EQ II: New Producer & First Producer Letter

Everquest II has a new senior producer in the form of Alan Crosby, late of the community relations team. In addition to an introductory letter, Crosby has also penned his first producer's letter for May 2009. Check it out!

From the introductory letter:

I am extremely pleased to join the creative and passionate EQII team as the Senior Producer. Bruce has always been wonderful to work with and leaves me some rather large shoes to fill (speaking of clichés; they are actually about the same size as my own). Bruce has been a strong shepherd for the team and the game and we all wish him well as he moves into his new role here at SOE. I know he will do well, as he carries the dedication he shows in all things with him.

And from the producer's letter:

Just like any evolving game, things change. Since release, we've had an ongoing and heavy interest in game balance. Much of the critical implementation work in the last several years for EverQuest II has been on the shoulders of Aeralik, but the discussion and decisions are shared across the entire team, as we review information that you provide us in various ways. Data comes from the many reports we run against our log files, from the posts you make in the EQII forums, and even from external forums. Once we gather that data, we process it so that we can see the underlying issue it reveals.

Fairly often the data confirms something that one of you has pointed out in a post, or in feedback, or a ticket with Customer Service, and we start looking at ways that we can correct whatever that issue is. There is not a one of us who enjoys putting something into the game that eventually needs to be "nerfed", but at times changes get in that end up doing something completely unexpected, despite our testing. Even the most innocuous item or change can make a significant difference in a game with the complexity of an MMO, especially with the size and scope of EQII.

This is the situation we've run into now. We've discovered that with the items that we released with The Shadow Odyssey, that proc additional damage, the amount of damage being caused has grown considerably, and we need to adjust it. So, in the next game update, we're going to be adjusting to the way triggered procs on items work.

Read the rest of both at their respective links listed above.

Congrats and welcome to Mr. Crosby!