EQDiva

Please note that most my positive comments (not all) about Vanguard, or EQ2 1.0a-Beta 7, as I now call it, no longer apply. Please come to your own conclusions.

DOH!!! lol

Yeah, as I suspected. The Sony answer to VG is either to run everyone back to one of their other products or to make VG like their other products. The downside is people (admittedly few) are in VG because they were looking for something different/better than EQ's 1 & 2. From SOE's standpoint, those games were a lot more successful so why not apply that formula to VG? My own personal view is Sigil so blew the physical implementation that the game may not be saveable. I am not happy that they are making it into another EQ2. I don't know much about the new offerings on the horizon, and I have never played WoW. I can only compare VG to, say Lord of the Rings Online. IMHO (your mileage may vary): In less time after launch, LOTRO is much slicker, mechanically than VG. Is the game better? Depends on your criteria. VG lore, compared to LOTRO is almost non-existent. The lore and quest progression in LOTRO is better than VG by a factor of 10. There is a purpose and a goal in LOTRO. I can't say that in VG, other than to level and get stuff. Graphics? LOTRO performance is double VG's on my system, maybe triple. I would have given the nod in quality and realism to VG after 1 day in LOTRO. After a month or so, and going back and forth, you know, my personal preference is with LOTRO. Size of the world? VG gets the nod...LOTRO is more linear which means you are gonna end up following the original story line. It is surprisingly large though, as you progress and see more. It is still not like having 3 full continents...ok 2 full continents and one unfished one, in VG. Quality of players? VG and LOTRO both have both dissapointed me. VG I always figured it was a lot due to the lag full groups get in dungeons. LOTRO I am not really far enough along on to make a fair judgement. Variety and uniqueness of Player Characters? VG wins hands down...at least untill SOE gets finished 'vanilla'ing them out. Mapping system? LOTRO. VG barely has maps. Crafting? Comlexity and difficulty go to VG. If you want a system thats fun and to be able to make your own stuff in a reasonable period of time (relatively good stuff) then LOTRO. Fun to play? So far I gotta go with LOTRO. But thats from playing VG from launch and LOTRO for only a month. If you did a few days free in LOTRO, you haven't really seen the game. The first few days are really scripted and the game is a bit more free form after that. I can't decide if I like the scripted pass/fail series of quest in LOTRO. Again, its a more linear game, given its theme, so I suppose you gotta do the story line advancing quests that way.

Interesting comparison. I loved the complexity of VG crafting. The shame was simply that to equip myself I had to spend double the amount of time crafting vs. adventuring. And to be honest, LOTRO has been pretty time-sinky as well. In fact, that's ALL LOTRO crafting is -- time sink. There really is no other challenge to speak of. The one thing you haven't been able to comment on that I can is the high level game. Tier 5 is a SERIOUS grind. To be honest, I've lost interest. Because everything slows to a crawl, and yet nothing is really different. Doing a T5 instanced dungeon isn't really much different than doing the Great Barrow at lvl 20. The gameplay really doesn't change much. And so I find myself lacking motivation to do the stuff, because it's all starting to feel like a chore. Am I expecting too much? Gameplay between lvl 30 and lvl 60 didn't change that much in eq either. Tanks tanked, healers healed, mezzers mezzed, dps dpsed... I guess it was a combination of brand-newness (it was my first MMO, after all), the amazing variety of playsyles of Bards in particular, and the comaraderie of Molto that kept me playing as long as I did. Even then I found myself spending more and more time on the eq2 forums hoping it would be amazing than I did playing eq1. Then I did the same with Vanguard, hoping it would be better than eq2. With LOTRO, someone told me about open beta, so I didn't have months and months of longing for it to make me disappointed when it wasn't amazing. And now Age of Conan is on the horizon. It's PvP looks promising. But I don't know if I've got it in me. I've enjoyed being super-casual in LOTRO, taking my time, etc. But somehow being super-casual isn't as gratifying as playing with a group of hard-core types. Especially if there is PvP involved. I simply won't do PvP half-assed. It's all or nothing. I will either dominate, destroy, and wtfpwn or I'll relax and do my little mail quests in the Shire, lol. I dunno... I keep wishing and dreaming about the perfect game. But I think I might simply be outgrowing them all. I find myself wanting to do stuff like read books or go outside and do stuff in my yard. Ewww! I'm turning into an old geezer.

I kinda hate to hear that about combat being the same. I find MOb behavior at 20 more sophisticated than other MMO's I have played, I like that they root you and then move off to nuke or arrow you. I had hoped the tactics became more involved at higher levels. Its kinda neat to sneak up behind a tree shoot the mob and dart behind it so they have to come find you...or sneak up on one from on top of a keep wall and pound him while he tries to climb up to get you. I never much cared for the EQ approach of obstacles for me and none for the mob. At any rate, I agree. It's a lot easier for a book, or a project (or mediocre tv show) to distract me from my mmo these days. Btw, after VG crafting, I love LOTRO. Have you ever farmed? Other than waiting for the crops to grow, its a pretty realistic implementation.

Worst thing about being able to play VG is having to buy a new coumputer with lots of ram and top end video card to not lag horribley.