The big topic this past week was the opening of a new EverQuest time-locked progression server. Both old and new EQ players flocked to and overloaded the servers, looking to recapture lost experiences or experience lost history. While I personally didn’t feel compelled to give this a swing, it’s an interesting experiment that I wish more MMOs would try.
Welcome back to /AFK, a roundup of the most interesting blog posts that caught my eye last week:
- A Casual Stroll to Mordor — Symbols and tokens and marks, oh my!
“You loot the chest expecting to find some powerful artifact, instead some weird currency drops which you take back to town and trade in for the armor they should have given you when they asked you to go fight the bad guys. It makes no sense for the story.”
- Overly Positive — De-necessitating the MMO ranking
“It might seem like a silly notion, but when was the last time you played a game because you felt that it ranked somewhere in some agreed-upon hierarchy of MMO-dom?”
- Werit — Q&A with WAR developer Keavan Freeman
“It has been very exciting to see how Skaven have been used in ways we never imagined.”
- Ark’s Ark — EverQuest: What we know about how Fippy Darkpaw progression will work
“Fippy will be using the modern smooth experience curve which eradicates hell levels.”
- Rift Watchers — A dungeon finder is coming to Rift
“What often gets ignored in these talks, however, is the sole reason why this system came about in the first place: getting into a dungeon without a dedicated guild was hard.”
- The Ancient Gaming Noob — EverQuest nostalgia tour
“The feeling of being there on day one is something that is tough to recapture.”
- Spinksville — MMO nostalgia AKA why you couldn’t pay me to play EQ
“Yes, you too could travel back in time and experience what it was like to play a game with crappy graphics, arsey raiders, and where it was considered normal to camp a rare spawn for 17 hours.”
- ETCmmo — You can never go back
“Getting oh so very lost in Neriak, I wanted to cry…. It was truly terrifying and awesome at the same time. I had never played anything like it.”
- KIASA — Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I do not know which half
“I’m slightly baffled, as I can’t think who would being buying gold in WAR.”
- Kill Ten Rats — Faction cool factor
“It seemed that everybody was excited about the Defiant, and ‘mature’ guilds were considering rolling Guardian side just to get away from that immature crowd.”
- Bootae’s Bloody Blog — If you could make an old MMO a modern classic
“If DAoC’s graphics were updated and, most importantly, it had a major UI overhaul (as in every department), then I think it could step up and deliver the goods.”
- Nomadic Gamer — EQ2 versus LotRO free to play
“I am far more likely to play LotRO as a ‘free’ game then lets say, EQ2, and I’m going to explain why with a few points that really stand out to me as being winners.”
- MMO Gamer Chick — Rift: Artifact finding
“Which is why I’m surprised after all these weeks in the Rift beta I haven’t talked about the Artifact Collections system yet. Bottom line, I want to marry it.”
- MMO Reporter — Why MMOs are missing the boat
“Most importantly, I want my virtual trek to have consequences. It should require effort to travel. If I go to point B, I must take into account I can’t quickly jump back to A. Why else have a big virtual world?”
Bio Break 