WARCRAFT WINS!

After a long battle Warcraft is victorious… although i suspect the 9 million players would have been reduced to about 900 by the rock hard dudes and monsters from the land of Norrath (EQ/EQ2). My reasoning behind the Warcraft vicotry is it has a much bigger community and caters for most type of game player.

But please remeber to not go overboard with it….! Gaming can be addictive. Only last week a chinese guy died in an internet cafe after playing an “unnamed” MMORPG for 3 days solid… hmmmm i wonder what that could have been.

Remember peeps….. Everything in moderation…………………………………..Except Alcohol!

Bosses and Gods: Warcraft and Everquest!

All bosses in Warcraft require each class of character to know what thier individual role is in the fight. Some summon extra dudes to annoy you. Some heal themselves they are all very tactical fights.

Illidan Stormrage is a major character in the fictional Warcraft universe. He was featured prominently in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion The Frozen Throne, and has more recently reappeared in the World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade
He was, at a time, a member of the Night Elf race and is one of their most ancient, influential and infamous figures. He has also become one of the most popular characters in the Warcraft universe.

llidan is a transformed corrupted Night Elf.

He began life as a relatively normal male of his species, tall and muscular with sharp features, glowing eyes, purple skin and long, pointed ears. The only abnormality was the color of his eyes, which were a golden amber instead of the silver eyes more commonly found among Night Elves. Amber colored eyes were said to prophesize greatness, which is one reason Illidan felt pressured to succeed. When Illidan was in alliance with Sargeras, the titan burned out his eyes and replaced them with glowing green flames, which Illidan hides behind a blindfold. The new orbs allowed Illidan to see magical energies in the environment as well as allowing him to see minute details in his surroundings. The Skull of Gul’dan eventually imbued him with demonic power (as well as some of the essence of the dead Orc warlock), granting him an entirely new form. Illidan now resembles one of the Nathrezim more than one of his own race, although his skin remains purple and his ears are still long and pointed. He has wings, horns and talons and his skin is covered in green, glowing arcane runes, the latter also a gift from Sargeras. He wields 2 crescent-shaped weapons known as the Twin Blades of Azzinoth.

Ragnaros the Firelord is an incredibly powerful Elemental Lord, and master of all fire elementals. He rules over his minions from deep inside the fiery core of Blackrock Mountain.

The Firelord and his brethren once held sway over the entire world. As Ragnaros was a servant of the Old Gods. The Titans eventually banished him to the Elemental Plane - there to remain imprisoned until the end of time.

In the center of a vast lake of fire in the Elemental Plane stands Sulfuron Keep, the home of Ragnaros. Until comparatively recently, he ruled his underground land with a molten iron fist.

Three hundred years ago, the ambitious and ruthless Dark Iron Clan initiated a war against their dwarven brethren, the Bronzebeard Clan and Wildhammer Clan. During this War of the Three Hammers, the Dark Iron Dwarf leader named Thaurissan lay siege to the Wildhammers’ capital city of Grim Batol, destroying it. Despite this victory, the united Wildhammers and Bronzebeards were ultimately able to push the Dark Iron dwarves back to Blackrock Mountain. Thaurissan, seeking to summon a supernatural minion that would turn the tide of the war back to his favor, called upon the ancient powers sleeping beneath the world. To Thaurissan’s surprise, and ultimately his doom, the creature that emerged was more terrible than any nightmare he could have imagined.

Now, freed by Thaurissan’s call, Ragnaros erupted into being once again. Ragnaros’ apocalyptic rebirth into Azeroth shattered the Redridge Mountains and created a raging volcano at the center of the devastation. The volcano, known as Blackrock Mountain, was bordered by what is now known as the Searing Gorge, to the north, and the Burning Steppes, to the south. Though Thaurissan was killed by the forces he had unleashed, his surviving Dark Iron Clan brethren were ultimately enslaved by Ragnaros and his elementals.

Kerafyrm (also called “The Sleeper”) is a boss character in the fantasy MMORPG EverQuest.

Originally intended to be unkillable, the character caused a stir in the EverQuest community when the developers of the game (Sony Online Entertainment) intervened and prevented a group of nearly 200 players from killing him, in November of 2003. Sony later apologized for interfering, and allowed the same group of players to retry the encounter. After a nearly three-hour battle, Kerafyrm was defeated.

Kerafyrm is guarded by four ancient dragons in a zone called The Sleeper’s Tomb. If all four dragons are dead at the same time, The Sleeper is awoken, and begins a rampage of death across the game’s land of Norrath. This event is particularly unique in EverQuest, because it can only ever be completed once on each game server. Once The Sleeper is triggered, he and his four guardian dragons (with their highly prized “Primal” loot) will never appear again.

Quarm - While not a “true deity”, Quarm is a massive four headed dragon, which is in actuality a manifestation of the four elemental gods (Xegony, Coirnav, The Rathe Council, and Fennin Ro). They manifest themselves in this “ultimate” form in a final attempt to stop adventurers from freeing Zebuxoruk (an impisoned god) in the Plane of Time, for what was to be his prison for all eternity.

So……

The fact that the EQ bosses seem about 10,000 harder to kill than the WoW bosses makes me think that which the Pros and Cons of WoW/EQ weighed up it will be a very close fight!

The Weapons of Battle: WoW and EQ/EQ2

WARCRAFT

Warcraft has it’s fair share of Weapons… the range from:

1. Grey (crappy blunt and old)
2. Green (uncommen and useful)
3. Blue (Rare and highly sought after)
4. Purple (Epic quality a must have for a serious player)
5. Orange (Legendary - very few players obtain these)
6. Red (Artifact - only available to Games Masters)

The dynamic of Warcraft is based around kit and how you play your class. The main focus being on the buffs and bonuses each item gives you. So most of the WoW weapons are pretty nice and shiny!

EVERQUEST

The weapon dynamic seems to be very different in EQ/EQ2 and there is more focus on trained skills and teamwork rather than the brute force used in other games. There are multiple types of weapon and different quality of weapons also, which is comparable to WoW.

The concept of gaining loot of dungeon bosses remains the same however, with groups of players banding together to take down big nasties.

Round 2: Team B Analysis - Everquest

EverQuest (or colloquially, EQ) is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost. It was developed by Verant Interactive (which had recently parted ways with 989 Studios) and published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). SOE currently runs and distributes EverQuest. The game’s sequel, EverQuest II, was released in late 2004 a few weeks before the general release of the World of Warcraft.

To play, one must initially pay for the game software and then pay a recurring monthly fee; a free trial is also available for those who wish to experience the game before paying. EverQuest was, from 2000 until 2004, the most popular extant MMORPG. EverQuest earned many awards, including GameSpot’s Game of the Year Award for 1999.

GAMEPLAY

In the game, players create a character (also known as an avatar, or colloquially as char, charrie or toon) by selecting one of 14 ‘races’ in the game, which range from elves, dwarves and ogres of fantasy, to humans, to cat-people and lizard-people. Players also select their characters’ adventuring occupation/class. Players use their character to explore the fantasy world of “Norrath”, fighting monsters and enemies for treasure and experience points, all the while interacting with other players. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, prestige, spells, and abilities.

After selecting a server, a player may create multiple characters, choosing from a variety of classes (e.g. wizards, fighters, clerics, etc.) and races (e.g., humans, gnomes, trolls, halflings, elves, etc.). The main draw of gameplay is grouping with fellow players to kill monsters for experience and gear. Beyond that, a player can explore the large and varied world, socialize, role-play, join player guilds, master trade skills, and duel other players (in restricted situations — EQ only allows Player versus Player (PVP) combat on the PvP-specific server, in designated arenas, or in a consensual duel in a limited number of locations.

The game features a 3D environment set in Norrath, its moon Luclin and numerous alternate planes of reality (such as the Plane of Hate and the Plane of Growth). The geography of the EverQuest universe is vast – consisting of nearly 400 zones. Multiple instances of the world exist on various servers, each one hosting between one and three thousand simultaneous players online during peak times.

Players may obtain items in a variety of ways: through slaying monsters, doing quests, or by gathering raw materials and then fashioning them, via numerous tradeskills such as tailoring or blacksmithing, into useful (or not-so-useful, but nevertheless fun) items. Many of the elements from EverQuest have also been drawn from text-based MUD (multi-user dungeon) games.

The fourteen classes of the original 1999 version of EverQuest were later expanded to include the Beastlord and Beserker classes with the Shadows of Luclin (2001) and Gates of Discord (2004) expansions, respectively.

The classes can be grouped into those that share similar characteristics.

1. ‘Tank’ classes are those that have high numbers of ‘hit points’ for their level and can wear heavy armor
2. Damage dealers
3. Mixed-use / Utility Classes
4. Healers
5. Casters

There are several deities in EverQuest. Like traditional deities, they each have a certain area of rule or responsibility and play a role in the ‘backstory’ of the game setting.

ZONES

The EverQuest universe is divided into nearly 400 zones. These zones represent a wide variety of geographical features, including plains, oceans, cities, deserts, and other planes of existence. One of the most popular zones in the game is the Plane of Knowledge, one of the few zones in which all races and classes can coexist harmoniously without interference. As such, it is also the zone to visit if one is looking for “buffs”, or spells that enhance characters’ abilities. The Plane of Knowledge is also home to portals to many other zones (though not nearly all the zones in the game), including portals to other planes.

ADDICTION

The game is renowned and berated (by some psychologists specializing in computer addiction) for its addictive qualities. Many refer to it half-jokingly as “NeverRest” and “EverCrack” (a reference to crack cocaine). EQ is very time-consuming for many people, and there have been some well-publicized suicides of EverQuest users, such as that of Shawn Woolley. Relationships broken because of obsessive playing resulted in the creation of an online support group called EverQuest Widows and sites like GamerWidow.com. An infamous rant titled “EQ: What You Really Get From An Online Game” appeared on Slashdot in 2002, and brought this issue of EverQuest addiction to the forefront of many message boards across the Internet.

Sale of in-game objects/real world economics

EverQuest has been the subject of various criticisms. One example involves the sale of in-game objects for real currency (often through eBay). The developers of EQ have always forbidden the practice and in January 2001 asked eBay to stop listing such auctions. For a time, such auctions were immediately removed, which changed market conditions and allowed a number of specialized auction sites to specialize in this new virtual economy.

Because items can be traded within the game and also because of illegal online trading on websites, virtual currency to real currency exchange rate have been calculated. The BBC reported that in 2002 work done by Edward Castronova showed that Everquest was the 77th richest country in the world, sandwiched between Russia and Bulgaria and its GDP per capita was higher than that of the People’s Republic of China and India. By 2004, a follow-up analysis showed that the average GDP of each of the two million players was $2,000 (£1,087) which was approximately the same as the GDP of Namibia.

ROUND UP

So to round up I’d like to say that I myself now know a lot more about Everquest and understand much more of the dynamic gameplay involved. It seems to be a much more “in-depth” game than Warcraft that will appeal to the more “Hardcore” gamers out there.