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I missed all the live events in EQ2 – wasn’t around for the Frogloks or the Griffin Tower and skilled the Ulteran Spires. I know that a lot of people were very angry after the Ulteran Spires as they had worked hard to collect the stuff to build the spires and then Uber Raiding guilds showed up and killed the dragon and got all the loot and those who built the spire couldn’t even get an invite into a group. That is sort fo thing I don’t like about live events — they have to figure out how to keep uber guild and raiding guilds from showing up at the last minute and grabbing all the goodies. I think EQ2 needs to take a hard look at running live events as they honestly don’t do them very well.

I actually think Blizzard ran their live event — the openning of Ahn Qiraj – a lot better. They made it a sever contest and you contributed by getting supplies from harvesting. And then when whatever it was you were getting the supplies for caused the gates to open, everyone online at the time got to go through the gates into the new zone. I think that was a more equitable treatment of people that what SOE does in their Everquest series.
Also the fact that there was no UBER loot to be snagged by selfish raiding guilds also made the event work better.

As for static quests for which there are guides — well no one is forcing you to use them — you can always do the quest without.

To apply such mechanics to the game in its entirety could greatly assist in removing the feeling of “grind.” In fact, as an old pen and paper RPGer, one of the greatest thrills was not knowing what to expect next. Having static quests that can be mapped out and defined and published as guides and distributed kind of removes the spontaneity and adventure.

Another interesting sort of hybrid of the concept reminds me of the LDON quests in EQ1, or even the tears grifters quests in Majdul. There was at least some degree of variety to it.

“Chewable” content isn’t something that I would see gaining a lot of traction in the community unless it was done to a point that anyone, anytime, anywhere could watch it. Unlike “Lost” and “Battlestar Galatica”, online games involve many people from many countries and many time zones. With TV shows they can show them in that country/time zone at the appropriate time. With online games, that’s not so much an option.

For the immersion that Moorguard is talking about, there still needs to be a storyline, something that is driving the player base to actually do something and not just grind through levels/missions/etc. The downside to this is the cost behind creating a dynamic and active storyline. Most companies don’t want to put that kind of capital behind full-time story writers, graphic artists and video producers. Yes, there are games with grand lore and history, but very few that have an active over-arching storyline that a affected by the player base. That almost requires a full time team to do nothing but monitor what the player base is doing as well as another full time team to generate the story as well as dictate the direction of the story to the development teams and beyond.

The bottom line is the thinking of the publishing company. MMORPGs will have to evolve and change to survive. I think that we can all agree that there are only so many ways you can role play fantasy and grind levels. Companies will have to put more into the investment of the game and take that scary leap of faith and attempt it. Unfortunately I don’t see that coming from SOE or Blizzard, mostly because of their size. It will be the smaller, more nimble, more to lose companies that will go out on that limb to make the next “Killer App”. Unfortunately, with most smaller companies, they don’t always have the resources to maintain the vast expenditures that are necessary to continue the initial investment or have to compromise on other things, like server stability/reliablity to ensure that they can still get the game out on time.

Episode style or “chewable” content is a buzz word, and one that I personally feel should either put up or shut up. Episode typically means more than one part as well as on a consistent basis. I have yet to see anything that warrants the distinction of consistent when talking about the gaming industry as whole, let alone the fickle nature of the MMORPG portion of the gaming industry.

We don’t really notice the setting or backdrop of tv shows. Archie Bunker, The Honeymooners, Alice and similar shows were all one setting. Later shows, ER, Lost, LA Law and similar used several sets but not more than a half dozen or so.

How many people would play a game where the same 6 instances were recycled over and over again?

Even in EQ2 I hear people talk about how one zone is the same as another zone. With the multitude of zones in EQ2 people still notice when one is recycled.

Now, if the idea is more LIVE events similar to what the Matrix Online was promising, then perhaps episodic content could find a home.

Now to reinvent things around episodic content – have people in-game acting things out for the players. Involve splashy visuals and extravagant effects. Simple storylines easily digested. Have some way to deal with any disruptive players – zap them with a wand and they’re ported outside the event area.

You’d have to make your money with advertising. Who wants to pay for a few hours of content a week ? And if your focus is episodic, there shouldn’t be much for players to do other than talk over the latest happenings, which means most players log in only long enough for the events.