The Tattered Notebook What I Wish To See In EverQuest Subsequent

I was going to replace you high quality folk 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 Stay date on us, which kind of mucked up my nefarious plans.

Why will we care about SOE Stay? Well, there are multiple reasons, however a very powerful one is that instead of getting to attend until October, we now get to see (and contact!) EverQuest Subsequent in early August!

This news threw me for a bit of a loop, I don't mind telling you. I mean, I knew that SOE's John Smedley flat-out guaranteed a playable EQNext demo at SOE Stay 2013. And that i knew that it's in reality 2013 already, so arms-on time with what is perhaps the subsequent nice sandbox will occur inside of a calendar year. It nonetheless seemed actually far off for some cause, although, I suppose because it was just three months ago that we have been ending up SOE Live 2012. August 1st is going to be right here before we comprehend it, so it's high time we begin prognosticating about EQNext, would not you agree?

Hopefully it goes without saying that I might wish to see these things along with the standard high-high quality PvE questing, dungeon, raid, and development content.

Heritage quests

Though I performed the unique EverQuest for under a couple of month, I really like love love EverQuest II's heritage traces. In a franchise that already units the usual for MMO lore, it was a genius thought to tie the 2 video games together and throw EQ vets a nostalgia-drenched bone by providing up extended epic quests with EQ-centric merchandise rewards.

Extra like that in EQNext, please.

Housing

You already know SOE is going to put housing in EQNext, as the corporate does the function higher than another MMO developer (sorry Trion -- nice effort, though). The query is how can it ever be as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I don't think it may, no less than not at launch. It's literally a game-inside-the-sport that has extra in frequent 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 would even be greater than Okay with SOE finding a method to do EQII's housing in an open-world environment.

And yes, I do know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-fight options are for Barbie lovers and casuals and no one uses them. Except for the tens of hundreds of thousands of gamers who have made the Sims franchise the most popular within the history of the private pc.

A crafter-pushed economic system

This goes to be difficult for SOE to pull off, particularly given the loot-drop legacy of themeparks like EQ and EQII. My definition of sandbox is built on an actual player economic system, although, and one of my frustrations with EQII is the vast, intricate, and fun crafting system that is almost completely wasted on a sport the place many of the gear is mob-dropped and bind-on-equip.

I don't envy the designers right here because in addition to the balancing challenges inherent in making and sustaining a sandbox financial system, they've also acquired to deal with the psyche of the brand new-college MMO participant who does not wish to be bothered with crafters and who desires to remote auction his gear with a minimum of effort and player interplay. At the same time, the agency has minced no phrases about the truth that EQNext is a participant-driven sandbox, so how it navigates this potential minefield can be fascinating to watch.

Good guild instruments

Copy EQII's guild tools. Anything less makes Jef cry. JUST SAY YES The tip.

Issues I don't wish to see

Earlier than I knock off for the day, let me spend a couple of paragraphs on issues I don't want to see. Firstly, in-sport VOIP. Look, I know it makes for an excellent again-of-the-field (will we still have game containers?) bullet level, but the reality is that it's a waste of development sources even when it is shoe-horned in there by a third occasion.

I mean, really, what guild with a clue would not use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble these days? These are all free apps -- unless you are the guild chief paying for the server, and even then it is often a lot cheaper than a conventional MMO sub -- they usually dwarf the performance found in present in-recreation solutions. In-sport VOIP goes to be laggy, it's going to sound like crap, and the only people who might use it for greater than five minutes are the poor saps in pickup dungeon groups.

Secondly, let's not have any of that dev-generated personal story foolishness or the related voice-appearing. It is a massively multiplayer sandbox, in spite of everything, and that i can consider at least two current AAA titles that have carried out more than sufficient to justify tossing these concepts onto the proverbial pile of MMO fail. I'm probably preaching to the choir 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. But, still. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please don't with the only-player savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thanks.

What's in a reputation?

Whew. This isn't an exhaustive listing after all, and I am fairly curious to see what some of you wish to see in EQNext. Relaxation assured that we'll be revisiting this subject usually as SOE ramps up to its August reveal and beyond.

And with that, let's carry this week's difficulty of The Tattered Notebook to a detailed. Oh, that reminds me! With EQNext in our near future, MJ and i are possible going to rename the column sooner or later, both as a solution to freshen issues up and to better capture the spirit of the franchise going forward. And we would love your assist! Be happy to put up your options in the comments or contact us immediately via [email protected] or [email protected].

EverQuest II is so big that it takes two authors to make sense of all of it! Be part of Jef Reahard and MJ Guthrie as they explore Norrathian nooks and crannies from the Overrealm to Timorous Deep. Working every Saturday, The Tattered Notebook is your useful resource for all issues EQII and EQNext -- and catch MJ each 'EverQuest Two-sday' on Massively Tv!