Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Yesteryear

Years ago, during the initial days of EverQuest II, there was a set path of progression. When I say "a set path of progression" in reference to most games, it means that even though there are multiple areas for players to advance their characters at various levels, people tend to choose certain hotspots in order to level quickly. When I say it in reference to EverQuest II, I mean there was one and only one (up until level 30) path choice possible unless you felt the need to betray your home city and defect to the other side.

No matter what your alignment was, everyone started on an island for his or her first few levels. After that, you would travel to your city of choice (Qeynos or Freeport - there were no other options) and work yourself to the bone to become a citizen. Once you were finally a citizen, you would make your way out into the world... just to find you had one choice of direction. Antonica for the goody-goody types of Qeynos and The Commonlands for the denizens of Freeport.

While both of these areas were fairly massive in scope (especially for those days), it was still one zone, with one or two dungeons. Unless you were willing to do the betrayal quest around level 18 (thus banishing yourself from your home), you stayed in either Antonica or The Commonlands from level 8 to 20.

Hurray! You've hit level 20, you've chosen your final class, gotten one or two new spells, so *now* it must be time to explore all the brave new zones EverQuest II had to offer you, right? Uh... no. Sorry.

If you were a faithful citizen of Qeynos, you would make your way into the Thundering Steppes while the riff raff from Freeport would creep into Nektulos Forest. Again, the zones were indeed massive and well thought out, but it was *one* zone that you would be stuck in for another ten levels. It wasn't until you hit level 30 that you could begin to (barely) branch off, by being able to choose between The Enchanted Lands or Zek, the Orcish Wastelands. Yeehaw! Two whole choices.

The Road Less Traveled

The only reasoning I can think of behind this design idea has to revolve around community. Perhaps the original EverQuest II team thought that if they made everyone play in the same zone that would keep the sense of community spirit from EverQuest alive. Considering the fact that there was little need for groups to rest since the health and mana regeneration speeds had been made much faster than that of its predecessor, this was a valid concern. Unfortunately, it failed to add the player mentality into the equation.