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The Tattered Notebook: An appraisal of EQII's Krono
The dust has barely settled from our yearly foray to Bally's, and already we're seeing some of the exciting news from SOE Live become a reality. Just a few days ago, we saw the arrival of Krono to EverQuest II, and out of all the news about EQII, it has the potential to be the biggest game changer of all. Basically, Norrath now has its own version of EVE Online's PLEX. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll take a look at exactly how Krono works, but we'll also examine how this could lead to even bigger changes in EverQuest II.
The Tattered Notebook: Final thoughts on SOE Live 2012
If there's one word that perfectly sums up the spirit of SOE Live, it's family. I don't know how, but SOE always manages to deliver a big gaming event and make it feel like a casual, intimate get-together at the same time. The picture above epitomizes that, and I'll explain the story behind it below. There was a lot to cover this time around, and I would argue that this year's convention included more titles than ever before and brought more game news than it ever has. It was a hectic pace, but we all survived in one piece. Well, actually, there was that one guy at the pool (a Ranger), but he turned out to be OK too. You've probably seen the many articles that MJ Guthrie and I put together over the past few days, but I'd like to use this week's column to do one final wrap-up of things that weren't covered but deserve a look. Read on for my final wrap-up of a very busy SOE Live.
The Tattered Notebook: What does a sandbox look like in Norrath?
Last night brought a flurry of new announcements for SOE titles, but one of the more curious moments was when SOE President John Smedley got to talking about EverQuest Next. He started off by bringing out two of the handful of screenshots that we've seen time and time again, and with a click of a button, made them evaporate into a shower of pixels, to be followed by a blank screen and the sound of crickets. In short, they went back to the drawing board. It's a bold move to take a year and a half of production and completely scrap it, especially at a time in the industry when the competition is so tight, but Smedley promised that what we'd see in the end would be unlike anything we've ever seen. Perhaps, though, we've already seen a glimpse of the future in the other two titles in the EQ franchise. What will the sandbox gameplay look like in EQ Next? I'll prognosticate below.
The Tattered Notebook: Linda Carlson on goat herding and community management
What do goat herding and community management have to do with one another? On the surface, you'd probably think not much, but at GDC Online this week, SOE Head of Global Relations Linda "Brasse" Carlson explained the parallels between her job as Community Manager and her job as a goat herder. In the talk, though, she not only gave advice on how to run a community management team but also shared some interesting observations about some of SOE's online communities in general. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll look at some of the highlights.
The Tattered Notebook: Seven highlights from SOE Fan Faire history
There's just a couple of weeks left until this year's SOE Live, and players are all preparing for what should be a very busy convention with lots of game news. But for some of us, it's hard to get used to not calling it Fan Faire. The gathering has had a long past spanning more than a decade and more than a few memorable moments (some of them not fit to print!). What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas, and as fans get ready to once again descend upon Bally's, it's worth looking back at highlights from past Fan Faires. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll revisit a few of those memorable moments.
The Tattered Notebook: What would tempt you to play EQII?
With an ever-growing number of MMOs competing for attention (and your wallet), I'm sure every game company is constantly asking, "What can we do to bring in new players and convince former players to come back?" This past week, the EverQuest II team posed that very question to a surprising group: the players! In a recent post to the official forums, EQII Producer Holly "Windstalker" Longdale posted the following: Howdy Norrathians! The team has been brainstorming ideas that would ease the re-entry back into the game and soften the learning curve for returning players as well as creative options for a Refer-a-Friend program. What would float your boat if you are, or were, a returning player at some point? Creative suggestions? And do you have ideas that would make you excited to not just refer a friend, but play with them too? In past columns, we've looked at a few ways to attract new and returning players, but in this week's Tattered Notebook, it's worth looking at the topic again. What would get you to come back to EQII (or try it for the first time)?
The Tattered Notebook: Gearing up for SOE Live
In just a few weeks, SOE fans will gather in Las Vegas for Fan Faire SOE Live. The name change isn't the only thing that's different this year, though. As the convention details begin to take shape, we're finding a lot more questions than answers. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll look at some of the changes this year and try to read the tea leaves of what they might mean for fans. We'll look at what's on the schedule, like money and a possible Mobhunter sighting, and also what's not included (but should be).
The Tattered Notebook: Are EQII expansions a square peg in the free-to-play model?
Last week's announcement of a new EverQuest II expansion was a surprise in many ways, but I think the biggest surprise of all is the fact that there is an expansion coming at all. The game has gone through many changes in both its update schedule and payment model over the past few years, so it's interesting to see the announcement of Chains of Eternity, EQII's ninth expansion. We've seen the transition to free-to-play, free content game updates, and with the most recent expansion, a move toward features and away from game content. So why is EQII going back to a traditional style expansion? And in light of free-to-play and not "pay to hope," should the game even continue with paid expansions? Let's look at a few things to consider in this week's Tattered Notebook.
The Tattered Notebook: Why Player Studio is actually a return to EQ's roots
Talk about a busy week for the EverQuest franchise! In a one-two punch, SOE announced new expansions for EverQuest and EverQuest II and unveiled Player Studio, a new tool that will allow players to create and sell their own items on the marketplace. I went from "what shall I write about this week" to "where do I begin?!" The expansions deserve attention in their own right, plus they're still a ways off from being released, so in this week's column, I'd like to look at Player Studio with an eye on EQ's past. In the history of the franchise, user-generated content has been around for a long time, as has open-ended gameplay. Both seem to be making a return to EQ and EQII, and I'll say it's long overdue.
The Tattered Notebook: Piling up prizes with EQII's Gigglegibber minigames
The EverQuest II team has been regularly checking off game changes from the summer update announcement, and the most recent additions to the world of Norrath are new Gigglegibber minigames. If you've had your eye on a certain armor crate, a particular mount, or a handy consumable, but you haven't wanted to spend a lot of Station Cash to buy it, you can try your luck at winning it through one of three minigames. For 100 SC, you can buy a ticket, play a game, and get a random reward at the end. If you're curious about what the games are like and what the possible prizes are, then you're in luck! In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll hang out with the Gigglegibbers and explore the new minigames.
The Tattered Notebook: Twitter highlights from the EverQuest II team
A few days ago, the EverQuest II team made itself available for a question-and-answer session on Twitter. This session was unusual not because the team doesn't take the time to answer questions (communication through the years has had its peaks and valleys but is pretty decent overall) but because the venue is a new one for the team. As far as I can recall, this is the first time the EQII team has used Twitter to field questions, and it led to some juicy answers. In this week's Tattered Notebook, let's look at a few of the highlights!
The Tattered Notebook: Celebrating the search for the perfect UI
EQInterface and EQ2Interface have been stalwart sidekicks for me through the years, and it's great to see them expand into other games. They now have a library of UIs for several MMOs and have really helped put player-made UIs on the map. EverQuest II's site had a news article announcing that the collective UI site, now called MMOUI.com, is celebrating its 10th birthday this week, so I thought I'd get in the celebratory spirit by highlighting a few iconic favorites and taking a brief look at the state of the user interface in MMOs. I've included picks from three SOE MMOs: EverQuest, Vanguard, and of course, EverQuest II. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll put down our macros, take a break from resizing windows, and look at the quest for the perfect UI.
The Tattered Notebook: Exploring identity with EQII's SOEmote
This week, EverQuest II launched a new feature called SOEmote. It gives players the ability to use a webcam and create facial expressions for their avatars, but it also includes the ability to change your voice to match your character in voice chat. You wouldn't think that being able to raise and lower eyebrows, tilt your head, or sound like a pixie would match up well with killing orcs and looting treasures, but neither would home decorating, and yet it's become a very popular activity in game. Will SOEmote follow suit and be yet another outlet for player creativity, or is it just a gimmick? In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll take a look at the new feature and give some first impressions about its potential.
The Tattered Notebook: Duking it out in EQII's level-agnostic battlegrounds
This week's Tattered Notebook feels like a "hey, wait a second!" column because I didn't get a chance to write about this leading up to the launch of EverQuest II's Qeynos Revamp, and just around the corner is SOEmote and the August update. I've always made it clear that I'm not a PvPer, but that's because I'm lousy at it, not because I don't love a good, tight PvP match. So I focused on running some of the newly revamped battlegrounds this week to see what's changed and how the new level agnostic system is working out.
The Tattered Notebook: The EQII face that launched a thousand ships
The tale of Helen and Paris is a classic one. Paris of Troy, blinded by Helen's beauty, was willing to risk full-scale naval invasion and the destruction of his home city in order to be with her. But what if the Paris and Helen love story had been more like the movie Shallow Hal, in which the women that Hal's attracted to are not very attractive on the outside to say the least? That pretty much sums up EverQuest II's character models for the past several years, and it creates a tricky situation on a number of levels. Gamers spend hours getting every nose wrinkle and hair curl just right, but what if that didn't matter? What if your carefully tailored character looked completely different to others than it does to you? And is it worth it to preserve two distinct sets of character models if it causes a mountain of work every time a new armor set is created? This past week, the EQII team responded to a discussion about this very topic, and in this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll take a look at whether the current system needs to go!
The Tattered Notebook: EverQuest II's Antonica public quest
EverQuest II's upcoming Qeynos revamp brings many new changes, but one that runs the risk of getting overlooked is a new public quest in Antonica. It's not necessarily a surprise that a low-level PQ would be added, since there was one in the Commonlands after the Freeport revamp. But I actually didn't discover it until I stumbled on a feedback thread in the testing forums. I'm a big fan of public quests because I think they're a great way of bringing people together without the traditional grouping hurdles, so I'm definitely rooting for this little PQ. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll take a peek at the Antonica public quest and see what's in store for Qeynosians with the arrival of game update 64, which is scheduled to hit live servers on July 24th.
The Tattered Notebook: Changes in EverQuest II's Dark(light)
EverQuest II's Qeynos update is due in just a few weeks. In recent editions of The Tattered Notebook, we've looked at some of the bigger changes, like "play as your avatar" and "level agnosticism" in the dungeon maker as well as the Qeynos city revamp. But in the build-up to the patch's due date, there has been a quiet change at the low levels. The new-player experience received yet another reworking with a few small, yet potentially significant, changes. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll spend some time looking at what's new for newbies in EverQuest II!
The Tattered Notebook: Touring EQII's winning player-generated dungeons
In my spare time, I love to watch cooking competition shows because I can sit back on the couch and pontificate about how the contestants did this wrong and plated that poorly and how I could do it so much better. And then when I get into the kitchen, I thank Tunare I don't have a clock at my back and that no one's judging me on my knife skills. It's pretty much the same with creating a dungeon in EverQuest II. I have all these blueprints, items, and tools, and I've seen plenty of examples for which I swear I could do it sooooo much better, and yet I just can't seem to put together one that's worthy of publishing. Back in the spring, I resolved to construct a Poet's Palace dungeon for SOE's official dungeon maker contest, and I had several ideas in mind, but once again, my ambitions were larger than reality, and I just couldn't get the job done. Fortunately, there were over 80 players who did, and the winners were announced this week. I visited each of the four winning dungeons and was blown away by what I saw. Read on for a look at the real dungeon masters of EQII!
The Tattered Notebook: Exploring EQII's Qeynos revamp
Back when the Freeport revamp was first announced, the first question I had was when will Qeynos get a facelift? EverQuest II fans have waited patiently, but finally, this past week, Qeynos got one step closer with its arrival on the test server. The Freeport revamp was a major undertaking, with brand-new architecture, new scalable city quests, and even a foreboding scene with Lucan carrying out his own special brand of justice on the Freeport denizens. But what does the new Qeynos look like? This week's Tattered Notebook features a little tour around town to see what's changed. Read on for the low down!
The Tattered Notebook: EQII pays attention to PvPers and fighters
This past week, we learned that not only are we a long way from hearing details about EverQuest Next, but the handful of screenshots we got at the 2010 Fan Faire don't really represent what the game looks like anymore. I'm as excited as can be about EQ Next, and I'm rooting for big things for the game, but you can't fault me for having the urge to reach for the Tums as I recall what happened to another SOE game that lingered in development this long (The Agency) and try to avoid comparing it to another recent title that generated buzz for this long without any tangible evidence of the project (Copernicus). I still have faith! And as I post up these screenshots one last time for posterity, my concerns over EQ Next were tempered by more details about the upcoming update in EverQuest II, including big PvP news, adjustments to the fighter classes, and some interesting changes to gear. Let's look at a few highlights from the recent SOE Webcast with SOE Executive Director of Development Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson, EQII Lead Designer Akil "Lyndro" Hooper, and Associate Designers Brian "Omougi" Ferguson and Mike "Xelgad" Ganz to see what impact the changes might have on the game.
