Kwill’s Quill: The Kindness of Strangers

Written by Kwill on . Posted in Kwill's Quill

Something that we can never forget, is that when we play an MMO, we play with real people.  Most of the time, our relationships with our fellow players are superficial.  Sometimes, real friendships form, and outlast the dragon slaying.  But it’s those chance encounters, those brief moments when the paths of human beings cross for just a few moments,  that brings into focus the reality of human relationships in a world where we choose just how much we want to reveal about ourselves.

   

Kwill’s Quill: Punishing the Bad Really Punishes the Good

Written by Kwill on . Posted in Kwill's Quill, Live Events

One of the problems that the developers have been working on lately is to make sure that  non-participants or “slackers” don’t get rewarded in Public Quests.  In the original version of the Public Quests, which started out with an arbitrary threshold of acceptable spell casting or DPS, too many AFK players were getting chest drops, at least in the eyes of other players, who expressed their concerns to developers.

For Dev Gninja, this was an unacceptable situation that needed to be rectified.  He was mad about it.  So back to the drawing board he went, increasing the threshold yet again in the metric that records participation.  The result?  Storm Gorge PQs are not rewarding the people who are giving their fair share — probably not the outcome he expected.

A lot of development time was focused on being punitive to — most likely– a small minority of people who wanted something for nothing.

Kwill’s Quill: Not Actually a Review of SOE’s “Fortune League”

Written by Kwill on . Posted in Kwill's Quill

SOE has sent out another mass email advertising Fortune League, their EQ2-themed Facebook game.  I was curious enough to go look.  They entice players to play by offering Alternate Advancement scrolls and other in-game goodies.

Sounds great to me, until you click on the “Play Now” button.  Up pops a screen asking you to share with SOE and other players all your basic information on Facebook — friends, personal information, and all your contacts.  Whoa, hold on a sec guys. I personally appreciate an MMO where all that stuff is revealed on a purely voluntary and individual basis, like, oh, the one you publish now, SOE.   Why, exactly, do you want all my information?  My life is nicely compartmentalized, thank you very much, and I don’t want to share all my friends, photos, and personal information with the entire EQ2 community.   Not that anyone would particularly care, but it’s the principle of the thing.  I am already on the grid enough, I don’t need to make my life any more transparent.

It’s a shame, because I might play Fortune League, but not until they change the requirements and quit fishing for details about my life.  No amount of incentives can change my feelings about that!

My report on this EQ2 feature is, just: I never got past the login screen.

Kwill’s Quill: Longevity of Public Quests?

Written by Kwill on . Posted in Grouping, Itemization, Kwill's Quill, Live Events

The player base has started a very interesting discussion thread on how long the Public Quests will remain popular.  Currently, everyone is scrambling to get gear — raiders, non-raiders, casual players.  The PQs are packed, players are complaining no one wants to group or do anything else, and for most people who are participating, they are getting most of their gear slots filled with the best upgrades. Being nearby a successful raid seems all that is necessary.  But how long will the gearfest last?  Once everyone gets what they need, why would they continue to join the PQs?  The AA gain for choosing the AA reward is only 6-10%, and currently, the lag is bothering a lot of people, with the end result being an attitude of “get my gear and get out,” not a great formula for longevity.

Kwill’s Quill: Gotcha!

Written by Kwill on . Posted in Kwill's Quill

In an amusing use of a Station Cash illusion item, clever player Meha turned himself into a treasure chest and planted himself where the normal chest would drop in a public quest raid.  Apparently, the actual chest hadn’t dropped, so they took matters into their own hands to lighten the mood.  Needless to say, player Rabbie from Butcherblock and his guild The Black Knights were laughing at the ensuing chaos:

Everyone ran to him, clicked on him, there was shouting, snickering, and cursing indeed. Then about 5 minutes later, someone else did it, off to the side.  And half the zone thought “Look, it’s over there!” and swarmed to the new chest. And there was more shouting, snickering, and cursing…

Not everyone found it amusing, of course.  But it was all in good fun, according to the Black Knights, anyway.

As other players recalled in the forum thread, this follows the tradition of pranks in the original EverQuest, where illusionists would turn themselves into money on the floor of the bank, or even more wickedly, a trickster who turned himself into a post high in the tree city, mimicking a bridge entrance high above the forest floor, sending players plummeting to their deaths!


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