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"EverQuest II" to debut in 2003
Parsa writes "This story
at Cnet says; A new version of the popular computer game "EverQuest"
will make its debut late next year, Sony Online Entertainment said Thursday.
Sony Online Entertainment says the next version of the popular computer
game will feature a new 3D engine and a tradesman class for "nonconfrontational"
character advancement.
"
Dammit...I just got over my Everquest addiction!
Sigs are for losers
And how many actually think there will be new ideas, ideas not used in various MUDs around the net for atleast 10 years.
So far there has been little innovative in these "new" environments except for the graphics.
There will be a tradesman class, so after work people can go home and exist in a fantasy world where they... work...
Hmmm, might be interesting if they allowed both platforms to access it -- cross platform, worldwide play... nice.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Everquest : Everquest II
A) Beer : Malt Liquor
B) Pentium : Athlon
C) Cigarettes : Graham Crackers
D) Capitalism : Marxism
E) All of the above
Amazing magic tricks
Ultima Online was thinking about having a sequel, but then they decided to focus on their current project instead of developing a whole new system to troubleshoot and work through. That makes sense. I wonder what Everquest's rationale for drawing development away for another project is? Why not focus on the current project instead?
What the heck is this supposed to mean? You sit on your ass and drink ale? I can do that without paying $15 a month.
Shouldn't this read: A new version of the popular computer drug "EverQuest" will make its debut late next...
Yeah, well if it's the same game with new graphic models and classes - sorry, they already tried that with SOL. And again, they're SOL if they think I'm going to buy it.
At the very least, I hope they make a different world. Traipsing about Norrath for 2 years was enough for me. Back on good old post-Arthurian Earth for me, thankyouverymuch.
Has anyone else noticed that the recent changes in EQ1 basically make it DAoC v0.75? If all Verant/Sony has to go on is another game's success, why are they even bothering?
GIR: I'm going to sing the Doom song now. Doom doom doom doom doom doom de-doom doom doom doom doom doom doom...
So people will pay $20/month (or whatever it'll be) to work in a virtual McDonalds serving orc burgers, shoveling dragon dung at the Everquest zoo, or picking up half eaten turkey legs off the streets near the fountain.
Fascinating!
-- Remember Johnny,
"nonconfrontational" to that I say HAH!
;-)
I smell really annoying "I'm a better merchant than you!" arguments fizzing to life on forums 'round the world
crazy dynamite monkey
Anyone who thinks that a "tradesman" is "non-confrontational" hasn't been paying attention to the news. Between the antitrust allegations, the attempted enforcement of ridiculous patents, and the corporate coverups, I'd say that "tradesman" is one of the most confrontational types. At least, in the Real World...
Apparently, of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
...debute today, where's the headline?
BTW everquest is not a game, in a game there is a winner and a loser, the only winner in EQ is the people who get your money.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
screw the mideval crap.
I want to fly around in my own ship and blast at bad guys with the latest tech.
Eve-online here I come baby.
They expect to go closed beta this month too!!
There is also an article over at Game Spy.
I think the next year is shaping up to turn out some great new MMORPG games.
My $0.02 will always be worth more than your â0.02, so
Personally the reason why I haven't taken an interest (well besides the fact that I'd prefer a OS X version) is because it's already so nonconfrontational. You don't kill other players, you can't even take dead people's stuff. It's like the extra-padded, no sharp edges preschool version of a fantasy game. Now
"nonconfrontational development" - if I wanted that I'd read a book or go get some exercise.
Pretty soon they'll get rid of NPC bad guys and replace them with loveable teletubby-like creatures. Fuckin' A.
switch over to crack. More addictive than ever.
The only way to get them of this version will be to put them on something less stimulating like Flight Simulator. God help us all.
You guys asking about people wanting to simulate non-combat stuff:
A VERY popular game right now is one where you simulate, you know, what your doing now. . . living. . .
The Sims.
Maybe the last expansion pack sold poorly. It's all about hype and keeping it "new" just like any other modern industry
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
I meant to add that when I played Everquest I was disgruntled because there was just too much mundane, no-fun stuff to do.
Learning to be a fletcher: no skill. Just do it over, and over, and over, and...
Learning to be a fisherman: no skill. Just do it over, and over, and over, and...
Learning to fight: no skill. Just do it over, and over, and over.
Lerning the right combination of spells: tricky, then do it over, and over, and over...
My $0.02 will always be worth more than your â0.02, so
When I look back it wasn't that much fun anyway. It certainly had its moments and an addictive quality but it was a game more based on repetition and sitting around for long periods of time than actual fun.
My pet peeve was the total lack of attention Verant paid to the UI. For 3 years it has been a piece of shit and it doesn't look like improving anytime soon. Even in fullscreen it's just terrible and Verant seem more interested in keeping the 50+ players happy than actually improving things like the UI that affect everyone.
I've tried DAoC too which has a gorgeous and well designed UI but suffers from it's own problems with regards to repetition. My ideal game would be a cross-between the two - DAoC's UI and ruleset combined with EQ's zone variety.
I am a firm believer that Origin/EA's decision to cancel UO2 was one of the poorest business/gaming decisions made, on par with Daikatana. Instead of supporting a game that parallels the graphical technology of other game, has a more robust combat system, and a far more modular engine, they decided to do updates to an outdated piece of junk.
And there was actually support for UO2! The fansite forums were crazy with thousands of rabid fans salivating over playing the game. In the newly emerging world of MMORPG's, this is the type of attitude a game company *wants* its customers to have. Compare this with the hype about a 3d graphics upgrade to UO. Hear that huge scream of enthusiasm from fans of a five year old game? No? I don't either. While I agree that there will be a set of die hard gamers that will stick to UO, like they do in other games (Hell, Meridian 59 is still running:)), in two or three years, the ramifications of Origin's poor decision will set in, and guess who is going to have the most market share... EQ, UO, or EQ2?
They could have had a majority of the market.. I could go on for hours about the awesome features they were going to put in, bla bla bla... Now what will they have.
I'd like to be able to play a MMORPG without paying a dime for monthly service. Sure, Diablo II on Blizzard.net allows you to play against other players, but the character development is not the same. I mean, doesn't it seem stupid to buy a $50 game and be expected to pay another 10-15 bucks a month to continue to use it? I know servers cost money, but I figure that the original price for the game would cover this. Am I the only one that doesn't like the pay service?
Sigs are for losers
I can't beleive people actually pay so they can perform these tedious tasks. Children in sweatshops have less tedious jobs, and get payed more to boot.
I swear to god someday somebody's going to go too far with this. Just wait until they do a 'cyberpunk' version of Everquest with the character class 'office clerk' who needs to 'update databases and spreadsheets' for a 'software institute'.
Next thing you know people will be paying for the privilege of being the office administrator for real-life companies and not knowing it. The upside being that there'll be lots of skrlp7 kldd33 t4Lk on the memos...
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
I bet the announced date is right about when the churn is predicted to lead to a flattening off of revenue.
Having played other MMORPG's I can honestly say that the depth of the environment in EQ is outstanding in it's field. Many lessons no doubt have been learned and it's difficult to back port new ideas. EQ2 has the danger of becoming like TeamFortress2 and Duke Nukem with a lot of expectation on it's shoulders as the next generation. I wish them well and you can expect my subscription to be there day 1 regardless of reviews and opinion might say.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Seriously, how much fun is that? Evercrap just continues and continues to be a money whoring peice of crap. How many additions did they add onto the game? How much better did it make it?.. 0%. More time than not most of these addicts who play constantly have absolutly no life at all. That's why they play the goddamn game so much.
And who the hell thinks it's newsworthy that they're making evercrap2?.. new and improved with merchants. Who cares, so many other mmporgs have player classes that aren't based on hacking and slashing already, this is absolutly nothing new! It's called trade skills!
Reasons I don't like EQ2. /again/
No more global banks.
You need a carrier vehicle (mule, wagon, etc) to carry goods from one town to the next.
You don't start out with a class. Or stats.
You become a basic class at a low level, then 'graduate' to a specialized class at a higher level. (level 6 and 30, respectively, if I recall the article i read correctly.
100% level restricted weapons/armor/items.
Item decay.
Among other 'borrowed' conventions.
Granted, this may help the online economy, but I feel it'll help segregate the levels even more...
As it is now, there's Uber guilds in EQ, and I guess I should be thankful and jealous that I'm not a member of them. I like my family-oriented guild more, but I'm also relegated to mid-level quality items.
With the new item setup in EQ2, it'll be harder to 'twink' (that is, pass old items on to a lower level character when you've outgrown their use), thereby removing a large part of the existing EQ economy.
However, there's the argument that with the new item setup, similar to AO, there'll be more weapon options at every available weapon level.
Also, folks that have spent the last 3 years in EQ will not want to move over to the new servers/game for several reasons. (IMHO)
#1 - Need to upgrade computers
#2 - losing friends/guildmates because not everyone can plunk down $2grand to buy a new UberPC(TM)
#3 - People won't want to abandon their characters that they've worked on for many many hours, no matter the level.
Just some thoughts...
Personally, I will most likely NOT move over to EQ2. Granted, both of the machines I run now (Yes, I dual-box, or play two accounts from time to time) are EQ2 capable, but probably around 75% of my guildmates' computers are not. I also do not want to move away from my Bard (level 51), or any of my other alternate toons (characters) because of relationships and 'reputations' I've built via Roleplaying (*gasp OMG, yes, people actually still roleplay in EverQuake*).
I need to refresh my house :-P
-- Knowing too much can get you killed, but knowing who knows too much can make you rich.
Non-zero sum games don't have a winner or loser.
I'm Abram Bender. You're not.
stool pidgeon
They had better not - I will sue.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
test test
please don't fry
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Does anyone notice that whenever anything game-related comes up on Slashdot, the grammatical accuracy of the response posts declines ~30% from average and the number of posts lacking any capitalization skyrockets? I'm also tracking a 73% increase in the use of the words 'me', 'mine', and 'my' and a marked upward trend in the use of the letter 'z'.
It's really a fascinating sociological phenomenon, wouldn't you say?
--
"dudez my computer rox cuz it gedz me 200 framez perr zecond! w00t!"
Everquest III?
"Just hook it to my veins..."
-- Barney
So it's just "EverQuest II", huh? I see they dropped the "Suicide Is Painless" tag-line.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I think gabe and tycho said it best:
- 04 -08
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002
--
voidref
That is what made it so popular. All the other games have tried to be innovative and SUCKED. I wish more 3D games would copy MUDs... MUDs rock.
The following is an excerpt from the first draft of the official press release from Sony Online Entertainment about Everquest II. As far as I can, the only differences between this excerpt and the original is that some 'fine print' information was deleted.
Key features and improvements include:
* A brand new 3D engine which takes full advantage of a wide variety of recent technological advances in 3D hardware/software such as per pixel lighting, dynamic environment mapping, and a fully programmable surface shader system
(Note: This new engine will not significantly improve load times, frame-rate induced lag, or this sense of 'immersion' that some players seem to think they're entitled to. 'Uber' players are encouraged to purchase dual-processor computer systems with professional grade GeForce 5, 6, or 7 graphics adapters. Support requests from players who do not meet 'reccommended system requirements' will not be addressed.
* More intuitive gameplay features appeal to both new and seasoned players
(Note: Our answer to all player problems will still be 'Get a group'.)
* New branching class structure that players define as they advance through the game
(Note: DOAC was kicking our asses.)
* Vast world of Norrath revisits familiar locations and introduces a variety of newly discovered areas in the Age of Destiny, a time period in the future of the original EverQuest.
(Note: The new graphics engine would not support older zones, so we're ditching the zones we don't like, and releasing later zones in 'expansions' that you already bought in order to play Everquest I)
* Increased character customization capabilities allow players to customize characters' faces, hair, and body types to create truly unique avatars
(Note: All female characters will come complete with 38DD sized breasts, just like you've grown to expect from SOE and Verant.)
* Deeper character development offering pacing options that cater to game players new to the role-playing genre as well as experienced role-players
(Note: Prepare to be ganked and r0xxor3d by l33t players who don't have time for role-playing. Role-playing will be strictly verboten in the 'high-end' game, just like in Everquest I)
* Non-confrontational means of character advancement that including a completely new tradesman character class
(Note: Just because you can craft decent trade items doesn't mean that the best items won't be available to anyone but the largest, most uber guilds.)
* Rideable mounts and vehicles to own and control, including horses and boats, make traversing the massive world of Norrath faster than before.
(Note: Horses will still suck. Boats will still be dangerous. They'll just suck more and be more dangerous than ever before to give you an authentic role-playing experience. Carts will carry a bonus of +5 suck and +5 danger for all players.)
* Norrathian real estate for players to call their own
(Note: We want to make sure that the uber guilds can monopolize all the best zones in the game because they're the players we really care about. Therefore, we're going to go ahead and make it possible for them to 'wall off' the best zones and dungeons from non-l33t players, just like in other games that allow houses.)
* All-new tradeskill/crafting system
(Note: See note about tradesmen class...)
* Completely new and tactically rich combat, spell and skill systems
(Note: Of course more of the combat will be centered around 'Holy Trinity' or 'Main-Tank' strategy which we like so much, so don't bother rolling anything but a Warrior, Cleric, or Wizard.)
* A completely revised and enhanced quest system
(Note: More broken quests, more ultra-rare spawns, and longer spawn times for even the lowest-level quest!)
* Dynamic world environment shaped by player events
(Note: Players will cast shadows on the world. They may also train mobs to new locations. Professional-grade Geforce 5, 6, or 7 graphics adapters are required for players to experience the full benefits of the 'player shaped world'.)
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Like Blizzard and Diablo, pretty much the entire original design team of the game has already left, and this version will be designed and balanced by the people that did such an excellent job on the last two expansions.
/year to produce third rate high-poly models that bog down the highest end system any time you get more then 5 of them on the screen.
Background : The newest expansion was released in December last year. The two big selling points, the special Trade Zone, and the new user interface *still* haven't been added to the game after 5 months, yet they have already announced the next expansion due this December, along with EQ2, EQ for Playstation and the special $40/month "Legends" servers.
The entire live development team was layed off, leaving zones from the expansion before that one still screwed up - the "Plane of Mischief" and "Sleepers Tomb" which have been written off by Verant and won't have any further resources devoted to them, despite long and detailed archives of what is wrong with then
Apart from the Interface and the Bazaar zone, high end guilds are finding that the content in this game is designed for you to spend 2 months equipping 80+ members of your guild with special weapons so you can attack one mob to get one item, which you then use to spend 2 months getting 10 more components to get a key so you can enter the *NEXT* zone, where the cycle will begin again.
Meanwhile, the people who wrote EQ1 have formed their own company and are busy hiring all the talent from Verant, who never signed non-compete clauses.
So Verant is left with under-talented artists who (due to contracts sorted out at the peak of their success) are on $80,000 - $120,000
Meanwhile, their design team is designing encounters that need *70 to 90* people to work in precise co-ordination for 30 minutes, and then act suprised when people start complaining.
To top all this off, they announced that any existing customer from EQ1 who wants to join EQ2 will have to start all over from scratch, and the end result of this is a widespread "Well, when EQ2 comes out, I guess I can finally quit and get this damn monkey off my back"
The sad thing is, they'll probably still sell about 200,000 copies.
In the news today: "A young man was tragically found dead yesterday while sitting at his computer. The young man recently received orders e-mailed directly from Sony in the form of a press release. While seemingly benign, both a local attorney and the young man's mother feel that the press release forces children and young adults to wait in front of their computer for days on end for more news of an allegedly upcoming game titled "EverQuest II".
The young man, who remains unidentified at this point, was found starved and dehydrated in front of his computer. He appears to not have moved from his chair for several weeks. The young man's mother asserts that this is because press releases of this sort prey upon the weaknesses that many young, nerdy kids have. These children, she feels, wait abominally long periods of time for the first peice of new on this new "EverCrack", as she calls it.
Psychologists feel that this is a desperate effort on the part of these children to be seen as "cool" by having the newest bit of information on this elusive video game. Once these children are seen by their demanding peers as sources of information, this "hobby" of theirs begins to become addictive. They are, in effect, on a "high" as they delight in sharing the newest bit of news with their friends.
--
Welcome to the land of the easily amused...
So does this mean there will be even more suicides now?
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
In this great CRPG (kinda old now) you could make custom classes with primary, major, and minor skills, with everything else under misc. To gain levels, you just worked on your skills. If your primarys were long blade, then you fought to gain skill, but if it was spellcasting, you could go out and blast a monster, or just cast on yourself to get the skill up. It was a good way of leveling, because if you were a theif, you actually gained levels lockpicking into houses, or picking pockets, rather than killing things.
I think its a good RPG model. Hope something similar gets implemented here.
Eriol
Tradesman: Aha! Finally, I have crafted this fine sword, able to slay dragons with a single hit!
Warrior: I'll have that, ta very much! *schlick* <FX type=decapitated head rolling off>
I've never been a fan of graphical MUDs. The problem is that the graphics are awful. With a text-based game, you're left to your own imagination, whereas with Everquest you get the cheapo cartoon graphics forced down your throat.
Secondly, without a strong player-killing element I don't see how interest can be sustained. Pre-programmed quests can only go so far, and AI is no match for fighting against real opponents.
I recommend that the next Everquest has an ongoing war, with two opposing sides. There would be no restrictions on killing the other side, and would ensure the game is much more exciting and constantly fresh. This is what it's like in the MUD I play (MUME), and the game has several extra dimensions because of it. In fact, the game technically revolves around it.
The game is constantly dangerous and exciting, you can never let your guard down, because you never know when you might come accross *a Dreadful Orc* who is ready to knife you in the back.
Everquest has already ripped off many things from MUDs, so why don't they rip off the best parts?
The most recent release of Everquest recommended that you had 512 MB of RAM, will EQ2 require 1 GB or more? ;)
:D
I have an accuse to buy a GB of RAM if so.
For players who kill themselves in responce to dieing when they try a raid on the plane of hate and thier corpse is unretrievalable and they cannot get a res.
-THIS SPACE FOR RENT!
I'm anticipating Neverwinter Nights will provide us the tools to create a far superior online roleplaying environment. Why not build our own "portal-connected world" instead of EQing?
NWN was the best online RPG ever... I miss that game so friggin much... anyone know if the source for it is out there somewhere?
update the elven chicks to have bouncy boobs like on DoA!!!! =D
On one end of the spectrum, you'd have the hard core players who have left their families to write software for the cause. On the other you'd have the people who don't really play much, but when they do they wander around asking, "a/s/l?"
Oh, wait. Never mind. That's Slashdot.
If that's the case, then would that make it hypocritical of us to make fun of those EverQuest freaks? (Disclaimer: I've never played EverQuest, I'm just thinking out loud here)
For the everquest players who might not catch the reference: :)
[excerpted from the free online dictionary of computing]
SEX
/seks/ A technique invented by the blue-green algae hundreds of millions of years ago to speed up their evolution, which had been terribly slow up until then.
[also from word net]
n 1: activities associated with sexual intercourse; "they had sex in the back seat" [syn: sexual activity, sex activity]
2: either of the two categories (male or female) into which most organisms are divided; "the war between the sexes"
3: all of the feelings resulting from the urge to gratify sexual impulses; "he wanted a better sex life"; "the film contained no sex or violence" [syn: sexual urge]
4: the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles; "she didn't want to know the sex of the foetus" [syn: gender, sexuality]
v 1: arouse sexually [syn: arouse, excite, turn on, wind up]
For tech-workers such as those they are talking about that are leaving Verant, a non-compete in California (where Verant is HQed) are virtually worthless...
very nice ... i hope its mush/sims like _inpart_ ... the whole mud-rpg thing is so lame.
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
This month's CGW[1] has a pretty decent preview of Star Wars: Galaxies. It sounds like all the things they promise for EQ2 will be in Galaxies, plus a whole lot more. If I were an EQ player (recovering, thank you), I would just continue to play EQ until SW:G came out.
I could be biased, though. EQ was too easy to burn out on...
[1] http://www.gamers.com/game/436655
- "Destroy your marriage 47% faster!"
- "Who cares if you forget how to walk on dirt?"
- "Success in real life: Hard work, sacrifice, hours of awkward F2F interaction.
Stefan "Addicted to massive multiplayer games when they were played by snail mail" JonesSuccess in Everquest II: Sore wrists, insomnia, and $12.95 / month.
Feeling of triumph upon your virtual marriage to Yoh-Krah, Princess of the Wolf Clan: Priceless."
Great. Founded by the game designer and the customer service czar from Verant. Given their track record on EQ, I'm not holding my breath here...
"The new version will be able to host hundreds of thousands of simultaneous users from throughout the world, thanks to real-time translation in English, French, German, Japanese and Korean, as well as localized servers in select countries, Sony said."
Hee... automatic Engrish. Think they'll be able to pull this off? It must take a very large amount of resources to run the translations.. what about acronyms/shorthand/typos? Will they just pop through? Will the client have to use its own text rendering method to display Unicode characters on lesser operating systems (98-ME)?
hmm that isn't really possible at this point.. I mean, after I got the IV put in, theres just no reason to unplug.
I ate my sig.
Your $10-15 per month covers not only the fees for the servers and bandwidth, but for monthly additions in the form of new items, new areas to explore, new monsters, etc.
Clan Lord does this one better: The $35 initial purchase price includes 3 months of play ($30 value), so the CD only costs $5. New items, areas, monsters, etc. are rolled out in biweekly updates. There are only two significant downsides: It runs only on a Mac or Mac emulator, and it is 2-d, not 3-d.
EQ2?? When are they going to fix EQ1?
If at first you don't addict, try, try again!
I am sorry, but the MMORPGs out there, and the ones being designed are babies compared to some of the MUDs out there. The MUD I currently play has features that an MMORPG will never match until you can hook the damn thing to your head. No MMORPG can offer a true role playing experience. They can offer Quake, only instead of skill or coordination, you just need to throw lots of time at the game.
My test for when MMORPGs will be 'good' is when they can offer true perm death. I don't mean some stupid pretend perm death. If the orc crushes your skull, you die. It doesn't knock you out, no magic saves you. There are no resurrections. You just stay dead. You don't inherit anything (so no, Artiche or however you spell it is out), you don't reclaim some skills, you just flat out die, and have nothing to show for it. When a game can reach a level of sophistication where that is possible, I will be impressed and give up my MUD.
Until then, I will stick with good old Armageddon MUD (http://www.armageddon.com). It is 10 years, strong, has perm death, enforced RP, a dynamic world, and a gritty Dune like feel to it that no MMORPG can even begin to match. The game is set up such that time does NOT equal power. The most powerful people on the game are not the ones that can throw the most time at the game. Throw in the fact that it can hit 100+ players, and nothing beats it. I have been playing this game for over 5 years. How many people can say that they have played a single game for 5 years and still enjoy it? The level of sophistication in the role playing even beats the hell out of a game of D&D. Until they can hook the MMORPG up to my brain, and companies have the guts to enforce role playing rules, I won't touch an MMORPG with a 10 foot pool.
Nexon's Dark Ages (www.Darkages.com) is still the best MMORPG around in my opinion. =P
Secondly, without a strong player-killing element I don't see how interest can be sustained. Pre-programmed quests can only go so far, and AI is no match for fighting against real opponents.
Actually, if you don't ever want to lose, a lack of PKing is perfect.
That desire accurately sums up most folks' desires of their games.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I called up asking why my ebay account was banned because I was selling a macro package for Asheron's Call.
.45 and sawed off for a home invasion... Which I was close to doing. If it wasn't for my illusion of a girlfriend(found out the bitch was cheating on me later), I would probably have done it for fucks sake.
Aparently people were using it on Everquest, and Verant got me banned from ebay because of it.
Microsoft and Turbine could care less about macros in their games...
Yet I call up Everquest, informing them that I was evicted from my house because I couldn't pay the rent due to the banning from ebay, and I'm told that I got what I deserved because I was doing illegal actions.
Hell, if I wanted to do illegal actions vs Verant, I'd just take my
God spoke to me
Asheron's Call is $12 for the client and you get your first month ($12) free.
After having tried EQ, AC and AO I can say that EQ has definately been the best. AO had very uninspired spells (every cleric spell was either a heal or rez spell it felt like- nothing new or original). AC was always having server problems (figures from a Microsoft product) so it was completely unplayable - your walking, walking, walking slowely, walking really slowly, stopped....... waiting....... waiting....... you were just hit 100 times from some creature that wasn't around a second ago and your dead. -Jim
I really doubt Sony/Verant think that they are coming up with anything new as far as gaming concepts here. They are just trying to make things prettier and more enjoyable than text based MUDs.
I am active on EQ and a text based MUD currently and I enjoy both types of fantasy games.
Anyone who thinks that Sony/Verant is trying to introduce new concepts is looking at it all wrong.
Anyone who has played computer games long enough knows that the concepts will always be the same: to emulate a fantasy world on a computer.
It is the delivery that will always provide the thrill factor and keep people paying (addicted). When Star Wars Galaxies is released, it won't be new concepts that people are looking for, it will be people wanting to act out life as a jedi/dark-jedi.
--wal