Tag: Everquest

Everquest Reactivation Campaign


Fippy Darkpaw

Damn you, Sony! With the impending release of the Everquest progression server, people like myself are no doubt trying their hardest not to resubscribe just to try the game out one more time, a feat that (at least I am finding) is proving hard to keep up. And much like the insensitive alcoholic who shows up at your one year of sobriety celebration with a case of beer, willingly shoveling your addiction right underneath your nose, Sony is ensuring that those of us on the fence will be knocked right off with a brick to the septum.

If you log into your Station accounts, some of you may find that your Everquest accounts have been reactivated until the 21st of February, just long enough to get a good week in with the progression server. Not all accounts appear to be affected by this, and I am unable to pinpoint exactly what the prerequisites are for the reactivation. If your account shows as “pending,” then you will be able to log in until the 21st.

So thank you, Sony. While you’re at it, can you spot me twenty bucks for Cool Ranch Doritos and a couple gallons of Sweet Tea? I’m going to need them.

Progressing Through Everquest On Fippy Darkpaw


Fippy Darkpaw

Everquest doesn’t have what you would call “sexy” graphics, so to speak, although throughout the past twelve years the game has always had a certain kind of charm to it that keeps us going back every year or so. When you take a game as old as Everquest, undoubtedly there are players who missed the first two, four, six, eight, or even ten years of development, leaving them with numerous questions. What were corpse runs like? A dangerous world.

Fippy Darkpaw is something of a running joke in Everquest, literally. He spawns outside of North Qeynos, where he shouted his threat of death, and charged headlong into a group of guards much, much higher level than him. Later on in the game, players can take part in a raid at level 85 that involves killing Fippy Darkpaw, who is much higher level and more dangerous than his Qeynos counterpart.

Why bring up Fippy? Because that is the name of the Everquest Timed Progression Server that will be launching this month. Fippy Darkpaw, the new server, will be going up February 15th, and refreshes everything in Everquest back to how it was at launch. No expansions, no updates, nothing. After certain achievements are performed, Sony will open up voting in-game for the next expansion. If the majority vote yes, the next expansion will launch with its appropriate content. If they vote no, the server will remain on that expansion for another week or so, and the voting will commence again.

In the past, progression servers on Everquest have been quite successful. If you don’t own Everquest, or are missing out on some expansions, you can check out the Where To Buy page (located at the top) and find it on sale on Steam or Direct2Drive. See you in the server on the 15th!

Everquest 2: Extended Free Gold Weekend


It's like the free trial to a free trial.

Everquest II went free to play just a few months ago, and the folks at Sony Online Entertainment want to spread the wealth…for a few days at least. If you’ve been playing the free version of Everquest II and are interested in what those elite gold members are doing, you’re in luck: Sony is allowing you full access to what the gold members get, and for free. Bronze members will have access to higher level spells, extra bag space, bank space, extra coin and journal quests.

The free trial lasts until the Sunday and started today, so you’re already a day late. Check out more information here: http://everquest2.com/news/read/current/3756.

By The Way: Everquest II Server Mergers Abound


 

Attack!

 

A great man once told me, “mark my words, Everquest II will have a big server merge less than six months after it goes free to play.” I can’t recall who said this, and thanks to the wonders of corrupt hard drives and lack of backup copies I no longer have his name on file, so I will let him take credit wherever he is. Those of you playing Everquest II, be it the free or paid version, are likely well aware of today’s announcement that Sony will be shuttering a number of Everquest II live servers. Sixteen servers, overall, are merging into eight, with the remaining eleven being unaffected.

Players with legacy titles will have their titles changed to “of <server name>.” The server mergers themselves are nothing surprising, however, as Sony put it:

We’ve been planning to merge the EQII Live servers for a long while now, and most of you have been asking for it to happen for just as long. As part of our ongoing effort to utilize community feedback and deliver the best gameplay experience possible, I am happy to announce that we will begin merging several servers this fall.  Bigger population density on a server is just simply more fun for everyone involved, so it’s time to get it done.

Everquest had a server merger just a couple months ago. It happens when your MMO is not named World of Warcraft.

More on Everquest II as it appears.

Looking Back, Moving Forward: August 2010


Video of the month.

There is no doubt that All Points Bulletin stole the show this past month, showing up on MMO Fallout at least once every three days heading towards the middle of the month onward. Although Realtime Worlds announced APB carrying 130,000 active players, I have to question how many of those players are actively paying subscriptions, as I have my doubts that Realtime Worlds would be going into administration if the grand majority were pumping cash directly into the cash shop and game time veins at RTW.

August was filled to the brim with news that makes you scratch your head and question reality. Bill Roper is gone from Cryptic, I was sent a legal threat by David Allen, I had my wisdom teeth taken out and pretty much immediately went back to writing up articles despite being heavily drugged on hydrocodone, I was featured on Biobreak and Tobold’s blog.

On another good note, however, MMO Fallout now has five active backups going. For the sake of my own embarrassment, I won’t mention the incident that lead up to me being paranoid about losing my information, but irregardless I now have five flash drives, each carrying a backup of MMO Fallout that I update on a weekly basis. I backup this website daily, but I only transfer it off of my computer every Saturday.

I’m still disappointed that the Atari versus Turbine lawsuit resulted the way it did. I personally love legal drama (when it doesn’t involve me) and would have enjoyed seeing something come out of this other than secret settlements.

Warhammer Online fans rejoiced this month. Although BioMythArts Entertainment (or whatever they’re calling themselves nowadays) isn’t giving specific numbers, they are willing to announce that Warhammer Online is indeed profitable, with tens of thousands of new players streaming in thanks to the endless trial system.

Over on Sony’s front, Everquest is once again proving that although their alternate rule servers are unique, they more often than not crash due to low populations. Such is the case with Everquest’s 51/50 ruleset servers (players start at level 51 with 50 level AP) which are due to be merged into normal ruleset servers.

Unfortunately, another month brings another game shutting down. After a year of promises and well wishes, Playdom announced the shuttering of Chronicles of Spellborn, after the Facebook gaming company acquired Acclaim. Although Acclaim’s two other MMOs 9Dragons and 2Moon were transferred to other hosts, Chronicles of Spellborn was shutdown late August.

Speaking of which, Earth Eternal came very close to shutting down. The most adorable non-Asian MMO hit a brick wall running when Sparkplay announced that the company had laid off all but two employees, and that the game would be sold at auction, with high hopes that a buyer would pick up the title. Luckily, a buyer did indeed pick up the title, and we’ve received information that many of the Sparkplay employees may be making a return soon enough.

Alganon-WAIT IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK- ditched the initial client purchase completely by going 100% free to play earlier this month. While the free title is restricted in how many quests you may partake in daily, as well as a shorter level cap, players can remove these restrictions with a simple cash shop purchase.

While we’re on the subject of departures, Bill Roper announced that he would be leaving Cryptic Studios. In unrelated news, I’ve been receiving emails of gratitude for reporting on this story.

On yet another sad note, Realtime Worlds and their newly released MMO “Absolving Perot’s Blame” (or APB for short) have been pretty much a weekly staple for MMO Fallout news. What started out as a simple announcement of standard restructuring took a turn for the worst when Realtime Worlds went into administration (Bankruptcy) and announced that they were looking for investors with what was left of the team. With the recently released patch offering major updates to the game’s driving and shooting, we can only hope that these much needed enhancements didn’t come too late.

Everquest Next: With The Everquester In Mind!


And John Smedley Said: Let there be light!

If Sony Online Entertainment’s abbreviated name was NSD, I could point out that their name could also spell out Never Shuts Down. However, since it doesn’t, I’m stuck with my next best idea: Soldier On, Edith which, although surely touching to anyone named Edith who enjoys Sony’s products, only appeals to a limited audience.

But enough of my attempts at word play. At the 2010 Fan Faire, SOE fully announced Everquest Next, the third Everquest MMO to come out at some point in the future. So, very little was offered in terms of when we might actually see Everquest Next, but the SOE staff present were more than willing to give out information regarding the title.

Everquest Next is not a sequel, nor a prequel to Everquest, but a re-imagining. Sony is going for the original charm of Everquest, and notes that fans of the original will feel right at home in the title. They hope to give more engaging content, better combat, immersive story lines, and a more streamlined approach to players with less classes (think Everquest).

More importantly, however, was the fact that Sony is committed to supporting both Everquest and Everquest II, neither of which will be going anywhere anytime soon. We were also promised that players will not be shepherded to EQ Next like they were with Everquest II, a move that was wholly rejected by the Everquest community when Everquest II released those many years ago. Everquest Next will also offer scalability to lower end machines, something Everquest II sorely missed.

And even more importantly, Everquest Next is not being made for kids, and you can take that to the bank.

More on EQ Next as it appears.

The Days of 51/50 Servers Are Over


Teddy Bears for servers?

Everquest is one of the few ongoing MMOs to dive into experimental servers, generally temporary servers featuring anything from permadeath to progression (the server starts at the base game and expansions open as players progress), and more. The 51/50 server, for those not in the EQ-Know, is where players start at level 51 with 50 levels AP, in order to get them into the meat of the game as quickly as possible. The servers, sadly, have not been very popular, and for a while now the air has been all about mergers.

Mayong, Zek, and Fioriona are the three 51/50 servers on Everquest, and after great discussion between staff and players, Sony has begun the process of merging, starting with Mayong. Currently, the 51/50 ruleset has been removed, and no new characters can be created at level 50. The Mayong server will be merged in September, although players can ship their characters off early for $10 (a discount on the normal fee).

SOE has stated that new information regarding this merge, as well as the upcoming changes to Zek and Fioriona will be coming “soon™.” As one developer put it:

“It’s not as simple to merge servers as it is to, say, merge a little rum into some cola.  We’ll be choosing the server that Mayong merges with by the usual method (dart board).”

Everquest’s next expansion, House of Thule, goes live in October this year. More on the Everquest mergers as they appear.

Everquest: Underfoot On Sale On Steam


Pimp My Mount.

With all the hubbub about Everquest II, you’d think that the Everquest folks are getting a little lonely. If so, I have just the answer! Steam is currently running a sale on Everquest: Underfoot that includes all 16 expansions and the original game, plus extra bonuses. If you are creating a new station account, the game also includes 30 days free game time. Otherwise, all accounts will enjoy the Mark of Brell (teleport directly to the Underfoot area), the Legends of Norrath card game, 500 free station cash, 100 bayle marks, and your own DPS mercenary.

Everquest is on sale at 63% off, at $14.99 USD from $39.99, and will not be going free to play in the foreseeable future.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/24180/

Prices Slashed On Direct2Drive


If Funcom's money was gold-backed...
They did it for gold...

If you head over to Direct2Drive, you will find a number of MMOs on sale for the time being. As there hasn’t been much in terms of information from Direct2Drive, I have no indication as to whether or not these are permanent price slashes, or temporary publisher price cuts. Either way, check out some great deals.

I’ll be checking Direct2Drive over the course of this week and next week until the sales end.

http://www.direct2drive.com/6/5937/product/Buy-FINAL-FANTASY-XI-Treasures-of-Aht-Urhgan-Expansion-Download

Looking Back, Moving Forward: June 2010

I have decided to retire the Month In Review sessions in replacement for what I call “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” essentially a recap of the month and a look forward into the coming month.

June, like any decent bridging sequel, brought more questions to the table than it did answers…


My favorite picture of the month.

I have decided to retire the Month In Review sessions in replacement for what I call “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” essentially a recap of the month’s highlights.

June, like any decent bridging sequel, brought more questions to the table than it did answers. There was plenty of recaps to be had, such as this one! All in all, June was an excellent month for information regarding previously low-key MMOs. We received a lot of information on Warhammer 40k, the new Star Wars MMO, an upcoming Mummy MMO, Jumpgate, Lego Universe, Project V13, among others.

Foremost, happy birthday to some of our old geezers who are still running around.

WWII Online: Battleground Europe (2001-Present)
Anarchy Online (2001-Present)
Star Wars Galaxies (2003-Present)

Sony kicked off the month with the “official” announcement of Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures. Intending to offer players an experience more akin to Free Realms (and built on the same engine), Clone Wars will follow a similar pricing format, with a multitude of mini-games, activities, pets, and houses for players to engage in. Aimed at a slightly lower age group than your Star Wars Galaxies or The Old Republic, Clone Wars is aiming to hit the net sometime later this year.

Lord of the Rings Online and Global Agenda are getting a lot more accessible, with the announcement of both games changing subscription models. Lord of the Rings Online will be taking on a freemium model, with the original game offered for free with bonuses, expansions, and more content available in one time purchases, or for a subscription fee. Global Agenda, on the other hand, is going the Guild Wars route, offering the entire game after purchase for no subscription fee.

June 9th saw the launch of Mortal Online, after a number of delays on the part of Star Vault, with issues of desynchronization, among others, plaguing the servers. Server stability is still an issue with Mortal Online, with a form of compensation on its way from Star Vault.

All Points Bulletin launched this month, with lead designer EJ Moreland taking a shot at the MMOs opening cash shops, by claiming that APB would not feature a cash shop, ever, before quickly retracting on his statement and saying that Realtime Worlds would only consider cashing in if the community asked for it. Given the response to other cash shop inclusions, expect a cash shop coming to a police department near you.

Darkfall still loves you, and here at MMO Fallout we love us some Darkfall. Since the title launched last year, Aventurine has been working around the clock trying to bring in new players, and keep them. Those changes have removed the $50 paywall and introduced initially a paid, now free limited time trial. New players will find themselves offered extra protection during their first days of game time, as well as the game constantly being balanced to lower the time it takes for players to become competent in PvP combat.

And while we’re on the subject of tweaking content to balance gameplay, how about removing a chunk of content for the sake of balance? Such is the case when Flying Lab Software announced that the higher end ships will be removed from Pirates of the Burning Sea for the sake of balancing the lower tiers of ships.

Not all was great on the western front, however, as this month marked the grand server merger in Everquest, leaving just fourteen of the original servers remaining. With what may just turn 2010 into a year for mergers, Sony later announced mergers for Vanguard, with NCsoft announcing Aion server mergers, both game’s mergers to occur in July.

There is plenty more that occurred in June, and you can read all about it in the MMO Fallout archives. Until next time, this is Looking Back, Moving Forward.