CR interview with Chris Lena - new EQ producer!

[Gloriana]

[Nanyea the Wayward]

[Samanna]

[KB]

[Gloriana]

[KB]

Any word on this? The avatar not the article.

[Gloriana]

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[Gloriana]

[Samanna]

[Gloriana]

[Veril]

Hello. My name is...

[Beafly]

I think I Joged him a little to hard.

[Unmei]

Gack! If that's not a sign that I'm making too much of a nuisance of myself, I don't know what is.

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[Ordee]

[Gloriana]

CR has thing thing where you can't cut and paste the text. I got this from the View Source thingie, but it took forever to cut out the code

Once again Chris we would like to extend our greetings to you and of course get down to the tough questions.

You were previously a project lead and manager for Everquest, what kinds of projects can we attach your name to?

I worked on EverQuest for 2 years before taking on the Producer roleBefore that I spent a year in Localization, a stint on EverQuest Online Adventures when that was in development and bit of time on a few projects that never quite saw the light of day

You are a long term player by your own admission, and I;m not gonna try to force your server out (we will save that if you screw up), what do you think is the most interesting re-envisionment change to come to light and why?

I personally really like the smoothing out of the levels that you get spells. Looking at the statistics you could see a clear correlation between people quitting the game and the level of their main at the time. I know I had that feeling. I would get my new spells and knowing that I had a few more levels until I got more was not a great feeling.


Everquest is in a very competitive market now, perhaps for the first time looking forward thoughts have to be put towards expanding the playerbase, could you tell us a little about the plan for this to include the new web services, titanium package and marketing campaigns?

EverQuest is still successfully competing in today’s market. Let us be clear that our number one priority is our existing loyal players. There is no EverQuest without them. We do believe, however, that there is a good opportunity to expand our playerbase especially when you consider the number of new players that have recently come to the genre. At this point many of them may be looking for the kind of challenge that EverQuest has to offer. We need to do two main things: Show people that EQ is not an old game but instead a game with a rich history and make it as easy as possible to start playing. We will continue to update existing art and also communicate the amazing features we have been adding. EQPlayers and the redesigned EverQuest website will also show people that the game is still vibrant and relative. The Titanium package will make it the easiest it has ever been to catch up on the expansions. Also, let’s not forget that we have the Escape to Norrath server that is available for free. One of the issues is that many people feel a little intimidated by the sheer amount of content – it can be daunting. We are working on some things to address that as well but I can’t say anything else on that at this time.

As a community Everquest is finally coming into its own with an opening of communication between the players and the designers (unlike a former employees strategy to remain nameless), what steps have you or do you plan to continue to encourage this?

This is a big issue with me. Like I said earlier EverQuest is its community. The message boards are the obvious place for this but I also want to continue and improve our live chats. Of course, there are the Fan Faires as well. You also have to understand that this can be very difficult on a designer. They work hard (very hard) and then put it out for everyone to see. It is like having your math test corrected in front of your entire town. But we are committed to putting ourselves out there and continue to build our relationships with the community. We will take a few punches and probably say one or two dumb things but we will all be better off in the end.

Halflings/Gnomes Food or Football, Circle one.

Aren’t footballs food?

The past summit focused on the future of Everquest, and those of us who have stood by would like to believe that theres at least another 5 years left, where do you see EQ going in the next few years to remain competitive?

EverQuest will definitely be around a lot longer than 5 years. I have zero doubt of that. Sure, there is a lot more competition but nobody comes close to matching the amount of content that we have and our high end game continues to lead the pack. We will also continue to innovate. We have a great reverence to the history of EQ but that does not mean that will not be pushing the boundaries. Spirit Shrouds and Monster Missions are just the most recent example of this.

As our final question and of course to stir up the massive drama it will lead too, do you prefer Bards or Enchanters in your groups? (Anwser this one wrong and there could be much burning of pointy hats at

I, of course, have no preference because all classes have their particular usefulness to the group And I spend most of my time baking anyway.

As sad as that is, at least I know you will be cooking lil halfling pies...but the correct anwser was NERF bards…

[Tharkis]

Thanks =) not a military firewall here, but probably as strict if not more so at work. This is just about the only site that works for me =P Heck, i get little red X's for everyone sigs and stuff even.

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[Tharkis]