edward.crutchington

What I dislike
Totally seperate servers - which physically keeps you away from others, and costs you money to transfer - also damages communities when servers have to be 'rationalised'.

What I like
I love the feeling of Eve - seems totally seamless, and even though we know it's not one huge box, it feels like it, and that we are all there together.

I also like the idea of versioning worlds, such as they do in Champions Online. Yes it is seperate servers, but you can easily find groups, find friends, and stay together.
Also there is no damage when they scale down the servers etc.

I think the third option is going to be the most sustainable, I think EvE is a bit of a unique wonder.

THANK GOD! Finally.

I stopped playing WAR because GOA were absolutely useless at any form of Tech Support.
Their EU Website is atrocious to use, as is their account management.
You get none of the main Mythic bonuses, and to be frank, it made the whol social aspect to the game unplayable.

Add to that, they are totally inept at working with ISP to sort out lag issues caused by the traffic type. Their knowledge of how internet traffic works, and how shaping affects it is woeful.

This can only be a good thing.

I may even go back to the WAR!

Sorry, I should have expressed myself more clearly.

In my opinion, the game is still awesome.
In Beta and Early Release, I found the PvE content very simple. This achieved 2 things, one, it made me feel very very super, but also, it made me realise that my purchase of 6 months would see me through the game quite easily.

PvP - not a big PvP fan, have enjoyed some of the fights, but overall, not very good at PvP, so don't go into it that much. So, for me, this isn't that important.

Whether it was a bait and switch, or anything subversive, I would disagree. I would say that from playing last night, the comments I saw were pretty much leaning towards the favourable. People liked the changes, because it made the gamer more of a challenge.

Yes, there were a fair number of negative comments, but overall, from one nights playing, I saw more in favour than against.

But as with all MMOs, the game changes, and nerfs are made. I played EQ2 when being a warlock in PvP meant nothing more than easy points for anyone else. I also played a warlcok when they were unbeatable in PvP.
I played WAR when being a squig herder just meant slapping on the armour and letting your squig kill everything in sight, and I also played it when slapping on the armour made you a massive target, and signalled your demise.

Changes happen in any online game.

Anyway, in my opinion, the game is still awesome, and I am loving it.

The big thing this patch did was to take away 'easy' mode.

Now you have to work harder, and even better, team up!

But as Cryptic have said, they have deliberately over-cooked the 'nerfs' to see the effect, and to judge how far back it will be scaled next time round.

Essentially, don't panic, the game is still awesome!

Well I have to say that I disagree with this totally.

Now, before I get lumped in the EQ2 fanboi bin, I quit EQ2 a while, having maxed out to 70, and done a fair few raids, I was tired of the game, nothing more, nothing less.

Bounty Hunter quests are the mainstay of most MMOs. This is (in my opinion) a very sad thing, and most players tend towards the "not another kill 10 rats" train of thought as well.

Shinies were, at the beginning, also seen as nothing more than a gimmick, or for people who like to collect things like stamps.
As it turns out, Collections are a fantastic way of gaingin XP and AA XP, they produce some very nice rewards, and at the higher levels, there is adifferent levels of shinies to collect, the second tier only being unlockable after doing some pretty tough quests.

Like any collection, finding the 'rare' items and selling/trading them can become a very time consuming and enjoyable (if you like that sort of thing). In fact there is a great profit to be made in the selling of shinies.

Plus it is actually rewarding to go shiny hunting, and not have the constant grind of combat all the time, it is a change, and you get rewarded for it.

The recent changes that SOE have also made to the shiny system have made it a lot more friendly for the collectors, and groups.

So although I understand yoru post, and the points you made. My personal conclusions from experience of this and many other MMOs is that the Bounty Hunter quests are a tired method, and not that rewarding. The Shinies seemed as you describe, bubt actually added a layer of addictiveness to the game for a great many players.

As a carrot/stick system