EQII, so I just eventually uninstalled it and went back to Blizzard.
I can’t explain why it doesn’t feel like EverQuest, really. This is something I’ve been thinking about for months, and especially lately as I’ve been playing Vanguard (which does feel like the proper successor to EQ1, in my opinion). I can’t put my finger on it… it’s got something to do with zone design, or maybe itemization, or maybe combat… I’m really baffled and it bothers me. All I know is that when I play it, I can tell I’m playing an EQ successor in name/setting only. I’ll think about this some more and keep trying to figure it out.
What do you think? I’d like to hear from anyone who played both of them, especially if they currently play EQII, and see if you all have the same feelings I do about it or if I’m just way off kilter here. Anyone want to take a stab at the major differences between the two games that might be throwing me off?
Topics: Random |
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:24 pm
I think the PotBS beta keys are a bad system, too. If those “at the front of the line” don’t get into the stress test, it will be pretty sad. It’s not smart to mislead potential customers.
I played EQ and EQ2. The interesting question Smedley’s comment raises is in what particular ways games need to be similar to share a title.
If nothing else, EQ and EQ2 share a common lore. EQ2’s setting is basically a post-apocalyptic version of EQ’s setting. Many of the places, the characters, the creatures, and races/classes are the recognizable. Much of the gameplay’s thrill for many EQ2 players is based on that familiarity. Yet what Smedley and others are essentially saying is that lore is not the core of the game; not by itself, at least.
Nobody gripes when one Mario game is so drastically different from the last, despite all the lore elements being the same. That’s because the title “Mario” represents a general philosophy of gameplay more than the actual Mario lore.
Perhaps what we’re seeing is that “Everquest” also represents a style of gameplay more than a particular virtual world. Perhaps Everquest players are attracted to the game more for its arcade-style elements than for its RPG elements.
People would probably have less of a problem with an SWG:2 being drastically different; because the Star Wars universe setting, not the gameplay, is the central feature of SWG.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:47 pm
I think you along with several thousand other players (including myself) are looking for that classic EQ1 feeling again. I think Vanguard had the right idea, it bucked the trends and went a more hard-core path, but it seems it was not managed well and didn’t have a good release. In another time that would have been okay, but during the “WoW” era of MMO’s this mistake was deadly. They lost far more money by doing this than waiting a little longer. I hope SOE has a good plan and maybe it will be a sleeper hit; or at least capture a strong piece of the market similar to what AO did.
Anyway, EQ2 does give me some of the EQ1 “magic”. The trick is you have to change your focus a little and get into the lore. Have a good time seeing old places and faces in a new setting. Also, the community reminds me of EQ1. Helpful but unforgiving to clowns. Still, a piece is missing and I haven’t made the quality of friends in EQ2 that I made in EQ1, but my style and frequency of play is much different.
This is a rambling post, but in the end it doesn’t feel like EQ1 because we (the players) asked them to destroy all the things that made it special. It was hardcore, and not everyone could play it. That attracted a certain group of people…albeit from different backgrounds (doctors, layers, students, unemployed) but they had a love for EQ in common. Second the time sinks and hardcore grouping and raiding almost FORCED you to make friends. Once complained and they tried to fix it…and then we ask why does it not feel the same!
That being said, I feel EQ2 devs have hit their stride. The are producing some great content that is a great combo of old and new. A tell-tale sign of the ‘health’ of EQ2 is the great number of players at every level. There is new blood in the game and THAT will keep it alive and growing for sometime. I have talked several friends into trying it and all have loved it. The mentor program is amazing at keeping the game alive IMO.
Sorry for the ramble, but I think VG could be that game, but not yet. Problem is I have also fallen in love with the lore and EQ2 has plenty of that. My single gripe about EQ2 is it needs a tougher combat system…I feel like I am playing Whack-a-Mole to much in EQ2. Click all my buttons wait for refresh…not much else.
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:54 pm
The keys for the PotBS stress test only last for 4 days, by the way. So it’s not really a free ‘beta-in’.
But yeah, I also have a key and been waiting in line for an invite… I hope I actually get in at all.
October 5th, 2007 at 7:34 am
RE: EQ2 — Different classes have different amounts of button mashing. Support classes and healers require far more thought. For instance, when I play my Inquisitor… well, she heals, but a lot of times, the group doesn’t need much healing and MOST of the time, putting a reactive heal on the tank is all that is needed. So, she casts Zealotry, which makes her unable to cast spells — including heals — but boosts the attack power of the group substantially.
All clerics in EQ2 can spec so they can do a fair amount of melee damage, so she wades in and starts fighting, clicking off Zealotry to cure debuffs, recast the reactive heal or anything else necessary, then clicks it back on again.
It’s a complicated class, and button mashing would leave the group dead or doing low dps.
My main is a troubador — who must do scout-level dps, but also is called upon in groups to do crowd control, guard from AEs, some debuffing, boosting spell dps, giving people little zings to their skill reuse timers, and such. It is a very difficult job to do well.
Even straight DPS classes aren’t just button mashers. My brigand has a variety of positional attacks, including an attack that can do amazing dps if they pull aggro — as well as the strategic stunning and such.
It’s probably not a fantastic idea to assume how EQ2 plays in its first twenty levels is any indicator as how it plays in the end game. It is a very tough game.
EQ2 didn’t have the EQ1 feeling for me at the beginning, but it’s acquired it over time. EQ2 was my first real MMO, and as such always has a special place in my memories, but EQ1 is not now the game I remember. EQ2 is currently more like old EQ1 than EQ1 is.
I only played VG a few hours. It ran fine on my machine, so that wasn’t it. Graphics looked great, that wasn’t it. It was just the similarity to EQ2 and especially DAoC — I felt I had played this game before, many times.
October 5th, 2007 at 7:40 am
An Addendum — EQ1 was very much, for dps classes anyway, a press auto attack and go afk game (something I actually (oops) did a couple of times in Vex Thal). About the hardest class to play there was a bard, and talk about button mashing… anyway, perhaps that was a key to EQ1s warm place in our hearts? What with the game itself being very easy to play, and given occasional breaks to restore health and mana, it was a far slower paced game than today’s twitchfests.
Maybe today’s games are paced too fast?
October 7th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
[...] Sorden at Random-battle.com has been on fire lately with a couple awesome articles! In “Cruising teh Interwebs”, they explain why they’ve been quiet lately and “Crafting From Your Phone: A [...]
October 8th, 2007 at 5:33 am
I never played EQ1, never had any desire whatsoever. Can’t put my finger on it, but something always turned me off of it. I avoided Vanguard while McQuaid was at the helm and didn’t bother checking it out in morbid curiosity until just over a week ago — well after McQuaid Meltdown. Surprisingly, I’m really enjoying VG other than it’s a bit grindy. Oh sorry, I guess you EQers call that “hunting”…
Out of further morbid curiosity I also picked up EQ2 at the same time and I honestly am having difficulty understanding why anyone plays it. I find myself thinking “WTF?” more often than I ever have in any game, MMO and otherwise, EVER. I’m trying and trying, but I can barely stay interested in EQ2 longer than a single combat encounter. It plays too much like a poorly-done Nintendo game for me.