What is this Golden Path?

I have been poking around ingame and on the forums and have noticed a lot of confusion regarding the "Golden Path" and what exactly it is. People are looking for specific NPCs or quest lines, and finding themselves stuck. So I wanted to take a moment to clarify a little and talk about what it is currently and where it is headed.
The golden path is the first step in a larger revamp of our new player experience. We took a look at the starting areas, other than Qeynos and Freeport as we plan to move away from those, and reworked content so that it had a better flow. We wanted the quests in Darklight, Timorous and Greater Fay, to give you a better progression path. What you will find, is that if you start a new character, or jump into any of the quest hubs in those areas, is a more guided experience through content. We have hundreds of zones and for non veteran players, it can be intimidating trying to figure out where to go next. We wanted to remove that intimidation and give them a better play experience. So phase one is the "Golden Path" of content. A better progression of quests through various hubs starting in the three new player areas above. If you go to any of the zones listed in the update notes and start questing at one of the hubs, you are now on the "Golden Path!"
Phase two, which is following in the upcoming months, will introduce the Storyteller window (which is a much better name than Golden Path) which will link quest lines together in an interface, providing the visual representation of the golden path. We want players to understand why they may be collecting 10 oranges or killing 15 Goblin Scouts and show how that evolves into a larger story. The Storyteller System will move players along through content that we feel will give them a fun and exciting experience. While also engaging them in the world, the story and their character.
So that's it in a nutshell, or three paragraphs anyway.
Thanks all!

Nice!

And not a moment too soon!

While some may complain that the experience has become too linear, I feel that a guided progression, particularly with focus up through level 70, is a much better idea than a haphazard string of slightly-but-mostly-unrelated "quests."
I've blogged about this several times over the years ... good to see this is the route you guys are moving!

Ara

I think this is a great change as when I first started it was confusing as to what is the story? I've always thought Guild Wars had a great story line and it lead you from one point to the next. Guess I can go dust off some low levels and check this out

Thank you for the clarification

What do you mean by "other than Qeynos and Freeport as we plan to move away from those" ?
What are you going to do to them? They're extremely popular cities, with lots of excellent content. Sure, a lot of the rewards are out-dated now, but that's easily enough fixed.

Great. Like I needed another reason to start an alt. I was really trying to hold out for New Halas too...

Enica@Blackburrow wrote:

auto mentor - Chronomages are your friend!

I think this Storyteller feature excites me. From the sounds of it, I think it will help create immersion and awareness when it comes the world and the story. I would love more details on this, and how it is expected to work. It also sounds like it may be a more innovative feature then what was thought initially.
Or maybe some inspiration came from War's Tome of Knowledge?

Maltheas@Lucan DLere wrote:

Quoted For Huge Everloving Massive Emphasis
Whaddya mean, "other than Queynos and Freeport AS WE PLAN TO MOVE AWAY FROM THOSE?" Why in the wide, wide world of sports would you want to 'move away' from the two biggest starting hubs in the game!??

I'm not certain I completely understand this golden path. Based on the description, I'm hoping it means something like the path that took you through levels 1 to 20 in Age of Conan. Because it was a linked series of quests, there were some longer duration storylines that could be carried through. It was also more linear than a free experience MMO, but that allowed for some focusing in on making a few very elaborate quests. The huge downside in AoC's case was that it was one storyline, and by the time you decided to try out a third character, the novelty had worn off.
If the are more than one storyline, as in at least one for each starting area mentioned, then I could see it being an interesting experience. Different than the experience of a young adventurer thrust into a strange world (which I like to rp in my head), but entertaining in a different sort of way. It could really allow for a few stellar quest experiences.
I'm quite disappointed that you say you are moving away from Qeynos and Freeport. These are the biggest best cities in the game. Now, if you meant you were moving away from them as starting hubs and plan to revitalize them in some other way...well, then just ask, I have plenty of ideas for that! (though I'm certain your team would too). I could even see the old newbie areas getting spruced up and turned into midlevel suburbs and racial quest centers. Heck, it would even be fun to do it in a global quest sort of way, where the loyal player citizens can do quests to aid in the revitalization, that could take place in stages.
Well, anyway....I hope Qeynos and Freeport aren't going to be abadonned. For many players, EQ2 is a race to level cap so they can "begin to play the real game". However, there are many of us for whom this is a world "playground". The journey is the part of interest and we might never even get to raid and equipment acquisition phase. (I've been there a little with EQ raiding and realized I liked it only in very small doses).
I think the idea of a cohesive story and attention to the early experience sounds like it could be great. It sounds like the focus is on drawing people into the game and the gameworld, rather than a means to push them to the post-leveling endgame. There will always be paths for those that want to do that. I'm happy to hear of some focus on early game enrichment.

Shaydu@Everfrost wrote:

Because it's the difference between the new school players and the old school players. RoK convinced me to finally get into EQ2 after brushing off people who had been asking me to join in over the years. Timorous Deep had a beautifully condensed and coherent progression. It was what a starting zone should be. Trying to save the incoherent and spread out mess that is Qeynos and Freeport would require a rebuilding from the group up. To be honest, I'm of the opinion that SOE resources can be better served else where.
Also I absolutely loathe the layout of Qeynos and Freeport. So many freaking zone and sub-zones. You couldn't pay me to start and level a character there. Let alone live there for the rest of my adventurering career. I love the Gorowyn layout and my only annoyance disappeared once they added the teleportation pads there.
Old school players tend to have a beef with Kelethin and Gorowyn due to their 3-D layouts. New school players tend to have a beef with the starting cities due to their constant zoning and hunting for sub-zones. It's always been this way since I started playing the game when RoK came out. I doubt these attitudes are going to change any time soon. So if SOE is trying to attract new players to this game, it makes complete sense to focus on the newer content zones like the starting cities that they later added and making smooth progressions through the EoF zones.

I agree with others, I am hoping that Qeynos/Freeport aren't going to be abandoned, they are really quite central to the lore of the game.

Dareena@Lucan DLere wrote:

But, but, but, I want to be rescued in the ocean by a dragon in disguise and then be carted off to an island that I later invade in order to kill said dragon that saved me. Will Halas have that?
But, seriously, I'd be OK with eliminating FP and Qeynos as "starting cities" and revamping them as quest hubs. They were only designed as multi-zone layouts because they USED to be the center of life in Norrath and the load on each zone created a lagfest. Imagine 250 people in WFP buying pickles. With the inclusion of guild halls, the traffic in starting cities has dipped horribly so there's not much point in keeping that multi-zone architecture. (Particularly if they can instance it for the initial surge of foot traffic that the revamp will bring.) But, the 2 original cities should definitely be brought into the greater whole of the progression through the game.
I wonder if the current storyline with Lucan being de-throned is a pre-cursor to the transition of FP away from a starting city.

Brenlo wrote:

I very rarely, if ever, really complain about this game but there is one part, highlighted above, of this that is really irking me. Qeynos and Freeport being left behind is a BIG mistake in my book. They are, BY FAR, my two favorite starting zones for this game. None of the others even come remotely close. Darklight an Gfay are ok with DL being better and TD IMHO is not worth starting in at all as the city drives me nuts.

Anyways.. Q & F are a HUGE part of EQ history and have far more fun options for people to explore and level up in that surrounds them than the others do. As others have said there are a TON of great quests and places to explore and what not associated with these starting areas and I'd hate to see the devs purposely try and kill them.

Being a severe altaholic who starts new toons on a regular basis, been playing this game for a number of years and my highest toon is level 71, I find it disturbing to see that the devs seem to want to keep people away from two areas with a ton of rich history and a geat experience for people to level up through.

This sounds pretty great. And the storyteller sounds even better. Hopefully you will take it as far as actually creating a journal of a person's travels and adventures. An auto-diary of sorts that could be looked back though. Sometimes, when you are running around with someone you can feel pressured to skip the quest texts. It would be nice to be able to go back over them later.

As with others, I also hope that you are not giving up on Freeport and Qeynos entirely. While I readily agree that the newer starting areas are much better, it is still good to have choices, options and replayablity in varied starting zones. One thing they have that the other cities don't is that sense of getting of the boat for the first time and after a little bit of exploring, coming to realize that WOW, I am in a BIG city. They could both use some revamping though. And perhaps some kinda of golden path mechanic that works you though the various quarters of city introducing you to places, people and the various timelines that can be found. And the newbie island wouldn't be hurt by an update either. Being new to the game but having already played all the starter zones just because that is what I do. I really got the impression that when you start in Qeynos or Freeport, you are choosing to be a "city kid" of sorts. Your home is the mean streets so to speak. When you start in one of the newer cities. You are choosing to be varying shades of a mid-town or small-town kid. Both choices are legitimate and give your character flavor and memories. The experiences are different. This is a good thing. Keep the variety.
One thing you could do though, would be to give "foreigners" a way get to the other cities and be able to step right into a path that made sense. Just like the person who gets off the boat from newbie island gets taken straight into a time line, (some races are missing btw) by the same token it would be great if there was someone to meet your character from another city at the boat docks and get them on the track to "visit our wonderful city." Tourism is big business after all. And this concept could also be extended to the not so friendly visitor who "visits" the foreign city by way of the sewer tunnels. No reason you couldn't have some contact in freeport send some to the qeyos sewers and have that lead to various "hostile timelines" around that city, introducing and touring it, as it were, from the underside.

And I am sure this has already been considered by I will simply point out that while making a nice linear storyline that will draw you into the environment will be a huge improvement, you still need to support those who will wander off the path to explore and do other things. Have tools to help them get back on the path once they choose to but also have ways for people to be able to move back and forth between regions and settle right into that path.

Guide, but dont force.

Wilin wrote:

Eliminating Freeport and Queynos as starting zones and making them quest hubs is an interesting idea.
...But I'm not enthusiastic about it, nor do I think that's where the development team is headed. First, FP and Queynos have been considered the two "main" or "hub" cities since the game's inception. To remove this from the game is to inherently change the dynamics of Everquest 2. I can't see a decent reason for doing this, especially since there are fans of the zones (and detractors as well, granted).
Personally, I don't understand the hate exhibited towards either FP or Queynos. The criticisms usually leveled against starting in Queynos/Freeport made more sense before changes were made around the time of RoK's release. But now, with bells in each city zone and sub-zone that lead to all the other city zones and hub zones, it's incredibly easy to get around. And with housing and brokers and bankers and candlestick makers and crafting and menders in each zone, it's possible to pick one zone, say, South Quenyos, and do all home-related stuff from there without ever having to go to North Queynos or Nettleville or anywhere else. Just head to Antonica to pick up quests and start leveling (or go to Timorous Deep since it's startup quests are better).
I can understand, however, starting in a particular zone and not wanting to have an alt live in a different starter city, simply because it's difficult to get acclimated to a different one. I've got 3 toons living in SQ and one in TD, and I can never find the $#%! broker in TD because I'm so used to SQ. I'm sure if I'd started the first toon in TD and had 2 other toons there, I'd feel the opposite!

Storyteller sounds fascinating.
But I am with the others on not wanting FP and Qeynos abandoned. I really don't like all the the other starter zones because they are so out of the way and a nightmare to get around. Takes forever to get anywhere else from there. Maps are a real problem to undesrtand because of multi levels for Kelethin and Gorowyn.
I moved out of Neriak to FP as soon as I could because the colors and constant noise gave me headaches - and as for ease of getting around... none. It may have changed since Neriak was introduced, but I am not inclined to go look, to be honest. And I like the Arasai!
Same goes with GF. In Kelethin I kept falling off the tree city and getting lost. Harvesting was so confusing I abandoned it totally till I moved to Qeynos. Getting anywhere else was a marathon of BB etc, and next to impossible for low levels. Hasn't changed that much when I went there a couple months ago to harvest for the City Festival.
Timorous Deep has changed, but is still a nightmare interpreting the maps and getting from level to level, and even finding the housing! Houses are nioce but outweighed by the annoyances of getting anywere. I visited it recently for the City Festivals.
While on it, love the new zone, Sundered Frontier, but hate the Paineel maps! We are in a city and all we have looks like the bed of a dried up lake.
Sorry, lots of positive feelings about the game, but not the starter zones. I know you need diversity of starter cities and zones, but inaccessibility doesn't add to the game for me at all.
Do some more with FP and Qeynos too. Maybe an Instant transport person for Fae and Arasai and others to Kelethin and Neriak and Gorowyn only for up to L 10 or so so they can do the race specific stuff but live elsewhere maybe? Especially now Fae and Arasai can start in FP ansd Qeynos.

I'm going to be unpopular here... but removing Qeynos and Freeport STARTER ZONES (and by that I purely mean the two outposts) would make a lot of sense as these player experiences are not just poor but dire in comparison with the newer starter zones.
Although I would request that the zone (it is just one zone really) be reused for new questlines in some fashion, perhaps even with a storyline referencing the fact that the isle was used as a refuge for those rescued from the sea (the original original storyline).
I would then suggest that the racial quests in Freeport and Qeynos proper be made to scale to level (and available to people of both factions), these are simple quests with minor rewards (racial house item etc) so it would be nice to retain them for when new players eventually discover the cities.
I seriously doubt that Brenlo is suggesting that Freeport and Qeynos themselves be "removed", or that zones like the Caves, Sunken City etc, are removed (least I hope not!).

Brenlo: If you intend to remove or massively revamp quests in zone, it might be worth giving a heads up in advance for those of us who would want to do a last run of the old quests before seeing them go.

Wilin wrote:

It has been stated before, that the four zones that make up the center of Qeynos (or the center of Freeport) can actually be "stitched together" to create a single zone, it would be good to see that happen.
What would happen to the suburb areas (willow wood etc) I'm not sure

Kitsune wrote:

How about just having some form of travel between cities of the same alignment.
Now I know we pinch too many things from WoW already... but they *do* have travel between cities of the same alignment.
Obviously boats won't work for Kelethin and Neriak, so a similar flying machine travel (an extension of that used for travelling from SS to Moors?) would be fantastic

The Isle of Refuge is still the nicest place to start. I've made characters in Kelethin, Neriak and Gorowyn but made a lot more in Qeynos and Freeport.
As for the Golden Path, if everyone's being directed to the same place, their second characters will follow the same route as the first, and so will the third, and then it'll just be too boring. If it's really necessary to herd people along, why aren't there several paths? One from Antonica to the Steppes, Zek, Everfrost, etc., another from the Commonlands to Nektulos, Enchanted Lands, Lavastorm, etc., and so on. Norrath is huge, so why must this New Experience ignore most of it?