Niber

It's been in the cards for a while, more complex graphics engines, less development time allocated to content/lore. I imagine if EQ2 took place in a 2D world the lore would be much better. Improved developer tools? Shorter development cycles? Our only hope?

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Illuminator

Was lore worth a shit in EQ1 or was EQ1 just a thin internet fad that lasted longer than expected?

Hell even if you have lore out the ass it's still a limp noodle RPG-wannabe without cinematic sequences, situational music, etc etc. Old-school RPG's are loaded with that shit, it's what makes these games come alive.

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80/140 Wizard, 80/140 Illusionist, 80/140 Warden, 80/128 Troubador, etc.



HA HA fuck you, Roger. And don't vote for Obama.

Niber

I think it's a direct relation to the graphics engine, consequently it's also why WoW's quests are (as a whole) better than EQ2s.

EDIT:
And why MUDs/UO are still very entertaining.

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Kimzar

you seems to be forgetting NCsoft, and definitely interesting to see what they can bring whit Aion. but other then the 5 "big" companies its seems to be lacking... unfortally. compation in Lore would deftly be need so we once more could get quest line you actually did (the first time) for the story more then the reward.

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Be aware of Tor's Mighty Missed-spelled Hammer

Illuminator

I don't see it having any relation to the mechanics or game engine at all, it just strikes me as a lack of imagination on their part. It's the writing good stories aspect which is hard, and they need to hire someone who can do that...basic literature.

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80/140 Wizard, 80/140 Illusionist, 80/140 Warden, 80/128 Troubador, etc.



HA HA fuck you, Roger. And don't vote for Obama.

kyros

i like your argument, and i've often pondered similar things myself.
i think some of the quest reward issues are just "bad" answers for how to progress with itemization. the scaling and diminishing returns curves have also proven to be pretty significant...

honestly, i would have liked it a different way, but it's a lot of work to re-write the game now.

i'm not feeling to wordy right now, but you've done a great job exploring the topic. hopefully, there's some answer out there somewhere.

Niber

I don't think it's as easy as assigning a writer, it also requires technically knowledge and I think lore is very low on the development priority list (in comparison to zone size, artwork, and everything else). Spend 90% allotted manpower filling "giant" zones, 5% of that manpower doing itemization and use the 2% to cut and paste fetch quests. Making the zones feel epic was a priority for RoK and they did it at the expense of itemization and lore.

On the other hand KoS/DoF (in my opinion) were the exact opposite, smaller zones, more manpower available for quests. I assert that in order to achieve the perfect balance the development team needs to double or the engine needs to become less complex.

(I'm not implying that KoS/DoF quests were adequate, just that RoK was grossly inadequate.)

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TJandDanna

I am new not only to everquest 2, but to MMO's in general, and I quite agree that the quests pretty much seem uninspired and just generally suck (But a member of my guild told me that all MMO's are pretty much the same with their pointless and "stupid" quests.)
Call me a fool if you want (and I wont even disagree) but I had kinda thought that in an MMO there were NPC 's that were controlled by real people who continually kept a story going (For instance, the leader or King of Freeport would be "played" by a member of the staff as would all the leaders and dietys in an effort to push a storyline.)
Apparently this is not the case and apparently I am going to get the same type of quests on up to lvl 80.....That makes the whole good/evil thing kinda pointless in PVE, right? I mean you cant really affect the world......Bummer.

Alania

Didn't they used to have ONE person who wrote the lore for the game? Maybe 2 or 3 in a collaboration. One of the things that I learned when I used to write my own lore-based stories and short stories is you can't just sit and write about a person. You have to actually create their environment. If you can draw, its even better. Draw or find a picture of your main character (or in EQ's case, the "major players"). Create a map of the area in which your characters will interact. Create other characters and make notes on how they tie to your main character or the major players. Once you have the basics down, and you can avoid mistakes like "Oops, I have John flirting with Mary but they're siblings" or "Oh they need to travel north to the farm, not south" and you can keep it around you to sort of inspire you as you write.

I found my best stories came when I have a full "history" of my characters and the area in which the story takes place. They don't need to have every dev be savvy on the lore. One dev to write the over-arching storyline in which the larger quests are based (claymore, epics etc), and then after he is done with that, he can check each quest to make sure they make sense in the lore.

Niber

I wish that were the case. Frequent (profound) GM events would help but EQ2 is reluctant to make GMs anything more than annoying peons assigned to hand out cookies and milk.

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