Everquest versus Anarchy Online (A Review)

Anarchy Online has been out almost a month now. I know there have to be some Everquest players out there wondering about Anarchy Online and how it compares to EQ. I beta tested Everquest and have been playing it ever since. I also beta tested Anarchy Online and have been playing it since it was released a few weeks ago. Of course, I have seen a lot more of EQ than AO, so there are things that I can’t compare quite yet, but I still thought I would give you my initial impressions to help you decide if AO is a game you might want to try. So here is my comparison and review. Playability This is something I feel needs to be stated right up front, because I am going to try to ignore it for the rest of the review. At the moment, Anarchy Online is not a quality, playable game. The game was released with Funcom fully knowing that it was bugged, incomplete and unplayable. I was a beta tester and I was astounded when I discovered that the version we were playing those last weeks of beta was truly just a step from the release version. Frankly, I believe that any legitimate company should hang their heads in shame after releasing a game in this bad a shape. Funcom then rubbed salt into the wounds of even their most loyal customers by announcing that the game was “110%” playable two weeks after release, setting off the clock on the 30 days you get with your purchase and assuring that they will start charging people for a game many cannot yet play. The lag in the game is horrendous. Anytime you get close to more than a handful of other players, your frame rate drops to almost nothing and you find yourself standing in place. What’s worse about this is that you can’t sit or move your curser enough to even log out of the game, and you are often forced to stand there for five minutes or more hoping to just get out of the game. Of course, you can always alt-tab to windows and control-alt-delete the game closed, but that seems like a pretty extreme measure. Basically, this means that you are better off just not trying to play during the typical prime time hours. The pathing in the game is so bad that when you are in a mission your best chance is to move to a room, stand still and wait to see what starts to shoot at you. Of course, then it is often in another room and shooting through the walls, but at least you can shoot it back that way. Mobs can attack you through walls and across the playing field without you even seeing them or knowing where to go to fight back. Quite often you will lag out during a fight, which makes it impossible to use your special attacks, and then come back in and find out that you died. High patience and a low frustration level are required to play this game right now. A high performance machine and high speed internet connection are also a lot of help. If you go in expecting a beta quality game, you will probably still be amazed at the problems. Still, many people are able to play the game, so for those of you who are willing to overlook the obvious problems and want to delve into the actual game lurking behind the bugs, I’ll try to give you my view of how it plays. Graphics and Sound The graphics of Anarchy Online are crisper and more realistic than those of Everquest. There are nice little touches that really add to the feel of the world. The sky effects are pretty amazing and there are things like little robots and flying birds that add a touch of realism to the game. The player models are stunning and the number of outfits you can wear are astonishing. I created a female character just to experiment with the rather racy outfits you can buy at the store. This is definitely a PG game. With all the variety, I don’t doubt that you could really get to the point where you can recognize a person just by his or her looks. They also programmed some fun emotes into the game, letting you really express yourself. I know I got a lot of work out of the /anger command when the zones weren’t working right after release. Still, even with such crisp graphics, I find the world to be a little drab. I am sure it is by design, since Rubi-Ka is defined as a dead world that is slowly being terraformed, but there is very little color and variety amongst the cities and zones. Part of the fun in Everquest is zoning into a new zone and seeing how different it is from the rest of the world. Everquest has forests, plains, jungles, oceans, lakes, mountains and a whole variety of other types of terrain. From what I have seen so far, much of Anarchy Online is the same. So, while I like the individual graphics in AO better then EQ, overall I think I prefer the look of Norrath to the look of Rubi-Ka. When it comes to the sound track and sound effects, AO has EQ beat by a mile. I always thought that the music in Everquest was almost an afterthought by the developers. If I recall correctly, music was not even introduced into the game until several months after its release. A good soundtrack can help get the heart thumping and add to the excitement of a battle. AO has this and EQ doesn’t. When I play EQ, I find myself turning down the sound, but when I play AO I like to really crank it. Soloing and Grouping This is an area where these two games differ significantly. Everquest is strictly a group game. While soloing is possible, it is difficult to do and time consuming. In general, groups are easy to form and, because the classes are so well defined, you can form a group of total strangers and fairly quickly figure out everyone’s role in the fights to come. Anarchy Online is just the opposite. It is very easy to solo, and in many ways it is preferable. I have found it very difficult to find a group because most people have quickly discovered that you can get higher experience and better rewards by soloing. Moreover, when you do get into a group most people are confused about what they are supposed to do and in the end everyone basically just blasts away at the mob until it is dead. I assume as people get higher in levels and more specialized that things will change, but groups will never be as easy to define as in Everquest simply because the professions in AO are not so easily pigeonholed into defined roles. This has led to an interesting development in the game. Anarchy Online is simply not as social a game as Everquest. There is no general chat like the zone chat of Everquest and with fewer groups and faster leveling, it is much harder to meet people and make friends. It is more like a bunch of single player games being played simultaneously on the same server. Some of this is due to the lag, which causes most people to do everything they can to avoid other players, but even without the lag, I doubt this will ever be much of a group game. The advantage of this soloability is that Anarchy Online is able to be played in short bursts. If you only have an hour or two to play Everquest, it is almost not worth playing. By the time you log in, get to a zone, find a group and get into a rhythm it is time to log back out. However, with Anarchy Online, you can grab a mission, play it through and gain a half a level’s worth of experience and a nice reward all within about a hours playing time. This alone makes it a far better game for the casual gamer than Everquest. Still, I like the social aspects of Everquest and find Anarchy Online really lacking in that regard. Without more chat features and more incentive to group up with other players, the game will never really seem like a MMORPG to me. What I have discovered is that when I have an hour to play and just want to play a quick solo game, I log onto Anarchy Online. But when I know I can really sit down and immerse myself into the game, a find myself going back to. So far, I don’t think AO has the same addictive hook that EQ can exert on you. Classes/Professions In my opinion, Anarchy Online went the wrong way with their profession system. I don’t doubt that there will be some significant changes as they start to see how the players deal with it. Anarchy Online tried to overlap the professions and also, through a skill system encourage diversity even within the professions. In and of itself, this is not a bad thing. This supposedly lets the players determine their own destiny rather than be pigeonholed into a role determined by the game designer. Unfortunately, from what I can see, it has had the opposite effect. First, the professions don’t vary that much from each other at the start. Because of the easy availability of healing and nano restoring devices, everyone in the game can heal themselves and cast multiple spells. Plus, everyone can wear the same armor and use the same weapons. Naturally, everyone is going to start to figure out the best weapons, armor, nanos, etc and use their skills accordingly. This is especially true because you get so few improvement points that you feel you can’t waste any on any skill that is not strictly necessary. So what you get are few actual variations in classes. Maybe they will vary more in later levels. Also, with the sole exception of the doctor, all of the AO classes are attack classes. With the exception of the doctor class, there are no true support classes. There are classes that could be used in support roles, but because most players will spend a lot of time soloing, players who choose those classes will inevitably end up spending their improvement points on attack skills rather than support skills. This really hurts the grouping process and also reduces the variety in the game. In contrast, Everquest’s class system is very well defined, with each class getting their own specialties, armor, weapons, spells, etc. This can sometimes be frustrating, but it builds up a very well developed reliance upon other players and encourages grouping and interaction. It also makes it easier to know who and what you are dealing with. When you meet a level 25 barbarian shaman, you pretty much know what he can and can’t do. That certainty is not present in AO. On top of that, EQ’s variety increases replay value. The class and race you choose in EQ will significantly effect how and where you play the game. Play an Ogre Warrior and then play a High Elf Wizard, and you will find your aproach to the game to be completely different right from the start. In AO, the breed and profession seem to have little effect on how you play the game. Everyone gets weapons and spells. They may vary in name, but they all work pretty much the same. Are you really going to stop playing your level 150 character and start over with another profession that does much the same thing, only shoots pistols instead of machine guns? So I have to give Everquest’s system the nod over Anarchy Online. I have a feeling others may disagree on this. There is something to be said about having the ability to diversify your character. Still I know that when I switch from a Rogue to a Warrior in Everquest, I will get a completely different game experience, whereas in AO switching from a fixer to a soldier will not really change your style a whole lot. Items and Quests This is an area where Anarchy Online has really improved over Everquest. I love the generated mission system. You go up to a mission generator, put in your parameters and request a mission. You will then be sent to an area to perform a duty, whether it is fixing a machine, killing a traitor, finding a lost item, or some other similar quest. When you get there, your own private dungeon is created. It generally takes an hour to finish and at the end, you usually get a nice reward. You can do missions privately or in a group. This sure beats Everquest’s go camp 10 monsters for a cheesy reward quest system. However, the missions are better in concept in execution, which is a general theme running through much of Anarchy Online. I know I promised not to mention this again, but right now AO is a truly flawed game. Missions are often broken and can’t be finished. The pathing is so bad that you have no idea which Mob will start to shoot at you and you can often find yourself firing at a Mob through a wall while another one stand right in front of you oblivious to your presence. When you lag, the doorways disappear and can’t be crossed, stranding you in the middle of the mission. Still, assuming all of this gets fixed, the missions may well be the best part of Anarchy Online. Anarchy Online also gets a huge thumbs up for making their equipment level sensitive (well actually skill level sensitive, but it works the same way). There will be no twinking in AO, so a newcomer will not find himself wondering why everyone else in the game his level seems to be decked out in great gear while he’s scrounging for enough credits to buy the basics. Plus, equipment drops randomly in accordance with the level of the mob, so there is no camping in AO either. And on top of that, just about everything can be bought in the stores. You are not going to be forced to sit in one place for 15 hours just to get that Phat Lewt. These are huge plusses in Anarchy Online’s favor. There is a negative side to this though. Because it is so easy to get the items you want by yourself, there is little trade going on. Also, there seem to be few, if any, unique or rare items. I always thought items in EQ should drop more randomly, but that doesn’t mean they should become more common. I think that the lack of rare items in AO will somewhat take away from the competition that a true game player likes to feel. While a game should not be all about Phat Lewt, that is still a fun element of EQ that seems to be missing from AO. Still, overall I like the way AO handles quests and items better than the way EQ handles them. Overall Game Play So which game is more fun to play? That’s really the bottom line in evaluating a game. When you are sitting at the computer looking at the AO and EQ icons side by side, which one are you more likely going to click? Well, that’s a complex question. They are both fun games. If you can afford both, I recommend you play both. Why? Because of the differences. While they are supposedly of the same genre, in many ways these are completely different games. AO is a nice solo game that has the added advantage of having other people around to occasionally chat with and interact with and even group with. You can play it for an hour and actually accomplish something. Plus, I haven’t even mentioned the pvp aspects, mainly because I have not tried that yet. EQ is a great group game where you can really lose yourself in a group experience. When you have enough time to truly immerse yourself, this is the game to play. In all, even after setting aside the bugs and lag and lack of playability of AO at this time, I definitely prefer Everquest over Anarchy Online. Of course, EQ’s had more than two years to polish and hone itself to relative perfection, and I’ve also played EQ a lot more than I have played AO, but I doubt that even in four months or so when Anarchy Online finally reaches its potential and becomes a truly final product it will surpass Everquest. This does not mean Anarchy Online is a bust. If you can get past the bugs and the lag there is a pretty nice game in there. If you only have the ability to purchase one more game this year, then by all means save your money and wait for The Shadows of Luclin expansion or perhaps Dark Age of Camelot. If you don’t mind paying $50 for something that is flawed but still kind of fun, then this game is worth a try. Whatever you do, don’t cancel your EQ account though, because you may find yourself wanting to come back in a month or two and you will want that level 60 warrior still sitting there when you return.

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Ravinhood
# Jul 26 2001 at 4:55 AM Rating: Default
Oh and just a quick note to PvP types....just from looking at the servers PvP vs NON PvP...I have to believe that more people prefer NON PvP vs PvP....so all of you who think the new games coming out PvP based will rock are OFF your ROCKER!! LOL
Ravinhood
# Jul 26 2001 at 4:39 AM Rating: Default
I've been playing EQ for over two years now, going into my third year...maybe....the main problem with EQ over everything else is the DOWNTIME...and it's there, has always been there and looks like it will always be there...picture this if you are a caster you will spend six to eight minutes just to gain full mana back unless you have the uber item manastone which by the way no longer drops in the game because of cleric exploits with it. You fight a battle which might last 30 seconds to one minute and poof....most all of your mana is consumed....so you sit there again looking at a silly book until level 35 when they finally let you see while medding...this is totally stupid....and boring after just a few tiimes of it.....casters spend more play time SITTING and MEDDING than they do actually PLAYING their characters combat ablities. Now tanks (pure melee types or hybrids) on the other hand well lol even worse for them if they don't have a HEALER type around, they can spend up to TWENTY minutes healing up full hit points again....TWENTY minutes of doing nothing but sitting there.....thus the "forced" grouping nature of the game....The game has lost it's excitement to me....when I started realizing how much time I actually spent PLAYING the game vs just SITTING looking at a stupid book of spells....I decided it was time to end the waste of time with EQ. Yes it has pretty scenery, the combat is pretty stale, press the A key and the program takes over randomly hitting or missing based solely on stats....no super moves.....no real special abilities....just another button to press for a kick or a bash that is random as the main weapon....I've played D&D and RPG's for 20 years....and DEX was always a part of HITTING in those games....DEX in EQ characters does nothing more than increase your hitting skills over time, which still results in a random hit or miss based on level of character vs level of monster...period. It also is part of the procing of weapons with special effects on them and also whether a casters spell goes off or not....I would expect in a D&D game or RPG game if I have 180dex to hit VERY often not hit...miss....miss...hit....hit....miss....miss...blah.... It's a Pretty Boys game and it's a game for people who like to BRAG....I've never seen so many braggers in all my life....and idiots who don't even know how to play a character and beggers wanting you to GIVE them items and Powerlevel them.....just from what I've read AO sounds like the game for me.....Get to the MEAT of the game, give me ACTION not a stupid book of pages to look at for six to eight minutes....give me entertainment.....not buttfaces who come along and KS just because they can or UBER guilds always camping the best items in the game because they are all level 60's. If you've never played EQ...don't waste your hard earned money on it, customer service is awful...guides and GM's can be worse than the players....you can't say anything to them....they are quick to accuse YOU of something while they commit the same crime....especially the naming policy. They are not specialists in the customer service field not in the least they are as arrogant as some of the players. But, if you like to chitty chat and socialize more than play a game of fantasy then EQ IS FOR YOU. Because that is surely what you'll have LOTS of time to spend doing while waiting on a six to twenty minute spawn to pop and in some areas some things don't spawn for a WEEK!! Why did I play it for two years you might ask? It was the only mmorpg with great GRAPHICS...Ultima Online was poor....Asherons Call was poor and sticky in spots. So I WASTED my time, but, not all of it playing EQ....I did play DIABLO2 and Baldurs Gate series all the way through along the way. If only they had bigger areas, longer adventures.....I think Morrowind when it comes out is gonna rock...just too bad it won't be an online game. Neverwinter nights will be a good and real RPG online....EQ needs a facelift....less DOWNTIME and INDIVIDUAL quests like AO would change my mind about it...like I said I want to PLAY not sit....I want entertainment not frustration in corpse retrieval and I want it to be as easy to solo and play as it is to group and play.

Take it or leave it....if ya like it do it ;)
good riddance
# Jul 26 2001 at 4:27 AM Rating: Default
Most people who are leaving for AO seem to be those who have not been on EQ for that long. I have put so much time into EQ that to throw it away for a game that seems to be shakey at best is just stupid. I know what it was like gettin to the top in EQ. There were times when i serioulsy thought about beating the **** out of my computer after a death or cursing at the top of my lungs when someone who just joined my group in guk won an fbss in about 5 mins after i had been there for 5 hours. But when you get to the top, its so much easier and so much more fun. People actually know what theyre doing and there isnt much risk of death or at least without a almost full exp rez. I say let those who have never or hardly played either AC or EQ make up there own mind. And if you really are sick of EQ then go. I personally took 5 months off of EQ and when i came back the game overall just felt better. I dont care that much about the deaths or the phat loots anymore, but more about having a good time with lifelong friends ive made in the game or with complete strangers. Once you get to high lvls the ******** are very few and if you happen to be one, everyone knows your name =P. I can say that i dont like verant and their goddamn vision. I dont like the camping or how much time it consumes, but i give them credit in that when you get that piece of equipment that took you ever so long to get, it is really rewarding because not every frickin person in the world has it. This is just me, but i love magic blastin and sword slashin better than gun totin for a MMORG. I have a million quake clones to choose from for that.
Actually many have for 2 years, just fed up
# Jul 27 2001 at 10:11 PM Rating: Decent
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1,075 posts

Everquest is an empty promise. The possibilty of that promise being fulfilled keeps you playing. It never really is fulfilled. It is so very much like an addiction.

I remember reading a post by someone at a forum which listed the qualifications for something being an unhealthy life altering addiction such as drinking or doing cocaine or whatever and the warning signs. EQ fit every single one of them such as doing it at the expense of other activities, at the expense of seeing your family or interacting with loved ones, lying about doing it, etc. Although they mentioned EQ fitting these, they did not have to do so. It would have really had more impact if they just posted the list and let the reader draw the conclusion and then perhaps look in the mirror.

"Most people who are leaving for AO seem to be those who have not been on EQ for that long. I have put so much time into EQ that to throw it away for a game that seems to be shakey at best is just stupid."

2 years and the beta too, played the hell out of it.

Look at what you are saying, "put so much time into it." You are saying that because EQ is like a job, its like work, its like a huge downtime social networking game where you must get a position eventually in an uber guild. You start to look at it as time invested. Its more of an advanced social experiment akin to having too many rats in a cage with too little food than it is a game. Its a massively multiplayer mostly PVE king of the hill simulation.

I'll never view AO as something I "put so much time into." Its just a game. AO is like the quake or half life of MMORPGs in a way. I could be playing it in 5 months or it might have run its course by then I'll be playing some other game. The thing is, that is a good thing. It is healthy.

" I personally took 5 months off of EQ and when i came back the game overall just felt better"

It looks like to me you are not even really reading what you are writing yourself. I can't ever remember using the phrase "took off" time from something if it was something which was just fun or a game. You take time "off" from things like work, or college. You don't take time "off" from relaxed recreational activities. You don't say "hanging out with my friends and laughing and such is just so fun that I had to take 5 months off from it."

"There were times when i serioulsy thought about beating the @#%^ out of my computer after a death or cursing at the top of my lungs when someone who just joined my group in guk won an fbss in about 5 mins after i had been there for 5 hours"

Ahaha that is so funny because in another post I said something similar but in a list of the things that I thought was WRONG with Everquest. Once again you simply are not describing what has to do with a "game" or "fun." I don't have fun on the computer and feel like beating it up.

"....when you get that piece of equipment that took you ever so long to get, it is really rewarding because not every frickin person in the world has it."

Yep, they pretty much do actually unless its something super rare like a cloak of flames on a newer server. I had a 55 druid and 2 of my twinks had jboots, from when it was a quest. Uncommon rare things become very common fast. I spent a total of 50 minutes ALL TOTAL camping for the jboots, in fact I did not camp at all really. One time OOT was empty and I killed the spawns and ran around, killed the oracle guy, ran around more, killed spawn (still no one else showing up to camp it) 4th spawn AC. Another time I logged out in OOT at sister island to perhaps have a go at a couple spawns there. Server was down, I get on not even knowing if server was up (was after a patch) I get on, swim to the island, AC was up. No one was around at all. I killed it, get the ring, potty self and then 2 casters show up after I run around the island in excitement. They go "we are here camping this spot, sorry." I did not have the hear to tell them that they were about 5 minutes late ;)

See other people camped jboots for like 28 hours before getting them. That is the crazy way that a super rare random low roll works and why it really does not make sense to skew "difficulty" that way. Ironically the way that verant always said they intended people to get rare stuff is "just happening by" like I did basically. The design does not foster that though but instead fosters camping behavior.

AO is just a game, it got me to finally kick the EQ habit just because it is just a game. Am I going to remember AO in 40 real time years of my life when I'm old? No. Will I remember the 2 real time years of my life that I wasted in a game world at the expense of friends and family and life in general in Everquest? Yes I will, but it won't be fondly but rather with regret and wondering what might have happened instead if I'd taken the time to live and smell the roses.
Life is short, I frankly don't want to play another mmorpg that swept me into it like EQ did because I just don't have the life to waste.









Everquest Issues Solved
# Jul 26 2001 at 3:54 AM Rating: Good
The main problems and compliants with Everquest have been 100% resolved. Your requests have been answered by Funcom. My main problems with everquest were camping and spending 6 hours playing and coming up with negative experience. Repeated death doing CR was insane. I played an Ogre SK and a Wood Elf Druid. The main reason I played a druid is because I was tired of dying 6 times in a row trying to get my body back.

I cancelled my account when I couldn't get my druid body back and my stuff was deleted. I had to work, I couldn't sit down for an hour and a half and get my body, so I lost everything. I lost 80 swatches of silk and all my gear.

In AO you keep your body so no CR and you don't get negative experience from when you started playing.

I camped the Testament of Veeshan (sp) for 8 hours trying to get a stupid no drop book. And this was level 20. 8 HOURS of sitting and watching a tent. Couldn't move, couldn't leave, might loose that camp...

If for those two reasons alone I would recommend trying out AO or switching completely like I did. Sometimes I'm a serious gamer, sometimes I'm casual because I have clients that need me to put in a lot of hours sometimes. AO doesn't penalize me, it allows me to pick how I want to play.

Now as for the game itself, and gameplay, yes there are problems. I don't need a perfect product though, I just want one I can enjoy. After upgrading my memory I'm hoping to eliminate the city lag. (Also going to try to turn down textures after I get back from my trip.)

EQ just wasn't fun anymore, the biggest issues made the game unplayable or unenjoyable. There is no reason to play EQ, no objective. The stand-in objective is get stronger, so that you can do it again next level. Trade skills were bad at best, hunting for silk or pelts was awful, and Ogre SKs had serious problems trying to smith. (No ore in Oggok? run to Grobb, then back again to smelt it. Ore in neriak, but no skewers to practice on... for 10 zones)

There are a long list of problems and features about both games, most of them mentioned above. I don't agree with the review about grouping in AO; grouping is encouraged, its just not enforced.

Try out AO but don't complain about city lag without turning down detail levels. This game was designed to be playable on all machines, but the high end features weren't designed to run on low end machines. That's like trying to host ebay on your home machine, it wasn't designed for it.

If you do buy a machine... buy athlon! *grin* Intel sucks, don't let them force RAMBUS down your throat. Corporate feudalism, same as Omni-Tek.

Off topic, but has anyone heard about the linux release of AO?

They never gave more info about the linux release
# Jul 27 2001 at 9:43 PM Rating: Decent
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1,075 posts

They are strangely silent on it now though at one time they claimed it and it was a blurb on slashdot.

The latest they ever said about it was in a chat I think and they just said that they'd base the possibility of linux or other versions on how well it sells for windows. Well, its sold dang well (too well actually.. ahaha)

Problem is they said that if they did do a linux one, they'd do it themselves. As much work as they have to do on the windows one still that probably means it would be like in 3 years. I think they are foolish and should have had lokisoft or someone porting the linux version while they are busy fixing the windows one.
AO vs EQ
# Jul 26 2001 at 1:39 AM Rating: Default
I played AO beta and play AO now. I have been playing EQ for almost 2 years now. I have decided that I will cancel my AO account once i have paid for one month of it. Why? Because everything is too easy and there are people duping and exploiting more than you can imagine. The game is pretty much beyond repairable until they fix all the dupes and exploits, then make a new server. Even people that don't dupe or exploit can get items too easy. You dont feel like you have accomplished something when you get X item because 5000 other people have it already.

Bottom line, EQ is a better game overall. I will maybe play AO 6 or so months after I cancel my account, assuming I hear that it's playable, there is no duping, and there are no major exploits.
havent tried ao yet, but...
# Jul 26 2001 at 12:44 AM Rating: Default
ive been playing EQ for about 2 1/2 mnths now. i love the game, but i do have to agree with the folks claims to the "static" environment and the social issues. i have yet to find ANYONE actually role play on eq. i have yet to try AO, and as buggy as it sounds, it seems like it might be worth a shot.
AO=new EQ=old
# Jul 25 2001 at 9:34 PM Rating: Default
after having played EQ for quite some time I have realized i hate EQ!!! I HATE EQ!!!! DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!!!!!!!!! I always hated waiting for SOMETHING to spawn so my group could kill it. I HATED being killed by some wandering newby stomping MOB. I HATED struggling to lvl again and again and again!!!

The only thing that kept me going was the thought that "next circle of spells i get suchandsuch spell that will make me uber!!!" and then that lvl would come and i would get that spell and then cry cause the spell sucks badly and the MOBs keep hurting you. I played an enchanter a bit and i am lucky to be sane today... I played an erudite palidan that i liked, but i just couldn't take it!!!! I couldn't take the jerk EQ players, I couldn't take struggling to get money to get some item, and I most definitly couldn't take dying over and over and over again!!! It would make me want to cry when froon and choon would come up and just ***** you over and over after trying to get your corpse! Corpse runs made me want to cry. Being pked by some iksar gange in lake of ill omen for no other reason other than to just laugh at your dead corpse! I hated playing on a PvP server because the battles never seemed to go your way... i remember a specific incident when i was grouped with 3 people in LOIO and was getting ok xp when all of a sudden 2 darkys, out of no where, come in and just totally SCREWED us!!! I did have my moments though where i felt like a uber cool hero.... like when i had a lvl 50+ shaman buff me up with like every buff he had and sent me in after 3 darky pkers in blackburrow(they were all lower than me but ubver twinked) i went in and i managed to make them zone plug after beating the hell out of them, but they came back the next day and continued as usual when i wasn't there to help the poor newbies




A new hope.....

when i came to AO everything seemed so much easier... before i know it i have to hang of thigns and i have several newby chars(trying things out) I play a lvl 7 atrox enforcer for Omni-Tek and love it... I have a nice little stun baton and some cheap newby armor i bought that looks real cool! I can't wait to see what kind of things lvl 150+ guys will go raid(perhaps there will be huge pvp wars with pc's and npc's controlled by GMs) when EQ was designed they decided to handicap all classes so they balanced with others, in AO they boosted classes to equal them out. I also like the futuristic type setting to AO and it would be truly awsome if they kept up an ongoing story line(sort of like in the intro movie) where OT'ers can go hunt out small rebel out posts and attack them with assault vehicals(may be a lvl 175+ vehical like tanks)

I think EQ was waaaaaaay too frustrating(probably what kept people coming back for more) If AO finds a way to take the lag away(may be so you can turn player armor textures off or may be an option where you could have them all look like generic models, but when you click on them you could see their gear and such) AO isn't rdy for big time game events, but once they fix it, it has the ability to be the best MMORPG ever... imagine EQs smooth gameplay and AOs graphics and game design and thats what i am hoping for!

I think we all know that in a year or two we will all be playing something like quake turned MMORPG, but for now i think AO will have to do...

cya all in Rubi-KA!!!
-Omnilayyer lvl 7 OT encorfer
-Omnislayer lvl 23 erudite palidan of tallon zek -retired-
hmm
# Jul 25 2001 at 3:46 PM Rating: Default
With regards to the review, while there are some points I agree w/, there are a few which I don't.

Most importantly, AO is a lot more social than was given credit for. Conversations have stuck up just off of the clothing I wear in cities (which was intentional) and the like.

In addition, people group all of the time in AO. This certainly isn't the solo life which surrounded AC at all. Grouping gives an enormous xp bonus. People group because it benefits them greatly to do so, but they don't have to if they don't want to. On top of that, groups gain team levels as well. When you team level increases, the xp bonuses and cash rewards go up ever higher.

It just sounds like the technical difficulties have prevent him from relly getting a closer look at the game's dynamics. It's really quite a solid product of entertainment.
RE: hmm
# Jul 28 2001 at 3:07 AM Rating: Default
I personally avoid conversing with other players and joining groups at this point only because of the horrible lag in populated areas. Once the game becomes more stable and less laggy, I think social interaction will pick up tremendously. I know I'll be much more inclined to group once I don't have to spend most of my time in town frozen in place.I'm especially looking forward to walking up to a mission generator and being able to recognize comrades from previous missions just by their appearance and equiptment. Other than newbies fresh from character creation, I don't think I've seen two identical characters yet.
Apples and Oranges
# Jul 25 2001 at 3:40 PM Rating: Default
If you like EQ, play EQ. If you like AO, play AO. Are we all supposed to eat the same food and drink the same brand of soda? This is Pepsi and Coke people. Personally, I prefer the more casual play of AO. Only huge rear kissing guilds have a chance of getting the good stuff in EQ. I don't and never did care for large groups of people forced into a "social" situation. EQ is "forced" down your throat in every which way. EQ has a huge plus though for all the nifty items it has. But, if anyone can remember, banded armor was in fashion before crafted and such was even around. A lot of this cool stuff was "pending lore" for quite some time. Finally Dragoons Dirks were available after some time. I hate Verant for forcing me to group and camp, and I hate Funcom for the major playability issues and crap they lied about. EQ was more social, if you can call asking a question in OOC and being made fun of just for asking.

To me the biggest difference between the 2 games is that people have so much down time in EQ that they have nothing else to do besides to wait for someone to redirect their misery and boredom on. I have seen it countless times. Someone will ask, "wheres the bank". The common reply is "up you A$$". Why is it like this? Its something to do while staring into your spellbook for 5 mins or more. In AO, you have to almost force yourself to take a break and sit down and chat. The current OOC they have for under level 6 players is great for all those newbie questons. In fact I find myself making new characters just so I can keep in the chat. Hopefully they will add more channels soon. Which game is more social? Well, it depends on what you consider social. So far, I have had a lot less arguing in AO despite the heavy unplayability it offers.

Ohh yah. Someone said that some Star Wars MMORG is gonna kill this game. LOL! Now thats a brainless statement if I ever heard it. Thats like saying AO killed EQ. Not everyone is a huge Star Wars fan, especially after the last movie. I used to be a big fan, but I've outgrown Jedis, Wookies, Ewoks, and droids that exist for comic relief.

Will AO survive?

Answer: Does a leet crap in the desert?
Must be tired of EQ
# Jul 25 2001 at 2:57 PM Rating: Default
RE: Must be tired of EQ
# Jul 25 2001 at 3:22 PM Rating: Default
I noticed that most of the people who were recently bashing EQ and swearing to move to AO were for the most part long time players of EQ. I think that this may develope a bias towards AO on the basis that they are "played out" of EQ. On person posted that they had played EQ for almost three years. That is a marathon run for a video game! If I played most games for 3 months, that would truely be amazing, as I usually loose interest in most games in a couple of weeks or less.
So, to truely be unbiased, I think you would have to have reviewers who are new to the genre. I was fortunate enough to experience this first hand with three new players to our D&D/ MTG club. A friend of mine got them started on EQ. They had been playing for about a week and I decided to introduce them to AO. The response was the same from all three players, 2 males and one female.
They all wined about AO as dull, and wanted to go back and play EQ. One of them picked up a magnum pistol early on, (which he said the graphic was similar too his .44 mag he owns in RL) and he had fun blasting stuff, pretending it was his own gun till level 8, then the novety wore off and he went back to EQ.
The only thing I can think of to conter the above statement, is that the above three people are more fantasy oriented than sci-fi. I myself am highly fantasy biased, and as a result, have never had much of a liking for sci-fi rpg, computer based or otherwise. So my own take on the comparison is that I like AO, it probably would be fun if it wasn't so laggy (took me 8 minutes to log out once, timed it), but I just can't get into a sci-fi world.
I am also getting sick of EQ. EQ is a great game, but at some point you do get a been there done that attitude. I can wait till Horizons comes out though which, BTW is going to make this argument obsolete, its the game we ALL will be playing, the true EQ killer. Won't be out for another year at least, maybee more like 2.
My experiences with ao
# Jul 25 2001 at 2:14 PM Rating: Default
Well i've replied to a lot of people. I thought I would post my experiences with AO.

I started the day it launched. yes it had probs but i was able to level up to level 9 in a few days even with all the drops. I enjoyed the beautiful environment. i had little lag in the newbie zone and i stayed there till 8.

I was reluctant to tell anyone at work about AO till Funcom fixed some of the issues. But my excitement got the better of me. I started talking about the game and pretty soon four of my friends from work started playing.

1st Friend: went out and got it. Became addicted and within a week became level 21. he has a P4 1.4 gig 256MB ram says he doesn't have much lag at all.

2nd Friend: bought it and became level 28 in about 4 days of massive grouping. he has a 800mhz PIII 256 MB ram he says he has some lag/memory leak. sometimes logs out every 2 hours because of it.

3rd Friend: got it says he has no lag, just started yesterday and is level 7. He says he is compeltely addicted. He has a PIII 1 Gig, 1 GIG of Ram

4th Friend: got it, says he loves it and is becoming addicted. He has some lag, but not that bad. P4 1.4 Gig, 256 DDR Memory.

For me. I am addicted to AO. I love the fact the story evolves over 4 years and the story is based on player battles, etc.

My machine: PIII 800, 128MB ram - i'm upgrading to 512MB. I lag out every time i enter a city... from what my friends say, with 512 this doesn't happen anymore. I'm sure that Funcom will fix the mem leak within a week or two and this will no longer be an issue of needing more ram.

Even with the mem leak, I love the game. I find it moves so much faster then any other mmorpg i've ever played (even with all the lagging out i get around cities or high pop areas.)
It Amazes Me
# Jul 25 2001 at 2:10 PM Rating: Default
It really does amaze me that there are so many people out there that are nothing more than Funcom Fanboys..what? You thinking Funcom is reading these posts and are going to reward you for(as one person put it about EQ) keeping AO's ***** in your mouth?

The review is dead on correct. EQ is a 'Social' game, one where people get together and form nice groups for a little fun and excitement and some decent loots. Plus you can interact with those people and those in the zone. Yes, yes...some people are complete morons, but they are few and far between and you can always 'ignore' them.

The Technical issues with AO are an insult to the gaming populus. This game should never had been released in its current state. IMHO..I am beginning to suspect that FC was running out of cash and said "Hmmm...we need a serious influx of cash to complete this game...let's release it now." Guess what? Going by their release figures that they had 35k accounts on the first week..that equals at lets say $55 per box purchase...that comes to $1,925,000 for '1' week...pretty hefty cash influx to help finish the game that 'obviously' does work properly. Even all you FC Fanboys have to admit and 'have' admitted in previous post that the game is Laggy and has problems. And flame all you want...EQ was 'never' this bad at its release, anyone that says otherwise is just plain lying and for some unfathomable reason sticking up for FC.

Believe it or not I do like playing AO...that is when I can. I can go out into Tir County and get some great exp and cr and stay out there til the cows come home...or the Leets*smirk*. But when the time comes for you to have to go to town to replenish supplies and ammo...oh hell...zone in to west gate, make it to the shop and BAM! Crash! Lag Hits! Standing in place for several minutes at a time just to turn to the left and try to hit a straight line. All and all, an unpleasant experience.

And about Email Support...I have sent in 4 emails for support, each of which were separate problems, each of which were worded clearly,I have yet to hear a single response from them and the first was sent 10 days ago...so much for 'quick' response.

Time will tell about AO and its survival..I have no doubt that they will eventually fix the bugs in this game. Whether or not FC will survive..flame away..I think no. Maybe a year at the most. And here is my reasons why....

1) The other companies that are about to release their own Online Games are watching 'very' carefully at what has happened with AO..you think they will make the same mistakes? I think not.

2) One Shadowbane and Camelot come out AO will lose 'alot' of their PvP fanbase...Shadowbane will 'rock' when it comes to PvP Online games.

3) And lastly...Star Wars Galaxies will kill AO's remaining fanbase in 2002. Based on the most popular and well-known Sci-Fi story in the planet and produced by the most popular and most successful Online Games of Verant/Sony AND with the backing of LUCASARTS...they will stay on the top of the online gaming pyramid for a long time to come

So hit me with all the flames you want fanboys..but remember where you read it first.
RE: It Amazes Me
# Jul 25 2001 at 3:56 PM Rating: Default
let me illuminate you.

This is what it comes down to. I dont care what funcom thinks of my opinion. And yes I have been one of the people saying that AO is great.

That asside here is a reality check:
1. Will games like Shadowbane, Neocron, Camelot launch without problems? No. I guarntee it. I even would put money on it. Let me explain something to you. What MMORPG launched without errors? answer: none. UO, EQ, AO, all have launched with significant errors (EQ's Cerfnet errors and ISDN backbone, AO's lag and connectivity issues.) MMORPG's are difficult to launch without errors.
2. Will Star Wars be a hit? Yes. But personally I think it will suck. People forget that the people running Star Wars Galaxies are the same fools running Everquest. The same idiots who have been banning whole guilds for "exploiting" the game when in fact all they do is play the game. The same company that turned EQ from a PG-13 environment to a Rated G environment. I think Neocron has awesome ideas such as making hallucinagent drugs - that actually cause in game visual hallucinations. Would Sony ever do that with STar Wars? Absolutely not. Will sony continue baning people for cussing? Yes. Will sony ban people for killing NPC's in SW that they think are unkillable? Yes.

The problem is, the coolest games are made by small companies: AO (Funcom), Neocron (reaktorr) and so forth. They have the cutting edge material. But they dont have the $$ behind them to make them launch as well as a major corporation. So they have to launch with issues and fix them as they go. Sony would never allow a game to have adult content such as the strip clubs in Neocron, or the drug use in AO. STar wars will be a Rated G game. You might as well wait for Disney to make some online version of "Poo's World."

Major coroporations however can launch games without much error. When Microsoft launched AC it lauched without much problems. However before verrant was owned by Sony, they couldn't even afford to split servers. This they told their fanbase. They were on a old, outdated backbone with as many issues as AO - for the first month.

But major corporations also make everything politically correct. They remove the "dark" elements from the game. "Oh, someone wrote a In character Roleplay story that was lurid on a 3rd party website? Oh they posted their character name/server... Ban them!" That's basically what Sony has been doing. Their goal is a Politically correct, rated-G game.

While it will attract thousands of players, I think over a few months of play, people will still play games like Neocron, AO and other Sci Fi games that are not afraid to rock the social norms and put up content that is on the edge.

Is AO gonna die? I doubt it. It might suffer, esp. after SW launches. But remember, Verrant never could get PvP right in EQ - what makes you think they will in SW? Many of the same Verant folks that were on EQ are now on SWG.

As for Shadowbane "rocking" the pvp. How is it any different than AO? It is slightly different as the political boundries change automatically based on structure control, but AO does the same thing - just not automated. The story line for AO doesn't start till this fall. That is when the "war" occurs and the world will be monitored and player battles and events recorded to determine how the world evloves.

You also need to understand that Shadowbane and Camelot are not the same venue. They are going back to Fantasy... which will steal players from EQ and AC... not so much from AO. I for one do not want to go back to a non-ranged attack game... where spells is the only method of ranged attack. The sci-fi genre is much more interesting to me - and you can remain more in character will pulling info on a creature as you are "scanning" it for data. There really isn't a "in character" way to find out the level/power of a creature in a fantasy setting.

If you like Shadowbanes efforts, I think you ahve to applaud AO for making the same movement towards a better PVP evolution.

The funny thing is, if Lag was really this bad for so many, how in the heck is there a level 80 in the game already? And my friends who started after me are in their high 20's (25-28.) In my guild alone there are members who range from 40-50. The reason is, it isn't that bad in the country side. The cities still require work. That is problem no one can deny. But not worth scrapping the game. But who levels in the city? Right now the city is commerce only. Which is one reason there isn't a global auction chanel. To encourage people to migrate to the city.

See EQ IMO does a bad job of community. YOu say, "EQ is a 'Social' game, one where people get together and form nice groups for a little fun and excitement and some decent loots. Plus you can interact with those people and those in the zone. Yes, yes...some people are complete morons, but they are few and far between and you can always 'ignore' them."

This is an absolute fabrication. come on, do you know that statistically the average EQ player spends 4 hours a day playing? In that time they are typically not progressing. All my friends that play eq spend 80% of their time ******** about problems, people, nerfing, loosing exp, poorly done raids, and how they generally are frustrated. I see no enjoyment in anyone who still plays. Now that is mainly because they are high level players. Lower level players still find eQ fun and fresh. But once you get up there, you will realize all your work is for nothing. NOTHING. there is no pay off.



RE: It Amazes Me
# Jul 28 2001 at 2:25 AM Rating: Default
"Do you know that statistically the average EQ player spends 4 hours a day playing? In that time they are typically not progressing. All my friends that play eq spend 80% of their time ******** about problems, people, nerfing, loosing exp, poorly done raids, and how they generally are frustrated. I see no enjoyment in anyone who still plays. Now that is mainly because they are high level players. Lower level players still find eQ fun and fresh. But once you get up there, you will realize all your work is for nothing. NOTHING. there is no pay off."

I have to agree with this wholeheartedly.

What really upsets me is looking back to the past, 2 years ago when I started EQ. I constantly said to myself "One level closer to 50..." and "If I stay in EQ instead of going out, I can get my level..." You see, I had all of these expectations of being the powerful paladin who could save people's lives and people would love to have me in their group. Ouch. Here I am now, level 55 and stuck in a serious rut with nothing to do. I play a class that is not needed nor wanted. Clerics, warriors, and enchanters are needed. They each have their defining roles. I don't.

I play in a smaller guild which is currently laboring to get enough clerics, warriors, and enchanters so that we can actually go places and do things as a guild. But recently, Ive found myself asking this question: for what reason? Whats the payoff?

Well, your guild gets to brag about how they successfully raided blah blah, killed this uber mob, and got phat l3wtz. Ohh, FUN!

Ive worked hard to get to level 55. 95 days playing time over the course of one year (for this character). I played with the sole intention of the desire to be needed and wanted. However, now I realize that all my work was for NOTHING. There was no payoff, there is no satisfaction of being level 55. I do NOT have fun in EQ when I log in and sit in Old Sebilis LFG for an hour, and leave with the same amount of experience I had before entering. I do NOT have fun when I spend an hour running from one place to another because I cant find a soloing druid or wizard who has the time to sell me a port to wherever. I do NOT have fun when a mob that is 10 levels under me totally kicks my ***.


EQ***AO
# Jul 25 2001 at 1:48 PM Rating: Default
EQ was a great game for a while but it has pretty much been conquered. Everybpdy twinks out players and can camp things when ever they want. All the quests are known how to do. There are so many high lvl people, and as an earlier post (saying EQ is no longer role playing) i tottaly agree with that noone role plays any more on EQ. i remeber when a Yak was so kool every1 wanted it a long time ago, now when velious and kunark came out a yak sux there are 100 times better weapons now and the game is just getting easier. AO is nice because its a new game things to discover no twinks, it might be like EQ 2 years from now, but till then AO should be a good RP expierience
Action/Adventure???
# Jul 25 2001 at 1:11 PM Rating: Default
From all the posts out there AO sounds a lot like Dreamcasts Phantasy Star Online which i admit I was very addicted to for a while until I bought EQ... One big thing lacked... STORY...

No socializing... more of an action adventure type of game than an RPG... The posts above sort of enhance this image I am getting... AO is probably a good game, I havent played it. But it doesnt sound like an RPG it sounds like a game... A tomb Raider... A game you can play for two hours and put away... Not another lifestyle as EQ is... EQ is an immersive environment that is hard to get out of... Sounds Like AO all you do is get a quest play it for 2 hours to get your new armour and log for the night... That would be very fun if your looking for an action adventure game but if you want an immersive invironment it would get very boring... Much as Phantasy Star Online did with its puny 4 lvls... Anyway justy my comments from reading the post... Either way i think i will go get the game just to try it out and see what i think of it in RL...
RE: Action/Adventure???
# Jul 25 2001 at 1:19 PM Rating: Default
I think you should consider reading more about AO. The majority of people leaving EQ for AO are coming because EQ lacks RPG. The key word being "Roleplaying."

When i first got EQ (a month after it launched) there were tons of RPer's. now they are all gone. Yes there is a back story to EQ and a even more detailed one for AO.

But one thing AO has that EQ doesn't is a world that evolves. When you go out to lake of ill omen and kill 1000 sarnaks, do they ever retreat? does the world ever change based upon your actions? No.

I'm not preaching AO. I'm preaching: EQ sucks. It has failed as a dynamic world - which it pastes all over it's site: 'where you can shape the future of the lands.' what?? how can you shape the future? Nothing changes. Even in Pvp, in 30 min. all the creatures repop and once again, dark elf guards populate nektulous, human guards populate the common lands. The world is *static* it doesn't change (outside of new continents.) Each zone is as it was at launch (save for a few *minor* changes - like adding dark elves to west commons.)

For the most part EQ is static. Player decisions and wars on the PVP servers change nothing. The new generation of games, (Not just AO) are promising a world that evolves based upon player actions. Shadowbane has political boundries that change and evolve based upon player battles won or lost. AO has a 4 year storyline that is shaped by the actions of teams and players.

It definately isn't a "Tomb Raider" game as you called it. In fact I think the reverse is true and that's why I left EQ after 2.5 years. None of my actions mattered. No matter how many players i killed on RZ, VZ, or TZ mattered. It didn't matter that i killed 2000 sarnaks on Bertox. The world repops and everything goes back to zero.

I'm tired of that. I wnat change. It doesn't have to be AO. I just want a game with evolution... andy many games are and will offer that.

The intent behind each game
# Jul 25 2001 at 12:32 PM Rating: Default
The comparison between the 2 games comes down to one thing...what is the ultimate goal in each game?

Everquest= phat lewt/uberness

Anarchy Online= win a war

I know that when I log onto AO i will have something to do, a purpose...not so with EQ. the community is lacking u say? It's been out a few weeks, the community will come when the lag problems are resolved. Speaking of which throw 300 people in Kelethin an see what happens...

Anarchy is geared for the casual to hardcore, its meant for people to get on play an enjoy. I know many a night in EQ i quit in frustration because my rogue or shaman couldnt find a group. Can I find a group in AO? u betcha...many a night I'll just be hanging out around an outpost an get 2 or 3 invites into a persons group.

Another point here...thing of all the horrible things people do in EQ...kill stealing, item theft etc., and look at why they do it...because loot drives the game. In AO you'll be the man based on your rep as a uber PVP player. I also read the best items in the game will be made by higher players or attained thru missions at higher levels...that doesnt happen in EQ. Hell the player made items dont get sold after banded.

I could go on more but I hafta log on to AO an woop some Omni booty.

Seldoon
Clan enforcer
Lag?
# Jul 25 2001 at 12:12 PM Rating: Default
I've heard reports that having a ton of memory in your machine will clear up the "lag" that everyone is experiencing.. I have a 1 gig Athlon with 256 DDR memory and a GeForce 3 card on DSL and I still have what I can only describe as "lag".. but I've noticed that when this occurs my computer is constantly accessing my hard drive.. basically it appears that AO gobbles your memory like a starved Pac-Man and when it runs out it starts accessing Virtual Memory like crazy.. So I'm thinking that the "lag" I'm experiencing is really my computer not being able to keep up with the demand for more memory (and that might be causing packets to get lost even though I have a fast connection).. One person reported that having over 1 gig of memory solved it for him.. I have yet to plunk the money down for more memory (DDR memory is expensive) so I can't test this for my self.. but I would be interested to know how much memory everyone else has..
RE: Lag?
# Jul 26 2001 at 12:53 AM Rating: Default
man you sure do contradict yourself alot, but it being such a long article (bigger than the actual review itself) its expected. you said the same thing over an over again, ao is better because it doesnt have downtime. hey man im all for that, downtime DOES suck. it DOES suck to wait for ph's and such. me, playing a level 60 druid myself, know about the BS our class has had to put up with. EQ is more 'realistic'. its more balanced than AO at the moment. theres an actual economy. different classes in EQ allow a variety of quests, socialization and etc. of course, these classes are getting limited. you see groups only wanting chanters, clerics or bards or warriors. you never see "Group looking for a druid" EVER. im sure if you had started a cleric instead of a druid, your opinion on all of this would be different. and if you hate downtimes? start a class without mana. as i said before, i get tired of downtimes as well, so i go play team fortress classic or quake2 for a couple hours. hell, get a gameboy or something an just play that while you med. in AO everyone is the same. why even bother to level when you can get the same crap at level 1? you said you cant get points in EQ. actually you can, when you level, try right clicking your guild leader. those little points at the bottom left hand side of your screen go into skills. of course you have to pay..........alot..........just to add one or two, AND they get maxed out pretty quickly. its not fun paying 500 plat just to pump your track up one point.
RE: Lag?
# Jul 25 2001 at 12:49 PM Rating: Default
Hey man... Well i have 128 megs of memory and in cities i get a slide show. Now buddies of mine - one who upgraded to 256MB and the other had 1 Gig of ram have virtually no lag issues in the city during peak hours... the "city" being Omni-Ent and Omni-Trade (which is notably the worse city for lag.) My buddy with the 256 does complain sometimes of lag - but it's no where near where it effects me with 128MB. He does get a drop in frame rate and some stickyness but not too much. The 1 gig of ram guy has no probs.

From what I've read, the memory leak in AO eats up about 350MB of memory or so. So then it hits your HD looking for virtual mem. I've heard 512MB stops this. Since memory is so cheap now (512MB pc100/133 for $70) I picked up 512. I'll let you know how it goes.
I prefer AO, because AO has everything I wanted EQ to have
# Jul 25 2001 at 11:55 AM Rating: Excellent
***
1,075 posts

I've often even posted this on the EQ boards. AO has everything that I ever wanted EQ to have.

1) Zero downtime difficulty based upon difficulty rather than downtime/patience.

AO has that, EQ does not.

EQ has lots of downtime and the main difficulty of the game is only overcoming downtime in EVERY FACET OF THE GAME. Even quests are based upon downtime instead of difficulty. I finally gave up on my epic for my 55 druid 2 steps away from the EASIEST steps when I finally quit EQ after 2 years during AO's beta 4 phase.

Large portions of that epic quest were fully based upon MY PATIENCE and nothing to do with skill at all. Other parts had to do with PATIENCE AND CHANCE (like waiting in karnors for venril sathir remains then finally seeing it pop and actually amazingly getting your guild to mobilize on the spur of the moment) Other parts like camping the aqua goblin shaman required RIDICULOUS patience. That was really the hardest part of the ENTIRE EPIC, camping some green mob who just never showed.

I just don't see the following equation as working but evidently Verant does:

Epic difficulty = patience/downtime and social *** kissing.

To me an epic should have been autogenerated content just for your character which no one else could help you with.. perhaps taking from levels 51 - 55 to complete.

In other words I thought the epic should work somewhat he way that AO missions do, not based at all upon patience or camping but instead DOING with the creatures fitting for your level.

In AO downtime consists of the 8 seconds before I can use a nano charger again with my level 30 doctor. The funny thing is you start to view that 8 seconds as REAL DOWNTIME. No matter what anyone else says, after experiencing that in the beta I could simply just not go back to EQ and WAITING.. THE CONSTANT WAITING IN ALL FACETS OF THE GAME.
I am so very done with waiting now.


2) auto generated content on the fly for you fitting for your level.

Sort of went over that above but that was something I wanted for EQ, quests on the fly fitting for my level that I could do alone for ALL levels of the game as an alternative to camping/downtime.

AO has that in the form of missions.

3) Random drop items randomly across the world on all fitting level creatures rather than mostly static drops from mostly static mobs from levels 1 -60.

Even the little randomness there is is still static due to only being random from that one type of mob in everquest. I always thought everquest was fundamentally flawed because a huge, obviously meant to be successful at killing adventurers, hill giant in mountain rathe would only have as much as 88 plat while some frog camped 24/7 in lower guk could rarely drop the Flowing black silk sash when he rarely showed up.

How ridiculous is that? Also how SCALABLE is that
for as many players as can be on your server? ITS NOT AT ALL SCALABLE. Only up to 6 people can camp that thing at ONCE, OUT OF AN ENTIRE SERVER. If instead it was a random very rare drop across the entire server on all creatures of a similar power, you'd actually HAVE players spread evenly all over the world.

AO fixes that problem nicely on all accounts since there are no static mobs. There are no static drops or seemingly sort of random static drops. You can get good drops in a mission, you can randomly get good rewards for a mission (and even see what you will get before accepting the mission) You can randomly get okay things from monsters outside (but usually just money from them) Its all random.

So how is the way AO does it better? Simple, what that means is there is no reason for players to kill in this area instead of this one so instead you have players ALL OVER THE WORLD killing fitting mobs for their level. None are more desireable than any other. None are static always dropping the same thing. None are boring. None are things you have done on all the 15 characters you'd played in EQ.. over.. and over.. and over.. and over.

To each his own though, I know that some people LIKE that X frog might drop X magic haste item and take comfort in it and take comfort in the fact that if they can put up with camping it for a long time they can sell it for cash. The thing is that in the same amount of time you do that in EQ, I could get an entire set of my next quality armor from missions in AO, 29,000 credits, a naughty outfit from a store at galway castle, my upgraded healing nanos, and a couple levels in a good group. In other words I can PLAY A GAME instead of WORKING to get something to sell.

Once again after AO doing it the way I always wanted EQ to I just can't go back to EQ. Its impossible for me to do so. Its kind of like if you've only gone out with pretty wealthy people then an ugly poor person wonders why you don't go out with them, well.. how could you?

4) the ability to get good armor, looking good and good for you.

As a druid in everquest I never had this ability. You from leather, to some slightly magic crap, to the stuff you get around level 35 which you are then in until level 60 unless you somehow get lucky and some druid planes armor drops or you actually manage to get your guild to do TOV or the 2nd floor of hate when of course they can do POG and outfit all the classes who get drops there easily like a visit to the candy store.

That pissed me off more than any other single thing in Everquest. Mostly it pissed me off because it was SO unequal; all the clerics and sks did not only have their fear/hate armor but ALSO a complete set of POG armor FAST. Meanwhile all of us druids looked like the ghetto squad. I think in my uber guild one guy who's character was in mothballs until velious had full verm armor, that was it. Some of the rest of the druids took to wearing BCP's on guild raids to try to shame the guild into helping them, the funny thing was guess what?

No one else in the guild even noticed.. AHAHAHHAHAHAAH. In fact to them the bcp probably looked "leeter" than our regular shroud of nature look.

In beta 4 of AO, I discovered something amazing. Someone made a game where you went on autogenerated missions you selected.. and could continue to reselect and get the ones you wanted.. for your armor! You could soon build an entire matching set of an armor type. The fun thing is I went through about 6 continual improvements from level 2 - 30 of armor that LOOKED the same but ranged from quality level of 1 - 15. Now at 30 many of the missions are replacing my old worn cyber armor with Bau cyber armor which looks different.

So in a way, kind of like in EQ, there is still some prestige when you get the new type. The difference is that you always had some at an appropriate level. The big difference is you never needed a global village to help you get it or to sit on your bum killing placeholders until the guy with the shroud of nature finally popped after 7 hours.

In EQ you wait.

In AO you DO.

The weirdest thing is that what AO is really is not some innovative new idea but rather just the most obvious way to do it. You want to make a game fun, you want to make the difficulty based upon level, you want to make the players continually get nicely rewarded while keeping some balance.

5) the final thing I wanted in EQ was for characters to get some kind of points when level to apply to skills and stats instead of being a clone of every other character of their class.

Before I wanted that In EQ I wanted it in UO. The funny thing is UO had it in the prealpha then took a step BACKWARDS to skills by use. Skills by use has no place in an mmorpg since it basically encourages bad behavior and macroing. Even if it doesn't cause a player to macro you don't really want your player in a grand adventuring game to stay holed up in his house hitting a bear while a fire elemental casts on him or hanging around freeport making lots of armor over.. and over.. and over.. again. If you are a game designer basically causing such behavior should be an EMBARRASSMENT.

AO accomplishes this nicely too, you level, you get points, you put points on your main things like str and intel and on various skills. There is quite a bit of freedom you have in doing this for example some doctors will choose to just raise martial arts which is a cheap combat style they are good at while some might just use one pistol which is also cheap (but the ammo can get expensive) and yet another might go for two pistols (rather expensive in points due to the multiranged skill) None of these is really NOT the way to go.

Most of the doctors will still keep medical things raised and buy the best healing and group buff nanos when they can but they have freedom in many other areas. All classes are similar. You can be very different from another person of your own class and have a very different playstyle. Adventurers can choose to use two pistols or maybe 2 edged weapons which is also something they are good at, its just personal choice.

6) AO is far more diverse than EQ by miles. The only bad thing is that the extreme diverseness has come back to bite it on the ***!

Do you know how in Everquest, until velious, most classes/races only had a couple looks since the textures players could wear were so limited? Do you know how we did not really like that? WELL IT WAS REALLY THE ONE THING VERANT DID RIGHT!

As it turns out YOU DON'T WANT many different textures on players because you are going to have to load them when around 35 players. You do notice this in EQ when you get around players (especially with velious textures on) but even with all the textures including velious (another smart thing verant did was allow you to turn off the velious ones) there are still not that many and everquest is very playable on a p2 whatever with 128 meg ram and a 16 meg graphics card, very very playable even around many players.

AO on the other hand, screwed the pooch on this. Instead of limiting player textures like Everquest does, they basically tossed out a few thousand of them, all different, and said "here go nuts." While your first reaction might be,

"oh yay pretty I can look totally different from everyone oh yay I can run around in this lil white panty and the special blue female top by miir and these boots yay!"

what you don't realize is that everyone else is also saying that and none of you are thinking what is going to happen when you all have wildly varied textures and 55 of you are in the same are of the city. I'll tell you what will happen, even your 1.4 ghz computer with 256 meg ram and a 64 meg geforce is going to be brought to its knees when real memory is soon used up and the extreme swapping starts.

Memory leak? Not really. Its not a leak so much as a "feature" due to them having so many player textures. The problem is that now Funcom (AO makers) have to figure out how to tell the game to constantly flush those textures or perhaps give us a way to only show the default newbie textures in towns or near settlements (actually I'd be fine with that even.. until a better fix is around)

That is about the worst bug in AO. Other issues like server side lag we all expected, zoning difficulties, etc blah blah blah. I don't remember CS in EQ being as good as it is now when it first started out either.

Yes, everquest was much more "finished" and playable than AO when it first came out (despite what funcom or AO "fanboys" say, I was there and besides the cerfnet problem the EQ rollout was pretty smooth)

But AO is a much better GAME. Its a much better GAME by like a factor of 1000 because it IS A GAME. AO is not your life, I have not even logged into AO to level or anything for a couple days, not because its not fun but because I don't feel the gnawing stressful addiction to do so to try to accomplish ANYTHING like i did in Everquest.

I accomplish a LOT in Ao in as little as 2 hours.Your accomplishments are UNIFORM throughout your characters life also. At level 2 I accomplished a lot, got good xp and money for my level, got good armor for my level and had fun in about 2 hours. At level 30 I accomplish a lto, get good xp and money for my level, get good armor for my level, in about 2 hours.

One thing that funcom did right was, unlike verant, they more or less said,

"of course some players who are bums who live in their parents basement or are out of school for the summer will play 24/7 and perhaps get max level of 200 too soon. The thing is, we don't care. We are not going to cripple you all and slow you all down in huge downtime to try to slow them down. We want you to have fun."

Meanwhile through Abashi or Absor for 2 years verant has been saying:

"but if you had no downtime how would that be fun?"

Uhhh because downtime is not fun?

AO simply does what I've been waiting for EQ to do for 2 years. Now I'm so fed up with EQ that if they DID do that to compete its too late. If they made it so my druid, a class who needed it desperately, could do quests for her level for good armor with no downtime it doesn't matter because its just TOO DANG LATE.

In fact, being familiar with verant for so long and having SO many players say similar things to which verant says,

"oh no, really we don't want that and neither do you ; ) Remember we are your daddy and know best, although you are customers and pay us. "

I really won't even buy Star Wars Online now. I'd only buy star wars online if I got in the beta and saw it was totally a different game than EQ and had all these things I wanted EQ to have which are now in AO. Anything else would be a step backwards from AO, Star Wars franchise or not. If its camping the sith lord for his leet rare lightsaber, count me out.

Honestly though, I expect even verant is wise to itself and its own propaganda. I think they just can't change EQ this much at this late a date (well could but don't want to since by instead working on a NEW product like star wars online they will make ALL NEW MONEY) so they continue to say the things they always had but SWOL will likely include many of the same things and more randomness like AO without all the downtime struggle.

AO has thrown the "you don't have to wait or camp" hat out there so I don't think things will ever be the same. Its too bad that they threw it out there with a partially broken unfinshed unoptimized engine, but it may actually get there.

Would I give it a 7.8 or something out of 10 like the gamespot reviewer? Heck no. In its present state I'd give it like a 3 out of 10 seriously downgrading mostly for the players texture memory problem. After all, cities are a big chunk of the landscape so not being able to go in one sucks.
Even giving it that though I'd have to say its a far far far better game than Everquest has ever been or could ever be. It simply is.

I guess some people could go back to EQ or play both, I can't. AO working right sometimes is far better to me than EQ working great all the time. I simply have fun all the time in AO. I

n EQ on a higher character in a big guild you start to feel like you are punching a clock, for little or no gain while on a smaller twink you do the same things you've done on all our other chracters and are faced with the prospect of being high level eventually and punching the clock.

Oh yeah, forgot that. Something else AO did was give you REAL REASONS to go and hang out in the cities and socialize. Plus, as I ALWAYS said to Abashi or Absor back when EQ had open forum boards.. if you give players ZERO downtime and fast fun play they go to the cities and hang out AS A BREAK. Its why the cities of Norrath are empty and why the cities of AO are jammed to the gills and you get texture lagged.
if anything funcom did TOO GOOD of a job on that.

I'm done waiting, I'm done punching a clock, I'm done having to do things that 75 other people want to do in an uber guild so someday we can do what I want to do where I have a .000000001 percent chance of actually being rewarded. I'm done camping, I'm done doing quests or trades that depend on camping, I'm done grouping on the same things I have been forever, I'm done having one level take 6 real life months, I'm done WISHING that things would change. They simply are not going to.

Velious was bigger and prettier with slightly more randomness but the same old thing; it had some good quests that required a ton of camping and some good plane type areas and quest armor areas that gave you zero reward so you had to show up at them with your uber guild constantly.
I don't see luclin being any better in fact Verant has opted to make a cosmetic change instead, yay. Ohh i could have unending angst and look ghetto with my druid but in a new 3d model.. ooohhh pinch me!

Did I say I'm done? ;)
EQ/AO
# Jul 25 2001 at 11:21 AM Rating: Default
Just wanted to put my two cents in. AO is alot of fun and enjoyable game. If ya laggy in cities... get out in playing fields, get groups and get uber exp. I got AO the day it came out cuz i wanted to try something diffrent, i did and i love it. AO has really improved since its debut. I remember when EQ first came out and it was just as bad as AO's release. I remember that EQ gave all they cuztomes an extra month free because of all the problems as AO did. I am kinda pressed to cancel my EQ account thinking of all the work ive done on em but then again its just a game heh so i should damnit! I havent played EQ in 2 weeks and i dont feel the need to play cuz im addicted to AO now. Anyway AO is definately worth a try. This is a fun game and dont bash it till ya try it. If ya like sci-fi you will love this game even if ya like fantasy this game rules.
Actually grouping in AO is miles better than soloing.
# Jul 25 2001 at 10:45 AM Rating: Decent
***
1,075 posts

"Anarchy Online is just the opposite. It is very easy to solo, and in many ways it is preferable. I have found it very difficult to find a group because most people have quickly discovered that you can get higher experience and better rewards by soloing. "

I thought that also when I soloed to 16 on my Doctor/martial artist. This is a very easy character to solo on (even still at level 30, using martial arts all the time still) but nothing beats grouping.

After getting to 16 and finally having some credits I broke down and bought the biggest group heal and buff that I could (already had the biggest single heal I could use) I went to near rome and got a group on the minibulls in about 3 seconds (its good to be the doctor) Two hours later I was level 22.

The next day playing for about 3 hours or less I was level 26.

The day after that after moving to lush fields when the minibulls were greening out, I was level 30 in a couple hours. I then actually had to take a break and do some more missions. Though sometime in there I did and bought some better nanos I was really falling behind. I did some "find the item, get that item and get ANOTHER item as a reward and a few k credits" missions in the same area I was in (lush fields) In about 40 minutes I had all of my upgraded level 30 (which is quality level 15) armor.

A while later I had 29 k credits. I then went and bought the biggest group heal and biggest group buff (I'll actually need a couple more points so I can't use them until 31 actually.. but have them on me now) I was left with 6 k credits. For some odd reason you NEVER see doctor nanos in mission though I see like EVERY OTHER CLASS.

Basically If I had played more over the last 5 days or so I'd be level 50 plus easily by grouping.

Oh, the clue to grouping is this:

If you are a doctor you control the group in a way. Here is why, you keep everyone healed, no one ever dies and you all get great xp and level constantly.

How? First off you want the highest single heal, the highgest group buff and the highest group heal. Nothing else matters, in fact those are the only nanos I've ever needed even at level 30. I also use like a plus 20 run and a plus 20 MA one for myself, but otherwise its mostly those.

You also have a high first aid skill and the highest first aid stims you can have and nano stims (for some reason I did not notice the nano stim ones existed until like level 26.. duh...)

You also want to be able to use about the highest nano chargers you can. Forget treatment packs, your heals quickly outclass them and they are expensive.

I usually start out grouping around level 30 with 100 of the biggest nano chargers I can use, 35 of the biggest first aid healing stims and about 90 of the biggest nano stims. Totally by myself, with that stuff, I can keep a group of 5 other people fully healed ALL THE TIME while we take as many as 6 plus creatures at once for about 4 hours probably plus (I have never found out because my group runs out of ammo long before I run out of healing/nano power.)

Is it expensive? No, not really. You just make the group turn on /team loot alpha and you more than make back what you spent. This is always why as a doctor I'm still a martial artist:

It is free.

Doctor wallflowers without much armor? No.
Why?
Because this is kind of like EQ. When you are in a fast paced group casting your big heal and your big group heal (get this, it can't be underestimated when YOU and 2 tanks and some nano mage are all getting hit.. that big group heal is the BEST way to go) YOU ARE GOING TO GET HIT, OFTEN. Often at such times I pretend like I'm soloing almost. I always keep my defenses maxxed, in fact I may even do so at the expense of medical skills sometimes.

If your defenses are low, if you don't have the best armor as a doctor, having the best heals or nanos is not going to matter to your group when you are dead and then they are dead or running.

MA is nice because even if I don't attack I'm soon auto punching something for 24 average damage plus when I get aggroed on by as many as 5 at once. As a doctor when you are healing and group healing in such a situation.. the tanks are NOT going to be able to get them off you. You must just continue healing and use nano stims sometimes (can be used during fights) This is not as hard as it sounds and soon several of the mobs die.

I receive nothing but compliments and get asked to group again.The key to a good group is the doctor. If the doctor keeps everyone healed, has nearly the best heals, has good armor and has good defensive maxxed skills, it does not matter if everyone else just fights whatever mob or shoots wildly:

No one dies and you all level like 4 times even at level 26 - 33.
RE: Actually grouping in AO is miles better than soloing.
# Jul 26 2001 at 1:11 PM Rating: Default
That's a very nicely written piece that sums up exactly why I think AO is dull, dull, dull.

A long time ago, EQ was probably a little too difficult. For me it's now a little too easy.

AO, on the other hand, is mind-numbingly easy from day one. If you take out the bugss/technical problems you have a game that take sabsolutely no skill whatever. Levelling is extremely easy. Groups are ultra-fast xp, solo is just fast.

Everyone can wear good armor, use a good weapon, heal themselves in seconds, replenish their nano-pool in seconds. Missions give everyone an unlimited number of things of exactly the right level to kill.

If that's your idea of fun, then AO is the game for you. It does indeed deal with most of the things EQ players have complained about over the last two years.

I wasn't one of the people complaining, though. I never noticed much downtime and I always found it easy to solo. I never felt I had to camp fixed spawns and I nevr had arguments with other players or had my kills stolen.

I also felt fully engaged with the world from the moment my first character fell to her death off the walkways of Kelethin 5 minutes after I created her. After around a month of AO I still feel absolutely no affection, connection or even interest fir the place.
Well....
# Jul 25 2001 at 9:47 AM Rating: Decent
Ok so I read a bunch of the other posts, which I probably shouldn't have, and figured I would have to ramble on some more...

- AO may take a while to respond to support e-mails, but they do respond to EVERY one, and with a real response, not some canned crap like Verant sends (yes I have dealt with them several times about zone crashing, etc in EQ a while back).

- EQ may be a wondrous fantasy universe but it pretty much all disappears amid (xxx spawn in 2 min, @#$@ another PH, is XXX camped, etc).

- I like games because they are fun. It doesn't really matter whether it is fantasy or sci-fi, as long as the game itself is fun. Of course the opposite is true also, the concept can be wonderful (ex: wow we can slay a dragon) but if it isn't fun, it doesn't matter (ex: cool we can fight the dragon in 3 weeks if XXX doesn't kill it after respawn at 7:42, what does it drop again?).

- AO was definitely worth the $50. If I had it to do over I would buy it again.
AO / EQ
# Jul 25 2001 at 9:37 AM Rating: Decent
Well I will admit I did not read all of the other posts, but I did read the whole review. Ok maybe I am impatient to say my little piece too.

I am a little surprised by the review actually. Even at low levels, my Trader and Soldier were very different. My Trader is still low level, but my soldier has made it to 36. I am curious what level you were when making the review. Just seemed like it must have been written at fairly low level (ie under 12 or so) Here are a few things:

- You get experience MUCH faster in AO by grouping than by soloing. Many people are always looking for groups. When in groups it is more interesting than EQ because you don't just stand there waiting for something to spawn.

- I play on a system similar to yours, but with a slower connection. Cities are laggy but I have never had to stand there for 5 minutes, or even close. In general I play most any time, peak or off peak. I do know others with extreme lag problems though, not sure why some have them and others don't.

- Graphics. The graphics of AO are amazing I think, and there is a lot of variety in the cities. In fact each looks completely different. Also I have seen big lakes, lava rivers, fortress/outposts, etc, though the world overall does have a little less terrain variety I guess.

- People can all cast healing spells, etc, but the ones that are available for general use are so weak that they are only good at lower levels.

- Trade. I see a lot of trade in AO, and have travelled all around to buy and sell things.

- Social. AO does not force you to be social as much as EQ does, but you can be if you want. In general, I am. I do always mis the Newbie OOC channel when it disappears for me at L6. I joined a guild, which is great, and of course has guild chat like EQ.

- Bias/etc. I like AO a LOT better than EQ. It seems that AO is designed to actually be fun, while EQ is designed to be tedious work. At least in EQ, the extreme downtime gives me plenty of time to do things like clean the house, etc while I am waiting for groups, waiting for rez, waiting for mana, etc.

Well that was some pretty severe rambling on my part hope it is somewhat readable.

-- Natascha
-- Abigaile Myrrh



RE: AO / EQ
# Jul 25 2001 at 8:23 PM Rating: Default
I must admit, having had EQ for a few months, I get to do a bit of housework while waiting for my characters to med (think its kindo nice). But I DO hate the camping issue. Think I'll get AO as soon as my bud gets a usable connection.
EQ or AO.
# Jul 25 2001 at 7:55 AM Rating: Default
I'll say sorry now. I know many people that like EQ and for over 3 years it kept me going but AO even buggy as it is wipes the floor with EQ.

The main review is just plain wrong on quite a few things.

Soloing is better.. Erm no. Grouping in AO you actually get a bonus (instead of EQ where your xp died) and its noticeable. With a full group who knows what theyre doing you can pull down stuff almost twice your level at lowish lvls (grp 3 7th, 1 9th and a 10th) took down a 20th lvl critter.

Variety in EQ ? Not really, its the same as AO, you play a melee a caster or a hybrid. Its the same in AO, you get tanks, nukers and the group players. I know the person who reviewed this has played EQ for a long time but his review is pretty biased. The world being drab ??? AO has forests, cities, plains everything that EQ has but it looks 10 x better !

I guess if you like EQ you'll probably disagree with what I'm saying but I just think that people should give AO a chance.

One main point. Funcom say sorry, they even reversed part of a nerf...

The other day they nerfed concealment (it was def a nerf, people who actually are good at conceal were being able to walk through dungeons (even deep red ones) being virtually unmolested) so FC nerfed it. But after so many reports that the same people couldnt even go through a grey one (green for you eq'rs out there) without getting attacked by everything in the place - they changed it so that it was better but so that the exploit couldnt be acheived again.

Verant woulda just said "stuff you" as they did with so many other complaints/bugs.
AO/EQ
# Jul 25 2001 at 6:20 AM Rating: Default
I watched an EQ friend play AO for about an hour one night. He has a 1.2gig processor and is runnin DSL. This consisted of him running around town with non stop lag and even a number of times he alted out and surfed the web while we waited for 5 minutes for the lag to be over. He also showed me a mission where he shot things through walls, stood next to things that wouldnt attack him and sneaked through the level looting all the goods in boxes without being attacked. He eventually completed the level with doing nothing but sneaking to the end and fixing some radar. Ummm, where is the challenge in that?

I was not impressed at all by the game, the only interesting thing was the character emotes, I found them very ammusing. For the people who are comparing AO to EQ based on release, well Ive been around since the closed betas and no EQ was not that laggy upon release EQ servers are gods compared to whatever funcom is using(one server? what is funcom thinking?). Eq had and still has bugs which are always being worked on and patched, but IMO AO is practically unplayable. However my friend enjoys AO, he still plays EQ, but for some reason he doesnt mind all the kinks that were driving me insane as he played AO. If I was going to suggest this game to anyone it would be only for those fed up of how time consuming and challenging EQ is. I believe those people fed up of EQs challenges and time drain are the exact ones bashing it, to those people bashin EQ I just want to say this,Im very sorry you spent all that time playing EQ and it didnt make you a god in RL, its tough learnin its a game, EQ is there to be enjoyed, I love the challenges and other aspects of EQ, no one forced you to play.

Comparison wise in overall gaming of the two AO doesnt stand a chance *IMO*, it amazes me that people could actually put that game on the same level or above EQ...however I felt the same way about Asherons Call, and there are many people I know that say it stomps EQ, although I dont see it. To each his own I suppose, definitely try this on someone elses comp before you buy it, if after watching your friend play for an hour(the bugs and frustrations are more than apparent by then) you decide you like it alot, then go buy it, but be sure to try it out first....
RE: AO/EQ
# Jul 25 2001 at 12:55 PM Rating: Default
You obviously haven't played EQ at launch. I know just by your post. I can catch you in this lie, as I happen to know details about EQ when it launched.

1. EQ launched on Cerfnet. Do you know this? No, you do not. Cerfnet is notably bad.
2. EQ launched with a ISDN backbone. Did you know that? No you did not. They didn't even have the capability to support the user base - sound familiar? It's been that way with EVERY mmorpg launch (except for maybe AC.)
3. EQ launched with less then 15 servers. I remember when people first demanded they split the servers. The answer from Verrant: "We don't have the money to get new servers. This is very costly for us and we have to carefully review these demands."

Obviously you did not play EQ before Verrant was owned by Sony. Silly boy
Can we all just stop the hate
# Jul 25 2001 at 2:16 AM Rating: Default
Wow, so many against AO. Well, I've been an EQ player for 2 1/2 years...since launch and I have to go against almost everyone here and say that I geniunly believe that AO is, by far, the best game I have ever played. There are countless reasons...I even saw a link to someone listing 50 reasons AO is better than EQ and they were actually true, not biased remarks. I also read, write, and enjoy strictly fantasy environments. I must say, however, that AO does an amazing job at incorporating fantasy with sci-fi. I think they've done wonders fixing the lag problems so far (they still have a ways to go), but do all of you so easily forget the first month of EQ?? It was in no way playable...no logging on...no anything. Heck the servers just shut down for a while cause it was so bad. I've met many, many old EQ players that have been playing AO now and everyone I've talked to is blown away, and no-it's not just the graphics-there are so many elements that shine in the game that are so much above and beyond EQ. I'm a level 55 bard, level 52 ranger in EQ and I hate the game at these levels because it's not fun any more...people made it that way when they decided that this class or that class sucked. EQ was good for its time, it was a revolutionary wonder for computer games. But now it's time to move on. EQ is as outdated as my old atari is. For those of you who want to stay then understand that people that like AO aren't out to bash anyone...we're just saying come over and give it a shot because we want our friends to experience this new world with us. On the other hand, I've experienced way to many EQ players that haven't played AO doing a lot of bashing. That's just not right. So, let your imagination take you where it may. And if you are a role-player I have not seen more roleplaying in any game ever than AO ( just check out the Rubi-Ka Broadcasting Network or RNN TV...they are amazing sites that you can find links to at anarchyonline.com ) Good journeys to you all and I hope that we can all stop bashing games and just try them, if you guys think that EQ is going to be around much longer than you all are in for a surprise, or did you miss the fact that EQ2 is already far into development...hmmm...there goes all of our characters. It's all about money in this day and age...so lets change that and make it about friends. In AO, it's not all about the fighting and leveling...everyone bands together for a common goal(depending what side your on), I just had a 45 level fellow Clan mate give my entire group high level weapons for the common good(Or destruction of Omni-tech)! Would that ever, EVER, happen in EQ? Answer that one honestly. EQ started as an inovation, and as Sony came to control it, turned into just a tool to get as much money as possible from the consumers, finding every way they could to do so. I'm into games for fun. AO is fun. Laggy in some cities still (for all those who aren't smart enough to go to the countless outposts that have everything you need and stay clear of the major cities until they are fixed). But fun, lots of fun!
eq customer service
# Jul 25 2001 at 2:07 AM Rating: Default
1played eq for awhile and after every patch had new issues making the game unplayablefor most of the time i was a customer however i did enjoy playing.After days of trying to get thru to customer service the tech on the phone the tech tells me my cpu was getting to hot to open my cabinet and let a fan blow on it while i play eq,pretty ridiculisdont u think.I quit shortly after and have no intention of going back,verant just doesnt care about their customers,they will regret it with all the new games coming out,i like ao and at least they respond to their customersin the future no game will touch it . thank you kevin
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