Massively interview: Part 2 of Thom Terrazas in his new role as EverQuest's producer
TT: The number one thing is really to make sure that the current playerbase is enjoying the game, and give them what they want to see next. So it's more adventures, it's new content. But we're not going to keep growing the game unless we reach out to new customers. We're working with our marketing and public relations teams, and the community, to find out who's in line to try our game next.
Massively: Were there any key learning experiences, good or bad, that you had as the producer of Vanguard and PlanetSide that you will now bring to EverQuest?
TT: <laughs> There's probably too many to list. With PlanetSide, there was one anniversary event where we held off the actual event over a couple of days. I think most of the players anticipated, and rightfullly so, that the event would all happen in one day. So that's one thing: don't make things difficult for the player. If you're going to do something, do it right, in one cataclysmic event, because that's what they came to do.
As far as Vanguard goes, I think that if we were to go back to when we were looking at reworking character models, we might have done something different instead. There was a lot of effort poured into reworking the models. Appearance-wise, we didn't gain a huge amount of dividends for that effort. We did manage to get some wins on having helmets visible though. But the thing was that it was a long process, and if I had to vote again, I would probably vote against it and work on other systems that players would enjoy more.
Massively: Recently there was a poll in-game in EverQuest asking players to help choose the type of a new server. The 51/50 option ended up being the most popular, but there were a lot of folks who aren't currently playing (and therefore couldn't cast a vote) that have been saying they might have voted differently. Do you think there's any chance of another new server any time soon, or a poll that is open to the public?
TT: Ahh yes, there certainly is. Without it happening today and giving you a definite answer, I can say that that is the goal. We've identified that the players have voted for the 51/50 server and Progression server as the top two. You can expect to see something in the near future, without letting too many cats out of the bag, which I probably just did anyway. <laughs>
Massively: What's your opinion on the idea of a "Classic Server" that sometimes gets thrown about, one that's locked down to only the first handful of expansions indefinitely?
TT: That's kind of the thing that I touched on before, just my own experience in the game. That's when I remember the game most, and I think there's definitely a possibiltiy of that happening. It's already a popular idea. With every expansion that has come out, sometimes it can take a little bit more effort to get through that content, and you might not have the time that you used to. I think when you can touch back on something that you can remember, starting out again as a group, a bunch of friends, it's really cool to go back and do that. So I think there's a definite possibility of that.
