Armor and Weapon graphics. Long.
Before I get on topic to my thread I wish to give a brief history on my MMO experience.
EQ1 - Release through Gates of Discord
WoW - Release through 10-10-07
EQ 2 - 10-15-07 through current
I tried all the others but never stayed for long. DaoC, LotR, Vanguard, D&DO, Guild Wars .....
When I first started playing EQ 2 I was truly amazed. I attempted to play at release and just didn't like it enough to keep playing. But coming back and really giving it an honest go, I was shocked that I had'nt been playing this game sooner. Yeah WoW was fun. But after doing SSC a million and one times plus all the previous content I just got burnt. It wasn't the game really but the community. It just degraded over time to the utter cesspool it is today. I had some great friends, but more often than not the community as a whole was like the scum of the earth. Logging into EQ2 and getting out of the 1-9 chat and seeing how everyone treated each other was really a breathe of freash air for me.
I loved how every race could be any class. The character models are just fantastic. The world environment, amazing. The quest log and the amount of quests was a very nice surprise. The housing (go ahead and laugh) was such a great idea and for the most part very well implemented. The broker puts the AH to shame. The whole status points and buying items with them was great too. And of course the community. I can only speak of my expereince on AB but damn, I have met some of the nicest, down to earth, mature people in all my MMO gaming time. Very very cool. In other words, EQ2 is just what I was looking for but somehow missed while I was caught up in WoW and raiding. But, one thing....
The Armor graphics. I have read and read different posts on this subject. And the one thing I would like to get out of the way first is "realism". We are not in a realisitic world. We are in a very fantasy themed world with fantasy creatures, magic, and characters. My complaint is not on the armor/weapons persay and they are very nice. But it is the severe lack and when I say severe I mean a total joke of different shapes of armor. EQ2 uses very very very few shapes of armor types. They have lots of pretty designs put on the same few shapes. Over and over and over. You look at a level 80 person in a raiding guild and honestly, there gear does not look the part. Not impressive at all. Both the appearance tab items and the actual items fall into this category. Shield graphics are an utter joke. There are very few unique shields. Shoulders for plate and chain are so boring and uninteresting It can't even be put properly into words. Most helms look so freaking lame. And the others look laughable. While only a couple look unique.
The Weapon Graphics. Once again its more of the same. A strive towards realism. Nothing special. In fact most are very boring. No weapons to match their fantasy world. Just weapons you could find and some knife shop in the mall. Seriously, how many shades of gray are there for weapons and armor? I never knew there could be that many. So I checked out that vid of the epic weapons. They went ahead and went away from realism, and added some interesting looking weapons that help distinguish you from any other joe playing on noob island. But seriously, I have seen weapons that look more impressive pre level 40 in the WoW juggernaut. Hell, just the enchants alone put that SK pink flame to shame. And what the hell is that Inqy one? Did a gnome come and tinker that thing up before they put it in?.
The bottom line is the Armor and Wepon graphics in EQ2 are overused. There really is very few items in the game that as you level up you want to have. Having goals in regards to -your- character includes how it looks. Why add an appearance tab if that wasn't the truth. They are boring. Stats is the only reason to get knew items. And while stats effect your character in a powerful way, the way you look is also very important. If its not, then why do you have items in your appearance tab? Boo to EQ2 art team for the armor and weapons. As a whole SoE made the best MMO on the market. And the fact that I have nothing cool to shoot for in regards to looks leaves a huge hole in this game. And for anyone that doesnt give a care about what their character looks like, more power to you. I on the other hand am considering going back to WoW or hopefully somebody proves me wrong. And all the level 80 characters I have inspected and all the graphics threads here and on the official forums were missing something.
TLDR - EQ2 is the best MMO on the market. It has the most bland, uninteresting, overused armor and weapons graphics of any current MMO. No OMG look at that sword! No OMG check out that players gear! factor at all. Fantasy world needs fantasy armor/weapons, with cool effects, variety, and an abundance of unique looking shit.
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