Sony has taken a bit of a different direction with its most recent expansions, and Omens of War, the next one, looks to continue the trend. Specifically, instead of releasing big expansions with a ton of new content for everyone, they are now focusing on smaller expansions focused on specific types of players, released more often. It makes sense from certain points of view (sustains interest, adapts to player demands more quickly), but it’s hard to shake the feeling that they’re just trying to milk as much money as they can out of the players…
So what does this one offer and do I even care? Well..
- Improved Graphics
Not particularly important. Heck, I still play AC with its now-horribly-dated engine and textures. - New zones
New places to visit are always good, but the question is, will I ever make it to them? I still haven’t seen the very highest ends of Luclin or PoP, or *any* of GoD simply because I’m not ‘l33t’ enough. If OoW continues that trend then these zones are irrelevant to me, but then again they might be freely accessible like in LDoN. More information is needed here… - Level cap increase to 70
Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh… There are a few different problems here. One is that new levels greatly exacerbate mudflation. How much of a problem that is depends on whether you’re one of those who loses content or gains access to content because of it…The second is the matter of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. As an enchanter, the levels themselves don’t really do much for me anymore; most of my power comes through spells and AA skills. There will be new spells that will require a certain minimum level, but it’s hard to imagine them adding anything terribly crucial at this point. The new spells might be essential within new zones, but it doesn’t sound like there’s going to be very many of them so far, and as noted above they may not even be relevant to me. Existing zones are fine as-is, the new spells won’t be necessary there. Still though, there’s going to be pressure to get those new levels even if I don’t need the new spells, simply to be more attractive. If I’m vying for a spot in a group and the choice is between me at level 65 and some other level 70 enchanter, they’re more likely to take the higher level one, so I have to gain levels too just to remain competitive.
- Epic Weapons 2.0
Double-ugh. The original epic weapons were meant to be rare and special things, held only by the uberest of uber players. It didn’t work out that way; eventually with time and mudflation, many people got their epics, but there was much time wasted and conflict generated along the way. However now that there is an absolutely huge gap in power between the raiding and the non-raiding populations, I imagine they’ll be much less common this time around, and only available to those high-end raiders. Thus, irrelevant to me. - Guild Tribute System
Big whoop, a small guild like ours isn’t going to generate very many points. We’ll mostly be focusing on our own personal tribute scores anyway. - Custom PC Titles
Fluff. - And the miscellaneous new items, skills, recipes, etc. that are always part of every expansion. Nothing new there.
I find it very difficult to get very excited about anything in this expansion. It really does look like a desperate attempt to keep people in EQ instead of wandering off to other games that will be starting around the same time (i.e., World of Warcraft).
Will I get it? I don’t know. I’ve barely done anything with the last expansion, so yet another one along the same lines might just be a further waste of money. But, if I’ll be forced to reach for level 70 in order to remain viable in groups, then there’s not much choice but to get it. But then dilemmas like that make me start wondering whether it’s worth spending any more time in EQ at all…