Key From the Keynotes (For Me) #EQ2 #SOELive
stargrace 
Tonight was the first keynote at SOE Live (Fan Faire Forever!) and while there wasn’t a whole lot of detail about the games that I’m most interested in, there were some aspects I thought I’d talk about.
To start it off, I found it amusing that John Smedley talked about how non-instanced housing is going to be the next big thing at DCUO and he asked the crowd when the last time that was even done (and he mentioned SWG) – uhms. Vanguard has non-instanced housing. I know it may be difficult to try to remember all of your companies games, but at least try. Now, the interesting points
- Live casting games is a big deal, and getting bigger. SOE is going to add a TwitchTV client into their games (starting with Planetside 2 I believe, November 1st). [I think this is a great idea, why not show off your games as much as you can, and let the players do it for you.]
- EQ2 Chains of Eternity is tentatively scheduled for November 13th. [That seems VERY early, so I’m not expecting it to actually release then. Is there even a beta for it yet? Maybe they’re not having one this year.]
- EQ Rain of Fear is releasing November 28th [About what I expected]
- Krono are being introduced October 29th! [If you’re familiar with Plex, you’ll know how krono work. They’re in-game virtual items that you can use to pay for a 30 day subscription to the game. You can also put them on the broker and sell them to other players. I am VERY excited about this because as it is now players just have to trust one another when selling game cards. It’s too easy to get a fake time code, and easy to not get paid for a valid one. This will help that, I hope. Of course making them into an in-game item comes with issues like account thefts, hacks, etc.]
- EQNext is being completely re-done. SOE was not pleased with where it was headed, so they’ve completely scrapped everything they did, and are redoing the game into a sandbox of measures no one has seen before. They should have something to show at next years SOE Live, but we’ll just have to wait and see. [A LOT of people were upset about this announcement, but for some reason, not me. I’m pleased they honestly told us what was up, point blank, and we’ll just see where it goes from there].
- Wizardry Online beta opens October 29th. [I’m excited about this game. I think a nice hardcore game with permadeath has a niche market that very few games take part of these days, and there’s room for it.]
- SOE is partnering with Runewaker (the folks who made Runes of Magic) and bringing us all Dragon’s Prophet in 2013. [I have heard nothing about this game, but they showed a lot of videos and it looked neat. Unique? Not sure.]
- Planetside 2 releasing November 20th [Been in the beta for this one a while now, but it’s not something that’s my ‘usual’ type of game. Some people are excited, some people are saying it’s way too soon.]
And there you have it. The keynotes addressing EQ/EQ2 are tomorrow, they should go into more detail about each expansion and the future of both games, which I’m looking forward to hearing about. I may not always agree with what any gaming company does, but I do understand that as time passes games need to change along with it. It’s not always change for the best or even change for the better, but at least they’re trying.
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!