18.6.8 Will you aim for lower end systems though so the game still looks great and runs smooth for the majority of the players?

You can bet there will be enough options to allow the game to run "smooth as silk" on the majority of systems out there. At the same time, there will be enough options that when you DO get that Uber Hot system the game improves right along with it.

One main issue with simply upgrading the graphics engine every few months is that you tend to reset the "bugometer" every time you make such a drastic change to the code. Leaving a flexible but stable code base with very MINOR tweaks to the engine allows more people to play it, find the bugs, and get them fixed while at the same time allowing both the "budget" computer and the "uber" computer to run the same game. EverQuest runs on my daughter's 850mHz 256M system just like it does on my 3.0gHz 3Gig system... it's just a different look. - Ryan Elam, Lead Programmer

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