EQ sucks compaired to FFXI

[JohnDragon]

I was at my friends house the day after i got my ps2 game and he said that EQ was better. YA WRIGHT it sukes i was playing it the game looks like mud it just sucks i ran out of his house like that and logged on asap. I pushed that game out of my mind for good.


PS: I was trying to deside wat game to play FFXI or EQ im so glad i piked FFXI.

[Chaotixx0]

you are very wise grasshoppa

[Tukka]

I was at my friends house the day after i got my ps2 game and he said that EQ was better. YA WRIGHT it sukes i was playing it the game looks like mud it just sucks i ran out of his house like that and logged on asap. I pushed that game out of my mind for good.
Right, because you can really get the essence of a MMO in a single play session...

At the moment I prefer Final Fantasy XI. I think it has a lot more potential than EverQuest... it has more charm and style and some interesting elements of gameplay, along with better graphics in general.

There are some things I prefer about EverQuest... a lot. Final Fantasy XI has some glaring flaws that often makes playing it a simply frustrating experience.

It breaks down like this... Final Fantasy XI has more "Wow, that's cool" moments for me, but it also has a lot more "Arrrgh! I hate this game!" moments. A lot of those frustrating elements have me seriously contemplating quitting FF11 after only about two months of play.

Then again, I quit playing EQ after only two months (though that was back when the game was in what I think was a much more primitive state than it is now) only to eventually come back and play for years.

I guess what I'm saying is, Final Fantasy XI is great for such a young game, but there is enormous room for improvement and I'm hoping it will continue to improve. Final Fantasy XI is definitely a better game than EverQuest was a launch (even putting aside graphics), but EQ has been been refined and improved in many ways over the years... but you can only improve something so much before you have to scrap it and start over to make it any better.

[Thoronas]

Young game? It's been out in Japan for almost 2 years. :sweat:

[Tukka]

Yep, young game. 2 years isn't that long a time. EverQuest is something like 5 years old now, and it's come a long way in the past 3 years.

Plus, some of the game's problems that I allude to have as much to do with the player community as the game itself. The North American player community of FF11 is much less experienced than the player community of EQ, so in that respect the game is "younger" too, to a great degree.

[Grizzlebeard]

Originally posted by JohnDragon
PS: I was trying to deside wat game to play FFXI or EQ im so glad i piked FFXI.

Anyone who's punctuation, spelling and composition is so jaw-droppingly impressive surely merits the highest credibility as a games reviewer.

The biggest problem I think most new players would have starting EQ now is it is indeed a five year old game, it celebrated its anniversary recently. As such, it is essentially a high level game now and the majority of the people playing it are 50+. Max level in game is 65th and most of the people I know are there now or pretty close. Most people at the earlier levels in EQ now are shameless twinks and I think SOE lost sight of low end game content because they were forced to cater more and more to the people at the other end of the level range. I can't comment on endgame content in FFXI because I'm not there yet, however, EQ has very good high end content. The only problem is, after you essentially beat each expansion the requirements to do so in future ones just become more and more tedious and key camping and flagging (and backflagging and more backflagging and yet more backflagging /weep) take a great chunk of the fun out the game. Ultimately it becomes a gear quest for most and some few people still get a kick out of beating a boss mob as well. It's the nature of the beast though, MMORPGS are designed to make the playerbase want to pump as much of their time in as possible and if you're not up to that then you will quit in short order.

Graphically, FFXI beats EQ hands down. Dynamically EQ positively makes FFXI look like a kid's game though. Additionally, I really miss my UI skins from EQ because the one text window, kitsch spell icons and inability to go into windows mode are really starting to wear thin.

[Masaharu]

My 2 cents...

Two biggest problems I personally have with FFXI - gil has too much impact on the game, and lack of high end content. At the very least in EQ, once you hit level 65 you can raid high level mobs to advance your character. There's a huge difference between a level 65 character in NToV gear and PoTime gear.

In FFXI, such accomplishments are diminished because the majority of gear out there can be sold at AH, so essentially you can buy your way to the top. We're starting to see some more high end content to differentiate between level 75 characters, but until more content is added, you're basically left with gil determining your character.

Right now, from playing FFXI the goal for me is to grind to 75, farm gil, and such. Killing HNMs is only a method to earn more gil. The only equipment that really sets characters apart are the Uncursed armors and to a lesser extent, relic armors. It gets dull after a while, especially when there isn't too much at end game to motivate you.

That being said, FFXI does get a lot right - I love the search comments and colours because you can immediately tell who's already in a PT, who the leader is, and so on. You can also cycle through targets; EQ doesn't have either of these features creating some minor annoyances.

[Thoronas]

After reading some high level players journals (coughRussta (http://www.livejournal.com/users/russta/)cough) I have noticed there is a fair bit of armour I just wasn't aware of because it's non-tradeable meaning it can't be sold at AH. I don't hear much about this gear and I imagine not many other NA payers know about it either but in a lot of cases it's quite good.

My friend is a lvl 62 blm and he has a shaman's cloak (http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?fitem=3888) which I gotta say is better then the blm af armour. It's rare/ex so you don't see it at the AH but it kicks ass. There is a lot of equipment out there and too many NA players assume they know it all because they read some databases that are half complete. I was like that and am still quite ignorant but I like finding out about new gear and know there is lots more of it to discover. As well as a great story and other things.

This game is very, very deep and has a lot you can discover in it. Most people discover not even 50% and assume they know it all because it's the same 50% everyone else always rags on about. But there is much more. :spin:

[kainzero]

i heard EQ had a really good community which would be a definite plus.

as opposed to FFXI... which is filled with lots of NA/JP hate and racism, crappy PTs almost everywhere you go, everyone always whining about the other person when they're not even that good themselves and stuff.

i've probably met like, 3-4 new people that were really cool.

oh well, i'm LS-less now...

oh yeah. I don't think EQ had retarded level cap quests =P

[sagitta85]

Originally posted by kainzero
i heard EQ had a really good community which would be a definite plus.

as opposed to FFXI... which is filled with lots of NA/JP hate and racism, crappy PTs almost everywhere you go, everyone always whining about the other person when they're not even that good themselves and stuff.

i've probably met like, 3-4 new people that were really cool.

oh well, i'm LS-less now...

oh yeah. I don't think EQ had retarded level cap quests =P

Must be a bad server.

I met many people that were friendly and helpful, NA and JP alike. Rarely I will have a bad time with someone, but thats the way it is.

If your nice to them, they'll be nice to you.

[dragoon]

There is a qoute about what people like in genral

"to each there own"

[thebizzy]

Yes, EQ uses very very old technology and should've died long ago,but the community keeps it alive. FFXI is really new and should be much higher than EQ, if it hasn't already. Sony was looking to shut down EQ servers, but it would lose too many subscribers so they're trying to consolidate them soon to convert ppl to EQ2

[Sylvanis]

i'll probably get hammered for this but oh well. eq in it's prime is a lot better then ffxi will ever be in my opinion. a lot of it has to do with the community. i just don't like the ffxi community, no offense to y'all. there are just way too many rotten eggs in the pack sort of speak. if/when i move to wow, i'm sure wow will have a worst community then this one :o

gms are incredibly leniant in this game too. one time i saw two people having an argument via shout. oh sure they could have taken it to tells but no. i'm sure like half the zone petitioned them but their shoutings continued. i'm not even sure if they were warned for that stuff either. other then spamming, these shouts were incredibly vulgar and it shouldn't have been tolerated.

this game has a hard time weeding out the noobs (again, no offensive). it takes a long time for people to figure out how to play their classes correctly. at around level 50 or so, that is when a lot of the noobs are weeded out (either quit or learn how to play correclty). i just refuse to believe there are blms at level 50 that just simply go down the list of their spells getting a ton of aggro.

and although this has been beaten to death with a stick, i believe og eq had more mobs then ffxi+zilart. if not, eq+kunark has more mobs then ffxi+zilart.

i could go on and go on but i'll stop there.

simply put, i'm having trouble logging on this game now. the game lost it's charm on me. i dun think it'll be long before i cancel my account sadly.

[thebizzy]

Yes, EQ in its prime is better than any other MMORPG can get pretty much since only dedicated players were playing, but with this new decade, people are turning to MMORPGs for entertainment. FFXI community is different from EQ by far. FFXI is mostly kids , compared to the EQ of mostly 30+. You can pretty much tell the difference by the horrible spelling, bad grammar, massive cursing in FFXI. FFXI doesn't compare to EQ and is much simpler to play, which is one of the reasons i play it. EQ took too much effort to me, but the community was better than any i've been in.

personalyl, they should not be compared. EQ ruled the first generation of MMORPGs and enough should be said. Comparing EQ to FFXI is like comparing Final fantasy 1 with final fantasy 10.

[hogarth]

Surely FFXI, is in the first stages still, though its been out 2 years i think because of th major new releases such as the recent PS2 release in the US it causes a small tremor and things need to settle again.

Havin not received my HDD yet i cant comment on the community but, i agree because of its aim to younger console gamers then you cant keep comparing it to EQ.

This is Square's first real MMORPG they need are help to build the community and keep the game a great place, from reading the comments above i think people want it to be more like EQ with high end graphics. This wont happen this is a FF game and thats the way it should stay.

The mentions of people causing problems i cant comment on too much but im sure these must be isolated cases which such a huge community.

Im also sure, this is a guess that about 1/3 of the community dont even post on this great forum and to be fair theres probably some great players out there we have yet to meet.

[Nilaari]

Originally posted by thebizzy
Yes, EQ uses very very old technology and should've died long ago,but the community keeps it alive. FFXI is really new and should be much higher than EQ, if it hasn't already. Sony was looking to shut down EQ servers, but it would lose too many subscribers so they're trying to consolidate them soon to convert ppl to EQ2

Everquest still has 400k+ subscribers and is making a ton of money for Sony. Oh yeah, they're really wanting to shut down EQ servers. That must be why they just released a new expansion :rolleyes:

[thebizzy]

Originally posted by Nilaari


Everquest still has 400k+ subscribers and is making a ton of money for Sony. Oh yeah, they're really wanting to shut down EQ servers. That must be why they just released a new expansion :rolleyes:

Precisely, they want to keep as many ppl in the game w/o spending much $$, so releasing expansion Gates of Discord will hopefully do more content so enough ppl stay in the game, but enough to consolidate servers.

[Tukka]

This is Square's first real MMORPG they need are help to build the community and keep the game a great place, from reading the comments above i think people want it to be more like EQ with high end graphics. This wont happen this is a FF game and thats the way it should stay.
I wouldn't call FF11's graphics "high end". Any game that runs on a PS2 isn't going to have "high end" graphics by the standards of today's PC games. It does have stylish graphics though. EverQuest is an ugly game because it's a hodge-podge. Some of the newer zones (and some older zones) and creature models, ect. look awesome, but the game has an incredibly inconsistent appearance as they mix the old and fugly with the new and fancy.

Anyway, I do want Final Fantasy XI to be more like EverQuest in some respects. Graphics, I don't really care about so much, though. I'd have the core gameplay of Final Fantasy XI remain the same as well. I'd just like to see a more mature community, an experience formula that allows for a more flexible range of levels within a viable party and a laundry list of user interface improvements that makes the game easier and more convenient to play, and more customizable. If those things were all addressed, it would still be a game very different from EverQuest, and a game that's still distinctly "Final Fantasy", but I think it would be, for me, a much more enjoyable game.

[kainzero]

Must be a bad server.

I met many people that were friendly and helpful, NA and JP alike. Rarely I will have a bad time with someone, but thats the way it is.

If your nice to them, they'll be nice to you.
for all the people i've met that were friendly and helpful, i've probably met at least twice as much that were rude or just don't listen or don't care.

and it's clear that i'm not the only one with this problem. just look at how many locked topics there were about NA PTs sucking and why.

as far as JP... that memory of the JP player insulting me on /party in Japanese and calling me an idiot... that just pisses me off to no end.

one time, i formed a PT. we filled up all the slots, 4 WAR, 1 BLM, 1 WHM. the last WAR i invited was JP, and we waited in Selbina for him. well, another blm decides to put up a seek, and everyone in the pt tells me to kick the JP WAR and invite the blm. i said, "no. that's rude, we should be courteous." instead, everybody left the PT. now seriously, wtf is up with that. no wonder NA/JP have bad relations.

Im also sure, this is a guess that about 1/3 of the community dont even post on this great forum and to be fair theres probably some great players out there we have yet to meet.

just to be fair, try reading GameFAQs forums for an example of the bad players out there. and I'm also pretty sure that everyone's heard of Ceciliantas by now. can't assume that everyone that doesn't post is a "good" player.

there are just way too many elitist noobs out there... people who micromanage others when they do a horrible job themselves... and too many people who refuse to take advice. it's just poor behavior.

[Shindo]

You guys are comparing apples to oranges. I played EQ since it was first out, for 4 and 1/2 years, in the top guild on my server and played half of the classes in xp and raid environment. If you compare the EQ high end game now vs FFXI, a lot that has been said is correct. However, that's really not a valid comparison since FFXI still have 80% more content being planned/released.

To make a fair comparison, we should only compare EQ with Kunark Expansion vs FFXI right now with zilart expansion. From what I have observed, Kunark seems to give EQ more content then zilart has given FFXI besides the 3 new classes. However, FFXI the orginal had far richer content then EQ without expansion, in both low, mid and high lvl game. Not only that, the raiding back then is just plain horrible compare to today's standards. There were far less skill and coordination involved outside of exp group skill and knowing the zone for pulling. The coordinated raids really started after Velious, which was a turning point for EQ high end game. The game was full of bugs and exploits and the truely hardcore have spent ridiculous ammount of time and patience for the slowest possible gain in gear --- dying 10 times a day recovering corpse in Plane of Fear and stay up till 6 am, or bind rush Vox. FFXI at least had high lvl content that were fully tested out and remains challenging without the ammount of patience and xp loss required for raiding to get high level gear. It also provided far far more low and mid level content for casual and hardcore players alike.

Far too many here posting either don't remember what original EQ was like or didn't start playing back then. A lot the problems FFXI had, original EQ had it worse. Can't find groups, waiting for months to get 1 gear upgrade, just as bad NM camps. J-boots was a 65 hour straight camp for me. Outside of raiding Fear, Hate, Nagafen, Vox, there is really nothing at all to do and the only reason why it occupied most people's time because of long repops, competition and the extreme long time required to outfit a guild due to the low drop rate, which back then are in the sizes of 20-30s. Trade skill was totally useless back then. Quests are totally meaningless. Money is equally useless as most high end loot is no drop. So the days were always spent either raiding or getting the lost xp back from raids, which easily could have been a whole level. I doubt even those that has gone through the experiences back then would ever want to go through it again.

In conclusion, FFXI is still in the early stages. Have some patience for the high level content to get enriched. Besides, majority haven't even reached level 75 yet. By the time enough people get to max level and go into raid mode for high level content, I'm sure there will be enough to keep you occupied while more expansion and patches that will keep adding new content, just like EQ did. As for most people, who are casual players, this game offers much more to them then EQ. The story line is engaging. The quests are actually fun to do. There are mid lvl NM and 1 group mini raids. Crafting is also quite interesting. The most important aspect however is leveling diff jobs is far more fun then the exp grind in EQ.

[Deedlit]

Nice post Shindo!

Far too many here posting either don't remember what original EQ was like or didn't start playing back then. Heh, I remember medding with that damn book in my face...ugh! Can't say I miss corpse runs either.

[Lunakat]

The #1 thing that I dont like with FFXI are the "FFXI rocks, EQ sucks!!" noobs. Play the dam game for a few years and let us know what your thoughts are then.

EQ is a great game, lacking in some areas but every game is like that. The community is MUCH better than what I have encountered on Asura, no offense to those of you who know what your doing :P. I was afraid of this before I started, knowing the popularity of the FF line of games.

FFXI is also a great game. When I stick with my static PT everything is fine, I dread PT Seek though.

Wish they could mesh the mature community, varity of spells, varity of gear, enviromental effects (bard speed, levitation, etc..) and flexibility of classes form eq with the over all gameplay of ffxi.

FFXI has tremendous potential, I really hope they run with it :)

Lunakat

[ryurii]

Originally posted by JohnDragon
I was at my friends house the day after i got my ps2 game and he said that EQ was better. YA WRIGHT it sukes i was playing it the game looks like mud it just sucks i ran out of his house like that and logged on asap. I pushed that game out of my mind for good.


PS: I was trying to deside wat game to play FFXI or EQ im so glad i piked FFXI.

First off , learn to spell please. Second off, if you base a game's quality on graphic's alone than you should be shot. EQ was AND (as far as I know) Still is a VERY good game. Only reason I quit EQ was because I needed somthing new after playing for 4 years... the one thing I dont like about FFXI is no matter how you look at it, it's very linear in play. You level in specific places , you do some quests/missions, level some more... no room for exploration.. Plot wise , EQ is 100 times better than FFXI , and ORIGINAL... notice how FFXI's plot is very close to LOTR ... there are some obvious differences sure but basically it's almost the same... EQ does have it's flaws of course, bugs , exploits , etc... FFXI doesnt really seem to have too many bug's... no exploits that im aware of. hmm one last comment. EQ revolutionized the MMORPG industry. I cant say for sure of course, but I very much doubt SquareEnix would have released FFXI as an MMORPG if EQ hadnt been as succesfull as it is.

[Seiryu]

Putting both game's content aside....

EQ has a mature community. Your reputation has a lot of value...But since it's an old game, it has been reduced to a gameplay experience where data and numbers are more important than anything else. For example, it doesn't matter if graphics can be prettier...if you can turn them off and be more efficient, people will do it, etc.

FFXI has a "youngish" community. I suppose that has to be expected from a game that is accessible from PC and PS2. As a result, you see a lot of PT of "valkrum dunes" quality...People still see it as either a "game" or as a way to let their anonymous self go free. Though on another side there is a lot more people who will try to roleplay and forget about the data/number side of the game...

I suppose every MMORPG reach a golden age at some point, my opinion is that FFXI still hasn't reached it yet.

+maturity
+fantasy
-numbers

[tonka]

I played EQ for 5 months from launch and the maturity was just as bad in EQ as during the US release of FFXI.

Everybody was soloing, nobody had any clue how to form parties or XP efficiently in groups. People would spend a lot of time breaking camps and another group would just walk right into the middle and pick off the mobs. Training mobs was rampant, although usually accidental and only sometimes malicious. And to this day, the worse case of verbal harrassment i've ever seen in a MMORPG was from early EQ days. The person was a mom IRL who played while her kids were in school, so i felt extra horrified. She took screenshots of the chat and send it in to Verant, and it would make a sailor cringe.

I returned to EQ last year, and it was night & day the difference between the players now & then. But EQ did NOT start out that way.

Coming as someone who started onling gaming via text-based MUDs, I agree graphics aren't everything. And you know what, there are still some text based MUDs that were better/more original than EQ or FFXI. But the popularity of what i call "graphic MUDs" cannot be denied, they have players in the hundreds of thousands while MUDs usually only have hundreds.

[Fjiorea]

you cannot judge a game just by the looks, it is true that EQ's graphic looks outdated compared to FFXI, however, at the current stage of both games, EQ have much, much more content than FFXI.

i say this because i have been playing EQ for 3years and have see it all before i decided its time for me to leave. FFXI is not going to be the game that i will stay for another 3 years, that im sure.

looking forward for EQ2 and WoW.

[KamaAina]

Dont tell me how and how not to judge games.


I happen to like graphics, im sorry but staring at a stick man all day is not my idea of fun. Graphics are exactly that the reason I never played EQ, that and I have a feeling since it has been out for so long that new players are probobly treated with alot of disrespect (something that I see here too).

Maybe I am not a "gamer", but thats just my opinion.

(this is the first game I have really ever played and up until 3 years ago I had never owned a computer but I am just speaking on personal preference I would just get too bored if it had bad graphics)

[Tukka]

are exactly that the reason I never played EQ, that and I have a feeling since it has been out for so long that new players are probobly treated with alot of disrespect (something that I see here too).
Actually I think the opposite is true in EQ. Final Fantasy XI is in a period of explosive growth, EverQuest is well past their period of explosive growth. The result is, you have a lot more newbies in FF11 than you do in EQ.

While you might think this would breed disrespect for newbies in the more experienced community, just the opposite occurs. In Final Fantasy XI, newbies right now are a burden. Many of them don't know how to play the game very well, don't play their roles properly, make clumsy use of the game interface (thus are slower to react than more experienced players), and have limited knowledge of community etiquette. The result is that if you're leveling a subjob, you're probably going to be grouped with some newbies... it gets to be tiresome, having to explain/teach/convince new players to play their role properly almost every single time you join a party.

In EverQuest, newbies are rare enough that they are something of a novelty. Teaching a new player the ins and outs of the game and giving advice on how to play their role is quite fun, if you don't have to spend a lot of time doing it every single day when you're trying to advance your own character.

Besides that, in EQ, since there are no subjobs and there's a lot of things to work on even when you hit the level cap (raid content, alternative experience, ect.) you are never really forced to party with people who are lower in level than your main character's "main" (only) job. Experienced players don't party with newbies, by and large, unless they are leveling up an alternate character.

So higher level players have limited exposure to newbies in the first place, unless they want exposure to newbies. In FF11, you are forced to play with newbies whether you want to or not, and I have seen firsthand a lot more disrespect for newbies in FF11, which I think mostly out of impatience with having to ride out the learning curve of all the newbies they are surrounded by whenever trying to level a sub. So I've seen a lot more disrespect for newbies even from my linkshell, which is I think a mature slice of the community than you'd get from a random sample of players, than I did when I played EverQuest (at least in latter days--when I started playing EQ about 2 months before the first expansion, I don't recall a lot of disrespect from more experienced players either, though, but my memory could just be failing me).

[ryurii]

Originally posted by KamaAina
Dont tell me how and how not to judge games.

I happen to like graphics, im sorry but staring at a stick man all day is not my idea of fun. Graphics are exactly that the reason I never played EQ


I dont believe in such a thing as "bad graphics" Yes EQ's graphics are a little out dated sure... But Graphics dont make the game... Graphics are just a little bit of eye candy to attact people to the game.

perfect example: Final Fantasy X-2 .... I think 95% of people that have played FFX-2 will say the game sucked... However , it has great graphics...

Originally posted by KamaAina
Maybe I am not a "gamer", but thats just my opinion.

(this is the first game I have really ever played and up until 3 years ago I had never owned a computer but I am just speaking on personal preference I would just get too bored if it had bad graphics)

If your not a "gamer" than how can you have an opinion that matters when judging a game.... you just contradict your self ... don't post unless you know what your talking about , you only make yourself look bad.

[aques]

Originally posted by ryurii


First off , learn to spell please. Second off, if you base a game's quality on graphic's alone than you should be shot. EQ was AND (as far as I know) Still is a VERY good game.


I guess I must be shot. FFXI's graphics are better because I feel that the artists do a much better job. The technology used to create such graphics are probably either less than or equal to the most recent EQ expansion. Even when I look at screenshots of EQ2 and compare them with FFXI, FFXI looks better in terms of style even though EQ2 uses new technology.


Only reason I quit EQ was because I needed somthing new after playing for 4 years... the one thing I dont like about FFXI is no matter how you look at it, it's very linear in play. You level in specific places , you do some quests/missions, level some more... no room for exploration.. Plot wise , EQ is 100 times better than FFXI , and ORIGINAL... notice how FFXI's plot is very close to LOTR ... there are some obvious differences sure but basically it's almost the same... EQ does have it's flaws of course, bugs , exploits , etc... FFXI doesnt really seem to have too many bug's... no exploits that im aware of. hmm one last comment. EQ revolutionized the MMORPG industry. I cant say for sure of course, but I very much doubt SquareEnix would have released FFXI as an MMORPG if EQ hadnt been as succesfull as it is.

Hmm...FFXI is very linear in play? All the things you said are very very similar to what I did in EQ, except the quests had no storyline at all. Not even a cutscene. I remember getting the warrior armor(forgot the name but it was bluish color) and all I get other than the armor was a pat in the back. At least in FFXI there is a storyline for some quests(such as advanced job quest, if you have done the ninja quest that's a storyline right?).

Now I cannot argue that the beginning missions are pretty boring fetch type quests. I also have to admit that prior to rank 4, the storyline isn't that good. But once you start doing missions after rank 4, the storyline picks up, and once you can do Zilart missions, the story gets even better. As for EQ, what exactly was the plot? All I remember was level grinding, raids, and NM camping. Sure when Velious came out a more interesting storyline appeared about how 3 factions struggled to control Velious, but the only thing that you can participate in(for storyline purposes) is to raid either of the two cities depending on your faction.

As everyone mentioned, the problem with FFXI lies when you reach lvl 75. After completing zilart missions, the only other thing you can do was dynamis, and that requires a ton of people in order to even participate(18+ raid).

[Kailea]

throwing in my two gil.......

Graphics......dont matter

Game play......should be fun

EQ has its own way and style, and so does FFXI, so you can really only compare them under one factor, what you your self like more.....

I played EQ for the free month, and it was good, but then when I found oout FFXI was comeing out, I did not want to start playing it because I knew I was going to switch :p

[SorrowFool]

I've been playing FFXI since beta and before that, the first MMORPG I played was EQOA. Yes, the graphics and a lot of the elements FFXI has are better than EQ and EQOA, but there is something about those two games that keeps me from completely neglecting them. FFXI just seems too "short" to me. You spend most of your time leveling up character through the same areas, over and over. The when you get to the top...

Th EQ community is more mature, most definitely. My hypothesis on the reasoning of this is the fact that it is exclusive to computer. Playing EQOA I can tell you that the PS2 audience is the main cause of the lewd language, spam, and griefing on FFXI now. I never really had many problems w/ this until around March 23rd. By allowing the game to be on PS2, they are opening it to a whole new audience. Namely, a much younger one.

Don't get me wrong. I'm play on PS2 and know that there are a lot of PS2 users that are keep things cool, but a majority of the griefers I see/hear... on PS2. EQOA was riddled w/ grief and the lack of GM support basically kills the game.

I don't play a game specifically based on graphics, but I do like nice graphics. Gameplay is most important, though... so I'm just using FFXI to hold me over until WoW comes out and I can try that out...

[Calroon]

Couldn't agree more, kids suck - they waste my time online playing :p

[Roldarin]

I played EQ for over 3 years and FFXI a little bit after launch. I've raided in EQ up to the elemental planes, but have only reached level 46 with my highest job in FFXI.

Graphics:
Its not necessarily about how EQ graphics suck and FFXI graphics rock. To me its about how well the graphics blend and the architecture of the cities. In FF everything seems to fit. There is little in the way of stuff just "stuck" on the landscape like a Colorforms(tm) item. EQ has a lot of examples like that, especially in older zones. And this is dispite multiple technology upgrades. Why? Its really old stuff. Overall the graphics style of EQ is striving for more realism. And because the graphics aren't that up to date, doesn't look as good as the highly stylized and well blended FFXI graphics. Although a few EQ cities are open are beautiful, many of them are closed, tunnel like and ugly. Even the Bastok city (a very dirty primitive industrial city) has more charm than most EQ cities. Again, a lot of it due to age of the game.

Gameplay:
This is one reason why I left EQ. Although EQ has a lot of high-end interesting raid content, the overall gameplay seems very one dimensional. Although you CAN do quests, tradeskills, etc. you are much better spending all your time leveling and just farming for money as needed. Sure there are a few worthwhile quests, but often you are still better off just buying stuff from the bazaar. If you never do a single quest your gameplay won't be impacted at all. LDON adventures have a few nice things to work for. But that's basically just more endless slaughter for hours on end farming loot points instead of exp points. More of a variation on a theme.

In FFXI, quests, missions and tradeskills are more required. You CAN just grind your way to 75 (well except for limit quests). But without Chocobo, Airship pass, various maps, your progress will be hindered. I feel the rewards for many quests make them worthwhile. At early levels you do quests as a reasonble way to make money. The missions are both interesting to do, and later, almost required because of the airship license. You get rewarded in your gameplay for doing quests in missions. In EQ you feel penalized.

Tradeskills seem more worth it in FFXI. I have my cooking to 51 atm. And although I don't make a ton of money, its what I do instead of farming items for gil. Other people in my LS fish, mine, log, etc. They pick something they like. Most of these methods require investment (field gear, fishing poles, leveling trade skill, pick axes, etc). You have a feeling of accomplishment.

In EQ you can't make money getting your baking to 125 (half of max). At one time you could make some money with mid-level tailoring or smithing, but not much anymore. If you don't have 220+ there isn't much useful stuff you can make. Except for mid-level alchemy. That you can do for a little bit of money. But only if you are a shaman.

The flipside to my argument is: "But I HATE timesinks, forced grouping, artificial blocks in your way to make you work for stuff. I should have a choice. I should be able to just exp." And for many people that's fine. To me, by not throwing some variety into the game, it feels counterproductive for me to do anything but exp.

That isn't to say FFXI doesn't have its flaws. 4 levels max difference (often 3) makes it harder to get groups together.

On the other hand having level 65 people exping with level 50 people in EQ and having the level 50 people get mad exp in EQ for 6 levels (to the tune of 1/3 - 1/2 a level a night) seems a little unbalanced.