OT: RE: Has everyone gone south?

[Fairlight]

Top-posted for John...

It's a historical issue, to a large degree.  Please understand that Sony
Online Entertainment (hereafter known affectionately as SOE) is just one
division at Sony.  

More importantly, understand that they did not create EverQuest.  :)  A
company called Verant did, and Sony bought them out several expansion packs
into the game.  I think the timeline I was given was about 3 expansions in
or so.

Don't feel bad.  My card -is- fully supported, and their new dynamic
lighting makes sides of buildings and the ground flicker when you view them
from certain angles, moving certain ways.  Their graphics aren't nearly as
texture-rich as other games like Half-Life 2, yet panning can be far
slower.  Their new shadow graphics look great, but suck the life out of
movement to the point you feel like you're ice skating just walking--while
being far less intense than Doom 3's shadows, or even some other games'
shadow effects.  

After -20 minutes- with EverQuest, I already know EQ's graphics engine
absolutely sucked in some regards, and is -far- slower than it needs to be.
It's just plain not coded very efficiently.  EVE Online blows the living
hell out of EQ in terms of load times (that in itself is a HUGE timesaver),
as well as graphics speed and detail.  Sheer polygon count in other games
is -far- higher with better performance.

However, EQ has a relatively nice particle effects system for spells, and
they did some things really, really nicely--like mounts with acceleration
and deceleration when riding a horse or drogmor--that just plain feels and
looks great.

Overall, they did a fantastic job in many regards, and it blows Ultima
Online (which I played for 3 years) out of the water in every aspect.
However, their graphics engine is beaten out by other games.  I suspect
that was the intent of doing EverQuest II--which apparently is far better,
but also got a huge dropoff due to lack of new content in a timely fashion.

Some companies just do it better than others.  Verant/Sony did a 50/50 job
on EQ.  It's not horrible, and it's not stellar.  It's on the far better side
of average for an engine that originated six years ago.  They've done some
overhauls, even recently.  But new card support in any game is kind of a
nightmare.  This is why I dropped out of PC gaming for a while--when you
started having to buy new CPU's and video boards as often as you had to buy
light bulbs for around the house.

The main issue though, and the main response to your complaint, is that
originally Sony -didn't- own it, and the video specs were laid down far
before they did.  Generally, companies decide what cards they'll support,
and that list may get expanded as new cards come out, but they won't
backtrack.  EQ and other games seem to like no earlier than ATI RADEON
7200's for instance.  NVidia has their own line and usually I think GeForce
2 is the earliest supported.  A lot of times, SiS isn't supported at all,
which is okay I guess, because they suck. :) But seriously, once those
limitations are written, they may as well be carved in solid tempered
titanium.  They won't change, as a rule--and this is industry-wide.

BTW...just how little memory does that video card in the VAIO have?  It
sounds pretty low-end, but those are NOT cheap notebooks at any level.

Don't feel too bad though, man.  I have a guildmate that just bought a
notebook, only to find out she can't play EQ on it for her trip to
Italy to study--for a year!  Ouch.  Withdrawal time.

Unfortunately, it happens.  :(  But Sony is...big.  It's one of those
situations where even if they -had- had possession and control from the
start, you wouldn't necessarily expect the left hand to know what the right
foot is doing.

Heh...and I hear my wife jaunting about Lavastorm Mountains right now,
doing a quest to get 119 platinum for living expenses.  Might go join her
and try to get my wizard up 2 levels--I get a spell that does 400hp more
damage then.

If your grandson is into MMORPG's in general, and likes a sci-fi setting,
I'd suggest he could try EVE Online.  It's -far- smoother video, and the
requirements actually are less for that game than for EQ anymore.  It's a
-very- deep game, as well.  Very well planned out--to the point they put in
a post-it note system and calculator for calculating ship fittings, cargo
hauls, trading profit calculations, etc.  It has a lot up on EQ in terms of
design--including a skill system that has no "grind".  Your grandson would
know what I mean even if you don't.  :) :) :)  It's not level-based at
all--it's all what you do with the money you make and the skills you learn.
And you learn those skills even when you're not in-game, which takes the
tedium that most MMORPG's have out of the game.  It's slick.  It's an
alternative, and the subscription rate is the same.

Sucks for him though--the new EQ expansion goes live on the 13th.  EVE is
good, but I won't -switch-.  I'll just play both.  :)  But there are always
alternatives.

mark->


Is it just me, or did John Esak say:
> 
> Just a dumb thing to comment on... The Everquest game is so HUGE and such a
> big thing (profit center) for Sony... Why in the hell does the Sony Vaio I
> bought for my grandson to take to college NOT allow playing the game. The
> video memory is too small... and they (Sony) says they have no plans of
> fixing the problem.  Buy another laptop they said. They suggested another
> Sony Vaio... I don't think so. (and on the whole I think they are great
> laptops... but this much stupidity is hard to work around.)

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