It’s Everything (for me), That’s Why

For me, EverQuestII is all about finding an outlet. It’s an outlet for when I’m having a bad day and need to smush something, or when I just want to relax and hang out with friends – and even a creative outlet for writing roleplay stories, and more recently, decorating houses. Well ok so I’ve been decorating homes off and on for four years and it’s actually always been an intrical part of my gameplay, but it was never really a creative outlet for me.

I was asked today why I play EQ2 over other games. Over things that have a heavy social aspect like Second Life, over other mmo’s, and whatever else. WHY EQ2. My answer was quite simple – because for me, EQ2 has the best balance of everything I enjoy.

If I just wanted to decorate homes, I’d play the sims (and in fact played for a very long time). I never really enjoyed the game, but designing and creating rooms and houses was something I could do for hours. Then I’d be all ready to move my people in and I’d stop playing.

If I only wanted to raid, or if I only wanted to adventure, and didn’t care about the other aspects of the game that I so enjoy (housing, social, adventure, raiding.. etc) then I’m sure I could find a game that caters to those things. In fact I know I could.

EverQuest2 still offers me the best balance, of all these things. World of Warcraft doesn’t have player housing (at least, not yet) and though I have played it off and on for the last four years it just doesn’t give me anything that makes me want to stay there.

Vanguard has housing, and I love my T5 home. I worked really hard on it. It also has adventuring – but it lacks end game content, and even more importantly, it lacks the heavy social interaction I crave due to lack of players. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly people who play and I see them often but for me it just wasn’t often enough to keep me coming back time and time again.

I don’t like science fiction. Space ships and guns and what not simply put me to sleep (I know, I heard the sharp intakes of breath – I am so sorry!) so long story short – that is why I play EQ2. A combination of all of these things in an ever changing and evolving world.

I played my brigand for a little yesterday, and was sadly disappointed. Maybe it’s because I’m used to playing with a set group of people who I’ve known for years now, or maybe it’s just because I haven’t done any Pick Up Groups (PuG) in a while – but it was horrible. The tank could not tank to save their life. We ranged from level 35-40 and headed to the original Runnyeye. The group consisted of a fury, defiler (neither of which knew how to cure or group cure), shadowknight (I had 400 more hp then them), warlock (who pulled agro every single encounter), and a troubador (who was AFK the entire time – then came back from AFK to tell us they had to AFK for 15 minutes for lunch).

Did we die? No. That’s not what made this group bad. Eventually you can get to a point in the game where you can be horrible at your class, pull 10 encounters at once, and live through random button smashing. That’s how yesterday’s group went. I like tanks who pull back to the group, or turn mobs, or at least don’t just run into a room sans taunt and just stand there for 15 seconds before initiating combat while the encounter beats on everyone else. Picky? I admit it. Rude of me to think? Maybe. I realize that not everyone has played MMO’s before, I realize that a certain amount of patience is required for these things – and I admit openly and freely that I am not the person who has this sort of patience.

I know it’s one of my major flaws. I have way more patience with friends – I simply don’t have it for random people that I haven’t met yet. I expect at level 40 for players to at least know SOMETHING of their class. I stayed for an hour or so and then decided I had enough, and went back to tradeskilling. The group simply was not for me (if you were in that group I apologize for this post, it just couldn’t be helped today).

Aside from a few crafting levels it was a very slow gaming day. I spent the afternoon sleeping trying to get rid of this horrible cold that I just simply can’t shake. We’ll see if today goes any better!