IN OTHER EQ NEWS… [Author: lum]

Yes, there is some. Today is a huge patch for EQ, bringing it into compliance with/requiring DirectX7, adding a slew of interface enhancements, and supposedly fixing quests. My lizzy shaman thanks you, oh mighty quest godlings.

Gordon “I STILL WORK HERE DAMMIT” Wrinn posted a few days back on the planned future of Everquest. Basically, all basic design and balance issues would be “closed and locked”, and future development would focus on new content to the exclusion of all else.

Here’s the deal. Following Velious we will begin to freeze aspects of the game. We will become as firm on various issues as we have been on subjects such as melee binding or experience curves. Things that aren’t related to content will be closed down. First skills and their caps, stats, etc, followed by spells from the bottom up. We’ll then start reviewing some of the rarer items as well as quest rewards. Within a month or two we’ll get to the point that we’ll be focusing solely on content-related issues such as implementing new quests, fixing old ones, and more or less moving forward all of the time.

Nice work if you can get it; UO is still balancing its skills/characters four years after release. Then again UO didn’t get slammed by Jesus Christ, either!

Designers create female characters typically wearing outfits that resemble a rubber band and dental floss to cover their breasts and buttocks in combat while male characters are covered head-to-toe with plate armor. (Sexist or what?!) While only 7% of the online players in “Everquest” are actually female, a little over 50% of the played characters are female. This means about half of the male players are creating female characters and dressing them out of a Victoria\’e2\’80\’99s Secret catalogue. It is obvious that this is a male fantasy world.

You know, the thought of a 52 yr old pedophile manning the controls of that nubile wood elf druid makes me want to join a monastery. WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? (He’d play a cleric. DUH.)