Originally posted by Aerowyn
if true that would be awsome but sad... would be a year of too many new MMOs lol

Originally posted by Amathe

The problem with John Smedley is that he has not learned the fundamental lesson of WoW.  That is, if you make a really good game, people will line up to spend money on it.  You won't have to scheme and plot to pick the players' pockets. They will gladly give you money.  Even today, with all the F2P games, millions and millions of people are still willing to pay a monthly subscription to play WoW.

 

John doesn't get that.  To him, the first goal of every game is to figure out how he is going to squeeze a nickel here and a dime there.  The game is secondary.  He recklessly chases every trend, every niche, like a kid with a butterfly net.  

 

Everquest is a powerful IP.  Lots of people like it.  Hell people are STILL playing it.  If John cared about the franchise, and if he understood WHY people like it, he could make a new version of it that would sell like hotcakes. 

 

But he is so wrapped up in how he is going to get people to pay for a game they haven't even seen yet that this is going to be another fiasco.  

What are you talking about?

So in effect you think that just redoing EQ1 would be the best course of action here? Despite of the fact that in the recent years many games copying that formula have tumbled down and failed hard? And why would they want to cannibalize on the remaining playerbase of EQ1 anyway?

No, the only sensible thing to do here is to go for something totally different. And it seems that's exactly what they are doing - pushing for a very player driven experience and not trying to compete with WoW on the field WoW is the strongest at (and that is being a polished themepark MMO).

Originally posted by AwDiddums

Originally posted by ice-vortex

Originally posted by tom_gore
As much as I'd like to believe it, you need to keep in mind old John also first said PS2 would be launching in Q2 2010. And that's true.

Planetside 2 at the time was also meant to be an expansion for Planetside 1, not a new game, and they decided to move it to their Forge Light engine.

Your feeding the notion then that EQNext could easily be a 2014 or later release, if Planetside 2 was a project that was slated for a 2010 release yet it was taken back to the drawing board on multiple occassions to ensure a much fuller gaming experience then the same could be true for EQNext.

I'd love EQNext to come out this year, and a part of me is hoping it will, but we all know how these things slip, we even have things happen that can see a game get canned when it's about to get out of the door, I still remember UO2 and how pissed off I was when after all those years of following it it suddenly got cancelled with EA telling us all they where going to concentrate on their original IP instead, the same could easily happen here and the tech they've been using implemented into a new EQ1/2 expansion, now that would be a kick in the balls.

There are plenty of high calibre games coming out to keep us all occupied while Smedley does his thing, I'm happy and patient enough to wait for him to do his work.

 

 

Planetside 2 was moved to an entirely different engine in a year. EQNext has been developed ground up on the same engine.

Originally posted by SavageHorizon

Originally posted by Aerowyn
if true that would be awsome but sad... would be a year of too many new MMOs lol

 

Does not matter how many MMO come out this year EQ has vast pulling power, we are not talking GW here. If the game is done right then many people would drop what they are doing to play, such is the pull of EQ.

As much as i distrust SOE for the things they've done in the past, and not so distance past at that.. i have to agree, regardless of how things end up, i'd probably have to buy EQ Next myself, just in case.

Originally posted by SavageHorizon

Originally posted by Aerowyn
if true that would be awsome but sad... would be a year of too many new MMOs lol

 

Does not matter how many MMO come out this year EQ has vast pulling power, we are not talking GW here. If the game is done right then many people would drop what they are doing to play, such is the pull of EQ.

yeah.

i'd buy it.

Originally posted by ice-vortex

Originally posted by Phelcher

I would say early 2014...!

 

Coincidentally, I have a hunch that EQNext, will bring back the premium subscription format.. as EQNext will be a premium adult game, geared for people who are willing to pay for a Role-playing, open sandbox-style game.

It will also need a hefty computer to push it, so knowing who Smed's chasing...  those peeps have no prob upgrading their system, not for these Veteran MMORPG'ers (40 & up crowd), who also has no prob dropping $20/month on a game.. you have to have...! (thats less the the cost of a decent cigar)

 

My hope^ anyways...  (though i hear things)

 

Did you even read the article I linked?

Yes, but irrelevent...   like I said, I hear things...

Everquest already has a WoW-like themepark in the form of Everquest 2. I don't think it was in their interest to compete in a market that is already bloated with a lot of competitors including the upcoming TESO which has a much more significant IP than EQ ever had when they could till new ground in a corner of the MMO market that is largely unexplored. They already said their motivation to move the development of EQNext to sandbox was watching what happened with Rift and SWTOR.

Originally posted by Phelcher

Originally posted by ice-vortex

Originally posted by Phelcher

I would say early 2014...!

 

Coincidentally, I have a hunch that EQNext, will bring back the premium subscription format.. as EQNext will be a premium adult game, geared for people who are willing to pay for a Role-playing, open sandbox-style game.

It will also need a hefty computer to push it, so knowing who Smed's chasing...  those peeps have no prob upgrading their system, not for these Veteran MMORPG'ers (40 & up crowd), who also has no prob dropping $20/month on a game.. you have to have...! (thats less the the cost of a decent cigar)

 

My hope^ anyways...  (though i hear things)

 

Did you even read the article I linked?

Yes, but irrelevent...   like I said, I hear things...

Voices in your head?

Originally posted by ice-vortex

Originally posted by DamonVile

The last time I remember reading about a game being developed in an incredibly short amount of time was vanguard. Even though it was in development for years they had almost nothing to show for it. When Sony took over, they had it out the door in 9 months and....look how that turned out.

I hope this game isn't going to follow in it's footsteps. We don't really need any more games that could of been great.

Vanguard began development in 2002 and was released in 2007, it had an exceptionally long development time which is one of the reasons Microsoft dumped it. SOE became the publisher in 2006, but Sigil maintained full control of development and funding. It wasn't until about four months after the game released that SOE purchased Sigil and Vanguard with them. Brad McQuaid admitted that the game wasn't ready and that it got released based on a lack of funding, but that had absolutely nothing to do with SOE as the deal they made with SOE kept Vanguard completely independent.

Yup that's what the wiki says. But if you followed the game back then and saw what they'd actually done in those 4 years you'd know what I was talking about.

Originally posted by ice-vortex

Everquest already has a WoW-like themepark in the form of Everquest 2. I don't think it was in their interest to compete in a market that is already bloated with a lot of competitors including the upcoming TESO which has a much more significant IP than EQ ever had when they could till new ground in a corner of the MMO market that is largely unexplored. They already said their motivation to move the development of EQNext to sandbox was watching what happened with Rift and SWTOR.

 

Originally posted by Phelcher

Originally posted by ice-vortex

Originally posted by Phelcher

I would say early 2014...!

 

Coincidentally, I have a hunch that EQNext, will bring back the premium subscription format.. as EQNext will be a premium adult game, geared for people who are willing to pay for a Role-playing, open sandbox-style game.

It will also need a hefty computer to push it, so knowing who Smed's chasing...  those peeps have no prob upgrading their system, not for these Veteran MMORPG'ers (40 & up crowd), who also has no prob dropping $20/month on a game.. you have to have...! (thats less the the cost of a decent cigar)

 

My hope^ anyways...  (though i hear things)

 

Did you even read the article I linked?

Yes, but irrelevent...   like I said, I hear things...

Voices in your head?

Everquest will be a premium game...  and people will want to pay $20/month to play... I can see littel kids getting jobs, because their parents cannot afford their evercrack addiction..

Originally posted by DamonVile

Yup that's what the wiki says. But if you followed the game back then and saw what they'd actually done in those 4 years you'd know what I was talking about.

I followed Vanguard for years

SOE was only the publisher until Sigil did their "crash and burn" and needed saving

theres whole history of commentary on Silky Venom - especially when it was announced that SOE was the co-publisher

http://www.silkyvenom.com/pages/devtracker/index.php?go=posts&get=thread&fromsite=1&id=51141

If you know the history of SOE and what happened to some of their games (like SWG) you are highly skeptical of anything that comes out of their PR department. 

But then you listen to what Smedley said when he told you that he put the kabosh on the first two EQ Next designs, citing that while they were both good games and worthy of being Everquest....they just really did not advance the game like it should have when he compared it with EQ2.

If they followed the same old SOE thinking, EQ Next would basically be a better looking version of EQ2.  So another quest hub, themepark, barter fest MMO that you can solo to max level and sit in a lobby to join instances to run 50 times over before moving on to the next expansion.  There are dozens of MMOs that do that.

He said he decided to make the switch to more of a sandbox type of game because that is how he saw the MMO gaming community going, and he was right.

It's ironic that the company that utterly destoryed Western Sandbox MMOs could very well be the company that resurrects them.

I saw this thread last night and I think my heart skipped a beat. Sounds pretty good like some form of it will be released late this year. Really looking for more information on what the specifics of their vision of a sandbox is.

$OE survives purely on dev talent. They have demonstrated the ability to crank out major, quality, compelling content in a very short period of time (months).

$OE epic fails, however, at leveraging their products, targeting 1% of the player base with the excuse that 'oh nos we can't have more than one code base.' A few tweaks or alternate server styles could have brought in a much broader audience.

---

Originally posted by Amathe
The problem with John Smedley is that he has not learned the fundamental lesson of WoW. That is, if you make a really good game, people will line up to spend money on it. You won't have to scheme and plot to pick the players' pockets. They will gladly give you money. Even today, with all the F2P games, millions and millions of people are still willing to pay a monthly subscription to play WoW.

John doesn't get that. To him, the first goal of every game is to figure out how he is going to squeeze a nickel here and a dime there. The game is secondary. He recklessly chases every trend, every niche, like a kid with a butterfly net.

Everquest is a powerful IP. Lots of people like it. Hell people are STILL playing it. If John cared about the franchise, and if he understood WHY people like it, he could make a new version of it that would sell like hotcakes.

But he is so wrapped up in how he is going to get people to pay for a game they haven't even seen yet that this is going to be another fiasco.

---

Sadly, Amathe is probably right. But one can still hope.

Originally posted by Arclan

$OE

You are an inspiration for originality.

Originally posted by koboldfodder

If you know the history of SOE and what happened to some of their games (like SWG) you are highly skeptical of anything that comes out of their PR department. 

 

But then you listen to what Smedley said when he told you that he put the kabosh on the first two EQ Next designs, citing that while they were both good games and worthy of being Everquest....they just really did not advance the game like it should have when he compared it with EQ2.

 

If they followed the same old SOE thinking, EQ Next would basically be a better looking version of EQ2.  So another quest hub, themepark, barter fest MMO that you can solo to max level and sit in a lobby to join instances to run 50 times over before moving on to the next expansion.  There are dozens of MMOs that do that.

 

He said he decided to make the switch to more of a sandbox type of game because that is how he saw the MMO gaming community going, and he was right.

 

It's ironic that the company that utterly destoryed Western Sandbox MMOs could very well be the company that resurrects them.

 

 

I would be surprised if they develop a game that was even a 1/2 sandbox.    

Smedley quote of the week:

GameSpot: Last question, John. What's the one lesson from your two years of seeing Star Wars Galaxies being played, that you wish you knew sooner?

JohnSmedley: That straight sandbox games don't work. And that we needed to focus much more on the Star Wars experience. I think in the past, what we probably made was the Uncle Owen experience as opposed to the Luke experience. We needed to deliver more of the Star Wars heroic and epic feeling to the game. I think we missed there. That's what I think we really brought to the game [with the update].

Originally posted by keenber
To me anything to do with EQ lore cant lose . I  am looking foward to this game more than any off the rest.

 The lore and world of EQ1 were great in its early years.....After a few expansions it started to get ridiculous....My hope with EQnext is that they got it right with EQ1 (for awhile anyway) and that gives me some hope that maybe they can find the magic again....my fear though is that it ends up a questfest like EQ2 and will be crap.