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Everquest Coming To the PS2
Boone^ writes "CNET's News.com is reporting that Sony is launching their online network with a bang as the most addictive, non-narcotic drug to ever grace a computer screen will now come to you in full NTSC quality courtesy of the PS2. Currently the release date for both the online network and "EverQuest Online Adventure" are TBA." The article points out part of the reason for introduction will be to drive sales of the Ps2 ethernet adaptor. Now, I haven't played since the Kunark expansion, but I'm hoping this version takes advantage of the Ps2's graphic capabilites, rather then what I've seen on EQ before.
And thus Sony gaines the experience of running an MMORPG from the Playstation2, that they might pass it on to SquareSoft for Final Fantasy XI .. and the Lord looked upon it, and saw that it was good. ;)
EQ PS2 features:
* Crazed loner mode cuts off upcoming broadband connectivity so you can be alone with the voices in your head
* New soundtrack by Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest
* Free Paxil to first 100 buyers
Suicide-blaming entertainment is now coming to a console near you!
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
great. i will finally be able to get my wife off of the pc. but now i will never be able to watch tv :(
Haven't we already concluded that Everquest leads to suicide? (link).
Surely this is a foolish move on Sony's part. Not only are they opening themselves up to potential legal action, but they're killing off their users!
I'm confused. I had thought that one of the big problems with all the UQ expansions is all of the RAM needed for all of the new stuff, and all of the possible combinations of character/items that it has to worry about displaying. Doesn't the PS2 have, like, 8 Meg? How is this going to happen in anything but a stripped down version?
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
I know a lot of hardcore Geeks think only Dorks play these kinds of games, but they really have value and you should check them out. To me EverQuest is an evolutionary step towards what VR environments will be like in the future. I first started thinking that about the Doom/Quake series, but EverQuest took it to a whole new level, albeit in a different genre. The immersiveness is amazing, just don't get hooked on the social crap there.
11*43+456^2
Everquest was bad enough on small, VGA-quality monitors with tinny speakers and uncomfortable office chairs. But if Sony is allowed to introduce it into America's living rooms, where it can be experienced on 50-inch TV screens with full Dolby Digital and a comfortable La-Z Boy recliner, we may lose an entire generation of our youth. They will become mindless drooling zombies that only leave the house to get more Jolt and Cheez Balls. As a result we may lose the war on terrorism. Therefore I think the government needs to examine this very carefully before such a release is allowed.
thank you
Great, now I have to buy a PS2 and broadband adapter thingy, and keyboard/mouse, all to get a worse quality crack than I have right now in my computer...
But ya know, I'll do it cause I'm an addict.
*sigh*
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
"It's going to work in a similar manner (to the PC game,) but its very much a streamlined interface and to a degree streamlined game play," he said. "We're making sure it's very easy to get into it and start doing things quickly."
IMO, this will cause the PS2 version to be different enough from the PC version so that it won't be as successful. Add to the fact that you will need a bunch of peripherals to chat for the game (can you say 'expensive'?), and this will drive away all but the really hardcore Everquest gamers.
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
In other words, will PS2 users play in the same world as PC users?
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Very doubtful. While the PS2 chipset can drive a good framerate, the minimal memory and total absence of a hard drive would require stripping loads of detail from what you see on a PC. This engine is about a real *bulk* of data, not the small set of detailed models and textures in a typical console game.
Getting that sort of game, designed and optimized just for PCs, to run at all on the PS2 is going to be a real feat.
EQ is a graphical MUD, a chat room with some role playing. It is not an action game, and a poor substitute for an adventure game. Streamline it for console? Hmmm... game is already mostly brain-dead... What makes it worthwhile is the human element provided by chat, and if this is missing from the console version what good is it?
There's two words I've never heard together before...
There's nothing wrong with playing games per se, but I think that games where you do cool stuff you never usually do, like fly jet fighters, and games where you achieve something more than holding a text converstaion with another similar loser, are far superior.
Please tell me where in "real life" I can go slay orcs and dragons, and cast really big pretty magic spells.
When I heard of people getting 'married' in these games, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
I guess being happy for someone actually enjoying themselves is not an option for you, huh. They gotta either enjoy it your way or be pitied by you, even if they're having fun.
Christ all fucking mighty, be nice.
...but I think that games where you do cool stuff you never usually do...
To start, pay attention to what you wrote.
People who do this are living lives they can't live here and now. Maybe they're not attractive. Maybe they're balding epileptics who live in their mother's house and spend all damn day between contracts playing Everquest. Maybe I have good friends like this, and maybe you should back the fuck off. My bud is having it hard, and self-esteem issues like his aren't helped when some self-appointed judge comes along and calls him a loser.
Or maybe, I'm just havin' fun. Dunno.
-eBay stock raises 10 points. .tv domains won't sell, the island of Tuvali announces plans to produce and export Everquest high-level characters.
-After accepting that
-Microsoft denounces Sony's plot to monopolize the online gaming world, giving the PS2 an unfair advantage over Xbox.
-A woman, who blames Everquest for her son's suicide, calls for action against what she calls "an incoming genocide".
-Thousands of Slashdot readers comment. "It's so cool", says some. "So, who cares?", says others. But the predominant opinion is "Microsoft still sucks".
I'm not going to talk about the "use a USB ethernet as a hack", but this is interesting for me.
Please not: this is not a rag on the Xbox. Well, it is, but it's not a rag because it's an Xbox, it's a rag because I like my Xbox and wish MS would stop being shitheads about managing it.
Anyway. Rewind the clock about a year to last years E3, where the Big Three (Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony) were sitting up, talking about their new consoles. I remember this discussion:
Interviewer: So, tell us about your online gaming plans.
Nintendo: Online gaming? We want to make fun games. We'll include online gaming if we need it.
Sony: We have a deal with AOL, and we're going to crush everybody online! Bwahahahaha!
Xbox: We have a built in Ethernet port into the Xbox, so we'll be online out of the box instead of having to buy expensive peripherals, and we'll crush everybody online! Bwahahahaha!
Now, fast forward to November, when I picked up my Xbox, and read in the help manual (page 15 I believe) that said:
Broadband support is coming in June of 2002. Deal with it.
Now we have Sony about to bring out their Ethernet/Hard drive adapter for the PS2. Will it make it as powerful as the Xbox? Probably not - unless you have the Linux kit, you won't be able to rip MP3's to the local hard drive (though I'm sure software developers will get that out), nor can you save games to the hard drive (unless the game is specifically programmed to do so - I could be wrong on this, but I don't think I am.)
Anyway. The point here is this:
Sony, at this rate, will beat the Xbox to true broadband Internet support without using a 3rd party hack. They will do so with Everquest behind them, Final Fantasy XI, and Star Wars: Galaxies. I can plug any standard USB keyboard/mouse into it, and it will work perfectly.
We still don't know what the Xbox plans are. While it has an Ethernet port, it only works on a local UDP network (unless you do some hacking with routers/Gamespy Arcade to get it online). Maybe there will be an update to add simple TCP/IP support, but why this support wasn't out of the fucking box I'll never know. (Come on - isn't the TCP/IP stack BSD license based? This should have been a no brainer, even if they had to put support in the Flash Bios or something instead of the hard drive. And they wouldn't have to worry about those "evil" GNU folks spoiling the party, since BSD doesn't make you share code.)
The Xbox will have... Seriously, I don't recall. Probably Morrowind (maybe - that's a single player game only right now), Halo of course, and some other games. I can't plug any USB things into it, so I have to spend more money for an Xbox keyboard/mouse (which I haven't seen announced yet - they could be out there, I just don't know.)
I like my Xbox - once I replace the controller, I'll like it even more. But I love my PS2, and Sony's making it hard not to like it more. And while I can't stand MMRPG's (experience, level, lather, rinse, repeat), I'm just interested enough in some of them (Final Fantasy XI), in the hard drive, and other bits that make me think that Sony's going to continue to stay in the lead.
Now, if we can just clear up their RIAA issues, and I'll really like them....
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
I wonder when the 512 MB memory upgrade for my Playstation 2 will be availble? :)
I think that what is obvious is that you were trolled by Hemos. Good job editors!
Lasers Controlled Games!
I hope your "friend" gets real better soon.
El Karma: excelente(principalmente la suma de moderación hecha a los comentarios de los usuarios)
Just look at Phanatasy Star Online: the entire system was destroyed by cheaters. Online gaming with the console simply isn't going to happen.
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
that these games that 'simulate' real life are a BIG waste of time
/. itself is another form of that as long as you're a poster (gee, look, you are - and a rather prolific one as well). Social interaction hasn't been limited to face-to-face meetings ever since the invention of writing. The Internet, in all its varied forms, is just another version thereof.
In no way, shape, or form does EQ, UO, AO, DAoC, etc. simulate "real life". They don't even vaguely attempt to.
They do vaguely attempt to simulate a fantasy world, but most of the nitty gritty stuff that makes life real is not simulated.
Talking to people online isn't simulated either. The fact that you seem to think so shows just how vapid and shallow you really are. There's a real person on the other end of those pixels, who has feelings, thoughts, and motivations just like you do. And therein lies the rub, and the reason why EQ and other MMORPGs have a following that eclipses pretty much every other game out there. Because not only do they allow you to "do cool stuff you never usually do", but they allow you to make friends, chat, and have the social interaction that is lacking in most other games.
Yes, yes, scoff if you want at the concept of social interaction. Then realize that
If you haven't played an MORPG (which includes MUDs) then you won't Get It. Quake and the like aren't the same - the little interaction there is mostly trash talk. IRC, Instant Messanging, and so forth are pretty similar to MORPG's though. All of them allow the intellectual excercise of talking to an intelligent being that is not yourself, and who may agree or disagree with your goals, thoughts, yada yada yada. Yeah, I know, seems all mystic-y and crap, but that's a lot of what human interaction comes down to.
Why do "losers" (your term, not mine) gravitate toward online interaction? Because for introverted personalities (which most geeks are), it's easier to hide behind a persona than it is to go out in real life. It's a matter of comfort and of being able to distance yourself. And to lower those facades at a speed you feel comfortable with (and yes, they do come down as you get to know people better).
All of the crap that occurs in face-to-face interaction - bickering, rumormongering, petty feuds, etc. happen online as well. All of the good stuff - friendships, loves, happiness, etc. can happen as well.
When I heard of people getting 'married' in these games, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Shrug. I've always thought these things were rather silly myself. Most of the real life couples I know who are married aren't married "in-game". Probably because it's assumed they're married.
And I know people who gotten married to people they met online. Most of them don't have "in-game" marraiges either. I don't.
People are dying to play Everquest. What are you waiting for?
That would quickly become a nightmare the moment they decided to release a patch for the PC version. Unless they are going to require you to add a hard drive to your PS2 as well, there is no way they are going to be able to patch a PS2 version to match.
Actually, you could get around this by having the game contact Sony for an in-memory patch on startup. Keep updating the patch on the master server, and the game patching takes care of itself.
You'd just have to patch a bit more intelligently than most games do (game patches don't *have* to be megabytes if you're only fixing bugs in the engine code).
Surely it all depends on what the client side does? If all you end up doing is sending character data, co-ordinates etc why should it be particularily difficult?
The way real-time game synchronization usually works is to take advantage of the fact that copies of the game on identical platforms will behave exactly the same way, given identical input. This lets you only transmit a very small number of state changes between machines in a multi-player game, with the automatic update of the rest of the world keeping most things in sync.
This starts to break down when you have platforms that handle math substantially differently (x86 and MIPS, in this case). Your world-update calculations will produce slightly different results, which will evolve into very large changes if you don't send corrective information every so often.
You can build a game to be resistant to this kind of drift, and to correct this kind of drift, but the usual result is that you have to send considerably more data during updates, with the game possibly becoming more sensitive to latency as well.
My roommate is addicted to Everquest. Yesterday he played for over 12 hours straight (eating microwave food). He plays until he goes to bed then plays when he wakes up. He doesn't go to class anymore. His girlfriend calls him and asks him to come up to his room and he says "not now, I'm playing the game." Friday and Saturday nights he plays Everquest until 6am. He was a quite normal guy before he got the game. But since January he has completely given up on his real life and only cares about his game life. My girlfriend and I never get any 'alone time' in my room because he NEVER LEAVES THE ROOM.
Please help. Is there anything I can do to get him to quit playing Everquest and save him from ruining his life (and my sex life)?
Thanks for any advice.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
- This is not EverQuest as you may know it. This world will not overlap with standard EverQuest. There will be a limited race/class selection, and the world will not require zoning. You will also not get to interact with the rest of the EverQuest player base
- EverQuest in its current form has much improved graphics over what you're used to from the days of Kunark (which was release something like 2 years ago).
- If you haven't tried EQ since Kunark, you're missing much more than just graphics. There's a new playable class (Beastlord), a new race (Vah Shir: the cat people), post-60 advancement, new types of quests and scripted events (zone-wide wars, ring quests/scripts), chat channels (user created), and many more nifty features that older EQ players may want to come back and try out.
If you decide to come back, come look me up. I'm on 7th Hammer, and play Miskaton or Deepone.Sounds like a commercial for the army.
When I heard of people getting 'married' in these games, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.Funny that: When I heard "I really like that ring" in real life, I had the same reaction.
Dear Lord Ender,
I'm not sure what this everquest is, but my staffers tell me its a video game. I remember when my husband was addicted to Pong I had no quaters left over to do laundry!
There are two ways you can deal with this.
Its almost may, and the way it sounds your roomate will be placed on academic probation and most likely not returning next semseter. So if you can hold out a little longer...
The second way to deal with this is to be firm but fair. Let him know that you are concerned that he is damaging his grades and social life. And let him know that his behaviour is damaging your chances of hitting the nappy-dugout. All work and no play makes Jack an angry, vindictive, revenge-monger.
If there is no change in his behavior (and your ability to get some) here is your plan: wake up early (10 am) one morning. Your roomate should be passed out from sheer exhaustion. remove his hard drive. remove his mother board. remove his net-connection. re-format his drive. Or just plain remove his computer. Leave a note in its place. He will be forced to go on a scavenger hunt to reclaim his lost computer! His ram is in a locker at the bus station down town.
His mother board is duct-taped to the bottom of a bench. His hard drive is hidden on the roof of the physics building. Have the clues hidden amongst people he must talk to/interact with to get.
This should take at least a few weeks, keeping him out of the room and giving you valuable "together time" with your honey.
Hope this helps!
Signed,
Ann Landers
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Whats that sound? Thats the sound of every >18 year old rushing to out to cancel their accounts to avoid all 12 year old "suxorsmedonkee" players about to get an account.
They will, in one quick swoop change EQ from a MMORPG to a MMO???.
Oh well, im waiting for PlaneShift or the (really far out it seems) WorldForge -- though it seems the latter is FAR to ambitious to produce any playable MMORPG anytime soon.
"...but I'm hoping this version takes advantage of the Ps2's graphic capabilites, rather then what I've seen on EQ before." Sorry to say it, but the PS2 (nor any other console on the market for that matter) cannot possibly compare itself to a half-decent PC. Sure, the PS2 looks great on a super-low resolution NTSC screen, but at the end of the day, is it going to run Max Payne at 1280x1024 at over 80fps? I don't think so. No console on the market today has that kind of power no matter what the fanboys tell you.
I think, therefore I am an Atheist.
(Today, Yahoo Groups started adding large advertising images to e-mailed group postings.)
It seems most people have missed the point that the EQ for the PS2 will not be the same "world" as the EQ for the PC. This means (thankfully) that current EQ players don't have to deal with the PS2 players who have significantly decreased interaction, or with the limits the processing power and graphics of the PS2 would impact on the main development tree.
In essence, I see EQ for the PS2 as something that will be the same in name only.
Now what was that L/R/R/U/D/A/B combo for dragon punch to Tormax again?
Fear: When you see B8 00 4C CD 21 and know what it means
These games are entertainment. Do you know people who join softball teams and go out and socialize while they play. Or people who go out bowling together, or pick some other hobby. These games are just another hobby that allows people to interact socially with other people.
:)
These games is much more diverse than bowling, or softball. On the other hand you get a lot less exercise playing the game. You also don't get face to face interaction. The lack of face to face interaction has it's benefits and drawbacks.
There's nothing wrong with playing games per se, but I think that games where you do cool stuff you never usually do, like fly jet fighters, and games where you achieve something more than holding a text converstaion with another similar loser, are far superior.
What do you actually achieve in a game where you fly a jet fighter? Both games are entertainment. You do a lot more than hold text conversations with the other players, but it's the interaction with the other players that makes the game unique. Usually, meeting other people is a positive experience, other times, it's not. But it does keep the game interesting.
When I heard of people getting 'married' in these games, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
I guess do whichever you like. I play Asheron's Call, and the in game weddings have been broken for as long as I've played. They apparently just got fixed today. Most people joke about the weddings. Some others take it more seriously, at least from a role playing perspective. Hundreds of thousands of people play these games. There is a tremendously diverse player base. You're idea of two losers chatting probably does exist among that diverse player base, but it's only a small representation.
Of course maybe I'm just one of those "losers" who likes holding text conversations with other "losers". Fine with me, I'm still having fun.
You mean like, "Madden's EverQuest 2002", a crossover game for both groups of players? Heh.... if JM showed up in EverQuest, he'd be depicted as a loud, fat troll with a lot of platinum...
I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
Online games DO have multi-megabyte patches precicsely because they are not simply fixing bugs, they are adding content to justify the monthly fee.
This one apparently won't. I get the feeling that the game will be based on everquest, but will be considerably different in terms of expandability and content. Sounds like a marketing ploy to me, rather than actually bringing Everquest to the PS2.
It's no wonder he has this behavior; you're at OSU. When I was attending that God Forseaken Hellhole in 1994-95, my roommates routinely terrorized me and my property.. because I had a comp-u-tar and it was on the phone (14.4 to a shell account) and what if their grandad had a heart attack at 1am and I was online? So I moved to another room only to have a physically abusive roommate in addition to two more tech-hating yokels from rural Oh-Hi-Uh. This was on North campus where "all the engineering kids are!" Engineers who hated computers. I wonder where THEY are today.
:)
In the mean time, I started playing Magic: The Gathering with a few Graduate students. (This was my first RPG-ish experience... no D&D, no Final Fantasy or anything before that.) Next thing you know I am scrounging for cheap common cards and playing M:TG about 12 hours a day in the Union and the Grad dorm lobby, with another 5 hours spent in the computer labs. I slept between 9am and 4pm. Class was a freaking joke; 400 kids in a class, none of the TAs speaking english as a native language. I hated it, and I was 18 and knew everything. *GRIN* These "anti-social" behaviors only made my roommates hate me more.
By chance I found a girl online with like interests... at the University of Wyoming. We started ytalk'ing all the time, and emailing. I flunked out of OSU, said "see ya!" to my parents who were "so disappointed because I had so much potential," and moved to Wyoming. Married my Internet sweetie. Spent three years cutting my teeth doing desktop support, PC/printer repair, and data wiring.
I came back to Ohio with my wife and draw a salary that is comparable to the ones my idiot roommates were bragging that they would have someday, only WITHOUT the $50,000 in student debt, and five years in a classroom trying to figure out if the Teaching Assistant said "pigeons" or "business."
The difference between me and this guy is that this guy has given up on his gf, which is just plain WRONG. College age is the best time to get good nookie. This guy has taken an entertaining habit to an extreme that crimps your style.
On the other hand, Lord Ender, you have to ask yoruself... are you really a geek, or a geek-oppressor?
SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a
Many online games ban macros, and attempt to enforce those bans through the client code. Players often hack the client in order to cheat. Trying to stop client hacks and prevent macros on clients running on different OS's is an incredibly difficult task. It's an incredibly difficult task even on one OS.
There's also the reality that software has bugs. No developemnt team in their right minds wants to deal with the outrage their customers would express about having one group of customers not being able to do a quest, or not haveing an even chance in player vs player combat because of a client bug that doesn't effect all clients equally. Bugs are bad enough, but a bug that discriminates agains part of the player base fire people up REALLY fast.
An example of a client hack would be to hack the timer which determines how long it takes to cast a spell in the game. Suddenly that player's characters can cast spells twice as fast as other people. They need to be able to detect such hacks from the server side so that they can ban those players.
Developing a game that players can play on multiple platforms is likely going to be too complicated to be practical. It's just too likely that they will piss off their customer base, significantly increase development and especially testing costs, and not gain nearly enough users to justify the effort.
Is there any evidence to the fact that the ancient inhabitants of Norrath were into something else than waiting for some monster to respawn?
Advancement past 60 is not leveling. It's more skill-based (it's called "alternate advancement"). It's a very cool addition to the game, and makes raiding for experience post-60 make sense.
If you see EQ as a single-player game, it sucks after about level 40 or so. If you see it as an opportunity to cooperate and game with lots of others, it only starts to get interesting around those levels.
Many people who play past about 35 get stuck in what's called the "experience grinder". They think that the game doesn't begin until 60, so they have to just sit there and weather the next 25 levels. Unfortunately, they find that that's very boring and stop, or worse, they get to 60 and find that it's just more of the same (in some ways).
What people like myself find is that EQ presents almost too much variety, and if you just spend all of your time going into the 5-10 zones that EVERYONE is in, and grouping up with fast pullers, you're missing 90% of the game.
Yah, like one of my fav moments in EQ was when my cleric was around level 12... we had a full group and we descided to take on crushbone. We actually ended up taking on the castle and held it pretty well. Fortunatly for us there was a couple high level players camping the high level npc's. (and who appricated having us sitting there camping the lower level stuff so they did not have to deal with them).
:)
It was great, before long we where all around level 14-15.
It was pretty fun... one time one of the higher level npc's spawned without a high level player to camp it... we where doing alright until it spawned.. then the magic users where running out of mana and the tanks where running low on health... RUN RUN.. I stayed back and tried helping the tanks... think one died... I fell out the window on accedent at the end... which is funny because thats what saved my life! LOL.
It was great because it was very challenging. We where holding our own, but each of us had to do our best in keeping the group alive. And the thrill of being able to sit in the orc castle for an hour is just great
Another thing thats kinda exciting is trying to trek from freeport to quenos in a small low level group... LOL. Screw teleports, lets adventure!
Luke
Another thing thats kinda exciting is trying to trek from freeport to quenos in a small low level group... LOL. Screw teleports, lets adventure!
Heh... sounds like a fun player event. Call it the newbie marathon! I can just see 100 characters from 1-15 running across the continent. You'd have to do a few things. First, you'd want spotters along the way to make sure there was no cheating. Then bind everyone who wants to race at the starting point (no fair binding in the target city and then letting an orc pawn kill you).
I've heard of events like this. Usually you have to get naked first, since there are various items that would make it easier.
Just a couple more thoughts here, after playing some more last night. I really love the way that from 30 to 50, you get less capable solo, but more capable in groups (for most classes). I'm actually able to save my fellow group members' butts on a regular basis by expending a little effort above-and-beyond the basic grouping tactics, and they can save mine in the same ways.
I'm also seriously in love with the idea of long and complex quests that pretty much require a group. The WIS shield quest in Katta (a new Luclin city) is like this. We get together and camp the mob de jour. We pull whatever we can to make the time pass and gab and get some ok quest armor drops. We just finished our druid's skull collection last night, so the next step is to get a larger group together and go to Katta to turn in the skulls. As soon as we do, we'll get 8 of the mobs that the skulls dropped from, which we have to take out at once!
This sort of thing is what I pay my monthly EQ fee for. It's adventure, pure and simple, from the 8th dimension!