Skill System
As you would expect, neither of these games has any shortage of ways to individualize your character's skills as you gain experience. Along with the typical skills awarded at each new level (and sometimes inbetween levels), EQ2 gives you periodic choices to make regarding personal traits, combat training, enemy specific tactics, and racial traditions.
In WoW you will be visiting a trainer every other level to purchase new abilities. Once you reach level 10, you also get to allocate talent points, which go into a Diablo-like skill tree. It's nicely transparent and allows you to enchance your character's abilities in some interesting ways. For example, you can specialize your character for a defensive role rather than an offensive one.
Combat
EverQuest 2 has introduced Heroic Opportunities, which are a combat feature that allow players to make special combination moves if a series of skills are performed in order. This is a welcome addition, particularly when playing in groups, where combat benefits the most from a new layer of complexity.
WoW hasn't strayed much from the tried and true MMORPG combat systems many of us are familiar with. Certain classes have special moves that increase in power with a number of successful hits, but nothing at this stage that rivals Heroic Opportunities. Again, WoW seems more geared to toward the solo player in this department.
Note that there is no player vs. player combat in EQ2 at this time. WoW has Horde vs. Alliance servers, and more PvP features, such as instanced PvP battlegrounds, are allegedly in the works.
Death
Death never comes without consequences, but it's safe to say that death in EQ2 is a little harsher than death in WoW, and a little less harsh than the original EQ. Both games have an assortment of minor, temporary penalties, including loss of item durability, and both reduce the overall penalties if you successfully recover your corpse, or, in the case of EQ2, spirit shard. You will want to recover your spirit shards in EQ2, because it's worth the XP you'll save, and you always run the risk of dying again in the process and compounding the problem. In WoW, you perform your corpse recovery in ghost form, making it fairly easy to avoid being repeatedly killed.
Crafting
Crafters will be delighted with EQ2, which has a system that goes well beyond simply combining components into new items. More valuable items require an intricate and interactive crafting process that resembles combat in some ways. Along with quests specifically for artisans, a player could likely spend the bulk of their time pursuing trade skills if they so desired.
In WoW crafting follows the usual formula pretty closely. You collect the raw materials, acquire the necessary recipe, click a few buttons, and it's done. Trade skills seem geared more toward giving players a break from killing and questing than giving them an alternate route for advancement.
Bottom Line
I think WoW has a broader appeal and will prove to be the more popular of these two games. If you prefer solo play or you want to PvP, it's the obvious choice. As enchanting as the artistry is, not everyone will go for the cartoony look.
EQ2 has greater depth and number of new features that are a credit to the genre, as well as an outstanding graphics engine. While the pace is a bit slower than WoW, it has some novel group dynamics that should engage even the most experienced RPGers.
No matter which way you go, it's going to be great year for MMORPGs, as these titles are clearly poised to set a new standard by which games of this kind are judged, and raise interest in massively multiplayer gaming as a whole.
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World of Warcraft System Requirements
Windows System 98/ME/2000/XP OS:
- 800 MHz or higher CPU.
- 256 MB or more RAM.
- 32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware Transform and Lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better.
- 4 GB or more of available hard drive space.
- DirectX® 9.0c or above.
- A 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection.
Mac System OS X 10.3.5 OS:
- 933 MHz or higher G4 or G5 processor.
- 512 MB RAM or higher. DDR RAM recommended.
- ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more.
- 4 GB or more of available hard drive space.
- MacOS X 10.3.5 or newer.
- A 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection.
EverQuest II System Requirements
- Windows 98/2000/ME/XP.
- 1 GHz or higher CPU.
- 512 MB or more RAM.
- DirectX 9 compatible video card. Pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 64 MB of texture memory.
- DirectSound compatible audio hardware.
- 6 GB or more hard drive space.
- Internet connection.
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