EQ2 and WoW: Race and Class

February 9, 2006 on 10:34 am | In MMO (Live), WoW, EQ2

As a followup to EQ2: On Census and Merges, I reviewed the available data in ways similar to how WarcraftRealms reports theirs: breakdowns by Class and Races (among other things).

I'm seeing some interesting parallels.

Race Popularity

First, Race popularity:

What I find interesting here though is the split between Good and Evil, and how it corrolates in some ways to WoW.

For a long time, it has been accepted as common knowledge that the Alliance races in WoW (Dwarf, Human, Gnome and Night Elf) account for a large population than those of the Horde (Troll, Orc, Undead and Tauren). On some servers, the balance is closer to 60/40, but on others, the difference is more pronounced.

Of the 16 races in EQ2 though, the breakdown is as follows:

• 29% play a Good race.
• 24% play an Evil race.
• 47% play a Neutral race, or one that can choose between Good and Evil.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, to be sure. But the population imbalance in WoW has been partly attributed to the "ugliness" of the Horde races (and some consider this opinion validated by the new Horde race for the expansion being Blood Elves). It's hard to look at an unappealing character for the long stretches of time these games require one do so, as goes the opinion.

However, unlike WoW, players in EQ2 have more latitude about choosing a Race independent of faction, with over 30% of the races being able to play in both cities. Does this freedom contribute to the imbalance across all Races? Does it result in Qeynos and that region being more populated than Freeportt? Impossible to say without tracking zone populations by Race for a long time.

But based purely on subjective conjecture, I don't consider it a surprise that Iksar's, Ogres, Frogloks, and Trolls are among the least-played races. These races are interesting, and all have compeling backstories. But that lore is often less important to someone who really doesn't want to look at that character model for hours a day.  

Class Popularity

Finally, class popularity. Simple enough: Paladin is most played and Brigand the least.

 

Similar to the points raised in the Race Popularity section above, a larger number of Evil-only Classes appear on the right side of the scale than on the left, seeming to indicate as much a preference for Good/Neutral Classes as there seems to be for Good/Neutral Races.  

Comparisons and Wishes

EQ2 and WoW are both built upon an established system of Classes, Levels, Experience, Items, quest-based motivators, and time investment. The details of both games indicate some interesting similarities and differences. I was most intrigued by the similarity in how Good Races and Classes are more popular than Evil ones, and the difference of population per level between the two games.

But mostly what intrigues me is what is possible with such large samples of data. Reviewing this sort of quantitative data can provide some fascinating insights into the motivations of players.

This is just a small, and arguably inconsequential comparison though. This sort of data would need to be available for many different titles that features many similar elements. To get insights across the genre on a more meta level, I'd want to get similar data for these titles at least (pulled from this list based on title age, options available to players, and what their choices mean):

• Auto Assault
• Dark Age of Camelot
• Dungeons and Dragons Online
• Everquest 1
• Final Fantasy XI
• Guild Wars
• Horizons
• Lineage 2
• Ryzomn
• Shadowbane
• Star Wars Galaxies
• Vanguard

There would be no real purpose to gathering this data other than to fulfill academic curiosity.

Conclusion

Good and Evil, conventional beauty or otherwise, there's enough players enjoy all of these options to prevent any premature conversation about prioritization. All "beautiful race" games would be boring. The cultural breadth within these virtual worlds is one area that makes them so unique.

But the data from both EQ2 and WoW compel some questions about motivation and interest, and I am really beginning to wonder if there's a common theme among these titles.