EQ 2 - Who's doing what?

[Gargazon]

I think the real question is... How many of us will be moving to worlds of warcraft. I've seen and read a lot of stuff about it and I have a sneaking suspicion it could dethrone EQ. The devs seem to think so too, look at all the newly proposed changes. Not that I'm supprised, I'm sure many of you remember the halloween "oh my god DAoC is comming out and no one will want to stay....what will we do?" GM events. I still have some of the stuff in the bank on several characters.

There is a difference this time though, this time it's not DAoC, it's WoW from Blizzard, who produced starcraft and many othe rhighly popular games. Most of the WoW devs are ex EQ players too if what I have read in various places is correct. If Blizzard comes out with a world that is really playable, challenging, and most importantly, has an endgame, EQ could be in some serious trouble concerning player loss. DAoC did it for a while, but with no endgame everyone came back to EQ.

Anyhow, the folks at SoE seem to have laughed off any of the so called "EQ killers" since DAoC collapsed in on itself, but they HAVE to be a little scared this time. WoW is looking like the first real second generation mmog. I could be wrong though, it might totally suck...but I seriously doubt it.

[Serenya]

I think the real question is... How many of us will be moving to worlds of warcraft. I've seen and read a lot of stuff about it and I have a sneaking suspicion it could dethrone EQ. The devs seem to think so too, look at all the newly proposed changes. .

Hard to say, but given Blizzard's track record with time to market, I think SOE has two years before they have to worry about it, :twisted: and by then SWG and EQ2 will have sucked up a chunk of the potential market. MMORPGs are definitely already starting to cannibalize........

[Gargazon]

Good point Serenya, but I think WoW will be out in a year or so myself, might be 2, but who knows. Until then I think EQ will remain relatively unchallenged, at least in the fantasy market.

SWG is a totally different game, and I don't think it will last long personally, I have heard too many reviews that say it is a total *** of a game. SoE has done the same thing with it, as they have done with EQ. Promised to fly us to the moon and the stars, and instead given us a swift kick to the rear end and said "what do you mean that wasn't the altitude we promised....here, let's try it again *WHACK* *WHACK* *WHACK* ....seeing stars yet?"

In the end, I trust Blizzard to put out a quality product, I think it will revolutionize the market if the 1) handle PvP properly 2) handle cross teaming properly 3) properly support it. If it were SoE making it, i would say categorically nope.

All in all, I expect SoE to be getting a wake up call one way or another because many high end people, i.e. people who often have multiple accounts, are getting fed up, and quitting. These people are also often the best players, for a reason. SoE will start having to dumb down content, which means people will finish it faster and faster and move on and this will only escelate until SoE is left screaming OMGZ, we fixed it all this patch we swear bandwagon. *chirp* *chirp* *chirp* *chirp* *chirp* *chirp*

The only reason they have survived this long is due to a very few reasons imoho.
1) Every other major game has implemented PvP on a grand scale. Casual gamers don't like PvP. Most non casual ones hate it too.
2) Friendships have been formed, and people don't want to leave their friends, so they keep playing EQ even though they hate it.
3) Time invested in their character.

I know that I will never buy another SoE product myself. ...well, I might be wrong, I mean if I was stranded in the middle of the desert, dying of thirst, and I came upon an SoE water seller I'd probably buy some...even though I know I'd hate myself for missing the *Proudly bottled in Mexico* label.

I guess it boils down to an issue of trust. The origional VisionTM might have had some stupidity attached to it, but at least they cared about, and played the game. It's always been about the money of course, but back then it seemed like they cared about more than "just" the money. The suits at SoE need to release their deathgrip on the devs ***** and encourage some creativity, postpone deadlines if it's not ready to ship, and tell the stockholders whatever lie they need to tell them in order to produce a quality game. in the long run they will be far far happier with the results, but more importantly, so will we.

And remember, this is comming from someone who isn't even in the elemental planes yet, just tier 3...although we will all be in tier three soon I think. It only took them almost a year to listen to everyone not in the top 2-3 guilds on most servers screaming about lack of high end content for those not in an uber guild to wake up and open them to the other 99.9% of the players. (I personally plan on staying out of the planes for a few days when they do this, until all the folks who have no business being there get beaten down enough to realize they need to go back to sebilis for a while...I might just do the same if I can get exp there)

[Hobbun]

I'm kind of hesitant about Blizzard. Starcraft was great when it came out and still has that "addiction" quality to it. Diablo was good because it was different for its time. Diablo 2 was still pretty good, but didn't catch the interest as the first one.
Never played the original Warcraft, but Warcraft II was a very good game.

However, Warcraft III just sucked. That may just be my opinion, but if WoW is as the same quality of Warcraft III, I will be sticking with EQ or EQ II.

Hobbun