MMORPG.com columnist Bill Murphy has titled his latest entry into the Staff Blog "Is EQ: Next Really Necessary?" But don't misunderstand, Bill is excited about a new Everquest but the announcement of Everquest: Next has raised questions in Bill's and others' minds.

Will the Everquest brand be enough to make EQ:Next rise above the crowd and attract more players than the current juggernauts and those games which are on the horizon or will it suffer from the problem of merely cannibalizing Everquest’s own audience?  I suppose that’s part of the idea though: SOE knows that in many gamer’s eyes Everquest is still a classic intellectual property.  Maybe all it needs to rise to the top once more is a new take on the old formula.  But if that’s the case, why are the early art and details promoting a game that’s very similar to the fantasy MMOs we already have in the field vying for gamers’ attention?

Read Bill's entry in the MMORPG.com Staff Blog.

I personaly love eq2 but since all my real life freinds keep bitching on me to play WoW instead and i cant seem to find someone in eq2 that likes to just grinding instances and farm bosses and play alot without going afk all the time i eventualy got bored and just stopped showing up for raids and that was that. So if they make eq3 i will most likely get it if they keep the same type of gameplay.

So are we like 5 years out or what?  After following EQ2 with some excitement and then being let down by what they actually published I'm a bit skeptical with SOE's checkered past that they will be able to produce anything worth playing.

But I'd love to be proved wrong...

My thought is LOL.  I mean come on, I don't think there is enough talent left a SOE to do anything on this scale.  Then you have Smedley, the one trick pony who can't keep his mitts off the product design.  Every time I read something about SOE they are having layoffs.  Can't be enough people left to barely maintain what they have now.

As long as Smedley is at the helm, I don't see anything interesting coming out of SOE.

Who knows there is always the possibility they might surprise us, but don't hold your breath.

I don't think anything out now or the next 5 years will be able to even begin to compete with Guild Wars 2, Let alone the masters of the generic; SoE.

/Fanboy

I dont know if its necessary but im going to check it out. Norrath is the best MMO world ive found.

It's still SOE and Smedley. Negative reputation, especially in the gaming industry, is a hard thing to shake.

Much of the lore and world are already in place. With a somewhat diverse set of races. How many "We need to ressrect XXXX MMO!" threads have there been? Lots, and many of them just want a graphics update and the like. So don't really mess with what works. This gets them the chance to revamp retune their combat, crafting and other systems. While even employing a new engine to do so.

Personally I hope there are Sarnaks on release but sorta doubting it at this point.

I think it is necessary.

EQ2 seemed to fail in drawing the fans of EQ. I have a friend who was a huge EQ player and who was looking forward to EQ2. After he played it for a bit he just quit. Said it really didn't feel like EQ.

I hate to say it but EQ Next could hopefully be a true successor to EQ in a way that EQ2 couldn 't.

Then again, with player's expecations on what old EQ was and what new players want, that could prove to be a challenge.

EQ 2 really was too much of a change from the beginning.  I was talking non stop about trying it when it came out.  I bought it, excitedly installed it, loaded up my first character and was just disappointed from the beginning.  I don't know if it was too much change or lack of real direction.  Not to mention the graphics engine from the launch was brutal to machine standards back then.  I definately didn't have a top of the line machine back then but I was able to play EQ 1 with no problems at max settings.  I can only hope that they put a lot more time in to testing with a new EQ format.  If they do, I'll give it a try Sony or not EQ was my first MMO.

END OF LINE_

~V

EverQuest 2 is really a great game!  They really had gold on their hands with this one!

But as SOE and John Smedly in particular being extremely incompetent and not able to look beyond the US borders. They screwed up royally and missed out on the chances of having at least double or even tripple the amount of subscribers!

Their marketing department is an absolute disgrace and incompetent bunch altogether.

International distribution and availability of their products (physical boxes, etc) non-excistent.

How in earth do they think to ever compete with the competition with EverQuest Next??

If they had the above in order. Then all the (mostly failed) experiments with Station Exchange, Legends of Norrath, Station Cash (now Market Place) and the upcoming EQ2:Extended (wich will be the final nail for EQ2Live) would never have been necessary!

They would have had enough subscriptions to keep the game going and not even having to think about EQ3 !

But instead they just fail at keeping people subscribed (mostly due to the above), pissing off loyal subscribers, laying off the competent devs and having to replace one incompetent producer after the other.

It's a real shame.

But like others have already said. Most of the talented people have left SOE and I really don't see how they can get anywhere with another EverQuest.

I watched the EverQuest Next Panel videos on their Facebook page. Seeing those developers/designers next to John Smedly. You could see the insecurity and inexperience on their faces and how they answered the people's questions. It was just too awful to watch.

Thanks, but no thanks.  SOE was once a great studio. But no more.

I'll buy it, I try them all

But I will also brace my self for the game to change so much in 1 year it won't be the same game it was when it was first release ala SOE roadmaps (and usually for the worse) ie SWG EQ2

Originally posted by Sovrath

I think it is necessary.

EQ2 seemed to fail in drawing the fans of EQ. I have a friend who was a huge EQ player and who was looking forward to EQ2. After he played it for a bit he just quit. Said it really didn't feel like EQ.

I hate to say it but EQ Next could hopefully be a true successor to EQ in a way that EQ2 couldn 't.

Then again, with player's expecations on what old EQ was and what new players want, that could prove to be a challenge.

I would like to say to that friend:

Well...duh!

EQ II was never supposed to be EQ1. They have different play styles, etc.

EQ II is less mandatory group-centric, more solo available gameplay.

You don't need 60 people for a raid.

etc...

Would be better if they fixed the current games they have first before this

Originally posted by itpaladin

Originally posted by Sovrath

I think it is necessary.

EQ2 seemed to fail in drawing the fans of EQ. I have a friend who was a huge EQ player and who was looking forward to EQ2. After he played it for a bit he just quit. Said it really didn't feel like EQ.

I hate to say it but EQ Next could hopefully be a true successor to EQ in a way that EQ2 couldn 't.

Then again, with player's expecations on what old EQ was and what new players want, that could prove to be a challenge.

I would like to say to that friend:

Well...duh!

EQ II was never supposed to be EQ1. They have different play styles, etc.

EQ II is less mandatory group-centric, more solo available gameplay.

You don't need 60 people for a raid.

etc...

Somone can correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember EQ 2 being more group centric at launch. I'll be honest, I didnt' follow EQ 2 except to purchase it at launch in order to try it. However, it seemed to me that at the time, players were hoping to continue with an EQ experience but updated and refined.

I don't really think it was common knowledge that it was going to be such a departure from EQ. But again, I could be mistaken at that part.

I know there were issues such as the shared group death penalty, issues with that golden thread that lead you to your body, issues with the high requirements for an art design that players were not entirely thrilled about. Players didnt' like the locked encounters feature which I believe is optional (?) now.

Someone will have to comment on EQ2's launch raid requirements.

In any case, EQ 2 failed to capture the same zeitgeist of EQ and didn't really capture the hearts of EQ gamers like sony had hoped. This is not to say that it's not successful but my sense is that Sony thought it would be more of a blockbuster.

I think it is necessary, but at the same time don't think it will work.

Neither EQ game really doing well these days and soe needs a presense in the fantasy game market.  It is the biggest mmo market and EQ is their biggest success story.  They need a good fantasy game. 

The problem is that making a new EQ will require people who are passionate about games and understands what made EQ great.  That really has not been the hallmark of soe game design since their creation and they bought out EQ from verant.  

Soe had the chance to do EQ:Next when they designed EQ2 and look at what a mess they made of that.  Their original design was flawed and overall lacked soul.  Everything after that has just been a series of retooling the game to be more like other mmos than it has been about being true to their own designs and vision for the game.  That has also been a consistant message at the EQ:Next panels at fan faire.  Whenever a question is asked, they reply by saying they decisions will based on gameplay from the original game and not eq2. 

Like Bill said in the original post, it feels like the game is aiming to compete with what is already on the market and not really looking forward.  Almost as if to be a reboot of EQ2 into what they wanted 6 years ago.  If that is the case, then soe will just spend the post release years of the game revamping the game to emulate other games once again. 

Some of us have been waiting for this game for 9 years.

If they do it right, maybe Vangaurd meets DAOC then I think it could compete in the market it will be in.

If not, just call it NEVERQUEST

I loved EQ2 as well up until the point where they severly nerfed my favorite class.Class balance seems to be a major issue in EQ2.I played for years,but playing a class that got no attention and shunned from raids got me very upset at SOE in general.My friend already hated them for that they did to SWG.

Then they have the nerve to tell us that we're just playing our class wrong.ARRGGGGHHH i hate SOE.Anyways i don't think i will be playing everquest NEXT

Originally posted by bosmer24

I loved EQ2 as well up until the point where they severly nerfed my favorite class.Class balance seems to be a major issue in EQ2.I played for years,but playing a class that got no attention and shunned from raids got me very upset at SOE in general.My friend already hated them for that they did to SWG.

Then they have the nerve to tell us that we're just playing our class wrong.ARRGGGGHHH i hate SOE.Anyways i don't think i will be playing everquest NEXT

 It's because they pretty much lost all their experienced developers. Most of them got fired in the last couple of lay offs. And being replaced by interms and noob developers.

What you expect when you put a noob developer on Lead Class dev position of EverQuest 2? Wich is now the case.

That guy has absolutely no clue about the classes. They had no clue what they were doing with the Stat Consolidation that came with the last Expac. The itemization is completely out of wack.

And now they throw out one blanket nerf after the other across the board. Ruin several classes in one go, piss off those players, in a "FAIL" attempt to fix one single class, that just only needed some positive love.

And now you have these same kind of "inexperienced" developers at the helm of designing and developing EverQuest: Next !

lol! Thanks but no thanks.