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EQNext - Found an article that likely reveals the "secret" of what EQNext will have in store.
Margulis
Member CommonPosts: 1,614
So, if we put a few puzzle pieces together, I think we can get a pretty good general idea of what we can expect out of EQNext. Let's follow the bread crumb trail.
1. Multiple talks from everyone working on the team about how this is the game to move the mmo market in a new direction, to truly bring innovation to the genre.
2. A lot of talk about making the game a living breathing world, feeling a part of a whole, something bigger than just a cardboard cutout of a game. No zoning at all, seasons were mentioned, interactive npc's, etc.
3. Recent interviews at PAX where it was mentioned by 2 different devs that it's important to be able to be who you want to be in a game. That an mmo doesn't have to be about combat, that there are other options besides just that.
4. The most recent announcement that SOE brought in the Storybricks crew to work on EQNext. Along with this announcement, the Storybricks crew mentions working on the largest sandbox game to date and the most innovate MMORPG ever. In an of itself not a ton of info, but let's look further.
The Storybricks announcement is what leads to the juicy info. I didn't have a lot of knowledge on Storybricks, but after some digging, I found an article that was published about 4 months ago about what they are all about - and it's really in depth. I suggest reading this article in its entirety, and if you've listened to any of the interviews with the EQNext devs (while mostly not giving much of any specific info away) - you can see how much of this article seems to be coming out of them when they talk. I'm not sure to what extent everything in this article will materialize in the game world - but I can guarantee you SOE didn't bring Storybricks in to work on some random other project or task in the game other than what they do; which is what this article is about in depth. I really think this is giving us a sneak peak and general look into what SOE is doing with the game world for EQNext.
Comments
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I still think it's hilarious how often "Kill 10 rats" gets mentioned, and how I can't really think of a single MMORPG that actually has a quest where you kill 10 rats. WAR maybe?
It's like this scapegoat stereotype that everyone insults, but never actually exists. Bizarre and hilarious.
Definitely hope these guys figure out a fun innovation and it isn't just empty hot air (I can easily see it going either way: either the mechanism is a blast to play around with, or it's mostly irrelevant (heaping on upkeep to the act of quest-getting, without adding meaningful gameplay.) Maybe even both.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
LOTRO apparently has a quest to kill 10 rats in Isengard Keep.
Dark Ages (an older MMO) had a quest to kill 10 rats, I remember that one because it was my first MMO.
There's a quest in Rift in the Necropolis to kill 10 rats also.
And there's this one in Allods. Exactly 10.
And those are the ones I found in about 3 minutes of research. There are a few not even worth mentioning like Endless Online.
EQ actually had a freeport beginning quest to kill rats. Can't remember if it was 10 though. Think Qeynos had one too.
On 2nd thought it might not have been a kill rat but could have been a get rat pelt quest.
Unknown. It could be something used for things like guild cities or simply dev tools. Storybricks is really just a more advanced NPC AI toolset.
My concern is that SOE has a pretty bad reputation for delivering games that play well. Most of them look great on paper and in screenshots (or those common videos of camera's floating across the landscape yet never actually showing character movements), but they all lack in actual gameplay, such as clunky combat and crappy character animations.
With Smedly fully embracing cash shop F2P designs, it's even less likely that whatever open-world immersion they do manage to create won't just break at the first "click here to buy this questline" message that pops up.
You make me like charity
wow i just made a post earlier saying EQ next needs to have top of the line mob AI.
this has potential.
Considering it is a toolset developed by a company that is then in turn licensing it to another company, I doubt it is simply theory. Companies to do not pay large sums of money for anything but an actual product.
I feel similarly here. Regardless of how much theory is involved in that actual article, SOE wouldn't employ them to talk about theory - they would be employing them to make it reality. And in that recent interver with Georgensen I belive his name is, he mentions they have MADE things that seemed impossible a reality. Like I said in the original post, I'm not sure how much of all those hypothetical examples will become reality, but I feel Storybricks being a part of the development is definitely going to have some sort of big effect at least, or they wouldn't be there in the first place.
Also it isn't just theory, they already have tools and a program - there is a video showing some examples of it here, although it's somewhat basic in this video and it's a few years old, from back when they were not involved with SOE and were working to create their own game using storybricks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3b_3UGc7Es
Here is another video here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-JHQP4q5M8
Storybricks sounds good on paper, but what game-related news doesnt?
I remember SWTOR talking about their deep story component, e.g., "The way you intereact with NPCs is important and permanent. Your choices reflect your destiny" - something like that crap.
REALITY:
Deep choices? Pfft. The quest giver talks... you have the following options:
#1. Kill the NPC (Earn Sith Point)
#2. Let the NPC live (Earn Jedi Point)
#3. <Say something stupid> (no points)
As I said earlier, everything sounds good on paper. But when usually put to practice, it's just stupid.
You're being too literal about that. "Kill ten rats" is just a generic way of refering to the innumerable, trivial quests dumped on people by games in which progress is primarily quest driven.
In a similar way, some folks might remember when spawn camping was sometimes refered to as "whack a mole" gameplay. Because you were sitting there waiting for the same mobs to respawn over and over so you could kill them over and over. But when people called it "whack a mole" they didn't literally mean that we were killing moles.
eq2 added a quest 3 years ago called... Kill 10 Rats
http://eq2.zam.com/db/quest.html?eq2quest=bd364eaca08e78720469319ca025f647
the quest name was in humor because you are killing 10 ratonga (rat bipedals)
EQ2 fan sites
Yeah, I'm afraid of that too. I don't really have any faith in SOE creating a good game in the first place but I'm keeping my eyes on this because, frankly, there is absolutely nothing else for me to pin any hopes on. But then even if they somehow do manage to pull a good game out of their asses they will almost certainly destroy it with their price gouging, nickle and dime, stickin' it to the players wallets approach.
"Sandbox" sure, if you want to build a building in the game just visit our cashshop, select the building you would like to purchase and there you go.
"Exploration" sure, say you come across an interesting old castle while wandering around. For one easy payment of $1.99 you can purchase a key to enter and explore the castle. (additional fees will be required to access each successive level of the castle).
Want to be a crafter, sure, you can purchase all the crafting supplies you need in our cashshop.
And so on.
EQ2 does not offer crafter supplies on cash shop --- unlike LOTRO/DDO
EQ2 fan sites
I have never seen anything like those restrictions in a SOE game. Zero zone locks, zero crafting items. Sure there are some player created content pieces in the cash shop for EQ2 but there are also options to unlock that stuff with ingame methods to. SOE removed all it's class and race locks a while back from EQ2 as well which is a good step forward and is moving more to vanity items. They do want you to buy the latest expansion to get access to the newest zones but Sub players have to do that to.
SOE's cash shop doesn't bother me much in games like EQ2 and PS2. I think they are pretty fair overall since they removed some of the dumb limits from EQ2's a while back. If you don't want to sub the amount of money you spend on the game will depend on how much you play it. Play a few hours a month and you really won't be spending anything on the game, play for many hours and you will find a sub is a better option. But isn't that how it should work?
The one however I will put in that is EQ2 has been playing around a lock box varation of late. You buy keys off the cash shop that you can go play a little mini game of sorts that has a random prize at the end. All the random prizes are pretty bland with the exception of the item that unattunes your gear so it can be traded. It's a exclusive item that you can only get this way which I hate given how powerful it is. I really hope that SOE decides this isn't a good business stratagy long term and gets rid of them.
This sounds similar to the AI being developed by Citadel of Sorcery folks. It sounded too good to be true a couple years ago but now it seems others are moving along similar lines.
If true, it will change the genre and bring genuine innovation to games once again.
I think you are confusing SoE with Turbine here. Turbine loves to remind you of their cash shop every 2 steps-even if you are a subscriber. EQ2's is much less obnoxious during game play, and the only content ever locked is behind expansions.
As for the gameplay, I dont find EQ2's combat clunky. While its not as smooth as WoW (noone is), its certainly not bad. It just suffers from extreme ability bloat.
I thinly EQN will be sub based though, at least for the first couple of years.