Perhaps I am just a glutton for punishment, but I thought I would
share a letter I just posted on ye ole gameplay forum and one I will
email to those I can at Verant (don't really expect it to be read
though).
http://boards.station.sony.com/everquest/Forum4/HTML/066401.html
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First and foremost I want to say thank you for providing a game that
has so captured my attention and provided countless hours of fun and
enjoyment for well over a year (and such a cheap price for soo many
hours of entertainment). My first character is a Bard. I started
this character on Innoruuk on March 26th, 1999. I believe I took a
bit longer than the projected average to level as I just recently
obtained level 51 after 1 year and 4 months of playing. I love
everything about the Bard class. I think this class is well done,
fills so many roles, and has so many choices. It is not an easy
class to play well and I feel it is under appreciated and perhaps the
most misunderstood class in the game. It is great to hear players
say, "Wow, I didn't know Bards could do that, I just thought they ran
fast and played mana song".
On the flip-side, it is discouraging to read remarks from Abashi that
say (and I paraphrase) "I don't really know much about bards, they
are very mysterious to me" or even worse, to read Geoffrey Zatkin
plays "A pretty suave Bard". Why do I find this discouraging? It is
not because I feel bards as a class are unbalanced or that we lack
certain skills or abilities. No, it is because there have been so
many reports of problems with the core of barddom. Our songs.
When I first began playing EverQuest, there were several songs
missing from the Bard's repertoire. I did not fret much because I
felt confident the songs would be implemented well before I achieved
those levels. I was pretty much correct. By the time I had leveled
to 45, all the missing songs had finally been implemented with the
exception of the level 49 song. Overall, I have been happy with the
song selection. I have not found any song to be worthless and I have
used every song up through level 51 at some point or another and in
useful manners. Some songs are always on my "play list" and others
are rarely played, but I do see a use for every song to date.
I never fully understood why bard songs were weaker variants of many
other classes spells. I know our songs use no mana and have fast
refresh times, but the weakness comes from a couple of things. We
must continually play the song and most songs only affect group
members. It seemed to me that our songs should be more powerful than
their counterpart spells. I was thrilled when I finally figured out
I could "twist" songs and that I could "hotkey" inventory slots to
make switching instruments and weapons much easier. I dedicated
myself to learn as much as I could about being a bard, always putting
my group's effectiveness first and trying to learn how to best
maximize the group as a whole. I discovered a web site with much
detailed analysis and information about the songs. I then found a
message board where many knowledgeable players congregated and shared
information, ideas, strategies, and tactics about playing a bard. I
delved in and began my growth as a bard and I have loved every moment
of it.
So why am I discouraged to hear remarks from Abashi and Geoffrey
about bards? It is because several of our songs do not function
properly. Some have never functioned properly from the beginning and
others functioned well but were changed for some reason or another
and now they do not work. Many people have tried presenting facts
and tests which support these conclusions but are always met with "We
will check it and get back to you" or "Thank you for that
information, we will place this on a list to have it looked at".
Again and again it seems players of bards are simply left out in the
cold. How can we expect to be heard and understood when it seems
fairly obvious the public relations people, developers and testers
know little to nothing about the actual class? Yes, we know-"We
have several in-house players who play bards". Honestly, I can't
believe that at all. These people must be playing on a special
client or be artificially enhanced or in a controlled environment.
They definitely don't play on a production server with normal groups
(or they are just a Mana Bard, only playing the one song). It's a
trial in itself educating other players that a Bard brings much more
to a group other than "Mana Song", but to have to try to convince
those who we hope would at least understand the class seems an
insurmountable task at this point in the EverQuest lifecycle. This
is not a goodbye. I enjoy EverQuest now as much as I have all
along. I am still very pleased with the game and the Bard class. I
am just expressing some frustration in what I see as an otherwise
exceptional class. I will still be playing as much as I have and I
am looking forward to the newest expansion even though its still
months away. Again, I thank you for this wonderful world you have
provided. Safe Travels to you!!
Rosha Cristi, Bard of 51 {insert something musical here}
Guild Leader, Legends
Innoruuk Server