EQ2's "terrible" launch

arieste · 04-18-2007, 04:09 PM

When talking about new games, people frequently bring up EQ2's launch as being bad.

Now I've been playing EQ2 since beta and I was around during launch and playing something like 10hrs/day. I remember the launch being relatively smooth and the game being largely bug free and there being tons of content to do.

Sure, there were some issues, but far less than in any of the other 15 MMOs i had tried on launch.

Can someone remind me exactly what was so "terrible" about EQ2 launch?

Gori · 04-18-2007, 04:32 PM

I think the "bad launch" they are reffering to deals more with the "difficulty" of the game then anything glaringly mechanical, either in the game or the hardware. I think I started like on day two, loved it from the get go, and never had any problems.

Franzeskaner · 04-18-2007, 04:43 PM

The game was very much touted as being casual friendly, when it was anything but. Forced grouping at level 20 and beyond was ridiculous for many people to accept.

Shared experience debt simply led to new ways to grief people, and essentially backfired on them; where it was intended to make people learn how to group, it really only served to make grouping that much more difficult.

Pointless timesinks ala EQ1 were everywhere (access quests et al). Most people want a challenge, not contrived time wasters. Placeholders for named mobs still fall under this category unfortunately.

Finally, system requirements versus smooth experience in-game were a very real issue for a lot of people (still are in fact).

The bottom line is, the majority of people fleeing EQ1 came to EQ2 for a change, and instead found a *worse* experience by their mid-20s. I deemed EQ2 the worst game ever made in any genre at one time. Thankfully they changed it into a completely different game, and I now see it as the best MMO available.

That is my best explanation.

sarrarmar · 04-18-2007, 04:46 PM

When I played EQ2 it was about 3 months old and I had NEVER played an MMO before, I discovered it by pure chance, so from my point of view I just like it and continued to play.

However. Knowing what I know now, with the benefit of hindsight I look back at that game I was playing and think, what the fuck?! I actually played that! Much improved now, imo and hopefully moreso in time

Niber · 04-18-2007, 05:26 PM

I liked it better at launch the only thing I didn't like was the fact Permafrost was/is tiny and Lavastorm wasn't in the game.

Illuminator · 04-18-2007, 06:05 PM

The Blackburrow community in its heyday will be sorely missed.

Anduri · 04-18-2007, 06:33 PM

I liked it at launch too. I never had a problem with xp debt and I miss the access quests. Some of the best times I had in the first few months were getting access to EL, Zek and Everfrost. I made a lot of friends doing those and the fact people had to group to do them meant that people knew each other a lot better. Now you can grind to 70 and never talk to anyone.

Sure, there were some bad things but I think a lot of what made EQ2 different got chucked away needlessly just to dumb the game down and compete with WoW. Now in 2007 looking back its clear it was pretty futile and I wonder if some of the things that are now gone really did need to go.

Morara · 04-18-2007, 06:39 PM

EQ2 felt like they wanted to add more work than challenge at launch, so you had to go through bullshit like shard runs, which weren't hard, but annoying, access quests (again, not hard, just irritating), and a stupid class tree, among other things. It was like how I feel about Vanguard and chicken wings. A whole lot of work for not that much enjoyment.

Niber · 04-18-2007, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morara

EQ2 felt like they wanted to add more work than challenge at launch, so you had to go through bullshit like shard runs, which weren't hard, but annoying, access quests (again, not hard, just irritating), and a stupid class tree, among other things. It was like how I feel about Vanguard and chicken wings. A whole lot of work for not that much enjoyment.

Yeah, but some of the tedium actually added to the enjoyment. For example the armor quests were pure tedium and really frustrating (if you got the stupid orb things in Nek) but it's still a memory I am fond of despite hating it at the time. Today, I doubt anyone (new or old) even runs the AQs at 20 and it's sad that newer folks will never fully realize the depth of the prismatic 1.

Deson · 04-18-2007, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Franzeskaner

The game was very much touted as being casual friendly, when it was anything but. Forced grouping at level 20 and beyond was ridiculous for many people to accept.

Shared experience debt simply led to new ways to grief people, and essentially backfired on them; where it was intended to make people learn how to group, it really only served to make grouping that much more difficult.

Pointless timesinks ala EQ1 were everywhere (access quests et al). Most people want a challenge, not contrived time wasters. Placeholders for named mobs still fall under this category unfortunately.

Finally, system requirements versus smooth experience in-game were a very real issue for a lot of people (still are in fact).

The bottom line is, the majority of people fleeing EQ1 came to EQ2 for a change, and instead found a *worse* experience by their mid-20s. I deemed EQ2 the worst game ever made in any genre at one time. Thankfully they changed it into a completely different game, and I now see it as the best MMO available.

That is my best explanation.

A good bit of what I wanted to say. Technical bugs I can ignore and really I didn't see many of them. What can't be ignored is the audience EQ2 wanted to reach and the implied promises behind them that EQ2 failed to deliver on. Other issues were the horribly broken/useless classes,mechanics and other things that seemed good in theory but not in practice.I still have no idea how the game hooked me from launch.