Remembering the Classic: Everquest "Ancient Heroes"

tss22

An MMO is unique in its own world in the sense that, despite what some people think, you truly do live in the world. Think back to titles you’ve played for years, and you’re bound to have nostalgic moments of times that are long past. Many of us longtime players expect the company to recognize their earlier game in some fashion. Jagex, for example, continued running the original Runescape, and continues looking for new ways to publicize the, albeit currently closed to all but a few, title to players who never experienced it.

In a recent update to Everquest, Sony Online Entertainment inserted an old man who will transform you into the classic Everquest experience: A level 50 with the normal gear of the time, before even the Ruins of Kunark expansion. The only alteration comes in the form of brand new drops.

Everquest has come a long way, possibly longer than any other MMO on the market (apart from maybe Star Wars Galaxies). Sixteen expansion packs later, and the Everquest of now is day and night to the Everquest of old. Everquest Underfoot launches on its newly delayed date in December. Everquest’s target demographic is their current and previous players, a fact they have begrudgingly admitted.

Now if only Sony would bring some pre-NGE Galaxy servers up.

Everquest: Not Going Anywhere

“So you can see there’s a lot to wrestle with as we begin laying the foundation for EverQuest ‘Next.’ As I write this, we have concept artists and game designers working hard in our studio-taking the lessons of the past, the best parts of the present and the most promising ideas for the future-to bring the world of Norrath to a new generation of players, as well as the dedicated legions of fans who made the EverQuest franchise timeless. I hope we’ll see you there.“

Everquest once again proves itself to be the Granddaddy who not only refuses to stop dancing, but continues to go hiking, bungee jumping, and is always ready to throw down in the wrestling ring. Fresh off of its 10th year anniversary, Everquest continues to remind us that the franchise will not be going anywhere, with the announcement of Everquest Next. The announcement is from the Everquest 10th anniversary book.

Considering the massive changes between Everquest and Everquest 2, the third go at the series can bring nothing less than innovation, a strong player base, an excellent development team, and fifty expansion packs. So cheers to Everquest Next.

Via Zam

SOE 2009 Address

Sony Online Entertainment did their Fan Faire Press release this year, and seeing as how they have the largest collection of MMO’s in the list, I just had to have a look at what is on the horizon for their titles, and for the company itself.

I’d like to note on Sony themselves. Despite what I may think about the rest of Sony, I give SOE a lot of credit for the dedication they have to their games. Unlike NCSoft that more closely resembles the guy sitting on his porch with a shotgun waiting for someone to slip up, SOE has a strong dedication to their products, and does everything in their power to make sure that the remaining population, as small as they may be, continue to enjoy what they enjoy, and supports their products long after any other company might consider them to be “dead”.

So I have a lot of respect for Sony Online Entertainment, even though at the same time I have a lot of contempt for the boneheaded mistakes they’ve made in the past, namely the NGE updates for Star Wars Galaxies, and implementing legal real world trading in the Everquest titles. They didn’t talk about many of their existing games at this conference, mainly Everquests and Free Realms, with some Star Wars Galaxies thrown in. So without further ado, here is Sony.