EverQuest Interview
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Q: It came out during the interaction with Mr. Smedley that Gates of Discord was tuned for characters above the current level capacity and that the title did not receive enough testing. How did something like this happen and what steps are being taken to make sure future expansions do not have these problems?
A: Several things happened all at once that lead to the problems we had with Gates. For Gates testing, we had too few people (due to limited invites) and an unstable test environment (as the DX9 and Collision changes were on the beta server). So the testing was not completed as thoroughly as it should have been. We are addressing these concerns by allowing more testers in, with a better test plan and by providing a stable test environment, so that the beta testers can actually play in the new content. We will be asking some guilds to come over as a whole and test as well so that we have people experienced in working together doing so in the beta. We think these changes will go a long way towards making sure this does not happen again.
As for the level increase, the original plan was to have a small bump in levels on the 5th anniversary, followed by another bump to 70th level with Omens. However, once Gates was near completion the decision was made to have the level increase with Omens and that left us with content that was too difficult and too short a time line to change it prior to Gates going live. So we attempted to make changes to the content without them being tested by groups of players to make certain the content was balanced for the current levels.
It came out during the summit that there will be a push to introduce new players to EverQuest. What are some of the challenges of trying to get new consumers to pick up EverQuest with other products coming to market what benefits does EverQuest offer a new player today?
We think that EverQuest stands well against the other titles coming out in the weeks and months ahead. EverQuest has much to offer and will continue to be around for quite some time. EverQuest has tons of content with lots things to do and places to visit. I doubt many players have actually seen every zone. One of the challenges EQ does face is that it is 5 years old. However, we feel that the graphics upgrades and readily available content will make EQ stand out against many of the new competitors.
