Massively^™

At the ION '08 conference keynote, John Smedley hinted at another entry in SOE's long-running EverQuest franchise. Since EverQuest's 1999 release, the venerable fantasy game has been seen in such places as game consoles (EQ Online Adventures for the PS2), PDAs (The Pocket EverQuest trilogy for the Pocket PC), Real Time Strategy (Lords of EverQuest for the PC), online collectible card games (Legends of Norrath) and even versions for cell phones (EverQuest: Hero's Call). What could possibly be next for EverQuest?

EverQuest on the PC has already split itself between the original game and its sequel, EverQuest II. Releasing a sequel to a still-viable game was a gutsy move, but it fragmented the player base substantially, to the point where neither game, by itself, can challenge newer games such as Lord of the Rings Online. It's this blogger's opinion that SOE won't make that mistake again -- any EverQuest 3 would not be for the PC. It's not a huge leap of faith to assume that the next version of EQ would run on the PlayStation 3. SOE recently shifted from Sony Pictures to Sony Computer Entertainment America, makers of the PS3 and publishers of its first-party software. Beyond that, when Smedley mentioned to the Seattle Times that the PS3 would be a strong platform for MMOs, he certainly very likely had this game (and others we don't know about) in mind.

SOE has made some mistakes with EverQuest through the years, but has also had some huge successes and innovations. If you were an EQ3 designer, and all you had in front of you was a PS3 and a blank whiteboard, what features would you include to knock the socks off the players? Customizable quests and raids? A Steampunk theme? Faster, twitch-based gameplay? The ability to make your own cities? How would you make EQ a worthy competitor to today's great crop of MMOs?

Earlier this week, SOE pushed EverQuest II's Game Update 45 to the servers. Along with letting you take quests you had out-leveled and still give achievement experience for them, extra bank slots, and the complete revamp of the Coercer class, the update introduced Rodcet Nife, the god of healing. Quests to spread the good news throughout Norrath were offered but in the evil city of Gorowyn, darker forces prevail.

There, the god of disease, Bertoxxulous, incites his minions to fight against the god of healing with pestilence, death and disease. Yes, it's not easy to sow evil in the fields of good, but worry not. We've been to Gorowyn and done all the nasty deeds so you don't have to. Follow along as we carry on Bert's evil work, infect relatives, assassinate healers, and in general, be real bastards.

Keen-eyed SOE watcher Kendricke of Clockwork Gamer has been scouring the 'Net for hints of the nature of EverQuest 2's next expansion. And he may have found a clue on the French version of SOE's EQ2Players web site. The announcement reads, in part (translated from the French): "The Rodcet Nife event will go live with Update 45. Optional quests associated with this event will grow in intensity leading to large-scale invasions of Void creatures around the world for all levels."

We've written previously that the next EQ2 expansion, The Shadow of Odyssey, might have something to do with The Void. The Void is a realm of which we know little, aside from being the extra-planar home of the Shadowmen from which they are launching their secret invasion of Norrath. This latest news has us more and more convinced that come November, we may find ourselves exploring the eldritch towers and dead moonscapes of this shadowed realm.

What has the god of healing, Rodcet Nife (a flawed anagram of Fine Doctor), to do with the Void? We don't know yet, but somehow his return is mixed up with the Shadowman invasion in some way. We'll know in a couple of weeks when GU45 hits the live servers.

[Via Clockwork Gamer]

Once upon a time, in an MMO not so far away, this blogger used to play a Wood Elf Druid in EverQuest. As such, there's always been a soft spot for the starting lands of the Wood Elves. What does this have to do with today's One Shots, you ask? Today's lovely screenshot comes courtesy of a recent visit to the improved lands just outside of Kelethin in EQII. Specifically, this is a screen of The Nursery, where new Fae (and Wood Elves and several other races) come into the lands of Norrath. While some do not care for this area, quite a few of our regular gaming group have found it refreshing and fun to wander through the updated version of what used to be our old stomping grounds. It's like being home again -- only prettier -- and you don't have to watch out for those nasty trains to Orc Lift!

Do you have a screenshot of a lovely newbie area that just impressed you from the start? How about a "new nostalgia" shot like this? Whatever the case is, whatever your game, we want to see your screenshots! Send those to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with whatever information you'd like to give us about it.

The first thing EverQuest 2 game designer Steve "Saavedra" Kramer did when given the task of revamping Runnyeye was to go through and clean up all the trash. "The goblins were expecting some guests, after all, and it wouldn't do to invite dignitaries into a hovel." Well, EQ2 fans have become attached to their hovels, and the EQ2 designers want them to keep returning to their favorite haunts. In 2005, Nektropos Castle was re-imagined in the new level 50 instance "Return to Nektropos Castle", and then again in 2006 as a level 70 instance, "Nektropos Castle: Tribulation". Deathfist Citadel was turned from a raid zone into a single group zone with new drops and new armor sets for 40ish players in 2007. Now Runnyeye's time has come, and Saavedra has big plans for it. A nice, new, shiny Runnyeye instance for level 80 players. The goblins are sharpening their knives already.

It has come to the Director's attention that the portals to our outposts may no longer be secure. There is evidence suggesting that beings defeating our operatives absorb residual energy which is detected by the portals. Portals in turn allow these beings to pass through into our outposts. -- Scroll found in the Tower of Zet

The blogosphere blazed with speculation about the title. Cyanbane wondered if this would explore the lore of the Shadowmen.

Very interesting idea, that. The Shadowmen are extraplanar creatures who have observed Norrath for centuries, content to lurk around the edges of places like Commonlands or Nektulos Forest, quietly scouting the planet for reasons all their own. In EverQuest 2, they extruded portals to a small portion of their plane, the citadel called , the Obelisk of Lost Souls. Others of their kind invaded Rivervale and the Enchanted Lands, driving the halflings to Qeynos. With Faydwer's rediscovery, another portal was found in Lesser Faydark, this leading to the Obelisk of Blight.. Scrolls found within the Obelisk (while doing the quest "Into the Shadowed Grove") revealed their evil plans. Taking over the bodies of mortals, they would seek to gather an army and invade the Emerald Halls, where they would then take over the mind and body of the Guardian of Growth, the ancient dragon Wuoshi. With the power of the emerald dragon on their side, they could turn the other dragons and rule Norrath.

Those who trusted to the Word arrived none too soon, for our ship had barely docked at their primitive outpost when the earth beneath us trembled and rolled. For many long years the earth shook violently, finally tearing Tunaria (that which the humans call Antonica) apart. -- The History of the Erudites

If "The Shadow of Odyssey" doesn't deal with an invasion from the Void (the Shadowmen's home plane), what else can we guess from the name? The title is fairly ambivalent. Is there something called Odyssey that casts a Shadow? Is there a Shadow from a place called Odyssey? Is it metaphorical -- could the appearance of Odyssey bring a darkness to the world?

Previous EQ2 expansions have always talked of places -- the Desert of Flames; the Kingdom of Sky; the Echoes of Faydwer; the Rise of Kunark. If they follow this same trend, then, Odyssey is a place. It is unlikely that it is a Shadowman place. It could be; we just don't know yet. Adventuring in the Void would be a truly unique experience.

There's no reason to go to another plane of existence for Odyssey... not when we have the whole continent of Odus still unfound. Odyssey, Odus... could the similarity of the names be just a coincidence? Five hundred years in EQ2's past, Erudites were fairly normal looking people. In EQ2's present, Erudites have evolved into something quite different indeed. Gray, almost metallic looking skin; colored tattoos on their bodies that seem to pulse with an arcane illumination. It is difficult to believe that a race so attuned to the threads of magic that connect together the universe would have been unaware of what was happening to Luclin, a moon surrounded by and infused with magic. They would have protected their home somehow.

Perhaps they gathered together their most powerful wizards and, using the power that had once torn from the ground an entire Kerran village and the land for kilometers below it and transported it to Luclin, pulled the continent from the land and took it to safety when the moon began to split and their cousins who had followed Quellious' call to travel to Qeynos had gone.

Freed from Norrath, Odus would become Odyssey; and in its journeys, would cast a very large shadow indeed. Now that the Age of Shattering is long over and the world of Norrath is at relative peace, they have returned. The Erudites we see around are exiles, waiting for the day when Quellious calls them home again.

Luclin watched from the shadows while the other gods went about making order out of chaos in their own twisted ways. She saw the meeting, the petty bickering, and the various power plays for which the gods have always been known. Abandoning Norrath, Luclin claimed the barren and forgotten ringed rock orbiting the planet for her own. Unopposed and through the sheer power of her will and magic, she gave life to the moon that now bears her name.

We can't know if this is the answer. It might be something entirely different. Based on the recently discovered lore connecting the Everlings, the Tunarian Court,, and the snake-like shissar who long ago fled Kunark for Luclin, perhaps it has something to do with the blown-up moon of Luclin.

Luclin was touched by many forces. The remains of the Combine Empire had fled there long ago and the factions of Seru and Katta still glared at each other across the Twilight Sea. The Kerrans who survived their sudden trip to Luclin renamed themselved Vah Shir and built their city of Shar Vahl. The vampiric Coterie spread their influence from the Tenebrous Mountains... and the Plane of Shadow touches the moon in the Umbral Plains.

Plane of Shadow... Umbral Plains... Twlight Sea... Shadeweaver's Thicket... many of Luclin's zones are named for darkness, as one side is always dark, one always light, and the shadowed srea between them is the most dangerous place of all. The servants of the goddess of Shadow, Luclin, rule there. Any mention of Shadow as something separate from an object that cast it, leads straight back to Luclin.

Assuming "The Shadow" refers somehow to Luclin, what is "of Odyssey"? Odyssey is still probably the name of a place. Perhaps it refers to one of the fragments of the moon. Odyssey clearly refers to a journey filled with dangers and adventure, and what remains of Luclin is still just hanging in the sky. The only journey it makes is round and round Norrath.

Because Luclin is such a colorful presence in the sky, its sister moon, Drinal, is often forgotten. There's no way it could have been unaffected when Luclin blew up. Perhaps the beings of Shadow fled there, and are now firming up their grip on the largest moon with nobody to stop them, this time.

Of course, this is all just speculation. SOE could announce Monday that "The Shadow of Odyssey" is a plane of spinning beach umbrellas. We don't know, but it's fun to speculate!

The previously-postponed Live Gamer Exchange service has now launched, and EverQuest II players that are into the whole RMT thing can start spending. To get started, you'll need to register at the EQII Live Gamer page, and you can then take part in trading real cash for characters, items or in-game currency for the Vox and Bazaar servers. It looks like the bidding has already begun, so hurry along to the Live Gamer Exchange if you want to snap up the first deals.

No one enjoys a memory leak in their favorite game. Perhaps you've reported one in the past, in the hopes of a speedy fix. EverQuest II's technical director Joshua Kriegshauser recently noticed quite a few reports coming in about a possible leak in the zone Veeshan's Peak, and has done a write-up of what it takes to repair these crippling and annoying problems.

Having read through the article, we won't pretend that we understood everything that Kriegshauser has written, but we get the point -- fixing memory leaks is no stroll in the park. For those of you that can keep up with what he is saying, kudos to you. For the rest of us, it opens our eyes to what really goes on behind the little hotfixes we zoom past in the latest patch notes of any given game. In case you don't make it to the end of the article, we'll let you know that he did manage to fix the leak -- we're going to go now and sleep off the headache we got from reading that far.

The next Legends of Norrath Promo Weekend is imminent, beginning at 2:PM PDT today, and will run until at 10:00 AM PDT on Monday, April 7th. The usual deal of increased card drop-rates in EverQuest and EverQuest II applies, as well as the introduction of two new cards.

Players will be able to snag the Icewell Commander card (seen at EQ2Players), as well as the handsome dog pictured here, the Blackburrow Troublemaker. Look at his sweet face -- how can you not want to take this adorable Gnoll home?

Coming this Tuesday, April 8th, along with the rest of EQ2's Live Update 44 is the Shard of Hate. It follows last year's Shard of Fear and Estate of Unrest free, nostalgia-drenched content updates. Unlike those other two, though, the Shard of Hate is a raid zone. EQ2 lead designer Akil "Lyndro" Hooper was kind enough to take some time out of his day to show us around the spite-filled roads and alleys of this small, deadly fragment of Innoruuk's demesne.

You'll find the portal to the Shard of Hate in the dark elf section of Nektulos Forest -- go all the way east, then head north. You may see the Avatar of Hate lurking nearby, but he'll let you in. It's safe to zone in, but don't move around much; patrols come close to the zone in.

We nearly missed this one, but thankfully one of our readers didn't, and sent us this screenshot of a chest in EverQuest II. Looks just a little bit different doesn't it? Another nod to the gaming world's beloved Portal, it seems that players were treated to Weighted Companion Chests in EQII for April Fools' Day. Hopefully you looted that quest starter before tossing the chest in the Emergency Intelligence Incinerator, Rollins!

[Thanks, Rollins]

It's Bristlebane's Day in Everquest II until April 2!

The god of tricks and pranks has a special job for someone (maybe you!). Look for Blat Berisen outside the gates of your home city... The gods are sending evil thoughts into his brain, and only you can retrieve the tinfoil cap he needs to block them out. Will you accept the challenge?

Check out our exclusive gallery for hints to help the quest along -- including amazing shots of the tin cap itself!