EverQuest Next Articles
Victor shares his thoughts on the Storybricks shutdown, and wonders what it means for the tech of Storybricks itself
I’m trying my best right now to be eloquent about the recent news of layoffs in Daybreak Game Company. Sadly, it’s 4:00 am as I write this, a reactionary submission to MMORPG.com in light of my tenure as the Everquest Next and Landmark columnist.
Victor chimes in with some positivity regarding Sony Online Entertainment’s transition to Daybreak Game Company.
Victor wonders if SOE has taken away the magic of a video game by explaining the trick behind making it work.
Let’s remember a year of Landmark development by looking at two good and bad aspects of the game that are likely to be transformed or improved upon by Everquest Next’s development.
Victor rounds up two more features that Everquest Next might want to take from its rivals!
Hey folks! We’ll be taking a bit of a detour today from our regularly scheduled updates of Landmark to discuss the future of Everquest Next. It’s not a real future for Everquest Next, but an imagined future where Everquest Next launches with some features thrown in there adapted from other games.
If there’s one game the MMO consumer really seems to enjoy, it’s playing “the next big thing” game. Hopeful fans project their best wishes forwards onto the next game, jaded players are certain that the next game is just “the next WoW clone,” and fervent players are certain the next game is the much-prophesied “WoW killer.” In each case, what brings us all together is looking at the next shiny toy. EQ:Next is most likely the next big thing.
A year ago, or just about, I sat in a large banquet hall in Las Vegas as Dave Georgeson outlined the next big project for Sony Online Entertainment. The speech centered on a list of “Holy Grails” in MMO development, and how their EverQuest Next team would be reaching to achieve those lofty benchmarks.
What I’m hoping will come out in SOE Live is partly a rehash of my earlier E3 wishlist. That said, with slightly more information available now, this SOE LIve wishlist is going to get some validation very shortly after publication. Will I get anything right this time?
With little information on Everquest Next available at present and the fact that SOE’s Everquest Next/Landmark team is at E3 itself, there is a small chance we may see some Everquest Next-related news or updates tacked onto Landmark showpieces on E3. To wit, I’d like to list down three things I would like to see or hear from SOE upon the MMORPG.com team’s return from E3.
Nothing says, “Everquest is awesome!” quite like a picture of Omeed Dariani riding the 1970s Batmobile. Everquest has come a long (really long) way since Omeed and his Batmobiling ways. In one sense, this is because Omeed now has his very own Everquest Live loveseat, and also because Everquest has grown in its own way over time, culminating in the development of Everquest Next Landmark and Everquest Next.
Despite my best efforts, I find myself to be a horrible builder. I can craft wonderful ideas in my head, describe them with epic scale in an essay, but end up making balls of dirt on my claim. Luckily, the February 18 Everquest Next Round Table Response gave me hope that I can actually play the game in a way that seems to make sense to me as someone who's horrible at free-form creation: getting other people to help me!
I was planning on writing an article relating to what I’ve been able to do in the game, but a recent blog post by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) president John Smedley just made me throw out my plans and focus on it. Smedley discussed SOE’s vision of the sandbox, and why the sandbox model of MMORPGs is looking like the way forward for the industry. It’s a great look at why Everquest Next made a shift in its development cycle to become a sandbox MMORPG (or two).
Aside from an update to the Everquest Next: Landmark alpha requirements, one of the other notable discussion topics this week was the weekly Roundtable, where Omeed Dariani and Jeff Butler discuss how grouping and individual contributions might work within Everquest Next.