I know you have all been waiting with baited breath for my personal thoughts about the Rise of Kunark newbie experience.  I’m sure you’ve seen both Keen and Cuppy’s experiences in the new content, and I have to say I’ve enjoyed it as much as they both have.  So with a solid week to let the gameplay sink in and my mind grasp what I want to say, here are my impressions and thoughts regarding the level 1-20 newbie experience in the RoK expansion.

1. Launch Day:  It was a smooth as a baby’s bottom, at least for me in the newbie zone on Kithicor.  No lag, no server crashes, and not the 1000 Sarnaks that I thought might be crowding the place.  It was like…almost any other day in EQ2 except for the fact that I was piloting a really cool Sarnak character and exploring the new vistas of Timorous Deep.  I have to really applaud the SOE team on how smoothly the expansion launch went.  Not even a hiccup as far as I could tell.  So that really freed me up to focus on the game and enjoy myself rather than spend the evening wishing the servers were up or surfing a technical forum to resolve some new glitch. 

2. The Sarnak:  Cool race!  I had fun in the character creation process for quite awhile before deciding on my final look (I made a Brigand and then later a Defiler).  I like the various options you can select, from various horn styles to scale patterns to colors.  I did wonder for a bit how they would wear a helmet until I finally put one on - it basically lays over your snout, but preserves the unique look of your head and horns.  Good move.  The only thing I had to get used to was constantly seeing my Sarnak hunched over as he ran around.  It’s like they all have scoliosis or something!

3.  Graphics:  The graphics of EQII continue to impress and delight me.  I know that in some areas they need some work (character models of some races), but overall the art direction and style has been a welcome change from my almost 2 years of WoW.  Timorous Deep boasts ocean spray on the rocks, huge cliffs filled with colorful and dangerous fowl (!!), sweeping vistas from atop mountains, huge broken bridges over chasms, ancient temples and much more.  Yes, that’s just the newbie zone hehe.  It was definitely a fun zone to explore from a visual perspective - completely different feel than anything I’d seen to date.

4.  Quests and Leveling Up:  Timorous Deep is designed to take a character from level 1-20 in a story-driven series of quests that explains some of the backstory and conflict between the Sarnak and the Spirroc.  I found the quests to be somewhat easy to moderatly challenging given my level - so all in all I think they were appropriately focused at the right level.  I don’t think I ran across one quest where I thought, “Man, this is tough!”.  That may be because I was playing through the content as a trio vs. solo.  The quest stories are interesting if time is taken to read them, and I ended my journey through Timorous at Level 19, 98.6% to level.  So it was right on target to get me ready to face Butcherblock.  My one complaint is that it had to end at level 20 - you have a 50 level gap before you can really go back and experience the rest of RoK content.  So that’s a bummer, but it does provide some incentive to level up.

5.  RoK Gear:  I must say that the one thing I wasn’t expecting, and was completely amazed by, is the gear that you get out of Timorous Deep.  You get a TON of items from completing all the quests - from armor to weapons to jewelry.  And these items aren’t just your run of the mill newbie items.  These are top of the line stuff for their level - they are loaded with stats, health/power and resists in a lot of cases.  They are so good in fact, that even in the lower to mid 20s we were hard pressed to find any upgrades via Butcherblock quests or even via the auction house.  Now that’s saying something when you are 27 and still using level 16 or 17 items because you can’t get quest rewards that are any better (and in most cases worse).  I’d really expect that more at the higher level, but at the newbie level?  I was pleasantly surprised.  Now I just wonder if newbie gear in EoF and the old world will be revamped at all (a huge task I’m sure).

Overall, I found the RoK newbie experience to be the best one yet - better than Greater Faydark, Darklight Woods and certainly the old world (Antonica).  I continue to enjoy EQII and this expansion just proved to me that SOE is doing a lot of things right.  I plan to enjoy the world of Norrath for many months to come, and I encourage you to give RoK a try.  I’m telling ya, it’s good to be a Sarnak. 

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If you play EQII and have a house, you  may be like me - it’s crowded in the extreme!  I have so many pets running all over the furniture, up onto pedastals and globes, tables and beds, boxes and books.  Weapons and paintings hang on the wall and every once in awhile my clockwork scans the room.  Although it’s a mish-mash of Legend & Lore quests, /claim items and a few things bought from the broker, it feels like home.  :) 

However, if you are still looking for some items for your home, or pride yourself on having everything unique and possible in the game, this announcement is for you:

Exclusive EQ2 Offer in Beckett Massive Online Gamer

Limited Edition In-Game Item Only Available Though Magazine

Dallas, TX - November 12, 2007 - Fans of the new EverQuest II (EQII) expansion, Rise of Kunark, have something else to be excited about as Sony Online Entertainment and Beckett’s Massive Online Gamer (MOG) magazine are offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to EQII players and MOG readers. A secret access code has been added to the latest issue of Massive Online Gamer magazine available on newsstands the week of November 28th that will provide all readers with a limited edition portrait of the infamous warlord Venril Sathir. For fans who cannot wait for the magazine to hit the newsstand, the first 1000 people to subscribe to Massive Online Gamer will receive a unique code via email that can be redeemed for the in-game item.

“We have set up a subscription service that will allow new subscribers to get the code almost instantaneously. EQII players can either wait for the magazine to hit the newsstands or get the code now. When you subscribe, you’ll get the code as well as a great discount on our annual subscription,” said Doug Kale, editor of Massive Online Gamer.

Fans of EQII will want to nab this exclusive Venril Sathir in-game item as quickly as possible since it is a limited edition item. This marks the first time that Sony Online Entertainment, the makers of EQII, has offered an item of this level through a magazine.

“We are excited that Sony has partnered with Massive Online Gamer. Our readers are interested in every angle of the massive online community, so rewarding both existing as well as new readers is a tremendous opportunity for everyone,” added Kale.

To subscribe, click here http://www.beckett.com/subscriptions/subs.asp?promotion=294 and for more information about Massive Online Gamer, click here http://www.beckett.com/beckettmog/default.osi.

I will probably be burned at the stake, but I have to admit I have no idea who Venril Sathir is in terms of EQ lore.  But if the magazine looks interesting enough, I might subscribe for that content and get the painting as a side item.  I’d suggest that if this sounds like something you want, that you act quickly.  I imagine they will go fast.

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It’s official.  The servers went live about 3:30 p.m. central time today.  I’m about to hop in and see if I can get into the game along with the hordes of others wanting to see the Sarnak for the first time.  We’ll see how server stability is tonight. 

EverQuest II – Rise of Kunark is now live on all U.S. servers. The sum of many months of hard work by dozens of people on multiple teams comes to fruition today with the release of the fourth expansion to EverQuest II. On behalf of the entire team here at SOE, we would like to welcome you to the Rise of Kunark! Thank you for your patience during the expansion downtime today.

Look for an announcement regarding the international servers shortly.

I’ll definitely be writing up my own reactions and thoughts on the expansion probably next week after I’ve had a chance to play with it for a bit.  But for now it kinda feels like Christmas morning hehe. 

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Well the second bonus xp Sunday is over and done with, and we’re now on the eve of the Rise of Kunark expansion.  My gaming group had a good time again over the weekend, knocking out Runnyeye and several quests in the Enchanted Lands, trying to level up to a decent minimum to attempt Klak Anon.  Currently we’re all sitting in the 40 - 42 range, so I think in maybe 3-4 more levels we’ll be good to start working our way into the dungeon.  And just for the record, the SK/Necro combo is a nasty duo!!  They burn through mobs and content much easier than what I saw with the Berserker/Fury combo.

I had the opportunity to chat today with a fellow blogger who is also heavily invested in EQII and has been playing a lot longer than I have.  As we chatted, we talked about a lot of things - the RoK expansion, the graphics of EQII, general gameplay, and raiding.  One of the things we talked about were some of the early statements from the EQII team at launch about the graphics engine.  At the time, it had very high system requirements and most people had to play the game on very low settings.  The one thing the team said is that they were essentially future-proofing the graphics so that systems in the next several years could run the game at max settings and see the world in all its glory.  Well, I got to experience that over the weekend as I played for a good chunk of time at what you’d consider “screenshot” settings (I normally play on the equivalent of “quality” or so).  Wow, talk about some cool effects and visuals when you really crank those settings up.  Whether it’s minute detail on armor, the heat shimmers off of a fire, or the realistic textures on things like the canyon walls, it was clear that the graphics have held up well.

But more than that, I think EQII itself has really held up well.  Brandon Reinhart over at Madness & Games wrote an article recently expressing his view that people need to give this game a second look.  In reading it, I think he summarizes well what the game experience was like at release - it meshes up with my memory of what it was like to play during those initial few months and some of the problems that were present.  But as he notes, I think EQII really has evolved and developed into one of the best MMOs out there today.  Maybe it’s done so quietly, and with a few million less subscribers than WoW, but it doesn’t make it any less true.  With several expansion packs to its credit, not counting the one releasing tomorrow, the world of EQII is absolutely huge and full of interesting content.  But don’t take my word for it.  There are bloggers out there that know way more than me, and can give you far more info on the game.

With the Rise of Kunark expansion releasing tomorrow, the players of EQII are brimming with excitement.  And I think it’s an excitement that should be shared with a broader MMO audience.  This game is clearly a different (and imo much better) game than it was when launched in 2004, and people need to know that.  I think SOE is consistently building up a very solid base of content, making changes to game mechanics and systems where it makes sense, adding value for the players.   I think more than just Kunark may be rising - I think SOE and EQII have caught their stride and are rising as well.

Finally, for those of you anticipating RoK tomorrow and want to know when you’ll be able to get in the game, Gnobrin over at the official forums had this to say:

 At approximately 5:00am PST (1pm GMT), all servers (US, test and international) shall be brought down for the expansion update! The downtime is expected to be until 1:00pm PST (9:00pm GMT). During that time, please remember that we’ll be regularly updating EQIIPlayers as well as the official EQII Forums with update information as it comes! The official EQII Forums will also be hosting games and entertainment, brought to you by your crazy admins!If that’s not enough, that there are planned mini-events and games in the stand alone client for Legends of Norrath! You can learn more of those Legends of Norrath events HERE as well as how to get that stand-alone client, if you’re not already set!Get ready… the Rise of Kunark’s is on its way!

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I haven’t actively played Vanguard for about 5 months now.  I picked up Vanguard right after I got burnt out on TBC - around the first of April.  I played for about three months and got my dwarven cleric up to 40 on the Hilsbury (now Xeth) server.  It was a fun time but the game was just still too ridden with performance issues, bugs, and graphics that at times inspired me, and at other times depressed me.

So it was with interest that I caught site of this story today and decided to take a look at some of the extreme makeover the Vanguard team is doing with the city of Khal.  If you’ve never played Vanguard, Khal is a fairly large city in Qalia that is a hub for players on that continent, and a crossroads of sorts if you are traveling to other places.  In other words, it needs to look pretty darn impressive and I think the Vanguard art team is making great strides in making that happen.

Just take a look at some of the before and after pictures, especially the pics of the indoor sections of the city.  Wow!  I’m impressed.  Not only do they use better textures and skins, better carpets, plants, tiles, and decorative items, but the lighting (and actual lamps/lights) is 100% better.  I was pretty impressed with what I saw there.  If they can continue to give this extreme makeover to the rest of VG, players could be in for a real treat.  What was once fairly bland and “bleh”, now may start to actually look pretty dang cool.

I don’t know that it’s enough to make me start paying VG again, but I continue to keep my account active and the game patched, just so I can jump back in and check out changes just like these.  At some point I may give it another go, but I’m really trying to give the new VG team several months to make improvements to the game.

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Three years ago today EQII launched to a huge amount of fanfaire and anticipation by a legion of veteran EQ players.  At the time, a friend of mine and I had formed our own guild and were gunning to get into the guild status race quickly.  We ramped up our guild on the Guk server and were swept away by the experience for the first few weeks.  But then the performance problems and bugs started to wear us down.  And the constant grind to slowly level.  And the sameness of the armor.  And the xp debt when you died.  Etc. etc.  In short, we only lasted three months in the original incarnation of the game because it had become something completely not fun for us.

However, today EQII is a completely different game, as pointed out by Kendricke today over at Clockwork Gamer.  It is actually quite a good MMO.  It was great when I played again last year for a few months, and I would say it’s even better today.  It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since the game launched, and WoW will be hitting that milestone soon as well.  How time flies!

I’ve been really enjoying my time back in EQII.  I’ve mostly been focused on the Faydwer expansion zones as I had done the old world zones a few times (especially Qeynos/Antonica/Thundering Steppes).  It’s been great to see things completely new, but so reminiscent of the original EQ zones.  My friends and I that are playing are anxiously awaiting the RoK expansion next week, and I’m really glad to see the NDA finally lift today.  I hope to read some nice beta reviews before the game hits. 

I really do hope that someday there will be an EQIII, but with EQII going so strong that day may be years and years away.  I really think right now that EQII has at least 5 more years of life in it, especially if they continue to release the quality of expansions they have.  There is a TON of content out there, and it can be a bit overwhelming, but it also means there’s always someplace to go and explore that you’ve never been.

So Happy Birthday EQII - may you live to see another three and many more!

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Looking forward to the new EQ2 expansion pack?  Want to level a bit more before it hits?  Well, things just got easier as announced by SOE over on the official site:

The Race to Kunark has begun! To help you prepare we’re offering “Bonus Experience Sundays” on November 4th and November 11th, 2007! From midnight to midnight pacific time, experience gain will increase by 50% for adventurers and tradeskillers alike. Get your friends together and plan your attack, Rise of Kunark is coming…

Wow…a 50% xp increase for essentially 48 hours?  Nice!  I know this will bode well for me and my buddies who recently started playing again.  My only worry is now we may outlevel quests and content even faster!  Just in the last two days I think I’ve gained 5 levels, and that’s from playing maybe a combined 6 hours doing quests and killing mobs as part of those.  Things seems to be flying by pretty quickly already, and that’s hard because I’m a “completist”.  I like to do every quest and check them all off the list, and I know that’s impossible in EQ2 for the most part.

 On another note, I’m usually not a crafter in MMOs, but with this kind of xp gain, I wonder if I shouldn’t research tradeskils quickly and maybe spend some time getting one of those up in levels while the xp gain is boosted.  Hrm…decisions, decisions.

Also - for anyone playing EQ2 who is close to the level cap, be sure to take a look at Clockwork Gamer’s most recent article on vitality and the expansion.  Solid advice on parking your character right before 70 in order to take advantage of the vitality mechanic for RoK.

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Well, as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, SOE was trying to lure me back into EQ2.  I put the postcard on my desk, and there it sat for a few days.  Then a week.  Then it started to talk to me:  “Hey man…you’re not playing an MMO at the moment, right?  So why not come back and try an old friend?  You know you want to!!” 

We had a good conversation, but I declined and went to watch some college football.  Sometime during a commercial I wandered in to surf a bit and lo and behold, somehow I was downloading the game!  How did that happen??  I tried to remember.  I figured heck, as long as it’s downloading I might as well let it finish, right? 

So I did.  And I patched.  And I found a UI I like (ProfitUI Reborn).  And I logged in and found my old characters waiting for me.  So now I’m at that decision point of, “Do I really want to get back into playing EQII?”  You have to understand, I created my original character in EQ2 on the first day you could, on the Guk server.  I played for three months while leading a guild, and the game at the time just wasn’t for me.  I tried, I really did.  Fast forward 18 months after that - I jump back into the game during the summer of 2006 with a few friends.  Man - the game had totally changed, and for the better!   We played for another three months and had a lot of fun, then RL got ahold of me and I fell off the wagon again.

So here we are today, another 14 months or so after I last stopped playing.  And I’m staring at two mid-level characters on Guk (lvl 40 and 50), and have just created a couple of new characters on Kithicor (Fae Wizard and Gnome Illusionist).  So the inevitable questions - how much am I going to play this?  Casual?  Hardcore?  Do I want to play through the new content or go back to my higher level characters?  What about people to play with - join a guild?  Am I planning to stick with this long enough to raid?  What server do I play on?

Decisions decisions…but I am having fun with my lowbie characters at the moment.  The Fae are pretty cool and I love the Greater Faydark zone so far.  I think I’ll probably get into Kelethin a bit tonight.  It’s definitely bringing back a lot of memories from a year ago - everything from the level sound and effects, to the “bloop” sound of getting a new spell, to the character and monster models.  And man…how can I ever forget the sheer amount of quests!  Tons of em. 

So if you see a Gnome Illusionist or Fae Wizard running around on Kithicor, give them a wave.  It may just be me out there playing.

P.S.  I actually did see “Pixiestyx” in chat last night hehe. 

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“This is what Everquest II was Meant to Be!” 

“Call Norrath ‘Home’ Again…For Free!”

“Your Account Has Been Reactivated For A Limited Time”

Those are the phrases emblazoned on the postcard sized flyer I received in my mailbox today.  It’s a nice flyer, it really is.  There’s the great artwork, the “Legends of Norrath” logo with card pictures, even a “T for Teen” rating on the postcard.  By the way, if you glance at the rating text really quickly, it appears to read, “Use of Alcohol and Violence Suggested”.  Advice to live by?

Yes, SOE found it in their heart to specifically send me a personalized postcard in the mail, telling me that I need to come home, for free, at least through Nov. 4.  After which presumably I’ll cough up the subscription money because I’m overwhelmed by all the changes and having a lot of fun with the game.  They even list all the great stuff that’s going to lure me back and make me stay including:  All live expansions to date, LoN trading card game, LoN starter deck, a special win back reward item (Pouch of the Well Traveled).  As far as the game goes, there are things like GU 39 going live, the Shard of Fear included, a new starting zone (Neriak) and race (Arasai), LoN, expanded gameplay and quests for all levels, persistent raid and group isntances, one extra character slot and a new LFG tool.

I think I posted this on one of Darren’s posts the other day, but I tend to look forward, not back, when dealing with MMOs.  In other words, I (typically) quit cold turkey and never go back.  At least I used to.  The past 18 months or so has seen me break that twice - I went back to EQII last summer after an 18 month break or so, and last Dec. I went back to WoW after about a six month break.  In both instances I had a great time and enjoyed the games.  With WoW, I just got burnt out again by virtue of playing so darn much and just pushing like all get out to get through Karazhan.  With EQII, I didn’t get burned out, I actually got distracted by other RL interests and just never went back (and then TBC hit).

I’ve currently been MMO-free for a tad over four months now, VG being my last jaunt.  With no hope of a War beta invite this fall, and TR only mildly interesting me, I’m left to either not play anything or go back to a former game.  If I went back to a former game, I think EQII might top my list, especially with the Rise of Kunark expac coming out.  Plus I’ve never seen any of the Faydwer material, so there would be a lot to see and do.  The downside is I’d probably have to start from scratch on a new server, or go back to my two higher level characters on Guk, where I’m currently homeless and have no former buddies to really game with there.  So the question is, do I just want to start fresh on a new server and just dork around, not really caring if I ever hit top end and can raid, etc.  Realistically, I’d only be playing it for three months or so anyhow in all likelihood, so dorking around and taking it easy would be just about right.

The game was much better a year ago than it was at launch, and it’s probably even better now.  I just don’t know if that’s enough, even with this nice, shiny post card, to lure me back in for a bit.  Decisions, decisions.  Got any suggestions?  Anyone out there that would really recommend me giving EQII another shot, perhaps with a new character?  

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The Warcry network recently sat down with Smed, the President and CEO of SOE, for what I found to be a pretty candid interview.  The exclusive interview covered a lot of ground, touching on nearly all the titles SOE has in its (ever expanding) stable.  There were certainly nuggets from the interview that interested me, and I’ll highlight those here with thoughts:

1.  The MMO genre is stale and “grindy”.  Did anyone NOT know this?  But it’s kind of nice to hear the top exec of a (maybe the) major MMO company just come out and state this.  Smed states that MMOs today are all “me too” games, and if you look around, you pretty quickly conclude that it’s an accurate picture.  Even the most recent SUWT talked about how much influence WoW has had on the genre, with almost every competitor borrowing successful elements from that game.  Smed is hoping to take SOE in new directions in the future - enough with the grind he says!  He points towards The Agency, FreeRealms and Pirates of the Burning Sea as examples of this new direction.  Will SOE be the company that leads us into the light of new gameplay? 

2.  MMOs can work on consoles.  Smed talks about his belief that previous ventures like the PS2 “EQ:OA” MMO was ahead of its time.  The technology of the day on consoles simply wouldn’t let them realize the vision they had and support the game properly.  BUT, today is a new day of 80 gig harddrives and wireless connections.  He contends that MMOs can work well on the console, and both The Agency and the DC comics MMO will release both PC and console.  That all may be true, but I’ll probably never play an MMO on a console.  PC Gamer 4 Life!

3.  Another Everquest MMO coming??  Smed just comes out and says that making EQII a “sequel” to EQ was a mistake.  He goes on to say that “In hindsight, I wish we could have had a do-over and not called it Everquest II”.  He states that the two games were really very different - the games shared a common name and world, but EQII was set in the future.  Smed then states that they full intend to do another Everquest MMO, but that no, no one is actually working on such a project at this time.  I wonder what his definition of a true “sequel” to EQ is?  I for one wouldn’t mind seeing another Everquest MMO, and I think a lot of fans would to as they felt like EQ2 was never a true successor.

4.  Vanguard FTW?  Vanguard sold over 200k copies.  Lots of people gave it a look, and lots of people left because it was an utter disaster at first, punctuated by the disclosure of what McQuaid had done (or not done) behind the scenes.  When Sigil folded, that took yet another batch of people out of the game (I was actively playing at that time and saw the player base literally shrink in just a weeks time).  But, Smed sees in VG what I’ve always seen as well - tons of potential (gotta love the P word!).  He readily acknowledges that VG is what it is, a hardcore game, and that the high system specs are hurting the game at the moment.  But he seems genuinely committed to growing VG and staying focused on what it is - a more hardcore game with some unique features not seen elsewhere.  Will that be enough?  I think SOE will do enough good things that VG will survive and have a (niche) audience for the next 2-3 years at least.

Smed also goes on to talk about the NGE in SWG, but as I wasn’t ever a player of SWG that interested me less than the other pieces.  The one thing that did speak to me from that segment, and he mentioned it elsewhere, is the fact that SOE did not listen to their community when they made the NGE change.  Smed seems very committed to geting the community “into the mix” and hearing from them about future games and gameplay elements.  If SOE can truly do that, they might win back some of the goodwill that was lost by a lot of folks year ago, and gain a competitive edge.  After all, WE are the ones playing the games, and if they don’t listen to us, who the heck are they listening to? 

I think SOE has a bright future.  They will have the most diverse stable of games on the market, something to appeal to almost everyone, from sci-fi to high fantasy to pirates to spies to FreeRealms.  We know they are a marketing juggernaut, and they seem poised for growth in the years ahead.  If they can also innovate in gameplay and listen to their community, their future will be bright indeed.

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