Everquest II's lore just doesn't make any sense. - Page 6

Pink Poodle · 03-16-2008, 05:39 PM

Hoo'loh's quest where you have to get to the egg is pretty cool. It may be hard to do, but if there is a way where you team up with an NPC and need to keep him/her alive throughout an instance, that'd be interesting. I really liked the Innoruk/Tunare pre-EoF quests with the cavalries, too.

Illuminator · 03-16-2008, 05:43 PM

Through an instance? You leave him in his room until the zone is already cleared.

Mareth · 03-16-2008, 05:46 PM

Hoo'Loos was cool. Bit more than the usual "oh btw, I've got this nice item here for you just lying around".

And then Hoo'Loo seemed half-crazy too (:

Illuminator · 03-16-2008, 05:47 PM

Fucker was pretty sentient when he charged me 5pp.

Pink Poodle · 03-16-2008, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illuminator

Through an instance? You leave him in his room until the zone is already cleared.

Maybe he/she/it has to be needed with your group to clear it. Like, "Lol I know the way, jerks, if you leave me behind you gets no loot."

Which sounds interesting.

And Hoo'Loh is adorable. He gets many hugs from Rhoslyn!

Rinion · 03-25-2008, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morgander

There was once this idea of good versus evil within the realm of EQII. The entirety of the story centered around the infighting between the major cities of Qeynos and Freeport, though the onslaught of destruction reigned upon Norrath with the destruction of the moon Luclin left the cities as bitter rivals not fully engaged in self-sacrificing war.

In Everquest II's current incarnation it seems the realm of white and black has been skewed with some form of interrelationship gray. I noted to myself as I began to play through the quest line story driven content of the newest expansion, Rise of Kunark--that much of the story takes such serious strains between realism in both a moral and fictitious "realism" light.

Let me explain myself by issuing a few self-concept examples.

First off, let's contemplate the major racial influx of Kunark, the Sarnaks and Iksars, both evil races in all Norrathian lore spanning across several games and many years of adaptation.

The quests given by these races are often stereotypical, cookie-cutter quests in which for some un-benign reason, everybody needs help and you're "just the adventurer to count on!" Aside from that initial shortcoming in itself, my major gripe comes in the form of the very ethical endeavors in which these quests result. Some quests strike me as simply self-defeating of EQII's ravenous initial play on good versus evil as an Iksar might offer you some coin to assassinate a random person in the middle of the jungle in which you have no information about what so ever. In other words, your goodly high elf paladin wanders into an Iksar camp full of evil lizard folk ready to tear you limb from limb, but the quest giver himself not only will not engage you in combat, but if you didn't hesitate to slay the entire encampment in either self defense or in the acquisition of the defense of goodness by slaying creatures of evil, that very npc won't even lift a finger to defend his comrades, nor will he hesitate to offer you his quest to "kill 10 lions for pelts so we can make gloves that don't itch", or some other such nonsense quest I shouldn't even be doing at level 77 in the first place; what am I, an errand boy?

Anyway, so now you've gotten a quest! What's it entail? Well, you, being the good paladin you are, go out and find a gnome sitting in the jungle, and your job is without question, to assassinate the little bugger. Of course in a lore standpoint, the idea is ludicrous; of course I'm not going to besiege my divine ethics by taking a quest from an evil race in order to kill somebody that for all I know could be a helpless bystander. Unfortunately the development hasn't been creative enough to ensure enough viable alternatives to such quests as questing results in good rewards, great cash, and more experience than any other form of advancement. Not only that but it's just down right easier, less time consuming, and practically detrimental in some instances if you want certain rewards or long term-paths to open up such as your class's epic quest.

This is a gripe I have because it simply doesn't make sense. I'm sure many of you out there don't care about lore or reality in the realm of the fictitious, but for those of you who do; this is a warning to anyone who hasn't played this game yet, or who has, and hasn't reached this point. There are no longer any viable reasons to do anything within the realm of the game. There's nothing "epic", nothing mysterious, and nothing heroic about the world. I no longer contemplate feelings of heroism or adventure when I log in to play--feelings now replaced by an intuition that all I'm really doing is logging in an imaginary being into a computer game where monsters are replaced by statistics, class concepts replaced by spell and ability effects, and equipment lore (such as the Qeynos Claymore quest line) replaced by the item's statistics.

It used to mean something to be within an online world such as EQII. I used to feel as if I was experiencing something more, something greater than just a pixilated fantasy computer game, but alas, all good things come to an end.

My second gripe comes in the equipment creation in this new Kunark expansion. I recall a time when the Qeynos Claymore, one of the sister swords of Destiny for those familiar with the lore, was captured and I was asked to single handedly face all powerful dragons of yore, uncover secret mysteries of ages past, and fight my way through an ancient and dark draconic vault guarded by the mighty dragon Tarinax the Destroyer, a beast of undead and demonic proportions, just to uncover the mere mystery of a weapon so powerful that the very gods themselves had taken interest in their well being.

My reward of course for these acts of heroism, adventure, might, and mystery was a wondrous artifact of flowing runes and glowing light that would thrash my enemies with every punch, and lay waste to my adversaries by empowering my fists with ancient and mystical nether energies...

Only to be replaced by an item that some quest npc somewhere in Kunark happened to have lying in a box someplace after you fetched him 4 gorilla hides, 2 sarnak skins, and a bottle of ale.

Funny how all that glory and conquest came to a crashing defeat as the lunacy that is EQII lore kicked itself in the face with a gargantuan spiked boot of complete and utter stupidity.

What's happening to online worlds? Is this the future of mmorpg's? I hope not. I can only look on in dread at the idea of EQII being a fundamental development focus for ANY game in the even far future.

I look on in horror... and disgust.

Wow. just QFE

I don't know how or why I missed this post. You have indeed put many of my own frustrations into words.

Just so many things that could of been done better and still can be imo! Weak Lore makes for a weak game.

Ipaan · 03-25-2008, 11:37 AM

Couldn't care less about the built in lore really unless it's any major shit... I actually bothered to care for a moment the third time I ran through Claymore, and for the first three minutes while running to the first npc for my first epic...
The player inhabitants of the server I play on make up such a magnificent lore themselves by just logging in. :P
Kill ten lions for a furry pair of pants or kill evil sarnaks to prove your a good hunter, same shit unless the levels and toughness of the mobs differ.

Edit: Just scrolled up and saw Hooloh mentioned, which reminds me of two questlines I actually bothered to care for. First one is for aviak language and the second one is the ratonga-meets-kerran love story in commonlands, with Fernik/Fenrik/whatever the ratonga's name was. The last one kinda settled my love for ratongas.

Oakmiser · 03-25-2008, 12:07 PM

I absolutely loved all the pre-EoF prophet quests for the gods.

Toldain · 03-25-2008, 02:04 PM

You know, the Thuuga quest line put me in the mood of the movies that they are based on. You know, "Fistful of Dollars", etc. That is, you may be good, but you've been thrust into a world that is so evil that you must do evil in order to do good. You must become "bad-bad". Morally compromised. I thought it was a cool roleplaying opportunity.

I really kind of liked doing quests for the Bathezid and Rillis simultaneously where I was killing some of either side and having them like it. And this with my high elf pansy illusionist.

EvilIguana966 · 03-25-2008, 03:36 PM

Great thread. I agree with Morgander's sentiments about the Kunark quest lines entirely. The problem stems largely from 3 givens: 1) Quests are the primary means of advancement. 2) Quests are all the same (short) length 3) Quests all give a standard amount of XP and loot. The result is that the game needs a ton of quests and thus, in order to deliver such quantity, quality drops precipitously. RoK had hundreds of quests, but almost none of them had any redeeming value beyond the loot and xp.

SOE needs to break the state of mind that its quests should be so formulaic. Ideally we should have far fewer quests in the game, but quests that are much longer, are much better written, give much bigger chunks of XP, and that result in rewards that are meaningful by virtue of the fact that you aren't getting 20 pieces of quested gear every day.

Also, joke quests are fine if they are done correctly. If you design a quest with pop-culture references, you should design it such that someone who doesn't get the references would be largely oblivious to the fact that they exist. In other words, the quest needs to make sense in the game world. Subtlety is important in this area. SOE seems to want to bludgeon you in the face with their jokes, rather than to slip them quietly into the content.