Interview With SOE's John Hayase

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Written by ReesyCup

Thursday, 20 March 2008 20:48

Interview: SOE Director of Development John Hayase

The EverQuest franchise has become one of the most admired MMORPGs ever released. MMOFury got some time with SOE's John Hayase who is the Director of Devlopment for SOE San Diego Studio. He shares his thoughts on the success of EverQuest and clears up a few rumors regarding the recently announced realignment at SOE.

MMOFury	SOE just announced a realignment under SCEI, will this have any direct effects on EverQuest II?

John Hayase	The change won't affect EverQuest II.

MMOFury	The Station Exchange System will be converted over to the new system the day before the official effective date of the realignment, was this coordinated this way or just coincidence?

John Hayase	The two decisions were made independently from each other.

MMOFury	In the short time since The Inquisitor was released, what has been the over-all feeling of the feedback you have received? Are you happy with the response so far?

John Hayase	We're very happy with the adoption of Legends of Norrath by our player community. The feedback we've received has been very helpful and we're making meaningful changes based on it.

MMOFury	There are a number of "big hitters" that are set to be released in 2008, what are you doing to ensure that the EQ franchise continues its reputation of being a leader of MMOs?

John Hayase	Our goal is always to build on the foundation we've laid by listening to our community and giving them a great game to play. We put a lot of time and energy into all the games that we build, and we hope that our players enjoy each and every one of them.

MMOFury	Can we speculate on an EQ3?

John Hayase	You can speculate all you want to. :) Right now we're focused on delivering great expansions for EQ and EQII later this year and keeping our loyal players as happy as we can.

MMOFury	The EverQuest Franchise is considered by most gamers to be the best online game ever released, does that weight heavily on the development team when coming up with new content updates?

John Hayase	It's great to think that the work we've been doing for over a decade is worthy of such accolades, but we don't spend much time dwelling on it. We know that we need to earn the loyalty of our players every day and we take that pretty seriously around here.

MMOFury	Going forward, what can we expect from the Development team between now and summer for EQ2?

John Hayase	The team is working away on a new expansion and will be doing live updates and events throughout the summer. There will be lots of new stuff to see at Fan Faire later this year and we're looking forward to sharing it all with our fans then.

MMOFury	We will look forward to seeing what you have in store for us at Fan Faire, and will keep everyone posted on your summer events. That is all the questions I have, thank you for answering these questions for us. for detailed information check out the official EverQuest and EverQuest2 sites.