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EverQuest II: User interfaces: Does one size fit all? Hardly
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest MMORPG.com article, Michael Lafferty discusses the recent changes to the Everquest II user interface, or UI. While acknowledging some nice changes, Michael discovered that many players think that the new version leaves much to be desired. In comments from the players themselves, Michael discovers that one size does NOT fit all. Find out why.
But are developers missing the proverbial boat when designing UIs for games? After all, there seems to be a proliferation of third-party interfaces that are easy to find and install into a program – though games do not support them and will not take responsibility if that third-party program crashes, corrupts or generally makes a mess of the player’s game.
Read the rest of User interfaces: Does ‘one size’ fit all? Hardly.
Comments
Most Eq2 players use heavly modded custom UIs. What the default looks like doesn't matter to most because they don't use it.
As long as a UI allows mods, that is what most people use. Not EQ II conversant, but when I played Wow, Blizzard watched what the mods were doing and adjusted the UI to include some of the more popular features. Problem with mods, if you have a lot of them, you spend your day after a patch waiting for fixes
You don't need a fancy UI if you allow the players themselves to make their own. Some games, like Darkfall, which don't allow mods, have UI's that are less than useful. In those circumstances it behoves the developers to fix the problems.
New UI looks a lot like Profit UI to me.
The UI in the screenshot above is from the original EverQuest.
Im not prejudiced, I hate everyone equally.
Perhaps the bottom line here is that, as stated before, one size does not fit all and that user interfaces should have flexibility to be as varied as the players using them. Certainly developers can make smart choices in original design, allowing the user interfaces to have that initial ease-of-use that allows newer players to feel comfortable right from the initial log-in, but then – if the community responses were any indication – have the ability to evolve to fit the players’ styles of play, class responsibilities and overall tastes.
Michael Lafferty's last paragraph summarises SOE's current approach to EQ2. They've lost their way and these UI changes are just another example of this. SOE fully supported the UI modding community and made their UI Builder Package available on the games release. Now the community is the last group they talk and listen to. The last 6 - 9 months have been a nightmare for veteren players, don't know whether this is down to the new producer or the "corporate knuckleheads", but whatever they need to sit up and take notice of their playerbase.
SOE face a lot of competition in 2011 from new games and expansions to existing games. SOE's approach is not winning them nor retaining many friends. They need to remember in business, that if you can't win any new customers, then at least don't piss off the exisiting ones.
Not sure what the issue is here....
You couldn't ASK for a more customizeable UI in a game than what we have in EQ2. And you don't even NEED mods to customize most of it. I use no mods other than changing everything in game (no mods required to move and resize any piece or ALL the pieces you want....hit F10 and start movin' shit....right click parts to resize, etc.). The only "mod" I would use is EQ2Maps because pretty much everyone uses that for the instance maps.Oh...and maybe remapping keys so they're to your liking. I mean....how hard is any of that?
I cannot seriously imagine, of ALLLLL the games out there that have completely RIGID UIs without a mod (or 20) that anyone would whine about EQ2.
The fact that I can control my entire UI is one of the many things I LOVE about the game. WoW requires at least 5 mods to even be playable, and I think I had more like 15. Seriously. What's the issue?? Or did I misunderstand the article? Raiders have their favorite mods, but it's up to the modders to keep up to date. I guess in that way, EQ2 is like WoW....but at least for your average casual player...you really don't need mods. I suppose it depends on how EASY you want to make the game too. I understand the raider issues....I used to raid, but I can't think of any games that take care of all the raider nit picky bullshit. That's just part of the price of bein' a hardcore min/maxing raider, I suppose. You have to use Profit UI or ExtremeUI or some other UI that comes with all the bells and whistle for making your life as easy as possible.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
EQ2 has it's problems.
Like being a very pretty, but wholely unenjoyable, game.
The UI isn't rigid by any means. Everything was customizable. I had 4 bars at the bottom, two floating to the right, all of their frames faded out and that dumb story framing turned all the way down.
Pilfer the options like any PC gamer is supposed to fool.
I kill other players because they're smarter than AI, sometimes.
profit ui is great, get it if you havent yet and try for yourself. its free. eq2 is alot of fun also, but to each his own.
It's not, that shot is from the latest update notes:
http://everquest2.com/news/read/current/3653
Unless you mean its the same as the UI from the original EQ...
The screenshot with the (Missions) NPC is from EQ1 not EQ2, so the wrong game - you can tell from the character models. Also there is task window in the middle of the screen which is not a system EQ2 has.
Here's the EQ2 default interface:
Back when EQII was first released, I was very impressed with how customizable the UI was as it came. It was far better than EQ and Asheron's Call.
I don't know what it's like now. I'm playing WoW and have been for awhile. The WoW UI was serviceable but that was about it as a Warrior, but as a Warlock it just ran out of buttons to assign abilities to, so I got an addon. That got me started, and I use a number of them now.
WoW's UI is a lot better in terms of the info that gets reported on the screen if you want (or I just know better how to use it, that could be the case), but it's still limited in number of bars and buttons. Imo it's ugly with the extra bars up too. You can run it at a reduced size, which is very nice, but the UI still is pretty old-school imo. EQII players have it all over WoW players if they don't want to use addons.
One size absolutely doesn't fit all! It's crazy to think it would. MMOG devs these days should be looking at the best addon bar and UI mods and incorporating the features into their games - and brainstorming new ideas as well. Imo.
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall
one size doesn't fit all. WOW only profited from customizable UI. if only CCP would get to senses and allow players to mod their brains out.
i didnt mind the old UI, however i am really not a fan of the new one.
Just to quickly point something out.. People are ALLOWED to mod the UI for EQ2.. It was something the devs encouraged in the begining and tend to support still.. Because no one size does not fit all..
In fact some of the changes in the standard UI have been mods the devs noticed and implemented.. 
I HATE HATE HATE the new UI, I think SOE implemented it to force us to see more of their Station Cash crap!
Fight Me! http://zunarn.mybrute.com
Not played it for years but I don't remember having any problems with the UI. This tends to be a healer issue, more to do with class than raiding.
I think some mods make the games too easy. I don't like it when I am expected to have mods installed to play certain parts of a game.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
The new UI is much more usable than the previous default one IMHO. I've used both Fetish and Profit over the years and like both of them. But I'm trying to give the default a fair workout. I wish it did have a better Broker interface like the others have and a couple of the other features are missing that are useful (click cure/heal), but otherwise it's a vast improvement of the previous default UI.
Proud member of Hammerfist Clan Gaming Community.
Currently playing: RIFT, EQ2, WoW, LoTRO
Retired: Warhammer, AoC, EQ
Waiting: SWToR & GW2
Even though EQ was my first game, I do not miss it or any other SOE game. They really have done a good job "missing the boat" about what makes an MMO good. From screwing up SWG to the sad attempt that is EQ2. Its amazing that people like Smedley even have a job in this industry let alone the "developers".
People can "hate" on WoW all they want but the fact is, Blizzard knows how to put out a successful game and take care of business. Their subscription numbers prove this and while other MMOs (like EQ and EQ2) begin "downsizing" with server merges, the beast that is WoW will continue to improve, build it's user base, and be dominant in the market.
Sony needs to stick with console games.
Though the new UI is decent I was quite annoyed to find I couldn't use Profit UI properly to replace it >_> Hopefully the Profit team will create one that works with it.
Let's see....I agree with them screwing up SWG, although...it didn't matter to me personally since I didn't play it.
I agree with Blizzard being a beast, but not in a GOOD way, necessarily.
I disagree with pretty much everything else you said.
Just goes to show....we all have different opinions. While you think EQ2 is a "sad attempt" at an MMO, that is EXACTLY how I see WoW. It's popularity is because you can play the game when you are five years old or blindfolded with your brain in your back pocket.
For me, the game became progressively more and more ignorant as Blizzard catered more and more TO the ignorant. Oh sure...that garnered loads of subs. But I prefer playing my MMOs with a player base that is a little older, on average, and having a game that offers a wee bit more of a challenge. I mean, seriously....it would be IMPOSSIBLE for your character to die in WoW just questing or exploring unless you were just sitting there with your thumb LITERALLY up your ass, or you just sat there doing nothing until the mob finally killed you....and even THAT....would take a few minutes. I tested it while leveling just out of curiosity.
And before you go "hater hater hater, you've probably never even played WoW"....I will tell you that I have 5 level 80s and played it (with my family, since it was their first MMO) for FIVE years, while I was also playing EQ2 for four of those years. Thank god they (my partner and son) finally felt like they understood MMOs enough to move on up to one that actually presents you with some challenge and more VARIETY, and you don't have to raid or PvP to FIND the challenge. Now we're playing EQ2 as a family and really enjoying it.
We all have opinions, don't we? This is why WoW isn't the ONLY MMO. Not everyone thinks WoW is the "best" MMO. I think it's wonderful for people who are NEW to the genre, sure....or.....for children, or for a certain segment of the PvP'ers in the world, or for a certain segment of the raiders in the world, or EVEN for the very very casual player. But it's certainly NOT for everyone any more than any OTHER game is for everyone. Thankfully, it's just one game in a sea of other options. It may be the whale, but...I'll take my little shark over it ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.
On topic:
EQ2's interface is MUCH more fluid than WoW's and also more so than that found in most any other game. And that is just its NATIVE capacity for customization, let alone with mods. I can't think of even ONE other game where you can simply hit F10 and move around the ENTIRE UI, resize anything you like, etc., hit F10 twice more and lock it in place once you're done and change it on the fly ANYTIME you like. That's just how it is "out of the box," so to speak," not requiring any mods.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Well sorry to break your bubble, but I did not find anything that great about EQ2's user interface or the game itself. I don't see how it is any better than anything else on the market. Some of the mods available in Wow put it to shame and that was when I played Wow, some time ago.
I do not know what the interface looked like prior to the change so hard to comment about that.
Personally I don't think EQ2 would be very high on a list of my recommendations for people interested in the MMO genre. I just found the game to be dated in just about everything. It is a step above the f2p market, but I will be willing to bet that Lotro trounces them in this lastest f2p attempt.
Somehow the EQ2 devs felt the UI wasn't doing a good job which is why they redesigned it. Perhaps it is just a smaller part of the overall changes to the new user experience, which again is something the developers have stated as lacking.
To expand on that, the developers also don't think EQ2 is doing the right job. Multiple times at fan faire, soes reponse to questsions about EQNext was that it will not be doing things like EQ2, but instead will take design ques from the original EQ. I don't think there was one response stating they would expand on anything eq2 did. All seemed to state a desire to move away from its designs.
The old ui was servicable though. Missing a few important features, but what game isn't.
i'm diggin the new ui.
Warhammer Online