Classic Feel vs Classic Mechanics

[pasi]

Again, it's an issue of comparing leveling versus endgame.

EQ's difficulty was in its leveling which is also the majority of the time spent in game.

The leveling process for EQ is notably harder than for WoW. However, unlike endgame difficulty, leveling difficulty can be circumvented by sticking to the path of least resistance. Leveling is going to be harder if you are grouping in SolA or Dalnir rather than if you are camping a zone out in Overthere. Guess which path the vast majority of players choose? And for good reason.

WoW's difficulty was in its end game (ie raiding, arenas) which is the majority of the time spent in game. Comparatively speaking, EQ's endgame was a complete joke up until Gates of Discord. You're better off with an average player who makes 90% of raids than a great player who makes 80% of raids. The skill cap and threshold for success in raiding EQ were incredibly low for almost every role.

Luclin showcased this very well. No joke, we would have the majority of our melee characters who would hit auto attack and do nothing else for 40 minutes. Maybe they would check in and click backstab every couple minutes, but for the most part they were AFK for the entire fight... and we were killing stuff without a hitch. And that was on content that was more difficult/complex than the previous expansions.

Lets go off that a bit. Look at live or emu servers that allow boxing or MQ2 plugins, you can play 6, 12, 18, hell even 24 characters without a large dip in character productivity and be successful at raiding. This is possible because tasks are simple and the environment is static.

This is not to fault EQ as MMORPG raid design was in its infancy. Again, simplicity doesn't take away from the quality of the game, difficulty does not equate to a better game.

I love EQ, I just think all yall are crazy for thinking 1999 EQ is more difficult/complex than 2004 WoW.

[Kika Maslyaka]

good post! +1 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]