MMORPG watch

[Head Mutant]

The Three Biggies (Everquest 2, World of Warcraft and Guild Wars) are all bursting into the news lately, particularly around the holiday season. The latest news:

EQ2: Sony Online Entertainment has surprisingly bumped UP the release date from Nov 16 to Nov 8, despite numerous reports that the beta is still unpolished and buggy. We shall see.

WOW: Until lately, all the stores have been saying Nov 16. Today, the Detroit Free Press claimed inside info to a Nov 22 date. However, Blizzard denies any release date, and they STILL haven't started the promised open beta (which was announced "coming soon" almost three weeks ago).

GW: Next February, most likely.

So... anyone going to jump on board any of these?

[DocD83]

I was thinking of EQII (I play EQI), but it would require a massive computer upgrade, so it'll have to wait.

[Mischif]

I am voraciously awaiting WOW with my guild, the Order of One (http://www.orderofone.com). I played in the Stress test, I'm looking forward to the open beta, and I'll prolly buy the collector's edition on release.

[siegeshot]

im all over WOW. i think the next stress test is gunna be this week some time. and some people are sayin its gunna be the open beta. i dont wanna bust out all my nerdy wow info here. but im all over wow. eq looks to real for me. and gw feels way too much like something other then what i'd ever want to do for fun

[MarsNeedsTowels]

Drop the monthly rates and we'll talk.

[siegeshot]

u need monthly fee's to pay everyone that works on it, and to keep the bugs fixed, and new content steadilly streaming in. plus keeps a lot of the idiots out. i'd gladly double whatever bliz asks in monthly fees if it means a good game

[DocD83]

I don't know about the other games, but I think the fee for EQ is well spent. That game is so incredibly complex that--without that fee to pay for programmers and GMs to handle bugs and exploits and to upgrade servers--the game would rapidly deteriorate to uselessness. Plus, those of us too cheap to pay for a new expansion every eight months (and the new hardware to run it) get upgrades too...I recently got the only thing I could possibly have used from the Planes of Power expansion for free.

Contrast that to the only other game I play online, which I can never get to work because the connection is free and they havn't upgraded their servers or patched the game software in years.

[MarsNeedsTowels]

I have no problem with the fees existing, I understand they pay the folks maintaining the servers and equipment upgrades, I just personally don't want to pay them. I prefer RPG's that actually have a plot and an interesting massive game world (See Morrowind). I don't fancy killing endless rats in my underwear for experience pointage thanks, if I wanted to do that i'd load up ZMUD.

But as I said this is only a personal preference. However, if people actually had some fun with their characters rather than throwing around internet colloquialisms all the time maybe i'd be interested. The suspension of disbelief sort of dissolves when elves start going "pwn3d".

[siegeshot]

WoW has a complete indepth whole policy thing preventing people from running around spamming pwned like idiots. also has a naming policy, harassment policy, swearing policy, like i said spamming policy.

frankly.... i just turn chat off, and just read what everyone in the general area says. i think i've talked to a grand total of 2 people so far. everyone just does their thing in WoW. and if you want to say somethin to them. u say it. and its done.

i havnt seen a single pwned yet. some people say lol, but it just is the emote for makin ur guy laughing soooo, thats no biggie.

on a side note. i wouldnt play starcraft, warcraft, diablo if there was a monthly fee, but WoW has definately earned it. i'd pay like 5 bucks a month for warcraft 3 if they enacted a naming policy and harassment policy. but its not feasible and then nobody would play, and its fine the way it is hehehe.

[Head Mutant]

I've been playing World of Warcraft (finally!) since getting in the stress test last week. I'm torn between playing it and not playing it -- not because it's a poor game, quite the opposite, but because there's no official word on whether characters will be wiped or not once the game goes live later this month. I've thought of even checking out EQ2 for a couple weeks while I wait, but I probably won't.

Rich asked me what was so great about WoW, considering that it's your traditional MMORPG fantasy setting and all. True 'nuff, it's not that mind-bendingly original. But it's sheer fun to play, and that's the biggest thing for me.

My report card of the game so far:

GOOD

* The world is genuinely fun to explore. WoW has a very stylized, cartoony look and feel to it, and that actually works heavily in its favor. The best way I can describe it is that the various regions and zones are like the best sort of amusement park rides that take you through colorful and interesting venues. I actually want to poke around every nook and cranny, and they give you experience for each new place you find, which is nice.
* The little details... such as a mine where, the further you go in, the more critters wrapped (and struggling hilariously) in spiderwebs you see... or a home where the resident's been using a mounted boar's head as target practice for meat cleaver throwing... or the gnome's Tinker Town, where you have to go through a rotating tunnel to get there.
* Easy to understand and play. Very easy to learn, but it's got some nice depth to make it worthwhile to master. The tutorials are decent, tradeskills are simple to understand, and the user interface quite polished.
* Interesting quests. I usually don't do quests in online RPGs, but these are well-thought-out and satisfying to do. I haven't felt like I've been grinding yet, through the first 10 levels, and I have 15 quests in my journal at present.
* Combat is fast-paced and gives you options once you start learning more skills. For instance, if my paladin gets into serious trouble during combat and can't run away (if you do, you typically get hit 4-5 more times before outpacing your enemy), I have two spells to help out. The first casts a 6 second shield around my character, and the second heals me (if I used my heal in combat, it would most likely be disrupted by enemy blows, but the shield lets me have enough time to fire it off).
* Real variety in character advancement. Talent trees let classes differentiate within themselves, and you can learn other class weapon skills if you find the right trainers (so a rogue could use a gun, or a mage use a sword).
* The rest system is kinda nice... if you log out and you're in an inn, your rest meter gradually increases. When you log back in, you get double XP for each kill until your rest meter drops back down to zero. Awesome for casual players.

BAD

* They're still working on bugs and final bits and pieces, so the game's changed noticably even in the week I've played (but mostly for the better).
* It's hard to earn money, since they include a lot of moneysinks into the game to keep the economy from spinning out of control. Death hurts all of your armor, pretty severely, and paying to repair it gets expensive.
* Some of the races (such as the Orcs and Trolls) are not very appealing to play, considering that most people gravitate toward Humans, Undead, Night Elves and Dwarves. Blizzard has said they're adding more Horde quests, but right now the Alliance has more quests and variety.

UGLY

* Your momma.

[siegeshot]

they're definately wiping everyone. it wouldnt be fair, plus i think people'd get board if they hopped right into retail with level 60 characters. plus those people will have missed a lot of the game, being level 60 for so long, and having so much content added to the lower end. in stress test 1 there was a ton of low end content, then again in stress 2 there was probably double that content for starting out. so just in that short span, unless people with lvl 60's made new chars they've probably missed like half the storyline/game/whatever.

you know what i like about wow that'd keep me paying for it till the end of time? besides people not always helping me when im gettin my arse kicked on occasion people are REALLY REALLY nice to me in that game. nobodys ever nice to me. thats worth the $15 a month just to be around people that're nice to me so i dont feel like im playing an mmorpg called

highschool: treat siege like crap

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so yea. im a night elf hunter. tamers have always been my favorite, and bliz definately did not dissapoint. i never get tired of my black and white spider. and they're always adding more stuff.

also the other thing i like that comes to mind, is the fact that they can fix bugs so fast. people say they dont fix bugs fast. but.... i've played mmogs that never even fix bugs up going into several years and not fixing bugs that've been in since closed pre alpha. sooooooooo, bliz fixes bugs QUICK. i could ramble off on that for a long time.

anyway its just a really genuinly nice game. im onl lvl 16 going on 17, and that seems to be kinda a slow time, atleast for me cuz thats where i always get stuck, but im still having fun like crazy. my fiance LOVES the game too. and its just such a fun game to play with someone you like. every class compliments each other so it doesnt matter who your loved one or friend has as a char, as long as they're the same faction as you (human, night elf, gnome, dwarf) or (orc, tauren, troll, undead) you can play together and be a great team.

btw tons of people play hoard. your probably right about the quest thing and hoard not gettin as much love. i've heard that a lot. hopefully hoard'll get a lotta lovins come retail, but i dont think that'll stop that many people from playing hoard. i just like night elves.

but i mean seriously. think of all the stuff thats still coming to the game. and they've already added so much, making it deeper yet still simple enough anyone can do it.

some day there'll be housing, heros, more areas, maybe new classes and maybe new races, more racial traits, more pet skills and bliz is notorious for adding more weapons and monsters and stuff in their games.

i dunno. its just so well rounded it actually covers all the bases i look for in a game. and i dont have to be embaressed to tell people i play it. man i could go on all day about wow. :/

[Oblivion]

It is too fun. During the time I played it, it destroyed my life (not enough willpower!)and quite frankly I need my life. So, bye bye WoW.