It really is hard not to be affected by Scott Hartsman’s enthusiasm. The guy just freaking loves working on EverQuest 2, and you can tell from across the room.

Or, at least, that’s the impression he gave at SOE Gamer’s Day event. The last big chunk of content I got out of that trip just went up on the Gamasutra site, entitled “What’s the Future for EverQuest II?” Beyond the recently very common stuff about Neriak, the emo fae, and Kunark, there’s some interesting stuff about EQ2’s dark days and how they turned that sucker around.

For various reasons, the design standpoint when the game was first created was “we can’t steal from EverQuest”. The game’s goal was to move as far away from EQ as they could, to attract new players while leaving the EQ player base more-or-less intact. That resulted in, essentially, a generic fantasy MMOG with some very strange design decisions.

For example, there was a lot of interest in controlling the player’s experience, making sure that everyone at X level was exactly the same in a number of ways. This resulted in a feeling of sameness, and not a lot of enthusiasm for grouping. That was a particularly bad cycle, as the game was also absolutely brutal about solo play. “I think when the game first came out I leveled a character up to about 13 or 14 before I threw my hands up and said ‘done!’”