Great Expectations
I feel this is a critical juncture in EQII's history. During the next half a year or so, the EQII team has a chance to establish EQII as a desirable game, attracting new players and retaining old ones.
The first WoW expansion is still a ways off. Vanguard is looking like it might be while. I don't foresee any of the other MMO's that are coming out in 2006 being large-scale draws.
So, a lot is riding on the next EQII expansion and I have to admit, I have high hopes for it. Perhaps "high hopes" is a good term, since the next expansion will apparently be titled Kingdom of Sky. If you want some clues to what may go on in the Kingdom of Sky, Warm_Machine listed the answers to the crossword in the EQII Newsletter in this Jaipehg thread (spoilers).
Personally, I'm not overly concerned about the setting of the expansion. I just hope it has a fantastic look graphically and tons of incredible content. And I actually believe it might.
I feel that the team has now had more experience working together and more familiarity with the tools used to create content. I believe that the game has been headed in the right direction since Splitpaw and I really think the upcoming expansion can surpass DoF.
Well, as I was writing this post, I came across this thread on the official forums. We now have:
1. An official site
2. A detailed press release
3. Screenshots on a German site
4. A subforum on the official forums
I promise some detailed analysis soon.
Don't want to buy an expansion? Well, don't forget that the upcoming PvP servers will be an exciting addition for those who enjoy PvP. And for those who don't, the 1-20 subclass changes should add a lot of new content and make starting an alt an interesting process. So, there is something for everyone on the horizon.
There are still many additions and improvements I would like to see (I'll post a laundry list of them tomorrow), but it is nice to have some concrete things to look forward to.
Also, if you're hoping for a copy of DoF or a PSP game, remember that the Frostfell Contest deadline is this Thursday, January 5th at 12:01 P.M.
posted by Aggro Me at 8:00 AM
8 Comments:
Aggro I expect a line by line commentary of that press release.
I looked at that screenshot on the german site, and all I could think of was the PoS, complete with the chains coming off the islands and all. Could be interesting. Although my husband is wishing they leave the chains off, as he has did many times from those chains and badly planned jumps =)
That should be died, not did. Bah.
My concern is that DoF is still not "complete". A guildy of mine summed it up nicely:
"It's pretty clear that just like in later stages of EQ1, the marketting team is driving the production schedule and not development. The lack of content is being substituted by another level cap increase mere months after the last.
You can argue that DoF is still in production, level 40 guild rewards were just added last week, t6 tradeskill recipes are still being added, not just adjusted, the top two raid instances still have scripts that do not progress on a regular basis and make them uncompeteable, itemization is still ongoing...this is beyond the *tweaking* and polishing that should be expected after a release, it's filling gaps from the last missed deadline and now they're expected to have another one complete and ready in a month and a half."
I with Marc on this one. I played EQ2 when it first came out and then dropped it after a few months of bugs, lag, and other issues. (Needless to say, I don't have much ground to stand on with current game features.)
However, it is looking like SOE is once again pushing out expansions faster than cat having kittens. So what does this really mean when compairing the companies of Blizzard and SOE?
Anyone?
Ninefingers
Here's my idea for the expansion on the boards. Most of the board community does not have a sense of humor, nevermind a sense of deadpan sarcasm so I am hoping for some great flames for my new idea...Tradeskill Raiding.
http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=kingdomofsky&message.id=1098&jump=true#M1098
Thanks for the mention Aggro!
I liked the use of an old school crossword puzzle as a method of giving out the hints for the expansion pack of an modern day MMO. It made me laugh as well as use my noggin. ;)
I thought DoF was a pretty awful expansion pack really.
To begin with it's TINY, for a expansion it's just so so very small.
It was also bugged from the beginning with crafting content (imbues, stats, carpenter recipes) simply nowhere to be seen.
Overall DoF seems just hacked together and rushed and did nothing to improve EQ2.
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