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The EverQuest II year in review
TenTonHammer's Coyote Sharptongue has a up a rundown on momentous year for EverQuest 2. From the echoes of Echoes of Faydwer to the rising respect for Rise of Kunark, I'm going to say 2007 was easily the best year SOE's flagship game has had since its launch in 2004. Excitement among the playerbase is high, hints are that people are returning to the game or trying it out for the first time, and the newest expansion is getting a lot of positive feedback from gamers who have pushed past their initial anti-soloing impressions.Coyote discusses the impact Faydwer had on the game early in '07, and then goes on to discuss the Estate of Unrest, Fan Faire, and RoK.Phat Lewts. Unrest offered it in abundance...IF you could survive long enough to enjoy your riches. Set towards what was at the time "end game" the Estate of Unrest offered something that no other expansion or update had ever offered before. A chance to crap yourself. Creepy dolls coming to life, disembodied whispers and howling, ghostly laughter mocking the fact that you just turned on every light in the room in which you sat. If you allowed it, the zone could easily submerge you in its doom and gloom and suck you into the game play. I like Coyote's list a lot, but it definitely left something out ... where's the love for the Arasai?
Rise of Kunark dungeon xp raised
There's been a lot of back and forth in the EverQuest II community about the xp gain via grouping in Rise of Kunark dungeons. Fingers were pointed, and we gave Scott Hartsman (EQ2's Senior Producer) a chance to rebut. Said Mr. Hartsman, in our discussion piece from last week: EverQuest II is not a game about sitting in one place and grinding. You find the activity that defines the core of your game, then you make sure it's the part you polish the most, then you make damn sure it's rewarding. That activity is questing. Tipa's response to Mr. Hartsman's statement clarified the issue from a segment of the player population:EQ2 was always about two things: Dungeon crawls and getting loot. Quests were just things you could do to make the effort more rewarding ... Most of the quests in my journal I never get around to doing, unless they result in an upgrade for my character. I don't think I'm alone in this.Apparently, she's not. Today, the word on the official forums from Mr. Hartsman is that dungeon XP is going to be increased, at least through this holiday weekend. He is clear about the reason: bringing parity to quest xp gain for dungeon grouping.We've been keeping an eye on both the objective, globally recorded experience data from the first week of Kunark being live, as well as the subjective feedback regarding Kunark experience grants, through the many styles that people play. Many of you have pointed out that the exp given from dungeonning feels too low. In the live environment, we agree that is the case. The data backs this up as well. In making the reality more aligned with the overall goal, Kunark dungeon experience gains have just been boosted on all of the live servers. We'll keep up with this ongoing balance issue as the developers and players work this out.
EQ2's producer responds to expansion grouping concerns
One of the greatest things about Massively Multiplayer Games is that the dialogue about them isn't a one-way street. With most games, fans wait for the word from on high, and discussion about single-player games tends towards fighting over scraps. With MMOGs, the considered commentary of players make for interesting reading in and of itself. That's the case we find ourselves in today, just a few days after the release of Sony Online Entertainment's Rise of Kunark expansion. Mostly the buzz seems to be positive, but a pair of bloggers have given voice to players feeling a bit put out by the pack's core leveling mechanic: questing. Yesterday Tipa (of the West Karana blog) and Kendricke (currently writing at the Clockwork Gamer site) took issue with the fact that group grinding isn't as profitable as it has been in previous expansions.Specifically they're raising this objection as it relates to the famed Karnor's Castle, a bastion of EverQuest Live lore and newly revised for SOE's new vision of Kunark. Tipa sums their issue up on her site: "Just doing quests and killing in a risk-free, outdoor zone, beats hunting in a semi-risky dungeon. How is that even possible. Dungeons are supposed to give you superior benefits for the trouble of grouping - better experience, better loot. Somehow that got lost ... When word of this gets around, KC will become a ghost town. People will do the Kylong Plains/Teren's Grasp quest lines, then move to the Fens and just skip Karnor's. SOE, it's not too early to consider tuning this zone. Grouping in KC should be more rewarding than questing outside."Scott Hartsman, the senior producer of EverQuest 2, took a few minutes today to answer their concerns for us. Read on to see further discussion from the player's POV and Mr. Hartsman's response.
EverQuest II's senior producer explains the Kunark Epics delay
Massively's Rise of Kunark Beta Tour from early last week had a bevy of details on the just-released expansion. One of the hot-button items among the EverQuest 2 community, it seems, is the absence of the promised Epic weapons from Kunark's launch, a detail we first reported here on the site. TenTonHammer has followed up on player concerns in this area, speaking with EQ2's Senior Producer Scott Hartsman on the issue. Hartsman reveals that, unfortunately, the Kunark Epics are yet another victim of the recent San Diego fires. "What we were faced with was a bug count in which nothing had been touched in a week. When we are in our bug fix mode, the team is capable of fixing anywhere between 13 to 17 hundred bugs in a week, so losing a week is a big thing. At the end of the day it came down to well, we obviously need to focus on the overall launch of our expansion first. Epic weapons are something that yes, we've got a number of them in the bag, but the choice we had to make was, do we launch a game with 1500 bugs and epics that are 75% awesome and 25% less than awesome, or do we launch a game that's going to be as clean as we can make it and then push the epics out on an update? " Folks looking forward to tackling the weapons need not worry, though. Hartsman states that the Epics update will likely be coming just after the holiday season ends. This will give the team time to give the important items the polish they need ... and likely will let designers have a few moments with their families as well.
EverQuest 2: Rise of Kunark - mega information link overload
Over this past weekend the EverQuest 2: Rise of Kunark NDA was taken out back and shot to death with erasers, mere days before the expansion launches tomorrow. Unfortunately, I only had access for a little over a week (QQ) and haven't had much time to play. This means any in-depth coverage coming from my brain is nil until I patch my sheepish brain later with more played time, but I do have some first thoughts. My first thought: I really should have played more. My second thought: I feel like I owe our readers a bit more than that, so, I ventured out and tracked down information dumps, thoughts, opinions, and screenshots from various sources who really delved in the RoK beta. The consolidated roundup is after the jump. In no particular order and without further ado:[Last Updated 11/12/07 10:30PM PST]
Reminder: EQ/EQ2 beta key give-away ends tonight
For those of you just joining us, we're still handing out party favors from yesterday's launch of our site. The fine folks at Sony Online Entertainment were kind enough to throw in beta keys for us to give to you, our soon-to-be loyal readers.What beta keys, you say? Why, shiny keys to EverQuest: Secrets of Faydwer beta and Everquest 2: Rise of Kunark. All you have to do for a chance to win is post a comment. Not here, silly. In the original contest posts linked below. Posting a comment in the contest posts by 11:59pm EST tonight will qualify you to win. That's it.The only restriction is that you must already have a paid subscription to the game(s) or else the beta key will be no good. Also, you must agree to a Non-Disclosure Agreement so no blabbing to your friends about what you see in the beta until the NDA is officially lifted.So get to commenting! But not this thread, this EQ: SoF contest thread and/or this EQ2: RoK contest thread. And feel free to enter to win the many other contests we have running today.
