EverQuest Next Landmark is SOE's next chapter in the
Everquest Franchise. EverQuest Next and EverQuest Next Landmark's game play is described as an
Adventuring/crafting/harvesting/building sandbox as seen here. SOE
being a major contributor to the MMO market, has once again taken the
spotlight in touting “Pioneer” or “ Time for some new ideas in
the genre and if someone is going to do it, it should be EverQuest.”
Ingredients are very important as with
any recipe. Mom's homemade chocolate pie (which is to die for) is not
only about ingredients but proportions and how the ingredients are
added. Landmark's main ingredients are destructibility and a
procedurally generated world. What we are uncertain of, are
proportions and application.
We have a general idea though videos
and interviews but without tasting it for ourselves, we don't know
what is too much or what is too little. If all or most of the
landscape is destructible, in a world which traveling is essential,
it may be a challenge to find your way back without road signs or
points of interest. “I turned left at the big tree or hill but its
gone now.” We know the world heals itself but will it reset back to
its original state. In a sense this does add flavor to adventuring
but if there is an ever changing landscape it may be frustrating.
Landmark is an ever changing world and being in pre-alpha development
also means, its an ever changing world.
SOE's desire to include the masses
(with a cover charge for entry)in an early alpha state is also
something new. A chance for the player base to help in development,
ideas and testing is exciting and even more so for SOE fans. It does
seem that a new direction is wanted, warranted or needed in this
genre of game play. Old EverQuest fans are hoping to re-capture their
first love. New and old gamers are looking for something different
than what they have been experiencing. Is this the “Holy Grail?”
When Landmark is released and we set our eyes on EverQuest Next, will
the true replay-ability without the grind finally exist? Will we
actually find ourselves in a world that is truly ever changing? It
will be the Holy Grail if all the ingredients and proportions are
properly applied.
Following SOE and the EverQuest
Franchise for over 14 years has yielded more good times than bad, and
I have complete confidence in their development team. I know what a
perfect chocolate pie tastes like and I like pie. I don't know how a
perfect game feels like but maybe I will get a chance to find out.
If you you have spent the last 10 years gaming, or if you follow the MMORPG universe (Massively Multiplayer On-line role playing games) then I am sure you have heard the name. If you haven't, well let me enlighten you.
Brad McQuaid is a video game designer who was the key designer of Everquest, a very successful MMORPG released in 1999, that set the standard for many games that followed. Everquest was a hate/love smorgasbord of adventure.
Talk to any Everquest veteran and you will probably hear about corpse runs, spawn camping, how huge the world felt, how immersed they would feel, the trains and did I mention the corpse runs, for several it was a true adventure.
For many Everquest fans, Brad McQuaid was a “Superstar”, but even a superstar can have a bad day.
The creativity that is Brad McQuaid can not be denied. There is another story that he wants to tell, another adventure that he wants to share, another game. I for one am wishing Brad the best in this next chapter of his career.
Audio trouble again this week *sigh*, but we will do our best to work through it. What I managed to save I should have posted soon. We didn't cover everything in our notes but at least we have the notes..
....Russ
PC Love -
Game topics from the week.
EverQuest House of Thule....
....is the seventeenth expansion of the ground breaking EverQuest franchise. Now in its unprecedented twelfth year, EverQuest continues to add immersive game play, captivating storytelling and exciting worlds to its legacy, now set in a never-before-seen dreamland full of mystery and adventure. House of Thule offers an expansion rich in content and packed with game-changing features including a level cap increase and the addition of player housing, which new players, veterans and MMO fans will relish. http://www.everquest.com/everquest.vm
"Halo: Reach," the highly anticipated follow-up in the popular gaming series, will hit stores at midnight, Sept. 14, in more than 25 countries, and retailers around the world are gearing up for late-night launch events. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369051,00.asp
The first "Halo" game made its debut in 2001, and the franchise includes follow-ups "Halo 2," "Halo Wars," and "Halo 3: ODST." Microsoft released a beta version of "Halo: Reach" in May, which attracted more than 2.7 million players who logged more than 16 million hours of game play.
Fans can line up at tens of thousands of retailers tonight to get their hands on the game at 12:01am local time. For those in New York City and other major cities, however, Microsoft will be going the extra mile with several star-studded launch events.
The standard edition of "Halo: Reach" will retail for $59.99, while Limited and Legendary editions will sell for $79.99 and $149.99, respectively. The Legendary version includes a 10-inch, hand-painted statue of the Noble Team, the Spartan soldiers featured in the game.
Microsoft is also offering an Xbox 360 Limited Edition "Halo: Reach" bundle that includes the 250GB Xbox 360 console, two limited edition wireless controllers and a standard copy of "Halo: Reach" for $399.99.
“This Software is licensed to you, not sold.”
While the US Supreme Court’s 102-year-old "first-sale" doctrine says that copyright holders can't prevent consumers from reselling or renting a product after an initial sale, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a 2008 decision affirming Vernor's right to sell the used software, ruling that Autodesk’s contract made it clear that the rights to install its programs were being licensed rather than sold. http://www.next-gen.biz/news/court-ruling-threatens-used-game-sales
The ruling aims to distinguish between when a piece of software is sold and when it is merely licensed, with the user potentially unable to resell if it's the latter.
Many other popular software programs already installed on home and office computers are covered by licensing agreements using similar language to Autodesk's programs, Beck said.
"That means the infrastructure already is in place for other software makers to say their customers don't really own those programs," he said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100910/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_software_resale
b) Game of the week:
Guild Wars 2- NCSoft/ArenaNet
In our new MMO Manifesto video, ArenaNet Studio Lead Mike O'Brien and key creators explain how Guild Wars 2 will defy MMO conventions and create a new kind of game - free from boring grind and static, unchanging worlds. Loaded with incredible gameplay footage, the MMO Manifesto video charts a bold new direction in gaming.
Personal interaction - Your character's story reflects your interest and your choices - no two players will have the same experience.
One of the challenges of a massively-multiplayer game is that in being inclusive to a vast number of people, it loses a lot of the personal interaction that makes single-player RPGs so much fun. When you're looking at the games on the store shelf, it seems you have only two options - a game that you can play with your friends, or a game that has a satisfying personal story. The Guild Wars 2 design team believes that a game should have both http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/personal-stories/personal-story-overview/
Dynamic Events
In Guild Wars 2, our event system won't make you read a huge quest description to find out what's going on. You'll experience it by seeing and hearing things in the world. If a dragon is attacking, you won't read three paragraphs telling you about it, you'll see buildings exploding in giant balls of fire, and hear characters in the game world screaming about a dragon attack. You'll hear guards from nearby cities trying to recruit players to go help fight the dragon, and see huge clouds of smoke in the distance, rising from the village under siege. http://guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/
Environmental Weapons
So the weaponsyou're currently holding in your hands determine your first five skills. Breaking a barstool over the head of a rowdy bar patron can yield a chair leg that can be used to great effect as a club. http://guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/part-two/
In Guild Wars 2, we’re going even further to make the out-of-combat experience a role playing experience by introducing “personality” as a player character role. How you respond to other characters develops and changes your personality over time, letting you affect how the game treats you. Personality is your character’s attitude toward others; it grows and changes as you play through your personal story and as you adventure in the persistent world.
The 7th Guest, produced by Trilobyte and released by Virgin Games in 1993[3], is an FMV-based puzzle video game. It was one of the first computer video games to be released only on CD-ROM. The 7th Guest is a horror story told from the unfolding perspective of the player, as an amnesiac. The game received a great amount of press attention for making live action video clips a core part of its gameplay, for its unprecedentedly large amount of pre-rendered 3D graphics, and for its adult content.
OZZY OSBOURNE will return to North America for a month-long arena tour launching November 12 in Victoria, B.C. and concluding December 12 in Minneapolis. These shows--in support of his album SCREAM and latest single “Life Won’t Wait”--are part the of the Rock Legend’s in-progress 18-month world tour on which he’searning some of the best live reviews of his career (including raves for new guitarist, *Gus G). HALFORD, featuring legendary Judas Priest front man, Rob Halford, will perform on all dates. The first leg of arena dates will mark OZZY’s first headlining North American tour since 2007’s trek for his Black Rain album. Tickets for the Live Nation-produced tour go on sale beginning Friday, September 17. http://www.ozzy.com/us/news/ozzy-annouces-north-american-arena-tour http://www.robhalford.com/index.php No More PoP music at funerals
In Australia, The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne has banned the use of pop music at funerals, according to The New York Times. Archbishop Denis Hart has said the act of playing pop songs is not considered “a celebration of the life” of the deceased.
The new guidelines state: “Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs, football club songs.”
The Melbourne Hearld Sun reported that football songs are popular at many funerals, in addition to pop hits. Although Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and Bette Midler’s “The Wind Beneath My Wings” are often requested, the newspaper reported that quirkier choices like AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” and Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” also had been popular before the ban.
Metallica, How many versions of a song is worth having...????
We're getting psyched up for our return to Australia and New Zealand next week (September 15, 2010 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, AUS) . . . it's been six long years since we've visited and we're ready to throw down! The nice people at Universal Music were so darn excited that they actually suggested that we release something special to commemorate this last run of World Magnetic tour dates, so . . . ta-da . . . we present the "Six Feet Down Under" limited edition EP! Coming to Trans-Tasman record stores and right here at the Metallica.com Store on September 20.
"This is the next logical step in a process that began back in 1991 when we first implemented the 'Taper Section' at our shows, where the fans were encouraged to bring in their own gear to record the show, and then take home their very own 'bootleg' of the concert they had just seen." said Metallica's Lars Ulrich.
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948)[1] is an American rock singer, songwriter and broadcaster whose career spans more than five decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock.
Alice Cooper's "shock rock" reputation apparently developed almost by accident at first. An unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper and a live chicken garnered attention from the press, and the band decided to capitalize on the tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre, shock rock. Cooper claims that the infamous "Chicken Incident" at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969, was an accident. A chicken somehow made its way on stage during Cooper's performance; not having any experience around farm animals, Cooper presumed that, because the chicken had wings, it would be able to fly.[24] He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away. The chicken instead plummeted into the first few rows occupied by disabled people in wheelchairs, who reportedly proceeded to tear the bird to pieces.[25]
Cooper's first album Pretties for You, released in 1969, had a slight psychedelic feel. Although it touched the US charts for one week at #193, it was ultimately a critical and commercial failure.
Despite the publicity from the Chicken Incident, the band's stronger second album, Easy Action, released in 1970, met with the same fate as its predecessor.
Alice Cooper delivers a killer show at Riverside Theater
“His voice hasn't been affected much by age. If anything, his weathered growl accented the gritty lyrics of "Vengeance Is Mine," "Poison" and "Under My Wheels."
c) Singing Yin and Yang: this segment covers the “not my type” of music but will listen to the song
“Sly and the Family Stone”
Sly and the Family Stone are an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music. Headed by singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and containing several of his family members and friends, the band was the first major American rock band to have an "integrated, multi-gender" lineup.
The inter-webs have been busy on the SOE announcements concerning Everquest and Everquest II. It's a feast, a SOE feast of goodies to sink your whatever into. Everquests 17th expansion , Everquest 2 expansion Destiny of Velious, EQNext. All the beefy tidbits that I could grab from my fav reading spots about Fan Faire 2010, had me begging for more. It appears that some great content is coming for EQ and EQ2 Fans.
Everquest had the Love/Hate relationship, the Bitter/Sweet of Gaming. Traveling time sinks, the corpse runs, it was the elitists true and only real game. My move from EQ into EQ2 wasn’t due to boredom or because EQ was to hard and had too many time sinks. It was because the graphics in EQ2 was breath taking. As I've said before the cosmetics of a game is important to me.
The in game screen shots are promising and the bitter sweet of EQ will migrate to EQNext. My only hope at this point would be open zones like Vanguard, continue that feel of a vast open world and shelve the days of running along the zone walls. If SOE will truly build off the original EQ concept and salt and pepper the fine points from their other games, crafting, trades, diplomacy, flying mounts, even extending Bard abilities similar to the musician trades in Star Wars Galaxies. Okay, yeah I am reaching here but this really has some fantastic possibilities. This will be the one to watch.
Whatever happened to the days of grabbing your sword and shield for a good old killing spree.
It was bumped for a job.
I have killed 20 Bugbears, completed 15 Quests for the Mayor, saved a small village from certain doom all before noon. I'm bored, guess I'll go stand around in the center of town. It's like the game developers thought there just wasn’t enough. In fact, they thought about it to the point of creating jobs.
For me it all started with a box, or crate in Everquest. I would combine certain components to make Fish Rolls. It's not good enough that I had to quest all day to buy rancid water and bread, now I have a trade, I have a job. I made......fish rolls.
If that wasn’t humiliating enough.
Not only did I have to craft things I could use,
I eventually had to go get the resources myself?
“You mean I need a pick, a shovel and an Axe?”
And what happened to my clicky crate? Now I have to slave over a hot stove and watch closely so that it doesn’t get to hot, or I fail. I remember people in EQ2 getting dead working at a forge. Too many reactions that didn’t get counteracted and you end up taking a dirt nap, that was harsh but the Forge got a "Ding".
The endeavor to make games bigger and better, more immersible and bring that “something new” to the masses, have really put the Mass in Massive.
“I am a Cleric of 50 seasons and a candle stick maker.” ..and I thinks it's cool.
It's opened up alternatives for all gamers. I've known several that spent more time harvesting and crafting than adventuring, because its what they liked to do. Of course those are the people to be friends with if you don't have a job. They have 6 character slots and each one has a trade, that person is their own store.
I know there are many debates on the need or if there is a true benefit, but in the circles I've traveled over the years craftsmen were always needed. Its just another facet of the MMO that can be enjoyed. I know myself that after a hard or long day, harvesting can be relaxing. All is good in the world. We have adventuring, crafting and harvesting. One could almost be self sufficient making their own food, armor or weapons. It seem to be a healthy balance, until someone wanted to parley,
When Vanguard Saga of Heroes shared their “Spheres” with the public, Diplomacy was their new, never before attempted without a safety net, show for the gaming world, one more Job for the player. I don't believe that diplomacy achieved all the goals that were set, of course there were a lot of goals for Vanguard that fell short.
On a side note here, Vanguard was just short of perfection for what I wanted in an MMO, performance issues shortened my time there, it has so much potential.
The beginning concept of diplomacy was unique, and for me, very enjoyable. This was just another road to travel for the gamer along with everything else, crafting, harvesting and adventuring. We have the perfect world now, complete with work and recreation.
Friday night I am going to run a Dungeon with the guys and Saturday I am going fishing, but first a little diplomacy with the Missus.
What more can a gamer want in their fantasy world. I know...how about some personality.
Curtis Johnson, one of the designers on Guild Wars 2, gives us a little insight.
In Guild Wars 2, we’re going even further to make the out-of-combat experience a role playing experience by introducing “personality” as a player character role. How you respond to other characters develops and changes your personality over time, letting you affect how the game treats you. Personality is your character’s attitude toward others; it grows and changes as you play through your personal story and as you adventure in the persistent world
Okay, now we're complete. Personality is the piece that my world was lacking. I now have character for my character. Curtis does say that there are some rewards but the adverse effect doesn’t make you an outcast. If you are honorable there will be perks, if you are a jerk you will just have to pay a little more for service or they will spit in your soup at the Inn. It's really not an issue on how big a role personality will have, but more of how will the world react to you. I do remember the feeling in my early EQ2 days on how I was approached depending on my faction. It was nice the day I was saluted entering the Freeport Militia House.
There isn’t the pot of gold or a major end game advantage, it's just another, rather cool, facet of the game to work with. I do understand the benefits of crafting, harvesting, diplomacy and I am sure personality will have its place as well. I simply see this as being another choice or option for the gamer to advance as an individual in our wonderful world.
Adventure awhile, craft awhile, harvest awhile, then negotiate a night at the tavern with the Missus and cash in on your Karma. Now that’s a day at the office, if we can get them all into one MMO.
We grow very fond of some of our creations in MMO's. It is an odd thing that we grow so attached to an in-game avatar that it borders on the “unstable”, especially when it comes to losing them.
In times past I have added certain elements to the game itself by writing story lines on a guild forum and playing out parts of those stories in-game. I would tell a tale of woe complete with detailed descriptions of areas in the game. I would then give clues to an on going puzzle that would be played out in character.
This would be on a set day and if you could discern from the story where I would be found you would see another clue play out before you, in character. This would continue from written story too in character play and everyone seemed to enjoy the added element.
I had an opportunity some time ago with a Radio Station I was volunteering for to bring my characters back in play, but this time it was audio more than in game role playing.
Mapus and Hegwin have been with me for several years, being created over and over depending on what fantasy MMO I was enjoying at the time. Halfling twins that I have grown very fond of just because I am unstable that way, came to life once again and it sure was fun listening to the trouble they got into.
Traveling down the path of the “What’s New” in today and tomorrow’s MMO’s reminds me of the consumer market that is constantly giving us our “New and Improved”. I fall victim with the flash of improved products like most people. Hell, after all it’s “Improved”. Whatever it was doing for me before, must be doing more for me now.
I would never think of going back to the old . Why would anyone go back to the old, when the “New and Improved” is available? The shampoo commercial comes to mind. You know the one, where they act like they are having an orgasm in the shower. Who wouldn’t want that shampoo? It’s a poor analogy using the new Orgasmic Shampoo versus the old and dull but in our gaming history we always look for the new things that will shake our tree.
10 years of losing our selves in the latest and greatest, is there any time to reflect? Look back at what made those early games hold our attention? Can we go back even for nostalgic reasons to taste that early magic that made us a core MMO player?
I fired up EQ1 and actually re-subscribed, in an attempt to see if the old would still be palatable for my gaming tastes. Upon arriving at the character creation screen I was met by the “Family”, the old characters and names that have traveled with me for several years. I wasn’t sure if it was the nostalgic moment that helped me overlook the old style graphics or that graphics just don’t mean that much to me anymore. Cycling through my guys, still fully equipped in all their grandeur, it didn’t take long to be flooded with great memories of days gone by.
In those days it wasn’t too hard to be in game 5 hours through the week and 30 hours on the weekends. Damn, how things change. I entered the game with my main character mostly to see if everything was as I left it. After a 4 year absence I didn’t expect too much but was pleasingly surprised that everything was in place. A quick tour in the Planes of Knowledge revealed that this was still a live and busy community.
When my tour of PoK was over I wanted to find something to kill. I logged onto my level 37 Barbarian Warrior, who was conveniently parked in the Overthere and preceded to find something to beat up. With the Zone to Sky Fire Mountains at my back I was ready to rumble. A clean bow shot to the closest un-expecting Sarnak and the fight was on. The bad thing about coming back after 4 years is that you are used to how some of the “New and Improved” games are more forgiving. I had no fear that a Blue-conned MOB was a semi-safe first kill.
As I watched my enemies life line, as well as my own, race dot for dot. I realized that this damn thing just might kick my ass. Where in the hell was my list of abilities, my superb fighting skills that I have trained for all of these 37 levels? Auto combat, bash and kick, is this all I got? Of course this is what I pictured the Sarnak telling me, “That all you got”? In what seemed like hours I finally finished off my quarry with about 5% life to spare.
I was basking in my victory along with reminding myself this wasn’t the “New and Improved”, it was the “Old” game. I remembered what death meant in this game along with all of the challenges a player would face. It was at this time, my moment of reflection, when this damn Cockatrice decided he wanted some. Well I didn’t so I ran. (Noob after thought, I ran the wrong way. The Damn zone was at my back, figures don't it.) One dose of Blood of the Wolf and off I went. After covering sufficient ground, keeping yardage between me and this pissed off chicken was best I thought. I stopped, turned to take a look just to find this damn chicken still hot on my ass. Damn, if this bird catches me I’ll have to make a freaking corpse run.
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Shortest is not always the wisest. Heading for that good ‘ole Book on a pedestal, the one that would port me to safety, I never looked back one time. I knew that I had not only that damn chicken on my ass but I was sure he had company. I pictured a train of ugly behind me anywhere from the Chicken brotherhood all the way to those damn Dragoon’s and a few stray cats. Book tag, I know you have seen them off in a distance running for their very lives with the whole zone in pursuit. Tag the Book and “poof”, you make it. Well I made the tag and was safe.
Yeah this wasn’t the “New and Improved” but once again it got my attention. The graphics aren’t next generation and the level is a grind but I did remember just how fun this game was. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to my old shampoo but I do think I will hang around Old EQ for awhile, it just feels right for now.
