The Tattered Notebook What I Need To See In EverQuest Next

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

Why can we care about SOE Dwell? Properly, there are a number of reasons, however crucial one is that as an alternative of getting to wait until October, we now get to see (and contact!) EverQuest Next 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 assured a playable EQNext demo at SOE Live 2013. And i knew that it is in actual fact 2013 already, so arms-on time with what might be the subsequent nice sandbox will happen inside of a calendar yr. It still seemed really far off for some motive, though, I assume because it was simply three months ago that we were finishing up SOE Stay 2012. August 1st goes to be here before we understand it, so it is high time we begin prognosticating about EQNext, wouldn't you agree?

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

Heritage quests

Despite the fact that I played the unique EverQuest for less than a few month, I like love love EverQuest II's heritage traces. In a franchise that already units the standard for MMO lore, it was a genius concept to tie the two video games collectively and throw EQ vets a nostalgia-drenched bone by providing up prolonged epic quests with EQ-centric item rewards.

More like that in EQNext, please.

Housing

You recognize SOE is going to put housing in EQNext, as the corporate does the characteristic better than every other MMO developer (sorry Trion -- great effort, although). The query is how can it ever be pretty much as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I don't assume it might, no less than not at release. It's actually a recreation-within-the-recreation that has more in frequent with Minecraft than typical MMO afterthought design, so if it takes SOE some time to suit it into EQNext's framework, I am Okay with that. While we're dreaming, I'd also be greater than Ok with SOE discovering a technique to do EQII's housing in an open-world environment.

And yes, I know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-fight choices are for Barbie lovers and casuals and no one uses them. Apart from the tens of millions of gamers who have made the Sims franchise the most popular within the history of the non-public laptop.

A crafter-pushed financial system

This is going to be troublesome for SOE to tug off, particularly given the loot-drop legacy of themeparks like EQ and EQII. My definition of sandbox is constructed on an actual player financial system, although, and one of my frustrations with EQII is the huge, intricate, and fun crafting system that is almost totally wasted on a sport where a lot 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 sustaining a sandbox economic system, they've also acquired to deal with the psyche of the new-school MMO participant who would not wish to be bothered with crafters and who desires to remote auction his gear with a minimum of effort and participant interaction. At the identical time, the agency has minced no phrases about the truth that EQNext is a participant-pushed sandbox, so how it navigates this potential minefield will probably be attention-grabbing to look at.

Good guild instruments

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

Issues I don't need to see

Earlier than I knock off for the day, let me spend a few paragraphs on issues I do not wish to see. Firstly, in-recreation VOIP. Look, I realize it makes for an excellent again-of-the-field (can we still have sport boxes?) bullet point, but the truth is that it's a waste of growth sources even if it's shoe-horned in there by a 3rd social gathering.

I imply, actually, what guild with a clue would not use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble as of late? These are all free apps -- except you're the guild leader paying for the server, and even then it is usually much cheaper than a traditional MMO sub -- and so they dwarf the functionality present in current in-game options. In-sport VOIP goes to be laggy, it may sound like crap, and the only people who may 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 private story foolishness or the related voice-acting. It is a massively multiplayer sandbox, in any case, and that i can think of at the very least two latest AAA titles which have achieved greater than enough to justify tossing these concepts onto the proverbial pile of MMO fail. I'm in all probability preaching to the choir right here, as Smedley has given a number of interviews over the past few months that illustrate the company's "the players are the content material" motto. However, still. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please do not with the one-player savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thank you.

What's in a name?

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

And with that, let's carry this week's subject of The Tattered Notebook to a detailed. Oh, that jogs my memory! With EQNext in our close to future, MJ and that i are possible going to rename the column in some unspecified time in the future, both as a method to freshen things up and to higher seize the spirit of the franchise going forward. And we would love your help! Be at liberty to post your solutions in the comments or contact us directly through [email protected] or [email protected]. minecraft servers

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