As Kunark approaches closer and closer to becoming a reality I find
myself wondering.As Kunark approaches closer and closer to becoming a reality I find
myself wondering.
Where has the adventure gone? Will Kunark really revive it?
I think back to 9 months ago when EQ was young. I recall every new zone being an adventure. The Karanas a wide vast unexplored plane of danger. Language festivals, colleges, challenging games, all very popular and wonders gatherings of people, an undertaking and adventure in itself.
You couldn't venture deep into the dungeons, because no one was high level. Getting a new item was thrilling and bewildering. You couldn't just run up to camp x in a zone, because few knew where everything was.
The world was new, the players souls young, every step an adventure.
Summary / Solution / Truth
I highly doubt Kunark will bring back the awe and excitement that was EQ one year ago. Now players are in a constant rush. We don't explore, we camp. We don't quest, we harvest. We don't gape in awe at the new item we aquired, we check our web printed spoiler list and see what we want to get next.
I find myself thinking of Kunark, and realize it's a simple addition. It's adding more zones, a new race and new items.
To revitalize the adventure would take much more. The mystery will be there sure, but very rapidly will it's knowledge be plastered over the web, very quickly will players know spawn points of items, have lists for them, and abbreviations for quick sale.
Not too long ago EQ Vault was supporting news of fabulous language colleges, games, contests of strength, marriage. Now, if you hear about 2 or 3 events a week it's a big deal. Now it's mostly posts about players griping about this or that change, and / or Gordon or Brad responding in their defense.
I hope the adventure will be renewed. That there will be zones so amazingly large there 5x the size of the Karanas. That you don't dare walk across it alone for fear of loosing yourself forever. That players won't find out it's secrets so quickly and plaster it on the web.
Will the adventure be renewed? Will it just be more zones, more items, and more 'kill, rest, repeat'? We will see.
PS- I wonder if Verant has considered what 50% their current players online will do to their network. Just a quick calculation, 250 k users at 50% = 125 k users. 125 k users divided by 28 servers = 4,500 users per server. Crash city. It will be interesting to see what happens on Kunark day.