Notes

The Tattered Notebook: What I Need To See In EverQuest Next
I was going to update you superb folk on my adventures in rolling my 17,000th EverQuest II alt for this week's Tattered Notebook, however 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? Properly, there are multiple reasons, however a very powerful one is that as an alternative of having to attend until October, we now get to see (and contact!) EverQuest Subsequent in early August!

This news threw me for a little bit of a loop, I do not thoughts telling you. I mean, I knew that SOE's John Smedley flat-out assured a playable EQNext demo at SOE Stay 2013. And i knew that it's actually 2013 already, so palms-on time with what is perhaps the following great sandbox will happen inside of a calendar year. It still appeared actually far off for some motive, although, I suppose as a result of it was simply three months in the past that we have been ending up SOE Reside 2012. August 1st is going to be here earlier than we comprehend it, so it is excessive time we begin prognosticating about EQNext, would not you agree?

Hopefully it goes with out saying that I'd wish to see these items in addition to the usual excessive-high quality PvE questing, dungeon, raid, and progression content.

Heritage quests

Even though I played the original EverQuest for only a couple of 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 two video games together 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 know SOE is going to put housing in EQNext, as the company does the function higher than some other MMO developer (sorry Trion -- nice effort, though). The query is how can it ever be pretty much as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I do not suppose it may possibly, a minimum of not at launch. It is literally a sport-inside-the-sport that has extra 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 Okay with that. While we're dreaming, I might even be greater than Ok with SOE discovering a method to do EQII's housing in an open-world environment.

And sure, I know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-fight choices are for Barbie lovers and casuals and nobody uses them. Except for Game Servers of hundreds of thousands of players who have made the Sims franchise the preferred in the history of the non-public pc.

A crafter-driven economic system

This is going to be troublesome 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 actual participant economy, though, and considered one of my frustrations with EQII is the huge, intricate, and enjoyable crafting system that is almost totally wasted on a sport the place a lot of the gear is mob-dropped and bind-on-equip.

I do not envy the designers right here as a result of along with the balancing challenges inherent in making and maintaining a sandbox economy, they've also obtained to deal with the psyche of the new-faculty MMO player who does not wish to be bothered with crafters and who wants to distant public sale his gear with a minimal of effort and participant interaction. At the identical time, the firm has minced no phrases about the truth that EQNext is a player-driven sandbox, so how it navigates this potential minefield shall be fascinating to observe.

Good guild tools

Copy EQII's guild instruments. Something much less makes Jef cry. The top.

Issues I don't want to see

Before I knock off for the day, let me spend a few paragraphs on things I do not need to see. Firstly, in-game VOIP. Look, I comprehend it makes for an excellent again-of-the-field (do we nonetheless have recreation containers?) bullet point, but the fact is that it's a waste of growth resources even when it is shoe-horned in there by a third celebration.

I mean, actually, what guild with a clue doesn't use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble as of late? These are all free apps -- until you're the guild chief paying for the server, and even then it's normally a lot cheaper than a conventional MMO sub -- and so they dwarf the functionality found in current in-game options. In-game VOIP goes to be laggy, it's going to sound like crap, and the one 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 private story foolishness or the related voice-appearing. This is a massively multiplayer sandbox, in any case, and that i can consider at the very least two recent AAA titles which have executed greater than enough to justify tossing these concepts onto the proverbial pile of MMO fail. I am in all probability preaching to the choir here, as Smedley has given multiple interviews over the previous few months that illustrate the corporate's "the gamers are the content material" motto. However, nonetheless. MMORPG. Sandbox. Please don't with the single-player savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thanks.

What's in a reputation?

Whew. This isn't an exhaustive record of course, and I'm quite curious to see what a few of you want to see in EQNext. Rest assured that we'll be revisiting this subject typically as SOE ramps as much as its August reveal and beyond.

And with that, let's convey this week's challenge of The Tattered Notebook to a close. Oh, that jogs my memory! With EQNext in our near future, MJ and that i are probably going to rename the column sooner or later, both as a method to freshen things up and to higher seize the spirit of the franchise going forward. And we might love your assist! Feel free to submit your strategies within the comments or contact us immediately via [email protected] or [email protected].

EverQuest II is so large 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 each 'EverQuest Two-sday' on Massively Tv!

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