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EverQuest: Rain of Fear Beta Sign Ups Begin
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Sony Online Entertainment has announced that beta sign ups have begun for the next EverQuest expansion. Called "Rain of Fear", the expansion brings expanded character customization, new in-game items and a new level 100 cap.
The Harbingers of Thule entreat you to gather the essence of their lost god before it falls into the hands of others. You will uncover the mysteries of the giant crystals that have fallen to Norrath. Explore newly discovered lands and revisit the frozen wastes of Velious. Battle old foes empowered by shards, confront them and reclaim the power of fear.
Find out more and sign up for beta testing on the EverQuest site.
Comments
This game helped get it all started. Without this one most of the systems used today would never have been.
health001 spoken like a true moron. This game is the logest lived, why kill it? And don't say because its dated, no other game comes near the complexity of this one. "world size"
They aren't making these new expansions for the "new" player.. They are for the top heavy playerbase of very very loyal members who have probably been playing since its inception..
Level cap raise to 100? Have any idea how long it takes to even get to 80? And then work on AA's to a reasonable level etc?
I like what SOE is doing for that loyal fanbase though.. They are keping the game alive for them, the few that are paying them for access.. So many negative things to say about SoE, but at least they aren't pulling an NCSoft and killing a game that is still benefiting them in some way..
I cannot believe this game is still alive.
This is the answer to all those people who thinks that EQ won't work today.
If there are so many players who still play a game with a 11 y/o technology, I cannot imagine what will happen if SoE will finally updates EQ to modern standards
I really hope SoE understood that there is no more room for another WoW clone and finally decides to make an EQ clone instead
Because they are able to develop expansions with very small budgets such that even with a tiny playerbase they still turn a profit.
The expansions aren't as good or as big as they were during the game's prime, probably mostly due to budget reasons, which is why I'm no longer playing the game, but the game still has its niche and anyone who is left playing at this point is probaly unlikely to stop until the servers eventually shut down or they stop releasing content.
[quote]EverQuest: Rain of Fear Beta Sign Ups Begin[/quote]
Why is it "Rain of Fear" and not "Reign of Fear"?
THIS!
How many devs could they possibly afford to work on this stuff, I mean who even plays anymore?
Must be some toolset, one guy works that, another guy makes some coding changes and tweaks, and one artist does everything else? Even assuming it sells 5k copies, that's not much money to go around.
It will definitely sell more than 5k copies. There are still about 15 servers running. My guess would be there are somewhere around 50-60k paying subscribers. Still not a lot, but enough to develop content with a small budget.
As for SoE developing an EQ clone, I don't see it happening. A MMO like pre-LDoN Everquest would do terrible today. I don't even know if I'd play it, despite EQ being my all time favorite MMO.
Now, if they could develop an MMO with some of the best features of EQ while removing some of the tedium like massive recovery time between fights, naked corpse runs, fighting with other guilds over seven day raid spawns, etc, then they might have something.
Mithril!
Seeing that I don't think they ever got over 400K, then 50k to 60k would still be a pretty good amount to have. People don't realize that the guys from the huge guilds that made EQ what it is went on to work on other games such as WOW. My old guild (FOH) leader was hired to work on epic quest by Blizzard well before it came out. There are several others from my guild alone that went to work in the gaming biz on some of the biggest games out just from making a name for themselves in playing this game alone.
prolly cause they using Acid Rain ? :P
I think 50k people still playing EQ is fair. However, those 50k people probably total 100k paying accounts with all the multi boxing.
I really wish the people who obviously dont play the game stop making assumption about it. EQ is thriving and have a nice community, more tight knit than some of the newer MMOs. No other MMO compares to the amount of content you can traverse through. I love the idea of 100 levels to reach and that it will take time. Though not as long as you might think. You can level 1-70 fairly quickly. AAs allow for excellent customization, and allow you flexibility to move EXP into your level or AA. A system I still dont understand why it hasn't been re-introduced.
They have introduced nuances from newer MMOs (glowing trails, EXP deficit death penalty, etc). Housing to hold all of your loot. Crafting where you can take on as many tradeskills as you want (not limited to 2 or 1 like other games). They also have Mercenaries so you can solo much of the content, but to be honest not really necessary considering how easy it to speak with people, group or join a guild. Since the F2P launch there are tons of people at the low level (especially on my server VOX). I get asked to group everyday. I will say the crowd is older. My guild is mostly users 40+ in age, which brings a certain maturity to the chat. It has its downsides but compared to whats out today its very easy for me to overlook.
Those looking for a complex game, huge world, and real groups to play with I would highly recommnd trying EQ... especially since its F2P. Like it? Sub like I did. Not for kids or the feint of heart.
I look forward to rain of fear. And its called rain because shards of evil actually fall out of the sky... you know, like rain :-)
All that you mention is removed. There is no massive recovery. You can have a healing merc to heal you as you play as well. There are no corpse runs. When you die you go back to where you bound your soul and EXP loss. Cant speak of the raiding as I haven't reach that far. But havent heard my guild (who raid fairly often) talk about seven day raid spawns.
The graphics are obviously dated, as well as the UI ... but I'm fond of both as well as the complexity of it all.
This game isn't the "longest" lived. But it was a good attempt bro and EQ was never all that complex. It was just really grindy. There is a difference.
I highly doubt there are that many players in everquest these days, even counting boxes. Obviously populations on each server is different but that's saying roughly 4k players per server. I haven't played every server but the ones I did play recently are DEAD. They would be better if they merged some of those servers. Should also have people start at level 80 because level 1-90 will be played solo in zones void of other players. It's definitely not the great game it used to be.