EverQuest

There’s a gulf between the MMOs I WANT to be playing – such as EverQuest, where I currently have a max-level rogue – and the MMOs I ACTUALLY play – which, these days, are Dungeons & Dragons Online and Star Trek Online. (Wizard101 is on the back burner as we wait for the expansion). EverQuest is famous for being a social, more ‘sandbox’ open world where reputation matters and the things you do have consequence. Well, not so much anymore; SOE has fully bought into the instanced adventure scheme and now, nothing anybody does has any effect on the world. But ONCE UPON A TIME, it did. The point being, though, was it WAS a virtual world, where you could just hang out in places and chat, role play, run events or do whatever you wanted – and even occasionally pull on the heavy boots and wade into dungeons and battle for treasure. ...

It’s not wrong to be nostalgic. A lot of us old EverQuesters (as opposed to EverQuesties; we hate them!) have warm feelings toward what was, for many of us, our first MMO. Sure, the graphics were crude and the leveling was brutal, but there was the same sort of camaraderie based on shared suffering that you get in wars and natural disasters. It’s not just the players that get nostalgic; SOE has gotten a little nostalgic as well for the time when EverQuest was the industry leader and set the bar that all other MMOs had to cross. “If only…” they might say, “if only we could return to 1999 and do it all over again!” ...

Carefully avoiding the words “jumping” and “on the” and “bandwagon” here, is it true that the “freemium” business model can save the ENTIRE MMO INDUSTRY? Aside from WoW, the only MMO that doesn’t need saving? A couple of years back, you had your free to play MMOs (AKA “cheap Asian games”) and your subscription MMOs (AKA “Western games we like”). Then Wizard101 comes out with their two tier free/subscription plan, and then Turbine saves Dungeons & Dragons Online by making their game free-ish. DDO, a game most people had written off as a good try, suddenly became the belle of the ball and the industry Took Notice. It was only a matter of time before other marginal MMOs tried something similar. ...

When I start a new MMO, I want to be dazzled – right up front. I know that MMOs want you to start out weak, with few abilities and few decisions to make, and introduce new abilities to you as you progress through the levels…. But I don’t care about all that. Drop me in the middle of the action, put me in an epic storyline, show me where I fit into the world, and you’ve got my attention. Lord of the Rings Online does that. I may not be LotRO’s biggest fan, but they know how to start a MMO. EverQuest USED to have custom starting areas for every single race, and by the time you ventured into the wider world, you knew your race – and class’ – place in the world. EQ2 USED to have race-specific villages around their capitals that did the same thing, after a common tutorial zone. ...

Remember, way back when, when the thought of paying $$$ TEN DOLLARS $$$ for a permanent mount was considered insane? Then Blizzard introduced their sparkle pony for $25. Suddenly, $10 didn’t look so bad, and $25 became the new industry standard. You want a cool mount, you forked over a couple of sawbucks with a Lincoln chaser. The Blizzard sparkle pony would be as fast as the fastest mount you could ride; if you could ride a flying mount, then your sparkle pony would take to the skies where the stars in its wings would blend seamlessly with the stars glowing in the firmament above Azeroth. Better yet, when you bought the horse, all your characters could use it. ...

Modern, traditional MMOs are full of “yes you CAN”. Yes, you CAN get great gear with little effort. Yes, you CAN get useful things done in just a few minutes. Yes, you CAN choose to never group at all and yet see and do most everything. Yes, you CAN play through the entire game and never connect with even one other person, if that’s what YOU want. ...

With the EverQuest server merge in full swing, SOE has offered free server merges for everyone for a limited time. My twisty EverQuest career has taken me from Erollisi Marr to Fennin Ro, back to Erollisi Marr, then Stromm, then back to Erollisi Marr, then Luclin, then back to Erollisi Marr…. EMarr always brings me back. Now, thanks to the server merges – and by the way, those are working out well, Bazaar is more full than ever, Guild Lobby is positively stuffed. I didn’t get spammed with group invites as I was logging in all these characters, but I bet i could have found one. ...

Just received the following from SOE: Important Information regarding your EverQuest account Greetings, EverQuest adventurer! In order to maintain a high level of gameplay across the EverQuest universe, on June 22, 2010, EQ will begin consolidating the following servers. These merges are scheduled to occur between June 22nd and July 6th, 2010. Stromm + Luclin = Stromm-Luclin Drina + Maelin Starpyre = Maelin Starpyre-Drinal Xegony + Druzzil Ro = Druzzil Ro-Xegony ...

Another week, another truckload of gaming press releases. Bioware announces their new downloadable content for their Dragon Age RPG, “The Darkspawn Chronicles”. Meant as an alternate story – one where your character from Dragon Age: Origins and Awakening dies during the Grey Warden initiation – here you command the forces of the Darkspawn against the remnants of the forces of Light, led by the man who wouldn’t be king, Alistair. ...

It doesn’t bug me that SOE is selling mounts. Why not? It’s widely reported that the MMO developers feel constrained by the industry standard $14.95/month subscription fee, and are always looking out for new ways to let players send them more money, above and beyond their sub. Blizzard’s sparkle pony and SOE’s cash cat provide the opportunity to further support your game of choice. There’s nothing wrong with that. ...