Yesterday was April Fools, and EverQuest wasn’t about to be left behind. You may remember these cute fluffy bunnies (although they now have updated models) from the Velious era prank – but if you were not around at that time, well. NPC, mobs, and players had the chance to magically transform into these fuzzy critters as they adventured (and hung around in zones) throughout the day yesterday. While it wasn’t a big surprise (EverQuest and EverQuest II are known for pulling ‘pranks’ on this day) it was not exactly met by robust cheers in channels.
See, when a quest npc happens to be transformed into a bunny they no longer respond to player hails. This left a LOT of very angry players. Had those players calmed down for a few minutes and asked, or used /motd, they would have discovered that there is a simple work around to hail the quest mobs. You could /say Dark_bunny (the name of your NPC) proceed (or whatever your quest trigger text is) and they would have answered back appropriately. I didn’t let the trick stop me from completing my Feerrott tasks (and obtaining yet another trophy) and my enchanter also hit level 89 along the way – I had her visit the bunny who was giving out the spell task and made a macro to obtain the quest.
Again, people were incredibly angry. Some threatened to close their accounts, others said that they didn’t pay for this event so they did not want it in game. Honestly, I think that while it was poorly implemented, it wasn’t a bad idea – and with the 205 SOE layoffs casting a shadow on the games we play I was thankful they still did anything at all. For one day things were hectic and I doubt very much that those players calling for firings have ever done their job perfectly 100% of the time either.
This doesn’t exactly excuse the fact that it was poorly implemented and probably could have (should have) been removed early – but I still don’t understand why for this one day players were calling for blood (almost literally, and in some cases they were calling for bunny blood quite literally).
I also spent some time broadcasting Dragons Dragons Dragons last night – thank you those who tuned in! I’ll be doing more livestreams in the future of whatever game I happen to be playing at the time. Hoping to get some Vanguard in there before too long actually.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.