Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
EQNext to be largest Sandbox game ever!
Sacfed
Member UncommonPosts: 210
Smedley just said it! What do you think?
Love you long time!
Comments
i feel like this is the rise of sanboxes FINALLY........tired of the copy and and paste theme parks.
go away mr. boar.....i gotta stick this axe in someone's face!
It's been posted over at massivley...
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/18/soe-live-2012-keynote-announcements/
Like the cake, it's a lie.
Sorry, that's just what I feel about Smedley.
That said, and seeing what their idea of a sandbox is, if it includes the original SWG crafting system, I'll think about lifting the business decision ban of SOE (Sony) products from my home.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
I kind of expected this. Over the last few years Smed has been VERY vocal about social emergent experiences, and how they're the way forward. He's explained again and again that he regrets what SoE did to SWG.
In almost every interview and several times during the Reddit Q&A he mentioned how sandboxes are the way forward for the industry and that EQNext will be extremely community and social oriented.
Smed is a rare breed in that... he's one of the few original MMO devs around that still have a ton of money and influence behind them. He's been around long enough to see that themeparks just don't pan out and he's ready to go back to the style of games that he found fascinating all those years ago when he was trying to recreate his D&D experience.
That's just my opinion anyway, from the interviews I've seen. Most modern day CEOs are publisher shills who aren't interested in games or MMOs. And it shows.
Yeah...this is really good to see. MMO's went through a depressing casual phase last 5-10 years and basically lost its entire appeal as a genre of gaming. Hopefully with games like Darkfall, Archeage and soon hopefully EQ Next, we might get to relive the golden ages of true mmo's again. Lets not forget EVE Online has been keeping up the good fight and become successfull. Screw themeparks.
If you look at games like Eve and Darkfall, it seems that the only MMOs that are even doing slightly well are the non themeparks. The ones that focus on a specific play style, and develop for it with a passion. All the MMOs that shot for the moon by cloning WoW fell like Charlie Brown trying to kick a football.
And you know what, that makes sense, because older MMOs did what Darkfalll and Eve did. Almost all of them were vastly distinct from one another, with far more differences than similarities. They aimed for a specific type of fan and held onto them.
EverQuest locked down PvE and raiding. Dark Age of Camelot locked down concentual PvP. SWG locked down the sandbox/scifi audience. Asheron's Call locked down the fantasy sandbox/slightly themepark audience.
They were all different and they all focused on something.
The MMo sphere back then was a wealth of choice. And now your only choice is between indie MMOs and WoW clones.
Perhaps we can have an MMO Silver Age/Renaissance after this long LONG Dark Age.
Let the Hype begins!
I wonder what "sandbox-style" means? My grocery store sells "cheese-style" burritos and they are called that because they are not made with real cheese ..
EverQuest Next has been redone from scratch so that it's not EverQuest III. Smedley promises it's going to be the "world's largest sandbox-style MMO ever made." It'll be playable at the next Fan Faire.
I'll be waiting for more announcements, SOE! /cross-fingers
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
7 years worth of constant criticism from ex-customers about the fact that you made a mistake tends to get people's attention.
that quote was from LucasArts - not SOE
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/arts/10star.html?_r=0
"We really just needed to make the game a lot more accessible to a much broader player base," said Nancy MacIntyre, the game's senior director at LucasArts. "There was lots of reading, much too much, in the game. There was a lot of wandering around learning about different abilities. We really needed to give people the experience of being Han Solo or Luke Skywalker rather than being Uncle Owen, the moisture farmer. We wanted more instant gratification: kill, get treasure, repeat. We needed to give people more of an opportunity to be a part of what they have seen in the movies rather than something they had created themselves."
EQ2 fan sites
My only hope is that it has decent PvP. I love PvE sandboxes but its so much more satisfying when you're bettering yourself to fight other people as well as baddies.
But if they focus solely on PvE and make it the best PvE game ever, I'm cool with that too.
SoE was easily the most likely MMO developer by far to make a sandbox, and really this announcement isnt a surprise at all IMO, but its nice to hear still.
The uncle owen comment was by Lucas Arts, certainly not SoE. I dont think SoE wanted to dump the sand out of the box at all, and even NGE still had a large amount of sandbox gameplay left in it.
LOL EQ.
EQ gave rise to themepark games, I'll believe it when I see it.
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
I know, right! Apparently "research" has shown thereare more uncle owens out there than they previously thought.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
I'd say its more like 7 years of mediocre success in the MMO market has had more to do with it.
But either way lets hope they put forth 100% effort into makeing it great, instead of half-assing it.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
The company did EQ. after that it did:
a console MMO (EQOA)
an MMOFPS (PS)
a themepark (EQ2)
a sandbox (SWG)
a kid oriented MMO (FreeRealms)
an action oriented cross platform super hero MMO (DCUO)
The only pure themepark SoE ever did was EQ2. EQ and EQOA were pre-themepark games. Level based, but not quest hub based at all and MUCH more open ended in nature.
Most diverse developer out there
Maybe we are coming full circle...or something. Even though Meridian59 and UO were first, EQ was the mmo that put the genre on the map, and held the largest population in the west until WoW. It would be interesting if it was SoE that brought the genre in a completely new direction.
Proof will be in the pudding though, so it's a completely wait and see situation.
Reading, learning, creating something yourself...
Well, I'm glad they got it right with SWTOR at least, none of that needless junk in there!
BOOM! Headshot.
I have enjoyed the EQ franchises but I admit i dont trust Smed
look forward to playing it regardless
EQ2 fan sites