It has been a wonderful time…
Being a part of the EQ franchise starting with EQOA and then Champions Return to Arms and now EverQuest has been a great experience. Moving onto the EQ team in a time of transition from 6-month expansions to 12-month expansions, and working to ramp up the amount of content we roll out for free throughout the year was a very challenging time for both our players and the developers.
We ultimately focused on the quality of our expansions more than ever and made sure that we spent time on addressing not only expansion related tasks but also long standing bugs and issues that had been pushed down the priority list in the past. I am happy to say that we have had more than our fair share of victories in the last few years and we will continue to progress towards making the game even better, cleaner and more fun for all of our loyal fans.
One of the core principles we focused on bringing to the EQ community was listening to player feedback. It is very easy for developers to focus on what we think is right and what should and shouldn’t be in the next expansion. But we leverage the strong fan base that is an amazing resource for creative input and feedback in the EQ Live environment. Listening to the players and setting aside time to implement great new features and fix old broken features creates a dynamic relationship between the developers and players. EQ started out a game that was created and made for players to experience, driven by the developers for the players. I do believe that the EQ of 2009 is a game made for the players — in many ways by the players — and that loyalty and creative friendship is what is truly magical about MMO gaming.
New Server Ruleset Announcement
We recently did a poll for a new server set through the in-game polling system. We have done many polls in the past through the webpage but there are plenty of players that play the game and don’t go to the webpage for information on it. We really wanted to get everyone who plays to cast a vote to accurately represent the players’ choice.
The winning server rule set was… 51/50 server!!!
We are pleased to see everyone cast their votes and can honestly say that we are very excited to see this server roll out to the EQ community. We are starting the work on getting the backend setup and ready to go, and will announce the details soon.
I had a great time and will see you all again…
I have enjoyed working with the team and spending time with the players. Fan Faire, Block Party and a few really funny April Fool’s Day events all ring a bell. The EQ development team has a passion for the game that founded this company and drove the entire online gaming industry forward, and although such a creative environment can get a little complicated at times, they always aim to make a game that will keep you the players entertained, challenged and actively involved with the future of the game.
So have a great time in your EQ adventures, and keep up the creative feedback and suggestions; I promise you that the developers listen! I am not going far, as the world of Norrath has plenty of adventuring left in it for generations to come, so I hope to see all of you in game again in the future!