First of all, I'd like to say that both EQ2 and WoW have their merits. . .
Now, with that being said, I'm going to go the WoW route. Definately. Blizzard has proven themselves over and over and over at making excelent, interactive games. I think they're going to do a great job with WoW. I think their support is going to be better than anything Sony can come up with.
I like their graphics and gameplay better.
But, most of all, I like the fact that WoW is going to have a direction. A purpose.
EQ was supposed to be an open-ended game. There was no point, no all-encompassing purpose to it. All you did was run around and kill stuff.
In WoW, Blizzard has said that they will guide you through the game. They funnel you to different areas of Azeroth. You don't have to go there, you don't have to "do things their way." They just give you bonuses for doing so.
Also, I see in WoW, a lot more GM events and dev interaction than in EQ2. And when the devs play the game with us and allow us to change the world, that just makes me want to play.
Now, back onto the original vein of this thread. . .
There are things that I dislike about this new expansion and things that I like.
I dislike the fact that, like they did with Luclin, SOE seems to be packaging their new graphics upgrades with the expansion. Thos of us that don't buy it are probably gonna be SOL (and no, I'm not talking about Shadows of Luclin! :P). Also, it looks like most of the new zones and areas to explore will be GoD related which will do a big fat nothing for my level 35 Shammy on EQLive. Finally, I dislike the fact that they're still not using the instanced zone technology (introduced in LDoN) for the new areas.
However, I DO like the fact that they're raising the max level from 65 to 70, adding new spells and abilities, and adding more AAs to the game. I also really, REALLY like the task system (I'm thinking of a mini-quest system) to help the lower and middle levels of the game get away from exp grinding.
All in all though, I'd say they're moving in the right dorection with this new expansion. The only thing that I'm seriously dissappointed in is the fact that virtually nothing has come of instanced zones. All the untapped potential there and nothing of use.
Personally, if I'm still playing EQ when this expansion comes out, I'm gonna buy it. By then though I hope to have moved on to
WoW or
CoH.