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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?
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
...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
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.
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.
yes, but you would miss out on cyber sexx0ring with a cute little elf that is probably played by a 15 year old pimple faced boy!
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 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
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.
One example that comes to mind is healing classes. I started a cleric last week, and from a role-playing perspective, I wanted him to be a pacifist. No can-do, there. You've gotta kill countless small animals to get your first heal spell.
Wouldn't it make sense for classes like clerics to get some kind of experience for what they really do, like healing people?
Non-zero sum games don't have a winner or loser.
I'm Abram Bender. You're not.
the sims is not to realistic in real life their is way more partys
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
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!"
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.
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.
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. At least that's how Anarchy Online and Asheron's Call justify their monthly subscription. That means that the companies have to pay artists, 3D modelers, programmers, story writers, etc. each month to keep your interest in the game. EverQuest, OTOH, charges you the same for a monthly fee and makes you pay extra for upgrade packs. $10-15 sounds like a lot, but considering before I got into MMORPGs, I used to spend a lot more than $170 ($10 x 12 months + $50 game) per year on game software because I would get bored with it so quickly, the $10 charge now seems pretty cheap.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
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
The Sims is less a "life simulator" and more a computerized doll house.
Instead of Ken and Barbie and their bright pink dreamhouse, it's naked representations of your co-workers walled up in the outhouse while the popular and beloved sim-you parties in an extravagent mansion.
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>
MU*s still do all this for free. Servers and bandwidth are dirt cheap when the game is text-only, so the game's "owner" often pays for it out of his pocket, and all the additions are gladly contributed by the players themselves out of simple love for the game world.
Like the guy said, all Everquest and its ilk bring to the party is pretty graphics.
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.
I would prefer to not pay for the client and foot the monthly bill to support continued development of the client, content, and server upkeep.
Free servers would fall back to an environment familiar MUD and Quake players - fan-supported infrastructure. Individuals either pay for, or find donated space and bandwidth to run their servers. Its worked well for Quake. You can STILL find QWTF servers (although the game has fewer and fewer players... which is still amazing considering its age).
Of course, there is a difference between Quake and a MUD. First, Quake does not involve developing characters so one server is pretty much as good as another. Secondly, Quake does not involve developing content - there are no campaigns in Quake. Although, there ARE a number of excellent free MUDs available and chock-full of origional code and content.
It is possible we'll see this happen soon. As Quake launched a series of very popular and successful mods, Neverwinter Nights may provide a platform for a new breed of fan-ran graphical MUDs.
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?
Daggerfall - great game. But WHY OH WHY did it have to be so buggy? Oh, well. I've preordered the sequel anyway.
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
- "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."
This is a good idea, and it might explain the addiction factor of EverCrack. Players feel like they have to get their money's worth, so they play as much as they can.
If Sony charged for time used then they might irritate the hardcore gamers, but they would draw in folks like me that are interested in the game but don't want to pay a game tax or have the game consume all of their free time.
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.
What's wrong with that? I've never found MUDs interesting, most of them are inhabited by role-playing purist pricks who say things like, "What ees thees strange theeng you call a 'level'?"
Graphical MUDs didn't just bring graphics, they also brought good GUIs and ease of installation and use to something that had once been horribly Byzantine. And that's why they took off like a rocket, while MUDs languish in obscurity.
If at first you don't addict, try, try again!
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
THere's significant differences between a game like Diablo II and a MMORPG. MMORPGs are much. much more complex worlds. The character classes, skills, and economies are much more complex. The servers need to be much more powerful to handle the load. Also, because the worlds are much more complex, much more work needs to be done on a routine basis to rebalance the game and patch bugs. In some games significant new content is also added on a regular basis without a sepreate expansion pack that you have to purchase.
You also have to realize that the game manufacturer doesn't see all that $50 for that game. If they're luck they might see half. If they can attract 100,000 players then they might bring in 2.5 million dollars. They have to pay a team of deveolpers to work for years on the game. They need to pay for the servers. They need to maintain the servers. They need to pay a customre support staff which not only supports the game, but has to deal with issues like cheating, hacking the game, grief play, harrasment between players. This doesn't even include ongoing developemnt costs. How much do you want to pay for this game up front? Hundreds of dollars?
I personally like the monthly fee way of paying. I pay a lower amount for the game up front, and it includes the first month payment. If I don't like the game, I'm not out a lot of money. If I enjoy the game I continue to pay for it. If the developers don't manage to keep the game interesting, I quit playing and quit paying. You get what you pay for, if you don't think it's worth the money, you stop.
There's nothing wrong with paying for pretty graphics - if that's what you want. I was simply disputing the claim that what you're paying for is new content. Any creative and dedicated player can contribute new content if they're allowed to do so. MU*s allow them. MMOFPSs don't.
*gasp* Role-playing!? How dare they! You're right, you'd better stick to your nice safe MMOFPSs.
Read "pretty graphics."
Most MU*s require nothing more than a telnet client.
If you just want to sit back and be entertained, fine, keep paying Verant $10 a month for what is basically Quake with spells.
MMOFPSs attract a lot of people because they appeal to the lowest common denominator of twitch gamerz. MU*s are obscure because they appeal to very selective and meticulous role-players who are perfectly satisfied with a text interface and a little imagination.
Even better, since MU*s are as easy to set up and run as any Linux app, anyone can create their own game world. Let's see you do that with a MMOFPS.