I used to be going to replace you superb folk on my adventures in rolling my 17,000th EverQuest II alt for this week's Tattered Notebook, however SOE determined to drop a Fan Faire Reside date on us, which kind of mucked up my nefarious plans.
Why can we care about SOE Reside? Properly, there are a number of causes, but crucial one is that as an alternative of getting to attend until October, we now get to see (and touch!) EverQuest Next in early August!
This information threw me for a little bit of a loop, I do not thoughts telling you. I imply, I knew that SOE's John Smedley flat-out assured a playable EQNext demo at SOE Reside 2013. And that i knew that it's in fact 2013 already, so hands-on time with what could be the next nice sandbox will happen inside of a calendar 12 months. It nonetheless appeared actually far off for some motive, though, I guess as a result of it was simply three months ago that we were ending up SOE Reside 2012. August 1st is going to be right here before we realize it, so it's excessive time we begin prognosticating about EQNext, would not you agree?
Hopefully it goes without saying that I would prefer to see this stuff along with the same old excessive-high quality PvE questing, dungeon, raid, and progression content.
Heritage quests
Although I played the original EverQuest for less than a few month, I love love love EverQuest II's heritage traces. In a franchise that already units the standard for MMO lore, it was a genius thought to tie the two games together and throw EQ vets a nostalgia-drenched bone by offering up extended epic quests with EQ-centric item rewards.
Extra like that in EQNext, please.
Housing
You realize SOE goes to put housing in EQNext, as the company does the feature higher than another MMO developer (sorry Trion -- nice effort, although). The query is how can it ever be as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I do not assume it could actually, at least not at launch. It is literally a sport-within-the-game that has extra in widespread with Minecraft than typical MMO afterthought design, so if it takes SOE a while to fit it into EQNext's framework, I'm Ok with that. While we're dreaming, I might also be greater than Ok with SOE finding a way to do EQII's housing in an open-world atmosphere.
And yes, I do know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-fight options are for Barbie lovers and casuals and no one makes use of them. Apart from the tens of tens of millions of players who have made the Sims franchise the preferred in the historical past of the non-public laptop.
A crafter-driven economic system
This is going to be troublesome for SOE to drag off, particularly given the loot-drop legacy of themeparks like EQ and EQII. My definition of sandbox is constructed on an actual participant economy, although, and certainly one of my frustrations with EQII is the huge, intricate, and fun crafting system that is nearly totally wasted on a game where a lot of the gear is mob-dropped and bind-on-equip.
I don't envy the designers here because along with the balancing challenges inherent in making and sustaining a sandbox economy, they've also got to deal with the psyche of the new-school MMO player who doesn't need to be bothered with crafters and who needs to distant auction his gear with a minimal of effort and player interplay. At the same time, the firm has minced no words about the fact that EQNext is a player-driven sandbox, so how it navigates this potential minefield can be interesting to look at.
Good guild tools
Copy EQII's guild tools. Anything much less makes Jef cry. The end.
Issues I do not need to see
Before I knock off for the day, let me spend a few paragraphs on issues I do not wish to see. MINECRAFT SERVERS Firstly, in-recreation VOIP. Look, I understand it makes for an excellent back-of-the-box (can we nonetheless have game boxes?) bullet point, but the reality is that it is a waste of improvement assets even if it's shoe-horned in there by a 3rd celebration.
I imply, actually, what guild with a clue would not use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble lately? These are all free apps -- until you're the guild leader paying for the server, and even then it's usually much cheaper than a traditional MMO sub -- and so they dwarf the functionality found in present in-sport options. In-sport VOIP is going to be laggy, it may sound like crap, and the only people who would possibly use it for more than five minutes are the poor saps in pickup dungeon groups.
Secondly, let's not have any of that dev-generated private story foolishness or the associated voice-acting. This is a massively multiplayer sandbox, after all, and that i can think of no less than two current AAA titles which have executed more than enough to justify tossing these ideas onto the proverbial pile of MMO fail. I'm most likely preaching to the choir right here, as Smedley has given a number of interviews over the previous few months that illustrate the corporate's "the players are the content material" motto. But, still. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please don't with the one-participant savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thanks.
What's in a reputation?
Whew. This is not an exhaustive listing of course, and I'm fairly curious to see what some of you want to see in EQNext. Rest assured that we'll be revisiting this matter typically as SOE ramps as much as its August reveal and beyond.
And with that, let's deliver this week's concern of The Tattered Notebook to a detailed. Oh, that jogs my memory! With EQNext in our near future, MJ and i are probably going to rename the column sooner or later, each as a method to freshen issues up and to better seize the spirit of the franchise going ahead. And we would love your help! Be happy to publish your strategies within the comments or contact us directly by way of jef@massively.com or mj@massively.com.
EverQuest II is so large that it takes two authors to make sense of it all! Be part of Jef Reahard and MJ Guthrie as they explore Norrathian nooks and crannies from the Overrealm to Timorous Deep. Operating each Saturday, The Tattered Notebook is your resource for all things EQII and EQNext -- and catch MJ every 'EverQuest Two-sday' on Massively Television!