After 9 years, it is time for me to call it quits on this EQ2Wire News site. I feel I have always put players first, and that choice has repeatedly cost me support I might have otherwise gotten from the EQ2 team and Sony Online Entertainment. At the last SOE Live, I was jokingly branded “chief shit-stirrer” by the Community Council for my constant vigilance of issues affecting customers, and my frequent and often uncomfortable requests for accountability. I have often cast a bright spotlight on business and development choices that I felt negatively affect players. Even though all that,...
Commentary
I believe that the best games, whether in the real or digital worlds, on any platform, should have clear and concise rules which are obvious or well-documented for the player. For years, Dellmon (host of the now-quiet but formerly popular EQ2Talk podcast which frequently interviewed members of the EQ2 team) and I have railed against a severe lack of documentation in EverQuest II. Our requests for improvements have spanned how game mechanics work in unexpected ways, to trying to clear up vague item tooltips and spell descriptions, and many other suggestions that would improve the Quality of Life for...
First of all, I’d like to thank EQ2Wire for giving me the opportunity to rant about…I mean discuss the current situation regarding DPS in EQ2. What I’m going to do here is give 3 rankings and 1 “score” for all DPS classes. Firstly, I will rank where they were. Next I will rank where I expect them to end up after the dust of GU103 settles. Lastly among the rankings, I will include a “value” rank that indicates my opinion of the overall. Finally, the “score” for the DPS classes will be in relation to each other, with the top ranked class being 100,...
The backbone of any MMO is defined by character progression. That character is you, and that character reflects your hard work. Like any MMO that has been around as long as EQ2 has, you need to be creative, and come up with more ways to improve and increase potential with your character. Whether that means all or some of: new gear, new levels, alternative “systems” to increase power (AA’s), abilities, and then of course new areas to explore and quests to complete. These things keep people engaged, something to work on with their character, and most importantly, playing the...
After eight and a half years, it is time for me to step back and see if there is anyone else in the EverQuest II community with writing ability and a desire to lend their voice to this site. I have barely played EQ2 in the last few years and it shows in the lack of coverage exhibited. Other than Update Notes, there has been limited discussion about the Kunark Ascending expansion, the race to discover Epic 2.0 Weapons, Public Quests, Burnt Keys, and all other elements of gameplay which EverQuest II players wish to know about. Keeping this site...
In a eulogy, it is customary to say positive things about the deceased. Now where to begin… I played Landmark in Alpha and quite enjoyed what depth it had in the progression of harvesting nodes, huge array of crafting materials, compounding recipes, and choice of crafting tables. And I was blown away by what players were able to create. Inside of just a few days, players discovered bugs (unintended features?) with the engine that allowed the partial removal of voxels which allowed for incredible designs and nearly photorealistic structures to be created. While there wasn’t a whole lot of “game”...
From the official Landmark website: To the Landmark community, With heavy hearts, we are writing today to inform you that after much review, we have decided to close Landmark game servers on February 21, 2017.
NOTE: No EverQuest II content. Turbine has announced today that Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) are being spun off to Boston, MA-based Standing Stone Games. As part of the announcement, we’ve learned that the two Free-to-Play games will fall under the publication of Daybreak Games. It is unclear if the two new titles will become part of Daybreak’s confusingly titled “All Access” program which includes EverQuest, EverQuest II, PlanetSide 2, and DC Universe Online, but excludes H1Z1:KotK, H1Z1: JS, and Landmark. Here’s Turbine’s announcement: Greetings, Today we have some momentous news! The game...
A great article from PCGamer.com: Micah Whipple didn’t believe in Real ID. It was unveiled in 2010 as a new social initiative in the Blizzard forums, effectively forcing players to register their real names instead of Battle.net aliases to cut down on the witch hunts and treachery that so often define anonymous, online public spaces. Whipple thought the policy would be unsustainable and unenforceable, but as a World of Warcraft community manager it was his job to go to bat for it. The CM role is simple: be a plebeian, embed yourself in the community, serve as liaison between...
Cecilia D’Anastasio of Kotaku has unearthed the legend of how guilds of classic EverQuest on the Rallos Zek server almost killed an “unkillable” mob — the Sleeper — Kerafyrm. My partner was present at this battle and fought right up until the moment SOE panicked and despawned Kerafyrm. It was a big deal and caused much consternation. Now the story can be told… From Kotaku: Rare today are opportunities for gamers to step outside the prescribed outlines of a developer’s intended gaming experience, especially in MMORPGs. Back in the early 2000s, anarchic players eagerly hunted down the virtual unknown, where...
The day has arrived and the online trading card game Legends of Norrath is no more. I suppose this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who played or is familiar with the game. LoN had long since reached the tipping point where, even in lights-out, no-development, break-fix-only support was costing more than the game was bringing in. There was no fanfare. No sendoff. No final bonanza giveaway week or God-mode gameplay. No last hurrah. Not even a reminder post on the forums. Legends of Norrath went out not with a bang but with a whimper. Honestly between you and...
Talk about being in the right place at the right time. After a single month on the app store of iOS and Android devices, Niantic‘s Pokemon GO (Pokemon being short for Pocket Monster) has obliterated even the loftiest expectations and entered the national consciousness. Some 80 million people have downloaded and played this new augmented reality game. Despite a few early hiccups, including a spying fear when the initial iOS release requested FULL access to your Google profile before a patch fixed it, the game has been a staggering success. The Pokemon GO juggernaut was strong enough to buoy Nintendo’s...
Suka has taken up the mantle of spotlighting EverQuest II players who contribute to the community in meaningful ways and this month she has chosen Niboota. From the EQ2 Forums: Today we put a face on Niboota! We are all familiar with Niboota and her marvelous videos tours of different houses on each server. She has done a great job of inspiring decorators and promoting them. She has posted many things on the forums including a detailed post on how to invite her to video tour your home. Q: How long have you been playing the game? I’ve been playing...
Thousands of EverQuest, EverQuest II, and Planetside 2 players have purchased content packs and expansions from discount websites such as Steam, PlayerAuctions, and G2A over the last five months. This was all fine and dandy until it turned out that all of these purchases originated with large fraudulent purchases from Steam. The platform’s publisher Valve Inc sent an eyewatering bill to Daybreak Games for thousands of dollars. Valve’s failure to recognize and address this issue until the problem had snowballed to this point is a topic for another article, but what is more near and dear to Daybreak Customers...
After last week’s banning and suspension of hundreds of EverQuest II players for running third party software including boxing and botting programs (the bans seemed to be indiscriminate and extremely random), it seemed like things might be getting back to normal. So much for that idea. For years, it has been possible to buy EverQuest and EverQuest II expansions at a discounted rate on sites like Steam, G2A, and PlayerAuctions. There is nothing in the EQ or EQ2 EULA or TOS that constrains where expansion keys can be purchased. Now that is being called into question as thousands of EverQuest...
Feldon
June 12, 2016 10:09 pm
On March 16, 1999, EverQuest launched, and with it, a volunteer Guide Program. They would “act as basic customer service/support via ‘petitions’. Issues could be forwarded to the Game Master assigned to the server or resolved by the volunteer. Other guides would serve in administrative functions within the program or assisting the Quest Troupe with dynamic and persistent live events throughout the individual servers. Volunteers were compensated with free subscription and expansions to the game. In 2003 the program changed for these volunteers, shifting them away from a customer service focus and instead placing them into their current roles...
MMOs like EverQuest II can’t help but include a loot chase. While EQ2 offers many different styles of gameplay from crafting to decorating to soloing, those players who elect to group or raid find themselves on the loot treadmill and want to be able to point to forward progress. In recent years, the EQ2 team have scattered a few best-in-slot items throughout the content so that crafters and soloers get some “Whoa!” items. Still, most Progression items come from extremely difficult content that requires substantial coordination. There’ll always be that one ridiculously difficult heroic zone. There’s always that Wing...
On April 28th, EverQuest II launched its level 100 content release “The Siege of Zek“. The update takes us back to Zek, the Orcish Wastes and a lot has changed in 12 years. While the original level 35-appropriate zone can still be accessed, players may now choose to travel to the new level 100 Scourge Wastes. The update contains updated versions of classic Zek zones in Advanced Solo, Heroic, Event Heroic, and Heroic Contested versions as well as a Raid zone. Rather than a simple up-tiering of existing zones, the Designers and Art Team have put a lot into...
As you have by now heard, EverQuest Next has been cancelled, and the great purge is underway to remove all trace of the product from Daybreak’s official channels and websites. EverQuestNext.com and the EQNext YouTube channel have been cleared out. Next up is the EQ Worlds App for iOS and Android. The EQ Worlds app is not something I ever featured or talked about here on EQ2Wire, and perhaps that was an error on my part. I objected to the glitchiness that players reported when they first used the app at SOE Live 2013, and I was less than enthusiastic...
The purpose of New Content in any MMORPG is to provide additional length to the “treadmill” so that players who revisit heroic dungeons or raids always have new things to do. New zones provide new rewards that raise the bar and keep that loot chase going. It is totally expected that when a new content update or expansion is released that previous items will be trumped by new ones. However we’ve seen something new and unexpected since the release of the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion. In an update on January 20th, existing Weapons and Jewelry items were removed from the...
Daybreak Games Senior Community Relations Manager Tony “RadarX” Jones seems to view community management as a war between players and developers. At this year’s Game Developer’s Conference in March, RadarX will be hosting a panel to teach other game companies how they should run their Communities. Here’s the course description: Toxic behavior in a community can drive player sentiment in the wrong direction, distract from desired discussion points, and cripple positive engagement. Examining principles used by military genius Genghis Khan, attendees will learn how to identify and defeat this behavior. Takeaway Attendees will learn to identify forms of toxic behavior...
If you notice a few guildmates, recently flush with in-game currency, suddenly absent from EQ2 over the next few days/weeks, now you know why. It seems that there was an item which could be purchased for 1 copper from one vendor that could then be sold back to another vendor for upwards of 10 platinum pieces each. Some players prudently ceased once they discovered the issue. However others systematically abused this glitch, upsetting the in-game economy in the process. Krono prices jumped 200% on some servers. Time will tell if these players are stripped of their ill-gotten plat and/or...
NOTE: No EverQuest II content inside. If you’ve been following Sony Online Entertainment co-founder John Smedley‘s Twitter teases and wondering what he would be doing next, now we know… Kickstarter: Hero’s Song by Pixelmage Games Massively Overpowered: Exclusive Interview: John Smedley Reveals Hero’s Song, His New Open-World OARPG MMORPG: Smedley & Patrick Rothfuss Team Up for New ARPG PixelmageGames.com Twitch: Watch the CohnCarnage Reveal Video hosted by CohhCarnage, John Smedley, Pat Rothfuss Kickstarter video on Youtube:
What started as an odd Twitter exchange which felt like a pre-planned stunt turns into a three page backhanded compliment for EverQuest II. From Polygon.com: Touring the living remains of an 11-year-old MMO EverQuest 2 has been around over a decade, but there’s still some incredible sights to see in this odd game My name is Phil Kollar, and I had a weird weekend. Let’s start our story just over 11 years ago, on Nov. 9, 2004. That was the date that Sony Online Entertainment released EverQuest 2. I had spent a couple years in high school noodling around in the...
EverQuest II has one of the most advanced decorating systems of any MMORPG. It likely has more house items than any other game, as evidenced by the frequently updated, screen-busting fansite EQ2Furniture which allows players to see a spinning preview of all 16,325 house items in Norrath. However this paradise of customization has become a huge data storage problem for the EQ2 team and players alike. Although the Dungeon Maker feature never lived up to its hype or even the lowest expectations due to the anemic customization and storytelling options it offered, it provided mass storage and an almost...