namelesstavern.net

This is a very interesting and clever thread, and I have been reading and pondering it for the last hour or so, and I have a few comments regarding the issue - I should be sleeping, but this is certainly more interesting /grin.

A fundamental premise of EQ2's design is *you* being a hero in the world of Norrath. In the context of EQ2, a hero is not defined just by their strength, their agility, their intelligence, or any other attribute, but rather by their character, skill, style, and determination to overcome the challenges that are presented. We as a game provide the stats - You as a player provide the character, skill, style, etc. As a general rule, EQ2's game systems and content have been designed around the principle of *player participation*. What this means is that your character, as you define them, is an extension of you as a player that you use to *participate* in the content. What will set you aside, make you unique, make you relevant to the world, make you a legend, will be *your skill* as a participant in the world. The race, archetype, class, subclass of the character you play will certainly influence your contributions, style, abilities, etc., but how you use that character with the tools provided and evolve your tactics will define you as a hero in the world.

In that sense we are allowing you a tremendous amount of flexibility to develop your character through the items in the game. You as a player will develop tactics which will evolve with you as you develop your skill over time - instead of making a permanent commitment to stats within each of the characters you play, you can morph the stats on your character at will, equipping them in the best manner for the tactics that you elect to use given the situation (and we are going to be throwing a lot of different challenges your way /grin) - this then becomes your *style* and the items you acquire will be naturally suited to that style. To me, this premise, coupled with ARAC, will allow for a wide variety of interesting and flawed characters to develop and find their place in the world, but bottom line, you will be known by your actions and how you participate in the content - to me this is one of the things I am most excited about in EQ2 - action!. I think back to my experiences in EQLive - A night with a bad cleric is a bad night - where as with a different player playing the same character, it would be a completely different experience - but not once would I consider that the good cleric was better because they put more points into wis over str, etc, but rather how they played the game and used the resources they had. In EQ I saw many deaths on raids where the cleric broke the heal chain and sent everyone running for cover - and an extra 5 points in a stat would not have helped prevent that at all - so they developed a reputation based on actions, not stats - think about the legends on your server, gear certainly helps, but how they play is much more influential to their characters reputation. EQ2 is about action in your adventure, stats will give you more tools, but how you use them is much more important to your characters development.

So in order for skill and style to stand out as character defining attributes, as game developers we needed to level the playing field a little to make this a reality. As a person who has had the privilege of playing EQ2 for an extended period of time, I already know who I want to play with and who I don't. Our content is very challenging, and it will be quickly evident who the heroes of the shattered lands will be =).

Thanks again for your continued passion about EQ2 - this community is the best one out there hands down - I have been especially impressed with the positions presented on both sides and I hope my 2cp will give you some more things to chew on and help to clear up where we are coming from.

Back to lurking before MG and Faar take away my posting privileges =) ....

Cheers.
JB
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John Blakely
Senior Producer, EQ2