I love e-mail. Not because it’s a useful business tool, blah blah blah and all that garbage, but because it so often brightens the doldrums of a boring work day. When you’re sitting at your desk working on whatever project you’re assigned, e-mail can be a wonderful little gateway to the world of non-work-related shenanigans.

I’ve got three daily “e-mail buddies”, who, if you’ve read this site for a while now, you’ve met before. In no particular order, they are, Joe, Marc, and Brian. There was a time, a time I like to refer to as “The Glory Days”, when we all worked in the same office. Joe and I have worked together for nine years now, we are the senior members of the buddy group. Marc and Brian were hired as summer students in the summer of 2005 and were taken under our wing. Starting as naive, bright-eyed empty vessels eager for knowledge, we shaped and molded them into naive, bright-eyed targets for our constant mockery and ridicule. It was awesome.

Actually, Marc and Brian ended up being the first, and only, summer students we ended up keeping past their term. Brian is no longer with us. No, not dead, just not working here any more. Marc still works for our organization, but has moved to another office downtown. We’ve kept in touch since our foursome was ripped asunder – a time I refer to as “The Day The Music Died”. We sometimes play MMOs together, and we’ve since established a “not-quite-monthly” game night where we actually see each other face to face and consume all manner of sugar-based products.

It sucks that we don’t all work together any more though, because the days just aren’t as much fun. Joe and I can’t make fun of each other; we’re immune to it. If I call Joe a Farty McDouche, he just calls me one right back. With Marc and Brian though… it would have meant something, and like a brand new puppy eagerly fetching a tennis ball, they would have come back for more.

Thankfully, we still have e-mail. Sometimes, it’s the only thing that gets me through the day. I’ve created a new category of post called, oddly enough, e-mail, where I’ll post some word-for-word e-mail conversations that I find entertaining.

Below, you’ll find the latest conversation. The highlighted name is the person who sent the particular message. We always use the Reply-to-all feature so that the whole group is involved, except for the not-so-rare occasion when Marc forgets where the Reply-to-all button is and just hits Reply. I’ll post the e-mails word for word, as they were written.

The setup: we’ve received our fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons books and we’re now eagerly anticipating our start to this wonderful new nerdly adventure.
Joe: What character are you going to choose in D&D? Go…
Brian: Tiefling Warlock
Marc: We should just send the e-mail from yesterday… it would save a lot of time. Eladrin Warlord!
David: I’ll be whatever the group needs, so once Joe makes his choice, I’ll know what I’ll be.
Joe: Autobot.
Marc: Ruined… ruined. THERE ARE NO AUTOBOTS!!! Stop crushing our D&D dreams… you crusher of D&D dreams! *sobs*
Joe: Pretty sure an elven rogue.
David: Then I shall be a human or dwarf cleric, biatches!
Brian: Now I just need to find an appropriate miniature…
David: Check your pants.
Joe: I LoLed
Brian: As did I. I hate you David.
David: Why do you continue to set yourself up so easily?

Our conversation then got back on track for a few e-mails, and ended thusly:

Joe (after a failed joke): My humor was lost without my middle fingers being waved around as I said it.
Marc: AHAHA!! Gotta love e-mails!! Man, I miss going to lunch with you guys.
Brian: Now you know how I feel. Sad and lonely
Marc: I love you Brian.
Brian: Enough to fund my epic ground mount when I hit 60?

I received an email the other day inviting me to come back to EverQuest II for two free months. Contrary to what I had always believed, I’m actually not special, as this free game play offer has been made to anyone with inactive EverQuest II (and EverQuest) accounts as part of the Living Legacy promotion. This is great timing for me, coming right after a post here waxing nostalgic about my time in EQII. That evening I double-clicked my EQII icon for the first time in three months.

Kudos to SOE for running this promotion; I think it’s a great thing for the game and will hopefully bring in some new players. I don’t think it’ll get me back on a permanent basis just yet; three months hasn’t been long enough for me to overcome my EQII burnout, but I’ve always maintained that I’ll probably be back in EQII at some point. According to the event calendar there’s some really cool sounding things in store for Norrath leading up to the next expansion, particularly in August, where it lists:

Evolution of EverQuest Event – Massive In-Game Experience
An event of tremendous magnitude and a first ever for the MMO world. Almost two million players have been selected to participate. Details to be released in July.

Colour me intrigued. During my time in EQII I often lamented the lack of marketing for the game, and I’m hoping this promotion is just one step towards correcting that. Who knows, maybe you’ll actually be able to find a box of the next expansion on a store shelf! Wouldn’t that be something?

The timing of this promotion is perfect. My observations of the MMO blogosphere of late tells me that a lot of people are in between games right now, looking for something else to try. Yes, I know the blogosphere is not the pinnacle of MMO market research, but it’s all I’ve got right now. This promotion is a clever way for EverQuest to get its name out there amongst all the talk of Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Wrath of the Lich King, etc. By getting its name out there, and by offering the entire game for free, SOE has made it very tempting for those people in between games to come back and give the game a shot.

Obviously these people coming back left at some point for one reason or another, so the events taking place over the next two months will have to be fairly substantial to keep them playing. That’s why I’m so excited for this “Evolution of EverQuest” event coming in August. This will be their “big hook”, the event designed to get those people playing for free to start laying down some cash, and to forget about all those other games, so it better be big.

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for this promotion seems to have put me in the minority. For reasons I just can’t understand, many veteran EQII players are up in arms over all these people getting freebies that they aren’t eligible to receive. The general theme of it has been “loyal customers” getting the shaft in Sony’s mad dash for more money. “I’ve been playing the game since launch, but apparently you don’t care about me because I’m not getting any free crap!”

All I can say is, “what the hell?”, the promotion just started, and it’s been said that “loyal customers” will be rewarded. You’ve been playing since launch, kudos to you. SOE doesn’t need to market to you, they need to bring former customers back and show them how the game has changed, and this promotion is an excellent way to do so. What are these returning players getting that has you so up in arms? Let’s have a look:

Available for all returning inactive players:
Norrath Adventure Pass – Magical transportation to new areas of Norrath
Make Over Mirror – Change the look of your avatar
Pouch of the Prodigal – 12 slot bag
XP Potion Pack – Three-pack of potions to jump-start your advancement

Granted upon Purchase and Release of the Next EQII Expansion:
Cloak of the Void – A specially designed cloak created exclusively for the upcoming expansion

Really? There’s nothing in that list that I would find of use for a veteran EQII player, unless that cloak looks so fantastically awesome that you had to have it in your appearance slot. Of course, the real meat of the deal would be the two free months and the free download of Rise of Kunark, including all expansions. Yes, that’s a great deal to be sure, but the only way they can get new people to come and give the game a shot. The last two expansions have included every expansion previously released, yet I don’t recall anyone getting all fussy-pants over that. To me it’s almost the same thing as buying the hot new game of the day on release day for $60 and then complaining a year later when you see it in the bargain bin for $20. What’s more likely to get a returning player to subscribe? Giving them everything they need to enjoy your game, or telling them you’d love to have them back but they need to shell out $20 each for Desert of Flames, Kingdom of Sky, Echoes of Faydwer, and Rise of Kunark. Yeah, no thanks.

These “loyal customers” should be thankful that SOE seems to be doing something to keep EverQuest relevant in todays MMO market, and that to me, is a far greater reward than a 12-slot bag.

I was in Arathi Highlands last night collecting some items for a quest off the various elementals in the zone. At 50, I’ve out-leveled the zone and the mobs I was farming were all gray to me, so I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was doing. Basically I’d engage a mob, start auto-attacking, then turn my head to watch the Stanley Cup Finals. Once my target was dead, I’d check its corpse to see if it dropped what I needed, and then repeat. It didn’t take long to discover that operating in cruise control on a PvP server can often lead to trouble.

My attention was drawn away from the hockey game and back to my computer screen by the sounds of my character getting attacked by a Horde hunter… with two friends, a Warlock and a Druid. They were in their upper 30s in level, which was still low enough for me to put up a good fight, but high enough that the three of them together were able to take me out. I managed to kill the hunter and was a good way through the Warlock before I died. The three of them then decided to camp my corpse. After reviving, I was able to take one of them out again, but reviving at a fraction of my health and mana put me at too much of a disadvantage and I found myself in the spirit world once again.

This time they were kind enough to move on from my dead corpse and I revived, mounted up, and set out to hunt them down. I wanted to see if I could take them out at full health and mana along with a sprinkling of the element of surprise. After a very quick search I came across the Warlock standing all by himself, and a devilish grin crept across my face. I headed towards him, eager for the kill, but he wasn’t moving at all, and just kept standing there. I stood right in his face, as if to say “you better start running, because I’m about to start wailing on your head” and yet, he continued to just stand there. I right clicked him and started to unleash the fury. I was dead not two seconds later. Huh? How could a level thirty-something kill me in two seconds? How could a level thirty-something kill me at all? I clicked on the Warlock who had gone back to just standing there, my corpse a crumpled heap of goo at his feet. As it so happened, this was not the same Warlock that was a part of the Three Horde Musketeers that had killed me earlier. In my thirst for vengeance, I had missed the ?? listed as this guys level. A quick look on the Armory told me this guy was level 70, bursting at the seams with purple gear. Oops. Apparently he was just standing there because I wasn’t worth his time or effort. I wonder what went through his head when I started attacking him?

Apparently my unprovoked attack annoyed him sufficiently enough to kill me two more times, not like it required much effort on his part. A few DoTs cast upon me from a distance was all it took both times. I couldn’t even get a heal off before I died. He eventually mounted up and sped off which allowed me to continue my quest. Heading towards my next destination, I came across another Horde, this one a level 40 Paladin, who I disposed of quickly and continued on my way. I managed two steps before another Paladin, level 70, and as luck would have it, in the same guild as the guy I had just killed, swooped in and killed me in about two shots – ha! I survived one of your shots… stupid! Apparently the level 40 Paladin I killed was this guys girlfriend or something, because for the next half hour he followed me around the zone, killing me over and over. Great fun was had by all… except me of course. The four screen shots accompanying this post are just a sampling of the deaths caused by this Tribalcorn dude; I had quite a few others.

Taking the hint, I high-tailed it out of Arathi Highlands the first chance I got and didn’t look back. Fortunately for me, I came across yet another Horde, this one a lowly level twenty-ish. Normally I’d leave him alone, but my pride was wounded. I killed him, and all was right in the world again.

At the request of a friend, I had started writing a post comparing the mid-games of EverQuest II and World of Warcraft, now that my WoW character is level 49.  I was well into writing my post when I realized that it was heading towards becoming the longest, most pointless blog post in history.  So this is my reboot.

In the first version of my post, I had broken the games up into several components, offering my opinions on The World, Graphics, Interface, etc.  All these things are subjective, and for every person who would agree with my opinion on them, I’m sure there’s another who’d disagree wholeheartedly.  Ultimately though, these things mean little to someone’s overall opinion of an MMO.  They certainly contribute, but they’re smaller pieces in a larger puzzle.  What matters most is the experience you have in an MMO, and it’s for that reason that I cannot fairly compare WoW and EQII.

Reviewing any MMO is a difficult task because they’re constantly changing, but EQII and WoW aren’t the only things that have changed since their launch.  I’ve changed as well.  My entire life has changed in fact.

I played EQII with my wife for about three and a half years.  When we started playing it was just the two of us along with the two friends who convinced us to play in the first place.  It was awesome.  Everything was new to us (max level characters were still a fairly rare sight), and it was great fun just chatting with our friends, forget the game itself.  We eventually joined a guild, now long since gone, that had some fantastic people in it.  We were a small, casual guild which didn’t raid, but still had fun hitting all the instances in the then newly released Kingdom of Sky.  I would love to have some recordings of our conversations on Ventrilo, because there were countless times where I laughed so hard I cried.

This time was the pinnacle of EQII for me, and none of it had anything to do with graphics, sound, or user interfaces.  My enjoyment of EQII was influenced more by those I experienced it with.

Our small guild fell apart after a few people left for other games, and my wife and I soon joined a raiding guild.  It was fun, for a while, seeing raid zones that we never thought we’d see and taking on their challenges, but as soon as the raiding became our “job”, my enjoyment of the game quickly went downhill.

Regarding that whole “life changing” thing I mentioned earlier, I became a dad towards the end of my time in EQII, and have only started playing WoW since then.  Needless to say, having a newborn to take care of does not complement an MMO lifestyle.  I just don’t have the time to spend playing the computer like I used to.  I can’t spend all night running an instance, or raiding; in fact, I’m lucky if I can manage to spend two straight hours in a game.  I’m not complaining; I’d much rather spend time with my daughter.  My point is, the changes in my life have dictated how I play WoW, and have in effect limited the experiences I can gain from it.

Not only do I not spend the same amount of time playing WoW as I did EQII, coming to WoW four years after its launch has also had an effect on my experience.  This is most evident in the fact that the majority of the population is at max level, and finding a group to run through a lower level dungeon, at least on my server, is next to impossible.  In fact, at level 49, I have yet to be in a real group.  I’ve only visited three dungeons, and I was run through by a level 70 character for each one, so I can’t say I really experienced them.

I’m enjoying WoW, don’t get me wrong, but I’m playing far differently than how I played EQII.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to dedicate a lot of time to WoW, so I approached it with the intention of soloing my way through it.  As a result, I haven’t felt the social dynamic that was present in EQII.  So in the end, no matter how great WoW’s game mechanics are, no matter how awesome its world is, and no matter how cool its quests are, I’ll probably never have as much fun playing it as I did playing EQII.  I suspect if WoW was the first MMO I played, and started it four years ago, the situation would be reversed.

So that’s my long-winded way of saying that it’s not fair for me to compare the two games, because so much of my enjoyment of them comes from things outside of the games themselves.  I love them both, but for different reasons.

If that’s still not good enough for you, here are my opinions on some of the facets of gameplay:

The World:
WoW’s is better, and not even close for me.  I love the seamless zones and the sense of history evoked by all the cool stuff within them.
I found many of EQII’s zones to be bland and lifeless.  The RoK zones feel big just for the sake of being big.

The Atmosphere:
WoW for sure.  It’s “scary” zones feel scary, wandering into contested territory makes me nervous, etc.  EQII just feels like a bunch of differently decorated zones.

The Graphics:
It’s a tie.  This is so subjective and a matter of personal taste.  I used to love the “realistic” look of EQIIs graphics, but the stylized WoW graphics have really grown on me, to the point that I don’t consider them stylized or cartoony.

The UI:
I don’t use UI mods, so I don’t consider them.  That said, EQII’s default interface kicks the crap out of WoW’s.  It’s so much more customizable.  You need to use mods on WoW’s UI just to begin doing some of the simple stuff you can do with EQII’s.

Character/Class Selection:
EQII, hands down.  Many more options, and there’s something there for everyone.

The Starting Experience:
WoW, just slightly.

The Leveling Experience:
EQII.  Easier to group and the quests tie in to the instances much better.  Grouping has been non-existent in WoW.

Mechanics:
EQII.  There have been many instances while playing WoW where I’ve thought to myself, “EQII does this so much better”.  I prefer EQII’s animations, spell-casting, combat, and general gameplay to WoW’s.  I feel like I’m actually doing something when playing EQII; WoW feels more like pushing buttons.  EQII feels more fun.

Quick Conclusion:
Put EQII’s gameplay into WoW’s world, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a game.