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What I want in "Everquest Next"
1. Big and immersive "zones" that you can get lost in (both figuratively and perhaps literally), as opposed to zones that feel like they're leading a player down a certain predetermined path.
2. A healthy death penalty. What is a healthy death penalty? Let me put it this way: being able to respawn where you died or losing a bit of durability isn't much of a death penalty--nor is simply being respawned in a different location, forcing you to run back to where you were originally. Weak death penalties make for a boring game. To give you some perspective, I thought WoW, Rift, AOC, and SWOR all had weak death penalties (basically, 90% of the newer MMORPGs have weak death penalties).
3. In regard to PVP, there should be an emphasis on player-driven PVP (i.e., world PVP, realm PVP, etc.) instead of the kind of PVP where you're whisked away to instanced arenas or battlegrounds.
4. A challenging leveling experience. It shouldn't just be a question of when you will reach level cap, but if you're good enough to reach the level cap. This ties in with death penalties.
5. Lots of customization options for your characters; and races/species that are different from each other in ways other than aesthetics.
6. Strong stance against cheaters (hackers, exploiters, etc.) and gold farmers.
7. No stores in which players can buy items with real currency which will increase their character's effectiveness in one way or another.
8. Bring back static dungeons. Why not have a combination of instanced dungeons (where quests and stories can unfold) and static dungeons (that you can explore and bump into other adventurers, maybe even have a world boss in there)? Moreover, why not craft gigantic static dungeons, give them a player cap (let's say 50 players), and then make it so when the cap is exceeded, a new instance of that dungeon is created--a la SWTOR and Guild Wars.
9. Aside from the instancing described above, there should be very little of it. Too much of it will cut players off from each other (see SWTOR).
10. Interesting lore and back story.
11. Interesting things to do besides grind quests/mobs, grind tradeskills, or grind for PVP currency points (which may or may not be in the game, but I'm talking in general terms). Things like player housing, for instance.
Of course, it goes without saying that I want a good UI, controls, etc., as well, but the aforementioned list is what I'm looking for in a MMORPG.
Comments
I agree with all your points however, I fear that in order to appeal to the mass market, you will not get everything you want
That may be true.
However, I don't think it'd be a good idea for SOE to compete head-to-head with Blizzard.
SOE should try to appeal to a different market. Not a niche market, but one that is interested in a more mature/challenging MMORPG than WoW.
Well, maybe if Planetside 2 draws in the crowds and becomes a money maker then hopefully they might take more risks with EQN.
I still think there should be no instances at all.
Yes, at times it will be annoying, but overall I think it's better.
Usually instancing is done so people can kill bosses without worrying that it is camped, or (yes like you said) to present a story without interruption.
Here are two ways I propose to solve that without instancing. And I think both should be implemented.
- Put more similar bosses in the world. You, like me, are asking for a very vast world. So there should be enough space to put a few similar bosses that drop practically the same stuff and would solve the same quests.
- For epic quests chains that involve bosses the quests could offer choices on how to solve it. Example options "Go kill the evil dragon that plagues our land". A second Option could be "Go find the ancient Rod of Annihilation so we can kill the dragon ourselves". A third one could be "Go find the mighty Paladin Nidras and his knights. Ask him if he can help us kill the dragon." I think you get what I mean.
While the first quest option would eventually be the fastest it would be the raid option.
The second option could take a little longer but might be solveable by one group and not involve a boss kill with long respawn timers.
The third option might be solveable solo but take a lot more time than the first.
Other than that I hope there won't be too many quests at all.
If it is a really exciting, challenging, immersive and vast world players will find their own goals. I always did in MMOs like Classic UO and EQ1.
If you throw in a bit of sandboxing with good housing and crafting and a intelligent PvP system (maybe Faction vs. Faction), there will be no shortage of goals for any player. Obviously the PvP should be deployed on special ruleset servers, you don't want to alienate PvEers.
A mix of UO, EQ1, DAoC and Archeage would seems to be rather interesting.
And I still think a great world is the key ingredient in a successful MMO.
The thing I am not really sure about is what would be the best solution for progression.
I really enjoyed UOs skill based system and that a veteran player wasn't exponentionally stronger than a newbie. Maybe the veteran was three or four times as strong (overall) as a newbie (thats just a guess from what I remember). A group of newbies could kill a veteran. That would be just impossible in any level based game. A lvl 95 EQ1 player can even stand in a raid of 100 newbies all hitting him and not see his HP drop at all (another guess as I haven't played for a very long time).....
UO did very well in providing entertainment without an ever increasing exp cap and gear levels.
I don't think that making maxed players gods compared to newbies is the perfect way for a MMO that wants to sustain their player base for a long time. Nor is it a good thing to base all goals of the game on gear progression. Thats just nonsense.
Also this leads to deserted low level zones which is bad too.
One last thing about zones. I think EQ1 did really well by providing very diverse zones. That is what I want again in EQ Next. I don't care for a world where everything is a shade of the same color. Don't get me wrong, I don't care for a comic style game with lots of flashy colors (like WoW) either, but a good designer will find a balance between the two extremes.
huh? you've basically kinda described Vanguard. Fix up Vanguard and you'll have a great game.