My suggestion can fix the blue raid scene. Permanently.

[Eugee]

Originally Posted by Brontus [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

On EQ live they had a special guide organization called the Quest Troupe. These were highly skilled and dedicated guides who were experts at acting and role-playing. They helped to advance that notion that Norrath was a living and breathing virtual world. They played the roles of special characters including deities in the Norrath pantheon. This organization of guides went to each and every server doing live events and quests under the supervision of the EQ live lore team and a few GMs.

I was a Guide on EQ from Kunark through Velious. The only thing I was highly skilled at was blasting through a never ending ticket queue while being threatened with a perma account ban if I ever used my guide power to enter half the zones in velious, as well as a few in kunark. We'd hammer away at the incoming petitions, earmarking the GM-only issues for the one or two times a day a GM would actually log into your assigned server.

And when that GM wanted to run an event? Well fuck me now those tickets are going to sit their even longer, because the GM wants to fuck around in Plane of Air (which I'll get banned for porting into) or turn the guides into giants so we can walk around WC till a power guild converges on us and kills us for the retardedly stupid loot we have. Then the GM vanishes again, having checked off the box next to our server event, and we sit around wondering when this growing pile of GM tickets will ever get looked at.

In exchange my EQ subscription was comped. Most guides were gone within three months, quickly realizing what a shit show it was.

That's your "highly skilled actors".

You had to work tickets for 6 hours a week to be a guide. For a $12 monthly sub. $0.50 an hour man.

[immaterial]

Originally Posted by Eugee [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I was a Guide on EQ from Kunark through Velious. The only thing I was highly skilled at was blasting through a never ending ticket queue while being threatened with a perma account ban if I ever used my guide power to enter half the zones in velious, as well as a few in kunark. We'd hammer away at the incoming petitions, earmarking the GM-only issues for the one or two times a day a GM would actually log into your assigned server.

And when that GM wanted to run an event? Well fuck me now those tickets are going to sit their even longer, because the GM wants to fuck around in Plane of Air (which I'll get banned for porting into) or turn the guides into giants so we can walk around WC till a power guild converges on us and kills us for the retardedly stupid loot we have. Then the GM vanishes again, having checked off the box next to our server event, and we sit around wondering when this growing pile of GM tickets will ever get looked at.

In exchange my EQ subscription was comped. Most guides were gone within three months, quickly realizing what a shit show it was.

That's your "highly skilled actors".

You had to work tickets for 6 hours a week to be a guide. For a $12 monthly sub. $0.50 an hour man.

oh shit. brontus gettin called out for rose-tinted glasses.

[Brontus]

Originally Posted by Eugee [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I was a Guide on EQ from Kunark through Velious. The only thing I was highly skilled at was blasting through a never ending ticket queue while being threatened with a perma account ban if I ever used my guide power to enter half the zones in velious, as well as a few in kunark. We'd hammer away at the incoming petitions, earmarking the GM-only issues for the one or two times a day a GM would actually log into your assigned server.

And when that GM wanted to run an event? Well fuck me now those tickets are going to sit their even longer, because the GM wants to fuck around in Plane of Air (which I'll get banned for porting into) or turn the guides into giants so we can walk around WC till a power guild converges on us and kills us for the retardedly stupid loot we have. Then the GM vanishes again, having checked off the box next to our server event, and we sit around wondering when this growing pile of GM tickets will ever get looked at.

In exchange my EQ subscription was comped. Most guides were gone within three months, quickly realizing what a shit show it was.

That's your "highly skilled actors".

You had to work tickets for 6 hours a week to be a guide. For a $12 monthly sub. $0.50 an hour man.

Your account of the life of a guide is pretty accurate. The daily existance of a guide was pretty brutal but it was rewarding. It was very hard work. GMs could get away with murder and do as they pleased at least in the first 2 years before SOE started outsourcing them from a local San Diego temp agency and then I believe they brought them in from India if I'm not mistaken. There were good GMs and bad GMs. To add insult to injury, some bad GMs were promoted and are game designers in the industry to this very day.

I am sorry that you didn't have a great experience but nobody forced you to stay and it doesn't invalidate the the reality that SOE had a dedicated team of guide actors who were recruited and trained with specialized RP and acting skills to recreate major historical story-lines and narratives as EQ progressed.

Let me repeat: The Quest Troupe was an actual team that went to each server doing special live events over and above the quests and events that were done by the server guides. A guide had to apply and audition to be a member of the Quest Troupe. They were an elite team of guides and it was taken very seriously by SOE.

Along with the Quest Troupe, there was an sister team of guides and GMs that worked on creating quests and events as well. Again, this was classic EQ at it's finest in all its majesty and glory and all thanks to the unsung and unappreciated volunteers who invested thousands of hours behind the scenes to make Norrath come to life.

You have to remember back in 1999-2001, the concept of role-playing was still taken very seriously unlike today where role-playing has been drummed out of existence by dumbed down convenience driven achievement centric MMOs. There was a large pool of experienced role-players from all walks of life that were playing EQ at the time. Some of them naturally gravitated to the guide program where their talents could be used and appreciated.

Of course the average server guide would probably not be highly skilled at acting. You are comparing apples to oranges.

The whole point of this conversation is to find ways to create more content while still retaining the classic EQ philosophy. P1999 could easily create a Quest Troupe and other guide organizations that emulate exactly what SOE did and bring dynamic live events which creates more content and keeps the high end raiders happy as well as creating a virtual world that lives up to the mission statement of the original EverQuest and P1999.