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EQ Next; Right Place, Right Time?
Dejoblue
Member UncommonPosts: 307
It is palpable. People are itching for change; bored, aloof, disinterested, logging out and unsubscribing.
We have felt it before with the likes of AoC, RIFT, SWTOR and their ilk. But the subway train of MMOs just keept on going and at the next stop we saw our friends clod right back onto the train, back on the ride, looking for a new destination. Much of the time it was ourselves waiting for those doors to close as we sat down reluctantly for the long ride ahead to our chosen escape.
Either holding your hand leading you to your quest destinations or lording over you making you do your daily quests in the same zone, killing the same mobs every, single, day, droves of players are getting off at the last stop and not coming back. Causation, correlation, who knows? I know most of whom I speak with, as a GM working with as many as 50 players in recent months, have cited the boredom of the current themepark paradigm as the reason for the departures.
Don't get me wrong. There are some great themeparks coming out, FFXIV is fantastic, but it is a themepark with map quest locators and hand holding galore. Sure it may require grouping but the mystery is gone. The exploration, the wonder. Many players prefer this type of gameplay. Many do not.
Now I do not want to get into a themepark bashing session here I just want to illustrate the environs in which EQNext will be revealed in.
Titan and ESO have been delayed to 2014 and beyond, if ever for the former. Age of Wushu is much like EVE but it's strength is in the martial arts gameplay rather than high fantasy. Archeage is a ways out as well but is at the very least a good backup plan.
We cannot ignore the understatement. Many are looking for the next big thing. A AAA MMO that engages them for more than two months and is different enough from current offerings to justify investing months if not years into it's gameplay.
The last time we had a major shift in paradigm was with WoW, and it was not that great of a change in concept but was massive in pulling in population. It was a typical rocky launch with character rollbacks and even days of server downtime. The gameplay was relatively hardcore, by today's standards, all the way through Sunwell in BC. I require myself to always note that the hardcore BC had more subs than the much more casual Cata and Panda, but I digress.
Jump ahead 9 years and here we are, many of us bored to tears of themepark, or at least we think we are but that is another thread about the death of themeparks. But the reason I mention this is because EQNext, so far, claims to have gone sandbox, that themepark is out and there is something next, pun intended.
Of course we have not seen EQN and perhaps themepark will be a big part of it as raids have been identified as something they will continue to have. I am not entirely convinced that the themepark is dead scenario is within EQNext. In the descriptions it seems that they are latching onto that sense of wonder, of not holding hands, but at the same time giving us a dynamic world to explore.
Are they trying to bring back those elements of exploration and wonder that many cite as simply obnoxious time wasting features such as no mounts, no gates except via druids and wizards, etc. under the guise or with the intent of having useful benefit or at least meaningful implementation? Is old EQ where you had to hail NPCs and interact with them to discover the lore and get quests the new "sandbox"?
We will have to wait until August to see.
The huge lull in activity from August until November's Blizzcon and the holiday PS4/XBOXONE releases gives a huge window for EQ Next to run with the ball.
All EQ Next has to do is "zig where others zag" and deliver on the "sandbox" elements and be different and it very well could capture the attention and imaginations of players new and old once again.
Comments
Well for one, I think it's a little premature to stipulate if EQN will be the next... anything. Seriously... people are getting their hopes up for nothing. And I'm actually surprised by it. Why am I suprised?
I think people were ready with SWTOR. And because of that, I think it's past overdue. SWTOR failed to deliver what people were ready to admit they wanted out of an MMO. It turned out to be nothing more than the same old thing. Honestly, EA and Bioware totally blew it. People talk about how WoW had that perfect storm element going for it that made it so successful. SWTOR had it too... and it simply did not deliver. Not that it was a completely bad game.... it just didn't have that level of invention people were hoping it would have.
Now, we come to EQN, and people are getting excited all over again. Except this time, it doesn't even make sense. Bioware had an edge going for it. It was basically the story of Blizzard all over again: their first MMO; unpresidented history of releasing top quality games that fans adore; excellent experience with online compatibility; proven competence in successful game design that improved with each game; that rare standard of quality you only receive from the best studios. But with EQN... we have SOE. They are THE studio to hate for all eternity. They invented the jaded MMO gamer. They regularly produce broken games for release. They are the epitome of terrible customer service.
Still, I can understand the interest. SOE used to be the beez-neez in MMO's. And boy did they fall hard. Their only saving grace, I think, is the slim possibility that they ate the bakery lot of humble pie and truly plan to bring back that magic they had with the origin EQ. I can't say I feel good about rooting for them.... but I believe in second chances and my interest is piqued if only to see if maybe the impossible could happen.
We shall see soon enough.
The guy above me.
Planetside 2 is all I know about SOE, and that's a damn good game. SOE is no Trion, copy, fail, fail.
For me, it's not a competition. EQN doesn't need to replace WoW for it to be successful. It just has to be fun and profitable enough to keep it churning out new sandbox tools and bug fixes. If it takes care of it's own, sticks to the business model and appeals to it's target demographic, it should find itself in the black, hopefully with some spare change.
I don't think there will be any game that surpasses (or even reaches) WoW numbers. But it's just not something that needs to happen. Setting the bar to that level is what's left every other game feel like a disappointment. If we start holding EQN to somehow be the "WoW Killer", it's going to feel like a disappointment too.
I have a strong feeling that,like the OP said,the "themepark" element will not be lost in this game..
I think EQN will be a Sandpark.It will bring together elements from both worlds,like EQ1 did.Sandparks,IMO, are the best way to go,they are a good amount of each side,satiating the players craving for both worlds all in one.
You go to either extreme you end up turning a lot of people off.
Sandbox, Theme Park, Sand Park, Themebox - Meh...
I just hope the game is fun and offers something different than what we currently get served every 6 months in this genre.
But I think you may be right, it will be a mix of everything but done in a way to make it feel like something new.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
I'm not jaded, really. At least... not anymore. I admit, there was a time when I simply would not trust SOE or go anywhere near their product because of the time, patience, and confidence they wasted not only from myself, but every gamer who stuck with them for any extended period of time. But, today... I'm just playing it smart. I've been through this ordeal too many times to get excited about anything, especially when I have absolutely nothing that will allow me to make some kind of judgement, other than someone's word. And honestly, I don't trust other gamers' opinions on anything, because frankly... most of them are either complete morons or elitist fanboys who are either for it or against it. I'm a no BS kind of guy - and I ask straight questions to which I expect straight answers. Too many people simply cannot provide that objectivity I am looking for.
As for Smedley - see, I was there from the beginning of SWG AND EQII. I waited for like five years as they spun the marketing web for The Agency - only to hear they underhandedly announced the project canned. I heard the same talk with DC Universe Online - same story. Everything Smedley talks about with EQN... they already had it in SWG. They had it back then, and they did nothing with it. They did absolutely nothing. I've heard his speeches before. He's a master salesman - that's why he gets paid the money he is paid.
Anyone who has been in this hobby for any substantial amount of time like I have been would agree with me. Speculating that EQN has any chance whatsoever to do anything interesting is totally premature. We have absolutely nothing - nothing - nothing that suggests anything except Smedley's sales tactics.
Am I excited to find out? Sure. Am I rooting for them despite their history? Absolutely. I don't care who or how this hobby is elevated out of the crap heap we're in now... so long as someone, somewhere does it... soon. But before I throw in my full vote on confidence... I need to see some kind of live demonstration.
I agree..
Whatever it ends up being,If it can hold me for longer than 2 months i'll be a happy camper.
I am very happy that so far everyone "gets it".
I am happy that at least one poster was talking about this being a hobby. It very much is, just like DND tabletop. That means it is not "just a game". Yes, we do take it seriously. We want to master it, know the lore, know the specific mechanics of each class etc. This is what make us invest years into a game.
I am also glad that others understand that there is a big window open all EQN has to do is deliver the goods. The only 2 different games coming out are EQN and Archeage. One poster had it spot on, for me at least. I am not interested in localized Asian MMOs. That leaves EQ Next as the only game with the potential to keep my interest.
It also doesn't have to be perfect, as mentioned by another poster. If they have solved the content churn problem then players will stay, warts and all.
I also do not see any other games on the horizon, these were the games we were just starting to hear about 5 years ago. Maybe I am out of the loop but I do not know of any potential AAA titles other than "Titan" to even be looking towards for the next 5 years. If EQN cant deliver then I am probably out as a serious MMO player and will move on to another hobby. Sure I will check in and maybe even sub to something but it wont be for anything other than solo lulz, right where the industry appears to want us.
I would call ArcheAge more than a good back up plan, it has many of things that imo Smed is trying to do with EQN. A fully dynamic world with some serious features, if EQN is lacking some of the key features that AA has then Smed has lost already.
Imo EQN will not be a full blown sandbox like WurmOnline but more a hybrid sandpark.
EQNext seems to be a strong position depending on their actual release date & the status of the game at release.
A solid release these days requires several things depending on the type of MMO it is(Themepark or Sandbox) but there are always commonalities:
-Smooth engaging gameplay
-Minimal system/server issues at release(game optimized for the previous generation of computer systems)
-Endgame options(Dungeons,PvP,Raids) complete to at least the first Tier 1.5 at release.
Knock these 3 things out and you've got a chance to keep people paying to play your game(or Cash shop). As SOE has played things close to the vest to this point it's hard to speculate but they have marketed a Sandbox style game. In this day and age with nearly the complete lack of options for Sandbox style quality gaming their task is much more difficult.
I would say I have faith in SOE but lets face it, I'm an Ex-SWG Vet that was around from the beginning to the whole NGE debacle. I'll be positive and say that if there is a company that can pull a Sandbox style MMO off it's probably SOE because they at one point had already put together the best in game housing system ever(SWG) and crafting system(SWG). If they come even close to those two systems they're already ahead of the power curve.
Riho- SWG Scylla
Riho- EQ2 Guk
Rihan- WoW Dunemaul
Freeloader- WoW Cenarius
Freestyle- WoW Cenarius
Two months?! I haven't played a game since EQ1 that kept me for longer than a month. EQ2 I played off and on so that might count but I haven't played a game since 2006 that was worth more than 30 days of my time =/
I personally think timing is bad unless you really are willing to make some ground breaking ideas and not be cheap on design.
I was there when they moved into EQ2,i thought EQ2 was a great game even with the many bugs but the overall populace did not.It seemed the EQ1 players were not ready to leave or support another game and did not like some of their player base being lured away either.
So since it did not work for EQ2,it is quite possible,it will not work this time either.I think Smedley needs to look in the mirror and rethink his philosophy.He needs to get some creative ideas from other people and no ,not those old school guys who just live in the past.Who knows,i most certainly do not,maybe Smed has woke up,he had better hope so.We will have to wait and see if he is making a wise decision or going to further dilute his EQ players into three separate parts as i doubt many will stay subbed to EQ1 or 2 if they decide to play Next.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
You do realize (It seems like you're just stating things to sound smarter or something, I don't know. It's quite easy to find interviews of Georgeson and Smed saying exactly what you're saying.) that SoE are stating exactly the things you're mentioning they need to do?
Huh??? Your posts really baffle me a lot of the time.......... ??
Well if it's any good and came out christmas time this year or something, it'd definitely be at the right time.
There isn't crap for anything decent out right now. They would be mobbed with players.
Is there any advantage for a F2P game to release at Christmas and compete with the slew of other new holiday PC/console titles?
I suppose a pre-paid station cash card (or whatever currency EQN will use) would make a nice stocking stuffer.
I'd like to see it come out ON Christmas Day too. Just to destroy family relationships, which is part of the everquest classic experience. =P
Rofl. QFT
Smed had the idea for Everquest - Smed has always been SOE
some history from Brad McQuaid aka Aradune
http://www.silkyvenom.com/pages/devtracker/index.php?go=posts&get=thread&fromsite=1&id=51141
Smed and I founded Verant. We started our own corporation, with him as President/CEO and me as Vice President.
business article from 2002
http://otherworlds31279.yuku.com/topic/1208/Business-20-magazine-history-of-EverQuest#.UbdwSZzCkYs
After 18 months at San Diego State University, where he was studying computer science, Smedley dropped out to write games on contract for Alien Technology Group. In 1993 he finally took a full-time job at Sony. He needed the salary to support his own online habit: By then, Smedley was running up $600 monthly bills on CyberStrike, one of the first graphic action games played online against others.
He knew that CyberStrike, while primitive, was on the right track. If he was willing to pay to play, he reasoned, there were probably lots of other gamers out there who would be too. So in 1996, Smedley pitched his boss at a Sony-owned PlayStation development studio on the idea of an online role-playing game. It would involve thousands of players at a time, he said. It would be three-dimensional. It would make a fortune.
Smedley recalls, "I got three minutes into this huge presentation, and he just flat out said, 'No.'"
But a few months later, a new boss, Kelly Flock, arrived. Smedley tried his pitch again. He pointed out that programmers at other companies were already working on virtual-world games like Meridian 59. And while he didn't know it at the time, Electronic Arts was already working on Ultima Online. He got the green light: EverQuest was a go. Smedley hired McQuaid and Steve Clover, two ace game programmers who were slaving as corporate systems administrators. Within three years, the small San Diego skunk works grew into a team of 56 developers and one of Sony's most expensive game projects, with a development budget approaching $5 million.
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