Anyone gonna be playing EverQuest 2 on launch?

[DarkSkies]

Just wanted to know if anyone from the forums are going to play EverQuest 2 when it goes live. So far me and 2 friends have pre-order a copy hopefully to reach SA within 4 days of release. We are looking for other players that have pre-order so we can join the same server to hook-up and adventure together.

[Jerrek]

After playing a character to level 33 in < 1 week in WoW, and still only at the 18th level after 2 weeks in EQ, EQ is by far the better game of the two. I have lots of screenshots, and lots of stuff I desperately want to share with others, but there is a NDA on the beta I have. It is an amazing game. And if you've played EQ 1, there are some surprises. Such as the Halflings taking over Neriak. And questing for "ancient" items such as a glowing lightstone (remember the willowisps in the western commons?) or a Mistmoore shield.

Heh.

[LethalChicken]

definiately looking forward to the game ...

We are Telkom - Resistance is Futile - You will be Assimilated

[dirk]

where can I pre-order it from ? that doesn't charge $50 just for shipping [V]

[Chris]

We won't be getting EverQuest 2[V] because we're a third world country.....oh and we have Telkom[}:)]

Counting down...
123 days till the end of Hellkom

[amberstorm]

I will definately be playing EQ2 as soon as i get it. Preordered from www.DVDboxoffice.com got EQ platinum from them postage was $24 Canadian and it arrived in 3 days

[GougedEye]

Myself and three or four friends are preordering it. Was going to hold out for WoW but that doesn't look like it's going to happen this side of the second comming. We will use http://www.cdromshop.com as usual. We often just ship one copy from them and have them e-mail us the other CD-Keys. Done this plenty for Camelot and expansions, City of Heroes etc.

Are you guys who are preordering it guilded up or should be look at getting something local going?

[DarkSkies]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jerrek</i>
<br />After playing a character to level 33 in &lt; 1 week in WoW, and still only at the 18th level after 2 weeks in EQ, EQ is by far the better game of the two. I have lots of screenshots, and lots of stuff I desperately want to share with others, but there is a NDA on the beta I have. It is an amazing game. And if you've played EQ 1, there are some surprises. Such as the Halflings taking over Neriak. And questing for "ancient" items such as a glowing lightstone (remember the willowisps in the western commons?) or a Mistmoore shield.

Heh.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Been hearing the same thing from some WoW testers, apparently EQ2 has more depth and will keep you entertained a lot longer. Got them screenshots and info too and have the same problem, oh I wish it was Open Beta already so we can share the good stuff.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by dirk</i>
<br />where can I pre-order it from ? that doesn't charge $50 just for shipping [V]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

No Idea I ordered from the store on www.station.sony.com For all 3 copies together they are asking us $89.00 in shipping. Off course we also had to fork out an extra $40.00 for shipping the Starter Kit, although I think you can skip it if you don't want it.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by GougedEye</i>
<br />Myself and three or four friends are preordering it. Was going to hold out for WoW but that doesn't look like it's going to happen this side of the second comming. We will use http://www.cdromshop.com as usual. We often just ship one copy from them and have them e-mail us the other CD-Keys. Done this plenty for Camelot and expansions, City of Heroes etc.

Are you guys who are preordering it guilded up or should be look at getting something local going?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Personally I don't have a guild yet, although I will say that I prefer playing on a U.S. (probably East Coast) server. From my experience in EverQuest and DAOC its easier to get people together on U.S. servers for events than on U.K. servers.

[GougedEye]

Ok just ran some numbers at cdromshop.

For 5 copies of Everquest II (Including Starter Kit)it comes to about R420 per copy including shipping via DHL. Probably going to get hit for 14% VAT as well so call it about R480 per copy. Not exactly cheap, but not going to kill us either.

Still has the release date as 15 November, but I think that is more than a bit unrealistic. Sometime early December would be my guess.

[Noctes]

Count me in too, in the beta myself, really looking forward to it on Release

[DarkSkies]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Still has the release date as 15 November, but I think that is more than a bit unrealistic. Sometime early December would be my guess.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Actually the NDA has just been lifted so we could probably see it shipping by the 15th of November. IMO the game isn't quite ready yet with high level content still needed to be tested and there are some class balancing issues, but I doubt they will miss a christmas launch just because some beta testers think the game isn't ready. That being said even if the game launches in November I will still be one of the first in line to play it, content up to level 20 is almost complete and post 20 content only really need testing and fixing.

[amberstorm]

Now that the NDA has been lifted can't you give us some more info Jerrek?

[Jerrek]

What questions do you have? Ask away. Here are some screenshots:
http://new.prophecy.co.za/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=generalrants&Number=55488&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1


Right now I'm playing as a Gnome bard. A lot of fun. Quests are SIGNIFICANTLY better than Everquest 1 and quite a bit more interesting and involved than WoW. The game is stable enough, but not all vendors have items yet. There is no faction in the game right now, but the last patch added a bit for one or two zones. There are loads of trade skills, which I'll be exploring next.

Btw, unlike EQ1, this game 100 coppers = 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold, 100 gold = 1 platinum.

Leveling to level 10 is extremely fast. Questing gives you an amazing amount of xp during those levels. You can level by just doing the quests. When you create your character, you choose the looks, race, and name. When you enter the game, you do the tutorial (on a ship), and you land at an island. There you talk to someone, and pick a high level class of mage, priest, scout, or fighter.

Once you do some quests, kill some bugs, you level to 7 and then go to the main city (either Qeynos if you're good, or Freeport if you're evil). You have to do a lengthy quest to get citizenship. Once you have citizenship, you can actually level into 7 (before that, you're stuck at 6, but you can get up to 220% xp into level 6, so it won't go to waste, it just won't ding you). At level 10 you have to do a class quest. This is where you pick the middle tier of your class tree. For a scout that I picked, I could then pick rogue, bard, or predator. I picked bard. By level 19, I will be picking the last of the class: dirge or troubador.

Horses are cheap as crap right now. A few golds. It will only be like that for the beta though.

You get one or two spells per level. All spells have different "levels." Apprentice I, II, and III. Adept I, II, and III. Master I, II, and III. All spells are given to you with apprentice I. If you ding into level 10, you are given your spell(s) for that level, with skill apprentice I. You can buy apprentice II in stores. After that, it is obtained through quests, research, or trading.

Great game.

[Jerrek]

This is a more complete writeup.


First, Everquest is a beast. You download a 5 MB installer file, and it then proceeds to download about 4 GB in files. It also has massive system requirements. On a AMD AthlonXP 3000+, 512MB RAM, Radeon 9600XT the settings have to be turned to the second setting (out of 8 or so settings). In order to run it at the highest setting, you will need at least 1.5 GB RAM and a 256MB or 512MB video card, probably the latest $600 card from ATI or nVidia. It is a beast. The more you have, the more it will take.

Everquest II takes place 500 years after Everquest I. The moon, Luclin, has disintegrated and fallen into Norrath. Instead of grouping by race, people are grouped by faction. Good people start in Qeynos, bad people start in Freeport.

When you start the game, you are prompted with this screen:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rrahl/eq1.jpg

Next is a login screen, and then the status screen:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rrahl/eq2.jpg

This is the main screen
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rrahl/EQ2_000000b.jpg

Creating a character screen 1:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rrahl/EQ2_000001.jpg

and screen 3 (screen 2 is just choosing between good vs evil)
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rrahl/EQ2_000002.jpg

And the options window:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rrahl/EQ2_000003.jpg


Creating a character is easy. You get to pick your race, alignment, your looks, your name, and the server. That is it. No stat modifiers, no class, nothing. When you enter the game for the first time, you have an option to start on the Island of Refuge, or to go through the tutorial. The tutorial is set on a boat on the way to the Island of Refuge and will tell you how to kill, trade, talk, and so on. Once on the Island of Refuge, the fun starts.

The first 10 levels are very easy. You level incredibly fast because quests will give you a lot of experience. Before continuing, I have to explain the class system.

You pick your main class type at level 2. You specialize a bit at level 10, and lastly at level 19. For example, at level 2 you can choose between mage, priest, warrior, or scout. I picked a scout. At level 10, I had to pick between bard, rogue, or predator. I picked bard. At level 19, I will pick between a dirge (offensive bard), or a troubador (defensive bard).

On the Island of Refuge, the tutorial continues. You are assigned basic FedEx type quests, but by doing them you kill a few baddies (and thus get some xp), and by handing in the quest items you gain LOTS of xp. You can do level 1 to 10 in under 7 hours.

At level 6, you have to leave the Island of Refuge. The Island of Refuge is like a newbie zone, and is instanced. If there are too many newbies, another instance is created. Anyways, there is only this one newbie zone. Leaving the island is easy: you talk to the captain, and you then go to either Freeport or Qeynos depending on your alignment. I went to Qeynos.

Once in Qeynos area, you can't enter the city yet because you're not a citizen. In order to enter the city, and in order to level into level 7, you must complete the citizenship quest. It is basically to prove your loyalty and consists of kill various monsters. Don't worry, all of levels 1 to 10 is designed to be completed by yourself. If you are 99% into level 6, just about to level to 7, but don't have citizenship yet, you will not level. You will go into "overdrive" mode of sorts, and you can get up to 220% xp of your level before you *really* need to complete the quest. When you complete the quest, you will ding automatically.

So, you can't go into the city. Around the city of Qeynos are various villages. Baubbleshire is one of them. Willow Woods is another. You are now subjected to instituted racism. You are automatically bound, based on your race, to a certain village. Gnomes and halflings go to baubbleshire. Elves and humans go to Willow Woods. You can easily travel between them, but it is essentially different "cultures." For example, the little people live in smaller homes. The elves are tree huggers again, etc. Quite interesting.

Once you complete your citizenship quest, you continue on to level 9. Then you talk to your "guide." He will give you a "hallmark" quest to do. This quest will let you specialize. You can't go to level 10 without finishing this quest. Once you ding level 10, you have specialized to whatever class you picked.

Now, it is just playing, leveling, and having fun.



Game mechanics is indeed different. Questing is MUCH better. You have a journal with all the quests that are issued to you. It keeps track of objectives, who you need to see, and where. When you collect a quest item, it is NOT stored in your inventory. Rather, it just checked down in your journal. You can no longer accidenly destroy it!

There are MANY quests. Almost every person has a quest of some sort. Quests give a fair bit of XP, and this is really EverQUEST.

What is different about this game is the spell/abilities system. As you level, your spells and abilities are automatically given to you. However, you're given a very "basic" version. All spells and abilities have versions. 9 actually. Apprentice I, II, III, Adept I, II, III, and Master I, II, III. Apprentice I is given to you. Apprentice II can be bought from vendors. The rest have to be found by questing, buying, looting, researching, or some other form. It is essentially "upgrades" for your spells.

The voice in Everquest is amazing and really adds to the game. Honestly. You attack a gnoll, and occasionally they will tell you orally how you're going to die. All quest NPCs have voice. You can read if you want, but I find it more relaxing to actually listen to them tell you about their problems. Thumbs up.

The interface:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rrahl/EQ2_000000.jpg

I customized it a bit. As you can see, a very clean interface. Yes, there are black bars at the top and bottom. I'm essentially making it "widescreen." It increases performance, and I'm never going to look under the buttons! Why render it?



Combat is a little different. You don't have to "con" a mob. Simply holding your mouse over one will indicate to you how they think of you. The color of the mouse pointer, and of their name, indicates their difficulty. If their name is bordered in red, it means they are aggressive.

Social creatures are now "grouped." When you target one mob that will cause his buddy to come along for the ride, they are actually grouped together. Target one, and the rest are also "soft" targeted. You can still attack only one mob, but the rest will follow, and you have to kill all of them. This makes it much easier to know whetehr you're going to end up fighting one mob or 5.

Once you engage a mob, a lock icon appears beside your name. This means you have LOCKED the combat mode. No one can help you, or interfere. There is no kill stealing. If you need help, you have to press that exclamation mark you see on the screenshot. The lock will disappear, and no experience will be given.

Most dungeons are instanced. If you and your group wants to do a dungeon, it will simply create another one for you and only your buddies. A lot of zones are instanced in a way you can pick which instance you want to go to. If a zone reaches 85% or so of its capacity, another instance is spawned. When you try to zone, you can pick "Forest Ruin 1," or "Forst Ruin 2," etc. That way there will never be overcrowded zones.


Currently, roughly 80% of vendors only sell one item: a small bag. They are not populated yet. This will come soon.

Faction isn't in the game, but the last patch added faction for two or three zones.

Class and racial abilities are going to be put in the next patch, as far as I know.


You have a separate "class" for trade skills. You have to level that yourself, and gain experience yourself. I don't know too much about this yet, but you have "abilities" and "skills" for this class too. The more you level, the better stuff you can make. You can even die and loose experience by combining the wrong things and having it blow up in your face.


This game is wonderful. There is NO downtime so far. The world is big, it is instanced, and it is very balanced. I'm impressed.

[amberstorm]

Thanks, I cant wait for the release. Can you give any more info on the quests etc above lvl 10 as all the previews seem to be centred around the starting area

[LethalChicken]

Any ideas on what BW/ping requirements are going to be ...

Can we play with our 'prioritized' ADSL accounts and how much B/W does it average per hour ...

We are Telkom - Resistance is Futile - You will be Assimilated

[DarkSkies]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by BlobNow</i>
<br />Any ideas on what BW/ping requirements are going to be ...

Can we play with our 'prioritized' ADSL accounts and how much B/W does it average per hour ...

We are Telkom - Resistance is Futile - You will be Assimilated
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

EQ2 transfers about 8-9 MB of data an hour, so you can happily play on a 64Kbps ISDN line, maybe even a 56.6Kbps modem. No idea how it works on a shaped ADSL package as I play on an unshaped account.

Would appreciate if anyone in the Beta can give some feedback on how it performs on a shaped 3GB account.

[DarkSkies]

Just an update, it seems some online vendors have updated their release date of EQ2 from 15/11 to 08/11.....

[Perdition]

Nice write up Jerrek. I love the shades on your bard [;)]

[GougedEye]

For those of you who haven't seen, SOE officially announced 8 November as the shipping date yesterday.

[GougedEye]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by DarkSkies</i>
[br

EQ2 transfers about 8-9 MB of data an hour, so you can happily play on a 64Kbps ISDN line, maybe even a 56.6Kbps modem. No idea how it works on a shaped ADSL package as I play on an unshaped account.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

How is the unshaped account working out for you? I have kindof accepted that I will need to get one to play the game properly. Would prefer not to of course.

[DarkSkies]

The unshaped account works great, no lag and it looks like it has decent latency to the server (can't say for sure since EQ2 doesn't have a lag meter). Counterstrike: Source on the other hand works brilliantly with pings ranging from 150-300ms to servers in the UK and US. If you are going to play on overseas servers I would suggest you find a like minded friend and split the cost and bandwidth on the unshaped account.

[GougedEye]

Thats good to hear. Definitley must consider giving it a go.

[DarkSkies]

The question is who has ordered and who will be playing not this weekend but the one after?

[amberstorm]

One hand raised to the sky here, plus my brother, so make that two

[DarkSkies]

Amberstorm send me a message on ldiamond at telkomsa.net please, trying to get some SA ppl on the same servers.

[GougedEye]

I have 5 copies comming in next week for myself and some friends. Being couriered to us as soon as it's released so we should have it by friday unless customs go wierd on us. Got a few more friends who will join if we like what we see.

[GougedEye]

I now have my horrid little hands on our 1st EQ2 CD-Key. Got cdromshop to e-mail it to me and destroy the box. Saves a bunch on shipping and is quick. Of course I don't have the software. But I have printed out the key and stuck it in a prominent position so I can stare at it alot.

My other copies shipped last night and I am eagerly tracking their progress on the DHL website when I am not staring at the CD-Key on the wall. (Currently at the DHL hub in Cincinnati).

Our group is currently leaning towards playing on the "Antonia Bayle (RP Preferred" server!

Here are the servers:

Antonia Bayle (RP Preferred)
Befallen
Blackburrow
Crushbone
Guk
Mistmoore
Najena
Permafrost
Runnyeye(UK)
Storms (French)
Unrest
Valor (German)

[DarkSkies]

Looking at Mistmoore or Permafrost, when and if we get our copies. Looks like the Station Store buggered up a lot of orders. Received my "your order is in stock and will ship soon" e-mail on Friday, as of today still no tracking number or shipment confirmation. Some other people are experiencing the same problem.

[Chris]

It's announced that the monthly subscription service is $14.99 (apologies if this has already been posted.)

Counting down...
123 days till the end of Hellkom

[GougedEye]

Permafrost is our non rp choice. We are basically currently debating wether we want an RP server or not. If so then AB, if not then Permafrost. Apparently that was where the Ice Dragon Lady Vox lived in EQ1.


P.S.

November 09, 2004 05:14 Cincinnati Hub, OH - USA Departed from DHL facility in Cincinnati Hub - USA

[GougedEye]

Obviously it's almost certainly going to be better for South African's to play on East Coast servers. (I can't vouch for the accuracy of this, but it is whats going around the forums).

West Coast Servers:

Antonia Bayle (Roleplaying Server)
BlackBurrow
Guk
Najena
Unrest

East Coast Servers:

Befallen
Crushbone
Mistmoore
Permafrost

[GougedEye]

Strangely enough, it appears that you can ping the servers (use &lt;servername&gt;.everquest2.com).

Here are the results of my experimentation using shaped and unshaped ADSL done at 8pm (basically peak hour for us).

Shaped / Unshaped

Antonia Bayle 446 / 342
Blackburrow 453 / 340
Guk 441 / 339
Najena 446 / 342
Unrest 436 / 340

Befallen 453 / 344
Crushbone 470 / 344
mistmoore 470 / 345
Permafrost 450 / 345

Runnyeye (UK) 451 / 344
Storms (French) 387 / 281
Valor (German) 386 / 281

East / West coast doesn't seem to make a big difference. Once again, the unshaped ADSL is very, very consistant with relatively small variances in times.

[amberstorm]

Wouldnt Runnyeye be a better choice for us as the time zone is very similar

[DarkSkies]

Ok it's official, only getting my copies next week. Got an e-mail from the Sony Station store appologizing to people that ordered the Collector's Edition, it is being held up in U.S. customs due to the "tin" box it comes in.

As for Runnyeye server and U.K. people - From my experience with DAOC the people in the U.K. don't group or socialize that much, this is pretty much the reason I will be playing on a U.S. server. It's easier to find groups, pick up RAIDs etc., and this is very important in EQ2 at the moment. They pretty much took away the majority of soloing content in EQ2 during the last 2 weeks of beta, so if you can't get a group, XP'ing is really gonna suck.

FYI: They launched 6 or 8 new servers last night.

[GougedEye]

November 10, 2004 14:22 Johannesburg - South Africa Arrived at DHL facility in Johannesburg - South Africa

Mine are at the airport. I guess it's up to customs now!!! I'm thinking of getting my group togethor and doing a midnight raid IRL. :)

Agree with Darkskies, I also found US servers to be the way to go. Of course we already have a small local group. We also have a bunch of friends from Camelot days who are going to join. We are waiting to see which server they join. Currently it looks like our choice will be Mistmoore. Permafrost is apparently overcrowded and having problems.

[GougedEye]

Got it yesterday. Played all night (Crushbone). Game is awesome.

Works great on unshaped ADSL. Also seems to be working just fine with normal ADSL.

EDIT : On Saturday we had 3 of us playing at my house using the unshaped ADSL. Worked great.

EDIT 2 : You really need a gig of ram to play this thing. Otherwise zoning takes really long. With a gig, it's no problem.

[DarkSkies]

FINALLY our CE editions have shipped from the U.S., took them bloody long enough. Damn stupid U.S. customs got paranoid and delayed the shipping of the CE editions because of the "tin" packaging. Just hope that our customs aren't as paranoid. Anyway think we will only receive ours on Monday, at least we get 7 free days for the late shipment. Just hope my names are still free.

[GougedEye]

If you play on crushbone I'd love to see your pet Dragon! :)

[Chris]

OK, one my friends have asked me to ask you (still with me[;)]) if EverQuest 2 will be playable on an ISDN line.

Counting down...
123 days till the end of Hellkom

[DarkSkies]

Works fine on a ISDN line.

[curry]

what is this eq2 game never heard of it

[GougedEye]

http://everquest2.station.sony.com/

http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/faq.vm

From the faq : It's what is called a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. A massively multiplayer online game is a video game where a player connects through the Internet to a persistent virtual world, joining with hundreds of thousands of other gamers in a shared experience. While many modern computer games support multiplayer gaming, very few are designed to support the thousands of simultaneous players found within the worlds of Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). Instead of starting a game on a local network and inviting a few friends to play, EverQuest II uses the Internet to connect to SOE world servers, allowing an almost unlimited number of players to join from all across the globe. (MMORPG).

[DarkSkies]

Ok been playing since Friday when my CE arrived. Me and 2 friends are playing on the Innothule server, the least populated server we could find that is still on the U.S East Coast. Come 25th December it should fill out nicely and the red servers are gonna be in lag hell by then. So if your Innothule look me up.

Xenio - Level 20 Paladin / 6 Artisan
Xanthis - Level 17 Summoner / 11 Artisan
Xuna - Level 8 Priest / Level 6 Artisan

[Ishamael]

I know nothing. Tell me everything.

Obviously you need a credit card to subscribe right? If I have the normal 3 gig adsl how will the game play? And whatever else a newbie needs to know.

[alexkellaris]

OK hold on, I'v read so many rewiews that say WOW is much better then EQ2, I was also told by a friend of mine playing WOW from here in S.A that if he plays for about 8-10 hours solid it only uses about 20MB of his cap.
I'v heard that EQ2 can kill your 3GB in about 7 days.

Is there going to be a local EQ2 server? otherwise I fail to see why u guys are all so excited?

[GougedEye]

Played EQ2 the whole of December, didn't go near my cap. I would be very suprised if they use significantly different amounts of bandwidth.

Also been playing a bunch of WoW.

My opinion, EQ2 is a technically much (MUCH) better game. Grapahics, game engine, systems, latency etc.

WoW is more fun.

[alexkellaris]

Played EQ2 the whole of December, didn't go near my cap. I would be very suprised if they use significantly different amounts of bandwidth.

Also been playing a bunch of WoW.

My opinion, EQ2 is a technically much (MUCH) better game. Grapahics, game engine, systems, latency etc.

WoW is more fun.

SO you'v played both?
So u say the lag of WOW is worse?
I had to make a decision which one to order, so I ordered WOW, do u think I made a mistake?

I can't wait to play WOW though, im getting it Friday. I didn't like the first EQ, has EQ2 got PVP?
Whats WOW like?
and whats EQ2 Like? what are the major differences?

[GougedEye]

Yeah I currently have accounts on both.

Everquest is playable during the day on ADSL. WoW isn't. The WoW pings get insane like as in 5000 - 10000 using it's built in pingmeter jobbie. I wouldn't have even thought that possible. Would have thought that they would timeout first. It's utterly impossible to play. After 5pm it gets better, and by 6pm it's down to around 400 - 600ms. Thats very playable. No problems whatsoever. Oh and weekends are fine as well. So it's just 9am - 5pm Mon to Friday that it sucks.

No idea what unshaped account would give. I had one but dropped it because I didn't need it for EQ. Don't need it for WoW either because 9am - 5pm Mon to Friday I am at work.

As I said before, EQ2 is a technically better game. It is beautiful if you have the machine to handle it. I mean really stunning. You can see dents and scratches in you armor. You can really see characters facial expressions. They have realistic weather effects, rain etc. But, to put this into perspective, I have and AMD 64 3500+ with a Geforce 6800 Ultra and 1.5 GB RAM. I cannot play on the highest settings. WoW you can play decently on almost any junk. I have everything maxed out without my machine even feeling it. Ok, this means that in 3 years EQ will be playable on the average machine and look great. WoW will have to think of graphics upgrades by then (which I bet are easily possible with the engine they have used).

EQ has a more detailed combat system, more character classes (races mean nothing though), better server stability, player houding etc. EQ2 is also in my opinion (shared by many) basically boring. It's a massive grind fest with little sense of direction or purpose. It just doesn't motivate me. And you cannot solo or achieve anything on your own. I found that a significant portion of my play time was spent looking for a group. And then if you get a bad group you gain nothing except XP debt (makes leveling even slower).

EQ2 has no PvP at all. No dueling even. They have no plans to put any in. I think this is a huge pity because it might give the game some direction.

WoW is much more light hearted than EQ2. Server stability is an issue (or so I've heard, not really experienced much). On some servers at peak time there are ques to log in with waits of up to 2 hours (again so I've heard, never been in a que and I play almost every night - depends on your server). But WoW is fun. You can log on and do something in 30 mins and feel like you did something. You can definitely solo. You need to group to do certain quests and dungeons (instances), but you can get to 60 all on your ownesome.

I dunno, it's just lots of fun. Light hearted, fluffy, quick and easy.

Graphics suck though :(

So I think WoW is the better choice for 90% of people. Hard Core MMORPG fanatics will probably prefer EQ2 though.

So come friday I suggest you wonder over to Stormrage. Look for people in a guild called "Flame of Anduril" (http://www.flameofanduril.com)

[Soulburner]

ok i am rather new to online gaming stuff and looked around for what is out there and so far i read articles about WOW and EQ2 but not on lineage2 is that because its a bad game looks good but cant say. So i was wandering could someone lighten up the situation for me for which is better to look at WOW,EQ2 or Lineage2 or whatever else is out there.

Thanx

[louisp]

Haven't played WOW yet, but, from what I gather, it is much more suited for the casual player. Ie. only half an hour, log on play log off, sleep well!!

but I've been playing Everquest for years. Now I'm only playing Everquest2!!

I have 2 characters that I play. The one I play, in a guild, but mainly solo, and mainly only doing tradeskiling (i'm a provisioner).

The other one is a bit more interesting!!

Me and 2 of my friends each started a character. We made a rule that we only play this character if all 3 of us are online. We've got a well balanced group: Warrior, Mage and a Cleric. Because we know each other well, and we've been playing together from day 1, we tend to do better than a group with 6 players in it!! This is so much fun, we look forward to each time that we can play together.


so in summary!!

I play Everquest 2 as its an MMMORPG where I can easily have fun and socialize (and the graphics is the best of all the current MMMORPG's available)

Also, the support and dedictaion of Sony Online and the websites www.eq2players.com is also pretty decent!!

:)

[Darric]

WoW I find is structured to be very satisfying to BOTH "hardcore" and casual gamers, which is possibly its biggest strength to most people.

In my mind, its greatest strength is that the world, the environment, the characters, the races and the backstory is just so aesthetically and imaginatively pleasing. It's classic Warcraft/Blizzard magic in MMOG form.

Darric

[AldarCaine]

Please anyone, some advice needed:
I would like to buy a copy of Everquest 2, and from the searching I have done on the web, some pretty wild prices are quoted - not to mention the shipping fees.
Could anyone perhaps suggest a web-site or business which might have some fair prices for the game?

[dablakmark8]

go to take two website they will have it

[Bull_Dog]

I have been useing the following site to buy all my online games from. I have baught 2 copies of Dark Ages of Camelot and all of their expansions except the last one, also SWG and it's expansion (also 2 copies).

http://www.dvdboxoffice.com/

You have a choice to pay either in Canadian Dollers or USA dollers. (Canadian site).

Their prices online includes "airmail", but you can courier (dhl) it aswell if ur in a rush, it does make it quite more expencive thou.

You wll obviously need a credit card and they asked me to fax a copy of credit card statement when I 1st ordered.

"Airmail" takes about 3-4 weeks but is way cheaper. Courier is expencive but you can have your game in 4-5 work days. (If they stocked at that time)

I have just ordered a copy of EQ2 aswell but is sending it "airmail" as I am playing WOW atm.

WoW I did not order from this site as I specifically wanted the EU version. a Friend send me that from GB.

[AldarCaine]

Thanks for the replies from both dablakmark8 and from Bull Dog.
I have been to both the site you suggested, and unfortunately, Taketwo does not seem to have it. Are there any other South African sites/online stories that might list it?
Dvdboxoffice does have it listed for $68.95 (DVD version). And there would be no shipping fee, as was mentioned, if Airmail is chosen as the delivery method. So the cost is roughly R420. Is this about parr-for-the-course as far as prices for this game goes?

[tibby.dude]

Heck I stay away from that Evercrack.

[LoneGunman]

looked at that boxoffice site, its very very expensive - like ridiculously expensive, rip off prices..

I mean Everquest 2 price on Amazon US is just $34
($34.99 for the DVD version) or R219.43 ex shipping
here: (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00028YSD0/103-5323940-4771010?v=glance&s=videogames&n=507846

so dont go paying $68 for it :)

I normally get movies off Amazon, so could see straight away from the prices at boxoffice, for their movies, that they're totally overpriced..

[Clipse]

how do u plan to ship to SA?

Amazon only ship certain books afaik, not games etc?

[Bull_Dog]

LonGunman,

I dunno how you calculated, but at today's excahnge rate that equeals to R358.93 and it also includes shipping.

If you consider most games cost +- R299 in SA, I cannot see how you consider it expencive. The only downside is that you will have to wait for it.

Clipse is correct about amazon, their costs exclude shipping and they do not export games to SA. They do however do Zimbabwe... (You figure it!).

Apparently there are also legal problems concerning direct exports from the USA.

If you can find the software or would like to download it you could also buy a CD-key from this site: http://www.dlgamer.com/

I have however not tried this myself as I prefer haveing the game in my hand on disk/CD/DVD.

[LoneGunman]

I've had DVD's shipped from Amazon US, no problem at all - so I dont know where the story is about no shipping of games. I mean DVD or CD or books even. They're all just 'product' as far as Amazon goes.
Ive had a couple of loads of DVD's come in without any problem, and depending on how wide awake customs are, gee, a few percent duty on a $30 purchase isnt much.
At todays rate, available at online currency converter at http://www.xe.com/
that figure I quoted, was what $34.99 converts to. So again, I dont know what currency rate you're working off :)

I just figured if the thing isnt coming here 'officially' then $68 dollar seems incredibly expensive amount to pay, when its actual cost is $34 (or really around $15 if you want to get a secondhand /used one, also from Amazon resellers) Those ones are here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/B00028YSD0/all/ref=dp_pb_a/103-5323940-4771010
plus another $12 or so for shipping, and then maybe you get hit with customs duty on this side..maybe.. its still way cheaper than forking out $68 + customs duty presumably..

This is the first I've heard about no games shipping to SA, coz I've had big parcels of DVD's come through, no problem at all..send time is usually around 14 days in regular shipping, and no one anywhere checks that whats coming in is movies only, and no games..
I'd like to hear more about who's saying 'officially' that games cant/wont be shipped from Amazon, coz movies and books can, without any problem at all.

Sounds like a story put out by local distributors, to stop people just ordering specialised games they want, from Amazon..?
If I can get books, and DVD boxsets, in nice big Amazon.com cardboard boxes with the plastic stuffing and everything, in from Amazon, without any stress, then I'm sure any games that people want - can just get ordered without any problem whatsoever..?.

[dablakmark8]

Thanks for the replies from both dablakmark8 and from Bull Dog.
I have been to both the site you suggested, and unfortunately, Taketwo does not seem to have it. Are there any other South African sites/online stories that might list it?
Dvdboxoffice does have it listed for $68.95 (DVD version). And there would be no shipping fee, as was mentioned, if Airmail is chosen as the delivery method. So the cost is roughly R420. Is this about parr-for-the-course as far as prices for this game goes?
try amazone.com. they must have it

[LoneGunman]

$34 gets u it
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00028YSD0/103-5323940-4771010?v=glance&s=videogames&n=507846
or $15
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/B00028YSD0/all/ref=dp_pb_a/103-5323940-4771010
:)

[Bull_Dog]

Well,

After paying Telkom a fortune for my ADSL and running at least 2 online accounts at a time, playing online is not cheap.

I can't realy be phased by a few rands. I like the site and I use it because I know I can trust them now. I have tried amazon right in the beginning when I started playing and they failed me, this site did not.

Btw, dvdboxoffice prices quoted is Canadian dollers not USA, last time i looked it was a bit cheaper vs SA rand.

Note of intersest: You "should" be paying duties and VAT on the inport of a game. You should also be paying VAT on your monthly subs to play these games as it is a "supply of entertainment" and is vatable. :)

I am off on holiday, have fun gaming :)

[louisp]

ps.

get the DVD version if possible, or prepare yourself for mega CD swapping!!!

[AldarCaine]

Once again, thank you for the comments and suggestions everyone. It helps a lot.
I was very interested in reading Bull Dog's post that I could get only the CD-Key. A friend of mine has the game-disks already, so would it not work out a lot better for me to only get a CD-Key, and skip the import of the software altogether?

Using the www.xe.com site, I calculated the $68.95 (canadian) quoted on DvdBoxOffice as being R347. This is not very much more than what games cost in SA, so I suppose its alright. The zero cost on shipping via airmail makes this look like a good option.

I went to Amazon, which quotes a price of $34.99 (US), and I got these messages when I proceeded to check-out:
"We're sorry. This item can't be shipped to your selected destination...." and
"Toys, games, and video games can be shipped only to locations within the U.S., U.S. protectorates, and APO/FPO addresses."
Perhaps I am overlooking something, and there is another way to get the game from them? The cost converts to R219 and with shipping would come to R250 at most, so the price is excellent, if only I could get them to send it here!

Incidentaly, on the DLGamer site, to buy only a CD-Key, the quoted price is 44.90 euros, which calculates to R364. It does not make sense to use this option, except that I will have it immediately upon payment, and therefore I could potentially be playing EQ2 by tomorrow.

Anyone have some more thoughts in the issue?

[GougedEye]

I regularly use www.cdromshop.com

Just put a comment in on the order form and they are happy to e-mail you the cd-key and destroy the box. Saves you the shipping and you get it instantly. Done this a bunch of times ith them and never had cause for regret.