Month: August 2010
Feldon
No doubt the best part of Fan Faire is talking to the developers. So far I’ve gotten to ask Rothgar both serious and geeky questions about the new UI, server upgrades, guild halls, and of course free-to-play. I’ve made no secret of my concerns about the logistics of free to play seemingly cutting off the flow of new players to the live subscription side of EQ2.
Presentation quality? Brenlo > Jace Hall Nuff said Basically a 20 minute commercial for Jace Hall. I mean… Smedley had more charisma. Seriously…
Here’s a canonical summary of the SOE Community Address. At under 50 minutes, this has to have been the shortest Community Address in the history of SOE Fan Faire events. We were advised to expect a ‘light’ event, but nothing could prepare us for nearly 20 minutes of banal, juvenile humor and heavy promotion for all things Jace Hall Productions. If you saw EverCracked, you get the idea.
Had a minute to talk to SmokeJumper 1 on 1. All has not been revealed. More incentives coming for subscription servers. Marketing will promote both games. More in tomorrow’s panel.
Dethdlr
E3 took place this year from June 15-17. SmokeJumper was interviewed and said that the current subscription model would not change. When asked after the announcement of EQ2 Extended about that interview, he had this to say: Yes, at that time, we were discussing the concept. No, we were not ready to commit to it, nor did we have any details of what we might be doing. On July 27th, EQ2 Extended was announced. I counted up how many work days passed between the interview and the announcment. Guess how many work days went by?
Fan Faire Rumor: The end of all those eq2 dev chat questions about /sit and /laydown may finally be coming. 🙂
In a taxi with Calthine of eq2 zam. F2p discussion has already begun.
From EQ2Players: If you’re attending Fan Faire and interested in participating in the EQII Platinum-Pass Battlegrounds tournament or the Zraxth’s Unseen Arcanum tournament, you might want to compete with your own character.
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and you’re coming to Fan Faire 2010, be sure to download the free Fan Faire app! Just visit the App Store, search for Fan Faire, and you’ll find the SOEFanFaire app. Read More
With the migration of Nagafen server last week and today’s moving day for Antonia Bayle complete, we should now see whether the new servers finally vanquish the lag monster. Rothgar is seeking player feedback on the server upgrade and, if the move proves successful, we will hopefully see the migration of all servers to new hardware. With this morning’s maintenance, Antonia Bayle received some new hardware which should greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the lag you’ve been experiencing. We will be monitoring the new hardware and phasing out the old hardware over time. Please share your experiences with us.
Wifi.. One of the few perks of USAir. That and emergency exit rows for Silver. 🙂 See you in Vegas!
I still talk about the 1-50 (or 1-89) game in EQ2. I would be naive not to realize that once most folks reach 90, does it really matter how they got there? To a growing population — not really. However people quit EQ2 all the time. Whether over an unpopular policy, or the draws of real life, a slow trickle of players are always leaving MMOs and they must be replenished. You need new players. All the great players of eq2 had the luxury of leveling up at a pleasant pace, playing fun content from at *least* 35-70 with...
It seems inevitable that most conversations over the coming Fan Faire weekend will now somehow be tinged by Free-to-Play’s arrival in the EQ2 universe. I predict that Free-to-Play will be the elephant in the room that everyone is talking about. Even in SOE’s other active and in-development games. Even in other MMOs by other developers. Enthusiastic players who take the future profitability of EQ2 seriously have barely had a word to say about the basic concept of Free-to-Play, but have instead focused their concerns on it’s implementation, and how SOE’s choices may very well lead to a fracturing of...
Today marks the official rename of our site to EQ2Wire.com. No more feldoncentral.com, and while we were at it, we ditched the www’s too. It’s just plain EQ2Wire.com. This should make our site easier to remember, and result in a substantial cost savings on your next tattoo. We’ve also refreshed the logo to make sure we aren’t using any SOE art. Did you know? EQ2Wire will have T-shirts at Fan Faire!! We’ll post more info later today.