This arrived in my inbox:

The Race Change Potion
is now Available in the Marketplace!
Have you always wanted to try out a different player race? Try on something new without starting from scratch! Maybe a Sarnak, an Erudite or a Fae? With 19 amazing options to choose from, now’s your chance!

Switch it up with a Race Change Potion just in time to transform your look for Halloween!

…… So much I could say, but I’d rather you have this picture instead.  It tells it all.

Warp factor ridiculous, number one.  Engage.

People are split right now on the subject of whether or not Aion’s leveling is too long/tedious/grindy/etc.   I’m going to focus on three schools of thought:

1.  It takes forever to level

2.  Aion has a lot of grinding.

3.  Regardless, it’s not as big a deal as older games.

They’re all correct, in my opinion.

It does take a long time to level, there is a lot of grinding, and it’s not as big of a deal as older games.  The key here is that these things are all relevant.  Relevant to what?  Relevant to the experiences we’ve had and the type of game we’re playing.  To me the game falls somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.  However, to someone who started playing mmos when WoW came around Aion is probably a huge grind.  Aion and WoW share the same basic model yet approach that model differently (even though it’s only ever-so-slightly a different approach).

I want to point towards something I call “Concentrated Action” as the main cause for the “grind” or “long time to level” complaints.  Concentrated Action represents how mmos are all about micro-acts, sprinting in the moment, and condensed content today.  We’re always doing something, always moving forward, always this and always that.  There are no real side-paths to take that are designed into the game — you may try to create them on your own, kudos, but they’re not designed into the game.

Inserted Edit: I’d like to add another thought here and I’m going to borrow the verbiage from a friend (Damage).  We’re dealing with finite game design now.  MMO’s, when they were MMORPG’s (I’ll talk about this in tomorrow’s blog entry), were designed with a wider brush stroke making the word ‘expansive’ more applicable.   MMORPGs used to be expansive in scope of design and now they are finite.

Let’s look at an example:

In mmos like Aion the main goal from 1-50 is to level up.  The game is designed for that to be the main goal and everything in the game centers around pushing the player to actively partake in it.  You have to kill mobs (lots of mobs), do quests, and run in groups.  There is no other way to play the game to level up (which I’ve established as the main goal) than to do those things (don’t mention crafting/gathering as it is NOT a valid means of leveling up.  Just don’t.)  So we kill mobs in tiny cages linear zones or accomplish mini-objectives, get a cookie, then get told to go do it again.  It’s Concentrated Action, or Concentrated Acts.

In the Aion/WoW mmo model this repeated and concentrated action makes anything you do very apparent and very much at the forefront of everything you do when you log in to play. There is no world to explore since you’re told exactly where you go at this level and told exactly what to kill.  There is no alternative activities because, as I pointed out, leveling is the dominant activity.

A-> B->C->A->B->C

The concentration of our actions is much greater and a pattern is recognizable.

In the EQ -> Sandbox Model it’s less apparent because Concentrated Action is very rare or very spread out, and thus not as apparent or recognizable.   However, it does exist in these games and perhaps even to a greater degree; We just don’t realize it.  There are other things to do, more important things to think about, places to go, people to see.

A-> B-> C-> D-> E-> F-> G-> H-> I-> J->K-> L-> M-> N-> O-> P-> A-> B-> C-> D-> E-> F-> G-> H-> I-> J-> K-> L-> M-> N-> O-> P

A pattern exists, but it is not as concentrated and takes longer and more attention in order to notice.

This is why people are going on the forums saying “I’ve played for 3 weeks and I’m only level 25!!!”  Dudes, I’m right there with you.   Based on this mmo model, you expected a greater degree of output for the amount of time you spent on these concentrated acts.  In the end you haven’t done any more  than you would do in WoW – you’ve just been rewarded less for it.

My advice to you is slow it down as much as you can and realize that Aion is going to require a much greater degree of effort per act to yield the same results as other games in the same model.  Ultimately it is not any better or worse because of it, that’s just how it is designed.  I like that Aion is this way because it’s going to draw a lot of attention to the concept of Concentrated Actions.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to leveling….

A-> B-> C-> A-> B-> C….

Truly sad how quickly we leave behind past points on the curve today...

…very dangerous over short distances.  (5 points to whoever can identify the adapted movie quote first)

I was playing Aion today when I started to think how I felt at that exact moment about what I was doing in-game.  I felt rushed.  It’s not because I’m still only level 22 (about to hit 23) or because I want to get to the PvP or end-game content.  It’s nothing about me personally — it’s how the game is designed.   In fact, it’s how most mmos are designed now.  Players are encouraged to think about moving forward.  Don’t tell how it has to do with today’s mentality or any of that nonsense because a great deal of us are the same people today that we were 7-12 years ago but we still are feeling this way when we play.

The games want me to rush forward really quickly.  I’m being encouraged by the game to focus on leveling up and encouraged to get better gear in order to make the leveling up quicker.  The game is pushing me to always be doing something and not to let anything fall behind.  One example would be gathering skills:  In most games if you don’t keep your harvesting/gathering skills up then you’re forced to go back to lower level areas in order to collect the materials.   In Aion today I spent most of my time grinding on mobs that were near a lot of titanium nodes.  I noticed that I cared a lot about those titanium nodes — enough to pick this particular location over another.  But why?  I gain nothing personally from the titanium for crafting and I do not want to sell it.   The fact is that I needed to harvest it in order to raise my gathering skills because I knew that I was already behind and would fall behind in my leveling if I had to go back and raise gathering again.  Efficiency is emphasized and players are made aware that they’re being inefficient.  In fact, we’re punished for not “keeping up” with ourselves.

The gentle push to progress has always been there so I won’t deny it.  In every mmo I’ve ever played there has been some form of progression or the purpose of working towards something.  That’s inherent and fine.  It’s how quickly and how insistent the game pushes players to have to participate in this act, and to what degree, that matters.  It’s another one of those fundamental discussions that we’ve been having in my recent blog entries which means it boils down to the core of the game and how it is put together/designed.

Content has been hyper-condensed and as a result we’re speeding up, perhaps without even realizing it.  Content used to be really spread out and involve a great deal more.  People stood around, sometimes just talking, because everyone was moving at a much slower pace.   Content was spread out and you had less “to do” (or at least the illusion of less) and thus took things much slower.  It would be very atypical and odd to log in to a game like Aion and say “today I’m going to focus on gathering some Titanium Ore for my crafting” and have that be all that you did that day.   However, in a game like UO it would not have been odd to say “today I’m going to be mining” and have that truly be the focus of activities for that day.  [Before the Darkfall crowd comes in to remind me that you can smack rocks and trees all day in Agon... remember that I'm talking about more than just the act.]

Activities, actions, content, and even ‘moments’ do not last in today’s mmos.   When people would hang out in the Cantina (SWG “tavern”) and just socialize or talk to people and it was never considered a waste of time — you wouldn’t get people saying how they got nothing done today or only had X time to play and “can’t spend it standing still”.  The only explanation that I have, that makes sense, is that the games have changed and started to train people to play and think differently.

I would like to see content extended again.  Content should be leveled out so that it is no longer a vertical climb but a gradual incline of progression.   We need more thought put into how players can slow down without feeling like the game is not supporting them in their decision.  It would be goofy to expect people to stand around in Dalaran and just socialize because the rest of the game passes them by and punishes them (indirectly) for doing so.   Interesting enough, socializing and building relationships were actually constructive use of your time years ago.  Knowing people was just as important to me as my level or my sword back in the old days.  I felt like I really accomplished something in a day if I made a friend.  If I had a great group and we all added each other to the friends list then it was a diamond in the rough.  I would benefit tremendously from socializing.  That does not matter nearly as much today.

Developers:  Slow the game down.  Less vertical and more gradual/horizontal gameplay.  Don’t pressure the players to always be moving forward at a pace that the game sets.  Elongate the content.  Don’t funnel so obviously and definitely do not indirectly punish players for not keeping up with themselves.

Players:  Don’t resist the idea because you immediately associate slowing down with ‘going slow’ and ‘being bored’.  Don’t think that I’m simply talking about a sandbox game.  Be willing to give it a chance and think about how much fun it could be, and what you could do, if you didn’t have to worry all the time about what you’re doing with your time.

Update 1: I would like to add the phrase “Sprinting in the moment” to summarize what I’m trying to say here.  Games, by design, need to stop encouraging or even forcing us to sprint in the moment.

Part 3 in my look back at “what MMORPGS have lost over time” series.

Factions

One of the more interesting and complex things from EverQuest, waaaay back in the day when the game was new, was the faction system.  EQ had hundreds of different factions for you to gain or lose favor with as you progressed your character forward.  Although we have not completely lost the idea of gaining or losing “rep” (as it is so often called now), how it is used has changed and what it should do for the game, and the world, has been lost.

I have so many experiences with the faction system.  My main character for a very long time was a Dark Elf Necromancer.  We were haaaated by the Freeport militia.  Getting anywhere near the city guards, whether in the city or near their little postings in the Commonlands, etc., meant certain death for a low level.  This didn’t stop me or any other Dark Elf though.  We had to use the boat in Freeport for transportation to Faydwer (if we didn’t get a teleport).  We had to sneak around inside the city and memorize guard patrols.  I remember entering Freeport for the first time and following someone who said he knew the route to take.  We ended up getting lost and having to dodge guard patrols, feeling nearly petrified as one would start coming our way as we tried to round a corner.

Faction was also complex enough that a Human, in his own starting city of Freeport, would be hated by parts of his city.  Wandering too close to a certain building as a Human Shadowknight could have you dead in seconds if you were a newb – that pesky Gnome hated Shadow Knights and would charge out the door towards you!  Certain guilds did not want you anywhere near them if you didn’t have proper faction.  Figuring out which ones liked you and which ones didn’t was part of the fun.

Gaining faction, and losing it, was a great way to develop your character.   Even for those who didn’t roleplay, raising faction high enough to enter Freeport as a Dark Elf could be seen as an accomplishment.  Sure, it involved grinding (controversial!) and I’m sure the usuals will make a comment on how horrible it was, but that’s how faction worked.  It’s not so much about how it worked, but the outcome of the system.  Troll Shadow Knights, if I remember correctly, were hated everywhere.  You could return to your little swamp to train and that’s about it.  Going anywhere else meant always keeping your eyes open for possible aggro.  It made that combination feel unique.

The faction system operating like this made the world feel real, dynamic, and on a different level from what we see today.  Having to sneak into areas just to get exp was a pain for some, but an adventure for others.   Spending time raising your faction to be liked by your enemies was a way to feel connected to what you were doing.  Often times I would want to visit a location but realize I couldn’t because they hated me.  If I still wanted to go there after learning this then I figured out what I had to do to get them to like me.  Did I have to donate something to them or kill their enemy enough to prove that I’m committed to their cause?  Sometimes becoming friendly with one faction meant angering another and I would have to weigh out whether or not it was worth forsaking my heritage to move forward in a new direction.

It also made for a great sense of atmosphere in the game.  Going to Greater Faydark usually meant seeing lots of Wood Elves, some High Elves, and the occasional “good-like” race.  You would almost never expect to see something like an Iksar there, but when you did you were absolutely shocked!  You immediately knew what that player must have gone through, what he/she accomplished, and how interesting it was for them to be there.  Playing on an Iksar Monk, I once saw a Dwarf running in the Iksar city.  I didn’t like that he was there.  For some reason it felt wrong.  I was quite the roleplayer on my Iksar (I think I was on a RP server then…) and I remember the players giving this Dwarf a hard time just like some of the NPC’s he wasn’t friendly enough with yet.  We would tell him to leave, to get out, and that he didn’t belong.  Eventually though the players like this Dwarf proved themselves and oddly enough we started to think of him as a pet.  He had busted his little rump to get here and it meant something.  Seeing him a day or two later still working away, mind made up to be liked by Iksar, actually increased my enjoyment.  That player, doing his own thing, added to the complexity of the game world for me.

We’ve lost most of what made the faction system great.  Now it’s used to get items.  Do you have the 250,000 rep for that chestplate? No?  Okay, go grind it out until they will sell it to you.  Want a dragon mount?  Get Exalted with the people who sell them.  The faction system has been detached, devalued, simplified.  It operates much in the same way to an untrained eye, but the spirit of the act is gone.  The connection between faction, character, and world has been severed and now it simply ties the player to an action.  In a way, today’s MMORPGs lack the consequences, for good or bad, of the faction systems of old.

Faction brought great depth to EQ.  It was another rung on the ladder of character development and another opportunity to emphasize the importance of the game world (as I wrote about yesterday) and the choices players have to make their own way or take a new and different path.  I would like to see the emphasis on faction brought back in future MMORPGs.  How faction is gained will, perhaps, need to be rethought for the proponents of accessibility.  Rewards and incentives will likely need to be added for the loot whores.  As long as the system impacts the player, has consequences based on the factions he works towards or against, and then connects him to the world then the rest should be able to work itself out.

I’m sure many of you have great stories about faction in EQ or other games.  Share them with us!  Those who never had the opportunity to experience something as dynamic as this in their MMORPGs can live vicariously and those who did can enjoy recalling similar experiences.

Part 2 in my reflective, and a bit nostalgic, look at  “what MMORPGs have lost over time” series.

The World

When I think back at what we’ve lost, or have begun to lose, in the MMORPGs of today, I keep coming back to one thing:  The World.  We’re starting to lose that sense of a big/massive, open, true world that we can explore and live in as we develop or take on the role of our character.  I want to share experiences from my MMO past to give you an idea of just how far we’ve drifted away from being able to replicate those experiences today.

This is a WORLD

It was somewhere near my third day of EverQuest.  I was playing a Barbarian Warrior and getting my feet wet for the first time killing goblins.  I came across a much larger spawn of them and found others hunting.  It was then that I received my first group invite and proceeded to kill goblins for over an hour.  At the end of our hunt one of the other Barbarian Warriors in the group announced that he had a friend who was making the trip to Freeport.  “What’s Freeport?”, I remember asking him.  He then went on to tell me that it was across the continent and one of the cities where Humans can start.  “The hunting is much better there”, he said.  That sounded great to me.  I had spent a couple days now killing things in the snowy lands of Halas and I was ready to move on.  “We’ll set out in 20 minutes.  Make sure you have time to make the trip because it’s a long one”.

This trip across Antonica was the single most memorable experience I have ever, ever, had in a MMORPG.  We began our trip by following an icy ridge to a cave.  There were no maps at the time and we were following someone who had only made the trip once before.  We made our way through a dungeon that actually acted as a passageway between regions.  “If you get attacked, do not stop running!”, was one of the scariest things I had ever heard.  Sure enough, we were attacked and all of us were frantically running for the zone line.  Thirty minutes later we were making our way down the coast of a river and in the distance we could discern this great winged beast… “GRIFFON!”, they shouted.  We ran as quickly as we could to the nearest barn that happened to be standing out in the plains of the Karanas.  “We’ll hide in here until morning”.  And there we sat.  Why?  I don’t know really… it wouldn’t have stopped the aggro from the Griffon and we would have certainly been dead since we were under level 8.  We hid until daylight nonetheless because at the very least it was actually difficult to see at night.

During this trip we saw several sights.  We stopped off in every outpost and town so that we could to let the adrenaline rush fade.  We visited with people we came in contact with and actually picked up more travelers along the way who wanted to make the trip in a group.  Seeing different races for the first time was a real treat.  The first time I saw a Halfling in Rivervale I couldn’t believe my eyes that they were in such abundance here.  This was their little corner of the world and I was out of place.  The little Halflings crowded around us, gave us buffs, and even traded us turnips or something (I have no idea why) – we were just as neat to them as they were to us.   We eventually made it to Freeport where a whole new, unique, set of experiences awaited me.

Finding people from other parts of the world and getting to hear about their experiences and how they’ve been leveling up is something unique to EQ.  As a Barbarian coming to a place like Freeport, I was an alien.  The way they did things across the content felt different.  In the North we sold pelts and down here in the south they wanted Lightstones because it was hard to see without them – Humans had poor eyesight.  I remember hunting near a platform in the North Desert of Ro and meeting a Wood Elf for the first time.  We exchanged stories of where we started.  He had started on an entirely different continent and had to travel past the Dwarven lands, across an ocean, and finally here to Freeport.   I told him about my trip through the mountains, across the plains, and the Griffon.  It made me want to visit his home lands and he mine just to have those same adventures and see how different the game felt across the world – because it truly felt different!

NOT a world

Although being a newbie greatly enhanced this experience [Note:  I had these experiences for over the first YEAR of play], there are a few key elements from this adventure which are missing from MMORPGs today that would make this type of experience impossible, even for a newbie.  We’re starting to lose that ‘big connected world’ feeling.  I feel that devs are quickly condensing the content into smaller packages and spoon feeding them to us when they feel we’re ready, not when we want to experience them.  Being a level 6-8 Barbarian making the trip to Freeport was a fool’s errand, but it was mine to make.   Norrath was not linear.  Games today are becoming increasingly linear with one path to travel.  I could travel across the world to one of a dozen or so locations to hunt at level 10 in EQ.  At 12, 15, 18, 20, etc my options kept increasing until I had so many options that I could actually plan out ways for my next character to level and see something entirely new the whole way.  I could have left Freeport and gone to the Elf lands if I wanted to and had an entirely unique experience there.

In a games like WAR, LOTRO, and even Aion the worlds are so linear that all we have to do is follow a road to the next location.  Players have no reason, and often no option, to diverge down a different path. There is often only one way to play a MMORPG released in today’s market, and trying to play it differently makes you a “niche gamer”, a “roleplayer” or a “nostalgic”.  I do not want my content handed to me one instance at a time and I certainly do not want to have to follow one road the entire game.  I can understand that people find comfort from some form of linearity, but we’ve crossed the line.

Accessibility has become the gateway for developers to take shortcuts and squander the sense of world immersion and connectivity.  How wonderful for them!  It’s less work and today’s current generation screams “Thank you!”  But who are the ones that suffer?  Everyone suffers from this.  Right now the newbies to the genre will probably respond to this blog entry with things like “this is how MMORPGs are made”  or with a slew of “casual gamer” defensive posturing because someone mentioned EverQuest.  Trust those of us who know better.  Trust those who have seen what MMORPGs once had and what they are missing today.  You might truly be satisfied today, but wait until tomorrow.  Wait until you’re not the one they’re making games for anymore and then remember the days when the few people waving their arms like madmen trying to get people to listen were right – then you’ll realize you’ve become one of us.  We’re on a slippery slope leading to iPhone MMOs with 5 minute adventures being sold for $7.99 and “worlds” becoming 10×10 screens – yep, there will be an app for that.

It’s not overly nostalgic or unrealistic to want a big open world like EverQuest.  I’m not asking for a sandbox – EverQuest wasn’t one.  I’m not asking for something completely devoid of linear play.  I’m not asking for hardcore mechanics like death penalties or harsh leveling curves.  I’m not asking for anything less accessible than what you have today.  I’m focusing purely on the world and how it benefits players when they feel connected – it becomes an experience rather than a gimmick or an obstacle.   I want players to consider the benefits of a true MMORPG world again, one like I described in my experiences above where people are connected to the experience, not the deceitful excuse for “worlds” we’re being pushed into today.

I’ve been reminiscing about EverQuest, back from the Trilogy days (up to Velious, but not past it – what I consider to be the true EverQuest), and I’m remembering details about what made the game enjoyable for me.  Yesterday I spoke about the leveling process being my favorite thing in MMORPGs. [Note: Not all leveling processes are created equal - some suck] This led me to start thinking about specific things I did while leveling up in games like The Realm, EverQuest, and DAOC, that are missing from today’s games.

As I mentioned, while reminiscing about EverQuest I remembered the adventures I took to obtain certain items.  I remember being a low level druid and hearing about this quest for the Paw of Opolla.  It was supposedly this great off-hand item for wisdom casters and to obtain it you had to do a long and involved quest chain.  I wanted that item though, and I set my mind on obtaining it.  That quest alone took me weeks.  I spent time gathering the materials I would need to satisfy the NPC’s and planned out when and where I had to be to camp the rare monsters that would spawn and drop items I needed.  I worked at it while I leveled and made it a part of my character’s progression.  It was a quest, an undertaking, and an adventure I won’t forget.

Not all items were difficult by the Paw’s standards to obtain.  Some simply required you to kill the right mob, yet they were not a guaranteed drop.  I remember being on the main continent of Antonica in EQ and hearing about a place where the Elves lived.  This place supposedly had a village up in the trees surrounded by a vast forest that bordered the home of an Orc Clan:  Crushbone.  In Crushbone you could simply kill an Orc Trainer and have a chance at getting the Shiny Brass Shield – I wanted it!  I was playing a Human – or perhaps a Halfling… maybe a Dark Elf… I digress… so that meant I was on the wrong side of the world.  I decided to make the trip over to Greater Faydark, on the continent of Faydwer,  and obtain this shield.  The trip took over an hour but I finally arrived, at a lower level, in Gfay and began my adventures.  I needed to level up a little bit, find this Crushbone place, and begin hunting there.   And so I did.  [Side note:  Anyone else still hear this in their nightmares:  "Ambassador DVinn to zone!"]

Those single items, that one place, and those ideas of achieving something great set the tone for how this particular character would progress.  That is simply never seen anymore.  Today we’re busy thinking about how best to finish leveling up.  Why?  Sometimes it’s because the leveling process is expedited to get players to the “end-game” where the “content” begins and other times it’s a part of games that is simply neglected altogether and we get stuck with a quest grind.  In general, the focus has shifted away from the journey and focused squarely on the destination.  I saw it in the comments of yesterday’s blog entry – that sentiment of “Leveling is a chore that I want to finish to get to the good stuff” – well, what if the leveling up was good stuff too?

Little things matter.  It’s from the little things that great heaping amounts of content can be born.  A few very, very sought after items can turn into epic quests, journeys across the world, and even create the foundation for a zone themselves.  I want to see that emphasis return to MMORPGs where we can stop and plan out our day, our week, maybe more.  Everything is planned out for us and we have so few choices.  We know that today we’ll be questing in this hub, and tomorrow we’ll be in the next.  Where is the sense of world?  Where is the sense of accomplishment and achievement?  Give me back that adventure and that opportunity to make something of my journey to the end.

[Note: I might turn this into a series of entries.  If so, consider this Part 1.]

I’m not sure if I missed the boat (heh heh heh, some of you will get it) on this one or if it’s entirely new.  Has there been any more discussion after February about the possibility of EQ3?  I know SoE was/is hiring a lead designer for their “flagship” title but I haven’t heard anything else.  Anyway,  Tipa from WK has a blog entry today urging people to start talking about EQ3 now that SoE’s latest pop culture sensation is about to hit the www.   She made a statement that I found myself nodding in agreement with:  “I came into this genre playing EverQuest, and I’ll leave it playing EverQuest”.  I feel the same way — whether it be in spirit or from a ‘tomorrow never comes’ perspective — and that causes me to stop and think about what direction I would take the next EQ.  I’m not really going to turn this into an entry detailing the exact game I want, but more of a rough outline and approach.

I tend to raise this question whenever people get nostalgic:  What made it (in this case EQ) so special?   Was it the timing, the newness, the gameplay, or what?  I think the simplest way to put it is that EQ was the sum of its parts.  Whatever EverQuest 3 does, it can not alter the sum of its parts too drastically or it will fail to be EverQuest.  Tipa isn’t alone in thinking that what hurt EQ2 so badly was that it had too much EQ.  I believe quite the opposite though.  I believe it was a combination of diverging too far from the original EQ, making changes that were not thought out or feasible at the time for the sake of change, as well as making a game that could not compete with its competitors at the time who were striking out to steer the industry in a new direction.  If we think of “EQ” not as the game itself but as an essence of what the original EQ was to the genre when it launched, that is what EQ2 lacked when I say it didn’t have enough EQ.

What does EverQuest 3 need to succeed?  I’m in the camp that could have been happy with the Vanguard that was promised as the new EQ3.   I say could have because I think we need to bring some of the concepts into the present,  and add on a layer of “next-gen’y” goodness, but I think overall the same sort of idea can make a good EQ3.  The ‘Vanguard that was promised’ was going to deliver something that we still do not have today.   I’m not advocating that we live in the past or anything, but I think keeping an eye to the future while bringing along good ideas is still acceptable.  Obviously EQ3 should not be a PvP oriented game, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring back the pvp ruleset servers of old.   Boats, vast cities, open world (not necessarily sandbox), group oriented, a rethought out death penalty, player cities, biiiiig monsters and raids, lots of gear (but not a treadmill), alternate forms of character progression instead of or on top of a level system, prestige classes and features of this ilk could be looked at.

I’ll oppose the idea of stepping too far out of the boundaries of traditional MMO design.   I think tying all the EQ games together, or adding mini-games, or streamlining it for console/multi-platforming, and other alterations are wrong.  Going sci-fi, action oriented, or in another new direction aren’t right either.  I guess I’m a MMORPG purist when it comes to certain things.  Let’s look at the definition of purist: A purist is one who desires that a particular item remain true to its essence and free from adulterating or diluting influences.  Every game trying to be better than something else, or to be like something else that it’s not, or one that tries to take too big a leap forward ends up being awkward.

EQ3 needs to shake the foundation not by being outright revolutionary, but by being alarmingly evolutionary.  It needs to remain pure enough not to disturb the equilibrium of tradition, but at the same time be new.  It needs to feel like EverQuest, but not feel like its a remake.   I know that I’m asking for perfection.  Honestly, it’s going to take a near perfect attempt to replicate the success.   It’s inevitable that so long as the servers for EQ and EQ2 remain open that an EQ3 would be splitting the playerbase and competing with the others, but there isn’t any other way around it.

EverQuest is what it is because it is EverQuest.  We can’t forget that.

It’s once again Halloween!  This is one of our absolute favorite holidays that we look forward to every year.  The house gets decorated with Halloween and Fall-like decorations and we get to eat our traditional Chilli and Corn Bread dinner.   Although Trick-Or-Treating ended many years ago for us, (not by choice but because the neighbors stopped giving us candy) we still enjoy the spirit of the Holiday and hope that you do too.

This Halloween in particular is the second that we get to celebrate here on our blog!  We started our blog in February of 2007 and sometimes it’s hard to believe that we’re creeping up on two years.  We want to start a tradition this year by posting screenshots of our characters in-game to sorta document where we are each year in relation to the particular holiday.  Last year, as you may or may not recall, we were playing EQ2.

This year we’re in Warhammer Online!

This year in Warhammer Online the Witching Night event has been taking place.  Players can also explore the world and find Couldrons that spawn spirits and crones that can be slain to drop masks, give influence, and other stuff.  During this event players can also meet in the Open-RvR areas and do battle with each other to win a Public Quest.  The first stage of this PQ requires players to kill 100 players of the opposing realm.  This seems like a lot but when the RvR picks up it can go by in less than 20 minutes.   So far the RvR-PQ’s have proven to be absolutely enormous draws for players to participate in RvR.  People are flocking to the RvR lakes and, most of the time, sticking around to fight eachother after the PQ is over.  I think Mythic can consider this event a success and can now turn to the development of RvR-PQ’s for permanent implimentation.

It’s interesting to note that all of this is over ‘fluff’.  The items here are masks, capes, and other stuff which can be replaced easily.  People aren’t fighting here for points (Although the EXP has been fantastic).  They’re fighting for silly things of little importance to their characters, but a lot of importance to fun.   Now if this can be capitalized on then Mythic will easily be able to implement PQ’s without worrying about balance or itemization; however it should still be put into the game to entice those who would be attracted to the phat lewt.

I would be interested in hearing about Halloween in other mmorpgs if any of you have stories to share.