Re-visiting EQ2 – So Far So Good

My son walked by last night while I was crafting and asked, “Why are you playing that lame game?”  Later on, after I’d logged off he asked to try it, played for 15 minutes and said, “Yeah, that’s the same lameness I remember!”  When I first purchased EQ2 it was for me and my son – we both had accounts for a while.  He only lasted a couple of weeks before returning to whatever else we were playing – don’t recall what it was at the time.

EQ2 is a rather sedate game by our standards which is something that has turned us off in the past.  However, I’m doing just fine this time around with the pacing.  I don’t have lots of time to play.  I have zero patience for downtime when I can only play for an hour or so at a time.  I’ve done the flashy-pants MMO, hardcore commitment (raiding and PVP) and I don’t have energy or time for any of that right now.  My work-day feels like a war zone.  It’s not uncommon for me to end the day with a stress headache or migraine.  The pacing of the game suits me perfectly right now.  I like that there are ample mini-game opportunities, even when I have less than an hour to play.

Mini Game Opportunities
Player Housing
The last time I was subscribed I was living in Qeynos Harbor.  The cost was rather significant but I wanted a more central location for the staple of characters I was playing.  I had two Faes and two High Elves.  I really disliked the Fae City for housing.  It was too dark for my tastes and farming the components I need for carpentry and provisioning seemed more plentiful in the Commonlands.  I was on the edge of leaving so I figured I’d see if a change of scenery might help.  It did for a while but eventually I left.  When I came back this time I was down to just the Fae Illusionist on AB still sitting in the pricey room.  I decided the other day to pack it in and move to Willow Wood.  Willow Wood is still in a housing area that is more pleasing to me – human city, cozy and small, which means the bank, mender, housing and auction house/crafting is all conveniently close.  The Mariner’s Bell is just a stone-throw away and it only costs the noob fee of 5 silver per week.  Maintaining player accommodations – selecting, decorating and managing local selling features is a VERY cool mini game.  I think EQ2 has provided a nice mixture of functionality, vanity options and customization to housing that makes it worth your while.

Crafting
EQ2 has many players for whom crafting IS the game.  However, for others who are less serious about it, it is an extremely useful and viable mini-game.  The products produced are valued in the game and do provide good benefits to your character besides giving you an income. The gear and weapons produced at the top tier are extremely coveted and are another avenue of character progression versus getting your upgrades from quests or raids.  For me, I love crafting.  I even do crappy crafting as long as it’s not bugged.  The idea of creating an item in a virtual world using virtual components that will turn into something a REAL person will use on their virtual character thrills me.  I just adore this concept.  I’m not a role-player but the fact that I’m also participating in the gaming economy makes my character feel more whole – part of that universe.  This is my primary mini game in all MMOs, especially EQ2.

Soloing Content
Being prepared in a game that is not known for its ability to support soloing and grinding XP is another pass time.  Making sure I have the right spec, gear, spells and combat rotations are things I enjoy thinking about and researching.  Locating the actual solo instances, some of which might require the completion of access quests, it another thing I do on the side.

Saving Money for Baubles
I don’t quest much but as I’ve mentioned before, I still have MANY MANY in game goals.  Identifying those shiny toys or extra bling you’d like to sport is a fun mini-game for anyone.  Right now I want the T3 mount and am trying to craft and loot my way to the necessary funds.  Every five levels I evaluate my gear and weapons for an upgrade and try to set aside gold for that too.  Once I hit level 50 or so, I’d like to be able to afford to move back to Q Harbor or North Q.  My dream ending is a crafting station inside my suite/store.  I want my apartment suite to be more of a store front than a living space.  Thinking about the expensive items I’d love to get my greedy hands on is yet another game within the game.

Socializing with Players
Eh, is there and readily available but not for me.  I’m in a new guild that has more people and lively chat.  That’s about all I need.  I don’t raise my hand for group runs and such but it’s entertaining to hear what others are doing in vent.  I pipe-up occasionally – crack jokes or answer questions with my very minimal knowledge of the game and that’s about as social as I need these days.

It Works
So yeah, by my son’s standards the game is way too sedate and slow paced.  This hasn’t worked for me before but in my present frame of mind and circumstance this is very ideal.  I can go out and level when I have an hour plus to play or easily engage in one of the mini games when time is short.

Comments

[leiandra]

I went back to EQ2 with the free 2 months or so that they had. I think it ends here at the end of this month. I always enjoyed the crafting. I liked the idea that you could kind of mess up on things. I like the idea that if you didn't get it just right, you'd still produce something but it wouldn't be pristine. Oh wait... they took that part out. So, you'd get elements back now. So, that's what I did when I started again... started crafting (and adventuring).

What I found was that it was a bit too tedious to me. I had hit lvl 13 or so in crafting with a new toon. I decided to create something with the lower lvl meat I had... just to use up the 20 or so that I had gathered. Mind you the recipe was like level 5 or something. You'd think that I'd have level 5 recipes down pat. But no, I wasn't paying attention and I didn't make it. There's got to be a point where you're high enough above something where you can auto make 200 crappy pieces of food or something (like the 100 Super Mana Pots I made last night). Just seems like there should be a happy medium.

But glad that you've found something that you can enjoy... even if it is just for a little while.

[saylah]

I'm there with you on that one, Lei. I had a stack of lowbie stuff and wished that I could click one button and create like WOW. I sold the items instead of bothering to click my way through crafting those items. As annoying as it is they don't have that option, it does protect the market for lower level crafters. If they have to combine.click their way thru items that high level crafters can one-click or do unattended it would disrupt their economic game.

I know some gatherers have this unwritten law about harvesting all nodes in a zone to make them respawn faster for everyone. Sorry, I don't do that. If I don't use a particular harvestable item, I'm not wasting time collecting it, carting it around in my inventory and hoping that I can sell it in on the AH. If I could one-click or auto combine, I'd make the items and therefore harvest those nodes. I think crafting has to be auto or not no matter what or it can slant opportunties for others.

[Openedge1]

I finally gave up the crafting as well. I was so impressed at first, and leveled my way to 40. But, the tedious waiting for the goods, and then the difficulty in making the masters, and the gathering.
I turned gathering into MY mini game. Gather for an hour each day, then when my bags were full, return home, put it on the Broker, and try to outprice everyone...hehe

Also, the wife turned the "Collections" into her mini-game. She would log in, shop the Broker for her pieces, and now has 200 collections completed without leaving the big tree we live in.

This game has it all. Group quests, Solo, min-games galore...

But bad performance...boo. My super rig runs it worse than my lowly rig, and that AIN'T RIGHT (as my southern wife says), and that disappoints.

Hope you continue to have fun,,,cheers to you.

[Saylah]

Completely forgot about the collections! I've only complete 1 ever! hehe. I should do the broker version too and complete a few at least.

The EQ2 performance is teh suck. When you can run AOC at high without stuttering or lag, you damn sure should be able to do the same on EQ2. like AC2 who had the same issues that they attempted to fix with ever other patch, it has to be at the core of the design otherwise it would have been addressed by now. I it would be nice if I high end rig could run high w/shadows and have good performance. There are some very beautiful locations to see.

[Syah]

I find it a pity they revampted the whole crafting process in EQ2. It's now just waaaay too easy. I long for the days when you could actually see someone die from crafting because he/she was not paying attention. Drinking alot of coffee to keep your mana up was also needed but most of all, I miss the old crafting process such as:

*Essence of Widget*:

- Primary Component
Widget Dust

- Build Components:
Widget Suspension
Widget Resin

- Fuel Component:
Generic Candles (to buy)

You actually had to make the primary component as "pristine" (and that was not easy) or else you lost everything. You then had to create the suspension and resin as well. Only then could you start making your final product.

Now, you basically just need components in your bag and you start the crafting process with almost a 100% chance to create pristine. I was really a hardcore crafter but lost interest after the revamp. The good thing is though that you still can make high quality products that are looked for by other players as it can compete with what is found in raid/grouping, unlike in other MMOs.

[Khan]

Glad you found something you're enjoying. I was wondering about the server performance - glad it wasn't just me. EQ2 ran pretty well most of the time for me. Sometimes though ... er ... not so good.

Only having done the low-level crafting stuff, it seemed like a neat system they had. I didn't much care for the collections thing. Seemed rather tedious clicking on nodes to see if I had the item it dropped or not. I'm also not sure about the respawns - is each node always thae same thing or can it be different each time? I'd almost always end up clicking on something just to find out I already had it. Then again, I was never big on keeping track of which ones I had. :)

[Saylah]

@Syah - you're sick and twisted! I did crafting back when you had to do the combines first as a provisioner. Talk about TEEEEEEEEEDIOUS! And yes, I almost died a few times at the woodworking bench. Before you specialized, I did all of the crafting stations to make little items for myself and to add some variety to leveling crafting XP. I think the version they have not is a very nice compromise so you just hush up! And as much as I sometimes long for a 1 click option to auto produce a batch of items - lesser quality and only 1 from the mats would be fine, I understand why they don't. I think it would mess up the market for lower level crafters.

@Kahn - I've only ever completed 1 collection for that exact reason BORING. However, if you have a little cash to spare the way it was mentioned above - done my playing the AH is another nice option. I have a few with only a couple of missing items. I could probably complete them via the AH. I have to remember to check it out.

[Blacknimbus]

@Saylah - Have you ever tried CoH? I finally downloaded a trial because I'm thrashing about a bit trying to find a new game to play and it's not bad. Not a long term solution, I don't think, but something that might last me a few weeks or months.

[saylah]

@Black = No, i've never been interested in COH/COV. It doesn't look like my kind of game. The whole super hero thing doesn't really appeal to me. But i must admit that i'm liking the visuals being post for DC Universe.

[Blacknimbus]

I felt the same way...never had much use for comic book heroes. But it's worth a trial just for the character creation portion.

If you want to play a demon that casts fire spells, you can. Want to be a samurai wielding a katana, that's easy to create. Or if you want a character that carries a machine gun, wears biker leathers and tosses grenades, that's available too.

None of these are your standard "heroes in tights" that I expected.

[Saylah]

@Black - You're making a convincing case. Once I need a break from EQ2, I'll give it a try. I unsubscribed from Conan over the weekend.

[Gaming Diva]

You almost have me sold on getting on my Windows PC and playing some of the games that you've mentioned. I've seen Everquest demo a few times, and it got my attention. I might try it out to see how I like it.

Stress free gaming is fabulous and I've been doing that a lot lately. Gaming has always been one of the ways, besides exercise, reading, and a slew of other things I do to unwind. I do consider gaming my one truly selfish past time since I do exactly what I want while playing. :-)

I like crafting too. I've always had a blast doing that in the games that offered that feature.

I think it is very cool that your son and you play some of the same games. My five-year old daughter plays The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, admittedly she is just running around (for the most part) in the forest but she enjoys it. :-)

How would Everquest guilds compare to WOW? Are they similar?

[Saylah]

The guild sizes are as diverse as you'd find them in WOW. I've been in really tiny ones - less than 10 people, up to guilds with 50+ VERY active members. Right now I'm in a good sized guild 30 to 40 people. They don't raid but they do group together on a daily basis. I haven't joined them on vent yet but I plan too soon.

Playing with my son is the highlight of all of my gaming experiences, bar none. I played The Sims with the girls and did console games with him but I suck at FPS games. But I played them and football too just to stay connected with him. when I got was sick with cancer he seemed to drift away emotionally. He was the child that I was closest to and I started to worry about how he'd feel if I wasn't around anymore given that he was more closed and didn't communicate his feelings like the girls. I found MMOs in between procedures and it was a nice escape. I convinced him to try them because sitting in bed with a laptop was just easier for me.

He loved them! I remember the first time I saw him materialized in Asheron's Call 2. I can't even describe how I felt being there with him, running around and vanquishing foes. And when we formed a small clique inside a family oriented guild it was an amazing journey. People would look out for him when I wasn't on - not baby him because he'd have hated that but make sure he knew that there were people to help him when I couldn't. I told them not to let my son die on a run EVER! hehe. It was funny. I was on Vent and they were like, it's just a game. I said, I dont care, he's my son don't let him die.

When we all moved to WOW it was the same thing but I was well by then. We quested, farmed and raided together. As time passed he branched out on his own and formed his own social circle within the guild. I still remember the first raid he joined. He's a bit of an altaholic so it takes him time to reach max level. I was so excited you would have thought he was graduating or something. *Smile*

Six years later and he's now leaving to join the Marines in two weeks. Playing MMOs with him was a true pleasure. I have memories, pictures and stories that will last a life time. He got to see other sides of me. I got to see other sides of him. From watching him grow and mature, to spending a large amount of game time with him, I know that he is an analytical thinker, pays attention to detail, has a strong ability for recall, is a leader and a team player. I think I had an opportunity to connect with him in a way that mothers sometimes are not able to with their sons. Yes, I count our MMO experiences together as priceless.

[Gaming Diva]

Saylah,
You wrote your bonding experience with your children, through gaming, beautifully. My daughter and I play a few games together and she really likes that a lot.

I'm an analytical thinker also. I think that is why I'm enjoying going back to WOW for now. I picked a class that allows me to do that a lot (mage.) I did not feel the same amount of excitement with my hunter.

Many thanks to your son, and the numerous others out their supporting our country through military service.

Before I started my own guild on WOW, I was in a guild where an entire family played. I remember the mom asking us to look out for her two children when they were on, and some of us in the guild always did that. I can think of several times when I helped them quest or escorted them to flight paths in higher level areas.

[Saylah]

Thanks Diva. It's funny that until MMOs he assumed it did't like fantasy. It' was all guns and car movies and games. After AC2 he gobbled up every fantasy movie and flat doesn't play anything - console or PC now that isn't fantasy. We made a family thing of us all going together to see LOTR and HP on opening day, followed up by Sushi. Mmm. I already miss the excitment and anticipation of us all waiting for each HP book. It's really going to be a bummer when the last movie releases.