EQ Producer Clint Worley has started a thread on EQPlayers where he addresses some of the more common concerns from the player base.

His entire response is below.

August House of Commons Dev Chat at Stratics!

Please join us on Wednesday, August 22nd, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

Are you curious about the Legends of Norrath card game? The beta started today for Fan Faire attendees, but people not in the beta have an interesting discussion going on at EQPlayers.

The dev team posted:

UI File News: If you're using a custom UI, you'll need to make sure to copy the SIDL.xml from the uifiles\default directory into your custom UI directory.

A number of players are reporting they are experiencing client crashes upon logging in. Although some people are suggesting various fixes, others report that nothing is working to get them into the game. It seems the most practical suggestion is to keep trying.

EQPlayers posts:

"Legends of Norrath Information - Important Note: If you open up the Legends of Norrath window, please do not zone with it minimized. This will cause you to crash out. You will need to close it out before zoning. This issue will be addressed as soon as possible."

Rashere has posted a response on the EQPlayers forums concerning complaints that the incorrect (and mostly disliked) new human models went live for some people:

"The human models aren't ready and aren't live yet. What you're seeing are models that you downloaded when you logged into test from your live EQ directory at some point in the past. That downloaded the new human file into your folder. We haven't updated the global memory in a while, so the new human wasn't in there until today which is why its just now showing up.

If you have a clean install (ie. you haven't patched test on top of live), you won't have this problem. For anyone else, we're putting up a new version of the global file that will make that model not load on live servers so you won't see it. It should be up on the patcher in a few minutes.

Alternately, if you don't want to wait for the patcher, just delete the following files from your EQ directory and then relaunch the game:

hnm.eqg

hnf.eqg

Rashere


Message edited by Rashere on 08/14/2007 16:56:02."

Update: Ozyen-Stromm also posted that you may want to try "Deleting hum.eqg and hum_anims.eqg."

Maintenance Update: The EQ Servers are being unlocked. Forum access and other services should now be available however they will most likely continue to experience slow periods due to the heavy traffic. ~ Zatozia (4:14pm pdt)

Flame on ... I don't agree that Legends of Norrath should be there just to take up idle time in our game, because I don't think there should be that much idle time. Check out my perspective on Clint Worley's promotion of Legends of Norrath in this Kwill's Quill: Time Out a Moment.

Clint Worley has posted a longer, more detailed letter to the players.

Of special interest concerning the tradeable card game Legends of Norrath:

"It was critical that we included booster packs in the game for everyone. Sure you can buy booster packs whenever you want but you don't have to buy them to get them from creatures in the game. Keep in mind that we are not placing the boosters on specific NPC's in the game so for those of you that are planning on camping for boosters, sorry... no soup for you! One last thing, for the people that attended Fan Faire, your accounts will be flagged and the client will download automatically. We will be doing a closed beta on the TCG and we will be handing out booster packs throughout the beta period. Once the beta is over we will then open the game up to the remaining players and then the real challenge begins! TCG battles will be a great way to pass the time while playing if you are waiting for friends or that elusive NPC.

Once the game is open to everyone, booster packs will only be available via NPC drops and through the station store. I would encourage everyone to go visit http://www.station.sony.com/ and follow the Legends of Norrath link to find out more information including links to the exclusive loot cards found in both EQ and EQ2."

Read the entire letter below!

All EQ servers will be brought down on Tuesday, August 14th around 4:00 AM PDT for approximately 8 hours.

In addition, all services including subscription services, character transfer service, customer service tools and other billing services, will not be available at various times during this period.

This downtime will help enable the Legends of Norrath beta. Thank you for your patience during this downtime, and enjoy Legends of Norrath!

Didn't make it to Fan Faire? GenCon will be in Indianapolis, Indiana and SOE invites you to a meet and greet party:

Are you ready for one of the best gaming convention around? If you enjoy playing games-tabletop or desktop-we invite you to join us at Gen Con this year in Indianapolis, IN for the time of your life!

As part of the festivities for Gen Con in Indianapolis, Sony Online Entertainment will be hosting a Meet and Greet for those of you in the area. Join us at Jillian's on August 17th from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Food and drinks will be provided, along with entertainment and fun.

Address: 141 S. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46225
Phone: 317-822-9300
E-mail: ecindianapolis@jilliansbilliards.com
Web Site: Jillian's
Distance from Monument Circle: 0.27 miles

I am planning on attending and I hope to meet some of you!

From EQPlayers:

Please note that the Character Transfer Service for EverQuest has recently been changed. The changes include:

The Character Transfer Service with items for moving from server to server, from account to account, from account to account on a different server for 1 character has been lowered from $75 to $50 per character. However, the discount for multiple character transfers is no longer available.

The Character Transfer Service without items is no longer available.

If you desire to transfer a character or characters from your primary account to your secondary account on a different server, or wish to transfer to a different server during non server split opportunities, the following service is offered. This is a value added service which requires a fee that can be billed to your credit card.

This service may end or be modified at any time without prior notification.

Gamasutra has published an interview with Sony Online San Diego studio head Nicholas Beliaeff, in which he talks about SOE's commitment to EverQuest as their oldest title, among other topics.

Beliaeff points out that they have no interest in moving EverQuest players to EverQuest II, they are committed to the game, and that "It's a tremendously healthy game. We're coming out with our next expansion in November. We have our next [just-held] fan fair in August in Las Vegas, to meet with the people who play that game. It's going strong, and showing no signs of going away."

Also of note is the idea Beliaeff expressed that if a player base grows too small for a game title, as happened with Cosmic Rift, Infantry, and Tanarus, they simply make them free. It seems that no matter what happens to the EQ playerbase, the game will never actually be shut down, at least in today's management climate. Good news!

Read the parts of interest to EverQuest players below, and click on the link above to read the entire interview at Gamasutra.

You can be assured that all of us old school gamers will soon be shoved aside by screaming girls signing up in droves for Barbie Girls, the new MMO from Mattel. The beta is getting 50,000 subscribers a day, and now brags of four million subscribers:

Barbie Girls� � "Biggest Bit of News in the Online World..."

In late April, the beta version of BarbieGirls.com launched globally, providing girls with "virtually" everything they could want online, including giving girls the opportunity to create a highly personalized avatar and "move" it throughout the Barbie Girls� world, design their own rooms, shop with B Bucks (virtual currency) that girls can also earn, play games, watch videos and have real-time chats with other girls online. With 4 million users registered to-date, the site has been a runaway success in its beta phase and is scheduled to come out of beta in late August, receiving notice by industry experts.

"The biggest bit of news in the online world industry didn't come from E3 in Los Angeles...in the first 60 days of its existence, the new online virtual world Barbie Girls has signed up three million members, and they're adding new ones at the rate of 50,000 a day," said Wagner James Au, GigaOM. "This is staggering growth by any standard, but even more so because Mattel's MMO is still in Beta."

Barbie Girls is free, but you don't want to be on your Barbie yacht without the new gadet Mattel has designed to go with the MMO:

This week, BarbieGirls.com looks to build on this unprecedented growth with the highly anticipated debut of the Barbie Girl� device. Rolling into stores now, with a suggested retail price of $59.99, the multi-functional Barbie Girl� device will be one of the most exciting tech gadgets introduced for girls this year, functioning as a portable music/MP3 player, next generation fashion doll and a "key" to unlock exclusive play features and trillions of character and room combinations on the popular BarbieGirls.com website.

Velvet rope, sound familiar? We have trading cards that give us cool mounts and gear; Barbie fans can receive a tiki hut and a puppy, among other items.

Online Gaming Radio has updated their site and posted the last video of the event, the final banquet and wrap-up. Clips include the dinner, wedding, costume contest, prize giveaway, and final �dance."

They also have podcasts and pictures for many other events and happenings at Fan Faire.

Thanks, guys, for your great coverage of the event!

Online Radio has a series of scheduled programming they broadcast each week for the gaming community. Check out their schedule for live radio, as well as available podcasts.

SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT UNITES WITH VIRGIN COMICS TO CREATE ONLINE VIDEO GAME FRANCHISE

Leading Game and Worldwide Comic Companies Join Forces to Develop and Publish Massively Multiplayer Online Video Game Based On the Popular Ramayan 3392 A.D. India-Mythology Inspired Comic Book Series

SAN DIEGO, California & NEW YORK, New York (AUGUST 9, 2007) � Through a deal that joins two of the world�s most innovative entertainment brands, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), a global leader in the online gaming industry, is teaming up with Sir Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra�s Virgin Comics to bring the popular, India-based Ramayan 3392 A.D. comic book universe to life as an MMO video game initially for the PC.

The deal was announced today by John Smedley, President of SOE and Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder and CEO of Virgin Comics.

�Ramayan has inspired the lives of millions of people through the ages. The re-imagining of this great ancient epic through the creativity of a game platform re-affirms the fact that Ramayan is one of the greatest stories ever told,� said Deepak Chopra. �The fact that the same creative team of young Indians that created the story will be involved in working with SOE�s game development team, is a testament to the innovative and mythic minds of these gifted Indian creators who will take a new generation to new frontiers across the seas of consciousness into new realms of mystery, magic, adventure, and transformation.�

John Smedly, President of SOE, posted these clarifying comments concerning Legends of Norrath on the EverQuestII boards:

"I wanted to get a few comments out regarding LoN.

1) This is a first and foremost a card game - and you don't have to spend a dime if you don't want to. We're giving away free starter packs to all EQ and EQ II subscribers

2) If you don't want to spend money on cards - you can get booster packs as drops in-game just by killing stuff. This means that you can also get the same in-game loot items without spending money.. including the rare stuff.

3) The game is intended to bring a different kind of gameplay into both EQ and EQ II - we want to offer greater variety of gameplay in addition to the normal expansion packs. Are we going to make money from it? Yes.

4) You will NOT be able to trade the in-game items. We are spending a lot of time and effort fighting plat-sellers and we didn't want to put in a mechanic that attracts more of them. THIS INCLUDES THE BAZZAR SERVERS ON EQ II (i.e. too bad.. no selling these items period).

5) This is not some slippery slope towards selling items directly in EQ & EQ II. We had a cool idea for a card game set within the lore common to both games. Yes, we chose to include in-game loot as part of the fun rewards you could get when you open booster packs. However, as I said... you don't have to spend a dime to get exactly the same things. I should also point out that these items are similar to Veteran rewards or pre-order items in that they tend to be more fun.. not some big powerful in-game item."

You can see the entire presentation of the new product and more in the Community Address by Smed at Fan Faire on YouTube.

Jeff Vogel's editorial for RPG Vault, "Why The Endgame is Stupid," gives a rather different perspective on playing at the upper levels of an MMORPG.

Read the entire editorial below. Do you agree? Discuss it on our boards!

Player Kela has posted her Fan Faire report on EQPlayers, with lots of details about what was discussed in various panels over the weekend, presented in an organized format.