EQ 'Next'

[Falconeer]

I disagree. Never liked the characters, but Freeport and Qeynos were beautiful since day 1 (November 2004) and so were the dungeons.

[Numtini]

It's the MMO I've played longest and deepest, but though I've never been bothered by it, it was definitely not the art that drew me in. I think they went for a "realistic" look at launch that nobody really liked. It looked mostly drab and even a bit Stalinesque and went off the cliff into the uncanny valley at other times. It was when they started to get more vibrant colors and fantastic locations that everything really came alive.

There's also the stuff about the engine and CPU/GPU that we'll never know the real story of. Supposedly the engine was capable of more than we ever saw because it was designed for 5-10ghz single core CPUs that never arrived, but there's no way to really test the truth of that.

[Falconeer]

That was the most annoying thing to me: I kept updating my computer and years after launch it still ran like shit.

[Salamok]

Charm was rarely used tbh as it was too unpredictable, except as an emergency CC spell when the real ones were on timers.

Then along came Planes of Power and charm was probably the most overpowered spell in the game for awhile.  I had a long grindy relationship with EQ that was mostly a downward spiral but at least before I finally kicked the habit SOE let me charm big ass giants that hit really really hard.  Also this is the only MMO that I ever 2 or 3 boxed with and that certainly made combat a little more interesting.

[palmer_eldritch]

Qeynos did look nice.

Here's some footage of the original outdoor zones, as a comparison to the newer ones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxqEvWtlEQs

[palmer_eldritch]

MMORPG.com has awarded this "best of show" among MMOs at E3, beating Wildstar, Archeage, Elder Scrolls Online, that Warhammer thing and whatever else was on show that looked like an MMO.

They claim they can't say why it was the best MMO at the show but just take their word for it:

we were treated to an early look at what SOE has planned for the game’s unveiling in August and we were quite simply blown away by every little detail we saw. This is going to sound like a cop-out, but we can't say why we are choosing EQN as our Best of Show because we've been sworn to secrecy until the big debut in August. What we can say is that we saw grand plans for the world's largest sandbox and it was more than enough to stand head and shoulders above any game we saw at E3. When Sony pulls back the curtain later this summer, you will not be disappointed. EverQuest Next is this year's E3 Best of Show, and in just a couple months you'll all understand why. We promise.

http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm?loadFeature=7501&val=1&uh=BB8C9DF97F4F2911C53C8E016B0D7BA7

I know nobody here is going to jump on the hype train but I have to admit I'm becoming intrigued to learn just what SOE have come up with.

[Hoax]

It wouldn't take much for it to be more interesting than a cute remake of vanilla WoW, an oddly feature packed yet at the same time generic Asian thing, a horrifically bad game that is hoping its IP is enough to get it by and something so bad that I didn't even know there was such a thing (another warhammer mmo? I thought they canned the 40k thing).

[Threash]

The worlds largest sandbox? well, color me intrigued.

[Kageru]

Making a public announcement about a game for which you can give no details is superbly pointless journalism.

"Early look... Grand plans... debut in August".

Until the NDA drops I'm going to assume it's the standard SOE of big ambitions and flawed implementation.

[Mrbloodworth]

So it begins.

[Fordel]

Announcement of the announcement?

[UnSub]

Announcement of the announcement?

Even better - award won for the announcement of the announcement.

[Paelos]

A "journalist" shouldn't give an award for something you can't talk about. This isn't the CIA and little stars on a wall.

Die in a secret fire William Murray and the assholes at that rag.

[Falconeer]

This is beyond ridiculous and says even more than we already knew about these awards. I am all ears for EQ Next, want to love it, but this is bullshit. I would be really surprised if whoever awarded that crap weren't getting paid for it.

[eldaec]

When you look at the rest of what was on show, declaring best mmorpg to be some random vapourware that we don't technically know is terrible, seems fair enough.

[Tannhauser]

Saying 'sandbox MMO' makes me perk up like a meerkat, but SOE...yeah...

[Paelos]

If they're already shoveling money out to the PR hype machine to get fictional awards? You know it's shit.

[Draegan]

EQ:Next apparently has gone through 2(?) revamps already. So that might be... bad.
However they are using an existing engine that PS2 uses, so at least they have some proven technology to work on. That helps. So that might be... good.

I hope the game is good, the genre needs something different. I'm not holding my breath though.

Also MMORPG article is douchey. Hey guys this game is best in show? Did they actually show it? No. Dumbshit.

[Pennilenko]

A fantasy type fps mmo, that has the landmass of each ps2 continent combined could be quite large.

[shiznitz]

If you take PS2 and make it archers and swordsman and forts and castles, it could be fun.

[Bzalthek]

I wonder how much I'd have to pay for them to revoke the award for Sony and re-award it to my nuts.

[Draegan]

I wonder how much I'd have to pay for them to revoke the award for Sony and re-award it to my nuts.

Two cheeseburgers, a bag of Doritos and a Coors Light.

[Nonentity]

I wonder how much I'd have to pay for them to revoke the award for Sony and re-award it to my nuts.

Two cheeseburgers, a bag of Doritos and a Coors Light.

Oh come on, they're not SAVAGES. At least throw them some Fat Tires.

[Bzalthek]

I'll add a Mt. Dew cause Doritos will feel lonely.

Coming 2013!  DESE NUTZ
11.3 / 10.0 MMORPG.COM
"Best ride of my life!"-Suzie Ford
"Why does it burn now when I pee?"-Ben Kreuger

[Threash]

Charm was rarely used tbh as it was too unpredictable, except as an emergency CC spell when the real ones were on timers.

Then along came Planes of Power and charm was probably the most overpowered spell in the game for awhile.  I had a long grindy relationship with EQ that was mostly a downward spiral but at least before I finally kicked the habit SOE let me charm big ass giants that hit really really hard.  Also this is the only MMO that I ever 2 or 3 boxed with and that certainly made combat a little more interesting.

The first expansion had those dragon/giant/dwarf cities that doubled as raid zones, one of the ice giant NPCs was dubbed "the frozen jesus" because you could charm him and he would destroy everything in his path and tank the uber raid bosses for you.

[Segoris]

I'll add a Mt. Dew cause Doritos will feel lonely.

Coming 2013!  DESE NUTZ
11.3 / 10.0 MMORPG.COM
"Best ride of my life!"-Suzie Ford
"Why does it burn now when I pee?"-Ben Kreuger

So that's how these things actually sell

[Venkman]

The worlds largest sandbox? well, color me intrigued.

Heh, up against Eve for that title, I very much doubt it. Maybe the SOE of 2003, but certainly not the 2013 one.

But also: this is a non-story about a non-thing until the potential announcement sometime in August. Maybe.

[Shatter]

If they f*ck this up I am going to...write a letter

[Sky]

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

Ya'll are some bitter jaded twats.

[Mrbloodworth]

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

[Paelos]

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

Ya'll are some bitter jaded twats.

Where's the fine line between bitter jaded twat and Charlie Brown going to kick the football?

[Lantyssa]

Ya'll are some bitter jaded twats.

It's "y'all".  Also we are, but with reason.

[Malakili]

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

Sounds nice in theory.  Whether it is fun to play in an MMO setting is another story.

[Fabricated]

I'm going out of a limb here but I'm going to guess that this will be really bad but half the forum will buy the box anyway.

[Draegan]

It's going to be free to play.