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It seems like everyone is making up their own definition of what a themepark MMO is.. So I want to break it down.. A themepark MMO is like going to a themepark.. You pick up a map of the park and it shows you the different areas and activities, waterpark here, roller coasters here, food area here...etc etc You then plan out eachactivity. With themepark MMOs its the samething you look on the map/radar And it points out the points of interests and tells you where to go.. You then do all the quests in that quest area (riding those rides). You then move to the next quest are and do those quests for that area... On and on.. Til you reach lvl cap where you do instances where you have to do one and get the gear form it to do the next instance..
That is a themepark MMO. Where you are always on the move going form quest/instance area to the next.. EQ was not a themepark MMo,.. There were no quest hubs or a bunch of quest NPCs.. There was no maps showing where to go and what todo next. In each area there was content for a range of levels.. I don't know how many times Giants 1 hit me and killed me in oasis of marr.. Some areas had it set up where the deeper you go the harder it gets and turned into raid content... All in the same zone.. There were many places you could lvl and gain Xp and. No storyline pushed from area to area.. You made your own stories. EQ was more open ended than most modern MMOs today..
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A theme park is one that takes you on "rails" down the path the designers have chosen for you.
WOW and SWTOR are games that were on rails (the latter more than the former). You pretty much followed the quests that were given to you and then moved on the next hub of quest givers. There was no, oh, let's just go to random dungeon here and do this if you wanted to move quickly through content.
EQ1 was most definitely not a theme park MMO. It also was not a sandbox.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
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EQ was an open world grindfest kind of.
All I know is that I will never ever play another theme park MMO again!! SWTOR left such a bad taste, only way to get rid of it is with a shot gun!!!
Makes me miss UO so much..=(
OP is correct..
EQ used zones because that was the technology at the time, but the game is/was not linear, or themepark. It was quite open game until plain of power, etc.
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
-Nariusseldon
Yes please take a look at these zones and understand that a lot of zones had a wide range of lvl content..it was no where near being branched lvling paths...
[url]http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/zlvlchart.html[/url]
EQ is what STARTED the entire "THemepark" mmo, so I don't know what you're talking about.
The area's were designed for specific levels and you were led through it.
IT was nothing like UO's world (Sandbox).
EQ at release had newbie zones for EACH race. Basically level 1-15 or so. There were also a few level 15-25 zones as well, like South Karana, Lesser Fay, Dagnors Cauldron....or dungeons like Blackburrow or Befallen or Crushbone. Around level 30 or a bit sooner you had a few different dungeons you could go to like Castle MistMoore, Sol A, Upper Guk bottom area. The 40 and up crowd had Sol B or Lower Guk, plus various camps like Spectres or some Giants.
Plus all the other spots people grinded out levels like Halfling Guards or those Barbs in South Karana fisherman village, or Freeport guards.
There were plenty of different places you could go for each and every level. That is not themepark. Once the expansions started to come out, there were even more places.
Plenty of Themepark mmo's do this, WoW has multiple zones for the same levels, same goes for Guild Wars 2.
That doesn't make it not a themepark.
Since nearly all of the terms we use today were retroactively coined (after the fact); EQ was neither and/or both.
But hey, if the sandbox guys can argue over what is and isn't a "true" sandbox, guess the themepark guys can, too. But it's pretty pointless equivocating. Founders aren't defined by genres; they invent the genres.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
No that's what makes modern MMOs suck!
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA
Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others...
Currently Playing: GW2
Nytlok Sylas
80 Sylvari Ranger
What do you mean how? The zones in EQ, just like most any other themepark mmo, are built for specific level ranges.
You go there, you did the quests you could, then you moved on to higher level zones.
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA
Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others...
Currently Playing: GW2
Nytlok Sylas
80 Sylvari Ranger
Using that argument, UO isn't a sandbox nor is SWG a sandbox/Sandpark because the term didnt exist back then.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I can't tell if serious. No joke. Hard to tell.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA
Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others...
Currently Playing: GW2
Nytlok Sylas
80 Sylvari Ranger
EQ wasn't a sandbox, but it certainly wasn't theme park. You might find some low level trash mobs outside the starting city, but take one step in the wrong direction and you were in way over your head, and we didn't have any idea if the way we were going was the wrong direction.
There were no flashing lights pointing out the next quest, I didn't do any quests on my first character except to go to my trainer at level 1. There was certainly nothing that pointed out where the 2nd zone was.
Asdar
no it wasn't. I played EQ in 1999 when it released, and there was no hand holding whatsoever, no real raiding back in the day either. sorry, but you're full of it.
Um, All of the above Regis, final answer.
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA
Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others...
Currently Playing: GW2
Nytlok Sylas
80 Sylvari Ranger