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Smedley: "EverQuest Next will be the world's largest sandbox-style MMO ever made"

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  • CalmOceansCalmOceans Member UncommonPosts: 2,437

    They said people at next FanFaire (now called SoE Live) would be able to play EQNext (not buy, play).

    My guess is that the game is playable right now and in a somewhat stable state with content. I remember how long it took for Rift to go from playable to release, based on that I think the game is already up and running, just with tons of missing content and bugs I assume.

  • LonzoLonzo Member UncommonPosts: 294
    Finally a big company got the point! It is about time that we get a good alternative to EVE online!

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  • ariestearieste Member UncommonPosts: 3,309

    The problem with that statement is that it's rather misleading and not because they're trying to lie to people.  I was there at SOE live when they made this announcement.  However, they then went on to explain what "sandbox" means to them by the virtue of giving examples of the sorts of gameplay they want to encourage.  If i remember correctly, there were 3 or 4 examples:

     

    1.  PvP like Planetside 2.

    2.  Decorating and getting players to create decorative items like in EQ2.

    3.  Dungeon Maker from EQ2.

     

    So yeah.. if they deliver 100% on these being the key features, I won't touch the game.  Mostly because...

    1.  I don't PvP, so i don't really care.  Other than EVE, no MMO has ever done PvP in a way that was actually immersive and complementary to the experience, so I couldn't care less.  Generally the fact that the game has a PvP focus is already a huge negative.

    2.  Decorating a house is nice.  But it doesn't make or break the game.  It's a bonus feature.

    3.  Dungeon maker in EQ2, while cool in theory is probably the biggest waste of developer resources and players' time that SOE has ever created.

     

    If you look at things that made the best Sanbox games (SWG, EVE), they have to do with world interaction, politics, non-combat professions and dynamically changing worlds.  None of these things were mentioned by SOE.  

     

    So yes, they may very well make what THEY THINK is "the world's biggest sandbox game", but before you start cheering, I would check on whether their definition is anywhere near everyone else's.

    "I’d rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."

    - Raph Koster

    Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
    Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
    Currently Playing: ESO

  • rungardrungard Member Posts: 1,035

    8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

    it has to be reborn.

     

    image

  • RimmersmanRimmersman Member Posts: 885
    Originally posted by rungard

    8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed itit has to be reborn. image

     

    And Vanguard has been the closes thing to it, now with EQN we can go home at last.

    image
  • ariestearieste Member UncommonPosts: 3,309
    Originally posted by rungard

    8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

    it has to be reborn.

     

    image

    Considering that 8 years after its launch, EQ2 remains one of the best MMOs on the market and is about to get its 9th expansion while EQ1 is about to get its (?) 19th... i somehow doubt that this franshise is dead.  Name any other active MMO franchise with 2 games more than 8 years old each and with more than 5 expacs each. 

    "I’d rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."

    - Raph Koster

    Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
    Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
    Currently Playing: ESO

  • IcewhiteIcewhite Member Posts: 6,403
    Originally posted by rungard

    8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

    it has to be reborn.

    Naw, just the final nail in the coffin. Already doomed by players splitting for WoW.

    Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by arieste
    Originally posted by rungard 8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it it has to be reborn.  
    Considering that 8 years after its launch, EQ2 remains one of the best MMOs on the market and is about to get its 9th expansion while EQ1 is about to get its (?) 19th... i somehow doubt that this franshise is dead.  Name any other active MMO franchise with 2 games more than 8 years old each and with more than 5 expacs each. 


    There is a very big gap to cross between games the size of EQ1/EQ2, and being the world's largest sandbox mmo ever made. Granted, they'd only have to get to half a million players, but that's still a huge leap from where they are currently to where they say they will be.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • RimmersmanRimmersman Member Posts: 885
    Originally posted by arieste

    Originally posted by rungard
    8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it it has to be reborn.   image

    Considering that 8 years after its launch, EQ2 remains one of the best MMOs on the market and is about to get its 9th expansion while EQ1 is about to get its (?) 19th... i somehow doubt that this franshise is dead.  Name any other active MMO franchise with 2 games more than 8 years old each and with more than 5 expacs each. 

     

    I dont think that he thinks it's dead but more so that EQ2 was far away from EQ. EQ2 is a great MMO but many EQ players don't think it really lives up to the real feeling of EQ.

    The most obvious being the world lay out and the classes.As i said Vanguard shares many things that are closer to EQ than EQ2 especially the classes.

    image
  • ariestearieste Member UncommonPosts: 3,309
    Originally posted by Rimmersman
    Originally posted by arieste
    Originally posted by rungard

    8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

    it has to be reborn.

     

    image

    Considering that 8 years after its launch, EQ2 remains one of the best MMOs on the market and is about to get its 9th expansion while EQ1 is about to get its (?) 19th... i somehow doubt that this franshise is dead.  Name any other active MMO franchise with 2 games more than 8 years old each and with more than 5 expacs each. 

     

    I dont think that he thinks it's dead but more so that EQ2 was far away from EQ. EQ2 is a great MMO but many EQ players don't think it really lives up to the real feeling of EQ. The most obvious being the world lay out and the classes.As i said Vanguard shares many things that are closer to EQ than EQ2 especially the classes.

    Yep, absolutely it was.  And thank god.  You shouldn't remake the same game 10 years later just because you remember it fondly.  Most of the "EQ1 throwbacks" in Vanguard are what dragged it down - retarded ideas by a lead designer that had too much ego to acknowledge 10 years of progress in the genre. 

     

    I love EQ2, but i certainly hope that EQ3 doesn't just remake EQ2 with a new engine.  I already have EQ2 (and WoW and LoTRO and WAR and Rift and TOR, etc, etc) for that.  I hope EQ3 is as different from EQ2 as EQ2 was from EQ1.   New MMOs need to be new and to progress the genre.  We've already seen how bad things are when everyone makes the exact same game for 10 years (Thanks WoW!)

    "I’d rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."

    - Raph Koster

    Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
    Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
    Currently Playing: ESO

  • AdamaiAdamai Member UncommonPosts: 476
    i seriously doubt it will be bigger than eve - online world.  that game is truely emmence in scale.  over 6500 systems/shards each system being a around 20-40 au in diameter. thats 6500 areas. no game has that. and should a sandbox rpg ever get that kind of scale, the players will feel lost inside it.
  • ImixZinzImixZinz Member CommonPosts: 553
    Originally posted by Adamai
    i seriously doubt it will be bigger than eve - online world.  that game is truely emmence in scale.  over 6500 systems/shards each system being a around 20-40 au in diameter. thats 6500 areas. no game has that. and should a sandbox rpg ever get that kind of scale, the players will feel lost inside it.

     

    Wish Eve players would be more realistic with the claims about their beloved e-commerce game.

     

    Eve is huge... but it is a vast empty

    It takes a lot time to traverse distance... but it's all automated

    If you tracked Eve's playerbase activity in each area and mapped those areas as the game world i think you would find the size is probably smaller than most fantasy MMOs.

     

  • OgreRaperOgreRaper Member Posts: 376
    I didn't like EQ2 very much. I'm hoping EQNext can truly deliver on the sandbox thing.
  • IcewhiteIcewhite Member Posts: 6,403
    Originally posted by arieste

    Yep, absolutely it was.  And thank god.  You shouldn't remake the same game 10 years later just because you remember it fondly.  Most of the "EQ1 throwbacks" in Vanguard are what dragged it down - retarded ideas by a lead designer that had too much ego to acknowledge 10 years of progress in the genre.

    Yet, it's a mistake bad developers just keep right on makin'.

    And gamers too, it it ain't Just Like WoW, it will not be allowed to succeed.  If it is Just Like WoW, we'll dismiss it as a Clone.

    Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.

  • MetentsoMetentso Member UncommonPosts: 1,437
    EQ Next generation of gamers aggravated by SOE.
  • RimmersmanRimmersman Member Posts: 885
    Originally posted by ImixZinz
    Originally posted by Adamai
    i seriously doubt it will be bigger than eve - online world.  that game is truely emmence in scale.  over 6500 systems/shards each system being a around 20-40 au in diameter. thats 6500 areas. no game has that. and should a sandbox rpg ever get that kind of scale, the players will feel lost inside it.

     

    Wish Eve players would be more realistic with the claims about their beloved e-commerce game.

     

    Eve is huge... but it is a vast empty

    It takes a lot time to traverse distance... but it's all automated

    If you tracked Eve's playerbase activity in each area and mapped those areas as the game world i think you would find the size is probably smaller than most fantasy MMOs.

     

    I agree with this, when all is said and done EVE is not really that big, especially compared to MMOs like Vanguard.

    image
  • someforumguysomeforumguy Member RarePosts: 4,088
    I think it is silly that he starts throwing around bold claims like that again before anyone has seen anything about the game. This kind of hyperbole will kick him in the behind later on. Although he seems kind of oblivious to such a thing.
  • ice-vortexice-vortex Member UncommonPosts: 960
    I think a lot of sandbox purists are going to be disappointed as the sandbox hype meter is sky high. There was already a comment from Smedley about it having raid content, so it obviously isn't a pure sandbox.  I also expect a lot of the experiments being done on EQ2 with dungeon and item creation to make its way in some form.
  • Sora2810Sora2810 Member Posts: 567

    When I heard EQN was redesigned as a sandbox, I chuckled. I love sandbox games, to the bottom of my core. SOE maimed a game that I truly cherished. SWG. I didn't believe SOE would make EQN into a sandbox.

    Then I saw that Smed openly apologized for SWG, and that EQN would make vet's feel right at home. In that moment; my heart stopped. SOE created SWG, they could do it again, but would they?

    Played - M59, EQOA, EQ, EQ2, PS, SWG[Favorite], DAoC, UO, RS, MXO, CoH/CoV, TR, FFXI, FoM, WoW, Eve, Rift, SWTOR, TSW.
    Playing - PS2, AoW, GW2

  • WarlyxWarlyx Member EpicPosts: 3,363
    eqnext a full sandbox? i doubt it....
  • ice-vortexice-vortex Member UncommonPosts: 960

    I would like them to rewind to the pre-Luclin EQ days and then have them look forward into the what if the direction of design went in a different direction. The original EQ was basically bare bones and there is so much it was lacking and many things that I would never want to replay, but it did a number of things right that have not been repeated in any modern MMO.

  • RimmersmanRimmersman Member Posts: 885
    Originally posted by Sora2810

    When I heard EQN was redesigned as a sandbox, I chuckled. I love sandbox games, to the bottom of my core. SOE maimed a game that I truly cherished. SWG. I didn't believe SOE would make EQN into a sandbox.

    Then I saw that Smed openly apologized for SWG, and that EQN would make vet's feel right at home. In that moment; my heart stopped. SOE created SWG, they could do it again, but would they?

    Hmm, EQNext is not going to be a total sandbox MMO if you think that then you might as well bow at now. Smed said "an sandbox style game" that should tell you the true story.

    I think you will find that EQNext will be an hybrid MMO rather than a full sandbox MMO akin to Tails In The Desert.

    We know it will have classes and i'm pretty sure xp to level. We know the world will be seamless but will it be a open world like Vanguard which has no instances.

    image
  • rungardrungard Member Posts: 1,035
    Originally posted by Skuall
    eqnext a full sandbox? i doubt it....

     You will have the power to both destroy and rebuild the majority of the games environment. You will have the ability to create objects. You will have the ability to speak and your avatar will appear to talk and sound like you want them to. You will have the ability to make your own content and gameworld rules in some cases.

     I call that a full sandbox, whether or not some of the other aspects are preserved such as raiding, if..the hype is real.

     

    image

     

  • ShakyMoShakyMo Member CommonPosts: 7,207
    If they don't want to loose core EQ fans it will have a raid progressesion endgame.

    That very feature will stop it being a sandbox and make it a themepark with some sandbox features - teraforming and crafting.
  • BaratukBaratuk Member UncommonPosts: 27

    I'm so excited about a sandboxy version of norrath. Just hope they can pull it off. Also, I wonder if we'll finnally get some high seas adventure this time. I know they promised it with eq2 and never delivered. 

    Also, I hope they go back to the style of eq1 as in, no guides. I used to love having to travel and find stuff out for yourself. Not knowing if you should go through that zone for fear of dieing and not being able to get your body.

    Who here that played eq1 didnt love the fact that if you went into kithicor forrest at night you were pretty much going to get ganked by the undead denziens. I love that type of stuff. Also the fact that it took hours to go from freeport to qeynos. As a rogue I remember being level 10 or so and sneaking from freeport to qeynos. It felt like a very epic journey by the end. I miss those days.

This discussion has been closed.