Twin Skies has been unfortunately delayed for a quite a while. We‘re going to be launching it hopefully some time in 2010 as a 2D web-based game that will also be available on all major social networks. The good news is that it will still have all the classes and races, locations, housing and quests that we had planned for the 3D game, and it will still be free! We‘ve been developing our web-based RPG system for a few months now and you can see it in action in our first game - Vikings Pirates Ninjas.

I think the biggest challenge is time and scheduling. We want to get as much content as we can into each level. It‘s really easy to over extend yourself when building a new dungeon from scratch by adding too many rooms, features, etc. So keeping your schedule in mind, and having to scale your zone creation to match, can be challenging. Chan: Being that it‘s a 10+ year old code base, sometimes fundamental systems aren‘t coded as you‘d expect them to be. Back when EQ was first built, software architecture wasn‘t as developed as it is today and they were trying to solve many problems that we take for granted today. What seems like a simple task can sometimes take a lot longer than people expect. Has World of Warcraft affected how you design games? Burns: Maybe the designers would have a more interesting answer, but as an environment artist, it really hasn‘t affected how I create zones and objects for EQ. I still create everything with the EQ style and lore in mind. But certainly WoW has had a huge impact on the MMO industry as a whole. Chan: It has in the same way that any other game out there affects the way I design games. You play other games (both internally and externally) and you see what they did, what didn‘t work and what did work. Designing games is a collaborative process, you can‘t only do your thing and you‘re done...

I suspect that many other developers feel the same as well. Do you find that player expectations entering EQ are different now than they used to be? Burns: Yes. I think originally EQ was the hot new MMO game when it launched, and everyone wanted to try it out. MMO‘s were new to a lot of players at that time, so they may not have expected the massive scale of the game and it‘s community. Now, most players have experienced a few different MMO‘s and know what to expect in general. I think players entering EQ now, or returning to play again, really enjoy the EQ lore, the massive amount content we‘ve created over the last 10 years, and, most importantly, the EQ community of players they play with. Chan: I think so, when EQ first came out machines were less powerful and people were excited to be in a 3-D world (instead of the 2.5D). Now for a MMORPG to not be 3-D is pretty rare. I think that same idea also applies to many other parts of the game. What awesome franchise that isn‘t yet an MMO would you love to work on? Burns: I think a G.I. Joe MMO could be great.

There‘s a lot of potential there with a built-in fan base, character classes, and storylines to draw from. Definitely some good PvP with the Joes vs. Cobra, then add some movie and toy tie-in‘s, sounds like a hit to me. Personally, I‘d love to work on that because I‘ve been a huge G.I. Joe fan since I was a kid. I loved the toys, watched the cartoons, and collected the comic books. A couple of others I‘d like to work on, that might not be mass appeal MMO‘s, but just because I think they are so cool, would be a Firefly MMO, a Mad Max MMO, a Deadlands MMO, or a killer apocalyptic zombie MMO. I‘ve always been a mech fan too, so maybe a BattleTech or Robotech MMO would be fun! Chan: That‘s a tough one, there are so many MMO‘s in development right now and so many of them look like they would be fun to work on. What is going to define the next generation MMO? Burns: I think the next big jump for MMO‘s would be in accessibility. The same game, accessible through a phone, laptop, home PC, or Playstation 3, whatever you have headset on you at the time, much like how we access our email and the internet and social networking sites now.

Well, I guess people might give me that title because I have been around EQ and the company since back in the day when it was still Verant. It became SOE in 2000. I first was connected with the company during the days of Tanarus, being in beta in 1998. I got into EverQuest in the first phase of the original beta back in 1998, and, I started working on EQ in May of 1999. There are many people in the company that have been here longer than I have though. I know most people in the company and who to talk to for what. I also know the history of projects and even when I don‘t know the exact answer someone is looking for, I usually know where to find it. Just the other day someone told me that they use to tell people, "Just call Lydia I‘m sure she knows..." and I did!

I have my own archives of various projects, lore, and random information. I never throw anything away; keeping most of my email, old documents, old pictures, etc. I also have a really good memory! Tell us a bit about your background with the EverQuest community and SOE. How have your duties changed over the years? Over the past 10 years, I have worked in various positions in the company including, Game Master, Senior Game Master, Lead Game Master, Quest & Events Master, and Game Designer and Community Relations Manager. I have worked on many of our games including EverQuest, EverQuest II, EverQuest Online Adventures, PlanetSide, Tanarus and a little bit for Star Wars Galaxies and Vanguard. As a community manager, I have helped out in some aspects on all of our games, as does everyone in our department. How involved are you with the website and its continually changing content? See all the content over there changing? That‘s me doing the changing! Getting back to that historian title, I‘ve also been referred to as a lore guru.

While I won‘t pretend to know everything there is to know about the lore of the huge world that is Norrath, I do know a lot. I also collect every resource I can possibly get my hands on. Having worked as a designer on the game in the past, I have oodles upon oodles of documentation. I actually created the Player Nexus on the EQPlayers website so that I can have a place to start storing all the information that I have in folders and in my head! So you‘ve been there from the start hmmm? What do you think of the game today as compared to 10 years ago? I think the game world of EverQuest (across all the games) has become so vast; it has become more of a lifestyle rather than a game. Each year as the world grows with new areas and new content, the world expands into something that cannot be compared to. The community for each of the EverQuest worlds grows stronger and closer together. The lore of headset the game gets even deeper and more intriguing each day.