Didn't people say this about GW2 back when it unveiled an extensive and ambitious plan to "redefine" the genre, and then took, what, five years to release? I think people are just too used to the Call of Duty development cycle of "bend over and squirt one out every 9-12 months like you're some kind of child-rearing factory". MMOs take longer, especially if they're actually doing things differently and not just cloning WoW. Extended development cycles are not necessarily a bad thing.
And besides, I think it's rather unlikely that SOE can afford to spend as much time and money as it has on EQN, only to never release it. Especially since dev projections suggested that it's "over 60% done", and there was some optimism about possibly having the product available to beta in some form late this year. Doesn't sound like something they can afford to let slip into the category of vaporware.
The whole "REASONING" is because SOE is a VERY large operation with a LOT of overhead.They cannot simply take time to polish a game anymore,they also do not have the cash flow they once had,matter of fact they have been on a steady decline for a long time.
I know a LOT of onlookers NEED cold hard in writing facts but really if you pay attention to the Industry at all you should be able to read between the lines.
I believe the real reason behind dude leaving was because SOE no longer wanted to spend resources and time sharing ideas with the public,they want to just move straight ahead any way they see fit to stay within their budget.
I also believe their reasoning to change mid stream was because of Voxels.They saw a NEW trend in gaming and wanted in on it.Then to pay for the added license they decided to just release an empty world have gamer's pay for their license in that empty world and PRETEND it was all a plan to have a player created world.
Yes i do believe 100% that SOE is constantly looking for quick cash grabs to fund EQNext,i do not believe for one second that Next is being fully funded outside these other games.It is being funded BY these other games.They also created that lol ALL ACCESS pass as another gimmick to add more cash.
The LUCKY thing for SOE is this rubbish effort of a game called H1Z1 is going to make them far more money than i or them could have ever imagined.SO just like Blizzard cashing in on KungFUPanda ,SOE is cashing in on the Karl Poppa Undead TV series.
It does not look like SOE can be very creative so my query as to weather they could become more creative has been tossed out the window.Voxels nor the Zombie idea are creative,they simply jump on the bandwagon.It is like expecting Blizzard to make a TCG game W/O Warcraft ,or a MOBA w/o Warcraft lol.
I will point out that the Warcraft universe had the Pandaran before King Fu Panda was released.
But I will agree on the rest. Both Landmark and H1Z1 is SOEs attempt to jump on a bandwagon that they were really late getting to.. I think they made a mistake with EQN using voxels and zombie games are still big so they should make a lot of money with H1Z1 even if the game is never good ( like all the other zombie survival games ).
Didn't people say this about GW2 back when it unveiled an extensive and ambitious plan to "redefine" the genre, and then took, what, five years to release? I think people are just too used to the Call of Duty development cycle of "bend over and squirt one out every 9-12 months like you're some kind of child-rearing factory". MMOs take longer, especially if they're actually doing things differently and not just cloning WoW. Extended development cycles are not necessarily a bad thing.
And besides, I think it's rather unlikely that SOE can afford to spend as much time and money as it has on EQN, only to never release it. Especially since dev projections suggested that it's "over 60% done", and there was some optimism about possibly having the product available to beta in some form late this year. Doesn't sound like something they can afford to let slip into the category of vaporware.
I would normally agree that it takes years to develop, but EQN is being developed alongside Landmark, and if you've been following Landmark's progress, then there is reason for concern. Landmark feels like pre-alpha still, with very slow updates. I'm starting to wonder if they were too ambitious with the voxel technology. Their entire game revolves around it, instead of a solid game design.
I'm starting to wonder if they were too ambitious with the voxel technology. Their entire game revolves around it, instead of a solid game design.
That is my exact gut feeling.. SOE devs are coming off like a bunch of kids that found a new toy, but don't know how to use it.. Looky looky this toy does this, does that, and this too.. Well that is all great and dandy for a builder that wants to dabble in a new art set he got for Christmas, but what are you going to make with it? That is the meat of my issue..
I have been in sales & accounting most of my life and I can hear a sales pitch when I get one.. They can sell all the techno ramble they want, but unless they can actually create something good with it, it all hype.. It reminds me of people that go out and buy the best scientific calculator they can get.. It has all the bells and whistles. Guess what? Most of the time the people that buy these, have not a clue how to use 80% of the functions.. LOL
I'm not into buying hype, I want a game that has a solid evolving community driven world.. Having a 100 piece orchestra is great, but unless it's guided and well tune it'll play like shit.. lol
Only fools blindly believe the hype. Anyone that can't put a little common sense into the equation is doomed anyway.
Problem I see is that they weren't 1-2-3 years into making EQN when they revealed it. Instead they are learning and developing at the same time, which probably isn't the wisest way to go about it.
I believe they have the general gameplay down and know what and how they want to do things, but they are still building upon something that isn't fully complete (Voxels).
BUT once they get those basic blocks complete, it should happen all rather quickly afterwards.
Race models, Class, Skills, Gear, AI, etc are all on top of the world. Usually the world is just kind of there and people only focus on the top layer. With EQN, there will literally be layers to the world that go beyond what is normally possible.
I'm assuming they could churn out a fairly decent game with what they have now, but they are taking the time to really push the limits of the tech and see where they can take it before setting it all in stone.
Not so good for people that want their toys now, but hopefully it pays off for everyone in the long run.
While Landmark isn't 100% bug free, the world itself is pretty fun to run around in if you don't worry about the "game" side of it. If they can take the tech, start building dev quality content and put it all together, should work out fine.
As always though, talk is cheap and they'll obviously need to show more to get some of you to believe, if that is even possible
I would normally agree that it takes years to develop, but EQN is being developed alongside Landmark, and if you've been following Landmark's progress, then there is reason for concern. Landmark feels like pre-alpha still, with very slow updates. I'm starting to wonder if they were too ambitious with the voxel technology. Their entire game revolves around it, instead of a solid game design.
I haven't, mostly because I've had no interest in Landmark. But I think the concern is somewhat unfounded. Landmark was always designed to essentially be a player version of the dev tools. It's naturally going to be pretty darn unrefined, as it's likely their "testing ground" for functions that they later refine and put into Next.
Just comparing combat appearances in Landmark to those shown in video footage of EQN, for example, suggests that they've improved upon it pretty significantly since it hit Landmark.
So just because Landmark looks relatively unpolished doesn't necessarily mean that EQN will be, too. Landmark's unpolished by design. It was basically a rushed out dev tool designed to be put in players' hands so they could dump world building onto the players while the devs worked on functionality and mechanics. Now they're sounding rather optimistic about how much is done, and when they start to draw from the vast pool of player-made content, it probably won't take them quite as long to get the home stretch ironed out.
Comments
Didn't people say this about GW2 back when it unveiled an extensive and ambitious plan to "redefine" the genre, and then took, what, five years to release? I think people are just too used to the Call of Duty development cycle of "bend over and squirt one out every 9-12 months like you're some kind of child-rearing factory". MMOs take longer, especially if they're actually doing things differently and not just cloning WoW. Extended development cycles are not necessarily a bad thing.
And besides, I think it's rather unlikely that SOE can afford to spend as much time and money as it has on EQN, only to never release it. Especially since dev projections suggested that it's "over 60% done", and there was some optimism about possibly having the product available to beta in some form late this year. Doesn't sound like something they can afford to let slip into the category of vaporware.
I will point out that the Warcraft universe had the Pandaran before King Fu Panda was released.
But I will agree on the rest. Both Landmark and H1Z1 is SOEs attempt to jump on a bandwagon that they were really late getting to.. I think they made a mistake with EQN using voxels and zombie games are still big so they should make a lot of money with H1Z1 even if the game is never good ( like all the other zombie survival games ).
I would normally agree that it takes years to develop, but EQN is being developed alongside Landmark, and if you've been following Landmark's progress, then there is reason for concern. Landmark feels like pre-alpha still, with very slow updates. I'm starting to wonder if they were too ambitious with the voxel technology. Their entire game revolves around it, instead of a solid game design.
That is my exact gut feeling.. SOE devs are coming off like a bunch of kids that found a new toy, but don't know how to use it.. Looky looky this toy does this, does that, and this too.. Well that is all great and dandy for a builder that wants to dabble in a new art set he got for Christmas, but what are you going to make with it? That is the meat of my issue..
I have been in sales & accounting most of my life and I can hear a sales pitch when I get one.. They can sell all the techno ramble they want, but unless they can actually create something good with it, it all hype.. It reminds me of people that go out and buy the best scientific calculator they can get.. It has all the bells and whistles. Guess what? Most of the time the people that buy these, have not a clue how to use 80% of the functions.. LOL
I'm not into buying hype, I want a game that has a solid evolving community driven world.. Having a 100 piece orchestra is great, but unless it's guided and well tune it'll play like shit.. lol
Only fools blindly believe the hype. Anyone that can't put a little common sense into the equation is doomed anyway.
Problem I see is that they weren't 1-2-3 years into making EQN when they revealed it. Instead they are learning and developing at the same time, which probably isn't the wisest way to go about it.
I believe they have the general gameplay down and know what and how they want to do things, but they are still building upon something that isn't fully complete (Voxels).
BUT once they get those basic blocks complete, it should happen all rather quickly afterwards.
Race models, Class, Skills, Gear, AI, etc are all on top of the world. Usually the world is just kind of there and people only focus on the top layer. With EQN, there will literally be layers to the world that go beyond what is normally possible.
I'm assuming they could churn out a fairly decent game with what they have now, but they are taking the time to really push the limits of the tech and see where they can take it before setting it all in stone.
Not so good for people that want their toys now, but hopefully it pays off for everyone in the long run.
While Landmark isn't 100% bug free, the world itself is pretty fun to run around in if you don't worry about the "game" side of it. If they can take the tech, start building dev quality content and put it all together, should work out fine.
As always though, talk is cheap and they'll obviously need to show more to get some of you to believe, if that is even possible
I haven't, mostly because I've had no interest in Landmark. But I think the concern is somewhat unfounded. Landmark was always designed to essentially be a player version of the dev tools. It's naturally going to be pretty darn unrefined, as it's likely their "testing ground" for functions that they later refine and put into Next.
Just comparing combat appearances in Landmark to those shown in video footage of EQN, for example, suggests that they've improved upon it pretty significantly since it hit Landmark.
So just because Landmark looks relatively unpolished doesn't necessarily mean that EQN will be, too. Landmark's unpolished by design. It was basically a rushed out dev tool designed to be put in players' hands so they could dump world building onto the players while the devs worked on functionality and mechanics. Now they're sounding rather optimistic about how much is done, and when they start to draw from the vast pool of player-made content, it probably won't take them quite as long to get the home stretch ironed out.