The Tattered Notebook What I Need To See In EverQuest Subsequent

I used to be going to replace you wonderful people 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 Reside date on us, which sort of mucked up my nefarious plans.

Why do we care about SOE Reside? Well, there are multiple reasons, but a very powerful one is that as a substitute of having to attend till October, we now get to see (and contact!) EverQuest Subsequent in early August!

This news 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 Live 2013. And i knew that it is in reality 2013 already, so fingers-on time with what might be the following great sandbox will happen inside of a calendar year. It still appeared actually far off for some purpose, although, I assume because it was simply three months ago that we have been finishing up SOE Stay 2012. August 1st goes to be here before we know it, so it is high time we begin prognosticating about EQNext, wouldn't you agree?

Hopefully it goes without saying that I would like to see this stuff in addition to the same old high-quality PvE questing, dungeon, raid, and progression content material.

Heritage quests

Despite the fact that I performed the original EverQuest for less than about a month, I like love love EverQuest II's heritage strains. In a franchise that already units the standard for MMO lore, it was a genius idea to tie the 2 games collectively and throw EQ vets a nostalgia-drenched bone by providing up extended epic quests with EQ-centric merchandise rewards.

More like that in EQNext, please.

Housing

You already know SOE is going to put housing in EQNext, as the company does the feature higher than some other MMO developer (sorry Trion -- nice effort, though). The query is how can it ever be nearly as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I don't think it may well, not less than not at release. It's literally a sport-inside-the-sport that has extra in widespread with Minecraft than typical MMO afterthought design, so if it takes SOE some time to suit it into EQNext's framework, I am Ok with that. While we're dreaming, I might also be more than Ok with SOE discovering a strategy to do EQII's housing in an open-world environment.

And sure, I do know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-combat options are for Barbie lovers and casuals and nobody makes use of them. Apart from the tens of thousands and thousands of gamers who have made the Sims franchise the preferred in the historical past of the non-public laptop.

A crafter-pushed financial system

This is going to be troublesome for SOE to tug off, significantly given the loot-drop legacy of themeparks like EQ and EQII. My definition of sandbox is constructed on an actual player economic system, though, and considered one of my frustrations with EQII is the huge, intricate, and enjoyable crafting system that is sort of totally wasted on a recreation where most 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 also got to deal with the psyche of the new-faculty MMO player who does not want to be bothered with crafters and who needs to remote public sale his gear with a minimal of effort and player interaction. At the identical time, the firm has minced no phrases about the truth that EQNext is a player-pushed sandbox, so the way it navigates this potential minefield will probably be fascinating to observe.

Good guild instruments

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

Issues I don't want to see

Earlier than I knock off for the day, let me spend a couple of paragraphs on issues I don't need to see. Firstly, in-sport VOIP. Look, I know it makes for a very good back-of-the-field (can we nonetheless have sport boxes?) bullet point, however the fact is that it is a waste of growth assets even when it's shoe-horned in there by a 3rd social gathering.

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

Secondly, let's not have any of that dev-generated private story foolishness or the associated voice-acting. It is a massively multiplayer sandbox, after all, and i can think of at least two latest AAA titles which have achieved more than enough to justify tossing these concepts onto the proverbial pile of MMO fail. I am probably preaching to the choir here, as Smedley has given a number of interviews over the past few months that illustrate the company's "the gamers are the content material" motto. But, nonetheless. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please do not with the single-participant savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thanks.

What's in a name?

Whew. This isn't an exhaustive record of course, and I'm fairly curious to see what some of you wish to see in EQNext. Rest assured that we'll be revisiting this topic usually as SOE ramps as much as its August reveal and beyond.

And with that, let's bring this week's subject of The Tattered Notebook to a close. Oh, that jogs my memory! With EQNext in our near future, MJ and i are seemingly going to rename the column in some unspecified time in the future, both as a strategy to freshen issues up and to better seize the spirit of the franchise going ahead. And we'd love your help! ALUSKY'S BLOG Be happy to submit 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 all of it! Join 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 things EQII and EQNext -- and catch MJ every 'EverQuest Two-sday' on Massively Television!