|
Player of the Week: Bravehardt 
Real Name: C. Matthew Allakhazam Name: Rosleck Character Name: Bravehardt Character Race: Human Character Class: Cleric Deity: Mithaniel Marr Server: Stromm Guild: Majestic Might Guild Website: http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=11912 Guild Rank: Member (former Officer and Guild Leader) Length of Time in Guild: In my first membership almost 2 years. Current membership time, since the end of September this year. Real World Location: Pittsburgh, PA Career / Employment Industry: I work for a national cell phone provider as an inventory coordinator. Hobbies: EQ, Babylon 5, PC RPG’s, WWE, Reading. Family? Yup. Wife Pamur Wishsong (player), step son Kleiver and step daughter. Your Website: I don’t see myself as being interesting enough to have a website. Besides EverQuest, what other MMORPGs have you played? I have played EQ2, WoW, LotR, CoH, Vanguard, Planetside and SWG. They all lacked the depth of EverQuest and the immersive lore. EQ2 just served to make me realize how much I missed EQ. How did you find out about EverQuest, and when did you begin playing? I remember having read about these "online games" and wanted to give them a shot. I was an old school D&D player and if I remember correctly I had it down to EQ and FF. I started playing EQ right after PoP came out. I’m pretty sure I made the correct decision. Do you know anyone in real life who plays EverQuest? Yup, my wife and step son both play. We all have 1 "main" and a multitude of lower alts we play broken down into different groups. How did you come up with your main character's name? I was watching the movie Bravehart as I was installing the original game and patching on dial up. I decided I wanted to try both a Pally and a Cleric, and the Cleric became Bravehardt. What factors affected your choice of race / class for your main character? After a few false starts I decided I liked the look of (the old) Freeport, so I started there. About how often do you play EverQuest, and how long is a typical playing session for you? I play every day. Normally on a work day I play 3-4 hours. On a weekend I will play most of the day. How do you spend your time in game? I prefer to spend my time grouping through any content first and foremost. Soloing or boxing would come in second and raiding dead last. What other class/race combinations have you levelled past 35? 69 Ranger, 61 Druid, 54 Necro, 52 Pally, 52 Shammy, 42 Monk, 40 Bard and many lower ones. Approximately how much of the EverQuest world have you experienced? 95% of the "old world" and various bits and pieces of the later expansions. What is your favourite expansion? My favorite would be the original. My fondest memories of the game are from wandering through the Commonlands, Befallen, and Ro. I loved Orc 1 and the Orc highway... hearing the /OOC cries of "Griffon passing inn 1 heading east". Back then the game really had the feel of a great adventure. What is your least favourite expansion? PoP. I feel that PoP started the downfall of the grouping game and to raiding becoming the focus of the game. What is your favourite zone? It would have to be the City of Mist. I loved the camps there, the trains, the mix of live and undead mobs. Runners up would be the Tower of Frozen Shadows and the Bastion of Thunder. What is your favourite NPC? Fippy Darkpaw. He adds a lot of humor to the Qeynos noobie grounds =D What is your favourite raid encounter (if different from NPC)? Uggg raiding... I would say Rallos Zek if I had to. Sorry to the raiders out there, but as a cleric I can think of a lot more fun things to do than to stare at the healer window following the chain. Any class has to be more fun in a raid. If the war between Firiona Vie and Lanys T`Vyl erupted again, which side would you take? Friona Via. Go go go good team! Describe your most memorable moment or proudest accomplishment in game. I have to split this one 50/50. Getting my 1.0 on my cleric back in the days where a 1.0 couldn’t be soloed is one. The second is watching my Real life wife get her Bards 1.0 as still a fairly new player to the game. What is the largest amount of platinum you have ever had at one time, and how did you go about accumulating it? Around 300K. I spent way too much time back then playing "day trader EQ". What are some things you would change or implement in order to improve EverQuest? So what would make EQ better...? I think first we need to look at the 800-pound gorilla in the room: WoW. Why does WoW have 9 million + accounts? Several reasons... It's accessible to all types of gamers. Are you casual? It's really easy to solo to the level cap. Want a low level guild? There are lots... Mid level? Lots... High end raid? Lots... Seamless zones... Easy-to-follow quest system... Tradeskills are simple... Anyone from 10 years old to 90 can join and learn the game and be good at it... Lots of mods available. Why does WoW fail IMHO? The community... Imagine the old days of PC chat in every zone... Random kills in a "contested area" of your toon... A little too simplistic... Your character looks way too cartoony... And the community... The community is what really made me want to never play WoW again... Too many kids, Chuck Norris references and just plain morons... The world is really small... not a lot of places to explore... The places that are there are done well, but after you have finished leveling up a toon, there are not a lot of options of new places to see. I never knew how much I hated children before WoW. So how do we "fix" EQ? 1. Offer the original game along with Kunark and Velous in gamer mags for FREE! Replace the loading screens with ads about the things you find in other expansions... "Fight the gods in PoP", etc... This will draw new players to the game. 2. Keep reworking the graphics... OK, the new Freeport sucks, but most of the other revamps were done well. Yes the game is getting close to 10 years old but freshing it up a bit wouldn’t be bad. 3. As EQ is top-heavy, increase the ZEM permanently in the older, unused zones. That would give new players a way to catch up. Who wants to join a game where you may not get a group until level 65+? 4. As said above lock out PoK Until level 20 or so. Get the old starting cities filled up again. 5. Fix the broken quests. Look at making the quest system a little more like WoW's. I know EQ derived from the old D&D and Muds but these days players are looking for a little more ease in playing and not so much looking up every detail on Allas. 6. Add more solo content for ALL classes. Nothing like 30 min to 4 hours LFG... Oh you could play cards... but if I wanted to do that I would play spades... Give something to the players to do while LFG. 7. Add more group content. Add more high-end gear available to groups. "Welcome to the game new guy... Oh, you like my BP... Well its available in the Uber Raid of Doom Zone... You need to be on a 72-person raid to get it & have 10 keys to be able to get into the zone... Only high end guilds can go there... You will need 500+ AA and max level to join one..." The focus on raids is what started the decline in EQ. To get the good gear you have to guild hop and grind to gain access to the top end to be able to do so. There should be a difference from raid to group, but I would make it like RK 1, 2, 3 spells... Rk 1 BP of uberness is soloable... Rk 2 groupable... Rk 3 raid... Make each one a nice bump up in stats from the earlier one. This gives incentive for new players to play and group! One time, EQ was about grouping not just raiding. 8. Add quests that involve going to multiple zones in EQ... How many zones are there? 300+? How many are used frequently? a few. Draw folk into the existing zones and make them fun. Bring back players to the unused zones... Bring back boats as well! I'm sorry to say EQ is on a long slow decline. It needs new players to stay alive and there is NO incentive for a new player ATM. In the old days there were lowbie guilds... mid-tier... high-end raid guilds... With the death of new players there are no low end guilds. The mid tier guilds are just there to supply the high-end guild with members after they make their requirements for entry. At some point the mid-tier guilds will go the way of the low-tier guilds and disappear... Then the high enders will have no where to get their members. There was a rumor I read that mentioned EQ 3... And it may be a revamp of EQ... Not a bad idea for the 10th anniversary, as so long as they don't screw with the old world too much and add a massive ad campaign "come back to where it all began"... What types of spells, skills, disciplines, and/or alternate abilities would you like to see added to your class? I would love to see more solo ability added to clerics so we would not have to be as group dependent. If you were responsible for organizing and running a GM event, what would it be and how would it play out? I would love to run the taking back of Friona Vie from the dark elves. Storming the city, house to house fighting to reclaim the land, this could be the best GM event ever! If you had to start over from scratch, what race/class combination would you choose? I can't see starting over at this point. If I had to, it would be a Dark Elf Necro. How come? Lower level zones are ghost towns and I would have to solo my way up again. How do you describe EverQuest to your coworkers or computer-illiterate friends? It's a mix of Lord of the rings and a chat room online. What is next for you in the world of EverQuest? The long grind to 80. ** Pick the winner in a battle between... Qeynos vs Felwithe - Felwithe Innoruuk the Prince of Hate vs Cazic Thule the God of Fear - Cazic Thule Giants of Velious vs Akhevans of Luclin - The giants! Muramites of Discord vs the Drachnids of Darkhollow - The drachnids Tradeskilling vs Questing - Questing!!! Instance Zones vs Static Zones - Either or. Instances were great back in the day when more people played and you want to have a private little zone to play in. Monster Missions vs Project M (PvP as Monsters) - Neither Soloing vs Pick-Up Groups - This is a hard one. I prefer to group, but have had more bad PuGs than bad solos. Guild Raiding vs Grouping With Friends - Grouping with friends! GM (real people) Events vs Scripted (computerized) Events - GM Events (remember those?) Arena Royal Rumble vs 1-on-1 Duel - Royal Rumble Faydwer vs Odus - Odus Kunark vs Velious - Kunark Planes of Power vs Gates of Discord - PoP Depths of Darkhollow vs Omens of War - Depths of Darkhollow Bard vs Enchanter - Bard Monk vs Rogue - Monk Paladin vs Warrior - Paladin Allakhazam vs Illia - Illia. He makes the site work! 
|
