2019 is also the year the gaming industry witnessed EverQuest, one of the oldest MMORPGs to celebrate its 20th birthday.
I wonder at the moment, how many people remember the EverQuest game, one of the pioneering games of the fantasy MMO genre. As of March 16, 2019, this game will be 20 years old. And, of course, for the past 20 years, EverQuest is still living well. The game is still continually being developed at Daybreak, based in San Diego. How has an MMO game been able to live so intensely during the past two decades, when the world’s gaming trends are continually fluctuating?
Holly Longdale has shared about this. ” Basically, EverQuest has always been a survival game,” she said. “ You cannot do anything meaningful without the other players. Each player will not be able to reach the peak or earn the badass alone. And that requires people to talk to each other, to rely on each other. Throughout the years, this social community has been well maintained. ”
” For us, or whatever we plan to do in the future, a sense of community is really the heart and soul of the EverQuest series .”
Longdale adds, in time-consuming multiplayer games like RuneScape or EverQuest, access to exciting things almost always requires you to have other players with you. Through this, social connections are built more sustainably.
“” When I play a game like Destiny, I don’t really care about the people who accompany me,” she said. “ If they die or give up, others will come in. There was no conclusion there. But in EverQuest, if someone dies or cares for your team, you will probably never forget them even after you no longer play games. When people help you, you will connect with them, and a community will be born. That is an interesting point of EverQuest . ”
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But what about new players? This is something an MMO game developer must continuously think of. But we are talking about EverQuest right now, so it doesn’t happen as we think about MMO games. EverQuest currently has similar gameplay to 1999. This can be very difficult to attract players who are looking for an entirely new MMO game.
” We are focusing on stability,” Longdale said. “ I was not allowed to disclose the exact number of players the whole time, but it was enough to keep us going. If we try to broaden our horizons and invite new players, I don’t think our server will be enough. “If we’re trying to attract old players, we used to play EverQuest for a while and stopped .”
” Nostalgia is a powerful thing,” Longdale added. “ We received fan letters from people who said they watched their parents play EverQuest, and so do they. Several fans are always there because of nostalgia and nostalgia. Even the mobile version of RuneScape is working very well. So we are trying to rely on that past: What EverQuest is and how it can grow. ”
What about the future of EverQuest? It seems Daybreak has a plan, but no one is ready to share. ” We want to grow, but we don’t want to sacrifice what EverQuest has built over the past 20 years,” Longdale said. “” The biggest customer service request we received when people wanted to ask for an email account was logged in 15 years ago because they wanted to log back in and play their old characters .””
“ We don’t want to focus on bringing new players to EverQuest. But for future products, we will definitely look at a whole new audience. In fact, our loyal audiences have aged a lot. They have more stable financial resources, while younger people may not have much money to spend on frivolous things like virtual mounts. ”
“ In the world of free games, we depend a lot on how people spend money. So in the future, we need to attract new players to expand the brand and bring new life to a younger audience. A staggering amount of players have spent part of their lives with EverQuest, and we still get the attention of younger people who want to live with the gaming industry’s nostalgia. ”
When talking to the Daybreak developer, it’s clear that EverQuest players like what they have been and are not too comfortable with changes. It is also part of the explanation for the success of EverQuest. I think it is familiarity. It’s a game that everyone remembers, and it doesn’t change too much or entirely change. This also reflects the gaming habits of the modern generation of gamers.
” Basically, we don’t want to change the game,” Longdale explained. “ It’s like when we made a new part of Star Wars Galaxies, and everyone gave up. EverQuest needs something a bit more appealing in the fight. That is cooperation. There will be many moments where gamers cannot combine or take advantage of classes or skills. And right now, a great deal of assistance and cooperation is needed to survive. This once again helps create a community. ”
Those are very precious shares of Holy Longdale about this 20-year-old game.
Does EverQuest ever die? Even if Daybreak permanently discontinues this game, it will still exist, whether it’s a fan project or just a beautiful memory of the thousands who have played and loved EverQuest. But at least, for the time being, going through 20 years of witnessing so many gaming industry changes, EverQuest is still standing. A new game is for sure, but getting past the EverQuest monument is a tough thing for Daybreak itself.
