Hi again Kaz,

> It does sound like it. In fact, almost exactly a year ago I downloaded the
> Anarchy Online demo, willing to consider leaving EQ for another game. But

> turned out to be inferior, as far as I could tell, so I stayed. It sounds
> like I should have tried DAoC instead, and might have switched.

I have this interesting theory, and that is that turn based games like EQ
and DAoC work due to the very genre of the game. They are fantasy games and
as such the turn based style lends itself to a very good and smooth play
style. However, for something like AO (I was in the BETA on that as well as
many other games) and the new Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) the turn based system
SHOULD NEVER be used. Seriously, in my opinion its just not cool to see two
tough guys with big blasters and kick ass rifles standing toe-to-toe at
point blank range shooting at each other like a 18th Century soldiers firing
muskets. NOT COOL. (unless of course its a MMOG based on 18th Century
soldiers firing muskets. ;-P )

For something like SWG you need to have some sort of first person shooter
perspective. I think the game that is going to get this right is another
game from Sony that some of you may or may not be aware of and that is
called "Planetside". This looks to be a very COOL game and will be the game
I choose to play rather than SWG simply because it will take real skill to
shoot another player rather than a die roll. As I said earlier, its my
opinion that turn based gun style combat simply does not work. For swords,
maces, bows and arrows and magic spells its a good system, but not for gun
combat.

Thats basically what killed it for me with AO and I hope that SWG has a
better system if its not an FPS style.

With regards to trying out DAoC instead...its possible you may have stayed,
but like many new games there are problems. Some were class glitches,
balancing issues, RvR problems and simply lack of content. Its kind of hard
to perform a relic raid when the relic is stuck to the floor and you can't
pick it up. ;-)

I also think you would have been disappointed at the lack of content and how
lame and small the original dungeons were when you compared them to the
pretty large, complex and vast dungeons in EQ. I know I was, but I hung in
there and the new Shrouded Isles expansion has greatly improved the dungeon
situation.

> But in the last year the /amount/ of change has been as breathtaking as

the

> changes themselves, and other than a single bug which makes my machine
> hesitate for several seconds every once in a while, sometimes getting me
> killed (and all MMORPGs have occasional graphics bugs), I've turned around
> and grown really happy with EQ again. Sony seems to have made its
> development, improvement, and stability a very high priority.
>

Its this kind of new attitude from Sony and the efforts that they have made
to make EQ even better that will probably drive me to play EQ2 when its
released. I am really looking forward to EQ2 as well as Planetside. If you
ask me, it looks like Sony will be the numero uno MMORPG game company out
there. And believe me, companies love nothing more than a continuous revenue
stream, especially from loyal and dedicated fans.

I have taken advantage of Sonys 30day account reactivation for EQ. I
installed Kunark and Velious. Thats all I own, and I must say the new
interface is very nice. However, after being away from EQ for over a year it
all felt pretty alien to me. Since I don't have Luclin, the graphics were
obviously VERY dated. I would have liked to have tried EQ with updated
graphics. They look pretty good from what I've seen.

> On the other hand, I'm curious enough that if there were a demo of DAoC,

I'd

> download it. But a quick perusal of the site doesn't reveal one, and I'm
> certainly not going to pay money for the game at a store "just in case" I
> might like it more.
> Do they not have a way to demo it free? Even EQ gave out free registration
> keys to all existing accounts so that people could share/demo the game to
> their friends...

I don't think there is a demo of DAoC, which is quite unfortunate. The
classic DAoC sells in most stores for about $20 w/1month free access. So its
not too bad to check it out. If you happen to have a friend who had it that
would be the most ideal situation.

Oskar
44.5 Hibernian Bard Extraordinaire
Gathering of Ancients
Palomides