Comments on: This is What EverQuest II is Missing

By: josh

josh — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:35:54 +0000

hi nice post, i enjoyed it

By: David

David — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:47:35 +0000

I’ve used eq2.wikia.com extensively for quest hints, etc. Yes, it has some lore, but it looks like it’s just a copy/paste of the Tome of Destiny, and other in-game books. Here’s an example of what I’m looking for: Lord Nagafen, for example, is a character with a fairly extensive amount of lore, what with the Deception quest line, in addition to whatever was there from EQ1. Now, at EQ2i, do a search for Lord Nagafen.

When you’re done reading the two sentences about him, go to WoWWiki.com. Search for Illidan. See the difference?

By: Mufflon

Mufflon — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:53:06 +0000

There is a central location where much of the EQ2 lore can be found. It’s called eq2.wikia.com, and is know to most EQ2 players.

By: David

David — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:44:15 +0000

@Mufflon: I think one of the points I was trying to make but didn’t do so very well, is that you have to look too hard to find EQII’s lore. As someone who never played EQ1, I never felt the attachment to the EQII world that I may have otherwise. The only reason I know about The Shattering, and the Rendering and such, is because I looked for it. That’s something that probably should have been a little easier to come across, even if it was just a story printed in the game manual. Have you seen WoW’s manual? It’s got the back story behind every race in the game, along with a history to some of the zones. Yes, it’s fluff, and it’s simplistic, but it’s there. From what I can recall, the EQII manual has no such thing.

I totally agree that Everquest has a tremendous amount of history and lore behind it, and what I’ve read of it has been great. I just don’t think they do as good a job as WoW in bringing it out through the game world. Furthermore, for what lore there is for Everquest, it would really benefit from having one central location, easily searchable, to hold it all, much like WoWWiki.

Regarding evidence of The Shattering in Norrath, off the top of my head I can only think of one spot in Antonica, the weird looking rock in the water closest to the South Qeynos gates. When walking by that though, would someone not familiar with the lore know what it is? I know I didn’t, I always just figured it was a weird looking rock, only after your comment did I associate it. I fully realize the rocks have had time to cool off, I had a feeling someone would call me on that. I would argue that WoW wouldn’t care about that kind of detail though and it’d make the rock smoke just because it looks cool and better attaches itself to the lore. If we’re shooting for realism here, then why does Darathar, or any other named for that matter, keep coming back to life, only to be killed again? It’s okay to stretch the bounds of realism now and then if it complements the story.

By: MMOG Nation » WoWE Lore Fluff

MMOG Nation » WoWE Lore Fluff — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:32:41 +0000

[...] backstory kind of interesting. I certainly agree with David’ assessment over at Timesink – WoW has more compelling lore than EQ2 as an example. I am fully aware that a lot of this is completely subjective, and people’s [...]

By: Mufflon

Mufflon — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:37:21 +0000

I disagree. I find that there are many places in EQ2:s Norrath that carry a sense of history. You specifically mention the lack of remains of the Shattering, but there are several zones wich feature chunks of Luclin. To name one the crater pond in Antonica (a place wich most Qeynosians pass at least in their early levels), a zone wich you specifically mentioned as lacking evidence of the shattering. The rocks from Luclin even have a distinct appearance (they’re not smoking, though, the shattering occured over 500 years ago, they have had time to cool off) and can often be seen polluting nearby bodies of water.

Add to that the fact that there is such a huge amount of history and lore to be found just by looking for it. There are tons of NPCs that each tell fragments of Norraths history.

Indeed, WoW:s history and lore looks, by comparison, like something you might find at the back of a cereal box.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:41:26 +0000

A little research on Kurn’s Tower gave me this. http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=415068 .
I guess I am missing out on a lot by not having played EQ1.

By: Kuarlos

Kuarlos — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:36:03 +0000

WoW has the “cookie cutter” locations as well. It’s just not as noticeable. Where you can really tell, is in caves. They have a few different cave layouts that they use in Azeroth and reuse them all over. In Outland (and the new BC starting zones), they have new layouts for the caves which is nice. Overall, WoW has incredibly unique zones.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:25:39 +0000

One beef I have with everquest is that there is a lot of “cookie cutter” objects. There are ruins in Kylong Plains but the ruins are exactly same design and plopped in different areas with no real purpose. Kunzar Jungle is the same with ruins plopped on the map with a exact set of mobs attached. I guess its better than just having a huge plain filled with mobs just wandering around with no real purpose.
As EQ2 goes to bigger zones the feel of compartmentalization is going away. It is very frustrating though that I have to sit through 4 loading screens just to get from East freeport to Kunzar Jungle. I am really wishing EQ2 was a seamless world.
I was in Ventrilo the other day listening to EQ veterans talk about familiar sights that now appear in EQ2 but shattered. It was pretty interesting and I felt that I was missing out on a lot of the lore that EQ2 takes for granted that it’s players are from EQ1 and already know it.
It’s zones like Chelsith that keep me fascinated with EQ2. That zone is so beautifully designed that I have been working on a post that does it justice and I can’t quite describe it. Other places such as Kurn’s Tower in Fens of Nathsar with the massive dragon skeleton with the ghost dragon have me intrigued as there has to be some history and mystique that I need to know about but hasn’t been revealed yet. It’s sad to think that the only reason that the story hasn’t been revealed yet was that the devs ran out of time or budget. I hope this isn’t the case.
Perhaps if the developers actually took 2 years to release an expansion they would have time to add the little touches that WoW has in place. Seems Sony is rushing out the expansions to make a buck while Blizzard has the luxury of a massive paying subsciber base that allows them to “get it right” before releasing an expansion.
There has to be “something” in Norrath’s lore that keeps people interested. Heck, EQ1 is still pumping out expansions. I’m not positive but there have to be 10 or more. I at one point thought of playing EQ1 just to see a “before” and compare it to the “after”. I decided against this so I wouldn’t be disapointed by first generation graphics and / commands.