If you’ve ever been to the annual gaming bonanza known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo, you know that it’s something of a chaotic mess.  I mean this in the nicest way possible, as no other event offers as much information for the enthusiastic gamer in such a short time.  However, trying to completely cover an event like E3 in three days with the two or three journalists 2404.org will be able to send to attend is a tall order, to say the least.  Luckily, some companies do try to make it easier.  Sony Online Entertainment, a Sony subsidiary best known for its MMORPGs EverQuest and EverQuest II, is one such company.  At a four-hour event held in San Francisco on March 2^nd, SOE did its best to inform us, the gaming press, of what’s going on in the online game publisher’s world.  Needless to say, it was a very pleasant experience and a far cry from the insanity of E3.  We’ve been under embargo not to divulge anything we’d learned at the event until today, which is two weeks before E3.

To be blunt, SOE can use the exposure.  Its biggest recent project, EverQuest II, was by no means a flop, but every MMO looks a flop compared to Blizzard’s World of WarCraft.  Some of the other MMOs it has published, such as Matrix Online and Star Wars Galaxies have been poorly received.  That said, the press event highlighted a few promising new games, as well as updates and expansions to existing ones.

Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising

Easily the most interesting game showcased, Gods & Heroes is an MMORPG developed by Perpetual Entertainment, who inked an agreement with Sony Online to distribute the game.  The game was playable, and Chris McKibbin, co-founder and president of Perpetual, demoed it individually, which was really nice.  In addition, the lead designer Stieg Hedlund – who previously designed such classics as Diablo and Diablo II – talked to press members about the game individually, and he gave a big-screen presentation of the game, as well.

G&H’s setting is ancient Rome, 300 B.C.  It doesn’t try to be too historical, however, as it features Hercules, the Titans, and the Roman gods as major parts of the back story, which appears to figure prominently, at least in the early game.  As usual, the player picks a class (gladiator, rogue, scout, warrior, healer, etc.) and embarks on missions featuring lots and lots of combat.  Combat is clearly the big focus of Rome Rising, as the game admittedly lacks features like trade skills (which I’ve always found kind of bland, personally).  The combat system will be the game’s biggest separator in the MMO market.  As a cool feature, the player is able to recruit up to 7 AI-controlled minions (squad mates) to assist in the game’s quests and general combat (in all, a group can consist of up to 8 AIs and/or human players, though the ability to recruit AIs is limited by level).  The minions can be individually scripted, in a system similar but seemingly more flexible than that in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.  For example, Mr. McKibbin demonstrated placing the squad mates into a formation in a 10x10 grid schematic.  He then moved his group into a boss battle in that formation, with a group of mages doing task A separately from a group of healers doing task B.

Another aspect of the gameplay concerned Roman gods.  The player chooses a god alignment; for example, you’ll be able to choose to server Jupiter, the uber-god of thunder.  This grants abilities like hurling lightning from the sky courtesy of Mr. Jupiter himself.  This seemed vaguely reminiscent of the Guardian Forces in Final Fantasy VIII, but that was likely a purely surface impression.

While the individual demo I witnessed concentrated on the apparently highly tactical battles, Mr. Hedlund did emphasize that what I was seeing was complex because of the high levels involved.  He underlined the fact that the game was also made for solo battles, and that the combat is fairly visceral and action-oriented, especially at the lower levels.  He repeatedly made clear that Rome Rising is not particularly geared toward “hardcore” gamers the way EverQuest II is, for instance.   Graphically, it certainly looked the part.  While the demo environments were a bit rough around the edges – to be expected in an alpha demo – the character models and animations looked nice and authentic.  The player character’s moves looked particularly authentic, as the gladiator hacked with his Gladius sword at monsters including Hydras and other mythical creatures.

EverQuest and EverQuest II

SOE officials talked about what’s new in the worlds of EQ and EQ2.  EQ, which is Sony Online’s megahit, is astonishingly still going and going, with further enhancements – 7 years and 11 expansion packs later!  EverQuest now features over 63,000 items and 375 zones.  The recent expansion pack, The Prophecy of Ro, adds 12 zones and raise the level cap to 75.  SOE also showed the graphics upgrades the game engine has received, with a series of convincing before-and-after shots proving that EverQuest’s graphics are far closer to the standards of 2006 than 1999.

Overall, I was impressed with EverQuest’s persistence.  It recently received a star at the Walk of Game (sic), and this accolade is well-deserved, at least in light of the game’s incredible popularity.

Of course, most of the above only matters to those already playing EverQuest, as there is almost no chance someone would choose to start playing the game today, in 2006.  SOE hopes that is not the case for the sequel.  The EverQuest II team is busy pumping out Adventure Packs and expansion packs, with EQ2: Kingdom of Sky recently out.  The current push seems to be for Player-vs.-Player combat, with six PvP servers instead of one or two, as was recently the case.  The team also seems proud of the game’s evolving art style, reportedly featuring some anime elements in the next Adventure Pack.  Whatever else can be said of EQ2, we know its powerful graphical engine – which is technically miles ahead of WoW’s, can definitely handle it.

Star Wars Galaxies

Now, SWG is a controversial game, at least for those that play it.  Since its release, it has gained a relatively small but loyal following in the MMORPG community.  The main criticism was that despite the license, Star Wars Galaxies didn’t really “feel” like Star Wars.  Despite this, however, the game could be appreciated on a regular MMORPG level.  With 2404.org lacking an SWG player in our midst, it’s difficult to explain what exactly happened next from personal experience.

However, in the press event, SOE PR officials tackled the problem head-on, especially in individual conversation.  Long story made short, the expansion Trials of Obi-Wan was published in November 2005, to a generally positive reception from the game’s players.  However, two days later, Sony Online announced the so-called “Next-Generation Enhancements,” a mandatory patch that radically changed the game’s core mechanics.  The aim was to make the game feel more like Star Wars, with a quasi-3^rd-person-shooter real-time feel which I got to experience personally at the event.  The reception of the NGE was overwhelmingly negative, and its release timing a couple of weeks after the expansion was dubiously chosen.  At this pre-E3 press event, SOE officials repeatedly admitted that the timing was unfortunate, which is fully in line with them having offered refunds for Trials of Obi-Wan to those interested.

However, no apologies were made about the concept of NGE.  SOE believes NGE is good for the long-term appeal of the game, which is currently 5^th in subscriber base in North America.

Beyond the controversies, SWG producer Mario Rizzo spoke about the enhancements planned in the game in 2006.  These include the Heavy Weapon System (manned turrets), player-controllable spacecraft, and special abilities such as Entertainer and Trader.  (The NGE job system is far simplified over the original game’s multitude of jobs, many of which were very similar to each other.)  Mr. Rizzo also spoke of the PvP bounty system.  He described it like this: Let’s say some jerk kills you for no reason.  No problem – put a bounty on his head!  Now, another human may get him for you; you part with some cash, but your spiteful tendencies have been stroked and placated.  Sounds good to me!

In conclusion

Sony Online is easily the most prolific online game publisher and developer.  The pre-E3 press event showed that they’re willing to maintain and extend even the oldest of their properties, including the original EverQuest.  At the same time, Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising is a major original property which, given its acclaimed design team, could easily give World of WarCraft a run for its money when it comes out later this year.  We at 2404.org are looking forward to it.

Related Materials:

Gods & Heroes screenshots

Two Everquest II: Expansion Pack 3 zone screens and other concept art

Everquest II: Adventure Pack 3 screenshots and concept art