Last night I finally gave in and admitted a dissapointing truth. I don't play Everquest II anymore, and indeed, haven't logged in for some weeks. Time to uninstall and move on.

It is a shame though...I did want to like it, and for a time, did. The graphics were good, some of the most fundamental gameplay problems with the previous generation of MMO had been looked at and addressed, and they had spent an awlful lot of money on voice acting. It would almost be chirlish not to like it really. Also, I picked EQ2 instead of WoW, so felt that having nailed my colours to the mast, I ought to stick by my choice.

So what went wrong, and why am I quitting? Well, since the text-box on the I Quit form is rarely big enough, I'll use this <ul> tag to explain:

  • Grind

    My attention span for long-scale repetition activity erodes with each game, and while many titles are moving toward a more casual style of play, clearly the Everquest design is not. This may be a good thing for many, but I just can't be arsed anymore. The general opinion I got, both firsthand and from others, was that EQ2 is a lot of fun up until about level 21-22, and then, like running a marathon, you hit The Wall, and the grinding becomes very apparent. Coincidentaly, level 20 is where the last of the career progression quests stop, meaning your personal storyline ends there, and you join the ranks of the faceless jobbing mercenaries. The quests are indeed plentiful and the journal is a nice touch, but at least 75% of these quests are quite litterally 'Kill Ten Rats'.

  • Patches

    When I ticked 'Optional Extra Downloads', I had no idea this would mean over 400MB of extra voice junk. Pretty much every time I decide to play EQ2 after a few days absence, they've added another 10-50MB patch, which is all very well, but I just know by looking at the patch notes that most of it is Not For Me. It gets pretty irritating actually. Call me petty, but some nights I've just gone 'Sod it.' and closed the launcher before it even finished the patch, and gone off to play something else instead.

  • Marginalised

    A tricky thing to notice at first, but I'm increasingly becoming of the opinion that EQ2 is 'Not For Me'. By 'Me', I mean the casual sub Level-30 Soloing Explorer. Being an Axis Pass holder, I was granted 'The Bloodline Chronicles' Adenture Pack for free - a whole mini-expansion, and to date I've used none of it. The whole adventure pack doesn't even begin until level 30, and I'm only 23 and not going to get any further. I think if I'd actually paid for it, I'd be quite annoyed. Subsequent patching and extras also seemed to be aimed specifically at a higher-levelled player population that I'm unlikely to ever be a part of. "Lazy" I hear you cry, and you're probably right; I am lazy when it comes to grinding, and it makes sense that the most new stuff goes to the largest player demographic, who have already 'finished' the basic task you gave them. It is my fault for not keeping up, but that still doesn't make me anymore likely to want to try harder. Similarly, solo play is particularly frowned on in EQ2, although to be fair, that does seem to be getting better lately. You're still very dependent on random idiots to get anything worthwhile done though.

  • Restrictive

    As an Explorer type, I'm especially annoyed with having to leave, as there are still five whole continents, and a great many dungeons, that I've not even seen. Unfortunately, access to these continents is given out exclusively as a reward for being an Achiever player-type, and grinding, and most of the dungeons will only let you in if you're grouped up with two or more random idiots. Can't be arsed, and I've seen all the bits I am allowed into.

  • Overexposure

    Only really a problem for the paranoid obsessive, but speaking personally, I get really annoyed and embarassed by the relentless gimmick-spamming SOE put out regarding EQ2. /pizza, Sony Exchange, The Quest For Antonia, Expansions, Adventure Packs, Anime Face Options, Booth Babes, Fan Faire... on and on, over and over, and frankly, it makes me queasy to be even tangentially associated with such a pathetically needy brand. Every morning's Blog and MMO News round has me peeking through my fingers and groaning with mingled disappointment and shame these days. Of course this has no affect on actual gameplay at all, but still helps to turn me against the game. A company as sucessful as they are should carry themselves with a little more decorum, I think. Unless it is actual panic in the face of WoW opposition?

  • Space

    EQ2 has an installed disk footprint of at least 4GB, which I need for putting Thief: Deadly Shadows back on - a game where being a Rogue means more than just being a half-arsed DPS tank!

So another one bites the dust. I expect I'll be back in the future, but it's never as good as The First Time. Farewell, Everquest II...we expected so much from each other, and were both let down...