THE DEPARTURE OF BRAD McQUAID AND JEFF BUTTLER: VICTORY FOR THE CASUAL PLAYER IN EVERQUEST

So two of the main creators of Everquest have left. Is it a coincidence that at the same time so many aspects of Everquest that were defined as sacred, core elements of the game have been changed?

I doubt it.

From what I have read in the past from Brad and Jeff, they were dyed-in-the-wool professional gamers, old school MUDders and pen and paper RPGers. Everything they ever said publicly literally dripped with condescension towards the average, casual gamer. Brad refused to even acknowledge that such a player even existed, instead opting to redefine 90% of his player base as "time-starved power-gamers." Every thoughtful, well-reasoned post was dismissed as "undoable" or as the whining of jealous, lazy "bottom-feeders" and "farmers".

They refused to accept that the lack of melee binding made participation in much of the game unworkable for most casual gamers that played non-binding classes. They refused to accept that 45-minute runs to retrieve corpses was **not** considered fun by 90% of their customer base, stating that they would **never** include NPC teleports. It would ruin the game, you see. Shatter the forced interaction between players. Destroy the economy.

The reason they could not see the light, the reason they reinterpreted every logical post and twisted them to fit their own world-view is simple; they couldn't see any farther than their own game-obsessed lives fueled by the fanboi, rabid-gamer subculture on the internet. In short, they thought that 90% of the clientelle playing EQ was like THEM. Enjoyed the game the way THEY enjoyed it. Had the same motivations THEY had. How shocking it must have been when the tried to install Trivial Loot Code and a game-wide log-in poll revealed that **nobody** wanted it.

How else do you explain their bizarre preoccupation with Uberguild, Raid-required content? Perhaps 5% of their customer base EVER comes into contact with this content ... yet they devoted an entire expansion - Velious - to it. Virtually all the planes require Uber-participation. Who did they think was going to enter these areas? The average gamer? No ... of course not. They even admitted .. heck, they BRAGGED ... that a lot of the game was purposely designed to be out of the reach of 90% of their customers. The thought the rest of us would feel all warm and googly-eyed as we admired those that could spend 10 hours a day in the game with Uber loot. And if we didn't ... well, we were just jealous.

There are only so many "ubers" to go around. Many of them left Everquest to participate in the RvR of Dark Age of Camelot. Many are beta-testing other new games, driven by their own insatiable need for new, challenging content. Not to mention the fact that, in other games, the Uberguilds can sell off their farmed content and power-leveled resale accounts on Ebay.

Which leaves who, exactly, to play Everquest? How is it that the Ubers are leaving Everquest, not en-masse but through slow attrition, yet the population of Everquest continues to rise? Those Uber zones are becoming less and less populated. Yet, according to Jeff and Brad, since the population has "matured" over almost 3 years of play, you'd think everyone would be in PoH, ToV, etc. Everyone would be participating in 40-person raids, if the mindset of Buttler and McQuaid accurately represented the average EQ gamer. Yet ... no ... it's the casual gamer zones that are teeming with people and interaction, full of people playing their 5th character up to level 30 or so before they start another.

And now ... the keys to the Velious rings are no longer necessary. The prices of the entrance keys to the Planes have been significantly reduced. Why? Well, the reason is simple.

SOE is opening the game up to the average player, the great mass of people that are paying for ...yes PAYING FOR .. the continued existence and expansion of the game. Instead of funneling our fund towards bizarre, exclusive "sleeper scripts" and content only 5% of us will ever see, they've decided to stop pandering to the bandwidth-consuming, internet vocal elite and give the rest of us the chance, the ability to ENJOY THE GAME. Instead of telling us to be happy with social interaction and "finding" ways of enjoying a game designed for a select few, SOE is, apparently, amazinglly, redesigning Everquest from the core out to appeal to as many of us as possible.

In my opinion, this is the real reason Brad and Jeff left. They couldn't stand the fact that Everquest was being redesigned to actually be "playable" by more than just elite, professional gamers. So they left, likely to start some new project intended for the "real gamers" in the world.

Good for them. Good luck. Thanks for getting Everquest off the ground. You deserve a lot of respect and kudos for that.

It's too bad you coldn't see past your own compulsive needs and preconceived ideas. And it's too bad you guys had such a low opinion of average gamers. Because they're the ones that made your game an unprecedented success, and funded your future, not the professional gamers.

 

Might as well discuss this HERE, because nobody ever uses my forums.