EQ 'Next'

[Mrbloodworth]

Yep, F2P is guaranteed at this point.

[Ginaz]

I'm interested until I see a reason not to be.

Ya'll are some bitter jaded twats.

We're interested but giving a game a "best in show award" without actually telling anyone why is fucking retarded.  Also, soe isn't exactly the most trustworthy or competent dev studio so anything they say, esp. if it comes from the mouth of John Smedley, has to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

[Pennilenko]

If any of SOE's other games are an indication, its going to be 7 dollar swords, and 15 dollar dress up kits.

[Falconeer]

For fairness, Planetside 2 stuff can be expensive but you can't really complain about the business model considering it's perfectly, totally, absolutely enjoyable without spending a dime. My son has been putting hours in it for a month and he didn't even think for a second about paying or ever complained about it. He plays to play, not to unlock stuff, and he gets what he downloaded the free game for.

[Trippy]

PS2 is PvP, though. If it was "pay to win" there would only be a small number of people playing.

[shiznitz]

PS2 works really well because it is hard to say that any one gun is better than another universally.  That kind of balance is going to be really hard in a fantasy MMO where we all know that progression will be a significant part of the system.  Still, I am confident (for no concrete reason) that this will not be the mess that EQ2 F2P system is.  Races and classes should not be paywalled.  Mounts, housing, and clothing will certainly be.

We will see.  Even if they do this well, the time sink of any MMORPG means I am unlikely to participate even though I was a big fan of EQ and EQ2 (pre-F2P).

[Draegan]

I would be surprised if the raid/loot progression system is the main focus of this game. Just a sense I get from reading all the cryptic tweets from SOE. The game will be closer to UO/EVE than it will be EQ1.

[Simond]

But imagine the entire world as part of the interaction. Imagine seasons changing. Imagine if you're a Druid and you need to literally seek out reagents for your spells or worship your deity in a glade somewhere off in the wilderness, but you don't know where. Or image forests growing back after they're burned to the ground by invading forces. What we want is a dynamic world that gives all those other possibilities and doesn't just say OK, go to raid X with group composition of X, Y, Z, and kill the dragon for the 52nd time to get the tier 800 gear. It's this rinse-and-repeat gameplay that's got to change, and so we're changing it.

Jsmedly - 2012

If it turns out anything like that, it's going to be vastly amusing to watch. From a safe distance.
"What, Goon Squad helped the marauding dragon torch Qeynos?"

[Bzalthek]

So would I.  Fuck Qeynos.

[Yegolev]

MMO designers were saying that shit since before the acronym was invented.  It never came out as described, and it was never fun.  How about adding a line:
Dev: "Imagine if you're a soldier in Bree and you need to get a pie recipe somewhere off in the Shire, but you don't know where."
Player: "OH FUCK TRAVEL TIMES" , "WHY DO HOERSE TICKETS COST SO MUHC" , "WHY U NO FAST TRAVL" , "THIS IS 2015 WHER MY QUEST TRAKCER?"

FURTHERMORE this is John Fucking Smedley.

Sandbox MMO my ass.  Someone get Raph on the phone.

[Paelos]

I remember Horizons promising just this idea before it completely crashed and burned, and they had to scale back to BS like World Events.

[shiznitz]

If one of these games could deliver real time, permanent landscape changes as part of World Events, that would be a step in the right direction.

[Falconeer]

Crashed and burned? Horizons is still alive, and it's such a good deal if you are in the miliatary.

[Yegolev]

Actually that reminds me that before quest trackers we had big signs telling us where to find resources.

I looked for a picture but gave up.

[Mithas]

Crashed and burned? Horizons is still alive, and it's such a good deal if you are in the miliatary.

Man that game has not aged well, I remember thinking it looked pretty cool when it first came out.

[Simond]

If one of these games could deliver real time, permanent landscape changes as part of World Events, that would be a step in the right direction.

A smouldering wasteland is not usually considered "the right direction".

[Paelos]

Crashed and burned? Horizons is still alive, and it's such a good deal if you are in the miliatary.

Proof that even shitty MMOs never really die. Unless you are APB.

[Mrbloodworth]

Crashed and burned? Horizons is still alive, and it's such a good deal if you are in the miliatary.

Proof that even shitty MMOs never really die. Unless you are APB.

Who is also not dead, and also in the top 20 on steam.

[Sky]

If one of these games could deliver real time, permanent landscape changes as part of World Events, that would be a step in the right direction.

A smouldering wasteland is not usually considered "the right direction".

Phallus-shaped crater in 3...2...

[Paelos]

Crashed and burned? Horizons is still alive, and it's such a good deal if you are in the miliatary.

Proof that even shitty MMOs never really die. Unless you are APB.

Who is also not dead, and also in the top 20 on steam.

 

[Bzalthek]

Everyone looks at world modification by players like it will be one smoldering cesspit with penis statues.  But I like to think about it in a wikipedia mindset.  If people can alter the worlds, people can also fix and police the world.  Given the proper tools, nothing is really impossible.  But then you realize companies are making these things, and they only care about money now.  They have no long term vision.  If they can make a piece of shit that you'll buy and spend money on, hoping they'll deliver on their promises, a piece of shit you get.

[Paelos]

You could have guilds of anti-penis statue police. We shall call them, The Cockburners.

[Bzalthek]

Not Cockblockers?

But really, people are really protective of the shit they made or they like.  If given the ability it will be pretty hard for people to do permanent damage to the game world.

[Paelos]

Cockblockers would imply they could stop it from happening. A Fool's Dream, that.

I do think that unleashing people on the world would be more interesting than creating a static theme park for the 100th time.

[Surlyboi]

Crashed and burned? Horizons is still alive, and it's such a good deal if you are in the miliatary.

Proof that even shitty MMOs never really die. Unless you are APB.

Who is also not dead, and also in the top 20 on steam.

 

It's actually still kinda fun in well-spaced half-hour increments from time to time.

[Threash]

It did get a ton more fun when they increased team sizes.

[DayDream]

Cockblockers would imply they could stop it from happening. A Fool's Dream, that.

I do think that unleashing people on the world would be more interesting than creating a static theme park for the 100th time.

No no, it should be "The Burning Sensation."

[Venkman]

I remember Horizons promising just this idea before it completely crashed and burned, and they had to scale back to BS like World Events.

Shit, this was promised for EQ2. Remember how if you were going to relocate your shop from Qeynos to Freeport you'd load up a caravan and hire some guards and walk across and have events and it would be like SWG POI system with natural resource spawns as if it was all part of a whole ecosystem?

And that was back in the days when you could guarantee an income from a AAA priced box sale AND post launch subs for 4-6 months by relying on a good percentage of earlier adopters forgetting they were still paying a monthly fee.

Nowadays with the dicey predictability of games you need to give away just to get people to show up, and then maybe MAYBE get 5-10% to pay anything at all, while being up against the race to the bottom pricing on other platforms for all genres except FPS and that only because the big publishers can still keep hundreds employed in a crazy huge pipeline?

I think not.

It's a fun idea and maybe it's even true. I'll happily be surprised. But this isn't 2002 anymore.

[palmer_eldritch]

You're wrong, wrong, all you cynics. Open your minds and dare to hope for MMO nirvana because all your dreams are set to be realised at last.

While we are sworn to secrecy on exactly what we were shown, what we can say is that EverQuest Next was hands-down the best game we had the pleasure of seeing during E3 2013. Franchise fans and MMO gamers across the globe will be able to learn exactly why that’s the case on August 2nd during SOE Live when EQNext is given its grand unveiling.

Trust us when we say that you’ll want to mark that date on your calendar, and be prepared to bask in the warm glow of EverQuest Next in all its glory. In the meantime, kudos to the folks over at SOE for winning our Best of Show award; we’re as excited as you are to witness the impact EverQuest Next is surely going to have on gamers this August!

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/251130/page/8

Ten Ton Hammer has spoken.

[Miasma]

I liked ps2 so I'll try to keep an open mind.  It had better be so far away from launch day EQ2 as to be unrecognizable though.

[Bzalthek]

Ten Ton Hammer gives out awards now?  Why don't we do that?  Apparently there are no requirements or prerequisites needed to do so.

[Tannhauser]

Yeah, well I remember when EQ2 was going to be the game changer.  Turns out games can change for the worst.

[Scold]

What I want to know is, why the hell doesn't F13 have a serious-sounding post up on the frontpage pretending to award Everquest Next the "Best Game of E3" award based on an exclusive demo schild received that he can't talk about? Make it sound every bit as vague and plausible as TTH and MMORPG.com's awards, though at the same time allude briefly to "the awkward moment in the demo when John Smedley became agitated and repeatedly uttered racial slurs". As long as you don't make it absolutely obvious satire, the sky's the limit with the fun you can have here. It'll go across the internet like wildfire, and only a tiny fraction of anyone who sees it will actually read this forum thread.

[UnSub]

Just when you think games writing can't reach new depths, we've got game sites giving awards to a game they can't talk about.

[Mrbloodworth]

I imagine there must be something to this if two sites are willing to go out on a limb like this.