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I started a topic to gather data from our player community about what sort of quests they actually like playing. As I anticipated, for the most part, people have said they like variety, but there has been some good discussion so far. I was also mostly interested to see if the perception that people really only want kill quests is true, as if that response were winning behind “variety”, I might up the amount of kill quests I put in. Similarly, there are certain types of quests I strongly prefer and like to implement that I am not sure if players actually enjoy doing, and so if those sort of quests got at least some votes, I’d feel justified in continuing to put them in. For example, “story/diplomatic quests”. Quests, in short, that mostly involve talking to NPCs and don’t involve killing. I am pleased to see that’s gotten a decent number of votes (far more than kill quests, though there are not enough responses yet to make a good case either way).
Anyway, if you want to chime in, the discussion is happening below.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=421305
Part 1 of “A Storm of Sorrow”, which focuses on the leader of the Ethernauts, Bayle, has been posted:
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1717§ion=News&locale=en_US
The second and last part of “The Worst Cook in Grobb” (yes, it’s a shortie) has been posted on EQ2 Players.
The next in my series of lore stories is up on EQ2 Players!
My Shard of Hate lore story was reposted on our site:
Fan Faire, Las Vegas, August 14-17. Woo Vegas! 
The third and final piece of the Flight of the Mudskipper is up.
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1648§ion=News&locale=en_US
And here is my interview in English!
Part 2 of the Flight of the Midskipper is up:
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1641§ion=News&locale=en_US
Also, a bit of Shard of Hate lore I wrote up was posted on a fan site, the Athenaeum, today:
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1188§ion=Community&locale=fr_FR
I was interviewed by the international community team. It’s going to be posted in the other countries soon as well.
The first part of my next lore story, “The Flight of the Mudskipper”, has been posted!
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1633
The third and final section of my short story “Escape from Guk” has been posted at EQ2 players. There’ll probably be nothing new posted next week and starting in April we’ll begin posting the pieces of a new story.
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1618§ion=News&locale=en_US
So I managed to slip myself into the most recent podcast so that I could perform “The Ballad of Kaltuk Ironstein” as a reference for the player community.
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1606§ion=News&locale=en_US
I sung the lead and managed to recruit a few guys for my chorus. Zip forward to 55 minutes in if you want to just hear my song.
Part 2 of Escape from Guk was posted yesterday:
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1602
The writings continue. Released today was the first part of “Escape from Guk”, another story I wrote for the game.
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1590
The second installment of our series of web lore has been released. This time, the wonderful intro story was written by Tony (Vhalen), and then the song was written by yours truly. Check it out!
http://www.eq2.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=1320
Only not really. But the first bit of lore in narrative I have written for the game just hit EQ2 Players! Check it out!
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=407654
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1555§ion=News&locale=en_US
Also, for some V-day fun, we Devs answered some Valentine’s Day questions for the players. I think I was the only schmuck who decided to pick and choose what to answer.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=407707
So apparently our expansion won Best Fantasy MMO of 2007, Best MMO of 2007, and Best Expansion of 2007 with Beckett Massive Online Gamer’s Reader’s Choice Awards. Rock on!
We didn’t have as great of a showing at MMORPG.COM’s Reader’s Choice Awards, but we didn’t do poorly. We took 2nd place in Best Expansion of the year (just after WoW: Burning Crusade), 3rd place in Best Fantasy Game (after WoW and Lord of the Rings Online), and 4th in Best MMO (after those last two, plus Eve, which actually took Best MMO overall, way to go Eve!).
Yup, yup, I was proud to be a part of Rise of Kunark and am proud to be a part of what is coming next for Everquest II. I have really been getting to be creative lately, as I have been taking an active role in the lore development for the next expansion and have already been writing a lot of material. Our manuscript library has been being neglected since Tracy (Owlchick, whose role I essentially filled when I took on the job) left, so I dusted it off today and filled it with all the tomes I wrote for Kunark, as well as some material for the next expansion. This is going to be a very story heavy expansion. I am excited abot it, and you should be too.
People ask me: If you could make any kind of MMO, what would it be? If I don’t feel like going into it, I say I’d like to make a steampunk game, because I would. It’s one of my favorite genres, and is under-represented. But if I think they would appreciate the answer, I tell them a dynamic one.
To explain… I have gotten Tom addicted to Everquest II (as well as Melinda and Tom’s dad is playing as well), and he is constantly pestering me about the static nature of online worlds. To pose an example, his main is a dark elf who began in Neriak. Within Neriak he encountered a faction that is working to overthrow the queen, and he can go through an entire quest line in which the illusion is presented that he has made some major headway. So why is she never overthrown? Why can so many people progress through it and Queen Cristanos continues to reign over Neriak without so much as a slight change in her hail text. (”You would make a lovely eunuch,” for all dark elf males)
But what if… if enough people were to do it, she really would be dethroned? You walk into the throne room, and there is a new leader and a new set of quests. It’s hardly impossible, but to do it manually would require more work than I think a lot of people are willing to do, and an AI capable of simply reacting to such world events and imposing logical results is probably some time off. I doubt it is impossible though.
Of the games I am familiar with, the much mocked Shadowbane was one of the closest to having a well developed dynamic system. You (and your guild) had responsibility for a town, and the longer you were gone, the more it could degrade. You could upgrade, build, and really create a physical effect in the world. People fought over these towns and much could be done to hinder others in their town building efforts. Now, granted, this is only one element of dynamic world, but at least it was there. Shadowbane was, apparently, not well made in other areas, and I think the fact that it was intensely cutthroat PVP was part of why it failed. While I think PVP has a definitely place in a dynamic world (after all, PVP is the only part of the game where you are truly fighting an intelligent opponent), there should probably be more limits on it if you want to appeal to a wide variety of people. Second Life, too, enabled players to build up the world around them; however, I think Second Life too is a limited example because it didn’t have a dynamic plot. Second Life didn’t have a plot at all, really, it’s entirely player created and more or less a sort of carnivale reflection of our own world, and I so I, personally, demand more from the idea. I want a massively multi-player world where I can take down a king and have him actually come down… not make a custom avatar.
Now and then, all games do offer a way for players to change the world. For example, in EQ2, players built griffin towers throughout the world, and in other ways, have unlocked pieces of the world, and features, that they were otherwise missing. However, why I would not truly call these dynamic is that they are one time deals, and they are not reversible.
Working on Diplomacy in Vanguard, much of what we did and were planning to do represented small steps in dynamic game play. We had systems in mind in which player actions affected such things as player economy, their negotiations driving prices up and down. Civic diplomacy, which involved players doing diplomacy with members of a certain community to different ends, was an example that even made it into the game. While civic diplomacy was, at its essence, a grinding mechanism, it also displayed a potential for dynamic game play. Player actions determined a persistent outcome in the world. If all the diplomats used diplomacy with soldiers, for example, all players received buffs that affected their combat
I don’t think a dynamic world would necessarily appeal to everyone. One problem with it is that it frequently means that only one, or a small group of people, get to experience something. If killing the king means the king is gone forever, then only those individuals will ever have that experience. A world that isn’t static also becomes that much more difficult. Not everything would be available on Alakazham, because things would be constantly changing. Players come into an MMO, and in truth, most games, expecting that they will be able to experience an exact set of things that everyone else has, and that idea appeals to many people. Constants are, for many people, comforting.
I do think there are players to whom it appeals, though. At its heart, I think, is the idea of choice, and the idea of choice touches on the idea of empowerment. How empowered does it make you feel if you do a quest to rid a kingdom of its greatest threat, and an hour later, that threat respawns? Not very. Further, I think for people that are stimulated by change and variety (like me), it’s perfect. Things going static has always left me with a feeling of unease and disappointment. Change, on the other hand, revitalizes me.
This idea, can, obviously have many levels of implementation. Obviously, if every action all thousands of players on a server do affects its state, that’s a lot to develop. However, if you began by only letting players influence very large events, that’s a more reasonable place to start. Further, if these changes require the participation of many individuals, then that helps limit it even further and expands the experience for more people. If all the citizens of Neriak who support Cristanos pull a lever in one direct, and all who don’t pull that lever in another direction, and reaching a threshold changed power one way or the other, then that allows for a great deal of repeatability and player involvement.
Just my thoughts on the subject. Creating such an AI is something that I wouldn’t even begin to understand (though the more I learn of our scripting language here, the more it begins to make some sense in my head, though I am sure I am oversimplifying it); however, looking at a plot and envisioning a great number of branches based on choices at key moments is something I am good at it, and that’s how I woud imagine my involvement in such a project. It’s a long shot, but a girl can dream, can’t she?
