EverQuest Coming to Mac OS X 57
Anonymous Coward writes "EverQuest is coming to a Mac near you, as reported on GameSpot. Sony is planning to release it on Mac OS X sometime next year. You can also find details on Apple's website. Scott McDaniel, vice president of marketing for Sony Online said 'Combine the power and stability of Mac OS X with Apple's outstanding desktop systems and you've got an incredible gaming environment that'll take full advantage of EverQuest's huge and seamless 3D world.' (sounds good to me =)"
One Problem (Score:2)
Re:One Problem (Score:1)
dalamcd
Re:One Problem (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:One Problem (Score:2)
Re:One Problem (Score:2, Informative)
Re:One Problem (Score:2)
You are right, it is total bullshit. I mean, the programmers should know their own networking protocols and be able to use them in a new client. I guess it could be that they are too lazy and instead used DirectX or some proprietary protocol, but that is such a cop-out. You'd think that such a large corporation would have more control over their game than this.
Re:One Problem (Score:2, Funny)
Re:One Problem (Score:2)
I see no reason why it wouldn't operate with the current EQ servers. This isn't a new version with new protocol methods and stuff, it's a port.
So can yah help a brutha out and give proof that your not spreading FUD?
Re:One Problem (Score:2, Informative)
"Mac OS X EverQuest players will not be able to play against (or with) the PC players of the game, due to server incompatibilities. Also, Sony will be watching the sales of Mac EverQuest very closely, to evaluate whether ports of other titles such as EverQuest 2 and Star Wars Galaxies will be worthwhile."
Re:jesus christ (Score:1)
But, seriously, the boat has passed. The only imaginable reason anyone would still play Everquest is a) being psyched up for geeky medireview [slashdot.org]-ishness by the Lord of the Rings or b) trying to relive their childhood, in the same horrible manner that people still care about Ozzy Osbourne because they were children of the 80's.
Of course it is an EverQuest.
Re:jesus christ (Score:2, Insightful)
As for EQ, I had an account active for quite some time, because of the low-ish system requirements that allowed me to game on an old AMD K-6 333 with a cheap Voodoo3 card. (I prefer to keep my Mac free for doing other things, and the gaming PC sat next to it for when I felt like wasting some time.)
When the Shadows of Luclin expansion came out, they upped the requirements for all users, not just the ones who bought the expansion, so I chose to close my account rather than buy a new gaming PC.
My guess is that the Mac version's system requirements will be so rigid that it would probably demand tieing up my main G4 workstation (even though a well-coded port of that game really should be able to run fine on an old iMac G3-400... we all know that it won't though, eh?)
I'll pass, thanks. Neverwinter Nights for Mac will probably blow it out of the water anyway. If the Mac port of EQ came out two years ago, I would have been all over it... now I just don't care.
There's a lesson here for game design shops, though. Simultanious development efforts == Loyal Mac customer base. Bungie knew it, Blizzard has learned it. Even if your releases are a month or three apart (as with NWN), it will still profit you much more than porting a long-obsolete game and trying to sell it at new-release prices. Macs may be only 5% of the overall computer market, but keep in mind that over half of that other 95% is made up of office PC's that will never, ever be used as gaming stations, so efforts to build a simultanious Mac port actually reaches a proportionally larger unrealized market than you may have considered.
Re:jesus christ (Score:1)
I am honesly asking, not being rhetorical, do these uses equally dipose the use of Macs for gaming just as office tasks do for PCs?
Re:jesus christ (Score:1, Interesting)
A best selling Mac game shifts around 30K units - this isn't even on the radar for a PC title, which would be considered a flop if it sells less than 200K. It's unfortunate, but true - there just aren't as many Mac users who play games (I know these numbers are correct, because I port games to the Mac for a living: see posts by people like Westlake at IMG/MacGamer if you want another source).
Companies which do simultaneous development typically do so because a)of their history, e.g., they started out on the Mac and feel they owe it to their users or b)due to internal politics (e.g., id do it because they want to help support OpenGL).
Re:jesus christ (Score:2, Interesting)
Yess, but a game that sells 230K is considered much, much more successful than a game that sells 200K. That's what simultaneous development can do for you.
Of course, if you port Mac games for a living, I'm sure you would rather that the game companies did not do it that way.
Re:jesus christ (Score:1)
Blah, D3D and DX8 may look nice, and all the new nVidia cards may have all that nice hardware stuff built in, but it would just be SO easy with OGL! :)
Re:jesus christ (Score:1)
Re:jesus christ (Score:1)
Re:jesus christ (Score:1)
So... (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:3, Funny)
Among the crowd I ran with, it was known as DivorceQuest.
Too true (Score:1)
EQ: Just Say No!
Re:So... (Score:1)
The main problem with this (Score:1)
So, Apple and Sony will have to come up with a way to get some 'new blood' into this consumer base, or, within a year or so, it'll become extinct!
Well (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well (Score:1)
On the other hand, my father, a Mac user since '84, and the treasurer of the Gateway Area Macintosh User's Group plays EQ on my brother's PC all the time. Though he seems to be caught up in making things and fishing, and not fighting more than he has to.
In any case, I've watched it being played often enough, and I've no interest in playing myself.
Drug Interaction Warning (Score:2, Funny)
Odd timing. (Score:2, Interesting)
So far to keep their game alive they have
- Removed information [castersrealm.com] as to how many people are playing after noticing a 20% drop
- Started promoting EQ as a way of drunk women meeting famous people with a really amusing movie file that has basically vanished from the net
- Offering $40/month luxury servers [sony.com] that have what they used to promise the standard servers
- Providing a range [sony.com] of services [sony.com] that they swore they would never ever do (The Rename service netted then $69,200 last month alone)
- Trying to stir up interest in their game with some of the poorest tie-in merchandise in history [sony.com]
- emailing out free accounts [sony.com]
- giving free doses of their game away on magazine covers
(For people who don't play EQ, a lot of people are commenting on how once crowded zones are now going empty, and more and more people are leaving or Ebaying their characters rather then keep playing. When asked about Everquest 2, a common reaction is a shudder and 'Nope, never again')
Re:Odd timing. (Score:3, Insightful)
1. Lower startup cost. A $60 set of three books and a handful of dice is all you really need for a group of 5 or 6 friends to start playing. (Others are available, but ya don't really need 'em.)
2. You get to actually talk to the people you are gaming with, face to face. This allows you to beat the living crap out of anybody who is being a jerk, a feature which MMORPG's sadly lack. Also, you never need to look at the fucked-up hybrid shorthand that all the shitty typists on EQ inevitably resort to. If you were never an EQ player, you have no idea how annoying it got to see "r u cleric? heal plz." every time some Iksar monk saw you carrying a hammer.
3. More room for creativity.
4. No monthly fees.
5. If you were one of those geeks who played the original D&D back when you were in Junior High School, there's the spiffy nostalgia value.
6. No spawn points, no camping, no repetitive quests, no worries about 250 other players going on the exact same "epic" quest as you at any given time.
7. The originality of the stories are limited only by the imagination of the cleverest person in your group.
Neverwinter Nights looks like it might emulate the DM-run roleplay experience fairly well in some ways, and I'm sure I will waste a little time playing it, but it can't completely replace the fun you can have with a weekly or bi-weekly gaming group. Anyway, that's just my opinion. YMMV.
Re:Odd timing. (Score:1)
*cough cough cough*
Re:Odd timing. (Score:1)
Re:Odd timing. (Score:1)
Re:Odd timing. (Score:1)
probably because a lot of those people are in broken relationships because of EQ.
a friend of mine was into EQ pretty badly and his fiance - also a close friend of mine was always complaining about his addiction. it got the point where his friends were telling her to leave him.
she stuck with him, he got out of it, and now he's already in a guild with a site for star wars galaxies.
it's a vicious circle, and I pity the poor os-x users who get stuck in it now.
sony are just opening up another percentage of the world for ruined relationships and neglected children.
way to go sony..
Re:Odd timing. (Score:2, Insightful)
We see it every day, some company is to blame for someone being weak at heart...
In the end, its not realy their fault that your friend is weak... Some make it other parrish...
If you think that way, just dont buy the game when it comes out, simple as that...
Better late than never (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Better late than never (Score:1)
Seamless? (Score:2)
- Steve
Re:Ridiculous (Score:1)
Re:Ridiculous (Score:2)
A lot of people do. Just because a game has been in existence for 3 years doesn't mean anyone, aside from hard-core gamers who go through a new game each night, is necessarily tired of it.
Mac Version INCOMPATIBLE With Server? WHAT? (Score:1)
insidemacgames.com [insidemacgames.com]
An interesting blurb in that article:
Uh, am I the only programmer here that thinks that's about the most absurd thing I've ever heard?
The only incompatibilties that could possiblity exist is if they changed the protocol.
Server's just don't say "Icky, I Think this network connection is coming from a non-windows box, I better not work right with it".
It will be interesting to see what happens once some clever people hackersquest.org [hackersquest.org] end up reverse engineering the protocol on the MacOS version and see how much it differs from the Windows version.
Online Gaming? (Score:1)
Assuming that I would want to play an online RPG (which will NEVER be a true RPG in my opinion; it can only be, at best, a war game), why would I want to play a game that's been out for the PC for so long? I see that players are gaming with other players, some good, some evil, some teenagers with nothing better to do than go online and wreck havoc...
I spoke to a buddy on EverQrack who has some rediculously high level character(s). He's not the only one.
These games seem to put a huge emphasis on Power Levels (again, where's the role playing in that?) What would make me, a new player, want to play in a power-hungry world with high level characters already out there? My joke to my friends who are playing NeverWinterNights already (PC version, natch), is that I can join as a 1st lever character and be a burden to the party as soon as the Mac client comes out.