EverQuest's senior producer talks live events, server merges in 2008
Senior Producer for EverQuest Clint "Jourdian" Worley laid out a letter to the dedicated playerbase this week, looking back on developments in the game last year. He also looks ahead to the rest of 2008, teasing some of the updates to the game we can expect to see this year.
The big deal for 2007 was, obviously, the release of the Secrets of Faydwer expansion. Worley sees the expansion as a great success, with particular emphasis on the benefits reaped from their three-month-long Beta period. He states that this year's unnamed expansion (which they're already hard at work on) will receive the same treatement. He found the April Fool's day joke absolutely hilarious, and states that they're looking forward to a new, similarly in-depth quirk in a few months ... though he does note an on/off command will be available for players without a sense of humor.
Read on for more from Worley, including news about live events, bug fixes ... and server merges?
In talking about the Faydwer expansion, Worley noted the success of the 'Chaos in Steamfont' live event that kicked off the launch. As he looks forward to 2008, the EQ team is going to be working to provide live content every month, to help players who may have already worked through the high-end material provided in the last expansion. They're hoping to provide this regular content starting soon, too. Bug fixing and stability are two high priorities this year as well. Worley particularly noted the successful collaboration in 2007 between players and developers which resulted in a fix for the infamous 'west bug'. He hopes to continue to open up communication lines along the same path in 2008.
Finally, he mentioned the dreaded topic of server merges. All Worley said was essentially, "We don't take them lightly, none are planned right now, we'll let you know." Even still, the fact that he mentioned them in the look ahead to 2008 would seem to speak volumes. He states that they keep a careful eye on server populations, to determine when that kind of a move is required. Odds are, then, some realms are getting close to that point.
In my mind, though, server merges can be a great thing. They're a sign that overall population in a game is declining, but isn't the point more to meet and interact with folks? A a larger population in a smaller area sounds like a great way to play a game to me. Merges or no, it's fascinating to see what SOE has planned for this venerable title in the rest of the year.
