Celebrate EQ's 12 years with a look back and an interview with John Smedley

Time grows many layers, and this is especially true in MMORPGs. After all, not only are new quests, stories and chunks of content added to a game as it goes along, but the players themselves add their own memories and experiences to the mix. MMOs truly are virtual worlds, and they change over time and become richer. EverQuest is no exception. After 12 years of adventure, danger, and story-telling, the game shows no signs of stopping.

What is planned for the game? How will the last 12 years affect the decisions for the next 12 years? EverQuest has been one of the flagships of the genre, but how does a game of its age maintain any type of market visibility? Massively sat down with SOE President John Smedley, EQ Assistant Lead Designer Alan VanCouvering, and Associate Producer Harvey Burgess to find out. We'll also be taking a look back at the long history of Norrath and will even throw in some nuggets about EverQuest Next.

Click past the cut and let's take a look! The beginning

EverQuest launched on the 16th of March in 1999. Reading that now can almost send chills down a gamer's spine, especially when one considers how fickle the market can be. How can a game survive for so long, and how does it put out new content -- 17 expansions! -- and continue to attract new players?

If we look at popular music as a comparison, you will find bands that have outlived fads, chart-toppings, and musical trends. Normally, those bands have maintained a connection with their core audiences or have attempted to maintain a sort of consistency to their sounds. At the least, they tend to regroup and return to their original sounds after years of experimentation.

"Having a long-term community like EverQuest's can make things a lot more interesting. Players can be more vocal, more accurate when describing an issue, and much more passionate."

An MMO like EverQuest is a lot like a once very popular band. The world of Norrath has weathered the onslaught of dozens of other titles, including the obnoxious-drunk-guy-who-talks-during-the-ballad, World of Warcraft. Listening to your fans helps, according to Alan VanCouvering: "You have to understand more than just the vocal minority." Luckily, the development team makes use of its in-game polling system to get a real feel for what the majority of players think. Having a long-term community like EverQuest's can make things a lot more interesting. Players can be more vocal, more accurate when describing an issue, and much more passionate. After all, many of them have spent well over a decade building their characters.

According to John Smedley, the game has "a lot of players who might have started out when they were 20, and now they're 32 and have kids that they have introduced to the game. You really start to think about a lot of these people having social groups that they formed and guilds that they formed, and literally, they have personal friends -- it's a pretty amazing sight to see." Still, new players need to be designed for as well. "It's hard not to listen to the old players primarily," said Alan, "but we have to be aware that we have new players."

What about those older players? The modern-day EQ player is, according to Smed, "Seventy-nine, eighty percent, somewhere in there... male, average age of about 38, and someone who is well-educated, and who spends a lot of time in the game, somewhere around 20 hours a week. It might be a little higher than that. They're definitely really committed."

"Even with the controversial moves that made EverQuest more accessible, the game is still no walk in the park."

Does this mean that we will no longer see the giant question marks and obvious hand-holding that is so prevalent in today's "AAA" market? Orignial EverQuest was (and still is) prized for its ability to make players work hard for their levels. Even with the controversial moves that made EverQuest more accessible, the game is still no walk in the park. One look at veteran players' "Return to Fippy" blog posts will show you how all of us have changed since the invention of the giant yellow question mark. Norrath is a large, open, and challenging world to live in.

"We're not trying to recreate the wheel," Smedley cautioned. "We're trying to do something revolutionary, not evolutionary. The game looks visually unbelievable; it has its own style. We're not trying to be super realistic with it. It's a very unique style that we're going with." Unfortunately, he wouldn't give us anything juicy: "The features are going to be shrouded in mystery for quite a while."

The future of EQ

So what do you do after 12 years of providing adventure and fun for hundreds of thousands of players? Do games like EverQuest ever have an "end"? One important note is that EverQuest has remained more or less the same game it's always been. That means graphically, as well. Some players boast running the game on original machines from the time when they first started playing. There have been a few graphical updates, most importantly to character models during the time of the Shadows of Luclin expansion, and the system has been tweaked to provide bells and whistles for players who might want them.

Still, the game can run on a basic laptop or a hand-me-down PC, something that remains important to the team. "Every couple of years we go through and see how other games look compared to EverQuest," Harvey Burgess told us. "One thing we keep in mind is that we do have a lot of players since the beginning, and we make sure they do not have to go out and buy a new system to play our game. It's been difficult to keep up, but EverQuest is where it's supposed to be." EverQuest is no slouch, though, and Alan agrees: "I would literally put our zone art up against any game right now and be pleased with the result."

There are a lot of plans for the near future, as well, like enabling past quests from years of development and releasing a new open area raid. This time around, though, the devs have taken lessons learned from past mistakes and have made it easier for multiple raid groups to participate. Expansions will also continue down their normal production cycles. Every year, the developers go through a three-year plan, and each year they assume the same thing: EverQuest will continue on for at least the next three years, with new expansions in tow. Does this mean expansion number 20 is in the realm of possibility? It would be exciting, to say the least!

Where does EverQuest go next? The panelists are confident about the game's prospects. "We're going to continue to put out awesome content, bigger and better in the future. We are not at a loss of ideas, and we constantly reevaluate the direction we are going. We're definitely still going strong. Until we find something we do not agree with, we will still provide that content that players have grown to love."

Here's hoping we see many, many more years of EverQuest adventures! We'd like to thank Alan, John, and Harvey for taking time out of their busy days to sit and talk with us. We'd also like to say congratulations to the team! Whether you are a long-time player or you have just recently considered diving into the world of Norrath, you will find a dozen years of stories, player interactions and adventure.

You just might get your butt kicked, too.