EQ Expansion 13: The Buried Sea
by Loral on January 14, 2007
On Friday, 13 January 2007, Sony Online Entertainment announced the upcoming release of the thirteenth Everquest expansion, The Buried Sea. According to the Buried Sea Press Release, Everquest players can purchase the expansion for $30 and download it on 13 February 2007. It may be a bad Valentines day for a lot of significant others. Today we'll take a look at a few things we know from the press release and a few things we can uncover looking at the clues.
If the theme for this expansion can be summarized in a single word "Pirates" would be that word. Sea battles, lost cities, ship to ship combat; all point towards an expansion of sea faring voyages and exploration of lost lands.
This expansion appears to be a contrast to The Serpent's Spine. Instead of large static zones, The Buried Sea will include 60 instanced missions focused around particular adventures. Personally speaking, I always preferred the focused goals and time durations of instanced missions over the open static hunting of particular camps in large zones. Missions remind me of good pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons adventures, although most of my fond memories of Everquest take place in long static hunts in large populated zones. Both hunting styles have their place in Everquest and it's good to see them both continue forward.
The expansion includes a new inventory slot called a "Energeian", a power source that changes the properites of the rest of your worn armor. No details on these new items are yet known. Perhaps, and this is strictly speculation, these new inventory slots could bring raiders back into the grouping game by offering them as group-only rewards. We'll have to see how they turn out.
Guild Banners will exite the high-end raiding guilds. A few patches ago, World of Warcraft rebuilt how their Meeting Stones worked on dungeons. Three members of a group could go outside of a dungeon, click on a stone, and teleport the rest of a group to that dungeon's location. Guild Banners appear to do something similar for entire raid forces. Once so many members of a guild have reached a certain location, they can plant their own customized Guild Banner and let other members of their guild teleport to that location. It appears to be a handy mechanism for gathering guilds together quickly to a raid. It offers little advantage for multi-guild raiding organizations or pickup-raids, however. This may be an opportunity lost to support non-guild-based raids.
Fellowships do for groups what the Guild Banners do for raids. Fellowships are mini-guilds for groups of players. They include a custom chat channel (didn't we have those already?), and a guild camp site which allows members of a fellowship quick transportation to a hunting area. I love the idea behind fellowships in general but I think it will need more than teleportation to be a truely useful function.
Fellowships sound very similar to a feature of Vanguard. Vanguard includes something like a group caravan that actually gives experience to off-line members of a regular hunting party. This way players of a regular hunting group who aren't online for every hunt will still manage to keep up with their friends. I don't know if that is a good idea or not, but those lines of thinking are what is needed when addressing the regular hunting group.
Again, this feature doesn't seem to help pickup groups - a play style that could really use better support than it has in the past.
Beyond the press release we only have a handful of screenshots to tell us anything more. It appears the Shissar may return and the lands look quite nice. We have heard no official word on a new reward system for these new missions.
The cries of "too soon" will soon begin. Many players feel that the twice-yearly release of new expansions is SOE's way to maximize profit for a dwindling population of players. They may be right. This expansion isn't a required purchase, however. Players at the highest levels felt a lot more pressure to purchase The Serpent's Spine which included new levels and new baseline spells. The Buried Sea will most likely include many useful features and upgrades but people that don't want to support won't have to.
With only four weeks until its release, we are bound to hear more very soon. Until then, let our minds wander to the seas and the dangers lurking within.
Loral Ciriclight
13 January 2007
loral@loralciriclight.com
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on January 14, 2007 03:50 PM
Repost from last article:
The new EQ expansion areas sound great, though are probably restricted to 65+ and the rest of it sounds like more gimmicks a la the last 4 expansions which were all too little too late. It's shame because the Luclin story was my favorite and seeing it continue would be great but unless there's good content for below 65 there's no chance I'll be coming back.
Also, reading more on the new expansion and after another day of WoW... I don't think there's any way that I'd go back to EQ for more than a little while after 56 and a half levels of WoW's easy leveling. In WoW I can go on and just kill stuff and progress... Now every player I kill progresses me towards better gear and if I get bored of grinding mobs I can go hop in a BG queue and be fighting 10 or more other players in 2 minutes. I'm not even looking forward to Vanguard anymore, WoW is the most fun I've had since Star Wars Galaxies. Though this isn't going to be an argument about which mmo is better if you like WoW you'll be playing it if you don't then you won't I'm just giving my opinion. The players still on EQ will keep playing EQ for a while I think, they keep making the game better slowly but surely and if you're still into it then you won't be lured away by other games except maybe Vanguard.
Comment Posted by: sunshadow on January 14, 2007 08:56 PM
Strange it appears as though Banners and fellowship offer similar things and yet you say neither help smaller alligned guild or pickup raids.
One hopes that fellowships are easy to setup and as such a pickup raid or guild alliance raids can easily set one up for that raid and disband it after.
My Guild is currently alligned with 3 other small guilds and we have a set chat channel we all use. It would be nice to be able to lever off that to use the new functionallity.
However I suspect this this will be some sort of stand alone thing that will alienate those that do not have the expansion. Such that only those with the new expanion will be counted when checking to see if enough guild members are presant to plant a banner. The special fellowship chat channel will only be available to people with the expansion so no one will use it cause only 30% will buy the expansion up front.
I doubt I will by this expansion though, the features are not enough. A mission based expansion is useless to me. I am never able to string together the time to do them. As such I really regret buying DoDH cause I never use it.
An expansion with a large number of undead sounds good along with being underwater. Might finally see some uses for GDMF and my undead spells.
Comment Posted by: xsi on January 15, 2007 01:15 PM
It should come as no surprise that I don't plan to buy this expansion. What was surprising to me is that, so far, there really is not much of a 'hook' for casuals to buy it... no extra bank space, no new feature that we cannot live without.
The fellowship campfire feature seems aimed at non-pickup groups, but, in my experience, with such groups, we tend to already schedule specific times and places to xp together, and would not even bother going out if everyone was not there in the first place. The guild standard version seems very useful for raid stragglers... the fellowship one? Not sold. Perhaps further info will end up making the fellowship more interesting, but so far, it sounds like a guild that's not a guild.
New content and missions, (particularly instanced missions), are always good, but I currently have ample content still to consume. In fact, my group is staying at lvl 71, so that we can still gain decent aa xp in all the content we have yet to consume, (yes, we are still progressing through DoN and OoW). Without having even touched DoD (other than dying horribly in the Hive while trying to do slipgear), PoR or TSS (outside of the drakkin newbie experience), more content already seems pointless.
At the same time, while I -DO- think the expansion should be held back a few months as part of a general shift to an 8 month dev schedule, I don't necessarily think it's 'too soon.' The expansion after a level cap increase needs to be pretty quick unless that level cap increase expansion had a ton of content for the maxed out player, (a la OoW). With only a handful of 75 zones, (and even fewer that group geared 75s could handle), TSS did not provide sufficient content, in my opinion. As a result, there will no doubt be some that are really looking forward to TBS.
Comment Posted by: eqdoktor on January 17, 2007 05:09 AM
Coming soon after the heels of the WOW expansion and Vanguard release (30 Jan), I'm thinking the real casualty here would be Vanguard.
Comment Posted by: Teremar on January 17, 2007 11:07 AM
While I'm no fan of the six-month expansion cycle, the fact that SOE is sticking to it is a good sign that they're still committed to EQ, at least to some degree. It's also interesting that the expansion closest to Vanguard's release focuses on instanced content, something Vanguard (by choice) does not have. It's smart of the EQ devs to differentiate the two somewhat.
On a somewhat related note, the launch of WoW's expansion went remarkably well--the only problems I experienced were related to the huge concurrency spike it produced. I'm not claiming this is due to any particular technical skill on the part of Blizzard, but they did do one very clever thing: they released the expansion code over a month ago. Basically we've all been playing like people who haven't yet bought the expansion.
When patch 2.0 (basically the expansion code) came out it was huge, buggy, and frustrating. But not nearly as frustrating as it would have been had everyone been itching to do the new content at the time. That was followed by a flurry of patches, some of which were rather poorly implemented (upgrading everyone's client to 2.0.5 while the login servers would only accept 2.0.4 was a particularly good one). But by release day things were relatively stable and they didn't even have to bring down the servers to allow people to start playing in the expansion. I hope the EQ devs were taking notes.
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on January 17, 2007 08:09 PM
Yes, the BC release can go down as the most successful MMO launch of any kind in history. Here's to looking forward to many more.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 18, 2007 09:53 AM
I have to agree. I bought two copies for my wife and I, I installed it after work and we spent the rest of the night running Blood Elves around the new city. I also spent about 30 minutes with my 60 hunter checking out the Outland which is crazy cool.
Aside from having to agree to their license agreement six times for each machine, and the 400 person queue on Doomhammer, I have no complaints.
I haven't felt this way about an expansion in a long time but Burning Crusade is just plain cool.
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on January 18, 2007 05:53 PM
Do you really play EQ and WoW equally or are you all into WoW now, Loral? Why not make this a WoW site? The EQ editorials seem to be turning more into reports rather than raw opinions like Mobhunter always was.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 18, 2007 09:47 PM
I play a lot more EQ than wow (secretly in a Sendaii raid now) and the site will still focus that way but one cannot ignore the elephant in the room.
Comment Posted by: SpittingOnAbsorFromHellsDeapths on January 19, 2007 10:49 AM
Just a couple quick observations:
TSS SOE's last expansion resulted in server patch after patch after patch. As did basically every expansion prior. Even thier last patch to spells on the 16th required another patch on the 17th.
Each expansion SOE's released (with the possible exception of RoK which I'm pretty sure wasn't actualy SOE at the time), has appeared to make more people pissed than happy. Up to and including at least one boycot call out by the player base. It actually seems on some days that the more expansions SOE releases, the more people leave the game for good. And I'm not talking forum trolls and mindless flames, I'm talking missing content that was advertised, and endless lists of broken/unfinished quests, etc.
Testing for the next expansion per the testing forums appears to have degenerated in to "how to farm beta tokens fastest" Actual content testing appears to be ignored when ever possible. Yes this may be a marginal breach of the NDA, but, um, sometimes the truth hurts. The result is, it's difficult to imagine the 13th expansion being any better on pollish and content than the last 10.
Blizzards first expansion opened up without so much as a server hick-up. The single biggest complaint being the game is so popular, it's hard to get a spot in game.
Now please don't get me wrong. I'm an EQ addict, through and through. But doesn't it seem just a little odd that SOE still can't grasp the idea that GOOD&COMPLETE content is better than MORE/BETA-VERSION?
I'm curious, what ever happened to the promisses(tm) by Brenlo at the first "player summit". You know the ones where they said they'd heard the player base, that they understood they needed to focus on making things work right?
Comment Posted by: BeingDryHumpedByAbsorForFiveYearsAndCounting on January 19, 2007 11:16 AM
As an, "also". I gotta point something out, in case people let it slip by.
Loral is about as staunch an EQ fan as can be. He's probably actually met and talked to more SOE employees in the last few years than anyone else not actually employed by SOE.
But as solid a fan as he is, he said this "I haven't felt this way about an expansion in a long time but Burning Crusade is just plain cool."
Think about that. 12 expansions, two a year, number 13 coming out in a few weeks. And Loral isn't getting a grin on his face because of SOE, but becuase of the Burning Crusade.
If SOE can't grasp that they have a problem when thier biggest fans are making comments like that, I don't know what can be done. Working for SOE must be like working in the Bush Whitehouse.
Comment Posted by: Nolrog on January 19, 2007 01:10 PM
>>Think about that. 12 expansions, two a year, number 13 coming out in a few weeks. And Loral isn't getting a grin on his face because of SOE, but becuase of the Burning Crusade.
That's cause he's had nothing to do for the last 9 months in WoW, while in EQ, he still has plenty to do to progress his character.
Comment Posted by: SomeoneNolrogWillNoDoubtFlame on January 19, 2007 01:33 PM
Nolrog,
How about you let Loral say if it was out of "bordom with 9 months of nothing to do in WoW", or out of actual excitement about something on the MMO market rather than stale same same?
Unless you've taken to ghost writting for Loral these days?
Comment Posted by: Horzek on January 19, 2007 04:01 PM
I have to say that one of the major problems raiding guilds face is actually getting to the raid area. Many of the raid zones were so horribly designed that guilds end up having to ress and rebuff just to get to the place. I believe that the banner is a good idea but I am going to call it a "silent apology" for poor design. It is about time we could concentrate on actually raiding and not on getting all the dead recovered.
Other than the Banner I am not ready for a new expansion. I am not ready to pay for something I personally consider as a bug fix due to design flaws. I have barely scratched the surfact on the last expansion although I did pick up my level 75 and I got the new spells. Come to think of it, we have not nearly finished with PoR and there is still much to be done in DoDH.
Did I mention that DoDH is in my opinion one of the worst expansions ever? Maybe not the whole expansion but I found that after my guild had worked long hard to get all the way into DemiPlane we found that we as a guild hated the place. My poor guild was decimated ad people would actually quit the game rather than raid that infernal place.
This week I had the chance to pick up the WoW expansion and I to am having a pretty good time with it. I dont have so much time to play but I have enjoyed what I am seeing so far. One thing in particular I like is the spawn rates. It is my understanding that they use a dynamic spawn rate which means that spawns are determined by the number of players in the zone. In some cases I was not even able to loot the recently killed mob before the next one was spawning to take its place. Contrast this to some of the old EQ camps where there was constant bickering about people robbing from one persons camp or the other. Just imagine the Wall of Slaughter zone if the spawns were more dynamic and didnt require bards and rangers out trying to outsnipe each other for the only visible mob.
I have to give kudos to the WoW gang.
Comment Posted by: Redhenna on January 19, 2007 04:39 PM
"How about you let Loral say if it was out of "bordom with 9 months of nothing to do in WoW", or out of actual excitement about something on the MMO market rather than stale same same?"
Any argument that EQ has stayed the same is so obviously false as to be unreal. EQ has changed, and continues to change, at a surprisingly rapid pace. You can argue you don't like those changes(there are quite a few I don't like), but the fact is, EQ of today is different from EQ of a year ago, which was different from EQ of a year before that, and so on.
Further, you comment on how EQ expansions have been incredibly buggy(partly but not entirely true) with the exception of RoK, you fail to draw the obvious comparison between EQ's first expansion being somewhat less buggy than later ones, and WoW's first expansion being relatively bugfree. As the game expands, and the code ages and gets more complex, it gets harder and harder to keep bugs out.
By the way...your fake email adress(Loral, having to include an email adress publically viewable here is probably a bad idea, as I, and I suspect most, do not want to give out that information) in your reply to Nolrog is pretty tasteless.
Comment Posted by: SomeRedhennaHasFlamed on January 19, 2007 06:31 PM
Redhenna,
My apppologies, I didn't mean to say EQ had remained the "same" as far as content, theme, approach, mechanics, Vision(tm), audience, or suitability for a specified purpose as defined under California merchandise law.
It has however remained the same in that they continue to push out product that then requires patch after patch due to massive issue with end content, broken "new" machincs, etc.
They remain the same in that again and again they say "this one we focued on detail!", yet again and again that turns out to be a PR stunt.
As for your wonderful remark that Burning Crusade is Blizzards first Expansion and that you predict that as the code base ages and they release more ane more that they will degenerate into the stink which is SOE. Congradulations on taking the argument into a whole new level of denial.
By your reference you seem to imply that 1) All MMO authors will always spiral into the abyss. And 2) SOE should be forgiven because of the "age" of the code.
You don't get it do you? The core DLL's and EXE's that make up the program are not all that old. The systems put in place are very much modern day SOE's, not some mythic relic of a dark age where in they coded by candle light on vacuum tube.
All I can say is, it's a credit to SOE that people like yourself, and Nolrog exist. You personify the very people that SOE relies on as it's current customer base.
You'll look at a 50% incomplete product and you'll marvel at the wonderful job they've done with the 50% that they actually shipped. When they take the servers down for the 5th time since expansion launch, you'll loyally log into the forums and decry anyone that complains. When a database error is ID'd by the player base and four people who are professional SQL developers offer up suggestions on how to fix the issue across the board, you'll slam them down as they dare to interfere with the timetable the Dev's have set for working on the next expansion rather than fix the issues with the current one, or the one before that, or the one before that, or the one before that, or the one before that, or the one before that, or the one before that.
I applaud you Redhenna, you are a credit to the very ideal of a "Fan!"
/bow
Comment Posted by: TryingToPullTheDiscordBackOuttaTheStink on January 19, 2007 06:42 PM
Okay,
/Flaming set aside.
Okay serious question here. And one it would be great to get some non-flame retardant necessary comments on.
Just a thought, when did it become a good way to tout a game but saying, "well that other game will suck too eventually??
I ask as reading over the EQ2, SWG, EQ, and DAoC forums there's a persistance theme.
When ever someone makes a pro-Blizzard comment, the inevitable comment back is along the lines of one of two choices:
Choice One: "It's too easy!"
or
Choice Two: "Well thier new, and given time they will suck because of X, Y, Z..."
The common theme seems to be that these earlier games rather than having some particular game mechanic, theme, play-style that is suprior, are rather games that have some how devolved, and that people shouldn't be happy with WoW now as it will devolve too.
I'm curious from a sociological level, at what point did the game community decide that rather than reaching for a pinacle, it was better to dig down to an equal level of abysmal?
Anyone have any thoughts on the why of that? i.e. Anyone have thoughts on the root causes, what changes have occured in the last ten years in the PC game arena, or changes in social culture?
/Flame on
{please feel free to continue to flame away below}
Comment Posted by: Redhenna on January 19, 2007 08:18 PM
You see, the problem is you are trying to read more into what is said than is there. I am not saying that it is inevitable that older games become more buggy, I am saying that it is easier to release unbuggy releases with newer, less convoluted code. If WoW's 12th expansion is as bug free as their first one, I will be far more impressed. It's not about giving EQ a free pass due to age, but accepting that there will be issues, and I am alot more forgiving of the problems with expansion realeases after Luclin...nothing yet has come close to the bugginess of that one. By the way, as an aside, despite being incredibly buggy, and almost uplayable for weeks upon release, the EQ population was still going up at the point when Luclin was released, and continued to rise.
I find it incredibly amusing how people like to insinuate that somehow being a fan is a bad thing. I am unabashed about it, I am a fan of EQ. This does not make me blind to problems with EQ, and I have commented frequently on some of the issues I have seen. I am also less blind in my desire to run down EQ, and SoE than some. Blind negativity is just as bad, if not worse, than blind fandom.
Comment Posted by: HuggingRedhennaJustBecause on January 20, 2007 12:07 AM
Redhenna,
Okay, I'll admit to being a tad on the /bash SOE wagon this week.
I certainly don't mean to take it out on you, if you are being level headed and not just saying "EQ ROCKS DUDE!!! WOW SUCKS!!!" Which seems to be about as solid a responce as I can seem to get from all too many "fans"
Keep in mind, I'm a fan of EQ too. Hell, I got darn right tickled pink when I got word of the progression servers. That pink turned a sort of off green as SoV was opened and it becamse apparent that there where a whole front column of players that had taken advantage of things left in the progression servers that where never part of the original exp curve or itemization. Added in of course was the new AA exp issue that seemed to just scream as a slam against anyone not on the bleeding level of leveling.
I also really liked what Raghnell first said when he took office. Unfortunately that too turned sour after the first expansion release under his leadership and he started touting the party line about "we'd really have liked to, but time, resources.... and we didn't really promise(tm)...."
And of course I was really impressed with the first players summit and everything SOE made in the way of promisses in the six weeks following. They just seemed to forget everything they said six months later after the fan sites stopped screaming "boycott"
But that's part of the issue. There's just so damn much potential there just waiting to be brought forth. It's litterally painful to see it there, glimmering, but know that time and time again the dev's have pissed in the waters.
Also added to the issue is that I've been neck deep in the beta testing. Yeah NDA breach for even saying I'm in it. Ban me, k? And it's just a farce to see the focus on "beta tokens" and moaning about what people want to get with them. Practically no focus on actually making a better product. The only upside I've seen....lots of GM's, reminds me of what the live servers used to be that first year.
Lastly, and this is the part that really just pisses me off. What's with the EQ fans pissing on WoW? Why can't people just give a little golf clap, acknowledge the fact that WoW has done a really good job, and instead of pissing on it, say "You know, they did a great job, I think we can do one just as well if not better!"
That's the part that really seriously pisses me off about this whole thing. People are pissing on WoW and trying to drag it down into the dirt rather than trying to elevate EQ.
I mean seriously, wouldn't it be a more possitive experience all around if people strove to improve EQ to make it as popular as WoW rather than just pissing on WoW?
Anyway, I've been up for 24 hours, only had a small bite to eat. I'm going to get some sleep and promptly forget I ever wrote any of this.
Comment Posted by: sunshadow on January 21, 2007 05:15 PM
Unfortunately WOW is bashed due to the "Tall Poppy Syndrome".
In a game like this where everyone is highly self motivated, yes Beta will be filled with a lot of self serving people. Hey, I would love for the expansion to go live on Test for 2 weeks before it's general release. That way at least the non-Raid content can be seriously road tested. This would allow everyone who has prepurchased it to log in and road test it. I mean Test has to have some use.
Comment Posted by: Tuppet on January 22, 2007 10:57 AM
Loral, seems SOE updated their forums so now Dev Tracker's link doesn't take you directly to it anymore. Updated link = http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/listByGroup.m?group_id=320
All these comments and not one about the gap between raiders and non-raiders?? *gasp*
I too will be facing the deadline of renewing my subscription soon. I am disappointed with the game overall; to me the new content isn't as much fun anymore. Despite a few 'wins', like the new rest system, I am VERY hesitant to blindly let my subscription auto-renew.
Another major turn-off was the result of the major character progression paths implemented in the last two expansions: AA's, itemization, and spells/discs. To me, they were lackluster and I wasn't excited about them one bit. /yawn
All of these help me guess where the game is headed. Fun? Time-invested vs. Reward? New toys to look forward too (i.e. gear, spells, AA's)?
Comment Posted by: Sunshadow on January 22, 2007 04:41 PM
While I am sure Banners and Campfires consume some sort of reagent in order to be created. With the econnomy the way it is now days I doubt people will blink at the cost, unless it up towards 10kpp. An interesting thought would be to instead make them expendable AA's.
The area of expendable AA's has seen little thought and is a good idea but needs to be expanded beyond the few "make me uber for 10 mins" that exist so far.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 22, 2007 10:04 PM
I'll probably write a review of the Burning Crusade to talk more at length about my feelings.
Yes, I was bored out of my mind once my main hit level 60. I did level up a few alts to about 15 just to see the newbie cities and enjoy actually being able to get loot I could use off of the mobs I killed (a rare thing at the end of any MMO).
Burning Crusade has a lot to love. The newbie games will take up a good 10 to 15 hours for each character you take through them and on the blood elf side it's a lot of fun. The graphics are great and there are few bugs.
At the 60+ side you get a sudden rush of new stuff to do. It's almost shocking. I spent so much time at level 60 wandering around Ironforge wasting time and getting destroyed in PVP that suddenly going back to leveling, having 20 quests to do in my book, and earning gear that outstrips everything I had was just foreign to me. I love it.
Now there is so much to do I don't know where to spend my time. I simply love the look of WoW and I always want to spend more time there than I do.
I love EQ and I'm having a lot of fun working through some of the raid content I never got to do, but I didn't feel the same way about the past few EQ expansions that I feel about the Burning Crusade. It doesn't mean EQ is dead or even that my focus will change. It just means that, right now, WoW is back to being a lot of fun.
Comment Posted by: Doomhammer on January 23, 2007 02:41 PM
I don't suppose you would tell us who you are on Doomhammer. I have 5 lvl 60s and 5 more lower level toons on DH, where I have played since release...
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 23, 2007 06:17 PM
Glave in Elusive Path - 60 hunter of the Outland
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on January 25, 2007 11:36 AM
I think we're all wondering... Night Elf or Dwarf? Male or Female?
Comment Posted by: Kanas on January 25, 2007 07:46 PM
I'm shocked that you'd play WoW. I personally would've seen you as an EQ2 kinda guy, Loral. If you ever decide to leave WoW, you should checkout the Butcherblock server on eq2.
Comment Posted by: wiggles on January 26, 2007 07:23 AM
Reading through the recent dev chat, TBS looks very much like a DoN type expansion but upgraded. There will be plenty of paths to purchase items from vendors from the points you collect doing missions.
Comment Posted by: Bonzz on January 27, 2007 01:15 AM
I sure hope there will be solo and small group content. Number on complaint all the time is ..
NOTHING TO DO except raid.
B O R I N G
Comment Posted by: Aethn on January 28, 2007 05:18 AM
I have never once said this before in more then 8 years but here it goes. Everquest, as a fun game, is dead to me, I quit !!
The game is just garbage now. Half the game is broken, the compnay does not bother to fix things in a timely manner. They piggyback new content on top of old broken content. But first and foremost, the new content is NOT FUN !! The game lost the fun factor. Its to big, and to broken, period.
I am sick and tired of being told xyz feature/spell is being added, only to be told that y was dropped from release to "tune"it better but will be added a few weeks later. Then after 200 posts asking "Hey, what happened to Y?", you are told "Sorry, we dont have time to add Y, we are in a Beta Cycle". then they annonuce the next piece of broken expansion they are going to release with "COOL NEW FEATURE Y" and make you pay for Y TWICE !!!
If this was a Car Dealer, someone would be bankrupt and in jail for fraud.
Nope, the game is n longer fun, the company no longer has ethics, and the playerbase no longer exists to support new content and maintain a playable atmosphere.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 28, 2007 09:17 AM
"I'm shocked that you'd play WoW. I personally would've seen you as an EQ2 kinda guy, Loral. If you ever decide to leave WoW, you should checkout the Butcherblock server on eq2."
I played EQ2 for about six months on Antonius Bayle. My biggest problem with EQ2 is that I spent more time trying to tweak my graphics settings than I actually did playing. I could never get the performance where I wanted it.
I've never had to tweak World of Warcraft to get a high framerate. I just recently bought a new system and I maxed every setting in WoW without seeing any dip in performance.
I know EQ2 changed a lot over the past year but WoW has me hooked. If I have very little time to play any other MMO than Everquest, why not spend it on the one with the easy progression path and eight million other players?
By the way, next week I'll be in a press tour of the Buried Sea. Expect a preview up a week from Monday.
Comment Posted by: Yakk on January 28, 2007 11:15 AM
Fix your dev tracker link:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/listByGroup.m?group_id=1008
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