Write for EQ Hammer’s New Weekly “Ratonga Rodeo”

EQ Hammer is Ten Ton Hammer’s all thing Everquest page.  I could be imagining it but Ten Ton seems to be experiencing a resurgence of good MMO coverage once more.  Maybe they have an all new set of writers.  They’re doing great articles lately on all kinds of topics, follow them on Facebook to see what’s new.

They are starting a weekly series where they give a topic and community members can submit articles they’ve written on the topic.  These are specifically focused on EverQuest Next.

Here’s the scoop and a link to the site so you can pen something weekly:

How is the community of EverQuest players shaping the development of EverQuest Next? Is their involvement a boon or a bane, or perhaps a little of both? Write down your thoughts this week and we’ll round them up for the Ratonga Rodeo next Monday. To participate, all you have to do is send a link to your published article. Here are the details:

Submission Deadline: Sunday, December 8, 2013 Rodeo Publication Date: Monday, December 9, 2013 Send submission link to: shayalyn@tentonhammer.com

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FAQs

What the hell is a Ratonga Rodeo?

It’s rats on broncos. Duh.

But seriously, it’s a writing challenge. We ask everyone in the EverQuest Next community–be ye fansite writer, blogger, or forum poster–to write down their thoughts on a specific topic during our challenge week. At the end of the week, we round up all of the articles with some key quotes and link to them so that readers can find them in one easy-to-navigate spot.

How do I participate?

Just look for the Ratonga Rodeo announcement each Monday at EQHammer.com, then pen a brilliant article, blog post, or forum post on our chosen topic. (If you don’t have a fansite or blog, you can post your thoughts in the EQHammer.com forums.) Once you’ve published your article, send a link to shayalyn@tentonhammer.com
to be included in the weekly roundup. (There’s no need to notify us of forum posts–we’ll look at those automatically.)

What’s in it for me?

Fame! Fortune! (Okay, well, maybe not fortune.) By pooling our creative talents and visionary thoughts, we’ll bring a laser focus on hot button issues. Also, it never hurts to have a prominent fansite like EQHammer linking to your stuff. What’s more, our collective discussion will provide another means for SOE to gauge community sentiment on key topics.

Anything else?

Just one more thing–spread the word! If you participate, please link back to the Ratonga Rodeo page to help people find other articles by your fellow writers and fansite colleagues. Share the love (and the link) on Twitter, Facebook and G+. (Don’t forget to mention @ShayalynTTH and @tentonhammer in your tweets!)

EQ Next

There is so much interesting information to absorb about EQ Next that I’ll just need to devote some time to looking over the information that has been released.

My overall impression is that the game is going to be a ton of fun, and as I’d hoped they’re bringing in some elements from their other games such as NO LEVELs and the ability to gain skills as you wish, mixing and matching in a wild variety of combinations.  That really adds to the game and your ability to make your character suit the way you play.

Releasing their Landmark system this winter will give people a peek at how the game is put together and gives players the ability to create things that may become a part of the permanent world.  Using some of the same tools the developers are using, players can create potentially amazing things that they can imagine that perhaps no one else would.  And it can be shared with everyone.

Everyone is saying it is Minecraft 102, but really they’re giving players the ability to add  “mods” to the game as you’ve been able to do in games like Neverwinter and Oblivion forever.  Pulling concepts like that from other types of games and not just looking at what has been done in an MMO is just cool.  Someone needed to make the leap.

Everquest Next Beta Sign Up

The EQ Next Official Page is up and beta signups are available.  They have you log in with your Station Account and voila.  Clever way to get people who actually play their games to sign up, and they can see what you’ve actually played or not.  I don’t think I’ve seen that before.

Everquest Next What I’d Like to See

From someone who isn’t a deep Everquest junkie but is a more casual player in the game:

Ha ha, since it is Sony, give me the things only Galaxies had housing with furnishings and decorations you could place anywhere, rotate, move up and down.

Skill trees.

Hundreds of recipes and the ability to name and add color customization (365+ colors!).

Cool vehicles.

A robust player economy.

A world you can live in.

A HUGE world to explore.

Highly customizable character models.

Adventure.

Story.

Heroic Deeds.

Alien cultures.

If they looked at the best things they have in all of their games and load them into this one, that is what we’re looking for.

Announcement around noon Las Vegas time today.