The Tattered Notebook: What I Need To See In EverQuest Next

I used to be going to replace you fine folks on my adventures in rolling my 17,000th EverQuest II alt for this week’s Tattered Notebook, but SOE decided to drop a Fan Faire Live date on us, which kind of mucked up my nefarious plans.

Why can we care about SOE Reside? Well, there are a number of reasons, however an important one is that as a substitute of having to wait till October, we now get to see (and touch!) EverQuest Next in early August!

This news threw me for a bit of a loop, I don’t mind telling you. Server lists , I knew that SOE’s John Smedley flat-out assured a playable EQNext demo at SOE Stay 2013. And that i knew that it is in reality 2013 already, so fingers-on time with what is likely to be the subsequent great sandbox will happen inside of a calendar 12 months. It still appeared really far off for some purpose, although, I assume because it was simply three months ago that we were finishing up SOE Dwell 2012. August 1st is going to be here before we realize it, so it’s excessive time we begin prognosticating about EQNext, would not you agree?

Hopefully it goes with out saying that I’d wish to see this stuff in addition to the standard high-high quality PvE questing, dungeon, raid, and progression content.

Heritage quests

Despite the fact that I played the unique EverQuest for less than a couple of month, I really like love love EverQuest II’s heritage lines. In a franchise that already units the standard for MMO lore, it was a genius thought to tie the 2 video games together and throw EQ vets a nostalgia-drenched bone by offering up prolonged epic quests with EQ-centric merchandise rewards.

More like that in EQNext, please.

Housing

You understand SOE is going to put housing in EQNext, as the company does the feature higher than every other MMO developer (sorry Trion — great effort, though). The query is how can it ever be as good as EQII’s implementation. Realistically I do not think it may, at the very least not at launch. It is actually a game-inside-the-game that has extra in widespread with Minecraft than typical MMO afterthought design, so if it takes SOE a while to fit it into EQNext’s framework, I’m Okay with that. Whereas we’re dreaming, I’d even be more than Ok with SOE finding a solution to do EQII’s housing in an open-world setting.

And sure, I know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-combat options are for Barbie lovers and casuals and no one makes use of them. Apart from the tens of millions of players who have made the Sims franchise the most well-liked within the history of the non-public laptop.

A crafter-pushed financial system

This is going to be tough for SOE to tug off, notably given the loot-drop legacy of themeparks like EQ and EQII. My definition of sandbox is constructed on an precise player financial system, although, and considered one of my frustrations with EQII is the vast, intricate, and enjoyable crafting system that is almost completely wasted on a game where many of the gear is mob-dropped and bind-on-equip.

I do not envy the designers right here because in addition to the balancing challenges inherent in making and maintaining a sandbox economy, they’ve additionally got to deal with the psyche of the new-college MMO player who does not need to be bothered with crafters and who needs to distant public sale his gear with a minimum of effort and player interplay. At the identical time, the agency has minced no words about the fact that EQNext is a player-pushed sandbox, so the way it navigates this potential minefield will probably be fascinating to watch.

Good guild instruments

Copy EQII’s guild tools. Anything much less makes Jef cry. The end.

Issues I do not want to see

Before I knock off for the day, let me spend a few paragraphs on issues I don’t need to see. Firstly, in-recreation VOIP. Look, I comprehend it makes for a superb back-of-the-field (can we nonetheless have game containers?) bullet point, however the fact is that it is a waste of improvement assets even if it is shoe-horned in there by a third party.

I imply, really, what guild with a clue doesn’t use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble nowadays? These are all free apps — unless you’re the guild chief paying for the server, and even then it’s often a lot cheaper than a conventional MMO sub — they usually dwarf the functionality found in present in-game solutions. In-game VOIP goes to be laggy, it should sound like crap, and the only people who might use it for more than five minutes are the poor saps in pickup dungeon teams.

Secondly, let’s not have any of that dev-generated private story foolishness or the associated voice-performing. It is a massively multiplayer sandbox, in spite of everything, and that i can consider a minimum of two recent AAA titles which have finished greater than sufficient to justify tossing these ideas onto the proverbial pile of MMO fail. I’m probably preaching to the choir right here, as Smedley has given a number of interviews over the previous few months that illustrate the corporate’s “the players are the content” motto. However, nonetheless. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please do not with the one-player savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thanks.

What’s in a name?

Whew. This is not an exhaustive record after all, and I’m fairly curious to see what a few of you would like to see in EQNext. Rest assured that we’ll be revisiting this subject often as SOE ramps up to its August reveal and past.

And with that, let’s bring this week’s difficulty of The Tattered Notebook to an in depth. Oh, that jogs my memory! With EQNext in our near future, MJ and that i are doubtless going to rename the column sooner or later, each as a option to freshen issues up and to raised seize the spirit of the franchise going ahead. And we might love your help! Be happy to publish your solutions in the feedback or contact us instantly through jef@massively.com or mj@massively.com.

EverQuest II is so large that it takes two authors to make sense of it all! Join Jef Reahard and MJ Guthrie as they discover Norrathian nooks and crannies from the Overrealm to Timorous Deep. Operating each Saturday, The Tattered Notebook is your useful resource for all issues EQII and EQNext — and catch MJ every ‘EverQuest Two-sday’ on Massively Television!