well today is release day not only for halo2 but for EQ2. anyone planning on picking this up?

me and a few friends have it pre-ordered and already planned on joining the permafrost server when it goes live today.

nope.
I'm going for the WoW open beta.
Had no idea EQ2 was even staring today.
D

I was on the fence, but after playing WoW beta for the last 6 months, I am gonna try it. Just looking for something different. I have heard many, many complaints about it, but I still want to see for myself how it is.

I will probably be picking it up from Best Buy in a couple of hours.

I'm going to do the World of Warcraft open beta, and if it really "WOW's me" (ha ha ha) I might even buy. If there was an open beta for EQ2, I didn't hear about it.

But the real game I'm waiting for is Guild Wars (no monthly fee!).

I was on the fence, then I played in the EQ2 Beta for a bit over a month. I played a lot the first few days then sporadically afterwards. It was ok, but nothing I need to pay for (if it was still free, I'd probably play a couple of hours a week, but that's about all the interest I had in it after the first few levels).

I'll probably check out WOW. I'll definitely be playing Guild Wars.

Just picked up EQ2, and played for about 30 minutes. I like it so far, but it is way to early to tell. Good change of pace from playing WoW for a while.

Installing it now, nothing like 10 cds worth of files to copy.

No pvp is a no play for me. Didn't realize it was out today, have to check out the reviews. I am skeptical after being burned by SOE with SWG. Since the beta was closed with an nda, and they didn't have an open beta, and I haven't heard any info, I will wait for more opinions before I make any decisions. Having heard lots about WOW, and generally positive reactions throughout the non-nda closed beta, I will probably try it first.

i got the dvd box and the install was on TWO dvds!
that's alot of dialogue on them there discs. i played for four hours last night and would have kept on going had the server (permafrost) not go down at 8pm Pacific last night.
i'm enjoying the game and it was alot smoother and easier to get into than when i first started on swg. (i never tried eq1, so i don't know how much of an improvement this is on the feel of their universe)

I have to say , I played one night only, but I'm liking it, maybe even more than WoW, I'll see after I've given it a few weeks to each

I was in the WOW beta and the EQ2 beta. And i enjoy EQ2 way more than i do WOW. But i still haven't gotten my copy of everquest 2.

I have only gotten my mage to level 6 (well, 7 but he is still on the newbie island), and I am also enjoying this quite a bit, maybe even more than WoW.

It definitely has more depth than WoW, the side effect is that it is a bit harder to jump into.


The thing I like the most is that it is NOTHING like the original Everquest, which I don't think most people realize. People already have their bad preconceptions based on EQ1, that aren't really applicable.

I am curious, in what ways is it different than the original everquest. I never played the original but have heard a lot about it. The idea of grinding, and tedious PVE never appealed to me as I really hated it in DAOC, and although I heard the original EQ had better PVE, overall the focus on camping never appealed to me. Has EQ II changed the dynamics of leveling? If I start another MMORPG I am hoping for something without tedious camping, but not knowing much about EQII other than the original, I don't know how they may have changed leveling. I am leaning towards WOW due to the questing system and PVP, but would like to hear more info about EQ.

i don't know how eq1 handled it but in eq2, encounters with an enemy are locked. this means once you're in battle with a creature, an icon of a "lock" will appear over you and the creature--nobody outside your group will be able to assist you or attack the creature unless you click on the "cry for help" button which will allow outsiders into the battle.
this prevents kill-stealing that i saw alot of in swg (krayts, etc)
there's ALOT of quests to do in this game. I picked up a few and i'm starting to think these sorts of quests will take more than a month to finish (making you play beyond the 30 days free, of course).
there is no pvp at all in this game and alot of the areas are instanced. this means that if you and and ungrouped friend go into a cave, you'll both may be in different instances of that same cave and will not be able to see each other.

couple gripes i've had so far:
when i left the island of refuge grouped with some friends, we all arrived in freeport in different sections of the city and were unable to start our beginning quests together.
also, fyi, don't attack a fish and run onto dry land thinking he won't come out of water and attack you. stupid shark chased me all over town on dry land.

Nice summary, Peon. It does sound like they've improved on some of the chief complaints from the original game. I'll have to give it a whirl if they offer a free trial.

I imagine the thing with the shark is a bug, but it's pretty hilarious none the less.

I was in both beta's wow and eq2. Eq2 I hated almost every aspect of it, wow was a blast and truely fun. I'll be buying wow and you couldn't pay me to play eq2.

I didn't think it was as bad as that, just not worth buying. I liked it pretty well until about level 12 or so, but then it seemed to turn into fairly repetitious quests and the level-grind I was already sick of from EQ. Maybe that was a product of how I played, or maybe it gets better after a bit, but based on my EQ experience, once it turned into a grind, it more or less stayed a grind.

Never been a big fan of paying monthly for a game I already brought and then paying for extra content to. Only thing that stopped me from getting City of Heroes.

Waiting for Guildwars, played on beta weekends (twice ) and seems like the MMORPG I'm actually going to invest time into.

KBMagic and I have gotten EQ2 and have been playing it and enjoying it very much. We may pick up a copy of WoW this week and check that out as well, and make a decision as to which one to stick with Most people I know that played EQ1 have gone to WoW saying it's a much better game, but the comments on here seem to go against that. We'll see.

So far i've got a 14 druid (SOW enabled ), and a 12 mage named Levitz who's up to 11 artisan. Anyone need a chair?

i just dinged 18 lvl brawler in freeport last night but died a bunch of times at fallen gate. and my corpse is deep within fallen gate
red bar is at 4 blocks, too. i guess i'll wait 72 hours for auto-corpse retrieval. during that time, i'll be playing WoW, i guess.

i ended up cancelling my swg account. sad to see it go, but hey, compared to eq2, i realized how poorly made swg really is.

I've been playing since release and yes it looks awesome and they did fix some things that made EQ1 a pain in the ass...

-Locked encounters. Yay! No more kill stealing
-Quests are actually fun AND rewarding !!
-Graphics are just gorgeous!
-Voice overs are well done and add to the immersion factor
-HUGE world to explore!


However if you like soloing like I do, when you have just an hour or two to play, fughettaboutit heh. This game is aimed at group play (and why blame SOE, it's a MMORPG after all) ...

Oh and if you're grouping and one player dies EVERYONE in the group shares the EXP penalty. Makes you want to think twice about grouping with idiots heh.


I'm still within my free month but I'm thinking about quitting already.

I just don't have the time like I used to.

Last night I was able to solo just fine with my Mage in Antonica. As long as the mobs you are fighting don't say "group", you should be able to solo them. I was fighting Yellow/Orange stuff and there was plenty of it. Perhaps later in the game it will be more like EQ1 where a solo character can't do anything, but hopefully not. I think most people aren't sure the proper way to play this game yet and they fight without utilizing their heroic opportunities.

I like the tradeskills much better than the old grind. If you read up on how your supposed to do them, you are quite busy once you start making something as to the older grind of hitting combine over and over. Made an 8 slot strong box and a 6 slot 5% weight reduction backpack last night.. Neat stuff out there.