Scott Hartsman/Gallenite is a free agent

[splok]

The problem with Ut, especially in his latest, extra-bonus-insane version, is that when he enters a thread you might as well change the title to "this thread is now about what Ut thinks." It's one thing to post your opinion and have a reasonable discussion. It's another to repeat the same thing endlessly in the hopes that everyone else will get tired or hitting the reply button first.

He's like the Fansy of the FoH board, entertaining to watch maybe, but ultimately it sort of breaks the game for everyone else. Maybe each individual action/post isn't breaking any rules, but taken collectively, Ut is causing the equivalent of Fansy's "zone disruption" (SoE's excuse for banning him iirc). A noob training the docks with sand giants once is interesting gameplay (at least on SZ), but doing it constantly just makes people stop using the zone. When someone ruins the experience for everyone else, there's a problem.

[Braen]

Originally Posted by gnomad

BTW Braen, you didn't dispute Zhen's comment about wanting to get in her panties I noticed

I said I didn't ban him which makes the panties part of his post moot.

[Braen]

Originally Posted by Haruhi

I agree with him that this 'every Tom, Dick and Harry blogging about everything' trend is retarded.

I think Ut should have his own thread where he goes off on people. People who he thinks are poseurs and not the real deal in the gaming industry.

This way those, who don't like him/his method could stay the fuck out of the thread, and people who enjoy his going mental on others could have a place too.

You mean like... a blog?

[Usha Starchild]

Hey Scott,

In your new game I think you should have a batshit insane NPC named "Utnayan".

- Gives some retarded quests
- Runs around the camp/town yelling at people.
- Has Tourettes syndrome
- Commits suicide because you tell him he is retarded.

[TwiNCannoN]

Originally Posted by Cadrid

If you don't like it, get the fuck out.

Not only did Utnayan flip out, disparaging everyone that didn't agree with him; throw personal attacks against devs, members, their pets and parents; puff out his chest in a self-important manner; but those of us that had him on ignore weren't spared that insane horseshit because imbecilic fuckwits would quote his ramblings and try to have a discussion about them.

I've grown tired of the idiotic, narcissistic, self-gratifying forum-trolls. I throw them on ignore, and still I have to put up with their shit-filled tangents instead of enjoying a discussion or debate I'm interested in. If you think Utnayan, or Makata or your own asshole is so intriguing and enjoyable, find another forum and kindly shut the fuck up.

couldn't have said it better myself. ignore or not the trolling was so bad and spammy that it just ruined threads. Hell the fact that so many threads have been shawed solely because of it is proof enough. I stopped bothering to come to the mmo forum for a while because of it tbh.

Originally Posted by Braen

You mean like... a blog?

lulz. Wouldn't be opposed to banned people being able to post in the rickshaw or something.

[Haruhi]

Originally Posted by Braen

You mean like... a blog?

I see what you did there!

While it sounds reasonable, I'd not give two shits about clicking on anyone's blog link under their signature as much as I do about keeping up with threads that interest me here. That's the only reason why I suggested a single thread for his ranting and raving.

Kudos to TwiNCannoN for suggesting rooming a thread like this over the 'shaw. You know only the people interested in it would go in a subforum and that would keep the general mmorpg discussion 'sanitized' of his vitriol.

I happen to appreciate some of what he has to say. Others love it, while the rest just wish he'd shut the fuck up.

Me? I just visit this forum and none of the other fuckwads gaming blogs out there, which do not hold a candle to the level of insight the threads here can provide. In the end, I wish it could all stay here instead of trying to find another source for mmorpgs discussion.

[Miele]

Apologies for not jumping on the Ut-gate wagon, I just don't care enough.

I have a couple questions for Scott about EQ2 (since it's the last game he shipped I think), if he's willing to (or if he can) reply.

Do you think that Rise of Kunark was on par with Echoes of Faydwer in terms of general quality of the expansion pack?

Why some quests that in EoF (and previous versions of the game) used to just update a counter in the quest log for the whole group, were reverted to the items to be collected occupying an inventory slot and forcing the group of N people to collect N times the amount? Design decision or it just slipped in?

I know there was a huge debate about itemization right after RoK launch, but did nobody notice how many of the first quests offered the same rewards in terms of equipment slot and general quality of the item?

I always considered EoF superior to RoK in pretty much every aspect, I was just wondering if he shares my opinion or not. That's it.

[Gallenite]

Originally Posted by Miele

Do you think that Rise of Kunark was on par with Echoes of Faydwer in terms of general quality of the expansion pack?

Why some quests that in EoF (and previous versions of the game) used to just update a counter in the quest log for the whole group, were reverted to the items to be collected occupying an inventory slot and forcing the group of N people to collect N times the amount? Design decision or it just slipped in?

I know there was a huge debate about itemization right after RoK launch, but did nobody notice how many of the first quests offered the same rewards in terms of equipment slot and general quality of the item?

I always considered EoF superior to RoK in pretty much every aspect, I was just wondering if he shares my opinion or not. That's it.

Personal opinion only -- I don't think either one was universally, 100% better than the other.

We might not entirely agree in that to me the later expansion was generally better than the previous: (And this is from player PoV, not dev PoV)

Quest flow, the sense of "what do I do next?", the instances, the travel mechanic (sokokar posts weren't perfect, but were better than EoF horses, though still not quite as good as an interzone travel network), the page collections, the sub-zone music/visual environment tech, the marquee quests per faction that had better than average rewards...Those all felt like really nice steps up to me.

The faction web may have sounded better on paper than it played to some people, absolutely. (Oh look, the next zone of some people who hate me and some who love me and I'm not sure why. God, just let me bind to a post, or get to Seb, or...etc) - Though I did have fun with it. I actually enjoy making them all like me, and being able to get some reward for it.

Generally the things that I feel missed in Kunark were places where we reached a little too far, but still ended up with something we were proud of making.

You make the best game that you can in the time that you've got, and I don't think we were ever shy about potentially reaching a little too far, but it was always about trying to give people as much of what we thought they'd enjoy as possible.

For quest items - I may well be on crack here given that I haven't worked on EQ2 in quite some time - and if my memory has gone that far, please do correct me:

The idea was to make sure that we continued the all-in-the-group quest drops for anything marked a quest item, the same way the prior updates used to work.

I honestly don't remember if we got there entirely, and I am assuming from your comment that we didn't. But I don't remember being bothered by this playing through it to 80, and I did spend a good chunk of it paired.


One thing I would prefer to never have to to do again is support both contested and instanced dungeons (karnor, vs sebilis crypt), and contested and instanced raids, then have to make them both feel sufficiently rewarding.

It's a ton of mechanics work to even attempt to support (and not entirely guaranteed you'll get it right), and it's a cost that you pay *forever*.

[Miele]

Originally Posted by Gallenite

stuff.

Thank you for your answers and to avoid any incomprehensions, I think both were well built xpacs, I found more flaws in RoK than in EoF (at RoK release at least), that's it, also the Fae race was damn fun to play, that makes me biased towards EoF by default :P

[Arrr]

Originally Posted by Gallenite

One thing I would prefer to never have to to do again is support both contested and instanced dungeons (karnor, vs sebilis crypt), and contested and instanced raids, then have to make them both feel sufficiently rewarding.

It's a ton of mechanics work to even attempt to support (and not entirely guaranteed you'll get it right), and it's a cost that you pay *forever*.

Not to mention the fact that once Avatars got into EQ2, they couldn't get back out. It seems like the raiders of EQ2 are doomed to forever kill those avatars, and the instanced stuff is just filler until contested time. It would have been a lot cooler with just the one-shot stuff like The Tangrin and more robust instanced stuff. Although the way Trakanon worked was a step in that direction (can't comment on the post-kunark stuff).

That said, the contested 12man mobs in Kunark were a lot of fun. Easy money and there always was the "can we kill this with 7?" factor.

edit: EoF was a great expansion, but FUCK the vampire raid mob where you had to be not too close and not too far away. Making sure everybody had enough trauma pots for that fight was like pulling teeth.

[Bobleclair]

I personnally hated the retarded clicky spamfest combat in EQ2, and hope to never have to see this abomination again.
Wich is imo the biggest flaw of EQ2 for me not the choice btw instancing/contested... .