Kendricke
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The Guild Counsel: Fan Faire 2011 guild leader panel
As you know from this column, I'm a big fan of guilds. So it's probably no surprise that I went to Fan Faire with a special goal of meeting up and talking to guild leaders from a variety of SOE games. Last year, I teamed up with Adam Trzonkowski, my former podcasting co-host and author of the book The Guild Leader's Companion, and together we recorded a show with several guild leaders from EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies and Free Realms. This year, we met again, and had a chance to catch up with a few returnees as well as some new faces. Joining the discussion this year were leaders from DC Universe Online, EQ, EQII, and RIFT. Judging by the turnout, you could say that guilds are like snowflakes. We had Rick Hall and his juggernaut guild Heroes, the oldest guild on the Luclin server in EverQuest. He's carrying a roster of hundreds, and regularly raiding 54-man raid content. Added to the list of "long in the tooth" guilds were Legion of the White Rose in EQII, led by Kendricke, and Iniquity, who has moved from EQII to RIFT, and is led by Adam. The league Absolute Justice in DCUO, led by Arctic Titan, is not only playing in a different genre of MMO, they're on a completely different platform, the PS3. Twilight Company, led by Megera in EQII, is mainly a tradeskill guild, which set it apart from the others in attendance. And last, but not least, is Revelry and Honor, my guild from EverQuest II, and now led by Maesyn, Nauralea, and Andaraiel. Read on for a peek at what has led to their success, and some amazing war stories along the way.
Rumors of the Void in EQ2 Game Update 45
Keen-eyed SOE watcher Kendricke of Clockwork Gamer has been scouring the 'Net for hints of the nature of EverQuest 2's next expansion. And he may have found a clue on the French version of SOE's EQ2Players web site. The announcement reads, in part (translated from the French): "The Rodcet Nife event will go live with Update 45. Optional quests associated with this event will grow in intensity leading to large-scale invasions of Void creatures around the world for all levels."We've written previously that the next EQ2 expansion, The Shadow of Odyssey, might have something to do with The Void. The Void is a realm of which we know little, aside from being the extra-planar home of the Shadowmen from which they are launching their secret invasion of Norrath. This latest news has us more and more convinced that come November, we may find ourselves exploring the eldritch towers and dead moonscapes of this shadowed realm.What has the god of healing, Rodcet Nife (a flawed anagram of Fine Doctor), to do with the Void? We don't know yet, but somehow his return is mixed up with the Shadowman invasion in some way. We'll know in a couple of weeks when GU45 hits the live servers.[Via Clockwork Gamer]
Rise of Kunark replaces lore with bore
If any sect of gamers was ever prone to nostalgia, it's RPG players. If you're ever in a situation where you want to get a nerd talking, just ask him about the most epic D&D campaign he's ever been a party to. It's got a 99.9% success rate, just try it. In the same vein, Clockwork Gamer's Kendricke spins a yarn about his nostalgia for the pure story-driven goodness of his first introduction into the world of high fantasy. Using Rise of Kunark as an example, he explains how the repetitive kill and fetch quests that proliferate in the new EQ2 expansion have neutered whatever sense of time and place the player had.It's a sentiment that's nothing new, as our own Marc Nottke recently proclaimed the death of roleplaying in MMO. Kendricke's argument is much more focused, however. He say that Rise of Kunark has none of the pan-expansion story arcs that made Planes of Power, Legacy of Ykesha, and even Gates of Discord fun for players. Is it really any surprise then when players blast through all the content in a manner of days? You can't stop and smell the roses if there aren't any flowers on the way.
