As I mentioned before, Landuran and I returned to Everquest Two over the summer.  In theory, so did Myclawz and Greldor, but we haven’t seen them online…at all.  Anyways, over the past few months I have found myself wishing that Everquest Two was more popular than it is. The reality is that a success of an MMO is determined by its launch (and maybe the following month).

Everquest Two had a horrible launch.  On top of that - the game was horrible.  Sony spent so much time making sure that the trade skill system wasn’t trivial that they made it so complex it wasn’t even fun.  The graphics were out of this world.  The combat was ok, but it was lacking that EQ1 feeling we were all looking for.

Everquest Two, as it exists today is a completely different game than it was at launch.  They completely redid the trade skill system to make it a little less painful, added guild housing, improved the solo and small group quests.  Also, they actually go out of their way to have events and seasonal things in the game, which makes it fun.  The graphics continue to improve as systems become more and more powerful. They even have in game voice chat that works (unlike WoW - which is horrible)  …I haven’t seen any of the raid content yet, so I can’t comment on that.

The problem is no one wants to buy a game that is 5 years old and start playing it (unless you are an EQjunkie, of course).  I understand that - I don’t blame you.  This brings me to the point of this entire post - what about Everquest Three?

With all of the lessons learned from making Everquest One and EQ2 image what they could do with Everquest Three.  I realize Verant actually made Everquest One, but Sony supported it long enough that they know the ropes.

Here is what I propose for EQ3:

OS independence:

With consoles basically acting as computers today I don’t think it is unreasonable to support EQ3 on the Playstation 3, OSX, Windows, and Linux.  In reality, the first three I think could happen, but for whatever reason no one likes to develop games for Linux (Thankfully, there is Wine).  With OS independence Sony would have a larger pool of people to buy their game - that is never a bad thing.

Graphics:

Keep the Everquest Two style.  I really like the realism that comes with the graphics.  I also like how the graphics evolve as hardware becomes better and better.  I hate how cartoon like WoW is.

Basic Classes:

Steal this from Everquest One and WoW.  The more classes and specialization you add into the game the more complex balancing, gearing, raiding…everything becomes.  Go back to the original classes in Everquest One and try to revamp them.  Make things more simple and straightforward.

Solo and Group Content:

Continue upon what Everquest Two is doing.  Create solo and duo versions of the group dungeons so casual players will have a chance to experience most of the world.

Scale the loot and difficulty of dungeons dynamically based on how many people are in a group.  This will make things reasonable no matter how many people are in their party, while encouraging people to group together to get better loot…this is an MMO after all.

Keep currency the same.  Everquest one had LDONs and other dungeons that used special crystals to buy things.  It was annoying that each time a new expansion came out your old currency was worth nothing.  At the very least have an exchange NPC that will let you convert one currency to another.

Raid Content:

Make things difficult.  Raiding is not for the casual player and never will be.  Raiding is about putting in lots of time to develop a strategy and coordinate with many other people to defeat an epic monster.  If the fight isn’t epic, it wouldn’t be believable.

Bring back open air raid content.  Everquest One was well known for having dragons in the middle of a low level zone.  This was really cool for a couple of reasons:

1. It brought us back to low level zones we haven’t seen in awhile.

2. It gave everyone a sense of community - the low level players needed us to kill the dragon to make the zone playable.

Quests:

Make quests change.  Nothing makes an MMO more boring than following a guide from Alla or EQ2i.  Imagine if quests were dynamically created and there was no guide.  This is the most complex of all of the proposals, but it is still manageable.  At the very least have a few thousand versions of a quest that are randomly assigned.

Zones:

Create a set of zones for each tier of players 1-10,10-20, etc.  Once you have a set of zones stop.  When you release expansions only release content for higher level players.  Everyone will get a chance to work through the low level stuff if they keep plugging.  By limiting what they can do you push more people towards the level cap which will make finding a group easier on everyone.

Trade skills:

I like the harvesting on Everquest Two.  I would definitely keep that.  I would add a request system into the game so players could create their own writ and place it on the auction house.  Anyone with the right trade skill could fill the writ to earn coin and experience.  I think this would relieve some of the repetitiveness of trades skilling as it exists today.

Events:

Have events going on in game as much as possible.  Best of the Best tournaments, Seasonal quests, anything.  Events are the polish that makes a good MMO great.

Difficulty:

Raids should be hard.  They should make you want to pull your hair out.  They should require lots of communication and dedication.

The solo and group content should be manageable.  Things should be challenging (so it doesn’t get to boring), but not insanely hard.

What suggestions do you have for Everquest Three?

My girlfriend sent me an email a few days ago that was amazing.  I won’t bore you any more with the intro, here is the email:

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

VS.

MY GIRLFRIEND.

BY TYLER CURRY

- - - -

I’ve had a lot of time to think about our last conversation, particularly since you ended it by ramming a keyboard through my monitor. I understand that we were both upset at the time and perhaps we said some things we didn’t mean. Well, maybe you more than me, considering I mostly just listened to you shriek and cowered in the corner.

I do not think I am, as you so eloquently screamed, “addicted to World of Warcraft.” I have, however, made a number of unfortunate mistakes, for which I would like to apologize.

I’m sorry I was so late picking you up from the library. I didn’t know they locked the doors at 8, and I’m sorry you had to stand outside alone for two hours. If it makes you feel better, despite its reputation to the contrary, that portion of the city does not have a violent-crime rate significantly above the national average.

You have to consider the position I was in. I was healing for a party with five players in it, all of whom were counting on me to help them defeat Mekgineer Thermaplugg and liberate the Gnomish city of Gnomeregan. Those are the needs of five people, in contrast to just yours, alone. (Note that I’m not even counting the needs of the Gnomish people here, Ashley.) As Spock once famously said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.” You were that one.

Had I looked outside and noticed the freezing rain, I may have made a different decision. Probably not, though.

I’m also sorry I posted those pictures of you on my guild forums, the ones I took when you were passed out. I had no idea they could Photoshop your bra off. That was poor judgment on my part, and I freely admit it. I also should have told you before the chain letter went out. On the bright side, you hated working there anyway.

I also have some things to say that I think you should hear, and, since you forgot to pause long enough for me to speak before your charming little bout of property damage and subsequent stormy departure, I would like to say them now.

Ashley, you have never been willing to accommodate my World of Warcraft needs, or even to compromise the slightest bit.

Last month, when your mother was in a car accident, you called and not only demanded I drive you to the hospital but insisted I stay there to provide “emotional support”—despite knowing full well that I had booked that evening off to fight forest trolls in Zul’Aman. When I suggested you take a cab and that I join you in three to four hours, you unleashed a string of expletives that even my therapist found disturbing. You also refused to wait until we finished off the eagle boss, the one who drops the helm piece I have been trying to get for months.

For the record, she turned out fine anyway. Many paraplegics lead rich and rewarding lives.

Also, what you stumbled upon me doing with that Level 64 blood elf in the back room of the Silvermoon City Inn was neither “sick and perverted” nor “cheating on you.” We were role-playing. That I called you by her character’s name later that evening was just a weird coincidence. I do not wish your body looked like that. You and I both know that it’s physically impossible for humans to have those proportions, at least while retaining all of their internal organs.

However, in the midst of your raging diatribe, sandwiched between the curses and the flailing limbs, you made some very good points. In fact, the words you spoke about commitment, loyalty, and “being there when someone needs you” have sort of inspired me.

Ashley, when I gave you that ring and pledged to spend my life with you, what I didn’t mention was that, eight months prior, in the Level 10 quest “For the Horde,” I had already pledged eternal fealty and service to Warchief Thrall.

Now, with the gates of Ahn’Qiraj opening and the threat of the Silithid invasion looming over Azeroth, the call has gone out for all able-bodied members of the horde to band together in the great war effort. An event like this only happens once in a server’s life, and I cannot honorably abandon my online brethren in this hour of need. I understand that you need me to be there for you, but, Ashley, the truth is, right now, the horde just needs me more.

So it has been a few weeks since my last post.  There are a few reasons for this:

1. I canceled my EQ2 account and was waiting for the WAR open beta to begin for me. (Thanks again to Landuran who bought all the EQjunkies the game).

2. School started again.  For the fellow graduate students out there - you know what a complete time sink this is.

3. UPS & USPS can be annoying (details below)…

I did get a chance to play WAR beta for a few nights, maybe a total of 10 hours or so.  I had mixed feeling about it.  When you first start the game you have to wait through a couple of developer splash screens to come up and also click through two agreements every time you log in.  The annoyance of clicking these agreements has been well documented.

For me, the license thing is annoying, but it isn’t a game breaker.

Once you get into the game the graphics are refreshing.  They are kind of a cross between EQ2 (who goes for realism) and WoW (which is admittedly cartoonie).  The result is scenery that flows in the background and characters that look like a split between Conan (the movie, not the game) and Dragonball Z.  I really enjoy how my Blight Wizard looks like a bad ass. (I went for the spiked hair and a couple tattoos).

The game play in the noob zones (I only played for a few hours) is similar to other MMOs.  You are given some basic quests and are asked to perform some basic functions to get used to the game.  The main difference is the existence of open groups and open raids.  Basically, if you are in the same area as an open group/raid you can join without being invited and everyone works together.  What is really impressive is how seamlessly this works.

Now to why UPS/USPS is annoying - I still haven’t received my game in the mail.  Landuran, Greldor, and Myclawz all already got it.  Mine was shipped UPS, but they handed it off to USPS.  They are holding it hostage somewhere in PA and hasn’t moved in a couple days.  Consquently, I haven’t been able to log on and play (I am busy enough with school that it hasn’t bothered me all to much yet).

One last thing - my weekday posts won’t be back to normal for a couple more weeks.  I have a lot of homework to do & it is more or less consuming my life.

If you have some free time, I would recommend buying WAR and giving it a shot.

Wait, what?  As reported by a recent CNN article, it appears Microsoft is doing something that will help the customer and at the same time hurt them!

It appears that the beta version of Internet Explorer 8 has a new feature that is getting a lot of attention: InPrivateBlocking (Firefox is planning on releasing something similar…eventually).  The basic idea behind this is to take user invisibility on the web to the next level.  Instead of taking “cleanup” approaching of clearing user’s temporary files and cookies the browser doesn’t allow them to be downloaded in the first place.

The temporary files and cookies are what enable websites to track what sites you visit, what ads you click, how to market to you, and in some cases, allow the installation of spyware and malware - think of them as your internet fingerprints.  Microsoft’s move to give users this option is interesting because Microsoft’s own advertising software uses these internet fingerprints to target ads to you…they are hurting one of their businesses while improving another.

For the users this is a great option.  Internet anamolitity is something that, in the past, we could only dream about.  The idea of no one tracking where you went, what you viewed, and what you bought is refreshing.  What is the down side though?  For one - if this feature becomes popular the ads you see on sites will not be as revelant to what you actually like.  This isn’t the end of the world for the user, who typically ignores the ads anyway, but it could spell disaster for websites’ income.  As a result of lower revenue from ads sites might have to turn back to subscribition services, which I personally hate.

So do you mind sacrificing a little privacy to help make more of the web free or would you rather pay for things (with registration…and lose that privacy anyway) and not see as many ads?  Tough call.

CNN is reporting that Nintendo is being sued over their Wii remote.  Apparently they have violated 4 patents of another company by its design.

What really boggles my mind is that with all of these types of accusations, the prosecutors always wait until the product is really popular. I don’t know if anyone remembers when facebook got sued, or how about this one?

I mean, some lawsuits are valid, but the majority of them just seem to be gold diggers.

Hopefully Nintendo is able to settle this quickly and move on. It just seems like a waste of everyone’s time. Better yet, just buy the company like Microsoft does…

A little while ago Sony announced that EQ2 will have an integrated voice chat system. In the most recent game update (47)- it went live.

The Setup

The first thing I noticed when I logged in after the patch was the voice wizard that took me through how to setup everything. To my surprise, EQ2 handled my Logitech headset (use an amazon link to the side to support eqjunkies.com!) without any problems.

The Interface

The voice interface within the game was fairly nice. It has everything you need at your finger tips. It has the channel window, so you know what channels are available to you, and who is in them. This something that is really nice to have in game instead of in Ventrilo/Teamspeak; when you are grouping with people for the first time you can figure out who is who.

The Quality

The quality is on par with Ventrilo (which has better quality than TS in my opinion). I didn’t notice anything about the quality that was a drop off to me.

Troubleshooting

There were a few Mic/speaker settings that I had to tweak, but the “FIX” button seemed to do all the fixing automatically, which…is amazing. Maybe they should create a “FIX” button for other things too.

Final Thoughts

I am very impressed with the initial release of voice chat. This is a great baseline that they are starting from; I look forward to seeing what they do in the future with this.