Not doing this again...

There has been a lot of threads about wanting an EQ3, bringing in new players to EQ, wanting to prolong the inevitable, etc.

I am 50 years old. I have been playing EQ for around 23 years, with two breaks that lasted a total of around 13 months. The biggest reason for me personally why I won't go into EQ3 or Pantheon or any other never ending MMO is that I have a hard time envisioning myself playing computer games like this at 73 years of age. And if I knew in 2000 that this game would never end, there was no light at the end of the tunnel, and that I would be playing one game exclusively for over two decades... if I knew then what I know now, I probably would not have gotten into EQ. I am the type of entertainment consumer that enjoys the product, consumes it, but eventually wants to have closure- an ending, if you will.

I share this because I believe there are a lot of players like myself, who simply do not want to start over in another MMO that never ends. Who do not want to devote another two decades into a character. I know there are some that do and want to, and that is great. But I think for many of us in my age demographic, EQ is going to be our first and only MMO. So making EQ3 is not going to appeal to us. Pantheon is not going to appeal. We just want to be happy in our current ship, and ride this boat until it ports at a harbor for good.

Is there more like me? Unwilling to start a new MMO knowing that it could last two plus decades? Or am I in the minority?

This is how most GAAS games are becoming nowadays, they have no end and you have so much time invested that you generally wont try another one until either your main one dies or it is something "revolutionary" that cause an exodus and start fresh somewhere else

Ignoring the fact that an EQ3 doesn't seem very likely at this point and even if it was players are unlikely to migrate from EQ1/EQ2 just because it is released (or even if they shut down EQ1/EQ2). Personally I think it would be way to early to say if players would switch over to EQ3 as it is unknown as to what type of game it would be and that will have a major impact on who will want to play it.

I agree with Cic on this one for sure. Not only for the time sink of an MMO... but the next EQ if there is one will be full of microtransactions like every other game these days. It won't be anything like what we have now, it'll be full on Pay to Win. Maximize those profits, suck as much money out of the players as possible.

When people make present decisions with future impact, some assumptions need to be made. These assumptions are based off of history, personal analysis, etc. Sports GM's do this all the time with trades and free agent signing.

If EQ3 or Pantheon or any similar grand scale MMO is released, there is a reasonable and safe assumption that the game is looking to last for decades- unless the devs release the game and state this is only a 5 year run, for example. And on that reasonable assumption, I (along with others like me) simply don't want to invest another 20 years plus into a game that never ends. That was the premise of the thread.

I'm older than you, so with that said, I have no desire to start a new game from scratch. I've been playing since 2002. My main and only main was created that year and I still use it today.

And that is making an assumption that EQ3 will be designed as a grand/epic scale MMO and not in a different style.

I very much doubt an EQIII would be targetted at the existing player-base anyway but they absolutely should not in my opinion, they should be looking to capture a younger audience than the 40-70 year olds playing EQ & EQ II.

Daybreak/Darkpaw will have learned from most EQ players not abandoning it for EQII they are not going to get those players to try their new game en-masse, they'll get a few curious folks having a look at best - unless it happens to be something truly extraordinary, which I highly doubt it will be, e.g. more evolutionary than revolutionary such as EQ Next was aiming for.

I doubt the EG7 boardroom is trying to figure out how to capture the senior citizen gaming market. They understand that all EQ players will soon die of old age and are planning accordingly.

Just on the basis of time spent, Im not seeing how devoting two decades to a new game is any worse that devoting the next two decades to EQ. Its the same thing. If you had prophetically argued that the new game will be crap at least you would have a possibility of being right. But just saying you cant see spending that much time? You very much are doing so.

Thanks for being so brutal and reminding us that we are in a race to see who or what is going to come to an end first.

This is the saddest post I've read in a long time on here. From your post history, I see how much you struggle with your EQ addiction and how you need the game to close down to be able to stop playing. It's just sad that you need people to lose their jobs to control yourself.

You don't have to play a game for multiple decades continuously. I pop in and out every couple of years catch up on content, raid current content for a month or two and leave again.

If you're not going to stop gaming, then what's the difference between new game or old game? It's all about community anyways.

We (EQ1 players) aren't the target audience for a new EQ game. Possibly former EQ1 players, or attracting a new audience. EQ1 has been a desirable IP in MMOs for a long time, but hasn't made a new game in a very long time. EQ3 seems more like a white whale at this point.

I am of the assumption that EQ is not going to be around another 20 years. I honestly feel it has five or so years left before it begins the sunset process. That is strictly my opinion with no factual data behind it. While it obviously could go another 20, I don't think Live is going to last that long.

In that case, you have freedom of choice. Just because a game goes for another 10 or 20 years does not mean you have to keep playing it. Whether its EQ or EQ3 or some other game, if you dont think you should spend that much time on it, dont. The implication that you would rather play EQ because you think it will die sooner is kind of out there.

Heh, this is funny, didnt the name sort of give it away.

EQ3 is going to tank like every other live service on rails does. People want a new innovative product, and DP, based on development history, isn't capable of delivering that content.

Having played EQ for 22 and a half years, with only a forced month break when there was a data breach I know where your coming from. But then I think about what I would have been doing if I wasn't playing EQ.

I think EQ has been good for me over the years. I've had people to socialise with while the kids were growing up, I wasn't the bored house wife sat at home watching daytime TV. There was always someone somewhere to chat to and explore EQ with. I have met some amazing people I wouldn't have met without EQ. For me EQ is better than sitting down in the evening or during the day and watching TV.

Over the years my mind set has changed. When EQ2 launched I didn't want to start over and start from scratch. These days I'm happy to start over on a TLP server, another game wouldn't be a hardship. But other game depends on game play, so far I haven't found anything that can keep me interested like EQ does.

But as someone else said, if they launched EQ3, they would be aiming it at a younger market, which would likely not be the game play I would enjoy.

As someone said years ago.

"You do not stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing".

So...what would new and innovative look like? I have a good friend that is working on a new game at a company here in San Diego. The art looks great, but the little that I have heard of the actual game play seems to be highly derivative of most games. Kill, get experience. Loot and do quests.

Sound familiar?

What would you (meaning the group of people who might actually play another game) want in a new game? Would it run on a PC? Would it need grouping? Would halflings exist in this new world? A world that has a dynamic landscape?

The holy grail of MMORPG is a game system where the players make the content. You see that with PvP servers as an example, however a MMORPG would be looking at players to change the world, produce the gear of the world, and create new locations.

A game called Asheron's Call 2 was trying for that, but player made content isn't as good as dev crafted content.