Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EverQuest Sequel Shows Complexity, Ditches PvP

Posted by simoniker on from the m-to-the-m-er-eff-in-o dept.

Thanks to GameSpy for its hands-on preview of Sony Online's forthcoming PC MMO EverQuest II, as the author discusses the graphics ("EverQuest II is one of the most beautiful games in development... Every square inch begs to be explored"), the play style ("EQ2 has a smaller, more intimate feel, more like tabletop roleplaying games centered on small parties"), and the complexity ("Everyone starts on the same island, then has to choose allegiance to one of two main cities (and belief systems!) From there, more and more options open up, sort of like an inverted gameplay pyramid.") Elsewhere, over at EQ2 Stratics there's further confirmation from devs that: "There are no plans for a PvP [Player vs. Player] server at release. There is no ETA on when or if we will ever have one."

3 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. So? by obeythefist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's still going to be a levelling treadmill. People will still farm loot.

    But it will look prettier and so it will garner more subscriptions for Sony.

    --
    I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
  2. Re:No PvP = no subscription for me by Golias · · Score: 4, Insightful
    There is nothing more challenging than playing vs another human being

    Correction: There are few things less challenging than playing an MMORPG dual against another human being. There is no skill involved in the combat system of these games, apart from the group tactics of fighting large armies of NPC mobs. If you win a PVP match-up in Everquest, AC, or whatever, you have accomplished pretty much nothing. You won because you went into the fight with the more powerful PVP character.

    If you want be "challenged" by other people, go outside and play golf, tennis, basketball, or at the very least play an FPS game on your computer. MMORPG PvP is a joke.

    --

    Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  3. Not immature, just different. by Mongoose+Disciple · · Score: 4, Insightful

    PvP attracts the immature set..

    That's not entirely true.

    Here's a paper written a long time ago about different player types in MUDs. It holds for other games as well. If you dig around, you can also probably find a test to tell you what type you are.

    Granted, I think the author's own biases show. He describes the "killer" type, which would be the type drawn to PvP, as about griefing. I don't think that's true, though it might certainly seem so from an achiever standpoint. More, I think it's about competition, about an ideal that you're the best because you can and do go out and beat other people, not because you log more hours.

    Players of the current crop of MMORPGs are almost universally achievers by Bartle's model. If you wonder why these games turn into super levelling treadmills, the answer is fairly simple: It's because that's what their core audience genuinely wants. They might bitch about the timesink that it is, but their choice to continue playing demonstrates more clearly than words that they anything but despise it.