Meeting of the MMO Minds

An Interview with Tamat of EQ2 OGaming

By: Tony "RadarX" Jones

Almost everyone I know has done it at one time or another. If you needed help with a quest, you went to look on OGaming for the walkthrough. Boasting the largest quest/item database of any site for EverQuest 2, this is no small time operation. Tamat the Community Manager for EQ2 OGaming, graciously granted me an interview. The questions and answers were the meeting of two old school MMO minds.




RadarX - Once again, I really
appreciate you taking the time to do this.
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style="font-weight: bold;">Tamat - You're welcome! face="Arial" size="3"> 

RadarX - Tamat, give us a little
back ground
on your MMO experience and how you got into the industry.
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style="font-weight: bold;">Tamat - It all really started
back in my Diablo days. Diablo isn't really an MMO, but it was the
first online game I ever really got into. I was leading a guild back
then called XassassinsX. During this time in my life I realized how fun
being part of an online community could be.
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In early 2000, one of my
friends started hounding me about trying EverQuest. I knew very little
about the game but was hesitant to try it. After a few months of
hounding me to play, I finally broke down and picked up a copy. I
installed the game and entered the world of Norrath for my very
first time.
 

Truth be told, I hated
EverQuest at first. I died a lot. The style of game-play was unique and
unlike anything else I had ever tried before. It took a few days of
extreme anger and frustration for me to understand how things worked in
this new world. After that, I was hooked.
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I was an avid EverQuest player
until mid 2003. I tried every new MMO that came out, but EverQuest was
the only one that kept me enthralled. After I threw in the towel, I
started reading up on EverQuest II. I knew I wanted to help build the
community and that led to my first job as a Community Manager at
Warcry.
  

 

RadarX - You started out in
EverQuest1, so that puts you as a player from the golden age of MMO's.
What kind of trend changes have you seen since then in regards to the
playerbase?
 

Tamat - I suppose
you
could
call it the golden age of MMORPGs. The biggest trend
changes I've seen since EverQuest would be the
dissolution of contested content and the gradual implementation of
instanced content **.
In regards to the playerbase, these changes
"nerfed" the primary reason there was so much drama in EverQuest. 500
people aren't fighting over a monster they need for a quest because
it's usually instanced. Some people like this, I prefer it the old way
;)
 

In Kingdom of Sky there seems
to be a lot less instanced content then before. Two of my favorite
places thus far in the expansion "Palace of the Awakened" and "Sanctum
of the Scaleborn". They are both contested dungeons with trains, drama
and bickering!

RadarX - Yes...LOVE the drama in
the Sanctum. 
"Are you camp stealing?!"  "Ummm...Huh? What's a "camp"?"  Do you feel
that
the influx
of MMO players in recent years is due to a new demographic being
introduced to MMO's?
 

Tamat - No. Like the
computer,
it needed time to grow and to catch on with society. Five years ago if
you would have gone up to someone on the street and said something
about EverQuest or Ultima Online, chances are the person would have had
no clue what you were talking about.
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RadarX - No, I think you're completely right about that. It was a very niche market 5 years ago. What other MMO's are you up to date on? What else have you played and how do they stack up to Everquest 2? size="3"> 

Tamat - I've tried quite a few MMO's. During my EQ days I took a short break to try DAoC. After I quit EQ I played FFXI for a few months. I was lucky enough to be able to test Vanguard in Beta 0. Recently I finally took a stab at WoW. I'm a gamer so I try to make a point to try everything. If something more "my style" surfaces along, I'll go play that instead. For now, nothing else comes close to being as fun as EverQuest II. size="3">  

RadarX - I try a variety of stuff personally to stay in the know. On to
your site.  OGaming is considered one of
the colossus of fan sites. What do think you guys do best?
face="Arial" size="3"> 

Tamat - I like to think
we do
everything pretty well, but our database is definitely the thing that
sets us aside. Despite the popularity of our database we also have a
fantastic community of people who visit us for news, screenshots,
editorials and forums. My predecessor "Leonai_Art" did a truly
fantastic job building EQ2 OGaming into what it is today. We have an
amazing href="http://eq2.ogaming.com/data/1410%7EEQ2OGamingStaff.php"
target="_blank">staff
face="Courier New" size="2"> that
helps make OGaming great.
 

RadarX - I have to agree, you seem to have some good people working for you. Player vs Player was released for EverQuest 2 recently. What do you feel was the
delay in bringing PvP to the table?
 

Tamat - I'm glad they
waited to
bring PvP to EverQuest II. I think part of the delay was because of the
focus they wanted to give PvE. Blizzard has always had amazing PvP
which also may have played a factor in the decision to hold off.
face="Arial" size="3"> 

Having played EverQuest II PvP,
I'll re-iterate that I'm GLAD they waited. The EQ2 Development team has
created the most unique and exciting PvP rule set for an MMORPG that
I've ever seen. Of course this is my personal opinion so I encourage
you to judge for yourself ;)
 

RadarX - I think PvP was inevitable in order for them to stay competitive and fufill the vision they had for the game. Do you think
Everquest 2 is doing what is necessary to stay competitive in the MMO
market?
 

Tamat - I think so. It's
obvious to see
that they are listening to their customers based on how the game has
changed in the last 6 months. In addition to their developers and
producers taking an active role in the forums, they have in the past
paid for dozens of customers that represent both Adventure and
Tradeskill classes to come to San Diego and Las Vegas to give feedback
in the flesh about things that need to change. I don't know the numbers
but I'm willing to bet the amount of active subscriptions has risen
quite a bit in the last 3 months.
  size="3">

 

RadarX - The server
merges were dramatic and filled with many angry villagers. This normally signifies a downturn in
the games growth but what is your opinion on SOE's move?
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Tamat - Normally server
merges
do signify a "downturn" in a game's growth yes. I don't think that to
be true in EQ2 however. Overland zones in EverQuest II are insanely
massive; even when there are 20-30 people in one of these huge overland
zones, you almost never see anyone.
 

I think the main reason these
server merges happened is because of the newbie revamp. There are a lot
of new people playing the game now and most of the loyal players who
have been playing for awhile are all higher level. This left the 1-30
zones pretty barren, which can come off negatively for a new player.
face="Arial" size="3"> 

I think merging servers was a
good idea on SOE's part but it was implemented very poorly (holy lag
batman).

  

 

RadarX - Somewhere I read you
play a Templar. How do you feel we stack up soloing, grouping, and
raiding?
 

Tamat - I've been
playing a
"Cleric" type class in MMO's for as long as I can remember. I enjoy
being a sought after class and having the ability to decide who lives
and who dies. I decided before Beta that I would play a Templar as my
main because they looked like they would take the roll of the best
beneficial priest. As it turns out, Inquisitors and Templars are pretty
dang close. Furthermore, the other priest classes are useful as well.
Lockeye did a good job of balancing all of the priest classes. 

Templars are actually pretty
good at soloing despite common belief. It's a slow and painful process
but we can get the job done. Grouping and raiding we are great but
we're not broken as the "Cleric" class was in EQlive. 
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RadarX - If you could
add something to EQ2 what would it be?
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Tamat - I'd implement a
more
realistic city betrayal system. For a long time I've taken the stance
that the betrayal system should be based on faction. Someone from
Qeynos would be able to raise faction with Freeport and in doing so,
betray Qeynos. Also, doing this you would keep your class and, if you
choose, you could also do a quest to change your class to the Freeport
equivalent. 


RadarX - Tamat thanks again so much for taking the time and keep up the good work over there at EQ2 Ogaming.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EverQuest II Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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