Coming Home!

Leaving the Most Popular MMO Behind and Why.

by: Tony "RadarX" Jones

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I'm sure you've seen it, whether its one of your friends, a guildmate, or even a family member, somebody you know has left Everquest 2 to play World of Warcraft. Why shouldn't they? With more than 5 million subscribers, there must be something to that game. Now before we get much farther, I'd like to take a moment to clear something up. The purpose of this is not to bash World of Warcraft so please, both sides put away your torches and pitchforks. Not only was I a World of Warcraft player for more than 3 months, I still have an active account that I utilize from time to time.

The guild I belong to actually has guilds in both games and I happened to notice two of our members that had recently come back from World of Warcraft and I was curious why. What better way to get some insight than to just ask, so I did. Moon and Nurta are both MMO veterans of games you know like Everquest 1, and Star Wars Galaxies (when it was an MMORPG) and outstanding members of our EQ2 community.

Radar-X: I appreciate both of you taking the time to do this. Recently coming back from World of Warcraft to Everquest 2 should give both of you some insight into both games. How do you feel the low end game stacks up?

Moonlyte: Well that might be slightly skewed in my case. I had been looking forward to playing EQ2 for over a year and only started playing WoW to play with former SWG GuildMates. Quests in WoW didn't always seem clear or complete. They didn't always tell you who gave you the quest or where you were supposed to go. Even thought there were "yellow dots" if the person wasn't in that area there was no dot to see. Which left me running around searching for quest givers or completers.

Nurta: I didn't pay any attention to the tutorial and completely skipped it. At first I loved it, I thought wow this is instant gratification. But frankly something was missing and every single quest felt exactly the same

RadarX: So the low end game seems comparable. LU#19 should make a little bit of difference though. What about the User Interface (UI)? How did you feel it worked in comparison to Everquests?

Moonlyte: UI in Wow was also frustrating. Not being able to move things around without "AddOns" and especially not have waypoints was incredibily frustrating. After a while I became and AddOn Ho and liked them but I don't think a game should *need* AddOns. I think they should enhance the game. Like the EQ2 maps. You don't need them but they help.The waypoint thing was my biggest gripe out WoW. Coming from SWG and EQ2 waypoints were a thing I used often and needed for more effective game play.

Nurta: Well I was scared to change anything or try any mods because of all the stories about malicious hacks and such so I just what was there. It worked for me though I wished I could have moved some windows around. Out of the wrapper you can't change any of it. EQ2's UI is fully customizable and I have one config I just copy and use for all my characters. It makes like so easy. No 3rd party stuff just simple, easy, and customizeable.

RadarX: I'd personally give them points for simplicity but they are about as flexible as the DMV. How do you feel the solo content stacks up to the group content in WoW?

Moonlyte: I am a solo/duo player, for the most part, and only group when needed or when I need something. My only experiences with grouping, other then duo, was DeepMines. Grouping was only needed when you needed to complete the dungeon quests.
Honestly I am not the type of player that seeks out grouping quests. Yes, I did enjoying helping my fellow fishies with their dungeons but I usually put those quests off until someone else needed them as well

Nurta:I only grouped in WoW to be with friends. I did not encounter any quest or scenario that required a group other than the instances. I get the feeling I felt the game was just allot of solo quests with some group instances and other than battlegrounds or my friends I didn't group.

RadarX: Having the option to group up and watch your groupmates drunkingly take on a Cyclops that would be way too hard to take sober....sorry I'm on a tanget. Its important to have that mechanism. Sometimes you need groups for quests though. Speaking of that how deep is the quest content? Did you find yourself "grinding xp" much?

Moonlyte: WoW was great about the *grind* there wasn't much of one if you did the quests in a timely manner. The completion XP was what helped you level.
EQ2 has really come into line with that quest completion XP since the beginning of the game. I am really enjoying completely more quests in EQ2 now then I did in the beginning

Nurta: In a word, repetition. Nothing seems new no matter the class or city. Grinding? No, not really. That is one difference between EQ2 and WoW the quests themselves give allot of exp so I didn't feel like I was grinding levels. I did feel like I was in a circle doing the same type of quest over and over.

RadarX: I think all quests are similar to a degree. You'd think as much crap as people need delivering they'd use the postal system. Are people really that much faster? How immersive is WoW in comparison to EQ2?

Moonlyte:. I would like to see EQ2 get more Racial intensive like WoW. IE Racial Mounts, Differentiated Villages, Dances, Emotes, etc
. I watched movies while playing WoW I can't do that in EQ2. Also I never felt the *need* to stay up til 3am playing WoW like I do with EQ2.

Nurta: Well it's hard to feel immersed when everything feels the same. I was on a RP server this go around and hardly anyone RP'ed.

RadarX: RP? You mean roleplaying? Roleplaying....roleplaying...that sounds so familiar. Doesn't that have something to do with these games? How much history/lore does WoW have? Did you feel you know the races and the lands you were in?

Moonlyte:. I never got into the Lore of WoW. My husband used to play the offline games but I never did. I never found any *Lore People* like EQ2 has in every zone. Not saying they weren't there just that I never found any. WoW was just a *game*. The racial traditions though were by far the best. I enjoyed going to other villages and hunting in new areas. But I do like seeking out the *Lore Person* in each new zone and listening to what they have to say. (i.e. the Lady in the Willow Wood Cemetary).

Nurta: well...that is tough to answer because I am a long time EQlive player so I know allot about the history of Norrath. to be honest, I found myself not really caring what the NPCs were saying but just more concerned with getting the quest or turning in. I found the button in the UI to autofill the quest text so I skipped it most of the time

RadarX: You could skip...the quest dialogue? Son of a...I do agree the lore over in EQ2 is done ten times better at least. The stuff they are adding with LU#19 is just going to add to it. If you could bring anything back from WoW to EQ2 what would it be?

Moonlyte:. Clothing, and I am not talking armor, I am talking actually *Clothes*. Yes, I am such a girl I know. I have whole outfits for role playing and different events in WoW that I just cannot find in EQ2. There are some guild reward clothing but mostly "girlie" stuff. The girlie stuff is ok for my Warlock or Warden but my Monk I don't play that way. Also, can't just have one, I would like a "try on" feature that WoW has. So you can see what you are buying and if it matches.

Nurta: The armor. it's very diverse, although in my 4 months away from EQ2 I see they have made some changes. But that is a close second to Battlegrounds. That is one thing about WoW I totally fell inlove with. And I am not a person who likes PvP, BG was just plain fun.

RadarX: I know equipment diversification is high on their priority list. I have to admit though, I didn't like having to wear that purple helm with the gold trim just because it gave me better stats. I mean, did you ever go around with a diving helmet on? Ok on the flipside what aspect of EQ2 do you think would help out WoW?

Moonlyte:. Waypoints! Also, Guild progression. Even though I am a solo/duo type player I do enjoy running Heritage Quests and helping my friends level our guild.

Nurta: I hate the way you travel in WoW, you have to run everywhere first and discover a path and then fly on a griffon. Sure it might be instant zoning but my God it takes forever to get places. EQ2 employs the bells (which I love) and air travel.

RadarX: Waypoints are so necessary when doing quests. As for travelling? Seriously! I mean the Gnomes can build this underground subway but no bus system?! Last question, and you two can get back to heritage quests that I'm sure you're being kept from. I noticed since the time I played there is a lot more patching. Do things change frequently? Does stuff break on a regular basis? Why do you speculate the frequency of patches?

Moonlyte:. Yes, they patch often.. hmm once a month I think. The patches, that I have seen, are awesome! BUT, yes that is a big BUT, they do break things... (i.e. the AddOns). Most of the time after a patch we have to wait and search for the AddOn patches. WoW adds new content and zones in their patches rather then Adventure Packs. The last zone added was a raiding zone so probably not one I will venture out to. The first expansion is due out this summer and they are not only adding new zones but two new races as well. This should bring a good new and former player surge back to the game.

Nurta: Every Tuesday they bring servers down for maintenance and honor system updates. I will say they are fast about fixing problems and very good at letting people know there is aproblem and that they are working on it. As to frequency....I played 3 solid months and the patching wasn't too bad so long as I downloaded from fieplanet.....frankly it took longer to patch EQ2 after 4 months than the few I needed for wow lol

RadarX: Nurta and Moon I really appreciate you ladies taking the time out of your schedule to talk with me. We're glad to see you back with Everquest 2 and appreciate your insight on World of Warcraft.