EverQuest2 Revisited Part 2: Travels in Faydwer2009-11-09 00:00:00my travels
and experiences with the legacy content of Qeynos and am now evaluating at the Faydwer newbie experience.Released in 2006, Echoes of Faydwer was the first EverQuest 2 expansion to introduce a more polished and competitive newbie experience to the player. This was promoted brilliantly with the addition of a new and exciting playable race with wings called the Fay.As in part 1 of this series of articles examining the newbie experience of EQ2, I will be wearing two hats: the first will try to simulate what a new player might experience and encounter, the second from the perspective of a game designer. There are no sacred cows here. Enter at your own risk…Enter the FayAfter you create your character and enter the world, you get the red carpet treatment of a pleasing voice over and moving overhead camera that introduces you to the magical home of the new race called the Fay. It’s refreshing to see that SOE has actually learned presentation and polish lessons from Blizzard’s successful WoW. When the pseudo cinematic ends you find yourself in the Fay starting zone called The Hatchery.The quests here seem to flow logically and are fairly easy to complete from the main outpost which serves as a quest hub. You are not bombarded with excessive NPCs that want to give you tutorials and quests as is the case in the older newbie zones.The zone itself is completely isolated with the exception of one pathway that leads to the outside world — this is as it should be and represents state of the art professional newbie zone design as seen in popular MMOs.聽 Also worth mention is that there are no distracting mariner’s bells with a plethora of destinations that...