Feldon If you played EQ1 and are familiar with Magelo, you’ve probably been clamoring for SOE to let us outsource the whole EQ2Players/EverQuest2.com data stream to fan sites who will put in the hours to produce accurate, powerful search engines for the EQ2 data stream. If you have, or are just tired of EQ2Players and want to see something new, this news from Zoltaroth should brighten your day:
The current [data] feeds server can generate XML, YML and JSON for consumption. It isn’t quite ready for prime-time yet but it is getting really close.
If that went over your head, then realize that EQ2Players/EverQuest2.com is just a browser or front-end for the data coming out of EQ2, with character names, guild stats, equipment lists, etc. There is a lot more data than is being displayed, and EQ2Players has never been a great way to browse through that data in meaningful ways. Imagine if all that data were available to the public in an XML or other feed, then fan sites like EQ2Wire and LootDB could step in and come up with our own front-end with filters and cool interfaces for tackling that data in a useful way.
You may be wondering then how our data is going to be any better than the problematic data on EQ2Players. Don’t forget Rothgar‘s post from last week:
As I mentioned earlier, we are aware of the MANY issues that result in our old data export methods. We’ve developed an entirely new system for exporting character, item and spell data, and it works GREAT!
Now all we need is EQ2 Players to be redesigned to use this new data feed structure and it will be the “most awesomest” website you’ve ever seen.
EQ2 ZAM has had the privilege of receiving data from SOE over the last year. It certainly hasn’t been a walk in the park though. The format of this data has changed several times, and the formatting of that data has required Herculean effort on ZAM’s part.
It will be interesting to see what format these Public Data Feeds take, and how much work we’ll have to put in to produce something that is valuable to players. I know I’m excited!