Why I like Eq2 - Part 1 Crafting & Housing

Well, since I was planning on playing EQ2 right now, and the server appears down, I figured I'd lay out a few reasons why I like everquest better than I did WoW or LOTRO.

Crafting
In terms of crafting, World of Warcraft is clearly on the bottom.  Essentially one does the whole long drag of crafting essentially to get to the end, and get the top-end bonus for raiding, and maxing out DPS/health etc...  Essentially most crafted items were useless before you could make them, and the entire crafting system seemed to be more or less a time suck.

In LOTRO, the crafting was much better than it was in WoW.  Items were generally useful when you could make them, at least if you worked at your crafting.  However, the random number generator (RNG) plays far to large a roll in whether you can create a reasonable item or not, and given this it becomes somewhat painful, and frankly not all that enjoyable or worthwhile to craft the top-end things as it is too time-consuming to even get to the point of making them successfully.

Everquest 2 has the best crafting system I have seen to date.  In fact, the best items at least low and mid-level pretty much all seem to be crafted.   Also, the spell system and the food is best crafted.  The crafting requires a bit of a mini-game in order to craft anything - so it isn't quite as silly as the AFK crafting that seems to permeate the other games is not possible (which may be a negative for some people, but it gives much more of a feel of accomplishment than in other games).  In fact, in large part because of the crafting system, the broker (i.e. Auction House) seems to thrive - even at early and mid levels.

Ranking:

1. Everquest
2. LOTRO
3. WoW

Housing
The housing system in EQ2 is also fantastic.  There are many different houses you can buy, and each of them has some interesting unique features.  The number of things one can buy are astounding, and the number of things one can make is even larger.  This is the main reason why my wife likes the game, and my daughter, though too young to really play, really wants her own virtual house.  For examples of what people do with houses, check out  this forum thread.

LOTRO does an ok job, but the houses have a few downsides:  They are typically not as close to town as you really want them and they are not as interesting.  Add that to the fact that there are not nearly as many things you can make or buy for the house and it just does not quite do the trick.

WoW, of course,  does not have any player housing or guild housing at all.  Boo!!!!

Ranking:

1. Everquest   
2. LOTRO 
3. WoW    

MMO Hopping

Over the past few years I have been playing multiple MMORPG games, and here I thought I would give a number of mostly random thoughts on those games that I have played as well as perhaps thoughts in general about the genre.

As a bit of history, I have played video games almost as far back as I can remember.  It was never something my parents encouraged - or even really liked - but it was something that appealed to me.  The fantasy realm, the sci-fi realm and the computer have always really spoken to me.  So, it was probably inevitable that I eventually fell into MMOs - however little the pricing model appealed to me initially.

Because of my lack of desire to commit to a monthly payment, I didn't get into the first wave of MMOs.  In fact, I ended up playing my first one by accident when I bought what I thought was a standard RPG from a store in the form of a box for GuildWars - Nightfall.

Once I installed it, and started playing it, I really came to like the in-depth game that I never really got from a standard RPG.  The areas were large, the quests were constant, and the game was always changing.  Admittedly I did very little from a multiplayer perspective, though I managed (through persuasion and more purchases) to get a group of my friends to play the game.  We even started a guild together - which never really grew much beyond the initial few of us.  I think we maybe had 10 players at our peak.  Nevertheless, we managed to get through most of the content of the 4 expansions of GuildWars, and quite enjoyed it.

At some point roughly 2 years ago, after finding myself more and more bored of GuildWars, and looking for an experience where there was more character growth, I started playing World of Warcraft (WoW).  I played WoW for about 18 months - got three characters to 80 (the max at the time) and managed to raid reasonably successfully not quite killing the Lich King.  I got my wife to play, and helped her get her character up to 80 as well, though she never raided.  The online thing is a very, very small part of her life.   I ran 2 different guilds in this time - and started to really enjoy, and probably be overconcerned with the online community.  After realizing that my life wasn't really cut out to have to deal with the weekly raiding schedule, nor was I interested in having to go through the agonizing grind of acquiring "the right gear" again as the Cataclysm expansion was coming out,  I decided to quit WoW.

I then kicked around a bit, spent quite a bit of time moving from New York to Virginia, and then took up Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO).  LOTRO has a free-to-play (f2p) model, which has always reminded me what my friend Vinnie used to call the "Crack-dealer" pricing model.  Essentially you get to play, in a restricted way, forever.  However, the restrictions are such that you typically will have to spend money at some point to be able to - or to be easily able to - do what you want in game.  I played this for about 3 months, maybe a bit more, and I still kick around on there from time to time, however the wasn't really what I was looking for - it was too concerned with the J.R.R. Tolkien lore that it was based upon - at (to my mind) the expense of the game play.

I next found Everquest 2 (EQ2) extended, and Champions online.  Both of these games are f2p models but completely different games.  The Champions game, which admittedly I played only for about 2 days,  is frenetic, fast past, lots of action.  Not my style at all.  I like to roll along and enjoy the quests, enjoy the crafting, and the scenery and chat with people.  I found this very, very difficult in the Champions game.  However in the EQ2 game, I found a game that seems huge... giving me options without the massive restrictions of WoW.  A game with no "perfect" gear, and with so many classes (24) and races (21) that it is hard to imagine there being the same cookie-cutterism that I found in WoW.

Well, this post is probably long enough.  I should be posting my reviews - or if not reviews thoughts - about the various games in the near future.  I'll also post thoughts on the various gaming models, and other random MMO thoughts in the near future.