EverQuest Next: In for the hype?

So, EverQuest Next was recently announced and I had some things to say about all of it -- to tell the truth it feels like it's in full hype mode with a lot of grand, extravagant promises:

* Emergent AI giving a living world;
* A world built out of voxels (like Minecraft) that's also destructable;
* Places and things that players can constantly rediscover;
* Better animation and smoother movement across the landscape;
* Horizontal class progression alongside no "holy trinity."

What's your take on EQ Next and the hype? Is there some component of all of this you think will revolutionize the MMO world?

 

I agree.

Just like everyone else -- I know that PARTS of this hype train are totally going to derail; but there's so many moving components even a few of them working out as-told will radically change the field. Although much if it seems like nice short-step evolution from games such as Guild Wars 2 and innovations developed in World of Warcraft, I fear that the fan favorites will turn out to be less than stellar in the end.

I really want the "emergent AI" concept to be a working thing, where while you find certain enemies gathered in particular regions, you might find them warring together, or changing locations altogether, or working in a sort of ecological balance to the activity of the heroes. But, I'm questioning how exactly this will look when the rubber meets the road in the actual virtual world.

 

People won't be able to destroy anything they want in EverQuest Next. In fact, particular structures (potentially core cities, etc.) will be indestructible; and even the world itself, while it can be wrecked, rearranged, and destroyed will self-heal over time so that the world doesn't totally get obliterated.

No doubt, a good sized playerbase would probably grind the world down to bedrock in less than a day if given the chance. ^^

 

It's slated for release in 2014. I am going to guess Q2 or later. The hype is starting now, so we've got to be more than 6 months from now...however, this is SOE, depending on their development curve they might be able to pull something much sooner if it ties into other products.

I'd say we'll have a good idea of the release date after the holiday season this year, because that'll be when the public will be more hungry to know the when (right now there's too much even coming for SOE for them to worry about the EQ market directly.)

 

If thou've got a particularly creative streak EverQuest Landmark will provide an "in" with EQ Next. Since structures build by players that receive enough votes will probably be incorporated directly into the virtual world at launch -- plus, since the SOE team want to enable players to become part of the formation of the land itself and with each other, it will be able to "buy" components from one another.

This means that people will be able to make money from having excellent building blocks that other people want to use and people can then copy those architectural concepts for royalty.

 

I see it as a brilliant move for EQ:Next. It will most likely generate a metagame that uses player-constructed content as well as rewarding creativity and capability in a way we haven't seen in many MMOs yet. In a way, that might also help curb the less savory portion of player-generated content while at the same time greatly encouraging people to constructively think about the virtual world.

 

Sony is trying REALLY HARD to make people call it that, but I think that it's really not either. Although the whole MMORPG + buildability certainly makes it unique and interesting.

 

WoW and Minecraft have something going for them that Sony wants to co-opt or at least hook into: they're both extremely popular and they're household brand-names. By invoking their names Sony wants players who like both of those games to see their game as good for them as well.

In essence, Sony is attempting to take the popular brand for WoW and Minecraft and say: Hey, did you like either of these games now and way-back-when? Well: We're doing it better!

 

It looks like they intend to do the MMORPG better -- but certainly not Minecraft better. If all the hype is golden, the RPG part will certainly be superior to current models -- including the AI and the way that people move through the environment.

The Minecraft-esque portion is the creativity and sandboxing which I expect will be highly innovative. However, like I said, it's not Minecraft, it just borrows ideas from it to talk about basic level creation. These are a set of tools that should be pulling together different resources from the community, like Landmark, and it will also work to produce a beginning audience for the game.

Even if the AI, and much of the game tends to under-deliver, EQ has a huge audience and a lot of highly devoted fans who will go there anyway. What SOE is trying to do right now is keep their old audience and roll in the new one.