What is EQX? The future of EverQuest?

Get your attention? Good! It should.

The latest episode of The EverQuest Show is one of the biggest ever.

• EverQuest X? What is it? EverQuest: Dungeons? Daybreak comments
• Comment from Daybreak on the development of a new EQ MMO
• Update to the Swag Store coming (EQ1 items expected!)
• And lots more!

As always, let me know your thoughts and what do you think about the EverQuest D concepts and ideas?
Fading

I'll have to check this out in the morning, but...interested officially piqued

X is the unknown quantity. X marks the spot?

The world art looked great. The characters models did not.

High Elves are supposed to be beautiful and ethereal. Not stick figures wearing tree bark.
Dwarves are supposed to be short, stocky, and rough around the edges. Not literally like they're made of clay.
I didn't realize those were supposed to be Kerrans until someone else told me. No. Just no.

The Ogre looked pretty good.


"Stylized art" generally looks like crap. Make it look as good as you can without compromising playability and that's it.

People still like the original EQ models because they look like the things they are supposed to look like, not some awful cartoonish stylization.

Is there still a market for a new Everquest? I'm not even sure.

All of the things that made EQ great in the first place have been slowly dwindling from live; risk of dying, heavy group content, camping mobs, class individuality. The way the current EQ works is nothing like it was when the game first came out - the game has changed and, more significantly, so has the MMO community.

We don't have that innocence to explore, to help others for no personal gain, we don't really communicate that much through the game anymore. We're not interested in sub-optimal loot, we don't like it when someone gets something and we don't, and we certainly don't like doing something for nothing.

The only thing close to EQ as it was are the TLPs and, with the introduction of bots / boxes and kronos, we all see how those go as time goes on - bring a new one out each year with a different ruleset to try and capture the thousands of players who've just left the previous one.

If EQX were to come out, we'd have streamers telling us all about it in advance, we'd have alpha and beta testers working out where the best gear was, and how to get it. We'd have krono farmers locking down camps and turning the game into a cash-driven cow.

I don't want this to come off as a depressive post, but I think most of us play EQ because we wanted it be like it used to be, we don't want to play the next FFXIVWOW clone. Unfortunately, I think EQX will have to be otherwise it just won't attract new players. The talk about 80-10-10 suggest otherwise, but I'm hedging my bets that as the genre evolves, that 80% of current is going to have to dwindle simply to compete.

Personally, if EQX ever appears, I will buy it. I can't help but try each new MMO as they come out to see if they can fill that gap that original EQ left, but I don't think I'll ever find it again.

EQ2 has less players than EQ and didn't really attract players away from Evequest.
EQ Next / Landmark never really got off the starting blocks.

Pantheon looks to be going the way of the Dodo, with them attempting to monetize their 247 testing ahead of actually developing the game for the people that pledged. This smells very similar to EQ Next's situation.

Monsters and Memories seems (to me) to be the game I'm most looking forward to - it's being developed by ex-Everquest staff and they do seem to hitting development goals so far.

The good news is EQX will be a completely separate game. EQ1 and EQ2 will be kept in current state, updating/upgrading as needed and possible. EQ1 is going nowhere. You don't have to play EQX. In fact, it sounds like we can count on you not playing.

Pantheon never existed. Sure, there's code and investors but it's vaporware. It was never released and may never be. It doesn't belong in this conversation.

M&M looks interesting for sure. Realistic timeline given the size of the project. I worry that M&M will suffer from vanilla-itis. It takes time and talent to build an MMO world that feels alive and that customers have come to expect. Time will tell.

That’s cool with EQX but this studio hasn’t demonstrated an ability to release a game.

Definitely feel the art style showcased in the episode is experimental. This kind of art commission is almost always a sort of 'gut check' for the art and design team. "Are we going in the right direction?" so to speak. Just as discussing an idea with someone outside the work you're doing can help clarify your vision, the same applies to any creative work. That's all this is - reimagine the world of Norrath to help draw some useful comparisons to a given direction.

For me, and acknowledging I am hugely biased, I prefer the original art style (top image) to the EQNext art style (bottom image).

How about you?

Ji Ham outlined that they are standing up a new team just for this game, and will borrow resources from Darkpaw and Daybreak.

Not being too serious, but it just annoyed me how much Ji Ham stood in front of the projector in that presentation. Not only do we get to see half the slide projected onto his face, but I'm sure the people in the audience didn't appreciate a Ji Ham shadow blocking out parts of the text.

I noticed that as well. Looked like they were presenting in a micro-theater and not a board room. Stadium seating and such.

Fabulous episode, Fading. Well done. And thank you for the clarification at the end with the quote about the art you showed.

But, one major complaint and it's not about you but about Daybreak.

Where is the "Swag Shop"?

There is no link to the swag shop on the Everquest official webpage or any information in official posts. They shouldn't hide it or make their players have to search for it.

I did find a "merch" link when I scrolled to the bottom of the Everquest.com page and clicked on Darkpaw. Curious, I also looked at the https://www.everquest2.com/home page and there is a link to the Swag Shop there. So why haven't they bothered to add the link to the https://www.everquest.com/home page or even have any announcements in the News and Announcements of this forum.

And then if you look on the site, it becomes clearer why they don't link it or advertise it in any way to Everquest players. It's only EQ2 stuff. The only EQ things are the vault of never.

However.... it would have been nice to find a link to in the info on the episode if you want to help promote it. But, the info on the videos is devoid of any links, so not that unusual.

More terribad art direction imo. That is not EQ. EQ is NOT Marvel. It is NOT Pixar.

I personally like it.../shrug. I also liked the graphics from WoW over EQ as well so I guess we can take that however you want

It's concept art. Chill.

New art looks like something from japan. Course im old school i like the original. Just like i like the old models on characters and only have the luclin one on one race so i can see my heroic armor.

Looks like WoW models.

I'm pretty sure they want to market for new young players instead of pulling in old existing players so I doubt they are going to use art that existing players will 100% be on board with.

Did you miss the quote at the end saying the art concepts were a direction they're not going with on the new development?