Brenlo's EQ1 Producer Letter

[Braen]

http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/...&no_redir=true

Some interestings changes...

Greetings Norrathians!

First off I wanted to take some time to introduce myself as the new producer of EverQuest. EverQuest has been a large part of my life for the past three years; including the past two years as the game's Associate Producer. During my time on the EverQuest team I've come to realize one of the great things about EQ is the friendships and the community that we’ve all come to love. We all remember the first time we logged into EQ. If your experience was anything like mine, you were shocked that so many windows could fit on one screen! Thankfully, most of us found our way out of the initial shock and found folks who showed us the ins and outs of the game. Many of these in-game friendships have grown into friendships outside of Norrath and for that I thank EverQuest.

We all know that EverQuest is not just a game. The game and its community are both a large part of all our lives. Our team takes great pride in this fact, but at the same time we are humbled by the responsibilities that come along with it. As developers, our primary responsibilities are to make an entertaining game and to support the thriving EverQuest community. Only by working closely with you, can we keep EverQuest successful for years to come.

As I hope you have noticed, our team spends a great deal of time on message boards and we are constantly gathering what's important to you and bringing that information to the forefront. We continue to develop procedures that facilitate that process, but allowing our community to thrive requires an ongoing dialogue with you. For instance, class re-envisionment has been, and continues to be, a hot topic. The recent patch represents many of the initial changes we’ve made together, and we welcome your continued feedback on them. Our goal is to get these changes out as quickly as is reasonable, but to pace ourselves knowing full well that this will take many iterations and updates. This continues to be a top priority and we've already made many changes based on your feedback. Your continued feedback allows us to make EverQuest a better game.

Another hot topic in the EQ community right now is server merges. Merging servers was a tough decision, but it is necessary for the continued success of the game and these changes will make EverQuest healthier in the long run. Larger populations make it easier for players to interact, trade items, find groups, and establish guilds. As with many changes of this magnitude, there are bumps in the road along the way. To help things go a little smoother, we are planning a few changes to address some concerns that you have raised.

First, we'll be instancing the Plane of Time to alleviate the bottle neck that many of you may face as a result of higher populations.

Second, at the request of the players, we're going to combine the servers that have established a voluntary rotation system for raid targets. The Rathe and Karana will now be combined. The communities on The Rathe and Karana servers have put forth an extraordinary amount of time and energy to create their rotational systems and we want to do what we can to support these players and their chosen play style. As a result of this change, Bertoxxulous and Tholuxe Paells will be combined.

Third, we've heard your opinions on which server names should be kept after the mergers. We feel the real answer to this question is that you, the community, should decide the name for your server. Therefore, we will be adding polls to allow every player the chance to vote for the name of their particular server (including servers that have already been merged). We're working out the details of that now so stay tuned for a post shortly.

Moving forward, the EverQuest team has some ambitious plans for the next twelve months. I can't play spoiler to them all (yet), but I can say that we are extremely excited about the direction we're heading and I wanted to give you a sneak peek. As most of you already know, veteran players will be receiving bonuses this spring as a token of our appreciation for making EQ and the EQ community what it is today. This summer will bring a complete revamp of the newbie experience and will also hold some additional content for existing players that I can't wait to play. Also, be ready for art facelifts to some of our old stomping grounds this fall. I'd like to tell you about some of the other things we have planned, but you'll just have to wait and see.

Our team has a tremendous responsibility to be faithful stewards to Norrath and its community. EverQuest has enjoyed over six years of success and we plan on keeping it that way for at least six more. My sincerest thanks go out to all of you for allowing me to be a part of the EverQuest community.

Regards,

Craig Knapp (aka Zorillius)

Producer, EverQuest

Brenlo Bixiebopper
Director of Community Relations

heh Looks like The Bogs rant on The Rathe's merge worked! Much better situation for that server.

Also Veeshan is not dead... yet.

Instancing the Plant of Time... Interesting.

[Itzena]

BTW, it's Zorillius' letter, not Brenlo's.
Brenlo being promoted to EQ producer really would be the end of the game.

[Braen]

Originally posted by Itzena
BTW, it's Zorillius' letter, not Brenlo's.
Brenlo being promoted to EQ producer really would be the end of the game.

Sorry It's early and my heart is still racing from seeing FoH back up...

[The Bog]

If The Rathe loses their name, Brenlo is a dead man.

[Templor]

oh god they're axing bert /rip

[FuckYou]

First, we'll be instancing the Plane of Time to alleviate the bottle neck that many of you may face as a result of higher populations.

God what a fuckin joke. Where was this when the game really needed it.

[Luthair]

Originally posted by FuckYou
God what a fuckin joke. Where was this when the game really needed it.

From what I've heard its worse than ever now. On Tunare there are 4 north american time guilds and more will be added when it merges.

[FuckYou]

There was 3.5 on Fennin when I quit 8 months ago, and had been for about a year. While we dealt with cockblox on coirnav to prevent getting in to time, "earning a place in the rotation", and general attempted bullying from the other guilds, SOE did jack shit.

Maybe, just maybe, if they had taken care of their players back then, we all wouldnt have gone running for the next big non-SOE thing.

[Tripamang]

I just can't believe how willing they are to bend over backwards for their customer now. It just blows me away on so many levels that they could of stepped up and done the right thing but they just didn't bother.

what a slap to the face is what i'm getting at i guess?.. Either way it's nice to see them atleast trying to get their act together.

[kcxiv]

Originally posted by FuckYou
There was 3.5 on Fennin when I quit 8 months ago, and had been for about a year. While we dealt with cockblox on coirnav to prevent getting in to time, "earning a place in the rotation", and general attempted bullying from the other guilds, SOE did jack shit.

Maybe, just maybe, if they had taken care of their players back then, we all wouldnt have gone running for the next big non-SOE thing.

hehe, i never went anywhere, Eq is as fun as it has ever been for me. Alot of the retards that were in eq have left for eq2 and wow. eq is a much better place now.

[Clericnon2boxed]

Plane of Time still hot after so long huh, guess I could come back to the game in 2 years and still be ahead of 90 pct of the servers population gear wise.

Seems strange but hmm good too.

However I think WoW will be sporting 10 million players in 2 years and I feel like being super uber in WoW will be more cool then.

[Ameraves Loyalheart]

The communities on The Rathe and Karana servers have put forth an extraordinary amount of time and energy to create their rotational systems and we want to do what we can to support these players and their chosen play style

Heh last I knew, and it has been quite some time since I was on Karana, they only did rotations up through NToV. That is nothing at all like what The Rathe does.

[kcxiv]

Originally posted by Ameraves Loyalheart
Heh last I knew, and it has been quite some time since I was on Karana, they only did rotations up through NToV. That is nothing at all like what The Rathe does.

lol, whats funny is bert and karana had already made up a time rotation. Everything had been agreed on. Then they do that, go figure.