EQ Devs can never play to the same level as a hardcore player, which is ultimately what those questions are trying to show. It's a trap, because the next statement is effectively always, "You don't know shit about your own game. I know more than you do. You should do what I say to make it better", which in truth often is "You should make MY class stronger because I want it".
Of course, devs don't have the time to play as much as hardcore players. However, that's not the question I asked. I asked them how much time do you play EQ each week. That's a simple and straightforward question. Let the EQ devs answer that question and let the chips fall where they may.
And yes, there are lots of hardcore players do know more about a MMO than developers which is why hardcore raiding guilds are used as alpha/beta testers. Many hardcore players have gone on to become notable devs in the industry.
EQ Devs spend usually 50-60 hours a week working in the game. The last thing most want to do is go home and play more. I preferred to spend time with my daughter, and my wife. Some actually do play a lot, but most don't. If you can't understand why, then I can't help you understand.
I'd like to hear it from the actual devs themselves as to how much time they spend working. Yes, a person who has worked in the industry I have experienced 50-60 hour weeks and worse. When I was in the industry, I raided 3 hours a night. I think some honest answers from the devs would help players to understand the plight of devs and give them more appreciative of the sacrifices that are made to create the video games they love.
Most of those questions are meaningless. When was the last time someone completed the VP key? Seriously? What insight would this lend to the design process? How could that info make the game better?
They may be meaningless to you but not to me and others.
The VP key quest is a terribly designed intentional bottleneck that has caused many people to quit EQ. It's a mean-spirited, tedious timesink that does nothing but frustrate players who want to experience more content with their guild. I know of people that have camped the Ancient Jarsath for 18 hours and had their AJ KSed from them on numerous occasions. I shudder to think what the total number of hours that some people have dedicated to completing the entire VP key quest.
Waiting for the random number generator to produce a rare spawn for a bloody zone key quest -- not loot -- is not an accomplishment. It's pure luck. Winning the lottery is also not an accomplishment. Of course, virtual worlds and real worlds are subject to randomness, but quests should be about achievements and accomplishments.
Unlike the EQ devs, I actually play on TLP servers. I've personally completed the VP key quest. Waiting around with 20 other players for the Pained Soul to spawn and having a DPS race to hope that you get the kill so you can loot the medallion is EQ at its worst and an utter disgrace. It's like throwing a piece of meat into a pit of starving dogs. Sadly, that is the reality for those who play on TLP servers with no Play Nice Policy and no GM support whatsoever. That's a reality that the devs who don't play have no clue about it and would change it in a heartbeat if they had to personally experience it.
If the EQ TLP dev team were forced to endure the VP key quest then they would know exactly what the players are going through. That would give them tremendous insight into the game design process. Don't force your players to endure preposterous quests when you won't do so yourself.
I played a monk on the TLP servers when I worked at DBG. But I wasn't playing it as a race to level or whatever. I spent most of my time exploring parts of the game I didn't really see or play in when I was a hardcore player. I completed my monk epic mostly solo.. just to do it. Again.. so?
Let me ask you this: do you think a chef should ask people to eat food that the chef has not tasted himself? Do you think a chef that eats his own food would be a better chef than one that does not? How long do you think a restaurant will stay in business with a chef that doesn't eat his own food?
The general thrust of my article was that MMO devs need to play the MMO they are working on. My suspicion is that the EQ devs do not play their own MMO with any sense of regularity or dedication and sadly, it shows. Contrast this with how Blizzard operates. Every quest is extensively tested by devs who are working on other games within Blizzard. Blizzard employees play their own games.
Bottom line: don't expect players to play your shitty half-baked quests/content when you yourself won't do them.
The questions about Krono sales and revenue are easy to answer. Ready? None of your business. Same goes for the cash shop. None of that would give you any insight in the development process. Seriously what are you hoping to learn from this?
The revenue that DBG makes is our business. Without the players who purchase Krono EverQuest will die. Yes, this is a strange partnership but a partnership nonetheless. We pay the devs, the devs make our game. All of us who love EQ want it to keep going. SOE and DGB don't have a track record that is inspiring, to say the least. Putting a spotlight on them and asking tough questions might actually help keep EQ going for longer.
Many of us who've played and paid for EQ over the years feel like shareholders. Shareholders should be entitled to know what is going on so the business can be managed effectively. Holly Longdale gave a disrespectful "none of your business" answer during the Reddit AMA and I think that was unfortunate. This is the same DGB that canceled EQ Next and Landmark and took a lot of money from alpha and beta testers for those products. We have every right to ask those questions.
Krono and Daybreak Cash and the All-Access Pass are the prime forms of monetization for the EQ TLP servers. I suspect that the TLP servers are subsidizing the EQ live servers. Holly Longdale admitted in a recent interview that each year EQ makes more money than the previous year. It is my suspicion that even though the TLP servers are essentially keeping the entire EQ franchise alive, they are not getting their commensurate share of dev resources. They could easily afford GMs to police the TLP servers, after all both Manger and Selo's are premium servers that require a subscription to All-Access Pass.
As for things I was most proud of, I really enjoyed the revamp I did of ToV, and the mission where I transformed players into the avatars of the gods. I forget the name of it.. ToV held a lot of special memories for me.. So doing that revamp and spicing up the dragons was a lot of fun. I shipped nine expansions in my time on EQ, and I am quite proud of literally all of them. We did miracles with an ever dwindling design team and budget.
Thanks for sharing that.
My average work day, was to show up, put my head down, and get working on whatever task I was on when I left the day before, be that quest or raid creation, zone pop, AA creation, item creation, or whatever. As a lead, I was also involved in a lot more meetings than I really wanted to be.. Somewhere during the day I'd spend an hour or so on the forums going over anything important or game breaking..
Again thanks for sharing your insight. I agree with you on meetings. I hated meetings when I worked in the industry. I am an introvert and I'd rather be accomplishing something than chattering on endlessly in a meeting.
The rest of the questions aren't really very useful.. so I likely wouldn't answer them.. Except to say that we didn't split developers to work on specific servers.. We all worked on basically everything in the design process. Programmers handled all the coding tasks, except for Chris Black who I think has actually transitioned primarily to the code team now and off of design. As to how many people were on the team.. it was VERY small. So small I'm surprised we got anything done on time. Dedication and ridiculous hours worked is how it happened. We worked our asses off. It's pointless to complain to us about how little content we could deliver, or how many devs were on the game. Those decisions were WAY above our pay grade, and there was nothing we could do about it. We did what we could with what we had.
Fair enough.
You say that the rest of the questions weren't very useful. So you don't think it's useful to discuss why there are no more live dynamic quests, events and invasions in Norrath anymore? I was a Senior Guide and wrote and ran many official live quests. The players loved them. I got lots of positive feedback from the community. My goal as a volunteer was to help bring the dream of Norrath being a living and breathing world to fruition in just a small way. The fact that these events no longer are allowed is a tragedy and a betrayal of the spirit of EverQuest which was published on the official EQ website tilted: "Masters of the Quest" but no longer available but saved for posterity on my website:
For the record, here is one of the best articles ever written that explains the goals and aspirations of the original EverQuest team. Everyone needs to read this piece and then ask themselves if the current state of EverQuest bears any resemblance to the vision and passion for immersive online...
www.wolfsheadonline.com
If you can read that and not feel that SOE/DGB has shortchanged their players by eliminating all live events, then I don't know what else to say.
Every EQ dev has GM access to go on to every live/LP server and do invasions. What is stopping them from logging on once a week and having the deities visit Norrath for a good old fashion invasion? Nothing is stopping them, except a lack of will and imagination.
How about Krono as pay to win? You think Krono is not a pay to win scheme? How so? Do you think pay to win is good MMO design?
I do not doubt that you and your teammates were exceptionally dedicated and passionate. A few months ago I read and reviewed John Statt's:WoW Diary and he explained how hard everyone work creating the original Word of Warcraft. It was a grueling process and the WoW dev teamed were passionate about what they are doing. Can the same thing be said about the current EQ dev team?
You're one of the best posters on this forum because you give readers a good glimpse of what happened behind the scenes in the development of EQ. Although we disagree on some
things I really enjoy your perspective and thanks for the insights.
