EQ2: And the difference a year makes

January 18, 2006 on 10:41 am | In MMO (Live), EQ2

The last time I played EQ2 was in beta. By the end, I was more interested in building maps than playtesting. At the time, I felt WoW was my calling. It turned out to be that way for a solid thirteen months, the longest period of time I've ever held an account in this genre (though my EQ1 and SWG histories each have more cumulative time in). It was the right decision at the time, and I certainly got my money's worth.

But a lot can change in a year.

No greater example of that statement exists than the New Game Experience for SWG. But while some might consider a wholesale redesign of a game surprising and new, I've long felt this is just SOE's modus operandi. The NGE is unique only in its depth of change. That it happened at all is just par for the course.

Quite simply, SOE treats their games like the fluid experiences they should be in a genre that requires people justify a new purchase every single month.

For anyone who's played EQ1, the game is very different now than it was in the pre-Luclin days. Integrated maps, no h*ll levels, instancing, alternate methods of experience, a centralized bazaar/auction house, new classes, new races, etc. PS has seen not so much wholesale redesign as a real broadening of weapons and methods within the game, from Core gear to mechs. Even before the NGE, SWG had a major combat upgrade, the integration of a completely different game engine for space, player cities, vehicles, and class redesigns.

EQ2 has seen it's share of big changes as well. I have not seen them though, but it's an upcoming change that's pulling me in. As reported on the EQ2 forums in mid-December, the class system in EQ2 is changing. This is old news though, so here's just the Cliff's Notes version:

• Old: Players choose one of four base classes, then choose one of three sub-classes at level 10, and then choose one of three sub-classes again at level 20.
• New: Coming Live Update 19, everyone chooses their ending class at character creation.

Old

Oft discussed already, I'll simply say that I'm very happy to see this change. The old system was a cool idea, but this genre has a long history of players building towards a goal already defined. Having been burned so much in the past by gimp classes or classes that don't play as promised, players have becoming conditioned to researching their options before they launch the game. Or, they'll make a decision about a class within the first bracket of levels. Nobody wants to wait until they've invested 100 play hours in a class before they realize it isn't for them. This happens, but players do all they can to prevent it anyway.

The old system sounded better than it was implemented in my opinion. At level 9 and 19, players would receive quests to gain education about what their sub-class options were. However, most of these quests did nothing to actually educate the player into how the class played. They were scripted to promote the role a player would play in a roleplay environment, not the much more useful role they'd play in combat alone and in a group. As such, even with the quests in place, players still had to research the sub-class choices on websites and forums anyway, defeating the purpose of the quests.

The quests would be a good idea if this genre was young. But it's not. Players nowadays create alts all the time to specifically explore other class options. They want to try on different roles. Unfortunately, the way the old system was set up, if someone like magic, they'd need to play the same base Mage class upwards of six times to experience every end-class possibility, all of which are pretty different from eachother. That's doing the same level 1-19 content six times, or three times if they switch between Freeport and Qeynos.

Further, no matter what base class one chose, players began on the Isle of Refuge, the single place for all newbies to go. That place, while cool, can get old right quick. It never changes. I launched the Trial of the Isle free 14-day download last week, and played through it performing almost exactly same actions I did in November 2004.

Finally, the pace of character advancement worked against this system too. The game had nowhere near the pace of leveling that WoW, yet all MMORPGs share the trait of characters growing into their full ability set. It simply took longer to grow a character to evaluate their playstyle than it did in WoW, by an order of magnitude.

So players had to repeat the Isle of Refuge for each character, repeat the 1-30ish game just to unlock the full potential of an end class, do so in a game that required more grouping earlier, and take longer doing it.

This has been the case, and has been my concern, since beta. Some of it, notably the pace of advancement and the soloability, have already been changed for the better. Now they're pushing even more changes to both promote class discovery earlier, and with new content to reduce overall repetition.

New

This new system, currently on the Test Server, lets people make their end choice at the beginning, much like almost every other large MMORPG. It may be less creative, but it speaks to the realities of play.

Players choose their new class right away. This, of course, requires a completely new system for awarding spells and abilities. Insights are already emerging from the Test Server as to what new spells are being awarded and when (ie, Necromancer and Conjuror). The changes look positive, specifically because even at the first level, players will see marked differences between classes.

Remaining Concern: Class Quantity

EQ2 has many classes. I would debate the merit of the quantity, specifically when so many share abilities. I much preferred WoW's (and now SWG's) clear dilineation of abilities. It's easier to understand, easier to assign individual people specific roles in events, and easier to balance. Also, having so many classes always results in some classes being played even less than others because the players are spread over so many options. Case in point:

• EQ2: This graph at EQ2 Census provides insights into what classes are most played. While this graph is only a one week period, the overall trend is apparent through the search routines one can run on the main page. Basically, across the playerbase, the number of people playing a Conjuror is almost six times as many people playing a Coercer, with a downward slope across 24 classes. The end result is much like pre-NGE SWG: some classes are played so much that changes made to them affect the most paying subscriber. Therefore, those are the classes that typically get the most attention from a development and support standpoint. It's a shame for those who want to play something interesting, but whatever is broken for their class will remain broken for a longer period of time.
• WoW: This graph at Warcraft Realms highlights a similar slope between most-played and least-played classes. However, even setting aside the many more accounts WoW has over EQ2, there are simply less classes to manage. Blizzard has been slowly revamping each class over time, and it's taking them a long while to do it. But their goal is the same within a much less complex array of options.

The challenges this presents are born out on the Class Forums. Every class board in every game ever made has its share of whiners and forum rats, people who want something right the heck now!! But the mood of a forum as a total is also very telling of the class. It takes only a little reading in each place to see whether the forum posters are generally happy or not with their chosen class. I wouldn't recommend people make decisions solely based on forum posts because the type of players who post on game forums are a bit more hardcore than not. But they can provide some insights.

I doubt this will ever change. Except for the NGE in SWG, I have never seen the wholesale removal of a long-established class in an MMORPG. And even the NGE was more of a redeployment of abilities across new professions than the removal of them (in most cases) because the game wasn't built on classes anyway, but rather skill trees (and while Bio-Engineering, Doctor Crafting, and Creature Handling were removing, we know at least Creature Handling will be making a return).

So basically, an EQ2 Coercer in February will probably be an EQ2 Coerce in 2009.

This makes it hard for players to decide what to roll. So many classes sharing at least some abilities. I personally will be making my decisions based on personal enjoyment and the number of people playing a class because either their quantity proves out the viability of a class or it proves out the support it gets. Not coming to the game at launch, I have no problem leaning on the expertise of the veterans already there, letting their collective wisdom guide my hand.

I've played unsupported broken classes before with the hope they'll get fixed someday. I have learned my lesson well and good. I either find it fun right now, or I will continue looking for a class that is fun right now. If that means moving on to another game, well, I've done that too.

I have a deep respect for the people who make these games. But I also have a deep respect for time and resources. No game development can progress as fast as the player, so it's up to me to manage my own expectations.

As such, while I could be playing the 14-day free trial of EQ2, I'm not going to bother. The only game I'll have time to experience is the part getting the most changes with the next publish. That publish (Live Update 19) is already on the Test Servers, so within a few weeks it'll be on the live servers. Given my continued enjoyment of SWG, and the 30-day account reactivation they rewarded to old PS account holders, I am in no rush.

I do, however, have high hopes for this go around in EQ2. Unlike last time, when the easier/diversionary nature of WoW pulled me to Azeroth, I'm looking for a combination of that casualness but within an environment with more breadth and depth to the world. SWG has this, but the game is still very much a train wreck with some very good playable areas rather than a stable and complete environment. EQ2 is not as broad as SWG, but far more so than WoW. That it works well and that people I know to be as critical of these games as myself enjoy it gives me hope there's something there to like.

And who knows, maybe I'll even continue my Qeynosian Cartography program, even though I, quite ironically, just cleared my hard drive of the 14 other zones I had already had log data for.