Since the times when the local post office is open correspond almost exactly to the times I am at work, I won’t be able to pick up my Rift Collector’s Edition until later today… and I couldn’t play last night at all. My headstart amnesty was up.
So I turned to EQ2 for a little fun.
.bbpBox43845498133692420 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/a/1298664727/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) #e4ecec;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block} @tipadaknife eq2 really? Figured you were done with it.less than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
redheadedtim
redheadedtim
I’ve always kinda felt EQ2 was done with me. It’s one of those games that I feel you have to get some momentum going to carry you through the grindier bits. Once you’ve lost that momentum, it takes a significant effort and desire to get it back.
Most know that I’ve given up my halfling troubadour and have been working for some time on a new character, Scatterfall, a now level 53 Fae berserker. The recipient of all my Fortune League rewards, I log Scatterfall in each week to claim the AA XP scroll and ding four or five AAs all at once.
This last week has been all Rift, all the time, and when I logged into EQ2 to finish up the Lavastorm Sootfoot line, I felt really … weak. Since I couldn’t heal myself, I had to choose my fights carefully, and still died a lot if I got too many adds. Since there were no other people of my level in the zone, soloing was my only option. Since there was no public content at my level (there is for level 90s in the new expansion) I just hacked away at goblins and drakes and colossi, finished my quests, got my rewards – a really nice blade I can wield at 55, a weird hat which will prevent me from being mind-controlled by Void-touched creatures (maybe), and access to a lot of housing items and appearance armor.
Oh yeah.
Rift knows nothing about those things.
Rift does a very good job at taking elements from World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online and melding them into an exciting game that feels fresh. The soul system and the rifts themselves – game changers.
It’s jarring, a little, that they stopped there. My Fae has a home among the branches of Kelethin. It’s basically a two story acorn. Downstairs is decorated for guests; upstairs, I am building a hedge maze from Night of the Dead rewards. It’s spooky.
I belong to a fairly inactive guild on Antonia Bayle called Lunar Wolves. They have a huge guild hall in New Halas, ornately decorated and lavishly appointed – the 3D picture is from the theater (very similar to the one Stargrace made for me years ago). Even EverQuest has housing and guild halls. Even Dungeons & Dragons Online has guild airships.
I can see the issues about having housing and guild halls in the game. Lots of new art assets, where will you put these things, now you have to make a ton of new stuff in order to give players ways to make their homes and guild halls unique… I can see that.
But, where is the appearance armor? You already have the art assets – the armor and weapons that are already in the game. You even have armor dyes, though why someone would use dyes when the armor is being continually replaced is confusing to me. In games like Spellborn and Star Trek Online, your item stats and the look of your gear are entirely disconnected.
Spellborn had this really innovative idea – one of many, really – that you should always look as badass as you wanted. You were, after all, a hero. Leveling could earn you even better looks, but the concept of starting out a poor orphan in tattered armor was never a concept that made any sense in Spellborn. The very first thing you did in the game was save a shardship from an invasion of void creatures. You’re a hero from day 1, hour 1. You should look like it!
Likewise, in Rift, we’re the Ascended! Resurrected heroes (in the case of the Guardians, anyway) who should be able to choose their own appearance from the gear they earn. Some of my weapons I’ve been sad to see runebreaked, they looked so cool, but their stats were off that critical 5% from the newer stuff.
I’m happy Rift has done such a good job of lifting ideas from WoW and Warhammer that I have no desire whatsoever to play any of those last generation games. Isn’t it time Rift turned around and started getting a little inspiration from EQ2?