EQ2 Server Combines

This isn't your typical "End of All Things" type comment about server combines in a game. Rather, it's a different sort of look at the recent announcement by Scott "Gallenite" Hartsman, Senior Producer for Everquest 2, about the combination of lower population game servers.

Basically, I take what the letter states at face value. This is, for me, a first.

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E3 vying for respect

I'm out of commission a few days and suddenly the entire world changes?

Currently playing catch-up for the last five days, I came across this article at GameSpot about some changes coming to this year's E3. Notably, the amount of clothing at the show will increase.

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Threading the (Space) Needle

Travelling for a few days here, but MMOG devs never sleep. No real article today, but I invite anyone interested to read the EQ2 PvP rules overview. Interesting stuff.

I'm not really sure how many people are going to play PvP in a game called "Everquest", particularly if they continue with the idea of having XP debt on a PvP loss. If I had to bet, I'd say that's the first idea they'd drop. Fights are quick, and death too unpredictable to add sting to defeat.

The Price of Innovation

Throughout the history of MMOG-related conversations, three topics emerge most discussed: Innovation and Quality.

Unfortunately, it's been fairly rare to get both in a game.

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Now… changes to PS too

Matic over at GamerGod reported some upcoming changes to Planetside, the MMOFPS game from SOE. This comes on the heals of them reactivating all previous accounts for a 30-day free period.

The stuff looks pretty interesting, as is the timing.

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EQ2: And the difference a year makes

The last time I played EQ2 was in beta. By the end, I was more interested in building maps than playtesting. At the time, I felt WoW was my calling. It turned out to be that way for a solid thirteen months, the longest period of time I've ever held an account in this genre (though my EQ1 and SWG histories each have more cumulative time in). It was the right decision at the time, and I certainly got my money's worth.

But a lot can change in a year.

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Change

I have long felt MMORPGs were good training for dealings in the real world, depending on how one plays them. Both involve dealing with people you don't know very well, managing their personalities, bringing those with seldomly concurrent interests together for common purposes, and doing so within a specific timetable of achievement. The difference between an MMORPG and the real world workplace is that one can hide behind anonymity in the former, and probably isn't getting paid very well if at all. The latter requires that whole physiology of physical presence, for the most part.

But included in both is the concept of change, and how to manage it.

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Multiple monitors vs one huge?

Monitors keep getting bigger. Part of this is based on the continuing rise in the use of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology. Because of both how the technology works, and the space these monitors take up in volume, they are capable of larger consumer-marketable sizes like even flat-tube CRT monitors.

Case in point is this LG behemoth.

But I personally don't like them. At least for gaming.

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MMOFPS in development: Versus

Stephen Zepp of Garage Games, also a frequent reader and poster of F13, stopped by this thread about Planetside to remark on an indie development effort called Versus.

I'm always a fan of any team that wants to extend the MMOFPS genre of titles all but started by SOE's Planetside.

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Storytelling

A discussion over at F13, started by Raph's thoughts on innovation, has taken a turn towards a favored topic of mine: narrative in an MMORPG.

What I always find funny in these discussions is the two competing views of stories in an MMORPG.

1. They're terrible. Yea, for the most part, I agree. None are particularly engaging, and all are soon forgotten.
2. They're useless. Stories in MMORPGs are little more than flavor text on a Magic: The Gathering card. They are there to entertain the few who may read them, but otherwise have no bearing on the outcome of the game.

Coincidentally, I think both cause the other.

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