EverQuest

Reader Velmonte asks: Tipa, what game would you consider for a person who is just breaking into the world of mmo’s? One of my friends, has been wanting to try one, but I need to suggest a game that has basic quests, but is still fun, colorful, and immersive. I was hoping you could help me out! Thanks! This is a really great question. With new MMOs coming out every day and hundreds to choose from, it can be crazy trying to find the perfect game. Fact is, maybe you can’t find the perfect game first try, or maybe after playing an MMO a bit, you find yourself ready for something new. ...

There was no way I was going to miss Bristlebane’s Day on EverQuest II! Bristlebane and I have always had a special relationship. He was my deity in EverQuest and remains so in EQ2; as the creator of the halfling race, how could he not? Though others may claim Brell had a hand in our creation, we know better. The April 1-only quest largely involved answering riddles by running to obscure corners of the globe looking for such things as a pack of cards, a map, an egg…. The sphinx who asked these riddles in the Enchanted Lands wouldn’t just let you answer the riddle with words. Silly thing. And a kind of creature that seemed to be having seizures; people were so crowded around her, and every time someone spoke to her, she would spin toward them and bow in their direction. That made attempting to click on word balloons that constantly jumped all over the screen a not-so-fun mini-game of its own. The quest gave the Stone of Gygax, the large 20-sided die in the screenshot above, and who WOULDN’T want such a nice thing in their house? ...

OpenEdge1 has for awhile been estimating the number of subscribers to a game based on the number of its players who report their usage with XFire. His latest calculations put Star Trek Online at 117K players, which more or less jibes with Cryptic’s reports. I’m dubious about the other standings. His formula would give WoW 6.3 million players in the West, which I believe would be a real high water mark for them. Of oft-repeated 11.5 million players, the majority were in Asia, and unlikely to be XFire users. ...

The games in the title – EverQuest, Lord of the Rings Online, Star Trek Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online. Three of the four have “online” in their name. It’s Lord of the Rings, except ONLINE! It’s Star Trek like you never imagined it – ONLINE! Throw away your pencils and dice because D&D is ONLINE! EverQuest is just – EverQuest. Online is all it knows. That’s the power of having a pre-existing IP for your game; its name is its best feature. ...

What have I done today in EverQuest? Hunting in Old Commonlands with Sispis Sispis showed me how to navigate the Void and come to an ancient version of the Commonlands, where all the animals were level 75. I look like a kitty here because I’d just been to Shar’vahl, the kitty city on the not-yet-exploded moon of Luclin, and I always try my best to fit in. I have a huge bag full of illusion masks just for that, though you can purchase innate illusions with AA now. Though not the gnome illusion! ...

Based on helpful comments and e-mails from yesterday’s post about choosing a game in which to immerse myself for awhile. I’ve decided to go with EverQuest, but to also keep checking out EVE opportunities while I complete some long-term training goals, AND to try out Fallen Earth at some point! Because it’s clear that my brief experience with FE in its early beta wasn’t enough to get a good feel for the game. ...

I sat in front of my computer the other night, not really feeling a pull toward any MMO. I was watching Zombieland, and I couldn’t think of any MMO that would be more fun than watching the best comedy zombie movie since Shaun of the Dead. Blahblahblah. This isn’t a post about quitting MMOs. This is a post about WILLING IMMERSION. I talked a little about this yesterday. Immersion can seem like a quality of a game, but it’s really a quality of the player. Even the best game is nothing like reality; it’s as far removed from reality as anything can be. To make it important to us, we have to willingly fill in the lines, paint the walls, paper the ceiling and give it a place in our reality. You might argue that games can help immersion by having fantastic graphics, amazing sound design and killer animations, but I have been immersed in books before. I have immersion to spare; all I really ask of a game is that it doesn’t BREAK my immersion. ...

A new player survey pops up when you log into EverQuest these days, asking what sort of content players would like to see from the venerable MMORPG. Can an eleven year old game still innovate? These poll questions hint that SOE has not given up on the game that put them on the map: Poll Question: What new feature would you be most interested in seeing in EverQuest? ...

I’ve come to realize, over the years, that I really suck at MMOs. Easily distracted and easily bored, the sort of long-term, intense concentration that is the mark of the truly successful grinder is impossible for me. I can’t be the only one; the newer crop of MMOs seem made for people with short attention spans. World of Warcraft’s “Looking for Dungeon” tool lets you defeat the ultimate evils of Azeroth half an hour at a time. EQ2’s newest mission maps reward you if you can finish the entire instance before the necromancer is done buffing her pet. ...

Yahoo! had this to say about EverQuest II’s new battleground system: First off, PVP will primarily take place in an instanced arena. It’s not going to be just deathmatch, kill-or-be-killed gameplay, though; apparently, alternate game modes like capture the flag, hold the line, and seek and destroy will be included, and SOE hints at some kind of custom game mode creation as well. GameZone gushed about it, too! First up is that PvP (Player-versus-Player) will be finally entering the world of Norrath (in EQII, at least) with arena combat. But the arena combat is not limited only to levels of a certain level (the level cap is going up to 60). Players of any level will be able to jump in and compete, if not as their avatar, then as an arena champion of a level that is appropriate for the players participating in the fight. ...