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[Column] EverQuest Next: Like an Overexplained Magic Trick
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Victor wonders if SOE has taken away the magic of a video game by explaining the trick behind making it work.
Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s EverQuest Next: LIke an Overexplained Magic Trick.
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Comments
I feel they announce EQNext way too early. Im already over it and want to see the finished product already. Right now is a quintessential deadzone in MMOs that makes a perfect arena to release EQNext in if it was available.
Should have skipped EQLandmark and gone straight for the full game that everyone would really be interested in.
I love how people keep saying EQN is making promises and not showing anything of it.. You clearly don't understand what's going on. EQLandmark is EQN pre-Alpha. Everything they are designing in EQLandmark leads to EQN development.
Combat, the world, dungeons. It's all being designed right now. Players are making the world for EQN right now alongside the SOE EQN team.
[mod edit]
There are people that still believe this? Take the blinders off. That was a marketing ploy to sell Landmark.
You've been watching it develop in EQLandmark. They just added combat last month, they are doing a lot of work, trying to get things stable, so that when they port over everything it'll be nearly finished.
My guess is you'll see EQNext Alpha starting at the end of 2015.
What's not to believe or untrue?
While I don't put a ton of stock into "players are making the game" because they aren't sitting in the studio themselves, but players are part of the discussion, their work is going to end up in EQN in some way, and the devs may be influenced ever so slightly by fans.
But as far as the game behind made in front of us, that is true. What we see in Landmark will resemble what is in EQN. Shared engines, mechanics, art assets, etc. Although EQN will obviously be a game all on its own with a lot that won't be in Landmark.
Landmark != Everquest Next
Landmark ENGINE = Everquest Next ENGINE
They are using landmark to develop the engine and tools needed for EQN. This means that how things work will be similar, but that the content does not have to be.
Airdrops are badass. I doubt I've seen as much drama erupt as when an airdrop is rolling in. Especially in this that style of game.
There are threads here that shout at us "MMO's are dying", and yet here we have a developer who is doing something different, something that brings the player closer to the developer in an effort to reinvigorate the MMO process and to give it some meaning to us.
Most if not all of us realise that the MMO process isn't like the CSI shows cracking a case in 30 minutes flat, it takes years of mundane tasks to get to the finished product, it takes longer if your creating something that isn't a clone of WoW.
So why are ppl surprised at the rate of progress once they get involved in that process with the developers?
As for the magic trick, well your walking a mile in the developers shoes now, I could not imagine doing that and still stay dedicated to that game, I start to analyse why I'm playing that game when I know all the tricks to it, it becomes boring real fast, a bit like playing on a private shard of any MMO and being able to kill anything, loot anything, go anywhere without dying, the game, the challenge of that game has vanished and will never come back.
indeed, now that is what I call a dynamic event done right.
It´s like a Black Friday sale where everyone goes crazy.
Best idea ever, SOE did it again
Oh god, it never ends, does it?
There are going to be people 20 years from now saying this exact thing with different names.
crowfall gets soooooooooooo overhyped right now without a single scene of gameplay or grasp of concrete mechanics - its ridicoulos
agreed 100%
just because someone had success with something sometime doesnt mean
they will be succesfull today
the same concept will be succesfull today
and looking at real world evidence, the opposite seams to be true... molineux, garriot etc. all people that had success and just fail after fail in recent history...so just stop clinching to your past memories and get real...
nothing will give you that same feeling you had with those games - cause then, everything was amazing fresh and new - never seen...nowadays youve seen all in some kind of variations - games arent "new" anymore...that feeling will never come back again...
MAGA
Hmm kinda getting sick of this - so I apologize in advance, should I offend anyone.
Could the players please be held accountable for their own limited understanding and, unfortunately, unlimited ignorance? Here we have an article on how the developers have already revealed too much and the first comment goes "EQN is like politics lately. Lots of talking, no results". Seriously? Either the article is wrong, because there are clearly people asking for more, or the people are just too ... simple....to understand that not seeing it all is part of the trick - which in conclusion would mean that there was NOT too much revealed at this point. Otherwise people would have stopped asking for more...
The next one pulls out a Steam statistic trying to prove what? ANY game on Steam begins at a peak and slowly dwindles down. Also, not everyone is playing Landmark on Steam, which makes this graphic not representative at all and finally - this is about EQN, not Landmark. On top of that, you have the audacity to say that Landmark had a slow patch process? You have obviously not followed the game - they had weekly patches until the end of November, which is when they switched to bi-weekly patches. Over the course of the entire year that Landmark was out, there was a constant addition of features and content. You either didn't know that or chose to ignore it - it makes you ignorant in any way. But I guess you don't need a reason to be negative.
@OP
You made an interesting choice there, taking the magic trick as a metaphor. However, I think you're applying it wrong. Yes, revealing the magic trick disenchants the illusion. But that's not what SOE is doing. Like the magician, SOE is merely showing off the components of the trick. "This is the box, this is the saw, everyone make sure you see that these shackles are real, the assistant is alive and you all know what's about to happen." THEN comes the trick that still flashes people, that still entertains people. SOE is showing off the engine, the features and the ideas. But none of us have actually seen "the trick".
I like that everyone is able to weigh in, I just wish that people would take a step back and look at the big picture before opening their head to release so. much. noise!
"stupidity is its own reward"
Despite DMKano's obsession of having to post on every thread, he does have some valid points sometimes
When you "co-develop" a game with the players, as SOE say they are (though I find that to be a partial illusion), they really need to first actually listen and then react and much faster than they do. You can't have iterations over half of years with players because they will loose focus much faster than a professional game developer. Fast iterations, fast reactions is needed if you want to claim co-development with players. Also there is a lack of open-ness. There are projects that manage this process far better, for example (please don't derail) Pantheon.
On top of that they have hype peeked way too early, like .. years too early - What is it ? 1.5 years since the big EqNext reveal show, and we are likely still 2+ years away from a possible release. And we have seen close to nothing of EqNext, except a lot of theory and talking and some less than convincing pictures and videos.
Landmark which despite having changed name, is still not distancing itself from EqNext. It's like they can't decide if Landmark should be a EqNext editor world, a builder sandbox, or a game in itself. Landmark is moving forward though very slowly, seemingly without a plan. The co-development part of Landmark is rather nonexistant, unless listening only to a handful of dedicated streamers while ignoring everyone else counts as co-development.
Well EqNext has an almost impossible job to do, it is the hope of so many players that EqNext will finally fix the broken mmorpg genre, and restore it to glory. The hype is insane and there is bound to be many broken expectations following. Maybe SoE is aware that EqNext is overhyped and thinking its best to stay silent, but to break down the hype and get expectations in line with reality, they should rather start revealing stuff sooner than later - Also a good idea if they want to keep claiming "co-development".
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
I have to agree with Trelonist here. Well written and thought out. We are ALL frustrated. I have felt a waning enthusiasm for EQ: N. However when "push comes to shove", it does take time to accomplish the stated plans as we have learned this mmo will attempt.
Landmark is what it is. At times it is very fascinating to build something of beauty or travel and see what is on the minds of all those that are still partaking of the Landmark experience. However, as I have written in Landmark forums last summer, it does seem to be an empty planet full of monoliths unpopulated with any human life...
As for EQ: N, we just simply do NOT have enough information to make a judgement fairly. This is frustrating for all of us. However, maybe it is necessary to hold back what has actually been completed and tested until there is a more playable demo made available. I still hold some twinkling bit of faith in what the folks on the San Diego campus are creating. What if?
"What ifs" are the fuel that powers thought, motivation, and creativity, to name a few few. Maybe what I have to do is to ask what if? What if this mmo actually does release with mechanics completed as intended? Maybe..just maybe the waiting and the frustration of not knowing will be rewarded in the end.
We must wait. It is yet way too early to make prophecy of what will be at SoE, yet.
Alyn
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
John Lennon