I have scoured the desert of mmo's for something that suits me, and I keep coming back to the idea of EQ2.

The graphics arent bad

The game is big enough to do things for awhile

Has raid endgame and good crafting.

Has a decent playerbase of people who enjoy the game.

Cash shop is the only thing scaring me. The question is, will cash shop replace the efforts of crafting and raiding? If you play EQ2 does the cash shop make you mad or just add a little to the game?

I also heard about 'some' servers allowing trading of bound armor, is this true? What server doesnt do that if it is?

Originally posted by Riboflavin
*snip*

Has a decent playerbase of people who enjoy the game.

 *snip*

I just find this interesting. 

WoW and Aion are major subscription successes in the mainstream market with subscribers in the millions, most of which are perhaps asian.

EVE Online is the most successful Indie mmorpg with upwards of 300,000 subscribers.

All other supposed mainstream mmorpg's have anywhere from 50,000 - 200,000 subscribers, and with EQ2 in that category, it's still considered a decent player-base.  Of course anyone paying for an entertainment service is doing it because 'they' enjoy it.

I think you'll actually find the early to mid levels, quite a bit of game-play, in EQ2 to be quite barren.  It doesnt mean that if you buy the box and give it a go, that you wont enjoy your time, but I happen to think that many have put as much thought into playing an aged low population game and have left for the same reason that leaves it ranking in the actual medicoer subscription-base category.

Originally posted by Krux

Originally posted by Riboflavin
*snip*

Has a decent playerbase of people who enjoy the game.

 *snip*

I just find this interesting. 

 

WoW and Aion are major subscription successes in the mainstream market with subscribers in the millions, most of which are perhaps asian.

 

EVE Online is the most successful Indie mmorpg with upwards of 300,000 subscribers.

 

All other supposed mainstream mmorpg's have anywhere from 50,000 - 200,000 subscribers, and with EQ2 in that category, it's still considered a decent player-base.  Of course anyone paying for an entertainment service is doing it because 'they' enjoy it.

 

I think you'll actually find the early to mid levels, quite a bit of game-play, in EQ2 to be quite barren.  It doesnt mean that if you buy the box and give it a go, that you wont enjoy your time, but I happen to think that many have put as much thought into playing an aged low population game and have left for the same reason that leaves it ranking in the actual medicoer subscription-base category.

I know quite a few of those WoW subscribers who actually hate playing the game. They hate the chat, they hate the crafting, they only play to raid. I myself feel that the raiding is the only progression left, minus achievments with all other aspects stagnant. People stay because they believe there is nothing else out there and simply to not feel alone. Alot of people have tried to leave wow and wasted time on 2 month long mmo's that die as well.

Aion I havent given a fair amount of research and will do so.

I play Eve.

The meat of my post remains unanswered though. Aside from my error in thinking EQ2 had a decent population, I believe there is alot of fun things to do in the game. Is the cash shop death to the game? If one who plays the game reads this, can you give me your opinion on how cash shop in a pay to play game has made the rest of its playerbase feel? I am more than anxious about this pay to play cash shop. Why strive to get crafting max level, even if its fun, if someone can just buy a better item for a few dollars? If it isnt like that, please let me know.

SoE does a lot of bad stuff to the game slowly turning it into WoW The cash shop was just too much for me and made me quit. I mean you cant sell x2 exp in a p2p game thats just beat

EQ2 is a fine game. If you are interested in trying it then definitly give it a go. It is worth looking at. Choose one of the more populated servers of course. Antonia Bayle is the most populated but also marked as an RP server. If you don't want an RP server go with Crushbone or Everfrost, they have consistent populations. Understand that chatting is very restricted on trial accounts so if you are on one it will seem pretty barren. No, the population isn't WoW thick but then nobody but WoW has WoW numbers. Get into a guild, make some friends and it will be good. Just open your guild window from the menu and if you are not in a guild it will show you what ones are recruiting complete with descriptions and linkes to talk to a recruiter. You will see people running around the two big cities (qeynos and freeport) as well as the new city of New Halas once you get to them.

If you want a game that is fairly WoW like in it being PvE oriented, quest based leveling, raiding endgame, fairly easy with a low cost for dying then this is the game for you. It is very WoW like in that regard. The upside though is that EQ2 has a lot more features. It feels like WoW with the training wheels taken off.  The crafting system has more "game" to it. The talent system (AA or alternate advancement) is more complex. Guild structure is more complex. Housing is second to none. In terms of "stuff" to put into your home and the ability to place things and customize, EQ2 has the best variety of any MMO. It has essentially created a whole subgame around it. There are also features like mentoring down so you people can run around hunting and questing with lowbies without killing their exp and the ability to "lock your leveling" by switching all your exp gain over to AA gain which allows you to stay in an area questing for as long as you want without all the quests going grey on you.

There is a cash shop but it is not like the free to play cash shops of other games. You can't buy anything (yet) that will significantly alter the play of the game. The only two things that come close are potions that will increase your exp gain and mounts. The potions do shorten your leveling some but it doesn't so much make you more competitive  as much as allows you to get to the endgame faster if you want. The other thing is that you can buy a nice mount now. The mounts are not game breaking though. The mounts give you some stats while you are on them but not endgame stats. There are other mounts that you will be wanting to replace them with. Besides, you could already "buy" a mount buy picking up certain versions of the game and getting one as a bonus item.

So, yeah, it is a little worrisome that they are treading so close to the line on their cash shop but I don't know that they have crossed the line yet. Depends on where you see the line. Mostly the cash shop items are fluff items like pets and stuff for your house or services like server transfer and race change potions. I also can't say that I am not concerned that the new producer comes to EQ2 from SOE F2P game free realms and thus has a background in using cash shop items in a way that would not be healthy for a P2P game. Time will tell.

The only real downside then, that I see is that it is not as populated as WoW so you wont see as many people on but the upside of a smaller game population is that you have the population that is there tends to be very loyal to the game, very friendly toward new people (if they know you are new) and fewer annoying players and rude kids.

Over all, my impression of EQ2 is that it is a smaller but better (in terms of features) version of WoW. Not that WoW is bad, it is not, but by comparison WoW is simpler and if you are looking for a bit more EQ2 may have the depth to keep you going for a while.

WoW is vanilla ice cream. Tasty, but plain. EQ2 is vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, nuts and a cherry on top. Mostly the same but with a little extra.

Thank you for the excellant post Vikinggamer.

I had played eq2 for 3 weeks at launch, and still have my account (still remember the user and pass~!~!)

I had left for silly reasons and never went back. I remember the crafting and it has been calling to me ever since. Im not concerned that there arent millions of players. If there is a decent population on the servers that are left, regardless of total amount acrossed all servers, than it will be good.

The cash shop question was the important question for me. The heart of a game to me is the goal. To craft to max level, get max skills, have the factions, do the raid instances. Having a shop that just gives you an item to make crafting obsolete, raiding obsolete, faction grind for an item obsolete would be game breaking for me. I wanted to know how players that are actually in the game felt, thank you for responding. Wouldnt mind a couple more posts from current EQ2 gamers though.

I didn't play it back in the old days but from what I understand it is significantly changed since then, presumably for the better over all. I do now that they made it easier in terms of death penalty and that might not be a positive for everyone.

Also I haven't leveled all the way though to endgame yet so I cant confirm anything regarding the highest levels. But from a leveling perspective, my impression of the cash shop is that I didn't feel that anything from it was necessary for play. Even the fast exp potions don't feel necessary. If you want a boost great but leveling is already pretty fast, you will not run out of quests while leveling in fact you will find it more difficult to complete them all if you are a completionist like me. Having a mount is really nice though so that might be a great tempation.

No the cash shop is noting to worry about, the xp potions and mount are the only things affecting gameplay but they are not game breaking travel is ultrafast anyway and if you belong to the "the game starts at 90" school you will need potions. I have played since late 2006 and I still have fun, the endgame has its problems and can be elitist (depending on server) but it is still a great game.

The major problem at the moment is that it is possible to solo to 90 relatively fast and arrive to 90 withouth any grouping experience, undergeared and with too few Advancement points (I have heard about Lvl 90 with 90-100 Aps, when max is 250) that makes the player and toon have huge problem managing the group instances and the raiding is of course out of the question.

Originally posted by Knytta

No the cash shop is noting to worry about, the xp potions and mount are the only things affecting gameplay but they are not game breaking travel is ultrafast anyway and if you belong to the "the game starts at 90" school you will need potions. I have played since late 2006 and I still have fun, the endgame has its problems and can be elitist (depending on server) but it is still a great game.

 

The major problem at the moment is that it is possible to solo to 90 relatively fast and arrive to 90 withouth any grouping experience, undergeared and with too few Advancement points (I have heard about Lvl 90 with 90-100 Aps, when max is 250) that makes the player and toon have huge problem managing the group instances and the raiding is of course out of the question.

Thats cool. I couldnt take it anymore. Im now subscribed to EQ2 for better or for worse. I think I will develop a few characters before I decide to join a guild, so I have time to explore the low end before I feel obligated to push to the end game. I havent felt excited about an mmo for a very long time and I now know to appreciate the excitement I have currently. Will have to research what server to go onto now, and take Vikinggamers suggestions into consideration.

Every game has its issues, but for the most part, I believe eq2 has what im looking for, for now. I will have my eye on ff14 like many others, but at least I have a game to mess around in now. It took almost 3 months for me to decide

We've had the cash shop for a year and its fine.

Just don't go on the exchange servers if you don't like them.