Still playing EQ2 and WoW:Random thoughts about my time

Well despite all odds I am still going with both games and working out at the gym. While still remaining married and employeed to boot!

I have to admidt that EQ2 has had less time lately than WoW but mainly as a function of trying to catch my friend who was 20 levels over me when I started.

Made it level 28 as a Human mage on Bloodhoof. Been having fun for most part. Only bad times have been having server problems that have included a couple rollbacks for me.

I have gotten to group with my friend some, mostly him helping with quests too tough for me to solo, in my race to catch him but must my time has been spent solo.

Still level 34 Paladin in EQ2 Oasis server but gained about 20% in level since last updated. Mostly getting on for 30 minutes here or there solo in Rivervale. Playing solo while doable is less enjoyable in EQ2 then playing solo in WoW. At the same time grouping in EQ2, when you have a group going that is, is much more enjoyable than grouping in WoW for my taste.

As I play both games more it really becomes clear how very different the games are.

WoW plays more like a solo game that you can happen to team up with others for. In fact in most my expereince groups do not last long in WoW and form up for a very specific, and often short, goal then break up when goal is reached.

EQ2 on the other hand is very much group oriented that you can happen to play solo.

So it really is a mixed bag with these 2 games but both enjoyable.

I play MMORPG to play with other people but at the same time I do not want to have to play with other people.

My other random thought is how much WoW to me feels like other games especially AO and AC2. I know I will be run out of town for saying this but AO grouping in the early days revolved arround short lived groups to run missions. Very similiar to how grouping works in WoW. The AC2 feeling come from the way loot tables work, speed of combat, and speed of leveling.

EQ2 on the other hand reminds me a bit of FFXI (or whatever the number) and EQ but with a faster pace.

So where do you get the extra hours in the day from? I want some!

Hmm I don''t really see the similarity between WoW and AO groups that you speak of. From my recollection, gameplay for a lot of levels in AO consisted of:

solo run missions: unlimited, randomly generated, no storyline, not much like WoW.

blitz missions for gear: fun, esp. for a Fixer, WoW has nothing like this.

grind missions in a group: actually the groups for these would stick together for a few hours of grinding, just like an xp group at a camp in say DAoC or FFXI.

Since all of the missions are randomly generated and have no storyline, it begins to feel just like grinding in any other game really quick. And the special dungeons and outdoor areas, where you would spend an equivalent amount of time to instances in WoW, are not group instanced... so they actually are opposite in some ways Don''t get me wrong I actually thought AO was quite underrated, once the launch issues were dealt with, but I don''t see much similarity to WoW, other than they both have variations on instanced areas.

"Strekos" wrote:

Hmm I don''t really see the similarity between WoW and AO groups that you speak of. From my recollection, gameplay for a lot of levels in AO consisted of:

solo run missions: unlimited, randomly generated, no storyline, not much like WoW.

blitz missions for gear: fun, esp. for a Fixer, WoW has nothing like this.

grind missions in a group: actually the groups for these would stick together for a few hours of grinding, just like an xp group at a camp in say DAoC or FFXI.

Since all of the missions are randomly generated and have no storyline, it begins to feel just like grinding in any other game really quick. And the special dungeons and outdoor areas, where you would spend an equivalent amount of time to instances in WoW, are not group instanced... so they actually are opposite in some ways Don''t get me wrong I actually thought AO was quite underrated, once the launch issues were dealt with, but I don''t see much similarity to WoW, other than they both have variations on instanced areas.

My early days in AO missions would be get a group and each person would get missions set on extra-hard (since group missions where broken).

The group then would run out and do the missions after which they would break-up usually.

This parrallels nicely with my WoW grouping expereince. Yes there is a stroy line in the WoW quest, although I know tons of people that ignore the text, but the end result is the same. Group forms up to perform a quest/s that are a bit too tough to solo finish up quests break up.

I never did much blitzing, although I made blitz style runs in quests in WoW. Many a quest I know I can not do solo but can run in and advance quest and may died but who cares not like I lost much.

I did sneak missions in AO (similiar to rogue sneaking an instance to kill bosses) and never really formed groups to grind out missions.

So in AO I spent a lot of time doing missions solo, with the occasion suicide run/mad dash to get something done I wanted, and some short lived grouping to finish up tougher leveled missions.

WoW I am mostly doing solo quests, with the occasional mad dash/suicide run to advance a quest, grouping now and then in short lived groups to complete some tougher quests.

So as you can see is why I say similiar feel.

"Sephirah" wrote:

So where do you get the extra hours in the day from? I want some!

Funny how much time of your life sleep eats up.