EverQuest

EverQuest
EverQuest box art. EverQuest box art.
Developer(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS X
Release	March 16, 1999
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

EverQuest (EQ) is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost. It was developed by Verant Interactive (which had recently parted from 989 Studios) and published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). SOE currently runs and distributes EverQuest. The game's sequel, EverQuest II, was released in 2004.

To play, one must initially pay for the game software and then pay a recurring monthly fee; a free trial is also available for those who wish to experience the game before paying. EverQuest was, for a time, the most popular extant MMORPG. Everquest earned many awards, including Gamespot's Game of the Year Award for 1999.

Gameplay

In the game, players explore a fantasy world of sword and sorcery, fighting monsters and enemies for treasure and experience points and interacting with other players. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, prestige and abilities. Players can also procure powerful items for their characters in a variety of ways: through slaying monsters (and then looting the remains), doing "quests" (tasks and adventures given by non-player characters ( NPCs ) in which a reward is given upon success), or by gathering raw materials and then fashioning them, via numerous trade skills such as tailoring or blacksmithing, into useful (or not-so-useful, but nevertheless fun) items. In structure and rules, the game is almost a direct descendant of the famed Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Many of the elements from EverQuest have also been drawn from text-based MUD (multi-user dungeon) games.

The game features a 3D environment set in the fictional world of Norrath, its moon Luclin and alternate planes of reality. The geography of the EverQuest universe is vast—few have visited all of the nearly 400 zones. Multiple instances of the world exist on various servers, each one hosting between 1000 and 3000 simultaneous players online during peak times. After selecting a server, a player can create multiple characters by choosing from a variety of classes and races (e.g., humans, gnomes, trolls, halflings, elves, etc.). The main aspect of gameplay involves grouping with fellow players to kill monsters for experience and gear. Beyond that, a player can explore the large world, socialize, role-play, join player guilds, master trade skills, and duel other players (in restricted situations — EQ only allows Player versus Player (PvP) combat on the PvP-specific server, in designated arenas, or in a consensual duel in a limited number of locations).

While some parts of EverQuest can be experienced alone, without the help of other players, EQ generally remains a very group-centric game. A single character, unless exceptionally well prepared (either by means of equipment or with spell enhancements, referred to in-game as 'buffs'), will be unable to complete many of the encounters in EverQuest. Most parts of the game can be completed with small groups of up to six or so people, but the most challenging (and rewarding) encounters require the cooperation of many players, possibly totalling 72 players, although the trend in recent expansions tends towards 54 as a maximum. A large force of gamers gathered together to perform one task, is referred to as a "raid". Normally the number of players range from 36 to 72, limiting factors being the maximum number of people allowed in a "raid window" (72) and the maximum number of people allowed in certain instanced zones in more recent expansions. Zerging (a term that comes from another popular computer game, StarCraft) is when a raid's main strategy is to overwhelm an enemy by sheer force of numbers. As EverQuest has aged, tactics have become more and more involved. Some of the most complex 'modern' raid events can take a very experienced guild dozens of attempts before they succeed. Less skilled guilds may take as many as a hundred tries to beat the same event, if they are able to accomplish it at all, due to the level of strategy and teamwork required to defeat modern EverQuest encounters.

Development

The design and concept of EverQuest is heavily indebted to text-based MUDs, in particular DikuMUD, and as such EverQuest is considered a 3D evolution of the text MUD genre like some of the MMOs that preceded it such as Meridian 59 and The Realm Online. John Smedley, Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Bill Trost who jointly are credited with creating the world of EverQuest have repeatedly pointed to their shared experiences playing MUDs such as DIKU and TorilMUD as the inspiration for the game.

Development of EverQuest began in 1996 when Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA) executive John Smedley secured funding for a 3D version of textbased MUDs following the success of the first massively multiplayer games, Neverwinter Nights and the previously mentioned Meridian 59. To implement the design Smedley hired programmers Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover who had come to Smedley's attention through their work on the singleplayer RPG Warwizard. McQuaid soon rose through the ranks to become Executive Producer for the EverQuest franchise and emerged during development of EverQuest as a popular figure among the fan community through his in-game avatar, Aradune. Other key members of the development team included Bill Trost, who created the history, lore and major characters of Norrath (including Everquest protagonist Firiona Vie), Geoffrey "GZ" Zatkin who implemented the spell system, and artist Milo D. Cooper, who did the original character modelling in the game.

EverQuest launched with modest expectations from Sony on March 16, 1999 under its Verant Interactive brand and quickly became successful. By the end of the year, it had surpassed the leading competitor, Ultima Online in number of subscriptions. Numbers continued rising at a steady rate until mid-2001 when growth slowed. As of 2004, Sony reports subscription numbers close to 450,000. SOE released a Mac OS X version of EverQuest in 2003, incorporating all expansions through Planes of Power. Development of the OS X version has languished since then, but the server remains up and running, supporting a small but enthusiastic user community.

The success of EverQuest has triggered several corporate iterations of its publishing entity which has engendered a popular misconception among newer fans of the series that ownership and creative leadership of franchise passed somehow in 2000 from an independent entity known as Verant into Sony's hands. In reality, EverQuest from its inception has continually been owned by one or other subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, with John Smedley retaining ultimate control of the product, from his creation of the concept in 1996, to this day. This confusion can be attributed to a shift in Sony's publishing priorities in the US prior to the launch of its Playstation 2 product in 1999. In anticipation of PlayStation's launch Sony Interactive Studios America had made the decision to focus primarily on console titles under the banner 989 Studios while spinning off its sole computer title, EverQuest which was ready to launch, to a new computer game division named Redeye (renamed Verant Interactive). Executives initially had very low expectations for EverQuest but in 2000, following the surprising continued success and unparallelled profits of EverQuest, Sony reorganized Verant Interactive into Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) with Smedley retaining control of the company. By 2002 however, a majority of the original EverQuest team, including Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Geoffrey Zatkin had left SOE and day-to-day development of new titles in the franchise continues largely in the hands of a new generation of Sony designers. (A group of the original Everquest designers, including Brad McQuaid, developed Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, an MMORPG McQuaid has described as "the spiritual successor to Everquest.")

Zones

Further information: Zones of EverQuest

The EverQuest universe is divided into nearly 400 zones. These zones represent a wide variety of geographical features, including plains, oceans, cities, deserts, and other planes of existence. One of the most popular zones in the game is the Plane of Knowledge, one of the few zones in which all races and classes can coexist harmoniously without interference. As such, it is also the zone to visit if one is looking for "buffs", or spells that enhance characters' abilities. The Plane of Knowledge is also home to portals to many other zones (though not nearly all the zones in the game), including portals to other planes.

Servers

The game runs multiple servers, each with a unique name for identification; these names were originally the deities of the world of Norrath. Once a character is created on a specific server, it can only be played on that server unless the character is transferred to a new server by the customer service staff. Each server often has a unique community and people often include the server name when identifying their character outside of the game.

In technical terms, each "game server" is actually a cluster of server machines. Each individual machine is fairly powerful and was very expensive to purchase at launch. The server machines are regularly upgraded to handle the world as it is expanded.

In addition to the standard servers, some special servers have different rule sets. For example, some servers allow PvP on the server so that player can attack each other with fewer restrictions than there are on the standard servers.

Controversies and social issues

Sale of in-game objects

EverQuest has lived through its share of controversy, much of it shared by the entire MMORPG genre. One example involves the sale of in-game objects for real currency (often through eBay). The developers of EQ have always forbidden the practice and in January 2001 asked eBay to stop listing such auctions. For a time, such auctions were immediately removed, which changed market conditions and allowed a number of upstart auction sites to specialize in this new virtual economy. The game has had problems with exploiting, cheating, and hacking, though patches have stopped the most serious of them. Changes in management have caused changes in company-to-customer representatives who defend or promote said policies. Gordon Wrinn ("Abashi") was the spokesperson of Verant, followed by Alan VanCouvering ("Absor") for SOE; a team now presents plans to the players. Critics of EQ's overall design deride it as "simplistic", and this has led to a satirical game called Progress Quest to appear on the Internet. Monotonous in-game-activities are referred to as timesinks.

Intellectual property and role-playing

Another well-publicized incident from October 2000, usually referred to as the "Mystere incident", involved Verant banning a player for creating controversial fan fiction, causing outrage among Everquest players and sparking a major industry-wide debate about players' rights and the line between roleplaying and intellectual property infringement. The case was used by several academics in discussing such rights in the digital age.

Addiction

The game is renowned and berated (by some psychologists specializing in computer addiction) for its addictive qualities. Many refer to it half-jokingly as "NeverRest" and "EverCrack" (a reference to crack cocaine). EQ is very time-consuming for many people, and there have been some well-publicized suicides of EverQuest users, such as that of Shawn Woolley. Relationships broken because of obsessive playing resulted in the creation of an online support group called EverQuest Widows and sites like GamerWidow.com. An infamous rant titled "EQ: What You Really Get From An Online Game" appeared on Slashdot in 2002, and brought this issue of EverQuest addiction to the forefront of many message boards across the Internet.

Sociological aspects

Online gaming has quickly become a big "social playground" with a graphical interface. Some of this interaction further trancends outside the game where a community site like http://www.CharacterPlanet.com can grow in popularity. The sociological aspects of EverQuest (and other MMORPGs) are further explored in a series of online studies on a site known as "the HUB". The studies make use of data gathered from player surveys and discuss topics like virtual relationships, player personalities, gender issues, and more.

In May of 2004, Woody Hearn of GU Comics called for all EverQuest gamers to boycott the Omens of War expansion in an effort to force SOE to address existing issues with the game rather than release another "quick-fire" expansion. The call to boycott was rescinded after SOE held a summit to address player concerns, improve (internal and external) communication, and begin correcting issues within the game.

As it enters its seventh year, many long-time players have abandoned EQ in favor of some of the newer MMORPGs on the market, such as Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft. Although it is true that some formerly-busy zones are now deserted, SOE continues to release expansion packs, and certain zones continue to be crowded during peak game-playing hours.

Real world economics

Because items can be traded within the game and also because of illegal online trading on websites, virtual currency to real currency exchange rate have been calculated. The BBC reported that in 2002 work done by Edward Castronova showed that Everquest was the 77th richest country in the world, sandwiched between Russia and Bulgaria and its GDP per capita was higher than that of the People's Republic of China and India. By 2004, a follow-up analysis showed that the average GDP of each of the two million players was $2,000 (£1,087) which was approximately the same as the GDP of Namibia.

This led some gamers to start playing professionally, as after some hours of play they could earn income by selling off in-game items. Black Snow Interactive was founded as a company that created characters, leveled them to make them powerful, and then resold the characters. After some time, the firm moved to Mexico, as the salaries for Mexican players are far less. Other firms, such as the Gaming Open Market, specialized in exchanging money between games. A player could exchange a house in The Sims Online for EverQuest platinum pieces, depending solely on market laws of supply and demand.

Sony officially discourages the payment of real-world money for online goods, except on certain "Station Exchange" servers in EQ2, launched in July 2005. The program facilitates buying in-game items for real money from fellow players for a nominal fee. At this point this system only applies to select EverQuest II servers; none of the pre-Station Exchange EverQuest II or EverQuest servers are affected.

While Sony's official stance on EverQuest is still against real market transactions, any real enforcement of this faded years ago. It is now common to encounter an account on its second or third owner, especially in the higher end game. Although any exchange of accounts between players is a violation of the End User License Agreement and theoretical grounds for the banning of an account, Sony turns a blind eye to all but the most public violations. (There have been a number of posts similar to "I just bought this account and don't know how to do X, Y, or Z," on the official Sony forums that have not resulted in punishment.)

Due to the difficulty in learning the role a specific class plays within a group, and of learning the best way to fulfill this role, individuals who purchase high level characters without prior playing experience are stereotypically sub-par to those who have developed characters normally. Referring to a character in EverQuest as an eBay character or to an individual as an "eBayer" are derogatory comments used to suggest both that an individual did not develop his own character and that he does not know how to play it.

EverQuest expansions

There have been several expansions to the original game since release. Expansions are purchased separately and add significant content to the game (for example, new races, classes, continents, quests, and equipment). Additionally, the game is updated regularly through downloadable patches. The EQ expansions to date:

File:EverQuest - East Commonlands tunnel.jpg

The East Commonlands tunnel was the most frequently used area for trading on most servers before the Bazaar was added in The Shadows of Luclin.

1. The Ruins of Kunark (March 2000)
2. The Scars of Velious (December 2000)
3. The Shadows of Luclin (December 2001)
4. The Planes of Power (October 2002)
5. The Legacy of Ykesha (February 2003)
6. Lost Dungeons of Norrath (September 2003)
7. Gates of Discord (February 2004)
8. Omens of War (September 2004)
9. Dragons of Norrath (February 2005)
10. Depths of Darkhollow (September 2005)
11. Prophecy of Ro (February 2006)
12. The Serpent's Spine (September 2006)
13. The Buried Sea (February 2007)

See also: EverQuest timeline

There are many spin-off products from EverQuest. Several servers have been introduced with alternate rule-sets, including one which allows player killing, another, Firiona Vie, that has a set of rules more friendly to role-playing (although it also contained other rule changes that made it attractive to non-role-players which some argue defeated the purpose), and a premium flagship server titled Stormhammer Legends server (which, for a higher fee provided a greater level of in-game customer service. Many players saw this as a way to charge players more money for a level of service which should have existed without the fee). After many months of the "Legends" community pleading for communication with Sony about its future, nothing was said until a sudden announcement in December '05 that Sony was closing the EQ flagship server. EverQuest Online Adventures, released in February 2003, is an MMORPG for the PlayStation 2 console. EverQuest II, an alternative version (not sequel) of EverQuest, was launched in November 2004. Champions of Norrath, the d20 system EverQuest Role-Playing Game, several books, and player gatherings (Fan Faires) have also been spawned from EverQuest.

Recently, SOE opened Progression Servers, named The Sleeper and The Combine, which initially only offered access to the oldest continents of Norrath: Odus, Antonica, and Faydwer. Though the geography resembles that of the game's initial release, newer zones that are located on those continents are also available (for example, Odus includes the Warrens and Antonica has Jaggedpine Forest, though inclusion of both these zones came long after the start of the game). The expansion content is determined by the progress of the players on those servers, and the completion of certain tasks (such as defeating powerful characters or completing momentous quests) triggers the addition of later expansions. Currently, the furthest-advanced of the servers is on the verge of unlocking the Gates of Discord expansion.

Fans have created the open source server emulator EQEmu, allowing users to run their own servers with custom rules. Running such an emulator is a violation of EQ's end user license agreement and could result in a player being banned from Sony's EverQuest servers if caught doing so. It has not gained the same popularity as server emulators for Ultima Online.

Gameplay jargon

EverQuest carries an internal language and culture of its own, including a plethora of arcane abbreviations aiding communication between players. For example, SoW (which stands for Spirit of Wolf, a popular spell which accelerates players' movement), and vernacular usages such as 'crack' or 'mind candy' which within the context of EQ refer to mana regeneration spells such as Clarity or KEI (an acronym for Koadic's Endless Intellect). While mostly consistent, there are also some differences in jargon between servers, and between the Asian, European and American gaming communities. For example, KEI is known on some servers as C3 (it is the third version of Clarity). In-game chatting can practically be a foreign language to anyone who has not played it extensively.

Most ingloriously, and reflective of the sometimes poor testing done before release, players coined the term nerf, which is probably just a reference to Nerf-brand swords being harmless, and has been around since the days of MUDs. Some have proposed that it means "New Enhancement Reduces Fun" or "Not Even Remotely Fair" or "Never Ending Reduction of Functionality."

A number of terms used in-game have been coined by players from a wide variety of other MMORPGs or players of EverQuest specifically. One is the habit of calling monsters MOBs or mobs which is a contraction of Mobile Objects and stems from old text-based MUDs' use of the term. Some terms like these, while coined in EverQuest, have migrated to other MMORPGs.

Deities

Further information: EverQuest Deities

There are several deities in EverQuest. Like traditional deities, they each have a certain area of rule or responsibility.

Everquest Novel Line

A number of novels have been published in the word of Everquest including:

• Rogue's Hour, by Scott Ciencin (Oct. 2004)
• Ocean of Tears, by Stewart Wieck (Oct. 2005)
• Truth and Steel, by Thomas M. Reid (Sept. 2006)
• The Blood Red Harp, by Elaine Cunningham (Oct. 2006)

References

• Roger Parloff (November 28, 2005). "From Megs to Riches". Fortune: 72-84.

External links

• EverQuest Live: Official EverQuest News