I finally played Everquest - I pray that Planeshift will be nothing li

[Abemore]

I finally played Everquest, and I pray that Planeshift will be nothing like it.

I posted this in another general forum somewhere and it made me think of Planeshift.  After reading this, I hope some of you will agree with me that PS should not be similar to EQ... and if you dont agree with me, we can further the discussion here...

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Abemore:
Can anyone tell me why this game is popular?
After playing it for several weeks, it seems to me to be a truly horrible game.
If someone can please explain the good features of this game that I am apparently missing, that would be great... because right now I\'m pretty certain that I could convince anyone that this game sucks.

Please post your thoughts if you played the game.

Deflux:
I\'ve played EQ for 2 years and finally broke my addiction a year ago

Everquest is a very complex game, a huge game. And you will never see everything in the game even people who played for years never experienced everything. The game gets good when you reach high levels, its hard to explain but there is a whole dimension to it. Its pretty fun hunting dragons with 30 other people. Its fun going to large dungeons with your entire guild(kinda like clan) and getting cool and powerful items. Its also fun to work as a team with 30+ people to take down gods and bosses in the game. as I said its hard to explain what the game is exactly about, but it can be really fun.

Abemore:

Deflux -
 The game gets good when you reach high levels

so, if its not good prior to high levels, then how did anyone ever get to those levels?

also, from what you\'ve said, the fun of the game is entirely about working within groups and doing your part to help that group function efficiently.  There seems to be no place for a player who does not wish to be part of a guild or clan.  A player who chooses to solo deals more with just the game.  For example, I wanted to progress through the game by following quests, but this proved impossible since every quest giving NPC gives you the least amount of information possible.  \"Noble [your name here], you must collect [a list of strange items] and take them to [another NPC\'s name] in [some place you\'ve never heard of].\"  Can I please get a map?  The general direction I should be heading?  An idea where to find the items?  Anything useful?  No?  Then I must either wander aimlessly through the game or search through websites dedicated to this game to explain what the NPC should have told me.  So, grouping and dominating is the only way to go (even though the user interface is crap...rightclick and drag to mouselook...what is that?).  While this game is Massive, Multiplayer, and Online, I would hardly call it an RPG.  If this game were offline, it would be found in the bargin bin at most stores for $5.  If you\'d like to see what Everquest would look like if it were offline and executed correctly, check out the massive singleplayer offline RPG Morrowind.

[Silverblade]

The game gets good when you reach high levels

I only play Everquest when I get free trials, so I never really have the chance to get to those high levels, and therefore never have the chance to get to the good stuff.

As you said, it seems to be mostly about teamwork. I think thats a good thing. The biggest part of being an MMO, is the socializing and teamwork. If you prefer to work alone, then thats what singleplayer games are made for .

And Morrowind is a fantastic RPG... Imagine a Massively multiplayer version of The Elder scrolls...

[Xolon]

unfortunatly i cant say i tried EQ, i never got the change to play one of its trials .

But i do know how PS is gonna be and i played loads of other mmorpg\'s. Teamplay.....yes its very important in mmorpg\'s and i agree, why would you make a mmorpg if there isn\'t any teamplay abillity in it? It\'s what mmorpg gives that addiction (for me).
There are always players around who like to travel and/or train alone. This must be available also, wandering alone in a big world also has something nice and luckely PS will offer both option

Abaou the quests, PS will have some simple quests for the beginners, but dont stand still with your mouth open if you dont understand a quest anymore. What we would like to see is that real die-hard players are really gonna roleplay, this makes the game 300% more fun. So the harder quest will ask a lot of patience and time, you will need to find out what exactly the \'Stone of Red Sun\' is and where to find it. These answer can for instance found by asking npc\'s and ofcourse searching the books of our old library Jayose.

PS will have the complexity for those who like it, but will also offer the \'easy-play\' for less diehards

-Xolon-

[Abemore]

Originally posted by Silverblade
Imagine a Massively multiplayer version of The Elder scrolls...

I have imagined that... it would be quite amazing.

Don\'t get me wrong, I do enjoy the multiplayer, socializing, and teamwork elements of MMO games, but I cant do it in such a poorly designed environment.  I might like to ask some people to join me in a quest, but since EQ quests are pointless and joyless, there\'s really no point.  And I can find no reason why I should join one Guild over another, nor do I even see a way to join a Guild.  Guilds should be part of the RPG experience, not just another name for a clan that aimlessly raids bosses in hopes of gaining money, items, experience, or levels.

Perhaps instead of player created guilds, there could be developer set guilds that players could work their way to the top ranks of?  ...or both

[Silverblade]

Totaly agreed about the guilds, I would like to see a lot more guild roleplaying, rather than just trying to become the most powerful clan.

About the developer set guilds;

I have never thought about that, and I doubt many people have. A very interesting concept which should definitely be explored further. I personally cant imagine having both player created guilds, and developer created ones in the same game world, but it is definitely worth thinking about.

[kinshadow]

I have had the same experience with Everquest.  I played the game for about a month before giving up.  The quests were silly and all I ever heard was , \"It gets better at higher levels.\"  Well, it should be enjoyeable at the lower levels too.  In addition, I think party\'s are great.  I like working/hunting in them, but I HATE being forced into them.  Especially for spell casters, EQ forces you to group or you can not advance.  If I want to sit down and play for two hours, I spend half my time finding party members.  

UO\'s quest system was even worse.  In fact it is almost non-existant.  The saving grace is that there are no levels.  Its all skills and there is a skill cap.  You can only get so powerful, thus \"high level\" areas are more about the player\'s use of the character and grouping if possible.  While I do not support a capped skill system for PS,but it does leave the game quite open to all styles of play.

[cmhitman]

abemore I feel you. I was just addressing those same feelings within my old guild before I closed it down.
But i think the reason most guilds do that is because they careless about socializing. Its all about beating the hell out of the game and other players. This is true because i myself am a competition fiend. but I unlike other people dont get pleasure out dominating unfairly.  I like fair or challenging competition & Guilds with a broad game range (guilds that play more than one game) usualy are all about kicking ass , at all costs and dominating. this is just natural of guilds that play alot of games. there everywhere and you can\'t stop them from playing, all you can do as players is try to have fun, its up to the devs to make the game allow for far play and since this is a work in progress we can all help make this game the best through trial and error .

[Kendaro]

Honestly the main reason the game is better at higher levels is cause you start understanding things much more. When you first start out you know nothing and must learn things. Once you start to level you gain skills and abilities and start to get a feel for what your class is meant to be like. Then you start exploring more as things become less dangerous to you and you find out things about the histopry of the world you live in. As you grow more you start to travel and see distant lands and meet with new people. With nerw lands come new monsters and new areas to explore.

Yes the first quests you start on are a bit silly but they are simple erand runs so to get you used to how you activate and progress into a quest dialog. As you progress the quests not only get harder to do but are even harder to unlock. You have to start being creative in how you talk to NPCs to see what they have to say.

So basicly the first 20 levels in EQ are learning fases and by the time you hit 20 you will have a new respect for all the work you went through. You get rewarded with a surname and start looking forward to your most powerfull line of skills to come.

It is a basic realist path to go through. After all you had to learn to crawl before you could walk and then you had to walk well befopre you could learn to run. It is all a learning proccess and if you look at it as such, rather than just want to be powerful right off the bat, you will take your time and find there is more things in the EQ world to enjoy rather than hack and slash, good gear, and gaining power. It truely is another world.

[Kada-El]

I\'m going back to actually read the thread, I just had to say I\'m really happy to see you Abe

[Abemore]

heh, nice to see you too Kada


(also, nice to see someone cleared out the potentially offensive posts... *looks squinty-eyed at Venge* )

[Anath]

I thought about creating a guild for quite some time on ps. It would be alot of work and worth it if you have a great bunch of players... but I just cant do it. I have played that way in almost every other game I have played and I want to be the mysterious female player in ps. Of course still working at Kada\'s bar, but heck, I dont want to be tied down to a big group of people. Its going to be so formal in ps and alot of people will get into that and I think thats great, but there still has to be stealthy quests for loners like me. No?

[Dustman]

Yah! I\'d like to see more cool quests for us loners that can really immerse us in the world of Planeshift as a wandering wizard or rogue or mysterious ranger.

But of course when the need arises, It would also be SO COOL if i could say something like, \"You have my sword\" or \"You have my bow\"  )  heheh

[Abemore]

)

It would be really nice to have a role playing reason to group.  And the entire group could recieve exp. upon completion of a quest.

[Habu]

EQ is a hack & slash game with a long ass leveling treadmill :\\

in What I have seem PS is going to be a lot like EQ as it will be a hack & slash game, I dont know about the leveling in the PS though

[Abemore]

i just remebered one time i was playing crappy everquest and i was inside a house in a field browsing through some merchants goods.  Well, I happened to glance down at the chat window to find that I was being killed by some kind of a griffin.  When I finally tried to escape it was too late.

How did this happen?  Well, apparently the griffin was flying past the house and, using its x-ray vision, saw me through the wall of the house.  This, of course, angered the creature to the point that it abandoned the laws of physics and passed through the wall in order to secretly silently kill me.  All the while, I was painstakingly searching through the merchants goods totaly unaware that my body was being torn to pieces.  Some indication other than a line of text would have been nice.

yet another reason why EQ sucks