Opinions on Journals/Maps?

Bane82

I don't know if this would be better served in the Ultima forums, but I figured I'd bring it here, as to some extent it does relate not only to Everquest, but to MMO's in general.

One of the common complaints I've heard from players that are wanting to TRULY explore an MMO's world, is that we get handed too many things up front, we get a quest log, we get a map, and we get markers that tell us where to go etc. Which does kind of suck out any sense of immersion in a game, and it does kind of ruin any kind of awe players might have felt by discovering a new area by happenstance.

I do remember several moments like this when I first played EQ. Though we did have a map, it barely served any kind of purpose, the only "useful tool" we had was the compass which we could use to direct us, but the map, for the most part, I remember being pretty void of any kind of detail. So when I ended up in a new land, it made me feel like a true explorer, until the moment I spotted the giant Cyclops from the corner of my eye and now had to get myself to safety.

In seeing a review for "Ultima: Stygian Abyss" by Spoony (Noah Antwiller) I saw a very simple feature that was in the game that made me think. Could this be added to more MMO's? And could it be made useful?

If you look at the review here at 1:30

he talks about how you're given the ability to write and draw on your map.
It seems like a silly feature at first, until you think of how this can be used in game. Would players be too annoyed if instead of having an "Auto-fill" journal that shows all quest progress, they instead could have a map where they could draw/write clues? In other words, have to actually pay attention to what an NPC is saying and write it down rather than have it just be given? Could it even be expanded beyond just a write-able map?

Maybe I'm too old school, but I remember some of the interesting things I found in game, was reading about the history of the world. I'd be that odd player that would actually sit and read some of the books in the game libraries, it was just fun reading about the world you were inhabiting etc. and yes, I LOVED that you could learn so many different languages in EQ, and would often try to buy language books or ask players to teach me different languages. Knowing I could understand Orcish or Iksar or which ever (it's been a while since I played) and being able to read/understand what some other player might not, gave my character depth. But I digress, as I feel I've gone off track.