I wanted to start off this Producer's letter by saying THANK YOU to all of the beta testers that are actively participating in The Buried Sea beta. I know that jumping into a work in progress can be frustrating at times, but the teamwork between the developers and the players really makes EverQuest into the classic that it is. Special thanks go out to the guilds that are helping with the larger tuning tasks.
Being able to participate in beta tuning is a huge job for both the developers and the testers involved. I know that many of you want to help out with each beta and we welcome the extra help. We wanted to get in a few new guilds to help us this time around. We tend to stick with guilds that have proven in past beta's that they are professional, on time and willing to work with our developers to ensure a better game for everyone else. If you have not participated in beta tuning with the developers, don't worry. We plan to cycle in new guilds when needed and will send out open calls in a similar manner as we did on The Buried Sea. The guilds that are listed below have all contributed to the tuning passes we are doing on this expansion.
Midnight Tempest - new beta testing guild from our board recruiting
Silent Redemption - new beta testing guild from our board recruiting
Fire & Fury
The Relentless
Silent Resurgence
Township Rebellion
Triality
Our internal Quality Assurance department is hard at work checking all of the new zones, quests, items and additional content that will roll out in The Buried Sea next month, and the work is right on schedule.
I plan on having a weekly feature on the webpage leading up to the launch of The Buried Sea as well, which we kicked it off on Friday with a feature on the Guild Banners. If you haven't seen it - go check it out! They are really cool and they should help guilds out quite a bit by reducing downtime and travel time.
I have been reading the boards regarding me taking over the reigns as Producer, and I appreciate the votes of confidence, and also understand the skeptics. The development team and the community have seen many people come and go, and I was aware of that when I joined the team. I am looking to bring a new angle to EverQuest. As I have said before, my intentions are not to change the game, but I do believe that there are quite a few things that could be done to make playing it more fun.
While I can't comment on promises made in the past, I can listen to you now and work with you to make this game a place that you love to come back to everyday. Changes can take some time but making sure that the right changes happen is far more important than rushing anything. Just remember that I am listening, so keep posting!
Clint "Jourdian" Worley
EverQuest Producer
Sony Online Entertainment