EverQuest II - All Around Norrath: What do you Think of the Devs?
Adele Caelia continues her All Around Norrath column today, this time asking players what they think of the development team behind the game.
The Everquest II developers are constantly taking a verbal beating, and quite often posts are tossed up in the forums stating the neglect by the developers, and their inability to listen to the community is always true. I have to ask myself if this is the consensus among the general population, or is it a small few that love to plague the forums and chat channels with their opinions?
Personally, I have had a very good experience with the Everquest II development team. Those that I have spoken with are normal people the same as you and me. They are not some type of game god hidden behind a world of pixels waiting to ruin our lives every chance they get. They do not cackle in glee each time they see a post from an unhappy player. The developers are hard workers who put their heart into what they do, and quite honestly they want us to enjoy the game, and enjoy their work as most artists do.
Community managers such as Craig Dalrymple, otherwise known as Grimwell, and Aaron Bisnett, also known as Gnobrin have always been very polite and helpful when I have had the pleasure of working with them. From the posts they make on the forums I think this is true for their work within the community as well. They are what we see up front, but I think they are just the icing on the cake, and only part of a great development team that really cares for the game.
Some may say that my opinion could be a little skewed being that they may treat me differently since I am press, so this being said I decided that I would go out among the population and find out what they players really think about the Everquest II development team. Here is what they had to say:
Kithicor
Megadyen- The developers I don’t have a problem with. One of the reasons that none of Sony’s games out there have near the subscriptions as some of the other games out there is because of their management. The management needs to get a clue.
Stardreamer- I think the developers are great guys and gals and they do a wonderful job. They are very creative and the new expansion is the best one yet. Their use of humor and pop culture references in game is some of the best writing in a MMORPG. The new expansion strikes just the right note of nostalgia and exciting new content.
Ssinistraud- I think they do a great job really. They need to work on pet design, but other than that everything is fine.
Jarrith - They did a super job. I love the different looks of gear now. The quests are great and give great rewards. I feel mobs hit harder than they should, but other than that I don’t’ really have a problem.
Shianne- The developers do a decent job, however they need to listen more to the community prior to releasing patches and updates. They also need to give more attention to the rewards vs. risk prior to release. Example: Many treasured quest rewards and at the least one fabled reward are being nerfed. They were deemed to be better than much of the fabled raid gear or overpowered. How can they not realize that prior to allowing these things to go mainstream?
Crushbone
Spoott- Hmm- Tough question. I like ROK and all the quests. I think they did a great job. The Sarnak are cool looking although looks like females are bigger than males and I’m partial to smaller races. I have no huge complaints about the developers. I like most of the things they do and if I don’t like it I deal with it. I am pretty easy to please and hard to disappoint. Only thing that bothers me is the 20 min of zoning, but that isn’t the developer’s fault. I love what they did to the Wastes in ROK. Love the zone. I like the jungle too, but I get lost even with maps.? Very scattered brained.
Permafrost
Emonace- I feel they do a pretty good job.
Guk
Shackle Grandmaster Xandrot- ROK was a great effort by the developers. The zones and instances are a treat. We have been enjoying the new challenges in each of the heroic instances so far. Overall I’m pleased with the end results. If I could have been on the development team I might have worked harder on the T8 legendary armor. I was hoping to gear up with new armor a bit sooner and not have to wait for fabled items to get improvements from the T7 class gear. I would like to take this moment to thank the developers. I am enjoying my time in the expansion and cannot wait to start the raid zones this week.
Anonymous - Yes I do believe the developers really honestly work diligently and passionately on the game. I believe that often behind the scenes many of the things we players have issues with are managerial decisions that occur beyond the developer’s control. For example: Kunark being released while incomplete. I believe management should have postponed the release. I don’t blame the developers for too little testing, or pushing out content too early. I blame management. I think players rush to blame the developers because they are the only targets remotely in our grasp, but honestly it’s not their fault, and they do work hard for players.
Najena
Zingg- They should slap the crybaby noobs. Go back to needing four things to craft a sword and make it so you still have to retrieve your body. The developers are doing a good job to bring people to the game and make people with little skill in reasoning happy, but seriously the game was more fun before they gave into the crybaby noobs who want it easy like WOW. Yeah, so I have issues with new players, the ones the developers given into. They are too soft and are destroying what made the game so good to begin with.
Musette- One thing I will say is that I am disappointed that the new expansion has so much solo play. I would’ve thought there’d be more instances in the early zones for peeps to level up. But I think as in expansions past the zones are beautiful. The developers are always creative in layout. There were always the typical problems with the expansion but all in all I am usually amazed at the creative intelligence that goes into this game.
The main thing I'm getting out of that article is:
A. Most players are pretty happy with the EQ II devs
B. The players on Najena are elitist pricks that should be playing EQ 1.
The Devs have a complex, difficult job .. and a great one. On the whole, I think they're doing great. Rise of Kunark is a great addition to EQ2 and I personally like the 'solo' content. It is a fun and engaging area to level-up and learn the 'ins and outs' of the game.
To continue to improve the game, I hope the devs spend some time on the other landmasses in EQ2. For instance, both Freeport and Qeynos need some lovin'. Get the junk out. Traffic areas should be free of statuary, lightposts, (fluff). Instead, there should be flowers planted, colorful (tasteful) awnings, and easy (logical) access to goods and services.
Freeport is evil...but evil also enjoys beauty (and seeks to control it). There is no beauty in Freeport ... anywhere. Where is the green grass, trees, flowers? Freeport should have a plethora of 'slave labor' to make it beautiful...in some areas at least...at least in the areas where the rich and powerful reside.
It is not easy to move around in the Commonlands...it should be.
Neriak is better...but I would have envisioned the city like a giant beehive--vertical space--not so horizontal. After all, the citizens have no fear of falling. The use (and reuse) of color is important...but this city is a trifle boring.
And horses-why no truly black horses? Why does my wood elf's feet dangle below the belly of the horse? Why does my horse never try to crop grass? Why does it have such an itchy nose? lol
All in good fun...you've done a good job Devs...and the game is steadily improving.
Please think of hiring a good artist for clothing design...there is soooo much more that can be done even with your standard robe pattern. Have a contest! Let your fans give you some ideas. :)
Take care all and Happy Holidays!
Here is my problem with EQ2 devs, or whoever it is that controls these things.
1) Releasing expansion then nerfing the heck out of the content that made it fun. IE, splitpaw. Yes, its been awhile since I played. The devs,or whoever is in charge, changed the product drasticly after I paid. That is a theme for SOE. The good ol' bait and switch tactic.
2) Too much group content for a game that tries to cater to solo. Please one or the other, not both. That is retarded. So much group content goes wasted, because people are too busy soloing. Too much emphasis on something not many players are doing.
3) The nerfing of stats and crafted items. WTF? Way to destroy the ability to make your toons better. Now, just like in EQ stats don't matter.
4) Claiming this game would not be a raid centric game like EQ.
Those are 4 main reason I don't play EQ2, and I do blame the devs.
EDIT:
I'm sure most current players are happy with the devs. Its the people who have quit, or are on the way out, that are the problem.
This article is a joke, you can easily find a dozen people saying good things about anyone. In EQ2 not the devs are the problem, it is the non-communication between their teams. Each expansion brings wonderful content but kills the nearly done balance, they are eager to fix between expansions. If those devs would not mess with the mechanics in every expansion (or talk to each other during development) there would be much less beating in the forums. The point is: most players do not even visit the forums, but the talk on guild forums is much the same. So there are not a very few number of trolls in the eq2 forum, it is the average view of the game. And if you look closely, most comments in the eq2 forums are even peaceful, positive and constructive. When there is beating, it is earned and part of the devs job.
Ah... the grand ol' love/hate article... Why, oh, why, do we have to rehash this? All of us that do play EQ2 know why we like the game. Those that don't like the game, well, don't. Whatever reason they might list as not liking it is their own personal opinion. We could bring up to a trial of sorts and say "Are the game developers doing everything they can to make an enjoyable experience for their players?" That would be a waste of time. You could easily prove the developers are doing their job.
Let's look at subscription numbers. Who's number one? WoW. There is no arguement over that. Who's number two, three, four, etc? Nobody wants to release official numbers, and the only website I know that attempted to track them has not updated in well over a year. I believe that SOE is the largest MMO publishers that is based in the US, with EQ and EQ2 being their two biggest titles. If the game and developers are so horrible, why the large subscription numbers? (Last unofficial numbers on the site were about 150-200k each.) There are certainly more than a few titles out there that are getting by on 10-20k subscribers.
You can reply with flames or hate mail, but really, do you have an arguement other than either you just don't like the game or you were kicked for some reason?
I think what they need to do for a follow up article is to interview people that have "STOPPED" playing the game that played it for over 1 year. Now that would make a good article that I would really enjoy reading.
As someone who played EQ2 at launch, quit after the extra-special Christmas rollback fiasco, and rejoined a few months ago.... I can't imagine anyone would say the devs don't listen to the players. True enough, they don't always agree with the players, or do everything they want (if they did, the game would have half the zones filled with Candy Mountain instances, and the other half would just randomly kill you as you walked along an open road).
Crafting, in the early game, was a nightmare of complexity and tedium. It was a fun nightmare, one that I enjoyed more than I should have... but one that was ultimately fruitless as the game economy was not entirely player driven. I recently stumbled upon my old notebook of low level crafting recipes, where I had drawn out how many base components I'd need to make a potion. In the old systems, every recipe had several subcombines, often many levels of them... so to work it all the way back to the bottom layer and see how much raw mats you needed was a bit of work. For those who don't remember that system, ever wonder why you find Canine Saliva? It was a dropped substitute for water, which you needed for chloro wash (for any paper product), and most inks. Yes, you could buy flasks of water, but not if you wanted to make a profit. :)
Now, the new system is much simpler, and IMHO it's gone too far in the direction of automation. So, I don't agree with how far the devs have changed things in that part of the game, but I do think they're doing a great job of providing a functional system, and I do think they are listening to what people are saying. They're just not siding with us SWG refugees who like insane complexity in our games.
If I could impart one bit of wisdom to both the dev team leads, and the management teams, it would be that consistency trumps ALL. Making radical changes to a system is not impossible, but it has to be treated as a Big Deal. For example, when the fae races were added, they had a racial ability which enabled them to jump slightly higher and further than anyone else... and they could fall any distance and land softly (feather fall, essentially). That was nice, and it was unique to the fae. It made sense, since they had wings. After much forum whining, they gave slightly nerfed abilities to most of the other races to accomplish the same thing. The result? Falling is no longer something anyone has to worry about in EQ2. That's a big change, and it means anyone who designed an area with tight ledges or sheer drops as part of the challenge (get hit with a knockback attack and get shoved off the ledge) has now had their area nerfed as well.
On the management side, why can't SOE keep game time cards in stores on a regular basis? I use game time cards, not because I don't have a credit card, but because I play several MMO's and some of them I only play for a month or two at a time. If I use a GTC, I don't need to worry about wasting money on months I never log in. Best Buy always has a whole shelf full of WoW GTC's, and usually has a good chunk of NCsoft GTC's, but only rarely has any SOE GTC's in stock. I would say this is Best Buy's fault, but it seems to also be true at Circuit City, Walmart, and a few other local retailers. AFAIK, the Everquest franchise is still doing ok, so I have to assume someone in management dropped the ball on distribution.
Anyways, way to go on the RoK expansion devs! Despire the whiners, having a whole slew of new solo content is great for those times when you just don't have the energy to raid but don't feel like crafting. Options are good. :)