Favorite Zone ever?

[Venjenz]

Even EQ doesn'thave the old EQ feel. It died with Luclin.

There's really no more corpse running like before because of potions and the once per day/week? rezz everyone gets. And if you really are lazy, just have your corpse summoned to the Guild Hall, where a platoon of rezz bots sits around rezzing for tips.

EQ has instancing. It has basically removed the death penalty. It has the same faction and money grinds as WoW, just slower and requiring competing for spawns. 90% of the content in the game goes unseen and unused because the exp treadmill is concentrated in the hotzones. Most groups are people botting two or three accounts.

Basically, all the EQ nostalgia is for a game that has not existed since 2001. Modern EQ is WoW with fewer players, shittier gameplay, and crappier graphics. Oh yeah, and it has an almost insurmountable barrier to newer players who ever want to see any high end content. Slow, ugly WoW with the fun taken out, that's EQ in 2008.

Those zones we all reminisce about had that feel because of the game and how it worked at the time. Sebilis is not the same zone when you have a level 75 character that can solo Trakanon. Vulak is a soloable mob, and that means NToV to someone seeing it now for the first time is a wholly different place from when all of us did back in 2000.

Maybe that's why most zones in WoW don't make you crap your pants and triple your heartrate. The game mechanics of WoW don't include losing an entire weekend of gameplay because you died in the wrong place. EQ mechanics don't either, not anymore, but back in the day....

[Araxen]

uh...the no shit sherlock award to goes.......

take a guess!

[Venjenz]

Originally Posted by Araxen

uh...the no shit sherlock award to goes.......

take a guess!

I'm not the one who keeps talking about original EQ zone design like it was singular genius though. The epic cool of a lot of the levels people remember fondly is due in large part to the fucked up mechanics of the game making the zone scarier and more awesome than the design itself.

[Grizzlebeard]

Originally Posted by Venjenz

I'm not the one who keeps talking about original EQ zone design like it was singular genius though.

Favorite Zone ever?

Hi.

[Ham n Cheese]

Sebilis is probably the best zone to ever come out of an MMORPG to me. Like mentioned before, there was just so many camps, with so many levels of difficulty and the risk vs reward was actually pretty fair. Toss in the fact that there's a giant ass dragon at the end and you have an A+++ zone to me. Lower Guk right behind it, you could go from 30-50 in guk and it seemed the best exp at the time plus depending on your camp you could walk out with an old school uber drop (ykesha, fbss, smr, etc)

Cazic Thule is another one, old version or new version, the zone kicked ass. I even liked it when it got beefed up though and it was pretty easy to wipe still in some areas without the right people.

[Bloodget]

Originally Posted by Venjenz

I'm not the one who keeps talking about original EQ zone design like it was singular genius though. The epic cool of a lot of the levels people remember fondly is due in large part to the fucked up mechanics of the game making the zone scarier and more awesome than the design itself.

I do not agree at all. But it might come from a difference in what we are looking for in a game.
When I zoned in Chardock, we had tons of options. Going to the nobles? the pens? the bank? staying at castle entrance? the mines? the necro whined to have his herb? And usually you have more than one way to go there.
Some dungeons had living facilities, like...kitchen, farm, barrack, houses, bars, temple...
The bar in BRD was not awesome?
Hard to explain, but to me it was cool and felt more ...argh...believable.

Now, when I zoned in strat, it was ...do we go through the right corridor undead side or the left one living side? Then follow this corridor until the end to the final named (only worthy goal), doing it all in the good (and only one) order, as fast as possible.

But, again, I totally understand that someone else wants something else from the game. In fact most of my problems are finding a group of people to do just crazy useless things (why go there, nothing good drop and xp is crap).
It might be because I come from tabletop RPG too and that, while not a RPer at all myself in a mmo, or at least not in a "I speak old English (I have already hard enough time writing regular Engrish anyway), I cyber the elf chick, I use (()) in guild chat" kind of way, I am not interested in the loot seeking, best efficient way, competitive epeen gameplay.

I like to raid because it is fun when you like "most" of your guildies, to group and pushing the difficulty until a wipe happen just for fun to find what is the max we are capable of, and to solo. And, I know I will be laughed at for saying that, I like to dream and have fun, that's why a long corridor of trash mobs spaced with some bosses don't do it, and why PoM was my preferred zone.

That's why I play these games, and my taste will not change no matter how many times you tell me I am wrong and it has nothing to do with death penalties I didn't care about to begin with.

[Kaljin]

I'm pretty sure this thread was about listing favorite zones in MMO's we've played - I could be wrong tho' but I doubt it... and guess what has happend? Epic derail leading to the EQ vs. WoW bullshit, AGAIN.

[Kreugen]

I should clarify my entry.

I loved Guk up until there were more than 20 people in the zone. I flat out fucking hated it the day it hit 115, after greedy fucking wizards and clerics and people on their boxed alts looted a fbss when I never got one. The entire reason I was motivated to join FoH was to be ahead of the curve and not have to put up with the crowds. FUCK trade able group loot.

Guk on progression server was a fucking joke. EQ nostalgia servers are a joke. You won't recreate your noob experiences, let it go.

So, my modern day favorite would be BRD. Unfortunately blizzard actually thinks crybaby casual instant gratification idiots will actually be better served by cutting up each dungeon into little 4 room chunks. Trust me, people whined their fucking heads off about BRD. OMG I can't do the whole thing in ten minutes! Well no fucking shit, that's why it isn't linear. But that wasn't enough. And those same fucking idiots that assured that every instance would be another Dire Maul STILL DON'T GROUP FOR INSTANCES. They want solo instances. Fuck, they want SOLO RAIDS, whatever the fuck that is supposed to be. Fuck those people, bring back long winding instances. One Karazhan is not enough.

/rant off

[James]

Originally Posted by Kreugen

Unfortunately blizzard actually thinks crybaby casual instant gratification idiots will actually be better served by cutting up each dungeon into little 4 room chunks. Trust me, people whined their fucking heads off about BRD. OMG I can't do the whole thing in ten minutes! Well no fucking shit, that's why it isn't linear. But that wasn't enough. And those same fucking idiots that assured that every instance would be another Dire Maul STILL DON'T GROUP FOR INSTANCES.

That's really the important part. It seems somewhere along the line they tried to make things better for the player that 'just happened to hit 60 (70)' and went too far in one direction almost at the detriment of everyone who, you know, actually fucking enjoys the game.

[Vatoreus]

BRD is extreme levels of awesome and I really wish there were more instances like it...oh well...

[EmiliaEQ]

I loved Guk up until there were more than 20 people in the zone

Let me guess you managed to cross the entire dungeon w/o seeing a single frog
Too bad guk had all the xp & phatz.

Dont you have memories of Crazy "DN / The Hole / Charasis" groups ?

[Cuppycake]

Originally Posted by Ridah

Ssraeshza Temple, the zone of pure ownage.

The VT key quest killed Ssra for me. I did always think that the Shissar were cool looking.

This thread really has gotten me thinking about WoW's zones. There really are a lot of unique, beautiful, well designed environments in WoW. Say what you want about the art style, but Blizzard does a great job of creating settings that really reflect the lore and make you distinctly remember them.

My favorite zones in EQ are my favorite because of the memories, the time I spent there, the loot I earned from there, and associated memories like who I was camping that zone with. My favorite zones in WoW are my favorite because they're beautiful, immersive, unique, and give me a real feeling that I'm in a fantasy world. The vibrance and distinction from one zone to another is unmatched IMO.

I always though Azshara looked nice because it reminds me of fall in Minnesota.

Eversong Woods is just absolutely fairytale beautiful.

Gnomeregan is one of the neatest ideas for a dungeon, yet people don't do it enough =(

Scholo/Strat give me a scared feeling for some reason. I love those instances.

Blackfathom Deep - I love the whole underwater cavern feel. This zone is really well done..and who doesn't like hydras?

Winterspring - Probably the coldest and snowiest feeling winter zone I've ever played. Maybe second to like, Iceclad.

[Zehn - Vhex]

No, because I was a wizard and didn't have to put up with that shit.

[Komido]

Originally Posted by Kreugen

I should clarify my entry.

/rant off

Ah. So thats the reason that all the TBC instances are designed like LDON instances and are as boring as shit.

Blizzard should hire me to do their instance design. Here is a rough concept of a zone I call "Corridor Chaos".

=[]=[]=[]=[ ]

The ceilings will be a 100 feet high and the zone will be filled with trash mobs just standing around waiting to be pulled (There sure as fuck isn't any other apparent reason why are just standing around.). Obviously every other open room will contain a boss with a large loot pool, but only drop one piece of loot per kill. That will give the customer a reason to keep returning and enjoying the zone several times until their desired item drops.

When do I get paid?

Seriously though. My favorite zones tend to be designed like castles or manors. Zones that have rooms that are meaningful. Karahzan, Shadowfang Keep, Mistmoore, Unrest, BRD, Scholomance and the likes are my favorite types. I really hope blizzard intends to bring these designs back for WOTLK. I don't think I could stand to run through more uninspired tunnels for another expansion.

[Rezz]

Blackrock Spire was a truly inspired zone. One zone, two paths, both entirely different difficulty levels and risk vs. reward. Seriously, I'm gonna have to agree that the instances of blackrock mountain minus MC/BWL were fantastic. Those two were... less than awesome. MC especially.

WoW has some good zone design, but some are just plain lazy. Nagrand definitely comes to mind there.