L2 is a gigantic waste of time.
What little gameplay goodness it has, is ruined (almost intentionally) by mechanics to make it frustrating. The pvp and power aspect is dreadful, not only allowing - but encouraging - complete lockdowns. If you're on top from the start, you tend to stay on top.
This can be fine, but not in a game which gives you more and more means to continue to stay on top. (basically, it does not remain even, you can 'win' by mechanics, and keep winning for as long as you bother playing)
As an mmorpg, it takes the 'emotional stress' related to mmorpgs - to a new level. It's not simply a side-effect that 'some' players end up with, it's the norm. The community of L2, of the longtime players... meh; go check the forums.
The place breeds nutcases. Basically, they play every card in the book to 'leash' people to their game. (a conscious effort on their part, and if you play L2 enough - you start to marvel at just how sinister the designers were, in making it a milking cow)
The real-money trading market, is probably the worst part of it all.
IGE, as is known (officially now, after vanguard devs made public the fact that ige had actually approached them to make a deal), makes 'deals' with mmorpgs. Ncsoft is about as bad as it gets.
The game design itself is *aimed* at it, in many cases, and you have chronicles/patches - and everyday administration of the game making it easier and better for companies to 'farm' their game.
It might be different in korea, but on international servers, it became ridiculous after a while. The player:professional farmer ratio atm, is something like 1:5, and that's a conservative estimate. Every dungeon you go to is permanently 'run' by farmer groups. They were there since the 'open beta', and have only grown since then.
Beyond all this, there's a last quirk with L2, which is a big one: gameguard.
Gameguard can almost be compared to starforce. It's the starforce of "mmorpg hack protections", pretty much.
(If you've ever run L2 on your current box, to remove it:
Remove following branches, if they exist:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\npkcrypt
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NPPTNT2
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usprserv
Might need to set access rights to remove these two:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_NPKCRYPT
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_NPPTNT2
At the end, remove npptNT2.sys from system32 subdir and reboot
(if you're in w2k, type "regedit32" in run menu to get one that allows you to set access - if you're in wxp, it's default))
It's the type of game that - if you play it for a while - once you leave it; you'll probably look back on it as one big headache, even as an old-time mmorpg player having pretty much grown 'immune' to the regular tricks.
./rant
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