Well, it seems that we’re going to hold a little Minnesota shindig for MMO developers of both the professional and armchair varieties.  As I fall firmly in the latter category, I’ll be there doing what I do best:  speaking loudly and often. 

In all honesty, it looks like a good crew so far.  The always lovely (and opinated) Cuppycake will be there, as well as Brent from Virgin Worlds, and apparantly Ethic from Kill Ten Rats.  Personally, I feel a bit outclassed in such company, so I’ll do my best to not stand out too badly.

Those of you out there who want to help me feel out of place are welcome to come out to relentlessly rant about my incessant online postings.   I’m sure there’s more than a few of you out there looking for a chance to meet me face to face (just for the chance to call me names, if nothing else ).

Of course, I’m as likely to buy you a beer as argue with you in person, but I’m always up for a good debate (Just bring your latin handbook with you and be ready for a good verbal lashing). 

In all seriousness, I’m looking forward to getting together with my fellow Minne-SOH-tan MMO enthusiasts.  I truly hope this turns into a regular event.

I don’t speak enough about my guild on here, which is a shame. I’m damned proud of my guildmates, and they put in some serious work to do what we do.

For those of you with no clue what I’m talking about, I lead the Legion of the White Rose guild, currently on Guk server in Everquest 2. We consider ourselves a pretty casual raiding guild, which for us means we raid 4 nights each week, for 3 hours each raid. That’s it. No 5-8 hour raid sessions. We don’t raid 6-7 nights a week. Just four three-hour sessions a week.

Considering we choose to be good only, this is definately quite the challenge for us. In fact, it’s such a challenge, let me repeat that again: we’re good only. That means no brigands, no defilers, no coercers, no necromancers, and so on…

To quote ol’ blue eyes, “We do it our way.” …or not at all.

Our raids are also voluntary. For those of you who don’t understand the significance, that means we’re not in the business of booting members who don’t attend raids from time to time. This also makes it more difficult to maintain a solid, standing raid force. We make up for this by recruiting more members overall, and paying closer attention to our class makeup (particularly since we only have access to 16 of the 24 classes).

Now, we’ve been raiding in Echoes of Faydwer zones, just like most guilds. We’re not nearly as far in as we’d like to be (probably just like most guilds), but we have a good time most nights just trying.

Recently (about 2 months ago), we held a poll within the guild to figure out where we wanted to spend our limited raid time. Not suprisingly, most members were sick to death of Vyemm’s and Lyceum. What did surprise me was how many members were NOT sick of Halls of Seeing or Deathtoll. With all these new Echoes raids out there, the overwhelming majority of my membership wanted to spend more time in Kingdom of Sky raid zones for a bit more.

So…we have. We’ve buckled down a lot over the past few months and started coming together in some major ways which have enabled us to finally see some significant jumps in our nightly numbers and progress.

For most raid guilds, this is old hat. We’re small potatoes compared to dedicated raid guilds, and we both appreciate and respect that. We’re not out to raise the bar for raiding as a whole, nor are we out to prove anything to anyone beyond our membership. We’re just out to have a good time when we log in.

All that being said, we’re doing well enough, I think. After taking 5 weeks off of Deathtoll, we went back on Sunday and took down Tarinax for the first time. It was a great feeling, and even the guildmates who couldn’t make the raid were hitting guildchat with woots and congratulatory messages. Since that kill, it’s been hard to discuss anything else in our forums or guildchat. Members can’t wait till this Sunday when we go after him again (and hopefully get our first guild Claymores).

Sure, this is old news for 90% of the raid guilds out there. We’re 2 releases behind the times, right? That doesn’t matter to us, though. If you had been in our guildchat Sunday night, chances are you would have felt great, too.

So, to my fellow Legionnaires, I’d like to say the following:

You’ve worked hard to get where we are. You’ve come a long way. You’ve learned a lot, you’ve become more savvy, and you’ve finally come together in a big way. You make me proud to be one of you, and I can’t wait to see what we bring down next.

Good job, Legionnaires. Keep it up!

NOTE:  Well, seems I missed out that Kelethin did get new 5 room housing with Update 35 (thanks for the comments, everyone - keep it coming).  I’ve edited the article to take this into account. It’s apparantly similar in pricing to Kelethin.  Though this does mitigate part of my point regarding balacing good vs. evil, it does not affect my point regarding old content vs. new.  Status costs should remain part of high end housing across the board…or not at all; and it shouldn’t require less than half the cost of old housing for new housing.  

In Game Update 35, the long lost city of Neriak was found.  Apparantly, so was the long lost pre-bubble Norrathian real estate market.  Judging by the firesale prices on Neriak housing, one would think that Queen Cristanos is hurting for residents. 

Don’t know what I mean? 

Before I can explain, we need to step back and compare.  For example, look at Qeynos and Freeport.  The best housing in the starting cities is only available to members of level 30 guilds, and requires a cost of more than 4.8 platinum and 300,000 status just to move in.  After that, the upkeep costs nearly 20 gold and another 60,000 personal status every week. 

Compare this to Neriak’s new five room digs.  Not only do you only have to spend 1.7pp to close on the place, but you don’t require any of those pesky guild level checks, either.  No status down, either…as the place comes without any status costs at all.  That’s right, just slide 1.7 platinum across the table, and you can own your own five room house without any additional hassle. 

Sound too good to be true?  Just wait, there’s more.  Your weekly upkeep costs only 7gold.  That’s it.  No status - just 7 gold pieces.

I’d tell you what the Kelethin five room housing cost by comparison - except I can’t find any. (see n0te above). 

So, just to recap:

South Qeynos
2 & 4 Bayle Court
Price: 4p,83g,84s 300,000 Status
Upkeep: 19g,35s,36c 60,000 Status
Slots: 6
Must have guild lvl 30
5 & 8 Erollisi Lane & 5 Karana Court
Price: 3p,87g,24s 250,000 Status
Upkeep: 15g, 48s 96c 50,000 Status
Slots: 5
Must have guild lvl 30

North Freeport
1 Compassion Road
Price: 4p,83g,84s 300,000 Status
Upkeep: 19g, 35s, 36c 60,000 Status
Slots: 6
Must have guild lvl 30

3, 5, & 7 Compassion Road
Price: 3p,87g,24s 250,000 Status
Upkeep: 15g, 48s, 96c 50,000 Status
Slots: 5
Must have guild lvl 30

Neriak
3 Walk of the Dead
Price: 1p, 70g
Upkeep: 7g
Slots: 5
No status or guild lvl listed

Kelethin
Price: 1p, 70g
Upkeep: 7g
Slots: 5
No status or guild lvl listed 

Now, if your guildmates are like my guildmates, they take that guild level seriously.  They worked hard to earn that level and they’re proud of it.  They spent a lot of time working on quests, writs, and buying/collecting status items to get us to the level we’re at.  Once they bought their status housing, they then spent the time to pick up lots of status furniture to keep the costs down. 

Now, I’m not a believer that all things need to be made equal in a MMO to retain balance, especially regarding online economies.  However, in most MMO’s now, the economy referred to is player controlled for the most part - an open market.  In such a system, the capitalist concepts of supply and demand largely keep prices in check, and the world goes round and round.

However, the housing market in  Everquest 2 is completely controlled by the developers.  There are is no player control over housing costs in Everquest 2.  The only level of control players can exert is where to move to…which isn’t always an option for 1/3 of the playerbase at any given time.  Nevermind immersion or “roleplaying” justifications.  The way Everquest 2 is designed, 8 of the 24 classes are “good” (Qeynos/Kelethin only) and 8 of the 24 classes are “evil” (Freeport/Neriak only).  What this means is that if you’re a Qeynos Swashbuckler or a Kelethin Ranger, good luck moving to your new, cheaper Neriak abode. 

This really is one of those issues that deserves some deeper discussion, at the very least.  Either the Neriak housing needs a revamp on pricing (add in status costs and guild levels at the very least) or the rest of the housing currently on the market needs a revamp on pricing (cut costs and remove status/level requirements) to bring it inline with the new cost model in Neriak. 

Honestly, I can’t imagine that Neriak has a massive housing boom right now.  It’s not as if the Neriak Tier’Dal WANT new residents in their city (in fact, the quest text tends to say exactly the opposite).  It would be like the New Tunarians opening the gates and asking for a boost in immigration.  Don’t get me wrong - I like the idea from a mechanics standpoint, but it still doesn’t gel with the current storyline.