What is Everquest 2

The game of Everquest2 can seem confusing and at times almost overwhelming to players new to Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games. While it helps to have a background in games like World of Warcraft of Everquest Live, Everquest2 is a radically different type of game.  The first step any MMO player encounters is the character creation.  In this game, the initial choices players make alter how their Everquest2 characters will appear, where their skills lie, and where they will make their homes in the Everquest2 world.

Everquest2's predecessor, EQlive, is far more complex in initial character creation.  In the original Everquest, choices players made in the first few seconds of creation could drastically alter the way a character turns out.  Everquest2’s creations screens on the other hand are vastly simpler, so simple in fact that many players new to Everquest2 wonder why it seems to be so brief, and missing so many elements other games include.

EQlive players have to first pick their race, and then decide which class to
choose, sometimes players simply were not able to play the combination they
wanted (a dwarf necromancer or high elf shadowknight for example).  In
Everquest2, there are no limited race/class combinations, any race can be
any class.  In fact, those players used to EQlive character creation (or
World of Warcraft’s and City of Hero’s for that matter) may find something
odd, there is no class selection in Everquest2’s character creation. 
Additionally after choosing a class in EQlive, players are given a “pool” of
points to allocate to various stats as they chose.  This bit of extra
customization does not exist in Everquest2.  While many might feel this
deprives players of some much needed customization to their Everquest2
characters, on the other hand it fits well with the theme of Everquest2
character creation, which has been designed to prevent new players from
making mistakes that may hinder, or even somewhat cripple their characters
later on, like gnome fighters with extra points thrown into wisdom.

In the next step in EQlive character creation, players had to pick their
starting cities.  Each race, of over a dozen, has a truly unique starting
zone, and in some cases multiple depending on which class.  In Everquest2
there are only two options.  To the West, the City of Qeynos is ruled by the
benevolent Queen Antonia Bayle who watches over a content and happy
citizenry.  On the other side of the Everquest2 world sits the city of
Freeport, the oppressed population constantly fearing the iron fist of the
Overlord, Lucan D'lere. Some races in the Everquest2 world, like humans and
half elves can start in either city, having a propensity for good or evil. 
Other races such as the noble High Elves and Everquest2's amphibious, toad
like creatures the Frogloks, may only start in Qeynos.  On the other hand,
the darker, more sinister races of the Everquest2 world like the insidious
Dark Elves and hulking brutish Ogres find homes in Freeport.  In total five
of the Everquest2 races are evil, five are good, and six are neutral (check
the chart Everquest2 Races by Alignment at the bottom of this article).

Finally in EQlive players needed to chose a god to worship.  A human cleric
worshipping a good god might be received by some NPCs vastly different from
another character identical in every regard, except for worshipping an evil
god.  In the lore of Everquest2, the gods have abandoned the world, and the
option to even choose one to worship does not exist.  Even the religious
themed classes like druids and clerics, which require players to choose a
god to worship in EQlive have no such requirement in Everquest2.

The character creation in Everquest2 is very streamlined compared to many
other MMOs, certainly far less complex than EQlive.  While many games
subject their new players to a battery of choices including race, starting
cities, classes (and not all classes are available to all races) and
worship, Everquest2’s system is far simpler.  The only choices a new player
has to make in the first moments before entering the world is a race, a
name, and a starting city, and then only two options, and then only a third
of the Everquest2 races ever give the option.

Where Everquest2’s character creation system truly shines is the visual
customization.  Everquest2 is truly state of the art graphically, and it
shows in character creation.  Players can change virtually everything about
their characters, from the height and shade of their skin, to their
hairstyle and eye color.  Additionally, many of the races have two entirely
separate visuals.  The Asian release of Everquest2 in late 2005 brought the
SOGA models, characters that are designed around more of a typical anime
feel, created to help integrate Everquest2 into Asian markets.  This allows
players to actually have two separate characters, their initial Everquest2
release views, and the new SOGA models.  Each player can themselves chose
how to see themselves, and other players, either as the Everquest2 initial
release style, or the Everquest2 Asian release.  Players do not however have
the ability to determine how other players see them, but still have the
option to customize both their release images and SOGA images.  Given the
huge range of options, and the vast minutia of detail, players can easily
spend hours creating their Everquest2 characters.  Even veterans to
Everquest2 can be sucked in to spending considerable time designing their
characters down to the very last detail.

New players should not be lulled into thinking that Everquest2 is overall a
simpler game however.  There are numerous choices to make, and numerous
paths to take, which I will discuss in future articles.  However the makers
of Everquest2 have gone down a different path from many game designers. 
Instead of forcing new players to make decisions based on factors that they
don’t know and information they don’t have, Everquest2 has opted instead to
create development over time, leading players to make choices and develop
their characters at certain stages, as players become more accustomed to the
Everquest2 environment.

Everquest2 Races by Alignment
Good  Dwarf, Froglok, Halfling, High Elf, Wood Elf
Neutral  Barbarian, Erudite, Gnome, Half Elf, Human, Kerra
Evil  Dark Elf, Iksar, Ogre, Ratonga, Troll