I believe it is possible and likely that an MMORPG could be developed that surpasses EQ. However, I do not beleive any of the current MMORPGs on the market and those currently in development will set the marker any higher then what EQ has already set it. Some would argue that EQ has already been passed by way of Graphics and Content. I disagree though. Since everyone uses EQ as benchmark of every MMORPG out and will be continue to be the benchmark until a game comes along that makes everyone forget EQ. This theoretical MMORPG would not only be innovative in Graphics, Sound and Gameplay...but would be so good that other players would flock to it in droves. WoW may have some mass appeal, and has a lot going for it. But people are already starting to call it another EQ knock off. What ever game takes the MMORPG crown from EQ, it will have to be the biggest evelolution in gaming history.
Another point to concider, is the wider range of people playing MMORPGs now as opposed to when EQ started. Now we have everything from 5 year old kids to 80 year grandparents. Everything from the Gaming Geek to Jocks, to even the stay at home mom. And they all want different things from an MMORPG. Some are hack and slash, while others are crafter or exploriers. Not to mention the PvP vrs PvE players. The next Gen MMORPG will have to cover as many of these groups, if not all, as possible to leap beyond the bench mark set by EQ.
One day it will happen, not today and not tomarrow, but one day it will. IMHO
I don't think EQII will be able to compete with EQLive, initially. All you gotta do is look at the system requirements. Alot of people aren't going to have the systems to run it. Even with settings at low. I know a lot of people who are still trying to catch up with EQLive. There are some killer rigs out there and there are some that the old 2600 would laugh at.
I think a state of limbo will exist at some point later this year. You'll see alot of people filtering out from current games to try new ones. Some will return to their old ones, some will stay, some will continue looking. I am currently subscribed to EQLive, but never really play anymore. I am one of those looking and hoping for a chance at beta in a few different games. I like to try before I buy.
EQ set the milestone for the treadmill rat bashing grinds.
Nah EQ did have some good content, but I remember it was the first game i ever played with a serious grind,... Before that it was UO. I really missed that advancement system. Still wonder why no game uses something similar to that, and always goes to the treadmill rat bashing system for experience.
Originally posted by Torlaily Well it is a bit hard to answer your poll since EQ was created and made dynamic by a different company then the one that currently runs it. Sony did not take over controll of EQ untill around the Luclin expansion. The original creaters of EQ are the team that are now running a new company called Sigil Games Online. http://www.sigilgames.com/ As far as EQ having been a milestone. In it's hayday yes it most assuredly was. However under the controll of SOE it has declined heavily and continues to spiril downward at an alarming pace. Sadely to say as long as Sony is at the helm that is likely to continue. In answer to the question " Will any other MMORPG compete?" to me the answer is clearly YES! Since the same core team of developers, as well as many other highly talented people are currently working hard on the Sigil Games Online project titeled Vanguard : Saga of Heros. http://vanguardsoh.com/ With all of thier combined expierence and talent to work with as well as being able to learn from thier own past. The team at Sigil is likely to show us far more with Vanguard then any other game will ever be able to provide.
I have to agree. While there are other games I am looking forward to playing, Vanguard will be the next big milestone in MMORPGs. They have the talent, they have the engine, and they have the backing.
I'd vote for its the first large scale MMO, other than that it lacked in many many other aspects.
So whyd it stick around so long then? Simple, its sims online with a addicting little play style which is anything with a carrot on the end of the stick. It also lasts becuase thats where "friends" are, and where the larger guilds are. I mean go into EQ and ask people how many MMOs they know of, answere, 2 - 4. EQ, SWG (maybe), DAoC (maybe), and maybe another.
Reason? Word of mouth. Having a large sub base helps to get new customers that are interested to play that kind of game altough they arent stretching to search MMO game forums.
Thinking back to my newb days when i heard DAoC or UO my first question was, "whats that?"
As for ground breaking: UO and EQ for being the first largge scale MMO
PS For being the first MMOFPS
SB for being the first MMORPG based on PVP
Being revolutionary does not imply great game, you can come up with a new idea and it may totally stink until someone knows what to do with it comes along. IMO thats why i think WoW will be the most improved game in the MMO industry as they have tweaked existing ideas to make a good game.
For instance
Low system reqs- meaning players dont need to 5-star machine to play, and the WC universe style of gfx have not suffered for a low req.
Gameplay- Fast paced, some newer quest ideas, focus on quality, one of the best quest systems
Devs- Responsive, active, listening to the customers, being on the ball. No patch after next, and although i know devs are usually more active when the games in beta the pace WoW is being made is astounding.
PvP- Consensual, DAoC esque, and again improvement on existing ideas.
Originally posted by aLeX666 If you ever say again that EQ dungeon design is good *COUGH*PATHING*COUGH*... OK... EQ had a lot of content... but they way you went thought it suked a hella lot. Camping there, ding ding ding, move to new area, camping there, ding ding ding. The only goal 90% of the players had was to get more powerful items (I know some hypocrites will flame me for saying that). What pushes a guild to kill the same boss everytime it spawns? not exploration, not RPing, not the storyline, not the challenge.... LOOT. I had fun the first 2 weeks exploring the game then everything was just made in the same fashion. I hit 50... I said yay finally, they released an expansion, I said woot new items! Epic Quests! Got to 60... released another expansion, got better items, released another expansion, ... it's ALWAYS the same thing you do with the same people (unless you're a guild hopper). Wait for the pull... press the attack button and go take a nap. The most fun I ever had on EQ was when I EBayed my account for 900$US which was grocely overpaid for a boring game. I hope EQ players will understand that someday.
Erm from what you wrote you went thru at least 3 expansions you spent a whooping 2 years in EQ.So tell me if the game was so bad why did you spent 2 years there(u said 50 which ws launch.60 which was RoK.another expansion scars of velious.another-PoP).Considering by time PoP came out there was UO,L1,AO,DAoC,AC1 all in full swing it can't be because there was nothing else to play.
Just pointing out because i see a lot of people post here that EQ was a boring game yet many played it at least 1 year and some just quit recently after playing since 1999.So how can you play such a boring game for years??
I can honestly tell you that I was addicted... Im not sure in what ways I was but I was. I think it was the level cap... the ultimate goal to reach that kept me killing spiders from lvl 44 to 50 almsot 8 hours a day in Solusek Ro... As any other addicts, you can't admit you are one until you get out of it, same for alcoholics or any other drug addicts. It's also denial... I didn't want it to finish this way after I had wasted so much time. I've played RoK,SoV and then Luclin... this last one was the trigger with its AAs and ultimate mass shroom farmings in some ugly zone I forgot the name. Raiding snake temple and Vex Thal was getting as boring as hell.
I've played UO since it started... move to EQ when it started, went back and forth between UO and EQ then surrendered UO because of what they had made of the game. Tramel became Carebear and Felucia was just like an EQ PvP server where everyone you meet is a PK. I beta tested AC and suscribed for a month but I didn't like it. As for AO, beta tested and never wanted to pay for that. Then DAoC, my computer couldn't run it at the time plus I've heard it was another farm fest so I decided not to upgrade for that. There was no MMORPG I considered worth to be playing when I quit EQ. I waited for SB beta, got in closed one and was really disapointed. I've been waiting for WoW, hoping it would be something new but I heard it's the old same level grind and farm fest. Not to mention that carebears go from one game to another in devloppement complaining all the time against PvP. My only hope in the future of MMORPGs resides in a few games currently under devloppement. For now, I just don't play much video games except for CS now and then.
"I am trying to see things from your perspective but I just can't get my head that far up my @$$."
Originally posted by 7Fold EQ set the milestone for the treadmill rat bashing grinds.
Nah EQ did have some good content, but I remember it was the first game i ever played with a serious grind,... Before that it was UO. I really missed that advancement system. Still wonder why no game uses something similar to that, and always goes to the treadmill rat bashing system for experience.
Only bashed rats for 1 hour lol.Think you spent too long in the rat field and had too many players ready to buy your rat pelts to make you wanna move on hehe.Just kidding.
SWG has a similar advancement system to UO(not suprising since half the SWG developers are from old origin of UO).
Everquest was my introduction to MMORPGs almost 5 Years ago. After 4 Yrs of dedicated playing, and this past year of going through about 5 different titles searching for somthing new that could offer me that spark EQ ignighted. I am currently still searching,...In my opinion Everquest still holds pole position(Along side with WoW from what I have read and Seen. Im anticipating Beta/Release for EQ2
Steve
"And if I,... go Insane,... Please dont put your wires in my Brain"
"And if I,... go Insane,... Please dont put your wires in my Brain"
I didn't like Eq, just an endless grind with no point to It.
I need hte power to actually change the world. To build empires and destroy others.
Thats why I play Shadowbane. The politics alone in Shadowbane make it interesting. Aliiances are always being forged and broken. Cities sieged and destroyed.
And of course human opponents are much more intersting to fight than computer ones. And there is a point to building your character. You build it to do well in PVP.
Shadowbane is lacking in some areas. The GVG isn't very good. No real crafting system. But its the only game with any real sense of freedom.
The new games like WOW are just EQ clones. Nobody is adding anything the to the genre.
Well i think EQ sets a Merker to what can be done on the content base. They have 5 Years of devolpment time now. How does a Game that comes out can compete with it. When you look how EQ looked at the release.. today you would not buy a shareware that looks like that, nor you would pay money for it, but at that time it did not match the high standarts of grafic... but hey it was online, you did not expect it to have it. Today, after the grafical improvement of the Luclin expansion with the new Character models, they where ale to compete with DAoC (at least a little) on the grafical side, and they still had all the contend. How much time did the Developer of Horrizon put into the creation of the crafics... it must have cost them many men-days. They where lacking on the content. And EQ did release Gates of Discord. another expancion amied at the ppl who seen all else (you need to give them competition when the highest Gods are degradated to farm mobs). The Grafic is awsome , but now the ppl complain theier AMD 800 with 512 MB Ram and Geforce II does not run well... You want them to buy a new computer for 800$. They wont! They would stop playing.
I think all other games like AO (was too laggy at the release and had no sozial part there), DAoC (had in my opinon to few communication), Horrizons (was way too buggy and a lag of content that was horrible and no real sozial game) where having a hard competition because of all their own problems. Now so long that they are out, not many ppl join them. When you have huge problems at the relase, you will have a hard time to grow your fan base. When you now think on the money side of such a game. Some one said in a interview: The development of a MMORPG in 3D with a contend filled world cost as much as producing a hollywood movie, but the revenue is slower (but might be higher). And well a movie you have to get done before it comes in the movies, a game... well you can patch it later, but you start to earn money. And if you have a business economist as your money giver... you will be pushed to release early (every day of a 20 person crew of developers cost you lots of money).
Well to conclude. I think there will be games that will take the place of EQ as the game with the highest playerbase in the western world. It might be WoW or GuildWars .. or what ever, but I am not sure that it will happen so fast. If not Sony will destory EQ by squeching the last penny out of their playerbase, and not fixing there newly introduced bugs, or with EQ 2.
Just my 2pp...
Vendolis (playing EQ still after 5 Years)
p.s. After hearing so much about Anarchy Online I ll think I try it out another time, after leaving fustrated after the Beta testing.
Maybe UO had poor graphics... but it was so much more fun than EQ. Most of you started playing MMORPGs with EQ and I feel some kind of pity for you because you missed so much.
"I am trying to see things from your perspective but I just can't get my head that far up my @$$."
They missed out on one big thing IMO.. The importance of pvp in an mmorpg. Everyone who started out with EQ missed the bandwagon so to speak, now we have at least half of the mmo population of players disliking pvp and not even wanting to try it. There has not been too many good pvp games after UO minus SB but since Sb had it's other problems that did not really catch on too well. EQ created a bunch of anti pvpers.. EQ is and was a great game but in a way it hurt the mentality of many.
Originally posted by aLeX666 Maybe UO had poor graphics... but it was so much more fun than EQ. Most of you started playing MMORPGs with EQ and I feel some kind of pity for you because you missed so much.
Hmm I wish I felt like I missed something with UO. Unfortunately I can't because it wasn't packaged well enough to grab my attention in the first place. Friends played it I looked at it while they were playing it and it just looked boring. EQ set the marker and altho every mmo is a grind I had a ton of fun with the initial grind of eq.
Originally posted by Dartavn They missed out on one big thing IMO.. The importance of pvp in an mmorpg. Everyone who started out with EQ missed the bandwagon so to speak, now we have at least half of the mmo population of players disliking pvp and not even wanting to try it. There has not been too many good pvp games after UO minus SB but since Sb had it's other problems that did not really catch on too well. EQ created a bunch of anti pvpers.. EQ is and was a great game but in a way it hurt the mentality of many.
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Last time I looked the only reason people don't like pvp is the immature players it attracts. I am all for pvp and always have been but the players that gravitate toward pvp these days are 80% immature "I pwned joo and joo suxz0r" type of players and the majority of the old school eq players don't want any part of that crap. The childish behavior, non stop insults, hypocritical crybabies that whine when you do finally kill them even tho they are exploiting something to win, make a world full of adult carebears who have no desire to pvp whatsoever. Not saying it is all immature children doing it but the class of player pvp is bringing these days leaves alot to be desired.
So I'm glad pvp isn't going to be introduced at first in eq2. Maybe that will keep the pvgankers away from the game. I don't think it's a mistake going about it this way. Maybe EQ lowered our tolerance for bs? *shrug* Either way you look at it PVP has a bad rep for most people who just want to enjoy a game with being harassed.
The simple answer to the topic question is yes - of course. Any other answer would be moronic in the extreme. Is there ANY question there WILL be a better TV set that can compete, or a better automobile or...? Of course there WILL be an MMORPG to compete - the only question is when and what will it look like.
One cannot fairly compare (for example only) UO to EQ - first UO was designed years before EQ and thus did not have the same technological base (thus it's graphics and much of it's core engine could not compete). Next (and perhaps most important) was the core design intent of the game - UO was designed to be a more realistic game than EQ (skill based vs level based for example) but most importantly UO was DESIGNED with roleplay in mind - EQ was NOT. EQ was designed as an MMOG (it is irrelevant that they put the RP in the name) - it had and still has very little roleplay functionality.
As a roleplayer, it is my hope that some game will eventually follow UO's footsteps and finish what they started - high quality, realistic advancement system with HEAVY roleplayability built into the game.
Comments
I believe it is possible and likely that an MMORPG could be developed that surpasses EQ. However, I do not beleive any of the current MMORPGs on the market and those currently in development will set the marker any higher then what EQ has already set it. Some would argue that EQ has already been passed by way of Graphics and Content. I disagree though. Since everyone uses EQ as benchmark of every MMORPG out and will be continue to be the benchmark until a game comes along that makes everyone forget EQ. This theoretical MMORPG would not only be innovative in Graphics, Sound and Gameplay...but would be so good that other players would flock to it in droves. WoW may have some mass appeal, and has a lot going for it. But people are already starting to call it another EQ knock off. What ever game takes the MMORPG crown from EQ, it will have to be the biggest evelolution in gaming history.
Another point to concider, is the wider range of people playing MMORPGs now as opposed to when EQ started. Now we have everything from 5 year old kids to 80 year grandparents. Everything from the Gaming Geek to Jocks, to even the stay at home mom. And they all want different things from an MMORPG. Some are hack and slash, while others are crafter or exploriers. Not to mention the PvP vrs PvE players. The next Gen MMORPG will have to cover as many of these groups, if not all, as possible to leap beyond the bench mark set by EQ.
One day it will happen, not today and not tomarrow, but one day it will. IMHO
The hope I have with MMORPG's is in Guild Wars' hands. (don't pester me with the CORPG and MMORPG debate here please.)
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I don't think EQII will be able to compete with EQLive, initially. All you gotta do is look at the system requirements. Alot of people aren't going to have the systems to run it. Even with settings at low. I know a lot of people who are still trying to catch up with EQLive. There are some killer rigs out there and there are some that the old 2600 would laugh at.
I think a state of limbo will exist at some point later this year. You'll see alot of people filtering out from current games to try new ones. Some will return to their old ones, some will stay, some will continue looking. I am currently subscribed to EQLive, but never really play anymore. I am one of those looking and hoping for a chance at beta in a few different games. I like to try before I buy.
So, blah, blah, blah.
Will any ever compete? Yes
When? who knows
Which game? your guess is as good as mine
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EQ set the milestone for the treadmill rat bashing grinds.
Nah EQ did have some good content, but I remember it was the first game i ever played with a serious grind,... Before that it was UO. I really missed that advancement system. Still wonder why no game uses something similar to that, and always goes to the treadmill rat bashing system for experience.
I'd vote for its the first large scale MMO, other than that it lacked in many many other aspects.
So whyd it stick around so long then? Simple, its sims online with a addicting little play style which is anything with a carrot on the end of the stick. It also lasts becuase thats where "friends" are, and where the larger guilds are. I mean go into EQ and ask people how many MMOs they know of, answere, 2 - 4. EQ, SWG (maybe), DAoC (maybe), and maybe another.
Reason? Word of mouth. Having a large sub base helps to get new customers that are interested to play that kind of game altough they arent stretching to search MMO game forums.
Thinking back to my newb days when i heard DAoC or UO my first question was, "whats that?"
As for ground breaking: UO and EQ for being the first largge scale MMO
PS For being the first MMOFPS
SB for being the first MMORPG based on PVP
Being revolutionary does not imply great game, you can come up with a new idea and it may totally stink until someone knows what to do with it comes along. IMO thats why i think WoW will be the most improved game in the MMO industry as they have tweaked existing ideas to make a good game.
For instance
Low system reqs- meaning players dont need to 5-star machine to play, and the WC universe style of gfx have not suffered for a low req.
Gameplay- Fast paced, some newer quest ideas, focus on quality, one of the best quest systems
Devs- Responsive, active, listening to the customers, being on the ball. No patch after next, and although i know devs are usually more active when the games in beta the pace WoW is being made is astounding.
PvP- Consensual, DAoC esque, and again improvement on existing ideas.
But thats just me
Erm from what you wrote you went thru at least 3 expansions you spent a whooping 2 years in EQ.So tell me if the game was so bad why did you spent 2 years there(u said 50 which ws launch.60 which was RoK.another expansion scars of velious.another-PoP).Considering by time PoP came out there was UO,L1,AO,DAoC,AC1 all in full swing it can't be because there was nothing else to play.
Just pointing out because i see a lot of people post here that EQ was a boring game yet many played it at least 1 year and some just quit recently after playing since 1999.So how can you play such a boring game for years??
I can honestly tell you that I was addicted... Im not sure in what ways I was but I was. I think it was the level cap... the ultimate goal to reach that kept me killing spiders from lvl 44 to 50 almsot 8 hours a day in Solusek Ro... As any other addicts, you can't admit you are one until you get out of it, same for alcoholics or any other drug addicts. It's also denial... I didn't want it to finish this way after I had wasted so much time. I've played RoK,SoV and then Luclin... this last one was the trigger with its AAs and ultimate mass shroom farmings in some ugly zone I forgot the name. Raiding snake temple and Vex Thal was getting as boring as hell.
I've played UO since it started... move to EQ when it started, went back and forth between UO and EQ then surrendered UO because of what they had made of the game. Tramel became Carebear and Felucia was just like an EQ PvP server where everyone you meet is a PK. I beta tested AC and suscribed for a month but I didn't like it. As for AO, beta tested and never wanted to pay for that. Then DAoC, my computer couldn't run it at the time plus I've heard it was another farm fest so I decided not to upgrade for that. There was no MMORPG I considered worth to be playing when I quit EQ. I waited for SB beta, got in closed one and was really disapointed. I've been waiting for WoW, hoping it would be something new but I heard it's the old same level grind and farm fest. Not to mention that carebears go from one game to another in devloppement complaining all the time against PvP. My only hope in the future of MMORPGs resides in a few games currently under devloppement. For now, I just don't play much video games except for CS now and then.
"I am trying to see things from your perspective but I just can't get my head that far up my @$$."
Only bashed rats for 1 hour lol.Think you spent too long in the rat field and had too many players ready to buy your rat pelts to make you wanna move on hehe.Just kidding.
SWG has a similar advancement system to UO(not suprising since half the SWG developers are from old origin of UO).
is it me or has SoE been trying to make eq a better game latly to ? alittle off topic but shrugs.
i think eq has set a marker stone and its still a hard 1 to beat and will be for many games.
Everquest was my introduction to MMORPGs almost 5 Years ago. After 4 Yrs of dedicated playing, and this past year of going through about 5 different titles searching for somthing new that could offer me that spark EQ ignighted. I am currently still searching,...In my opinion Everquest still holds pole position(Along side with WoW from what I have read and Seen. Im anticipating Beta/Release for EQ2
Steve
"And if I,... go Insane,... Please dont put your wires in my Brain"
"And if I,... go Insane,... Please dont put your wires in my Brain"
EQ was for sure the Milestone of Content and Creation!
what was i thinkin just in time~:)
aa~comon~comon~wer all waitin 4u~
Forever & Forever ...
Forever & Forever ...
I didn't like Eq, just an endless grind with no point to It.
I need hte power to actually change the world. To build empires and destroy others.
Thats why I play Shadowbane. The politics alone in Shadowbane make it interesting. Aliiances are always being forged and broken. Cities sieged and destroyed.
And of course human opponents are much more intersting to fight than computer ones. And there is a point to building your character. You build it to do well in PVP.
Shadowbane is lacking in some areas. The GVG isn't very good. No real crafting system. But its the only game with any real sense of freedom.
The new games like WOW are just EQ clones. Nobody is adding anything the to the genre.
Well i think EQ sets a Merker to what can be done on the content base. They have 5 Years of devolpment time now. How does a Game that comes out can compete with it.
When you look how EQ looked at the release.. today you would not buy a shareware that looks like that, nor you would pay money for it, but at that time it did not match the high standarts of grafic... but hey it was online, you did not expect it to have it.
Today, after the grafical improvement of the Luclin expansion with the new Character models, they where ale to compete with DAoC (at least a little) on the grafical side, and they still had all the contend.
How much time did the Developer of Horrizon put into the creation of the crafics... it must have cost them many men-days. They where lacking on the content. And EQ did release Gates of Discord. another expancion amied at the ppl who seen all else (you need to give them competition when the highest Gods are degradated to farm mobs). The Grafic is awsome , but now the ppl complain theier AMD 800 with 512 MB Ram and Geforce II does not run well... You want them to buy a new computer for 800$. They wont! They would stop playing.
I think all other games like AO (was too laggy at the release and had no sozial part there), DAoC (had in my opinon to few communication), Horrizons (was way too buggy and a lag of content that was horrible and no real sozial game) where having a hard competition because of all their own problems. Now so long that they are out, not many ppl join them. When you have huge problems at the relase, you will have a hard time to grow your fan base.
When you now think on the money side of such a game. Some one said in a interview: The development of a MMORPG in 3D with a contend filled world cost as much as producing a hollywood movie, but the revenue is slower (but might be higher). And well a movie you have to get done before it comes in the movies, a game... well you can patch it later, but you start to earn money. And if you have a business economist as your money giver... you will be pushed to release early (every day of a 20 person crew of developers cost you lots of money).
Well to conclude. I think there will be games that will take the place of EQ as the game with the highest playerbase in the western world. It might be WoW or GuildWars .. or what ever, but I am not sure that it will happen so fast. If not Sony will destory EQ by squeching the last penny out of their playerbase, and not fixing there newly introduced bugs, or with EQ 2.
Just my 2pp...
Vendolis (playing EQ still after 5 Years)
p.s. After hearing so much about Anarchy Online I ll think I try it out another time, after leaving fustrated after the Beta testing.
Maybe UO had poor graphics... but it was so much more fun than EQ. Most of you started playing MMORPGs with EQ and I feel some kind of pity for you because you missed so much.
"I am trying to see things from your perspective but I just can't get my head that far up my @$$."
They missed out on one big thing IMO.. The importance of pvp in an mmorpg. Everyone who started out with EQ missed the bandwagon so to speak, now we have at least half of the mmo population of players disliking pvp and not even wanting to try it. There has not been too many good pvp games after UO minus SB but since Sb had it's other problems that did not really catch on too well. EQ created a bunch of anti pvpers.. EQ is and was a great game but in a way it hurt the mentality of many.
"Destiny decides your fate before the battle has begun"
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We are gladly accepting applications for new recruits...come stop by and drop a line on the forums!
"Destiny decides your fate before the battle has begun"
Fate's End Homepage
Last time I looked the only reason people don't like pvp is the immature players it attracts. I am all for pvp and always have been but the players that gravitate toward pvp these days are 80% immature "I pwned joo and joo suxz0r" type of players and the majority of the old school eq players don't want any part of that crap. The childish behavior, non stop insults, hypocritical crybabies that whine when you do finally kill them even tho they are exploiting something to win, make a world full of adult carebears who have no desire to pvp whatsoever. Not saying it is all immature children doing it but the class of player pvp is bringing these days leaves alot to be desired.
So I'm glad pvp isn't going to be introduced at first in eq2. Maybe that will keep the pvgankers away from the game. I don't think it's a mistake going about it this way. Maybe EQ lowered our tolerance for bs? *shrug* Either way you look at it PVP has a bad rep for most people who just want to enjoy a game with being harassed.
The simple answer to the topic question is yes - of course. Any other answer would be moronic in the extreme. Is there ANY question there WILL be a better TV set that can compete, or a better automobile or...? Of course there WILL be an MMORPG to compete - the only question is when and what will it look like.
One cannot fairly compare (for example only) UO to EQ - first UO was designed years before EQ and thus did not have the same technological base (thus it's graphics and much of it's core engine could not compete). Next (and perhaps most important) was the core design intent of the game - UO was designed to be a more realistic game than EQ (skill based vs level based for example) but most importantly UO was DESIGNED with roleplay in mind - EQ was NOT. EQ was designed as an MMOG (it is irrelevant that they put the RP in the name) - it had and still has very little roleplay functionality.
As a roleplayer, it is my hope that some game will eventually follow UO's footsteps and finish what they started - high quality, realistic advancement system with HEAVY roleplayability built into the game.
If all else in life fails you, buy a vowel.
If all else in life fails you, buy a vowel.