Everquest II

Game was great up until and including SF. I was still having an awesome time in that xpac.
DoV was also pretty cool with the tiered zones but they started aggressively overusing crit mit which sucked. I was still enjoying it though.
CoE was what really killed the game for me. There was no point whatsoever in running 80% of the zones because the easiest 20% of dungeon (heroic) zones dropped exactly the same quality gear as the hardest (heroic) ones. Total waste. I unsubbed and haven't looked at the game since. I imagine it hasn't gotten any better with what's been going on with SOE/DBG etc since then.

The peak of the game for me was the introduction of PvP. The PvP mechanics in some ways were shitty expecially combined with the newly introduced cloud hopping in KoS but still the basic combat was great, with proper tanking/target locking.. it made group PvP very fun.. for a while.

DoV + the Sony hack + Rift caused me to stop playing EQ2 for the longest time. I came back for a bit for Skyshrine to get to 92, but those zones got boring super quick and I didn't bother with Chains of Eternity till the tail end because of the requirement to do the signature quest which was tedious as all get out.

slippery said:

Weren't you working on the game at the time?

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I didn't start there till a few months before ToV. (Which I actually enjoyed a lot and got me really into EQ2 again.)

I was pretty much a group-only player at that point due to lack of free time and lack of guilds during PST prime time, but I found the first two tiers of heroic zones fun to run even though I was hitting them as soon as my lockouts cleared. The Temple of Veeshan zones were baaaad though.

if this guy is a dev why didn't you fuckers ever listen to the feedback why was it so hard for you guys to fix shit after so much gdamn feedback on raid mobs

Paranoia said:

if this guy is a dev why didn't you fuckers ever listen to the feedback why was it so hard for you guys to fix shit after so much gdamn feedback on raid mobs

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FYI I was a programmer so not really involved in the content side aside from participating in some discussions here and there, and judging by the post you made detailing your history of EQ2, I think you played before my time as a dev so I can't really speak to the members of the team at that time. The answer probably depends on a lot of things though (the devs involved, the mobs involved, how the feedback is presented, etc. etc.). Sorry it's kind of a lame answer.

oh I see. Well always worth a shot to ask these guy why they took so long to not fix a thing. what was the point of taking the home cities away from the player I really did miss longshadow ally

Paranoia said:

oh I see. Well always worth a shot to ask these guy why they took so long to not fix a thing. what was the point of taking the home cities away from the player I really did miss longshadow ally

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Some bullshit response of trying to get all the players together and not thin them out. The suburbs of the main cities were just too packed!

Yea, I was one that loved the original release idea that everyone started out as a level 1 blank template. You fought and did your thing on the refugee island (or whatever it was called). Got used to very basic combat and then chose a broad decision of melee vs priest type. After finishing the quests and gaining a couple levels on the isle you made the decision if you wanted to be good or evil and then were whisked away to either Qeynos or Freeport based on that decision. Then you still had tasks to do while in the city (all the while gaining levels and gear). You then chose a more defined class role (ie: warrior, monk, or rogue).. and then more questing to give you a feel of both of the final versions of your class. It wasn't until level 20, that you picked your final class (ie: warrior = Guardian or Zerker, etc).

I think it gave new players a unique way to choose their classes without making some blind decision at level 1. You basically got a feel for each class before making your decisions along the way. I thought it was a pretty cool feature of the game. But then... nope, nuked that entire system altogether including the island. Just dumb.

Another thing I thought EQ2 pioneered was voice acting for MMOs. What seems like a completely normal thing we take for granted in modern games today, EQ2 hit voice acting hard and heavy for the original release game. Hell, they had Christopher Lee voicing Lucan (FP boss) and Heather Graham as Antonia Bayle (Qeynos boss). Something crazy like 2000 voice actors. This simply was neglected as the following xpacs released. Probably due to money with their failing game direction, but voice acting is the way of the future and EQ2 had it right in 2004.

Again, so much wasted potential with this game that it annoys me to no end.

Something that didn't help was getting a new game producer every damn expansion to change the direction of things. There never was one vision with the team I feel like.

Someone please load up a fresh 90 with me. Holy fuck I'm so bored. I want to play this so badly but my experience is way less enjoyable doing these dumb quests by myself. I don't know the areas and game well enough to fly over to some zone and do cool shit. Someone show me!

I can only start 1 on free account. Leveling is going slow haha

joz123 said:

I can only start 1 on free account. Leveling is going slow haha

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What do you mean? I have a free account and I'm able to create 2 characters.

I meant a lvl 1 character. For the boost it looks like I need some weird coins or pay for it.

joz123 said:

I meant a lvl 1 character. For the boost it looks like I need some weird coins or pay for it.

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Nah you can start at 90 but you need to press the trial version out of the 3 options when you go to make the character - you can only level the free version up to 91 unless you subscribe or unlock it with $ I believe.

I could be wrong, maybe you cannot have two free level 90 characters? I don't know cause I have a level 12 RNG and a 90 slot.

I would be down to start a level 1 with you though if you want, I just want someone to play with tbh.

If you guys play on the Free Trade server let me know. I can get you a guild invite and probably do some power leveling as well.

Well I can't play there cause I have a free account but thanks I will hit you up if I decide to sub. If I do, it's likely to be some time down the road when I have more time to invest...

Right now I find myself wondering why I'd play EQ2, sub or no sub, when there are F2P games like Rift, ArcheAge, Black Desert, etc.

I like a lot of stuff about EQ2 but the fact that I've played about 30 hours worth of time across all servers and characters and only played with two other people for a total of about an hour is really a dealbreaker for me. I play MMOs to play with other people and EQ2 just does not really have that unfortunately - which blows, because even though it's old it is actually still a really fun game.