ZAM Interviews New EQ2 Producer, Dave Georgeson

EQII's New Producer Brings 20 Years Experience

ZAM:  Have you yet gone and thrown out any of the plans that were on the table as of last Wednesday?

Dave:  No.  I will go so far as to say that any of the short term plans are not going to be changed a bit.  The farther it gets from today the more impact I'll have on what's actually happening.  But I would expect it to be a month or two before any kind of shifts the I'm making will have any kind of difference in what we're doing on the game.

I need to learn, and they need to teach me and then at the same time some of the stuff is already almost done, so it would be stupid to stop it. 

ZAM:  I noticed in the last Halas Reborn preview that most of what was most recently discussed is still slated for GU56. 

Dave:  Yup .  That won't change.  It's dumb to go into a project like this and just start moving stuff to move stuff.  Granted there are people who will do that but I'm not one of 'em.  We will make shifts, like, I don't know exactly what got told publicly, as far as long range plans go, but long range plans, I wouldn't hold your breath.  Some of that will stay and some of it won't.  I know we'll probably shift some stuff around.  Short term?  Yeah, it's all gold.

ZAM:  I think the longest term plans we've heard is of course the next expansion.  And they committed to at least one raid per Game Update for the next fiscal year. 

Dave:  Well long term plans, like I said, what I'm going to be doing is asking people a lot of questions about why. That's probably the most annoying question I ask on a regular basis to a dev team.  “Okay, that's great, you want to do a raid every quarter.  Why?  Tell me the reasons.  What does that do, who does that feed, how many people is it?”  You know, that kind of questions.  And if those are all good answers?  Absolutely we'll keep doing that. 

ZAM:  So, do you play EverQuest II?

Dave: 
This is where I'm going to get spanked a little bit I think.  When I was doing Planetside of course they were developing EverQuest II so I played it a bunch pre-launch then I played it a little bit after launch.  When I left SOE I got really busy with my own projects so I ended up fallin' off of that.  You know you only have time for usually one or maybe if you're really dedicated two MMOs at a time, and I kept sampling the different flavors.  So I didn't get back to EverQuest until I came back to SOE. 

However, yes, I did spend my entire weekend playing a Troll Shadowknight up.

ZAM:  What server are you on?

Dave:
  I wanted to be around people so I was on AB.  Part of why I play the game when I'm on it is so that I can see how the people interact with each other and exactly what the social dynamics are, that sort of thing.  So I went to the most populated server to try that out.  I played a troll Shadowknight mostly 'cause that's what I played in EverQuest, which I played a lot.  It was fun, I had a good time.  Crushbone's a blast. 

Comments

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Spin
# Apr 20 2010 at 9:05 PM Rating: Decent
How did you make the leap to............
I don't think it was in the best interest of the new Lead Producer of EQII to basically tell the world if you want to actually play around other people, play on AB...
from
I wanted to be around people so I was on AB......


Dunno, but all I take from that statement is that he wanted to be around some players and AB was the server he happened to choose. Anyway, the guy has a solid background in RPG's. I especially like that he was on some of the early D&D projects which were the cobblestones that paved the way for games like this one.
Likes and Dislikes
# Apr 20 2010 at 1:29 PM Rating: Good
32 posts
I like this guy's approach. He seems level-headed and reasonable. I like that he left that one company because they weren't actually interested in making a good game. I don't like that he has only stayed 2-3 years at any given project. But maybe that's just the nature of most of those projects, I dunno.

I do NOT like his focus on micro-transactions. I paid an up-front cost plus I pay a recurring monthly fee. I should get the whole game. I begrudge the existing micro-transaction system (SC) and the similar indirect model of LoN loot cards. I have at least been assuaged by the free monthly LoN packs (for a chance at items that have a non-appearance game-play impact like void portals and repair cloaks) and the various promotions giving out free station cash (I have 1500 SC and never bought any) plus the only items that are not already in game in some form are the appearance ones (e.g. xp potions as vet rewards). I don't mind things like character transfer on SC as that was a fee-based service anyway, and it's a "meta-game" service, if you will. I would like to see the prices on those meta-game services come down further, however, since they are automated now.

The Station Exchange servers are another matter. I hate that they were ever created in the first place, but I'm fine with them being separate and characters not being transferrable between them and normal servers. I'd be curious to see the player turnover statistics on the exchange servers. I bet it's high (indicating that attachment to the game is low), because there's little sense of accomplishment with gear that you just buy. It would also seem like a big hassle if you have to "keep up with the Joneses" to compete for group / raid slots. Maybe that's just me though.

Edited, Apr 20th 2010 3:32pm by Xaritus
We should all play on AB ?
# Apr 20 2010 at 11:45 AM Rating: Default
I don't think it was in the best interest of the new Lead Producer of EQII to basically tell the world if you want to actually play around other people, play on AB...

EQ2 server populations are in a bad state. This comment just solidifies that fact.
We should all play on AB ?
# Apr 20 2010 at 12:56 PM Rating: Good
32 posts
Spinning his words to promote your own agenda: Check.
We should all play on AB ?
# Apr 20 2010 at 2:36 PM Rating: Decent
Yes, my agenda for world domination...

There is no spinning of his words. "I wanted to be around people so I was on AB." His exact words.

I am not saying I don't like the guy. In fact I liked his interview. I like is approach. I don't agree with everything said in the interview but after reading it I think the game will be in good hands.
We should all play on AB ?
# Apr 21 2010 at 1:32 PM Rating: Good
32 posts
You turned his personal choice magically into a suggestion to the player base. Plus, if you actually read the context of his statement, a better paraphrase would be that he wanted to observe player interactions, so he went to the highest population server.

I don't deny that the population issue is an important one for some servers; just calling out the obvious spin. I mean, I've done it before too when I was upset over something important to me. Just sayin'.
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