Everquest II

I hate SOE, but I really like EQ2.

I throw up a little every time my CC is charged.

I don't hate SOE but I don't like them very much either.
After what they did to SWG and the old players I just have a hard time trusting them, and that's the biggest reason I don't play EQ2 anymore.
EQ2 is actually a really nice game, except for the instances and nerfes... ah well, I guess I'm just hurt.

Sorry SOE, but you did it to yourselves.

Fire smedley and the take his salary and hire real customer service reps and developers who want to make extra content and not nerf the game into oblivion.  SOE is the worst of the worst.

Good thing about SOE it takes games that some like and saves them from the junk heap of failed MMORPG's 

Matrix should have died, SWG should have died,   Unfortunately SOE keeps mediocre-poor games on life support instead of letting them die a swift merciful death.

I'm angry at SOE too!!

I played EQ2 since around two months after it opened. Lots about the game was great, good graphics, gameplay, nice crafting and lots of variety. Grouping was fun and i really enjoyed my class (troubador). Over the course of the next 18mths everything changed completely.. roughly every three months or so i would find my class had been changed so much i had to completely relearn it. I persisted through sheer bloody-mindedness if nothing else, but recently decided enough was enough and cancelled.

When i first rolled my troubador, we were one of the top classes for soloing and had a very respectable dps. This went back and forth through various live updates, and now we are arguably the worst soloing classes with very very low dps. Fine if that was what i wanted to play... but it wasn't. I'm not knocking class balancing, but putting all those hours of work into developing my character is frustrating when you end up with something completely opposite to what it was originally. I mean imagine in real life if you were a policeman for 20 years then got told you now had to be a nurse...

EQ2 would still be great if SOE developed some kind of vision and stuck with it. I like to have some kind of consistancy in online games, too much messing about from SOE means i'll never go back now.

And don't even get me started on the crafting revamp...

Well, I don't hate SOE, and understand what they did from a business sense was to chase the WOW market. My hope is they will recognize that Vanguard is a different market segment, and leave it alone to compete with the Age of Conan in the mature market. Teenie boppers (and I have 2, though I told them to get a job) are generation XS (excess). They want their fun, and they want it now. They blow through it, and are quickly bored, running back to mommy and daddy to buy them their next fun fix. A very fickle market segment that wants everything handed to them outright in the cradle for nothing. I played EQ 2 until I became too bored wth it as a dumbed down WOW clone. I was never concerned with hitting the level cap, I wanted relaxation, enjoyment, and escape from everyday reality. Let's see, when I come home from work, I can turn on the local news and hear about the murders, muggings, rapes, and robberies in the giant metropolis I moved 50 miles away from, then wait for the world news to see the story on who's killing whom today....or I can turn on the computer and escape all the real world bullshit by playing EQ 2. Example, my druid, Beka, is out alone exploring the waterfront area in Desert of Flames, when she comes across a magic bottle. Ah, we all know if she rubs the bottle a genie will appear, but what then...So she rubs it, there's a fun conversation, she's transported into the bottle and given some combat challenges. Boring, in the dumbed down EQ 2 she has a 95% chance of winning the combat challenges, but wait, I can put them on hold and explore the marvelous graphics inside the bottle. Darn, the harem girls are non-interactive, so I talk at them, and go through a series of e-motes, take screenshots of this really cool looking locale. Okay, fun over, back to complete the combat challenge (yawn), which Beka wins, hands down, no problem, no challenge. Guess what, Beka is offered a choice of 3 different magical doo-dads of super nerdiness. No deal I scream at the computer, I want a harem girl outfit in either teal, purple, or pink! Beka would look so hot walking around Freeport in a harem girl outfit. Not to be SOE screams back at me, the magical doo-dads of super nerdiness will help you hit your level cap, so that you can buy the expansion we are hyping for next year! Crap thinks I, just like real life, hurry up and level, I'm late, hurry up, gotta run, no time to smell the roses. Please leave Vanguard alone...pretty please....I really want to stop and smell the roses.

...and now, the same story as above about the genie and the bottle as told thru the eyes of the 13 year old adolescent that is EQ 2's target audience....

"Dude, I zoned into this cube dude, it was soooo cooool dude, all the sides were the same color. Dude, I had to waste 2,439 blobs to get to the boss dude and win the 'Greatsword of Major Nerdiness', dude, it was so cool, took me 5 minutes to complete."

Why SOE even bothers to assign graphic designers to EQ 2 anymore is beyond me, the WOW refugees don't appreciate any of their work anyway. It's "dude, I'm at the entrance to Runnyeye, let's go get to the boss". then complain because the access quest to the Runnyeye end zone takes to long. If I could count the times I had to lead players by the nose to get the quests that were in between the begining and end of the Runnyeye dungeon....they run through and see nothing.

Please place a warning on the front of the Vanguard box that says "Moms, game contains full frontal female nudity, not for your sons under 18 years old". Then you can assign the graphic artists from EQ 2 to Vanguard, and just let the bops grind away in single colored cubes. Randomize the colors though, they'll think it's graphics detail.

sorry for the rave, but it's hot here, and I have nothing to do as I await a decent MMORPG....so here's what I'd like to see from SOE and EQ 2:

Rather than waunder into the Sprawl, walk around and thru the Giantslayer Bashers, pick one out, setup the best angle of attack, and eventually kill him while his buddies look on (yawn), why can't we try something like this:

Envision a ship at sea, with a group of 6 playrs, NPC's on the oars and acting as crew on the deck (waundering non-aggro NPCs like the Giantslayer Bashers) when a sail is spotted (lookout heard yelling "sail off the port bow). A PC orders the Captain to bring the ship about, and to the beating of the oar drums the distance closes. The other ship spots us, catapults ring out, ballista shoot, fire arrows cloud the sky, PC archers shoot, around our heros NPC's drop, some PC's take damage, but still the distance closes. Ram, then grappling hooks go out (PCs can participate), both ships crew NPCs aggro to each other (Guild Wars does this with NPCs), and each sends boarders to the other's ship. PC's can jump to the other ship (spacebar, timing, not automatically easy), grab a rope hanging from the mast and swing over (Errol Flynn style) or stay and defend the ship. Vicious fight on blood soaked decks between NPCs with PC help, winner takes it all, captives for ransom, treasure, at least one ship sinks (didn't put out the fires, did we?).

or, picture the party emerging onto a balcony overlooking a cavern. Down in the cavern the evil priest prepares the dagger to sacrifice the victim chained to the stone altar, while the evil acolytes look on, singing praises to the Dark One. The party leaps down, or swings down on ropes/black curtains, onto the altar. The priest/acolytes aggro as the party attempts the rescue of the victim. The melee breaks out....maybe the PCs can win this fight, maybe this time they have to break the chains and run for it with the victim. Experience is earned by successfully resolving the situation.

This is what I'm talking about in making the game exciting. Not experience grinding to level, but feeling you're participating in a high fantasy adventure. Characters walk through the zone and trigger a situation, not a monster or a group of monsters. It's like writing a script, or a play, only the NPC vrs NPC comflict is real, and the outcome can be diferent each time the situation is triggered. If the PCs stand off too long trying to figure it out, or prepare a plan, the balance shifts against their side. Maybe the victim is sacrificed and a demon is loosed upon the players. Maybe have randomized situations triggered in that area for replayability, maybe randomize the trigger area also. Maybe next time there's no victim being sacrificed, but you swing down into an empty cavern, goofing around, and wind up in a gobin ambush (the little buggers were hidden in the room). Maybe the floor gives way and you plummet into a snake pit. Maybe random monsters patrol the area too, and the party can have unplanned for adds. Maybe the next update fills the cavern with water.

Not all content has to be added in expansions, current content can be changed for variability. When the players know what to expect...(yawn). The Giantslayer bashers were there 18 months ago, and guess what, they're still there (yawn), only now they don't aggro (yawn). I can do the same quests with my new character that I did with my level 70 character, how exciting! (not). Replayability value - zippo - new content for high level characters is what you're depending on to keep the subscriptions up. But that new contend is "kill 10 squirrels like the ones in enchanted lands, but these just do more damage". (yawn).

heh, I had no clue that they did that with everquest, my experiences with SOE were my first three MMORPG's unfortunately, Everquest for the ps2, Planetside, and SWG, all three