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SOE may not be making Everquest Next for you
Sahrhyn
Member Posts: 49
Have any of you thought to consider that SOE may not be making Everquest Next for you? Or more specifically, your preferred play style? A novel concept is it not? Everquest Next is being made for the casual player that wants to have fun without the work of an old school game.
There are an awful lot of you that seem to forgot the casual gamer out numbers the self proclaimed "hardcore" MMO'er. That is where profits are to be made. I enjoyed old school raiding as well as the next guy.. and the play style that it encompassed. But many of my guild mates did not play to raid or even get in combat beyond necessity. There are a many people playing MMO's for more than raiding or combat. They enjoy the role playing, the crafting, the exploration, the lore collections, the social aspect etc... this is the crowd they are making EQN for!
So lets run down the list of what so many are complaining about...
No Trinity - One of the core mechanics in EQN is not having to rely on a Tank or Healer. They've stated it multiple times in the videos and Q&A's. No amount of negativity on your end will change that. They have stated their emergent AI will change the way we depend on the trinity. If you don't like that or believe they can pull it off... Everquest Next may not be for you.
Character Graphics - This is a good one, and is highly subjective of the beholder. SOE decided to go with a stylized look to their game. Its easier on the lower end computers and easier on the PS4 it will definitely end up on. It also allows them to have many characters on the screen at one time in one area. Again, no amount of negativity on your end will change the core look of the characters. Constructive criticism aside, the look of the characters will be indicative of what we saw in the reveal. Everquest Next may not be for you.
This is not Everquest - Very observant of you! You are correct, this is not Everquest. It is Everquest Next. It is a new game they are building for the casual gamer. Your Everquest is still there, still online and still receiving content updates. Same for EQ2. This new game is called Everquest Next, SOE owns the IP and they are more than within their rights to call it what they want. Again, if this makes you feel ill... Everquest Next may not be for you.
This is a GW2 clone - Many of us don't agree its a clone, it's just the closest game we are familiar with that has similar concepts. Are Team Fortress or Call of Duty the same? They are both first person shooters, with guns and player maps. So is Arma for that matter. They are similar in concept but they are very different experiences. We've not even played EQn yet and some of you are already dead set against it perceived game play. Again, if you don't like what you are seeing.. maybe Everquest Next is not for you.
The 8 button GUI - They stated in one of the several videos they did not want their players to be staring at a screen to play whack-a-mole with bars and icons - they want them to enjoy the combat mechanics of the engine at the visual level, not at the GUI level. And of course this lends itself to being controlled by a PS4 duo-shock controller... of which EQN will be definitely be released on. I for one am glad they are taking this route - as a tired old raid tank, it was mind numbingly boring to hit the same rotations over and over to /faceroll statically scripted raid bosses.. and then have to nerve to say we were hardcore. Again - if you don't like this about EQN, they are not changing it.. they like it and so do many of us. Everquest Next may not be for you.
I could go on and on to prove the point that Everquest Next may not be for you based on whichever wrongdoing you feel has been made against your perception of what you wanted EQN to be. Point is, they are making the game the way they want it to be and no amount of forum hatemongering will change that.
With all that said, please know that I was a raider in EQ/EQ2, WoW and a few other games... and I consider myself a hardcore gamer by most definitions of the word. And I would have loved if they made EQ over as Everquest 3 with a shiny new graphics engine. I would have played it for years. But, Everquest 3 as some of you are wanting is not being made - and I've said it before, will not be made anytime soon at the "AAA" level because not enough players want that old school game play... at least enough of them to be a profitable platform. There are many games out there right now that should satisfy your old school game play needs. Both EQ and EQ2 are online, as is WoW. Darkfall:UW is up for the masochist and Camelot Unchained should be stellar as well.
In a nutshell. If anything about Everquest Next upsets you, then clearly they are not making the game for you. And this is not a stand against constructive criticism as that is actually helpful. But the ones here that keep spouting the doom and gloom and how the game is going to fail is covering up real constructive criticism.
TLDR: Everquest Next may not be for you.
Comments
Agreed. I plan to buy and play EQN and I'm looking forward to it. I think some of the ideas they are trying are well past due to breath life back into a stagnant dying genre.
The Landmark idea is a HUGE deal. This will be the far beyond the simple player mods allowed by other smaller MMO's.
The destructible world, voxel technology, is a fantastic game mechanic yet realized.
The emergent AI will dominate the lesser prepared groups/raids and get rid of static spawns forever.
SO many things about this new game I see and like. I am looking forward to getting the old EQ community together again - to find new challenges, discover the lore again and actually enjoy the game instead of it being a job.
/kudos SOE - there are still some fans out here that like what you do and hope EQN is a huge success.
SOE May not be making EQN for you!
Exactly, OP
.
Seems like what some folks really wanted was exactly the same game(s) but with a new engine and new content.
Not me. I stopped playing these games because I was bored with all the stuff. I'm ready for something new and interesting.
You can't blame them for being desperate.
I mean where else is someone going to find a raid based trinity game!?
One of the most popular answer from the panels was: "We can't talk about that yet."
How do you know so much about the core mechanics? They very well might be full of work, as you say. It even sounds like most of the content and classes haven't been ironed out yet. That is what landmark is for, to help jumpstart the content creation and world building.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I'd like to read that interview as well. I would have loved to play a real sequel to EQ1 with a new engine. I think a large number of EQ vets would.
All I was trying to get across in my original post was the fact that this is not EQ1. It wont ever be, but that should not mean the true EQ gamer can not get behind their project and make it all the it can be.
Folks need to realize the MMO genre, at least the AAA variety, will wither up and die if the next few major MMO's are not largely successful. With the perceived failure of SWTOR and the severe backlash the ESO IP has been receiving our beloved genre is in trouble.
Honestly, I would have preferred they had all the new technology they revealed be implemented in an EQ1 reboot. But that is not realistically going to happen. It just won't.
SOE May not be making EQN for you!
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Worth it? From a purely monitary perspective I would say yes, very much so.
If we take the total sum of players from EQ and EQ2 over the years, and put them together in a huge bucket - it's still only 2-4 million players. EQ's forte as a franchise has always been it's small but loyal fanbase.
WoW are bleeding players ever so slowly as players tire from the same daily quest treadmill, if EQN gets released before the next expansion hits the streets, and manages to capture a bunch of them then I dare say SOE will be making money.
Still, EQN could be the "test" for an EQ3. It's a very big step, and with more casuals being introduced to the franchise through Free to Play, then they would be sowing the grounds for more games in that series.
That would be fine if they hadn't evoked EverQuest 1 in their 'My EQ Story' ad campaign and slyly hinted that EQN was going to be a return to the hardcore roots of the series in their tweets before the unveiling and subsequent backtracking ("I would not call this game a hardcore MMO").
If you're not going to make a game for me, then don't pretend that you are.
Isn't EQN supposed to be free to play, or at least subscriptionless (another reason people might call it a GW2 clone is if they adopt the same "buy the game, play without a subscription" model).
Since when is Tuesday a direction?
Oh comme on,
the game has supposedly been in pre production for years.
At one point completly starting from scratch.
I expected a bit more then "we can't talk about that yet".
It smells like a console port and as a mmo designed for non mmo players.
The game will be full on f2p.
Combine f2p with their armor/skill mechanic and what do you get? Nothing that I would want to play.
But each to their own opinions and games.
Plan to buy as in if they offer a subscription and/or a CE type package. The've dont this will some other recent titles. At least allow those that want to pay a subscription.
SOE May not be making EQN for you!
First.. EQ and EQ2 don't have close to ONE million customers total combined.. Secondly, keep in mind that EQN will be F2P, NO box sales and everything is cash shop.. That is a lot of $$$$ that needs to be recovered, and it will be interesting to see HOW they recover it.. Normally, things like that were vanity items in the cash shop and some gameplay features like bags and bank storage.... BUT.. also remember EQN is boasting that they'll have a crafting system better then SWG... So how do you have Uber items made my players as "attractive" as cash shop items that take real money to buy? Things could get ugly, OR there is more amiss here..
But you're definition of "successful" isn't necessarily the company's definition of successful.
A lot of people are in the mindset of "if this game isn't something that hold a multi-million person player base for the next 5-10 years, then it's a failure.
That's a fail to YOU, the player, not to the business.
The business only wants to pay off the investors, recoup the cost of development and hopefully gain some profit. If that happens, then it's a success. Not all MMO's (in fact I don't know of any others) cost $150 million to make like SWTOR. They went crazy with the budget and combined with the fact that it flopped did seem like a failure.
Some quick'n'dirty swtor numbers (I'm going to be conservative):
2 million boxes @ $30 - as you can see, I'm using a very very old number of box sales, it's probably around 4 million at this point. And I used a discount price for the box price of $30.
Box sales = $60,000,000
Subs before going F2P = $0
That's right, I will not count a single cent made before the the switch to F2P. I am marking it as $0.
Monthly revenue after F2P = $15,000,000
How did I get this number? http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/05/10/swtors-average-monthly-revenue-has-doubled-since-going-f2p/
EA President states that they have 500,000 subs (which doesn't sound far fetched for a star wars game) and is making "double the revenue from what they were when they had subs. Now they claimed 1.7 million subs early on, but again I counted that as $0. But for this portion, I simply said $500,000 subs at $15/month *2.
For one year of F2P, SWTOR will make $180,000,000. Add in the box sales: $240,000,000
If it cost the suggested $150 million, they've made $90 million above that in one year of F2P.
This should explain a few things to you:
1. You do not need a 5-10 year lifespan on your MMO to be "successful".
2. You do not need multi-millions in subs to be "successful".
3. Cash shops are WAY more profitable than sub games which is why we're seeing EQN go F2P, WoW is increasing it's cash shop offerings, Titain will not be sub-based.
So that's why they're going to keep making them, and that's why the MMO genre isn't going anywhere. There's a ton of money to be made and they're making it.
The evoked it precisely for that reason.. the social side of EQ. Anyone with that's ever taken a marketing strategy class could see that a mile aways.
They wanted to play to the overall community of EQ!.. the social spirited among us. Hell, I met plenty of young ladies over the years in-game that I would have liked to get to know better out-of-game... that is what they want again. They want a casual friendly atmosphere, that is EQN, that can provide the tapestry of social weaving at its finest.
Hell, I'm ready for it.. I want it to be fun and socialize in game and get to make new friends. Of course I want to play and have fun also, but at this point - I've played 1,000's over the last 15yrs grinding and raiding and min/maxing. Let us that want it have fun with game - EQN.
SOE May not be making EQN for you!
How can your argue who EQ Next is for when hardly any clear info has been released about it. They clearly stated they are making the game for us and would have round table discussions like never experienced before. [mod edit]
As for me I love the game so far except for the cloudiness of the combat system.
TLDR: Everquest Next may not be for you also.
SOE always seems to be chasing the ball. EQ2, SWTOR and SWG NGE were chasing after the WoW market. EQN is now chasing after the LOL/GW2/minecraft market.
Personally, I love some of the concepts they're bringing in with respect to the building and voxels. The emergent AI and global quests are very intriguing as well.
But the action combat? Double jumping? Cartoon graphics? Destroying everything and particle effects going everywhere? No holy trinity/facerolling combat? No thanks.
Personally, I think SOE would've been smart to make an EQ3, but include all of the innovative concepts in terms of the building design, the SWG-ish economy they are claiming the game will have, "realistic" graphics, and a first-person immersive style view. I would've stuck with classes rather than this "find classes and multiclass" limited ability system. That would have been taking the best parts of existing games while still making a true Everquest game that appealed to their loyal customers.
Not ugly at all, quite beautiful actually.
SOE takes a % off of the sale of every single player-created item in the Player Studio. Small amounts each time, but I'll bet they're banking on high volumes of sales. Most likely, players will be undercutting each other's prices, leading to lots of cheap items for sale.
The amount of items offered in the Player Studio is seriously limited currently because creating them is done via very complex and tedious 3-D design tools. EQN:Landmark is going to open up the floodgates.
SOE could also offer "exclusives" like mounts or fancy hats in the Cash Shop, things that players most likely won't be creating in Landmark.
Initially I would think they would have many expansions and many DLC packs for sale (EQ1 had 20 retail expansions after all). But I'm not sure the type of people that are being attracted to this game are willing to spend $100 a year for all the DLC's.
They could go the route of GW2 and sell in-game currency for real money .. which SWTOR and WoW also do, though more indirectly (sell cashshop items which can then be sold for currency).
If the people playing EQN are casual enough, they could just sell unlocks for classes, and new flashy abilities. But it will definitely be interesting how the cashshop goes down.
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.
You answered your own question. My OP is just an actual discussion point that surmises the obvious that many fail to see.
It is summarized nicely in the TLDR.
SOE May not be making EQN for you!
They started building this game in 2009. Five years ago. Two years ago they decided to wipe and reload. That doesn't mean the engine was changed or the character maps were changed. Just the story and probably game mechanics changed. The "We can't talk about that yet" shtick is on purpose. They want to be in control of the release on information to keep the interest alive and well during development.
I personally expect the first beta before the end of the year. I expect that Landmark is where they will prove a number of game mechanics and allow them to patch any issues away in EQN. I suspect that Sony is going to create 99% of the content and the players 1% and that most of the content will be done soon. I think the reason they showed us a brand new area in the reveal was so they can reveal Qeynos and Freeport and Kelethin in their own time.
I would not be surprised if there wasn't another big announcement tomorrow from the Black Box when they open the doors and let everyone in.