This Phone's for You: It's Sony's EverQuest

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This Phone's for You: It's Sony's EverQuest
Reprinted with permission from Wireless Gaming Review.

Just the mere fact that a role-playing game, RPG-brand "EverQuest," is coming to mobile phones gives us something to talk about. With "EverQuest," Sony Online built an online world of more than 400,000 souls. The prospect that the people (and monsters) of Kunark and Luclin would colonize wireless phones is something to warm the cockles of every gamer.

But it gets better than that. Wireless Gaming Review's quick look at "EverQuest: Hero's Call" shows us a deep, engaging virtual world that, although constrained by hardware, will pull a lot of dedicated RPGers into wireless gaming.

Matt Yaney, who was a designer for the online EverQuest, has now moved over to wireless and serves as both producer and designer for "Hero's Call." Andy Skirvin, new to the company, is the programmer. And Bart Rothwell runs the whole Sony Online Wireless Gaming group.

"Our first goal with 'Hero's Call' was to make a game that was fun and playable. We wanted to go beyond popcorn games," Matt Yaney says. "We didn't think of this as a phone with a game on it. We approached it as a game platform that could also make phone calls. When we got down to actual game design, our main aim was to offer the core experience of an RPG. We didn't want to leave anything crucial out."

What you get with "Hero's Call" is an RPG stripped down to its essentials. There are classes, but only two: fighter and mage. There are character attributes, but only five. But there's an inventory system, a close-combat and missile system, a tavern to pick up quests and a shop to buy new gear. This is RPG distilled to its essence.

Although the graphics are strictly 2D birds'eye, there's plenty that "EverQuest" players will recognize. "Hero's Call" has favorites like Decaying Skeletons and Rusty Knives, as well as the chief delicacy of the land, Edible Goo.

"EverQuest: Hero's Call" is built on a system where players take turn in combat, which is perfect for slower processors, interruptible games and linking players together across a latency-challenged network.

Look for "EverQuest: Hero's Call" on Verizon T720 phones in January 2003 in the US. @

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