Notes

The Tattered Notebook: What I Wish To See In EverQuest Next
I used to be going to replace you fine 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 type of mucked up my nefarious plans.

Why will we care about SOE Stay? Well, there are a number of causes, but a very powerful one is that instead of having to wait till October, we now get to see (and contact!) Minecraft servers in early August!

This news threw me for a little 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 Stay 2013. And i knew that it is in actual fact 2013 already, so fingers-on time with what is likely to be the following nice sandbox will occur inside of a calendar 12 months. It nonetheless seemed really far off for some purpose, although, I guess as a result of it was just three months in the past that we have been ending up SOE Live 2012. August 1st is going to be here before we know it, so it is high time we begin prognosticating about EQNext, would not you agree?

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

Heritage quests

Though I played the original EverQuest for less than a few month, I really like love love EverQuest II's heritage lines. In a franchise that already sets the usual for MMO lore, it was a genius concept to tie the 2 games together and throw EQ vets a nostalgia-drenched bone by offering up prolonged epic quests with EQ-centric item rewards.

Extra like that in EQNext, please.

Housing

You already know SOE is going to place housing in EQNext, as the company does the feature higher than some other MMO developer (sorry Trion -- great effort, though). The query is how can it ever be pretty much as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I don't think it will possibly, at the very least not at release. It's actually a sport-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 Ok with that. While we're dreaming, I would also be greater than Ok with SOE finding a method to do EQII's housing in an open-world setting.

And sure, I know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-combat options are for Barbie lovers and casuals and no one makes use of them. Apart from the tens of thousands and thousands of players who've made the Sims franchise the most well-liked in the history of the private computer.

A crafter-pushed economic system

This goes to be troublesome for SOE to drag off, significantly given the loot-drop legacy of themeparks like EQ and EQII. My definition of sandbox is built on an actual player economic system, though, and one in every of my frustrations with EQII is the huge, intricate, and fun crafting system that is nearly totally wasted on a game the place many of the gear is mob-dropped and bind-on-equip.

I don't envy the designers here as a result of in addition to the balancing challenges inherent in making and sustaining a sandbox economy, they've also obtained to deal with the psyche of the new-school MMO participant who does not need to be bothered with crafters and who desires to distant public sale his gear with a minimum of effort and player interplay. At the same time, the firm has minced no words about the truth that EQNext is a player-pushed sandbox, so how it navigates this potential minefield will probably be fascinating to look at.

Good guild tools

Copy EQII's guild instruments. Something much 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 few paragraphs on issues I do not need to see. Firstly, in-recreation VOIP. Look, I understand it makes for a good back-of-the-field (will we still have game bins?) bullet point, but the fact is that it is a waste of improvement resources even if it is shoe-horned in there by a 3rd celebration.

I mean, really, what guild with a clue doesn't use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble today? 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 traditional MMO sub -- and they dwarf the performance found in current in-game options. In-recreation VOIP is going to be laggy, it may sound like crap, and the only individuals who would possibly use it for more than five minutes are the poor saps in pickup dungeon teams.

Secondly, let's not have any of that dev-generated personal story foolishness or the related voice-acting. It is a massively multiplayer sandbox, in spite of everything, and that i can think of a minimum of two recent AAA titles that have accomplished more than sufficient to justify tossing these ideas onto the proverbial pile of MMO fail. I am in all probability preaching to the choir here, as Smedley has given a number of interviews over the previous few months that illustrate the company's "the players are the content" motto. But, still. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please do not with the one-participant savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thanks.

What's in a reputation?

Whew. This is not an exhaustive checklist in fact, and I'm fairly curious to see what some of you wish to see in EQNext. Relaxation assured that we'll be revisiting this subject typically as SOE ramps up to its August reveal and beyond.

And with that, let's deliver this week's issue of The Tattered Notebook to a detailed. Oh, that jogs my memory! With EQNext in our near future, MJ and that i are possible going to rename the column at some point, both as a solution to freshen things up and to raised capture the spirit of the franchise going forward. And we would love your help! Be at liberty to publish your suggestions within the feedback or contact us instantly by way of [email protected] or [email protected].

EverQuest II is so huge 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. 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 Television!

Here's my website: https://thinkofdeath.co.uk/