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The Tattered Notebook: A grizzled veteran goes free-to-play
It's been almost a year now since EverQuest II Extended was officially launched, and I've resented every minute of its existence. From the moment it was first announced, on the eve of Fan Faire 2010, EQ2X has been my own personal Newman of the MMO world. It dominated the discussions at Fan Faire and put a damper on everyone's fun. And once it launched, it always seemed to be at the root of every problem. New invites to our guild on the live server dropped to just one in eight months (and that one invite was a real-life friend of a guildmate). The promised marketing campaign for EQII live got the shaft in favor of pushing the new free-to-play service. Forum snafus during the Velious beta were all because of the EQ2X forums. While thousands and thousands crammed the Freeport server and frolicked for free, I languished on the live server and even began to empathize with the Grinch. But now that EQ2X is almost a year old, I decided it's time for me to bury the hatchet and pay a visit to the free-to-play server. I rolled up a new character on a bronze account, and over the next several weeks, I'll be taking a close look at EverQuest II Extended. It's a journey in EQII free-to-play through the eyes of a longtime player. Read on for my first arrival!
The Tattered Notebook: What EQII can learn from Minecraft
EverQuest II's Update 61 is officially here, and the sweeping itemization revamp has been about as pleasant as the arrival of Hurricane Irene. I spent the better part of a morning trying to go through all my gear and then redo all my AAs. But I was one of the lucky ones because I don't really have alts. Some of my guildmates had at least half a dozen or so toons to fix, and they had to do that two or three times because hotfixes were resetting gear all over again. It's not really that surprising when we consider there's a mountain of gear in game, and over the years, certain stats grew in value only to be de-emphasized in a future expansion. But it's frustrating for players because some hard-earned gear has become less powerful by comparison, and that's altered the landscape when it comes to old content and challenge. I ran out of gas about two-thirds of the way into respeccing, and I decided to shift gears and check out the new housing changes. The leaderboards are great because people can surf the list of homes and directly port to them to see them up close. The problem right now is that the ranking system could use a little work; it currently allows for abuse and griefing. But despite the issues, it's helped put the decorating community in the limelight, and it's given housing a new purpose in game. That got me thinking about the future of EQII's housing system and the upcoming addition of player-created dungeons. With the new focus on player-generated content, EQII could learn quite a lot from an unlikely candidate -- Minecraft. Let's take a look at how.
The Tattered Notebook: Let's play 'Keep it or nuke it!'
As a longtime fan of EverQuest II, I'm often asked by non-EQII-players what the game is like. I usually try to answer by describing the usual game features like combat, crafting, PvP, and the unfortunate inclusion of Gnomes. But the best analogy I can think of for EverQuest II is that it resembles a type of MMO archaeological site. If you play the game long enough, you can begin to see the stratification of the game, as layer upon layer of content and features were heaped onto what was already there. It's something I've admired about the game because the developers have always been willing to try new things and make changes. But the mound of content can be overwhelming to a new player and even confusing to those who have returned after an extended hiatus. With a new round of content having just arrived on servers and even more due in a few months, it's time to consider whether some of the older stuff might need to go, for clarity's sake. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll play a little game called, "Keep it or Nuke it." Read on for my recommendations, and then add yours below.
The Tattered Notebook: Great Sprockets, Tinkerfest is here!
As I've indicated in past columns, I'm not a fan of Gnomes. In general, my history with them has been checkered at best. It could be my rejected application to the Anklebiters of Prexus, or perhaps it was watching Corka the Gnome perform leaping backstabs on players to pass the time in Emerald Jungle during a warrior epic camp. Most likely, it was the years of Gnomish abuse, as I tried in vain to verbally spar with Corka, only to wind up on the losing end of the battle. Whatever the reason, I view Gnomes the same way that the Grinch used to view Whos down in Whoville. But when it comes to Tinkerfest, the Gnomish festival held every year over in Steamfont, I have decidedly mixed feelings, because I love steampunk, and this year's Tinkerfest event has lots of new items that almost make it worth spending time at Gnomeland Security. I was faced with a dilemma: should I go hang out with Gnomes and build up my steampunk collection? In this week's Tattered Notebook, I decided to don my Environmental Hazard Suit 3000 and march straight into the lion's den, to take a look at Tinkerfest 2011.
The Tattered Notebook: You've got some DCUO/EQ/CWA/VG in my EQII!
As excited as I am to see some of the changes coming to EverQuest II, I have to admit that some of it felt slightly familiar. I've been doing a bit of an MMO walkabout recently, and I've re-upped my Station Access so I could sample some of SOE's other titles, and also revisit some that I haven't played in a while. As I played, I came across features and gameplay that tended to look similar. The Aether races in EQII look a lot like the race tracks from DCUO. The upcoming house database, with a ranking system, sounds a lot like what's in Free Realms. I'd wager that the Mercenary system will be modeled on the one that's already in EverQuest. And the on-again-off-again gifting system in EQII resembles the one already in Clone Wars Adventures. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll take a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at a few other features from SOE games that would be great to see in EverQuest II.
The Tattered Notebook: Mercenary or player, which would you choose?
If you're an EverQuest II fan, the one big takeaway out of SOE's Fan Faire is that the team is focused on addressing those long-time demands that players have been patiently hoping for. That's why we'll have Beastlords, a class that was so taboo you couldn't even post the name on the official forums. And it's why we're seeing an item revamp that now includes all items from levels 20-90. So you'd think that players would rejoice when they heard the news of mercenaries, an in-game feature designed to make it easier for players to make and fill a viable group, or get things done that they couldn't do alone. The response so far, though, has been the equivalent of a needle being dragged across an LP record at a dance party. Why the tepid response? In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll look at why these swords for hire are causing so much trouble.
The Tattered Notebook: Exec. Producer Dave Georgeson on EverQuest II and EverQuest Next
If there's one thing that came out of Fan Faire about EQ Next, it's that no one will talk about EQ Next. No matter who you talked to, any time the subject came up, the answer was always, "I can't talk about that." However, Executive Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson sat down with Massively during Fan Faire to talk more about EverQuest II, and during that interview, he did give a tiny glimpse into what that game would be like. In this week's Tattered Notebook, Massively gets the scoop on Beastlords, the dungeon builder, Freeport's revamp, and much more.
The Tattered Notebook: EverQuest II highlights from SOE Fan Faire 2011
The EQII news from Fan Faire seems never-ending this year. The team has revealed several major announcements for the direction of the game, including new content for Game Update 61 and some exciting new features for the upcoming expansion in November. There are several big questions regarding the new changes, like what will Beastlords be like? How does the dungeon creator work? And why is Executive Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson wearing a kilt? Read on for the answers!
The Tattered Notebook: Fan Faire knowns and unknowns
As we inch closer to Fan Faire, speculation begins to mount about what news EverQuest II fans will finally get to hear. Last year, players were smarting from the announcement of EQII Extended, the free-to-play server, and it seemed to deflate the mood among EQII Fan Faire attendees. This year, EQII is full of knowns and unknowns, to borrow a phrase from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. We have known knowns, which are things that we know we know. And then there are known unknowns, or things that we know but we actually don't know. Lastly, there are unknown unknowns, which are things that we don't know we don't know. That's where things are in EQII currently. Confused? Me too! This week's Tattered Notebook will look at what we know and what we hope to find out more about at this year's Fan Faire.
The Tattered Notebook: Leapers, gliders, and Beastlords, oh my!
E3 has come and gone, but EverQuest II fans are left with more questions than answers. Children of War has just launched, and already, players are wondering what's coming down the road. We do know about some of the more immediate changes, such as the rebuilding of the Dragon Ring and Spires live event, new mounts, and the Freeport Revamp. But there were some hints at much bigger changes down the road -- and few details on how exactly it would change the game. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll break out the crystal ball and speculate on whether EQII is growing closer to EQ2X and whether we might in fact see the arrival of Beastlords in game.
The Tattered Notebook: Exploring GU 60
Game Update 60: The Children of War went live last week, and with it came a plethora of new content and some big changes to the game. Rallos Zek has begun preparations for his march on the Western Wastes, and Drunder is the new front line for the impending war. There are new heroic instances, new raid content, and even a new battleground scenario. In addition, there were some itemization changes, new battleground gear, and adjustments to the adornment interface. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll look at a few of the highlights from EverQuest II's latest update.
The Tattered Notebook: Five zones that deserve a revamp
Recently, EverQuest II developer Kyle "Kander" Vallee tweeted his followers asking for input on the following question: "What #EQII zone would you love to see revamped into new heroic content?" That's a tough but really fun question. Over the years, EverQuest II has added so many overland and instanced zones that there's no shortage of choices. A quick glance at the dungeon list at EQ2i shows well over 100 major heroic instances and open dungeons for groups. If you add in the list of minor instances, like the Splitpaw adventure pack instances or the Fallen Dynasty trials, it's easily over 120. In fact, there are so many group zones that it's nearly impossible to level up and see them all (I vote for a new in-game dungeon listing for the next UI revamp!). I've played through a good chunk of these zones and put together a list of the top five dungeons that deserve a makeover. Read on for the full list!
The Tattered Notebook: What I hate about public quests
As I was working on getting back into the swing of things in EverQuest II after the prolonged downtime, I had a moment of anger as I was waiting to start a public quest. For those not familiar, EQII's public quests are similar to those in other games, but there are only two, and they run at rather lengthy, and predictable, timers. So I flew over to Storm Gorge first, only to arrive seconds too late and miss out on the chest. I flew back to the Ring War, only to find that I had 40 more minutes before kick off and the only other person there was an Ogre Shadow Knight standing AFK with the angry mood emote. (Why on earth anyone finds that animation cool is beyond me.) "No problem," I thought, "I'll just use the time to peruse my bags and find my Frost Giant illusion that goes so well with the event." I tapped on my "B" key, and then something horrible happened...
The Tattered Notebook: Back in Norrath
What a happy surprise it was to be able to log back in to EverQuest II after the extended downtime! I honestly didn't expect to see services up and running this soon, and I was even speculating with a few friends on the prospect of a Fan Faire with no gaming. I popped on shortly after news broke that services were restored, and it was nice to see familiar names start to appear. I realized that I missed my guildmates, and I was even happy to see the names of players who tend to get a little nudgy in open chat. It was like one big happy reunion party, but at the same time, there's a dark cloud still hovering over things. Sure, many of the loyal regulars returned, but did enough of them come back? And what about the more casual gamers -- the ones who play multiple games and tend to come and go? More importantly, is the downtime really over? As of Sunday morning when this article was posted, it seemed that services were down again. Read on for a look at some possible answers to these questions.
The Tattered Notebook: SmokeJumper talks GU60
The past week has certainly been difficult, both for Sony Online Entertainment and EverQuest II fans. The attack and the downtime has certainly been on players' minds as they wonder when the game will go live again and how much of their personal information was compromised. But while these seem like dark days for EQII, there will be lots to look forward to in-game once things are back to normal. A few weeks ago, Senior Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson took time to answer some questions for Massively about Game Update 60, The Children of War. And he met again for a roundtable interview just before news of the attack on SOE broke. Read on for highlights of the interview and a look at what's on the horizon once services are restored.
The Tattered Notebook: Free level 90? Heck yeah!
I'm a bit late to the party, but I want to throw my two coppers into the discussion on the level 90 winback suggestion that Senior Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson made recently. In a recent forum thread, he tossed out the idea of EverQuest II's offering level-capped characters to new players who purchased Destiny of Velious. After a fairly robust discussion, he pulled it off the table, but I actually think it should still be an option. Before you make fists of fury at the screen, hear me out! In this week's Tattered Notebook, I'm going to look at why this promotion is needed and suggest a way that it actually could work for everyone's benefit.
The Tattered Notebook: Dave Georgeson on EQII's Children of War
Even though Destiny of Velious has only been out for a couple of months, EverQuest II is about to see some big improvements and new content in the upcoming Game Update 60, Children of War. Despite the recent cuts to Sony Online Entertainment's staff, the team working on EQII seems more focused than ever, and over the past couple of weeks, fans have received a constant stream of information on both near- and long-term plans for the game. In this week's Tattered Notebook, Senior Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson was kind enough to take some time to talk about the future of EverQuest II. In a bit of a surprise, he discusses how the team will continue to release Velious content in the form of regular updates rather than a larger part II as originally planned. He also gives some detail on highlights from the next update as well as future plans. Multiple housing, deity changes, the Freeport revamp -- Georgeson sheds some light on all that and more. Read on for the interview!
The Tattered Notebook: Auctioning raid loot, place bids now!
If you've spent any time in EverQuest II, you've probably seen auctions in public channels for fabled group and raid loot. And if you've walked past entrances to raid zones, you've probably seen the herd of semi-afk toons waiting outside, watching chat, and ready to zone in and loot at a moment's notice. Those who object to this practice have a few strong arguments. But the main one is that they believe in the philosophy of "earn it to wear it" -- that you should put in the effort and the time it takes to defeat a raid encounter in order to reap the benefits. They also argue that it cheapens the overall sense of value that raid gear has if "everyone else is wearing it." While I find that argument a bit dubious (and I have a little story to explain why), there are several strong arguments, both for and against the selling of loot rights. Read on for a closer look.
The Tattered Notebook: The value of vanity
I always knew Gnomes were evil, but a Gnomish pirate?! This was too much. As much as I wanted that new horse of a different color mount from Bristlebane Day, I could barely stand the thought of having to go toe-to-toe with the cabbage-scented Captain Gnoggin. In a lopsided battle, I emerged victorious, and as I did my turn-in for the new Bristlebane Day quest, I was reminded that EverQuest II offers an enormous variety of unique house items and appearance clothing. Cosmetic items might not offer any real advantage in progression, but they speak to the depth of content in the game and the quality of life that players enjoy. Being able to create an amazing home or make yourself stand out with a unique look is a real luxury for players. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll look back at the evolution of vanity items in game and take a look at a few easy ways that players of all levels can add a little bling to their lives.
The Tattered Notebook: Brew Day
It's spring in Norrath, but if you're out adventuring in Velious, you might not realize it. Thankfully, Brell Serillis is helping us remember that sometimes we need a break from all the snow and ice, and what better way to celebrate than pouring a nice foamy mug of Tumpy Tonic or Minotaur Hero Brew! That's right, EverQuest II's festival of Brewday is back, and in this week's Tattered Notebook, we're going to search for the best brews, don our beer goggles, and even do a little cow tipping. Read on for a look at some of the quirky quests and boozy rewards that come with Brell's spring holiday.
