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EverQuest II Fansite Event!
I thought I would give a quick introduction to this article before I get too deep into it. Most of what you read here was gathered by me and recorded either in notes or fond memories. Anything game related I am going to refrain from making editorial comments on most of the game play at this point, but expect a follow up article which goes through a number of the comments and opinions I formed at the event. In the meantime, do enjoy this accounting of the event and the information therein!
About two weeks ago, the majority of the fan sites for EverQuest II were contacted, and invited to an event hosted by SOE in San Diego. This was sort of a top secret event, meant to be a nice surprise for the fans as well as keeping party crashers to a minimum, though their invite list consisted of some of the biggest party crashers of all! This event was not only a nice form of appreciation by SOE to reward the fan sites for all their hard work, but it gave many of the fan site operators their first chance to sit down with the game. That’s a pretty big deal, because I’ve said a number of times before: people just need to sit down with this game and play.
After a rather long line at Denver International Airport’s security checkpoint (which made me relatively close to missing my flight), and an uneventful sardine-can flight, sitting in the middle seat, I arrived in sunny San Diego, California just before sunset. Tom Taylor (well known for his alcohol induced antics at many FanFaire events) was waiting in baggage claim with an EverQuest sign. With him I waited for a few more people, and then joined the others on the bus to take us to our hotel. Deathstryker from EQ2Vault, Leonai from EQ2 OGaming and Nanyea from TheRunes were the folks I already knew, but I eventually met the other site representatives on the bus and at the small reception we were brought to afterwards.
There we were met by a number of people from the EQII team such as John Blakely, Andy Sites, Bruce Ferguson and of course Steve Danuser and Sean Kauppinen. Most of us who had just arrived got some food, but beer and spirits were had by all, and it was a good way to kick off the long weekend. Most of us went to bed relatively early (which was good, because I don’t think most of us got much sleep afterwards) in our nice hotel rooms at the Doubletree Golf Resort. My room was pretty nice and big with a king size bed and a nice view of the golf course out the back balcony. SOE knows how to make a person feel comfortable, even if we wouldn’t be spending much time in the rooms. It even had a free internet connection, but I don’t have a laptop to have taken advantage of that.
We left at 9:30am the next morning to the SOE offices. Our bus from the hotel to the SOE offices was packed with fan site VIPs and excitement. To my surprise, sitting next to me was Hannar! With all the secrecy and craziness over the last couple weeks, I had not mentioned anything of the trip on the website, and neither had he, so it was a pleasant surprise to finally meat the great Hanguard. Anyway, we were off to the SOE studios. This is California remember, so no trip on a highway is without at least a little traffic. But we got there pretty quickly and unloaded into the main lobby and were quickly ushered into the SOE game room, set up so employees can play games after work with each other, or in this case, to get a group of people playing the game at the same time. All around us were framed pictures of art from various SOE games, posters from promotional events, and standup cutouts of various characters. As we walked in I noticed they had a live feed LED display above the door listing off the current populations of all the SOE games, which was pretty neat. Anyway, we walked in to a comfortable but densely packed room of computers. Some folks were lucky enough to sit down at computers with Apple 20” Cinema display monitors, though the other monitors were still high quality 17” LCD displays. A mix of hardware and video cards (anywhere from GeForce 5900 cards to GeForce 6800 Ultras, ATI 9800s to ATI X800s) showed that the game is still pretty versatile in hardware compatibility, despite the high requirements (though, these are still some high end cards).
I think every single one of the attendees then logged into their respective websites and checked posts, and posted some teaser about being in the SOE offices. It was rather amusing that we all did so, without any prompting whatsoever. It was then time to get our temporary logins and start up the installed copies of EverQuest II. Sadly, we couldn’t keep these accounts (no matter how much we begged, whined, cried and pleaded). We were able to mess around with character creation as usual, and then it was on to the tutorial boat and then to the Isle of Refuge (as a note, one can skip the boat scene now by checking a box when the character is created).
Much is the same as when we played at FanFaire, but it seems a bit more refined and filled out. There is a main line of quests on the Isle of Refuge that guide you through some of your archetype roles, as well as get you basic equipment for your journey into the real world. There are also plenty of side quests that are a lot of fun, and give good rewards too. As a continuation of the main line of quests, the first instanced encounter can be found. This is an orc guarded by a number of higher level goblins, a mix of casters and melee monsters. The encounter is challenging, but rather easy for a full group of 6, and still possible for a group of four. It is a good introduction to that type of ‘boss mob’. A few of the other quests are started by random drops from monsters such as skeletons, or by drops from named monsters. This consists of a note that gives the quest once examined. The most fun of these spawns a troll which drops some nice armor.
I played a Scout archetype Half-Elf this time. The Scout archetype doesn’t seem to immediately have as much interactive skills or spells, but still proves to be fun. The main function early on of a Scout is, well, scouting, by using the stealth skill to get through dangerous areas, and the Gift of the Pathfinder spell (run speed buff) is immensely useful. The level 5 attack is a flanking or backstab move only skill, which makes the skill very useful in groups, but not usable solo. It took a bit of skill to learn how to quickly change position relative to the monster to execute that attack. Overall I still had fun either grouped or solo. I was grouped with Hannar and Deathstryker most of the time, which made some of the quests a breeze. I think I was one of the few in the room who didn’t die on the Isle, which was nice (buncha noobs).
Music, sound and visuals have been cleaned up and are probably ready to go. The voiceovers for the NPCs are quite a lot of fun, and still add depth to the experience, even when I’ve played through them already. There were a couple crashes to desktop, and we all got disconnected from the server once, but aside from that, the game was quite smooth and stable.
I gained level 6 and completed all of the quests given to me, so I left the Isle of Refuge for Qeynos. But, as soon as I got there it was lunch time and I did not end up coming back to play. The information sessions ended up taking up the rest of my time.
Lunch was served in tents just outside the front doors. They served some catered BBQ chicken and ribs, which were quite good. We mingled with the developers and the rest of the fan site people, and generally relaxed after our intense playtime, getting ready for the afternoon. The studios are located close to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, so we were ‘treated’ to a flyby of a number of jets. Apparently it is a common occurrence, and the SOE staff has quickly learned the skill of lip reading.
Ok, I wanted to get this up before I got more distracted today. The next part will be chocked full of information gathered from the event, and the last part will be another account of the events on Friday night and in Mexico on Saturday.
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