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TVTranscript
00:01It broke barriers as it built a new world.
00:04It was absolutely a leap of faith because nobody had done it before.
00:09And went head-to-head with the most successful game of its kind.
00:13It actually scared us too because we're thinking,
00:15oh, there's probably going to be room for one and that's it.
00:17Building this brave new world wasn't easy.
00:21I don't know. If I hadn't seen the game from the beginning,
00:24I probably would have been pretty skeptical.
00:26Yet the results were breathtaking.
00:30In a way, it's like our world, except it's in a fantasy setting.
00:35Real-life relationships began forming.
00:38You make friends in this game.
00:40And these are friends that you keep for a long time.
00:43And make-believe characters came to life.
00:46A mother sent in a picture of her daughter and said,
00:48my daughter looks exactly like this. You've got to use her.
00:52But the extreme dedication of some players caused controversy.
00:56I know for myself at one point, I just actually had to stop the addiction
01:01and get out of it so I could keep my life and keep my sanity.
01:06This is the amazing story of EverQuest,
01:09the most successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game in history.
01:14It just keeps going and going like the Energizer bunny.
01:38It just keeps going and going like the Energizer bunny.
01:44Now known as Sony Online Entertainment,
01:46has achieved success on the PlayStation platform with the NFL game day,
01:57Twisted Metal,
02:03and Jet Moto titles.
02:06But not every release is a success.
02:09It was a shame with Spawn though,
02:11because I've always been a big Spawn fan.
02:15After a troubled, multi-year production process,
02:19Spawn the Eternal is released.
02:21In spite of high hopes, the game, based on the comic book classic,
02:25fails miserably.
02:28And Spawn was a special favorite because of its cutting-edge art and storylines.
02:32And then when the game was so pitiful, it was like,
02:35oh, he broke my heart.
02:39Yet other hits follow, including sequels to Jet Moto and Twisted Metal.
02:45Both offer modes of play for multiple gamers.
02:48Ha! The race to broaden multi-player entertainment officially begins.
02:54It was something that I felt very strongly about.
02:56I really believed in online gaming from the start.
02:59I was playing a game called Cyber Strike at the time,
03:01from a company called Simitronics,
03:02and just fell in love with it.
03:04But his love for online games takes a personal toll.
03:08I was just married at the time.
03:10My wife was killing me.
03:11We were getting $600 a month bills,
03:13and she just wanted to kill me for this,
03:15because it was hourly pay-per-play on Genie back in those days.
03:18And what happened was, as I fell in love with internet gaming,
03:23I more and more wanted to see my tabletop Dungeons & Dragons days
03:27from high school kind of become a reality.
03:30Smedley approaches his boss at Sony.
03:33He wants to create an online fantasy world unlike any other.
03:37A game that can be played only by subscription.
03:41Actually, at that time, my old boss, Kelly Flock,
03:43back in 97 when I first hit him up with this idea,
03:46he was really supportive of it.
03:48And it's not very often that you find a company that's willing to take a risk,
03:52a real flyer.
03:52Because we're talking about days when there was no real pay-per-play business.
03:57It was limited to people like me that were willing to pay for it.
04:01It was absolutely a leap of faith because nobody had done it before.
04:05And as much as everybody might believe that,
04:08well, yeah, of course people will pay $10 a month to play this game.
04:12Whether they actually will or not,
04:14you rely so heavily then on the content of the game,
04:17aside from anything else.
04:19That core game quality has to be there.
04:22Back in March of 97, I hired Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover.
04:28It's kind of a funny story.
04:29I was browsing the web, looking for programmers,
04:32and I was looking through shareware games
04:33because I had in my head that I wanted to get an online role-playing game going.
04:39Honestly, it was no more than an idea.
04:41And I was fortunate enough to run across Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover.
04:46He came out with the idea of putting this stuff together
04:49and got together with Brad McQuaid, who was designing this project.
04:52And they said in the early days when still internet gaming was kind of a buzz,
04:56but it really wasn't, nobody was convinced at this point.
05:01Work on the new game continues.
05:04But in September 1997, Ultima Online,
05:07the first commercial online game, is released by Origin.
05:11How would this affect Sony's ambitious project?
05:14I think that may have been either the first E3 or the last CES.
05:18We actually heard about Ultima Online at that time.
05:22It was an amazing looking game, and we were like,
05:24oh, wow, this is cool.
05:25Now we'll have an example of something that's going to be fun to play.
05:29Ultima Online really did pave the way for it in its graphical sense
05:33and bringing a fantasy world to life in a real strong graphical sense.
05:37Before Ultima Online, it was all text-based.
05:40We had no idea if it would be a commercial success or not.
05:43I mean, certainly we all played the Ultimas growing up,
05:45and knowing that it had that brand behind it, it actually scared us too,
05:49because we were thinking, oh, there's probably going to be room for one and that's it.
05:51Ultima Online soon has more than 90,000 players, but Sony is planning a response.
05:58In spring 1998, Tanneris, Sony's first online subscription game,
06:04originally created as an experiment, is released to test the online waters.
06:10It was quickly cobbled together just to demonstrate to the higher-ups that John's vision was going to work,
06:16and that the engine that we had acquired from Pyrotechnics was going to be functional.
06:20Tanneris does more than just function. It's fun to play.
06:26Tanneris is a tank game made of teams. There's no real complicated scenarios involved.
06:32You just get in your tank, drive, and try and kill the other guy before he kills you.
06:35It's a lot of fun.
06:36We built an internet game that really became kind of the cornerstone of our entire online gaming experience.
06:43By the spring of 1998, the video game world is entranced by Ultima Online.
06:50It was nearly at the peak of its power.
06:52Ultima had the benefit of its cachet as a world.
06:55The Britannia world that Richard Garriott had built was something that a lot of fans in the game industry had
07:00really already tapped into.
07:01We were able to watch this thing launch and become a success, and it really took on a life of
07:08its own, and then we knew we had something at that point.
07:10Yet Sony sees an opportunity to build on their competitor's success.
07:15Ultima Online served a very specific audience.
07:19It was a great game. I played it much too much myself.
07:22But it was a great game that had a lot going for it, but it also had some small negatives
07:27that not everybody was into it.
07:33Sony Online Entertainment has already begun work on a game that will challenge the authority of Ultima Online.
07:40A game that will become a lifestyle for enthusiasts worldwide.
07:57By 1998, Ultima Online is the top internet game of its kind.
08:02Sony Online Entertainment is getting ready to go head-to-head with its own entry.
08:05The new massively multiplayer online role-playing game is dubbed EverQuest.
08:12It will be set in a breathtaking 3D fantasy world.
08:15A persistent world that never shuts down.
08:18We'd never done this before.
08:20Tanners was our only experience, and it was very limited compared to the scope of an EverQuest.
08:24So it was just a lot of trial by fire and trial by error.
08:29It was a major risk. There's no doubt. There had never been even an attempt to do a game like
08:33this.
08:35Which is a true 3D engine, massively multiplayer, persistent world online role-playing game.
08:44Players can assume characters of infinite types.
08:47The game features 12 different races of humans, gnomes, elves, and other creatures.
08:55You can go into it, adopt a new identity. You can be whoever you want to be.
09:02The connection with your character that you created was immediate.
09:07That you could really start building up and exploring.
09:11And people struggled through the hard times because at the core of this was new. This was just a lot
09:16of fun.
09:20The online world of EverQuest is called NORATH.
09:24From a first- or third-person perspective, players can explore continents ranging from steaming jungle swamps to underwater lands.
09:37In a way, it's like our world, except it's in a fantasy setting.
09:41It has an economy.
09:45It has a social structure.
09:48It's just not our world.
09:51Within NORATH, players traverse many different zones.
09:58And pool resources in quests for distant treasures.
10:03The global environment and the artistic results are astonishing.
10:10EverQuest is all about people interacting with other people.
10:13Their experience just fighting monsters.
10:16That's fun.
10:17It's when they start getting their friends involved.
10:19That's when something just seems to click.
10:22Because you're working towards a common goal.
10:25A lot of people in the hardcore that started with the game would probably come to this because it was
10:30sort of Dungeons & Dragons style experience that they'd had on the tabletop now visualized.
10:36You get the magic through the fact that it's suddenly real, it's suddenly more diverse and it's suddenly interactive.
10:42And this interactivity is key to what makes this new game unique.
10:48You're fighting a monster and a friend of yours joins in.
10:51And all of a sudden you've got somebody you know and maybe they've invited somebody else to join your group
10:56and now you've got three people and all of a sudden you're introduced to this new person.
10:59It just keeps going and going like the Energizer Bunny.
11:02I mean, you just get this huge network of people that you meet and I think that's the magic.
11:07Yet one of the game's most unique aspects causes concern.
11:11In Ultima Online, players often battle or PK fellow players for sport.
11:15So with EverQuest, they decided to go with player versus environment.
11:19It was very controversial when it was announced during the development that we were going to go towards player versus
11:25environment rather than player versus player.
11:28So a concession is made.
11:30The hardcore player versus player people were really upset because they wanted to show that they're the best player, we
11:35have the best skills and the way to prove that is against another player and not against an artificial intelligence.
11:40So we also included some servers where it is player versus player where you can actually kill another player in
11:45the game.
11:47The game is making headway, but will people actually pay a monthly fee to play it?
11:52We have these project review meetings and all the other producers would show these PlayStation games that are going to
11:57sell a million units, NFL game day, million units.
12:01And here we are showing our PC stuff. How many is this going to sell? Well, we think it might
12:06sell 70,000 units over two years.
12:08I don't know. I myself, if I hadn't seen the game from the beginning, I probably would have been pretty
12:15skeptical.
12:15And then all of a sudden some of those producers internally started playing the game and then they got it.
12:21It's just one of this big ball of energy that kind of sucks people in.
12:25Yet is it good enough to impress the press?
12:28When EverQuest launched, they were fighting the ultimate name and they were also fighting the Lord British name.
12:36It had some celebrity behind it, so that was a tough road to hoe.
12:40I remember hauling these big computers up to computer gaming world and literally kind of getting these almost, not blank
12:49stares, but sort of like they didn't know quite what to make of us yet.
12:52I actually saw the game well before release when John Smedley and Brad McQuay came in and said,
12:58we've got this game and it's going to be massively multiplied and it's an RPG.
13:01There was a lot of nervousness about it, but I remember I was working at PC Accelerator at the time
13:06and we first got our builds of EverQuest in.
13:09And all of a sudden, we just got sucked into it.
13:13And the positive reaction keeps building well after its March 1999 introduction.
13:19After only two months on the market, more than 100,000 copies of the CD-ROM are sold.
13:25And each night, 30,000 people enter the enthralling zones of EverQuest.
13:30When it first launched, it was a real test because nobody had done this before.
13:35And Ultima Online had already come out and set an example and a standard.
13:40And I think that there was a feeling for a while that between Ultima Online and EverQuest and Asheron's Call,
13:47the market was somewhat saturated.
13:49But with each additional game that's come into the market, it has expanded the base.
13:55So when we launched the product in early 1999, we had roughly 50,000 subscribers within a two or three
14:02month period.
14:05EverQuest players are supported by a team of game masters who are based in the company's headquarters in San Diego,
14:12California.
14:12We'll doggedly go after a problem until we solve it.
14:16One of our employees will spend half a day if necessary with one single customer to resolve a situation if
14:21necessary.
14:25Fans go crazy for this brand new fantasy world.
14:28During peak periods, there are up to 37,000 players online simultaneously.
14:35From countries as far flung as Zimbabwe and New Zealand.
14:41People operate in their mundane world and then EverQuest allows them to operate in a fantasy world where they can
14:47do fantastic things.
14:49Our typical player plays 20 hours a week, which is a lot.
14:52And the ramp up curve that we see on this game is absolutely amazing.
14:56It goes from, you know, a couple hours a week to all of a sudden they just go right up
15:00to our average.
15:01And in some cases a lot more than that.
15:03Nuts.
15:04They are absolutely intense.
15:06It is amazing.
15:08But I think it comes out of the fact that they have dedicated so much of their time and often
15:15taken over their lives to this.
15:19Given the strongly addictive nature of EverQuest, the gaming press and online community jokingly nicknamed the game EverQuest.
15:27I know for myself at one point I just actually had to stop the addiction and get out of it,
15:33you know, so I could keep my life and keep my sanity.
15:36You know, I would say that people devote like 38 hours of their week to TV.
15:40Is that bad? Yes, I think I'm a proof of that.
15:42Do people devote too much of their days to this? I think that's a personal choice. It's about what people
15:47want to do with their free time.
15:49You know, EverQuest really just became a phenomena because it empowers people to communicate online.
15:55The kind of catch phrase that we like to use is we're forming global gaming community.
16:00You make friends in this game and these are friends that you keep for a long time.
16:04It's great to have all you guys here. It's about time we got here, huh?
16:12And what better place to meet than EverQuest fan fairs?
16:17We host a quarterly fan fair, which is a national traveling EverQuest get together.
16:24They come primarily because they want to meet their online counterparts face to face.
16:29Fantasy begins merging with reality.
16:32Yeah, oh my gosh. I mean, how cool is that?
16:34I think I must have bought every single TV guide in our local grocery store.
16:38And the cover girl becomes a real life woman.
16:41Our artist, Keith Parkinson, painted the first EverQuest.
16:45And the High Elf, Firiona V, that's on the cover of the first box.
16:50A mother sent in a picture of her daughter and said, my daughter looks exactly like this.
16:55You've got to use her.
16:56And Keith started using her as a model for the future ones.
17:00In fact, if you look closely, the difference between the first box and the second,
17:05it goes from looking like this kind of generic High Elf to Denise.
17:09Within months of its launch, EverQuest outpaces Ultima Online, its biggest competitor.
17:15But can it survive newer, tougher competition, as well as its own replacement?
17:31In December 1999, EverQuest becomes the best-selling massively multiplayer online role-playing game of all time.
17:39250,000 copies of the game have been sold.
17:43Outpacing its nearest competitors, Ultima Online and Asheron's Call.
17:48I'm not sure that there is an average EverQuest player.
17:50A good portion of our audience is male.
17:52A good portion fits between the ages of 13 and 30.
17:56To however old you want to be to play it.
17:58At the same time, we have 75-year-old grandmothers in Florida playing with their grandkids out in San Francisco.
18:04There's some people that play heavy Dungeons and Dragons and are into the real role-playing side of things.
18:09And then you have the jocks, like the Curt Schillings of the world.
18:12It really does take a cross-section of people.
18:14As many as 40,000 subscribers have logged onto the game at the same time, each paying a $10 a
18:20month subscription fee.
18:22But fans are restless.
18:25We're really there to please the ongoing players who've been playing a long time and want some new experience.
18:30That's what the expansions are for.
18:34In early 2000, the first EverQuest expansion pack is released.
18:41The Ruins of Kunark includes a new continent to explore and a new race of lizard men.
18:47It really helped to give something extra.
18:52And it really wasn't just a case of adding a landmass.
18:54It was adding a bunch of other elements.
19:00The expansion pack is a smash hit.
19:03And by February 2000, EverQuest boasts more than 300,000 players.
19:14That winner, a second expansion pack, The Scars of Bellius, is introduced.
19:19It features even more perilous zones and numerous new quests for characters at higher levels.
19:25But some complain that it's too hard for most players.
19:29That was a real high-end pack for those people that have already invested a huge amount of hours.
19:35There's always going to be controversy over what we're deciding to do.
19:38And, you know, sometimes it works for us, sometimes it doesn't.
19:44Nevertheless, EverQuest continues to rule the online gaming world.
19:48Sony's most difficult challenge is figuring out how to keep the success going.
19:53And the point then becomes not what they actually did, but how you actually manage that going forward.
19:59The Shadows of Lucklin expansion pack is announced in spring of 2001.
20:03Created for all levels of ability, it takes players to the eerie moonscape in the Shadows of Lucklin.
20:09It's a hit.
20:11And you might think, well, why don't you just do that every time?
20:14Well, because we have different fans and we can't just make this cookie-cutter, you know, kind of experience
20:19that's just generic and all across the spectrum.
20:27Leveraging an established leadership in online gaming, Sony Online Entertainment announces plans for three ambitious new online games,
20:36including the long-awaited real-time strategy game, Sovereign.
20:40One of the things I think I'm really proud of our company is that we're doing groundbreaking things.
20:45We're not doing just other versions of EverQuest. That's not the way we want to do business.
20:51PlanetSide.
20:52It's taken us a while. It's not easy to get a first-person shooter that's going to be massively multiplayer.
20:57No one's done that yet.
20:58And another title that's out of this world.
21:01We're the developer on Star Wars Galaxies. We're doing it for the publisher LucasArts.
21:05It is a massively multiplayer Star Wars universe.
21:08This is truly going to be like going to see a Star Wars movie and walking through the screen.
21:13It's going to be as close to a virtual experience as anybody has ever experienced.
21:17But, as fans like to say, there will always be EverQuest.
21:23You'll see Sony Online focusing on bringing our online games to the console market.
21:29We also have EverQuest Online Adventures which were taken to the PlayStation 2.
21:33In my opinion, console gaming is going to be one of the biggest explosions here in the next two or
21:39three years.
21:41We're working with a company on a real-time translation technology.
21:46Which, in the simplest form, somebody in France will type in French and they'll get translated into English on my
21:52computer.
21:53And back and forth.
21:54So, we're looking to expand French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Korean.
22:00EverQuest 2 is going to be coming out fall 2003.
22:04Our plans are to migrate people in such a way that if they want to go to EverQuest 2, they
22:10can.
22:11The game itself is coming along really well.
22:14It's going to, I think, redefine where we're trying to go with these games.
22:18We're doing unique things like nobody's ever done before.
22:21We're aging characters within the game.
22:23Over time, you'll be able to manipulate your character such that you visually age in game.
22:29Can you purchase virtual anti-aging cream?
22:32Ah, never mind.
22:33More importantly, will there ever be too many online games?
22:37I do have concerns that there are too many coming too soon.
22:41And I really don't know if the market can support all of them or not.
22:44Is there room for everyone? I think just like any other market, the consumer is going to end up telling
22:48us who the winners are.
22:50And that's the way it should be.
22:51So I'm excited to see The Sims Online come up, and I think it's going to grow the market.
22:57Dark Age of Camelot from Mythicentamer has been a huge success, and that's great, yeah.
23:04Anarchy Online has really improved since its launch, and they all offer different game experiences.
23:10Amazingly, EverQuest has not been really hit hard by those games coming out.
23:18The cream really will rise to the top, and hopefully I think we're going to be leading that.
23:24How long will the original live on?
23:27There's absolutely no reason why it should stop.
23:29There's a new expansion coming out, Planes of Power.
23:34EverQuest isn't going away anytime soon.
23:36It will live on as long as it's financially reasonable to do so, and I think it's going to be
23:40for some time to come.
23:44EverQuest has broken records worldwide, but it has also done something much more important.
23:50It has formed friendships worldwide.
23:54Friendships that transcend the game.
23:57To me, if people have made friends because of EverQuest, and it's become kind of a part of their lives,
24:03as they go about their everyday lives, if we can be a part of that, I'm really happy, and I
24:08hope that that's something that we can continue to do and make people feel good about it.
24:11What do you see?
24:27Everything is happening.
24:29So, if people do not understand the story and inference,
24:30You can do that easily.
24:40So, there's noesse of this.
24:49I'll see you next time.
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