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

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

Why will we care about SOE Dwell? Effectively, there are a number of reasons, but the most important one is that instead of getting to wait till October, we now get to see (and touch!) EverQuest Next in early August!

This information threw me for a bit of a loop, I do not thoughts telling you. I imply, I knew that SOE's John Smedley flat-out assured a playable EQNext demo at SOE Reside 2013. And that i knew that it is the truth is 2013 already, so arms-on time with what is likely to be the subsequent nice sandbox will happen inside of a calendar yr. It still seemed actually far off for some cause, though, I guess as a result of it was simply three months ago that we were ending up SOE Dwell 2012. August 1st is going to be right here before we know it, so it's excessive time we begin prognosticating about EQNext, wouldn't you agree?

Hopefully it goes without saying that I would prefer to see these items in addition to the standard excessive-high quality PvE questing, dungeon, raid, and progression content material.

Heritage quests

Regardless that I performed the original EverQuest for only a couple of month, I like love love EverQuest II's heritage traces. In a franchise that already units the usual for MMO lore, it was a genius concept to tie the 2 games collectively and throw EQ vets a nostalgia-drenched bone by providing up extended epic quests with EQ-centric item rewards.

Extra like that in EQNext, please.

Housing

You know SOE goes to put housing in EQNext, as the company does the feature higher than another MMO developer (sorry Trion -- nice effort, though). The question is how can it ever be nearly as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I don't suppose it could actually, no less than not at launch. It is literally a recreation-inside-the-recreation that has more in widespread with Minecraft than typical MMO afterthought design, so if it takes SOE some time to fit it into EQNext's framework, I'm Okay with that. While we're dreaming, I might even be greater than Ok with SOE finding a method to do EQII's housing in an open-world atmosphere.

And sure, I know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-fight options are for Barbie lovers and casuals and no one uses them. Apart from the tens of thousands and thousands of gamers who have made the Sims franchise the most popular within the historical past of the personal computer.

A crafter-driven 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 participant financial system, although, and one in every of my frustrations with EQII is the huge, intricate, and enjoyable crafting system that is nearly completely wasted on a sport where many of the gear is mob-dropped and bind-on-equip.

I do not envy the designers right here as a result of in addition to the balancing challenges inherent in making and maintaining a sandbox economy, they've additionally received to deal with the psyche of the new-college MMO player who doesn't wish to be bothered with crafters and who wants to distant public sale his gear with a minimal of effort and player interaction. At the identical time, the firm has minced no words about the fact that EQNext is a participant-pushed sandbox, so how it navigates this potential minefield can be attention-grabbing to look at.

Good guild instruments

Copy EQII's guild instruments. Anything less makes Jef cry. The end.

Things I do not want to see

Earlier than I knock off for the day, let me spend a few paragraphs on issues I don't wish to see. Firstly, in-game VOIP. Look, I know it makes for a good back-of-the-box (do we still have game packing containers?) bullet level, however the reality is that it's a waste of improvement resources even when it is shoe-horned in there by a 3rd social gathering.

I mean, really, what guild with a clue would not use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble as of late? These are all free apps -- unless you are the guild chief paying for the server, and even then it is normally a lot cheaper than a traditional MMO sub -- and they dwarf the performance found in present in-recreation options. In-game VOIP goes to be laggy, it should 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 associated voice-acting. This is a massively multiplayer sandbox, after all, and that i can think of a minimum of two current AAA titles which have finished 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 past few months that illustrate the corporate's "the players are the content" motto. However, nonetheless. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please do not with the only-player savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thank  Hunter .

What's in a reputation?

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

And with that, let's convey this week's concern of The Tattered Notebook to a close. Oh, that reminds me! With EQNext in our close to future, MJ and i are probably going to rename the column in some unspecified time in the future, both as a way to freshen things up and to higher seize the spirit of the franchise going ahead. And we'd love your assist! Feel free to put up your recommendations within the feedback or contact us immediately by way of [email protected] or [email protected].

EverQuest II is so massive that it takes two authors to make sense of it all! Be part of Jef Reahard and MJ Guthrie as they explore 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 Tv!