The Tattered Notebook: Worth your time?

"EverQuest II, that's the crappy Sony game with five-year old graphics and a bunch of RMT isn't it," said a friend of mine as we ran around the chilly slopes of Dun Morogh in Azeroth a few weeks back. Even though he phrased it in the form of a question, his delivery implied a mind already made up. Such is EQII's reputation among a decent chunk of the MMORPG-playing population it seems.

Since taking over the Tattered Notebook, I've been asked more than a few times what it is about EverQuest II that makes it worth playing, aside from the Massively paycheck of course. From friends and family, to commenters, to colleagues, it seems many people are curious about SOE's long-running fantasy flagship, but relatively few take the time to learn more about it in order to make an informed go/no-go decision.

Regrettably, I'm a somewhat slow leveler, due to the fact that I've got a lot of demands on my time and I enjoy running around willy-nilly exploring the nooks and crannies of Norrath. So, I won't be level 90 with 250 AAs, raiding, or able to tell you about endgame any time soon. That said, is it worth playing through the early 30s?

Indeed it is. Turn the page for some reasons why.

Better with age

Folks like my buddy aren't the only ones who harp on EQII's age. Since I've been researching the game and its community, I've seen more than a few comments disparaging the supposedly outdated game engine, the graphics, and the player base. This last one is especially puzzling to me because the assumption seemed to be that newer games have larger populations. This may be true for the 30-day honeymoon period on a newly released title, but I can tell you from experience that EQII, particularly on servers like Antonia Bayle and Lucan D'Lere, dwarfs the population numbers of AAA competitors like Aion, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online.

The game engine and graphics are largely subjective affairs. Spend any time on EQII forums and you'll hear a lot of armchair developers decrying the game's animations and engine performance. To be honest, I don't know or care what they're talking about, as every time I log in I see a huge world with pleasing textures, foliage that reacts to my character, fun fantasy spell effects, and a boatload of beautiful armor and cloth options. Does the eye candy approximate Age of Conan (arguably the MMO graphical benchmark)? No, but it also doesn't crash or experience anything less than 50 frames per second. Your mileage may vary on this, of course, depending on personal taste and the hardware available to you, but the point is that you can safely ignore the squeaky wheels waxing on about how their superior programming kung-fu could have done it better.

The other advantage to being a six-year-old title, one that was ironically lost on my friend as we were playing WoW (which launched virtually on top of EQII in late 2004), is the amount of content that is generated over time. EQII has an absolutely ridiculous amount of quest and character-progression content, easily enough to keep your humble author busy for years. I already feel like I've missed huge chunks of the game in my early 30s, and happily I've got several more character slots to fill in the blanks.

Community, community, community

The time-honored real estate principle of location cubed can also be applied to MMORPGs, albeit in the form of your neighbors rather than your physical address. As we touched on above, the game's advanced age helps more than hinders its community elements.

While there is no shortage of players running around the world of Norrath at any given time, quality is much more important than quantity. EQII's general population is a pleasing mixture of veterans and a dash of new blood. In observing the global chats and partaking of a few pickup groups over the last month, I have come to the conclusion that all of the game-hopping tourists who swell the population numbers of newer games have moved on to the next big disappointment, leaving behind those who actually care about the title.

Classic mechanics, with spice

In addition to a huge variety of diverse zones, dungeons, and instances designed for your progression pleasure, the game also features one of the more complex tradeskilling systems in the genre, as well as a complementary economy. There are also battlegrounds and PvP servers if you're so inclined, and a seemingly endless array of options for customizing your characters, your play experience, and your interface.

If it is true that he who controls the spice controls the universe, well, then EQII has a leg up on galactic domination when pitted against other fantasy MMORPGs. Leaving aside World of Warcraft (which is a rather large omission, granted, but I'm assuming if you're truly committed to WoW you wouldn't be reading this), no other genre title offers as pleasing a combination of progression and fluff. A case can be made for Lord of the Rings Online, and I don't want to get too far into a point-for-point comparison with Turbine's Middle-earth, but suffice it to say that apart from the peerless player music system, LotRO plays second fiddle to EQII in terms of size, PvE content, PvP content, and crafting content. There is simply more of everything in Norrath.

When it comes to fluff, EQII delivers in spades. Player and guild housing is an afterthought in LotRO (and doesn't exist at all in WoW), whereas in EQII players can, and do, spend the majority of their gaming time building unique interior creations, hosting events, and displaying their adventuring trophies in grand fashion. It's certainly not required and often generates scorn from the nose-to-the-grindstone crowd, but having the option goes a heck of a long way to making the game feel more intimate and exciting than its competitors.

Other examples include the robust guild-leveling and stat-tracking systems, the unique take on mentoring and Chronomagic (whereby a higher-level player can alter time and return to a lower level for as long as he wishes in order to experience missed content while continuing to gain XP), and the Legends and Lore quests (which grant special attack abilities usable against certain mob types). Study enough orcish lore, for example -- and collect enough enemy corpses -- and you'll naturally be a more efficient orc-killer, which status the game manifests in the form of a shiny new Master Strike on your hotbar.

Worth your time

All together, each of these examples is really just the tip of the iceberg. As I said, I'm barely a third of the way to the level cap on my first character, so I'm simply scratching the surface here. Is EQII the perfect game? Well no, of course not. There's still the unfortunate specter of the Station Store and the unpardonable sin of double-dipping with a sub fee and an item shop. There are also numerous examples of price-gouging missteps and some occasional in-game whimsy that strays a bit far from my personal tastes. That said, EQII is a superior theme-park experience, and anyone with even a passing interest in fantasy, RPGs, and MMORPGs could do far worse than to check it out.

Jef Reahard may be an eternal EverQuest II newb, but he writes a weekly column about the game anyway, through the eyes of a Ratonga Wizard (or any one of 3,720 other alts). If it has to do with the huge and ever-expanding world of EQII, it's been jotted down in The Tattered Notebook. Send Ratonga fan mail to jef@massively.com.