Raising the Dead

By Cody
“Micajah” Bye


style="font-weight: bold;">

July 10, 2007
- A few weeks ago, I was stationed in NetDevil’s conference
room, seated amid a group of journalists at a long conference table.
We had just finished listening to an invigorating and heart-felt
opening ceremony when the surprise of the evening was unveiled. As
Hermann Petersheck fired up his computer, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/8652">we witnessed
the first public viewing of Jumpgate
Evolution
, the completely remade version of
NetDevil’s first MMOG, Jumpgate.
The word “beautiful” was thrown around like a
firecracker with a lit fuse, and the gathered press was astonished to
learn that this was the original Jumpgate
that NetDevil had produced six years ago, albeit in a vey refined form.
 

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alt="Hitting the afterburners" title="Hitting the afterburners"
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Jumpgate Evolution is a completely redesigned version
of NetDevil's first MMOG.

Since that fateful afternoon and evening, I’ve been
contemplating how the potential
success of Jumpgate
Evolution
could remake the entire MMOG industry.
The original Jumpgate
was released in 2001 to a moderate response, finding a very devoted,
very hardcore audience of space combat sim junkies and PvP gurus. There
world was one inhabited by gamers who wanted to dog-fight and scour the
reaches of space looking for enemies. Many of these players are still
participating in the original game to this day, but their numbers have
slowly dwindled to a scant few.

There was a reason behind the limited measure of success that
the original Jumpgate achieved, and it mostly had to do with the level
of difficulty involved with playing the game. Players either could not
get into the game or eventually they just lost interest after being
shot by player killers over and over and over again. Jumpgate was a
harsh game, and it didn’t strive to be anything other than
that.

Now that NetDevil has ten years of MMOG experience under their
belt, they believe they can resurrect style="font-style: italic;">Jumpgate from its
slow death. Like the Million Dollar Man, they are making style="font-style: italic;">Jumpgate Evolution
faster, prettier, and putting more emphasis on the new player
experience, hoping to draw in sci-fi and space combat sim aficionados
that were dissuaded from the first Jumpgate.
It’s a complete overhaul of a game that is now six years old.
And Jumpgate Evolution
looks primed for success.

With the Jumpgate
renovation in mind, take a moment to remember your favorite –
or first – MMOG. Remember all the wonderful times you had in
that game, waiting for monsters to spawn or leading groups of players
down into the depths of massive dungeons. Those were some thrilling
times, weren’t they? But by now that game has probably seen a
good number of years pass by during its watch, and perhaps the graphics
are starting to look a bit dated, the AI is lackluster, and there is a
significant lack of new players coming into the game world.

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alt="EQ 07" title="EQ 07" name="photo_j"
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Although Everquest has received a number of graphics
and gameplay enhancements, nothing has pulled all of the former players
back to Norrath.

What would you give to have a team of developers go in and
completely refresh the entire game? Perhaps the developers could
enhance the graphics and smooth out some of the rough edges that the
game is showing. On top of that the team could give the AI a overhaul,
making their routines smarter, making them adapt to your maneuvers, and
enhancing the way you go about strategizing for the enemy. Sound and
music would benefit from the overhaul as well, allowing the game
designers to do voice-overs, orchestral scores, and more. When you
returned to the game that inspired so much nostalgia within your heart,
you would find a world that incorporates the wealth of new features
that today’s MMOGs provide, but also remains the same game at
heart.

Personally, a remade version of the classic style="font-style: italic;">Everquest would be
a pillar of light from heaven. While style="font-style: italic;">Everquest still
calls to my addicted heart, there are numerous flaws and basic problems
that I cannot honestly fathom ever going back to Norrath for over a few
days. The servers are relatively empty and the game is unsuited for the
MMO gamer that has found new pastures in style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft, style="font-style: italic;">Everquest 2, or any
of the other second and third generation MMOGs. Features that
we’ve grown used to in newer games still don’t
exist in EQ.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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