Let me apologize up front for using a reference to an 80’s song as a post title. May the gods of big hair strike me down!

With Game Update 38 for EverQuest II coming down the pike, players will be able to equip items of armor for appearance only - at long last putting an end to the days of patchwork tanks and such. One would expect the news to stop here, usually with something along the lines of “… and there was much rejoicing”, but in reality, that’s the furthest thing from the truth.

Instead, we’ve got a thread on the official forums that’s up to 47 pages of replies (at the last count) filled with people decrying the system, all because SOE has chosen to implement restrictions on what items a player can wear in the appearance slots - and how.

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Good designers borrow; Great designers steal. 

It’s an old saying I’ve heard hundreds of times over the years to apply to everything from software coding to web design.  Taken literally, it’s not a very pleasant thought, but the underlying concept fueling this clever little mantra is still fairly apt - and quite relevant to MMO’s today.

A good idea is a good idea is a good idea.  Just because so-and-so came up with the idea first doesn’t mean the idea won’t necessarily work in other settings.  Not all ideas or concepts can or should be locked down as proprietary, never to be touched or improved upon again.

And yet, so many players seem to really hate the idea. 

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MMORPG.com has a video with Chad “Lotus” Haley which answers a few more questions regarding the Rise of Kunark expansion. 

Not Shown, but discussed:

Description of new rhino mount
Epic weapons will be the most animated within the game - they’ll have death animations
New housepet:  cockatrice
Description of adaptive combat music
Achievement Outfits - save multiple achievement builds to items

Shown:

Sarnak character creation choices (females larger due to matriarchal society,  females can be topless)
Quick Tour of Timorous Deep is shown - described as the size of 3-4 Antonicas

Unfortunately, the interviewer , Jon Wood, did not seem to understand the game very much, and certainly didn’t seem to appreciate some of the more desired information.  At one point he was spending time discussing other articles that MMORPG has up and he mentioned housing - to which Chad Haley perked up and suggested “Oh, Guild Housing!”…only to have Jon tell him no and then go into a months old contest where developers would redecorate your personal house.  I can’t help but think that Chad really wanted to talk about guild housing and I can’t help but think of what a missed opportunity MMORPG had on their hands there. 

Not too much new information in this video, but a couple of tidbits there for some of you who may not have been keeping up to much on the expansion.