EverQuest: The Buried Sea Wrap Report

Audience Response Travis McGeathy: The community response to The Buried Sea has been very positive. In general, the more casual players have enjoyed the focus on group content and the in-depth stories, while the top-end raiders have been really digging into the extreme challenge of the new raid zone.

every single one of us has shared the same awe and wonder of the EQ word as our customers... and we still do. Every day here is fun because we all share a passion for what we do. I mean, come on, we make a video game.

The majority of negative feedback that we've received has been about the itemization problems we encountered. This was anticipated after we ran into problems during development, and we've been working to address the complaints that have arisen.

Of the new expansion features, both fellowships and guild banners have been very well received. Energeian Armor has been a bit more mixed. The more casual player tends to enjoy the feature, while the higher-powered player tends to dislike it. This was to be expected since the flexibility that the armor offers benefits casual players more than raiders, who tend to desire equipment that is suited to a single role.

Looking Ahead Travis McGeathy: EverQuest is the blueprint that most other MMOs are built off, and it has also evolved over time more than any other I can think of. Our goal, and our challenge, is to continue to do that; to update and evolve the game in new directions and to keep it fresh for our players. We want to make sure there's always something new just around the corner.

Personal Thoughts Holly Longdale: I joined the EQ team as Lost Dungeons of Norrath was in the early stages of development. That was four years ago. For every expansion I've been involved in, I've always been amazed and proud to be part of a team that proves to be as innovative, creative and talented as any other game team out there - new and old. Even as EQ moves on in years, we're able to bring features, content and art that keep it current and fun while remaining the game we all know and love. We also spend a lot of time playing all sorts of other games in our spare time - not just because we're gamers, but because we want to know what else is out there and what is fun. To be honest, I haven't seen anything come out in the MMO space that someone hasn't talked about in a design meeting at one time or another.

My all-time favorite experience on this team so far was creating the shaman and beastlord epic 2.0 quests. I was so completely absorbed by those projects that it bordered on obsession. I think each quest ran about 30 pages of story, dialogues, event details and progression. It was so critical to me that I captured the essence of those classes in the quests that I did a ton of research and personal time to do it right.

Our community members deserve some applause too. They keep us honest and give us every reason to try to impress and delight them with our game. Let it not be forgotten that every single one of us has shared the same awe and wonder of the EQ word as our customers... and we still do. Every day here is fun because we all share a passion for what we do. I mean, come on, we make a video game.

Travis McGeathy, Lead Designer Holly Longdale, Assistant Lead Designer Terry Michaels, Lead Programmer EverQuest: The Buried Sea Sony Online Entertainment

Wrap Reports are intended to complement reviews by providing a post-release viewpoint we seldom see, that of the developer and/or publisher. Since introducing this format in November of 2003, we have had the pleasure to publish quite a few, primarily within the RPG and online world categories, with selected action and strategy games also represented. A complete list of the previous ones may be found on the next page. - Ed.