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As many of you may have noticed (or not), I haven't been as active as I used to be a few months ago. It's not for lack of wanting to be, nor am I unhappy. I simply have a job now that requires more of my time, as well as other issues leading toward a life that I want. I'm still here, pestering folks about sigs and avatar size, making sure that folks stay reasonably within our ruleset, and contributing when I can to helping the team here. I have to say that with some recent editions to our moderator list, that team is doing fantastic.
What does this mean? Well, since I'm not as 'full time' a mod as I'd like to be, the same goes for playing any MMORPG's. I'm a casual gamer (I REALLY hate that I am, but for now that's my reality). This means at best, I have a couple of hours each evening to play, plus a few more on weekends. Getting into the EQ2 beta was a mixed blessing for two reasons: I don't have nearly as much time to contribute as I'd like, yet I am extremely happy to be in beta. Also, my husband, who introduced to MMORPG's in the first place, still has yet to get an invite. Darn it. 
So, this review and journal is from the perspective of a casual gamer, the gamer that SOE and many other producers and developers have been aiming and trying to please for quite some time, without compromising 'full time' or powergamers. I never use the term powergamer in a negative way, and not only because I've been one. I just don't find anything wrong with playing games until your brains turn to mush, as long as you're enjoying yourself.
I'll try to keep the beginning short. Download took a very long time, and even on a good broadband connection I dedicated most of a day to the download. I'd still prefer to do this rather than by a dvd drive for my computer, so I hope it's an option once the game goes live.
Character creation is always somewhat entertaining to me, so I had a little fun with it before I dove into the game. Even with all the options, I still feel there need to be more, especially for the Iksar. It's no surprise I started with a Kerra named Keta. Once I got her just right; perfect eyes, ears set perfect, and no fur out of place, I got my tail onto the Isle of Refuge.
The boat ride is everything others have said it was, so I won't tarry to long on it, but I will say it was a nice introduction. It was the first time I'd seen moving graphics besides official video clips, and even with all the fanfair I was impressed. The moving water, high waves, dragon attack, and tutorial were fantastic.
The same can be said about your first few levels on the Island. There is plenty of guidance, several quests, and incentive to stay as long as possible for experience and cash. I noticed after a couple of weeks in beta, any characters you started would just start on the island and you'd skip the boat ride. I don't know if this is going to be true after release or not. Also, your first few levels now go very quickly. You can literally go from level 2 to 5 on the Isle of Refuge in about 1-2 hours easily. This is another thing I'm not sure will be in after release, because even from a casual gaming point of view, that's pretty fast.
Questing starts out the moment you log in your first character, and on the Isle there were defintely enough quests to keep me busy. Each class group has their own 'set' of quests, and it didn't take long to set myself up with a set of newbie armour. I really liked how the armour looked on females; it was very flattering without being obnoxious. Even though I'm female, I've never been one to complain about 'degrading' female avatars or making them look like strippers, so lots of cleavage or thongs never bothered me. But I must comment on the fact that the design of the armour is very nice, flattering, and revealing in other ways.
It wasn't long before I made it to my starting town, and then to the city. The amount of quests were overwhelming, but in a good way. As a casual gamer, whenever I logged on I had plenty to do. There's a quest journal, so you don't lose track of quests. Yay! Gone are the days of a folder full of papers with quest info that never seemed organized enough. Within minutes of being off the island, I had more than a dozen quests started just by hailing different NPC's in my home town. Beginner quests seemed to really 'hold your hand', telling you exactly who to look for and where (even down to what building to find them, in a few cases). As I progressed in level, less was just 'given' away.
Quests gave a lot of experience, some monetary award (better as you level of course), and decent gear that was usually appropriate to the level of the quest. Many were geared toward introducing new players to various key areas for hunting and exploring. Finding these key areas gave experience, whether you were quested to find them or not. I thought this was very interesting and rewarding, especially when I dinged once for finding a location by complete accident. Quests were also your typical (but still fun) 'FedEx' type, kill some stuff (so you get experience from killing and the quest) quests, and even collection types.
When I first started in beta several weeks ago (maybe months by now), fighting was definitely more interactive than past games I've played, but there was still some ho-humness about it. Heroic opportunities are extremely beneficial and easy to accomplish if you're paying attention, and with recent updates they're also neat to watch. One of the many things that kept me busy was upgrading combat knowledge, and as long as you stay on top of doing that you are very good at holding your own at mobs of equal and somewhat higher level.
Combat is currently beautiful to watch! It's entertaining and funny depending on what class you see fighting. My main character is now at the Brawler stage, and she fights with a big two-hand staff. She spins it, flips it, smacks with it, dances with it (Taunt is quite funny), does all sorts of little flourishes, and when she puts it away after vanquishing a foe, she spins it around and pops it in its place on her back. To me, these are some fantastic touches that I thoroughly enjoy.
That leads me back to one of my first days playing and discovering the Emote commands. Wow! I laughed so hard I cried at several of them, and I was amazed at how great they looked. Fluid, graceful, meaningful... you can usually tell what emote it is without reading the text. One of the best emotes is 'flirt', I think it lasts 30-45 seconds. Just thinking about it makes me smile. Get a group of people together and emoting, and you'll be in stitches!
Anyway, to continue a bit more with combat. Grouping is very much encouraged, and the experienced gained while grouping is markedly better than soloing. This doesn't mean solo experience was bad, because it definitely wasn't most of the time. There were some issues that were resolved, and currently solo experience is satisfying and rewarding enough that the solo gamer doesn't feel like they have to group to get 'good' xp. Grouping was easy, I rarely had to ask more than once for a group, and several things make keeping track of group members simple. Loot was handled well, and a lottery system seemed to be the favoured choice for handling distribution.
And then of course, there were tradeskills. Ideally, EQ2 has a great system. There are a couple of things I still don't like about it, but overall there has been a lot of thought and effort expended to create a great system that utilizes interdependence without completely crippling one class or another. I basically started out at level 2 (I got the first tradeskill quest off the island), and from there purchased books that came from both vendors and fellow players or looted from mobs. The first time I died to crafting I was nothing short of livid (I still think this is a ridiculous feature) and did everything I could to think of a legitimate reason I could have died while crafting. Many improvements have been made, but I think they have a long way to go in that area.
Tradeskilling is different in EQ2, and this is only the second game I've played that requires the player to pay attention while crafting. It's not hard, but gone are the days of crafting while doing something else, like eat or take a bathroom break. I'm like many in that I'd gotten in the habit of surfing, reading, crafting in real life (see, I can sew and watch tv at the same time...why not in EQ2?), doing housework etc while crafting in-game. I did so because it was boring to wait while something was 'made'. Now it isn't boring and I'll just have to readjust.
A major thing I liked about tradeskilling was harvesting components. Rares were definitely rare and in high demand. When I was lower in level (well, I'm still sorta low in level) I was able to fund my habits by selling rare components. Updates have improved spawns and randomized things so folks don't 'camp' spawn areas, and with each patch there has been more variety.
So what did all of this mean as a casual gamer? Well, even though there are seemingly endless quests, places to explore and things to find, that means there will always be plenty to do. I never felt bored or stuck; if a quest I was working on ended up being broken, there were tons more to turn to. I never felt overwhelmed to the point of giving up either. I was able to advance quickly and complete a reasonable amount of quests within a couple of hours. Even though I'm not high in level or in uber gear, I don't feel lost or so far behind that I'll never catch up.
That's my diary-slash-review so far for my experience. I really do have a lot more to say, but I thought a summarized version would be more appropriate. Since the NDA is lifted, I can now offer comments on different issues, so I've saved some commentary for that reason.
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