The Tattered Notebook What I Want To See In EverQuest Next

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I was going to update you fantastic people 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 Stay? Effectively, there are a number of causes, but an important one is that instead of getting to attend till October, we now get to see (and contact!) EverQuest Next in early August!



This information 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 Live 2013. And that i knew that it is in actual fact 2013 already, so fingers-on time with what is perhaps the subsequent great sandbox will occur inside of a calendar year. It nonetheless appeared actually far off for some purpose, although, I suppose as a result of it was simply three months ago that we had been ending up SOE Dwell 2012. August 1st is going to be right here earlier than we understand it, so it's excessive time we start prognosticating about EQNext, wouldn't you agree?



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



Heritage quests



Even though I performed the unique EverQuest for under about a month, I love love love EverQuest II's heritage traces. In a franchise that already sets the usual for MMO lore, it was a genius idea to tie the 2 video games together 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 realize SOE goes to put housing in EQNext, as the company does the characteristic better than every other MMO developer (sorry Trion -- nice effort, although). The question is how can it ever be pretty much as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I don't suppose it could actually, a minimum of not at release. It is actually a game-inside-the-sport that has more in frequent with Minecraft than typical MMO afterthought design, so if it takes SOE a while to suit it into EQNext's framework, I am Ok with that. Whereas we're dreaming, I'd also be greater than Okay with SOE discovering a solution to do EQII's housing in an open-world setting.



And sure, I do know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-combat choices are for Barbie lovers and casuals and no one uses them. Aside from the tens of millions of players who've made the Sims franchise the most popular within the history of the private laptop.



A crafter-driven financial system



This is going to be tough for SOE to drag off, notably given the loot-drop legacy of themeparks like EQ and EQII. My definition of sandbox is built on an precise player economy, though, and certainly one of my frustrations with EQII is the vast, intricate, and fun crafting system that is almost totally wasted on a game the place many of the gear is mob-dropped and bind-on-equip.



I do not envy the designers right here because along with the balancing challenges inherent in making and maintaining a sandbox economic system, they've also bought to deal with the psyche of the brand new-school MMO participant who doesn't wish to be bothered with crafters and who wants 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 participant-driven sandbox, so the way it navigates this potential minefield will be interesting to look at.



Good guild instruments



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



Issues I do not need 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 a superb back-of-the-box (can we still have sport containers?) bullet level, however the reality is that it is a waste of growth resources even when it's shoe-horned in there by a third celebration.



I mean, actually, what guild with a clue would not use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble today? These are all free apps -- unless you're the guild leader paying for the server, and even then it is normally a lot cheaper than a standard MMO sub -- they usually dwarf the functionality found in current in-sport options. In-recreation VOIP goes to be laggy, it should sound like crap, and the only individuals who would possibly use it for greater than 5 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 can be a massively multiplayer sandbox, after all, and i can think of a minimum of two recent AAA titles that have finished more than enough to justify tossing these concepts 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 material" motto. But, still. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please do not with the one-participant savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thanks.



What's in a name?



Whew. Dein freund This is not an exhaustive record after all, and I'm quite curious to see what some of you would like 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 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 possible going to rename the column at some point, both as a solution to freshen things up and to better capture the spirit of the franchise going forward. And we'd love your help! Be happy to put up your strategies in the comments or contact us straight via [email protected] or [email protected].



EverQuest II is so big that it takes two authors to make sense of it all! Join Jef Reahard and MJ Guthrie as they explore Norrathian nooks and crannies from the Overrealm to Timorous Deep. Working 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!