The Tattered Notebook What I Want To See In EverQuest Subsequent

I used to be going to replace you tremendous folks on my adventures in rolling my 17,000th EverQuest II alt for this week's Tattered Notebook, however SOE determined to drop a Fan Faire Reside date on us, which form of mucked up my nefarious plans.

Why will we care about SOE Dwell? Effectively, there are a number of causes, but an important one is that as an alternative of having to wait until October, we now get to see (and touch!) EverQuest Subsequent in early August!

This news threw me for a little bit of a loop, I do not mind telling you. I mean, I knew that SOE's John Smedley flat-out assured a playable EQNext demo at SOE Reside 2013. And that i knew that it's in reality 2013 already, so palms-on time with what could be the following great sandbox will occur inside of a calendar 12 months. It nonetheless appeared really far off for some motive, although, I guess as a result of it was simply three months ago that we had been ending up SOE Dwell 2012. August 1st goes to be here before we realize it, so it's excessive time we start prognosticating about EQNext, wouldn't you agree?

Hopefully it goes with out saying that I might wish to see this stuff in addition to the same old excessive-high quality PvE questing, dungeon, raid, and progression content material.

Heritage quests

Regardless that I played the unique EverQuest for only about a month, I like love love EverQuest II's heritage strains. In a franchise that already sets the usual for MMO lore, it was a genius thought to tie the two games together and throw EQ vets a nostalgia-drenched bone by offering up prolonged epic quests with EQ-centric item rewards.

Extra like that in EQNext, please.

Housing

You already know SOE goes to place housing in EQNext, as the company does the function better than some other MMO developer (sorry Trion -- nice effort, although). The query is how can it ever be nearly as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I don't think it may well, at the least not at release. It is actually a game-inside-the-sport that has more in common with Minecraft than typical MMO afterthought design, so if it takes SOE some time to fit it into EQNext's framework, I am Okay with that. While we're dreaming, I would also be greater than Okay with SOE finding a option to do EQII's housing in an open-world atmosphere.

And sure, I do know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-fight choices are for Barbie lovers and casuals and no one uses them. Except for the tens of hundreds of thousands of players who've made the Sims franchise the preferred within the history of the private pc.

A crafter-pushed economy

This is going to be difficult for SOE to drag off, particularly given the loot-drop legacy of themeparks like EQ and EQII. My definition of sandbox is constructed on an precise participant economy, though, and one in all my frustrations with EQII is the huge, intricate, and enjoyable crafting system that is nearly totally wasted on a sport where a lot of the gear is mob-dropped and bind-on-equip.

I do not envy the designers here as a result of in addition to the balancing challenges inherent in making and sustaining a sandbox economic system, they've additionally bought to deal with the psyche of the new-school MMO player who does not wish to be bothered with crafters and who desires to distant auction his gear with a minimal of effort and participant interplay. At the identical time, the agency has minced no words about the fact that EQNext is a player-driven sandbox, so the way it navigates this potential minefield will likely be interesting to look at.

Good guild tools

Copy EQII's guild tools. Anything much less makes Jef cry. The tip.

Issues I don't want to see

Before I knock off for the day, let me spend a couple of paragraphs on things I don't need to see. Firstly, in-game VOIP. Look, I comprehend it makes for an excellent back-of-the-field (do we still have sport bins?) bullet point, however the truth is that it is a waste of growth sources even if it's shoe-horned in there by a 3rd social gathering.

I imply, really, what guild with a clue does not use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble these days? These are all free apps -- except you are the guild leader paying for the server, and even then it is usually much cheaper than a conventional MMO sub -- and they dwarf the performance found in present in-sport solutions. In-game VOIP goes to be laggy, it is going to sound like crap, and the one individuals who may use it for greater than 5 minutes are the poor saps in pickup dungeon teams.

Secondly, let's not have any of that dev-generated personal story foolishness or the related voice-performing. This can be a massively multiplayer sandbox, in spite of everything, and that i can consider not less than two recent AAA titles that have finished more than enough to justify tossing these concepts onto the proverbial pile of MMO fail. I am most likely preaching to the choir here, as Smedley has given multiple interviews over the previous few months that illustrate the company's "the players are the content" motto. However, nonetheless. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please don't with the single-participant savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thanks.

What's in a name?

Whew. This is not an exhaustive listing of course, and I'm quite curious to see what some 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. This that or the other

And with that, let's bring this week's challenge of The Tattered Notebook to a detailed. Oh, that reminds me! With EQNext in our near future, MJ and i are seemingly going to rename the column at some point, each as a strategy to freshen issues up and to raised capture the spirit of the franchise going ahead. And we might love your help! Be happy to submit your options in the feedback or contact us directly through [email protected] or [email protected].

EverQuest II is so massive that it takes two authors to make sense of all of it! Join Jef Reahard and MJ Guthrie as they explore Norrathian nooks and crannies from the Overrealm to Timorous Deep. Running each Saturday, The Tattered Notebook is your resource for all things EQII and EQNext -- and catch MJ each 'EverQuest Two-sday' on Massively Television!