I started my MMO experiences with a little game called Final Fantasy XI. For any of you who are familiar with the game (and I don't mean a passing kind, but an actual "I played that" kind), you know that it really was a grind, there was a high elitist attitude about having the right equipment, and worst of all, it actually required some serious skill to accomplish much of the proper game mechanics.
Before you start in on defending WoW, or EQ2, note that I'm playing those and not FFXI. But the one thing, other than a very close sense of community with my linkshell, that I left behind in FFXI that I missed... were the group interactions. You had to have macros announcing what you were doing, and you had to be paying attention, in order to cast at the proper time (I was primarily a black mage, Taru's ftw!), or you'd mess up your group. And in FFXI, messing up the group could easily mean death at any one point in time.
I hear about this new MMO, World of Warcraft, and I think, hey, I'll try that. I was familiar with Warcraft, played WC2 and enjoyed it, so I figured, what the hey. When I tried it, at first, I honestly didn't like it. The graphics were okay, I wasn't thrown off by the cartoony look. It was that it seemed to be a button masher, where you'd do allright if you just kept hitting your skills, and you really didn't NEED a group to play it.
After spending hours sometimes looking for a group to try to gain 1/4 of a level (I mean, c'mon, I only had 6 hours to play, needed to hurry if I was going to get that 1/4), I liked that idea. Plus, you could be more than 4 races, and they even had FACTIONS. There were players you could actually fight and kill!
So I switched, and I have loved WoW ever since. The only things WoW does NOT have to offer, and even the most rabid of us WoW'ers must be honest in admitting it, is team mechanics for small dungeons. In raids, I understand, there is an aspect of "mess up and you kill us all". In dungeons, not so much. Heroics maybe. But it really didn't matter, in questing and such, if I healed you before you attacked, or after, or if I ice-bolted the mob before you cheap shotted.
So I try Everquest 2. It has some things that WoW doesn't, but also lacks some things that WoW does right. You could read this as a review of the two but it's not my intention to compare them. They're different games for different flavors of gamer.
What Everquest does right:
Skillchains. Nuff said. Being able to play off of what another character is doing and make it more effective is awesome. I love that sense of "team" in that what I do can imbue what someone else does and we become more effective by working together and coordinating our attacks.
Crafting. I love the crafting in it. It's more complex than "get your mats, click the button, watch for status to finish" like WoW does. You skillup in crafting and it allows you to learn more recipes. You can make upgrades to player skills, you can make items for player housing, weapons, armor, etc. When you've decorated your own little instanced apartment with things you've actually gathered and made, I don't know... there's a sense of accomplishment there.
Character design. You won't have to look the same as all of the other "good" races, or "evil" races. There is enough difference to make a unique look if you want one, and if you don't, you can individualize your character's class far more than WoW offers. (WoW does offer some specialization but it seems more designed for what you want to do, there's a PvP spec, a PvE spec, a raiding spec, etc. in WoW in general). From all appearances, EQ2 has that but also some more individualized means by which you can DPS/Heal/Tank. Given that my experience is limited, this is based more on what I think I understand about the character advancement system rather than actual experience with it.
What WoW does right:
Solo'ing and accomplishments. You can jump onto WoW and play for an hour, and accomplish quite a bit in that time. While I think it's a simpler game in that it requires less to play, I don't think it's a "Boon hit button, Boon kill!". There is a lot of thought put into WoW, both in lore and in design, and I don't think it should be written off as a "children's version" of an MMO. It's got plenty of content. While the game can be simple, it's entertaining and a lot of fun.
System Requirement. It isn't taxing on your PC so you can play it on a much lesser system than Everquest 2. When I alt-tab out of EQ2, even with my rather nice computer, I lag considerably on everything, and have even locked up a time or two. Not saying that's Everquest doing it, necessarily, but I can alt-tab on WoW easily all the time. Plus I get a higher FPS in WoW.
Longevity. I've played the game for 3 years (has it really been 3 years) and I don't see myself quitting it anytime soon. While I may look into other MMO's and try them (hence the EQ2 experiment), it'd take some pretty solid design to pull me from WoW. Wasn't so hard to pull me from FFXI.
And I'm spent. If I spend all evening writing this rather than playing, what's the point!?
TO THE GAMES!
