Gamespot announces EQ2 beta signup dates

[Kalthanan]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/everquest2/news_6094530.html

EverQuest II beta-test sign-ups start next week


Actual testing of the sequel to SOE's popular MMORPG begins in June.

It looks like World of Warcraft won't be the biggest beta-test on the block for much longer. Today, Sony Online Entertainment announced that sign-ups for the EverQuest II beta will start one week from today, with the test itself to follow in June. “We’ve been playing EverQuest II internally for months and we’re finally ready to begin letting people in to see the world we’ve built over the last four years,” said SOE president John Smedley.

Beginning on May 3, 2004 at 10:00 A.M. PDT, those interested in signing up for the EverQuest II beta can log onto the game's official Web site for application instructions. Longtime subscribers to SOE’s EverQuest Legends service will be given top priority in the application process, followed by qualified applicants of the Lords of EverQuest special offer.

EverQuest II comes five years after the original EverQuest, the ultra-successful fantasy PC MMORPG which spawned eight expansion packs, two PlayStation 2 iterations (3 if you count Champions of Norrath), and a real-time strategy spin-off. The sequel will feature an all-new world with 100,000 lines and 130 hours of dialog, equal to about 65 feature films. The game will let players choose from 16 races and 24 branching classes and customize their characters' armor and facial expressions. The game will also let players purchase property in the realm and engage in in-game trade.

According to SOE, Everquest II will be released "later in the year." GameSpot will have more information on the game as it becomes available.


Well, there you have it. Beta signups in one week, testing to begin in June.

[Kalthanan]

And an interview with John Blakely about EQ2 beta.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/04/26/news_6094533.html

[Kharmen]

So, should we non-legends server people even bother? Sounds like if you don't pay enough to Sony, you are not important...

[Kalthanan]

I believe they will fill up their beta queue with

Legends subscribers first
Lords of Everquest second
Longtime EQ players third
Everyone else fourth

So, statistically, you might get into the first beta, or second. You will very likely be admitted into SOME beta stage as a longtime subscriber.

Also, I had to pay for shipping on my first SWG beta discs, so that's a possibility as well.

FYI, I bought Lords of Everquest. I don't even remember what it was like. I think I had to reinstall my machine shortly thereafter and never reinstalled the game. I bought it primarily so I could be assured of a beta spot.

Game + beta spot > buying the game after release to find out if I like it.

If I like it in beta, I'll buy it anyway, but that way I got a sneak peak, and I got another game too.

[Kharmen]

I will probably try but I may be really busy by the time I get to play. An install coming up in august. Have not heard from WoW. Heard from Lineage 2 but only got to login once. Those dark elves are hotties...

[Ramsus]

Im looking forward to Vanguard (made by the original makers of EQ) much more than I'm looking forward to EQ2.

For me the last 3 expansions of EQ have been pure ASS and EQ2 will be just more of the same.

While I didn't agree with 'the vision' when it was what EQ was governed by, looking back, it was alot better than what is happening now in the game.

I was one of the first players of EQ and I will defend what it was as the greatest MMORPG to date. I cannot in good concious even justify my purchase of the last 3 expansions.

[Beschuetzer]

For me the last 3 expansions of EQ have been pure ASS and EQ2 will be just more of the same.

Not about to argue what is good to you or not. only offer my view.
-I will say I find PoP very good.
-LDoN passes the time nicely.
-GoD is dormant as we are not a GoD guild. I only get a few things like leader EXP from it.

So for me as a player I say only GoD is not for me, although I really do like the Leadership exp. So 30 bucks (or whatever it was) is fair to make my game of choice a little better.

EQ2: I am really looking forward to it... it may suck though. If it does suck then perhaps EQ will keep me going for a bit longer before I stop playing or find a new game. It looks F'ing good but then so did my Ex and she was a turd! No she was great... just left over bitterness. :)

[Viccar]

I don't understand why LoE is rated second, above people who actually play EQ. Stupid if you ask me.

I agree with you Rams. My interest in EQ has declined over the last three expansions. Since PoP, it's become more of a "who you know" type of game. If you know the right people, you get a group easy. If not, well, have fun sitting around LFG for hours. I really noticed this when I transfered to days at my job.

[Ramsus]

While talking with the developers of another game, which shall remain nameless, they asked me a rather straight forward question that I couldn't answer. I had to think about it, and this is what I came up with.

The question asked to me was, "Why do you think it is that after 5 years of success, EQ is suddenly losing players by the hundreds?".

So I thought about it. To get the real answer, first you have to know what has made EQ successful. So a bit of history.

In the beginning there was EverQuest. And it was good. Damn it was good. Around any corner, death awaited. Or riches. Or fame. And sometimes, you were damn lucky to make it out with your shirt on.

You struggled to survive. You and a few friends busted your asses and you ate your way through the content. Enjoying it the whole way. Sure, you had a bad day.. lost a corpse here and there.. but your friends would show up.. hand you a full suit of bronze (or mesh as the case may be) and you'd move on. Man, what would you do without those friends?

Then came Kunark. Truly one of the best expansions ever made. The world got bigger.. and darker.. and more exotic.. and frogs! more frogs! everywhere the frogs.. and dragons! lots of dragons! and Karnor, and seb, and CoM, and Dalnir etc.. And people got spread out.. The uber were trying to figure out how to kill Trak and you were following along if you weren;t involved. You cheered the successes and mourned the losses.. (unless it was that one guild everyone hates..)..

And we all grew up together. And we got epic quests.. and busted our asses to get them.. but when we got them, they meant something. Did you have tears in your eyes when you did your first epic? Did you friends help you camp ragefire for 190 hours? Man.. what would you do without them guys?

Then Vellious came out.. the best expansion ever. It made sense. There was a steady progression.. Your guild of 30 people could survive.. and grow.. and progress.. same as before. You were having a blast..

And then luclin. here things started to change. SOE was running the show now. They started adding things like timesinks.. The things we are doing now as a matter of fact.. but it was still possible to do those things with your friends.. even when it got to be alot more like work than a game.. but its not that bad.

Ahhhh.. but hold on to those memories. It only gets worse from here.

PoP came out and changed some things. There has always beent he casual and the hardcore gamers. There has always been a semi seperation between the two. But pop made that seperation real In the past, with enought time and enough work, your guild of 30 or so could catch up. But not in PoP. In PoP if you don;t have 60 people dedicated to mind numbing raid after raid just to get to the next raid, you were never going to get there.

The uber guilds recognized this and started recruiting.. some of your friends who you have grown up with decided they wanted to be uber, and left to chew the greener grass. Some came back, some didnt. PoP put up a wall that some folks will never get past. Ever. The casual gamer ran in to the biggest cockblock of all and there was nothing to be done.

Lo and behold, SOE thought about it for 5 minutes and came up with LDON. It gave folks something to do besides be pissed off they couldnt get to 75% of the zones they paid for in PoP. It allowed folks to find that small group of friends again and get something done. Except, it left out the community. It hid you away in your own zone with noone to interact with except your group.

The uber got mad because they have been killing Quarm nonstop for about 8 months now and needed new content. So they got GoD. Time meets Ldon meets trials on steroids. The ubers found out something. All the gear in the world didn;t mean squat unless they were a warrior or a healing class. They couldn't do anything in GoD either. Soe has admitted GoD is too hard and they will be tuning it down. But it's too late for a lot of people.

First, you made the game too easy. You made all of accomplishments mean jack and squat. People were doing what we worked so hard to do in a fraction of the time it took us to do it.

Then, you made the game seem like work.

Then you took away their friends.

Then you took away the community.

You put up a big frickin wall and locked half your customers on the wrong side of it.

EQ is it's own worst enemy.


Q. Why do you think it is that after 5 years people are suddenly leaving?

A. There is no single answer. EQ means and has meant alot of things to alot of different people, but at this point in time, most of the meanings are gone. People still search for new meaning. they still have hope. But one by one.. or 10 by 10, that hope fades and they look elsewhere for it. Just like your friends who left for the uber guild.. some will come back. Some won't. Only this time, it will be less who come back.


if it wasn;t for you folks, I'd probably be a memory now. Everquest has no draw for me. Theres only a few mobs left that i ever wanted to see.. a couple zones I haven't hit yet. And I'm glad that when I see them it will be with my friends. And that the single thing EQ still has on me.

In the naked city theres a million stories, and this has been one of them.

[Kalthanan]

I pretty much agree with Rams' story.

If it wasn't for some great people, this game would be a memory.

I'm really hoping Vanguard is going to be an MMORPG panacea. They've got 95% of all the MMORPG talent that exists, it seems. They've got Brad, with Vision 2.0, revised in light of every mistake that EQ ever made. The community at the Vanguard forums is amazing; I've gotten into some great conversations with folks about game design topics, and it seems like the developers are really listening.

WoW seems like it might be fun. Who knows; not in beta yet. I've seen games before that looked fun. I just don't know if WoW will have the depth and immersion I want; I like games that look realistic, not cartoony.

EverQuest 2 might be fun, too. I'll beta test it. I love the new graphics, and a lot of the game mechanics seem to be a step in the right direction. EQ2 is a really good description of it.

[Kharmen]

I think PoP is where EQ changed. Like Rams said about the casual and power gamers. The power gamers wanted it all NOW. Power gamers worked with people to get the flags needed to move forward. Casual gamers played when they could and wanted help from their more powerful guild mates. Power gamers did not want to go through the time sinks over and over. This tore apart guilds. Many people left the game after the guild splits.

Myself, I am finding things to do in the real world. Houses are fantastic time sinks (money too).

On the EQ front, I find playing my mage to be a bit more fun lately. Having time to level her up though is just not there. Other things keep getting in the way. I just don't have the time anymore to deal with the huge time sinks EQ insists you do to move ahead. Killing the same mobs over and over to get the one you want just is not fun (ie camping). LDoN helped because your target is there and it is yours, you just have to get there. They moved the time sinks to the prizes. Then made trade skills harder.

The DX9 fiasco is taking a toll. SOE obviously did not test this well. It has been a month and people are still getting stuck. Time to back up and punt. Fix the bugs and reissue DX9. In the mean time, we are beta testing again, five years later. I develop software for a living, I don't want to do that when I come home to play. Farcry demo got tossed into the trash because it was buggy. Damn thing blue screened my computer. :bang:

I tell myself I will look at other games but it has to be good and fun. EQ is loosing its fun.

[Tavrn]

Good post Rams.

[Pielot]

Rams, I have got it hand it to you. That is one great post. I do agree with you on all points. EQ is more of a grind these days then fun. I continue to play because I have gaming friends in EQ and I want to see Amichi advance. Without you guys I would have stopped playing long ago. As for new games coming out lets run down the list:

EQ2: Yes the game does look better but it is still run by SoE. Saying "yes" to this is like saying "yes, I want to continue with a company that has a history crappy customer support and put in content that is broken when it goes live for the first time". For me, i have to say NO THANKS!

Vanguard: I have not really looked at it so I will say "no coment" for now.

WoW: Ahh, now here is a game that look like it will be alot of fun. Plus Blizzard has a reputation for "The game will be ready, when it's ready". Yes that does get alittle annoying at time,but I know they are doing it so the game is better. Instead of pushing it out when it's not ready to go live like alot of MMORPGs. We all know what is wrong with MMORPG's genre and Blizzard sat down and came up with prety good solutions to the problems. Beside that the game looks beautyful! Yes, it may be alittle cartoony for some but the graphic do stay true to what the Warcraft characters look like. For me if I want realism I will call up a friend and go outside=P I have been posting as much accurate information on WoW that i can find. Take a look and decide for yourself.

Whatever people decide I hope Amichi stays together in some form. Maybe Amichi will decide to switch games or decide to stay in EQ. Either way stay in touch with each other. We got each other, always remember that.

[Fyreniyce]

sometimes i wonder why i bother showing up for raids, or why we have them to begin with. and posts like these only reinforce it. i see people burning out, but where does that leave the rest of us.

[Kharmen]

Well, you enjoy the game. We enjoy the company. Part of what makes on online game fun is friends.

[Fyreniyce]

what i don't enjoy is trying to improve the guild, but instead improving dead accounts. or wasting times trying to kill things that we dont have numbers for. or the things we can kill, most of the loot goes to alts.

yes i enjoy my friendships in game, but i'm finding that most of that is withing group environments, and most of the raid stuff is not as much fun anymore. it's stagnant. because we don't progress.

[Ramsus]

Slee,

I wasn't trying to bring you down. I originally was posting to say why i wouldn't play eq2. But obviously it turned in to more.

I still try to play EQ when i can, but the fact of the matter is I am super busy with work (which is a good thing) and I'm now in a funky time zone. I would much rather play infrequently, with the folks I have grown up with than join a guild that suits my time zone better.

I was not saying I am quitting EQ. In fact I was saying I still enjoy the stuff we do, but that i think the fun is coming to an end. i don;t see anything past Luclin that interests me. If we go to PoP, I will be there.. but it won' t be because of personal goals anymore. it would just be for hanging with my friends.

Sorry I havent been around much, and I really do feel bad about it.. but RL is what it is.

[Fyreniyce]

i wasn't bringing anything at you bro, just some frustrations i've been feeling lately. i'm not too concerned about pop atm myself, i think we are capable of just about anything in luclin when we have good turnouts, timesinks aside.