Feldon Here’s some news we weren’t expecting. EQ2Talk‘s Dellmon and Aliscious have interviewed Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson about the upcoming Age of Discovery expansion. Dellmon hasn’t been one to pull punches, so I’m listening to this podcast as I post this article.
Episode #36 – Smoke Signals
recorded on Dec 3EQ2 Talk is thrilled to be joined by Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, EverQuest franchise Executive Producer. This episode covers a lot of ground on things players have seen over the past year, from rebalancing content, to gear and stat changes, to EQ2’s free-to-play conversion. We ask him about some of the more controversial topics, such as exploits and the lively “insta-90” thread, and get a behind-the-scenes peek at what we can expect for the world of Norrath in the coming year and beyond. Smokejumper also offers some insight into the thinking behind the Age of Discovery expansion, and talks about his vision for EverQuest II.
Click here to listen to Episode 36.
Discuss this on the EQ2 Forums.
Thanks for posting that feldon it was a good listen.
I still respectfully disagree with smokejumper about the price of aod being a good value, and why he does not understand that mind set is funny.
I found his comments interesting to where he does not the eq2 forums because there are two many trolls, I liked the in game poll idea something that has been asked for for a long time.
The rest of what I heard smokejumper say i’m still digesting and probably will replay some of the podcast over again to find other talking points, as there was a lot said in that 1.5 hours of that podcast.
I actually like smokeblower a bit more after listening to this. Admission of fault and trying to fix things going forward seems honest and uncharacteristicly un-SOE.
Sounds like he is serious about doing some damage control here …which means he is listening to the player base. I am not sure about too many trolls on the eq2 forums, that sounds like an excuse, but give the man credit for getting out there in the past week and showing his leadership.
@kwill
i agree with you except one think the damage control wouldnt have happened if he listened to his player base in the first place.. im willing to bet his aod sales are dismal to say the least.
@Kwill /agree. I do tend to think and agree with him regarding this launch. There is tons potential game changers being released/implemented that is garnering the game fairly significant industry attention. F2p/Mercs/dungeon maker and reforging may just put eq2 back on the map. If they will implement and utilize an effective player feedback model we may see a good game made great. I admit I am hopeful.
I wish he had been that informative and excited sounding about AOD during their webcast.
He mentioned having a twitter account. It’s nice being able to follow Notch (minecraft developer) to get a feel for direction of the game, and the reason behind it. Does anyone know Smokejumper’s account, or if he tweets about eq2?
@VGUK – Smokejumper is Qixter on Twitter.
@SENYA Awesome, thanks.
Damage control = AoD orders are way below expectations.
Damage control = server attendance has dropped almost 25% since Oct 1, to the lowest in game history.
Nothing causes a deathbed conversion faster than poor orders and cancelled subs.
It’s not the forums causing problems. Only a few % go there at all. It’s the silent majority abandoning the game.
I’ve only gotten through the first hour of the podcast, but it’s a good listen. SJ actually makes the game sound promising…. strangely enough. He says the devs hate current itemization, or at least that they took away any amount of choice in the upgrade path. What a coincidence, the players hate it too. I love how they did an item revamp on ~60k(I think he said) items just to realize (or more likely even knowing) that the itemization was horrific.