I don´t care about levels, if you take a look, what level you need to get sometimes groups.... its maxlevel, which equal to me 0. So if you cut out the levelgrinding from 0-95 and set it to nothing, would that realy hurt?
if you look at eq2 now, sure that's the case. but there once was a time where all the levels found groups easy
Yes, sadly but true. But if the game starts with no levels. There will be no need for, if they manage to fill the gap with content. But if they don´t have level, they probably don´t need to fit content to a certain level. Which probably will give them more space to be creative (well at least i hope so ^^)
I'll probably...grudgingly..play it. At least for awhile. My wife is really interested in it. And the graphics thing doesn't really bother her. (Traitor!). I suppose I can manage a grumpy ol....<insert race/class>....but I WILL not be a Kerran.
What was the "first hugely successful mmo" that didn't have levels and don't try to laughingly say UO. It was "an mmo" with players... not huge. It sounds to me like you are part of the crowd that thinks all games need to have twitch combat, instant gratification, no consequence for any actions you make but hey, I could be wrong like you are with the fellow you wrote to. When Next is released and you quit in a month we'll still be playing EQ... why? Because it takes time...
Have paid any attention to what has been released about EQN? First, there will most definitely be consequences for your actions. Faction standing will determine your opportunities in the game, which will include which classes you will have access to. Second, there will be some work to attain max skill in a class. However, the big experience sink will be in becoming more flexible rather than numerically more powerful. This will make a larger portion of the content meaningful to a max power character. Instead of 90+% of the world being meaningless, new content won't necessarily obsolete older content. Advancement will be less about bigger numbers and more about more variety. Also, if there is ability to change the world, the need to only chase power through experience and gear is greatly reduced. Instead, a character becomes more what they have done to affect the world.
I share the concerns of the thread starter. Working on something or getting something done was a nice accomplishment in everquest. Seeing someone with jboots meant they had gotten the ancient cyclops. Seeing someone in full plane of fear armor in the early days meant he was a great player. Seeing a warrior in full cobalt was an inspiration to many lower level people. I remember the first time ive seen a max lvl conjuror in eq2 standing there with his fancy robe and his amazing pet while i was a nooblet. Ive had high respect for that because back in the day leveling wasnt as easy as its nowdays. People do BG all day, not touching any quests or zones anymore. The accomplishment was removed. In EQ1 on the other hands, many accomplishment were held even a year or two later. A warrior with a blade of carnage meant something. With every new expansions sony created new tasks and challenges, the game never was really easy. I want that back. I want a slow and long leveling process with hell levels (Who actually remember hell levels? How did you feel getting past one of these? That was just awesome!). I want armor that is hard to achieve. I want real progress. Im not holding my breath for the game. Definitely going to try it out but if the thread starter is right with what hes saying, i wont be staying more than 3 months in this game. No matter how good the AI, the landscape, the graphics, the encounters, the vortex world is. Those things might be brilliant features in SoE s eyes and while i have highest respect for soe for actually getting something epic like this done, its just not what keeps me personally ingame.
Besides the appearance that the combat will be console-style action, my other primary concern is if EQN will have anything for the players, like myself, who are goal driven. I've usually end up getting bored in sandbox games that have too little direction. While I don't like railroaded games where you never have any real choices anywhere, I like to there to be recognizable goals to strive for where, if when you don't know the exact path, you have at least an idea and can periodically see progress towards those goals. ((For me, getting armor piece A, B or C is not an engaging goal.)) The only thing they've mentioned that even comes close seems to be the 'rally calls', but those seem too large and over arching to make good personal goals... what do you do in the mean time if you can't find the x number of people you need to do the next 'step'? for example? I worry that even though they say you don't 'have' to grind mobs, that there may be little else to do besides randomly beat up on passing monsters for no reason beside that fact that they are there and to take their stuff.
Keep in mind, outside of the graphics no one has seen much of this "magically new game-play mechanic" in action, the AI, game-play and new system of character growth are nothing but visions and promises. Basically all vaporware at this point. Hopefully we have all learned to be a bit skeptical of such. I know D3 has taught me well how hard a company can fail with a proven title. To those excited about no levels and some even saying that because we have no levels there won't be the issue with new people trying to group together, I say balderdash. It doesn't matter if it is a larger skill-set or levels both will create a delta between a new player and old player; eventually that delta will be so great as to make it intimidating for a new player to get into the game. Just as it takes time to level it will take time to increase a character's skill-set, in this nothing has changed beyond what is being developed, imo nothing presented in EQN "fixes" the new vs old player schism.
Yeah, DArkfall did that, and new players got stomped into the ground by the ones with the higher skill levels, it is no different being a powerfull long time player and a high adv long time player, the noobs to the game still feel the bite of those with higher skills or levels. There is really nothing you can do about that. You are either higher skill level or higher adventure level. It's the same dang difference in the eyes of a new player to the game. The only way ( admittedly I have NOT thought about this for much longer than ohhh about 30 seconds ) to avoid that is to make everyone max everything and ONLY have titles that you can achieve. That way it's an even playing field for vets and new players alike. But who really wants to play a game like that? How boring!! People I have talked with and play with like achievements! We like Goals! We like Challenges!
In my opinion they aren't creating anything new or original with EQNext. They are simply pulling elements from already existing games and putting them all in one game (as many people have indicated already). Also, I worry that they are trying to be a "Jack of all Trades" with EQNext, but will end up being "The Master of None" (hope I am wrong).
I won't be leaving EQ2 and I won't be playing EQN. I am very excited though about the release, I am hoping it will win over alot of the whiners, complainers and the dumb it down cheerleaders.
You don't get it. It's okay, I and many of my friends like playing in worlds with depth and rewards and risks. Most modern MMORPG's lack this. It lacks rewarding hard and long work towards a goal, like Levels, or for others raiding. That kind of coordination envolved to herd so many people to kill things in a raid should have it's social rewarding experience too. Make you go omg you got whatever weapon of shinny! But mostly we play MMORPG's for the people. So being bored to death in an MMORPG? Won't happen if you like the genre.
True, they complained about the EQ2's body forms upon the game's release. And many of those Players came over from EQ1... where all the character-models were static-posed, cardboard-cutouts with drawn-on non-articulated faces, which were mounted on low-polygonic skeletal meshes. Time marches on.
You know what? Game Developers want, and love obedient, naive Gamers like you. Obedient Gamers, people who are just smart enough to run the game and do the Dungeons and Raids. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier dumbed down games with the lower difficulty, lesser play time, reduced stragey and thought of how to play your class, reduced effort of any kind, the end of a REAL MMORPG and a vanishing indepth RPG that disappears the minute you go to buy a game thinking it's an mmorpg, but is actually a MMO, and now Developers and PR are hyping you up telling you just how great the game is and only showing and talking about the good parts of it, meanwhile they are laughing at you behind your back thinking how gullible gamers like you are to assume you're getting something more indepth and "Better" when it's actually a shell of a game that has most of it's features removed that made the Franchise great in the first place.
So play Landmark and build your 'niche' MMO there. See if SJ was lying when he said he wouldn't cry in his beer if a Landmark MMO became more popular than EQN.
If all EQN was supposed to be was a continuation of the same, stale gaming paradigm I've been playing for 15 years I'd not look twice at it. That the devs are trying to make something different is the only reason it's worth bothering with in my opinion. I'll check it out and judge how well they did making a new game for myself when the time comes and save any real praise or condemnation for Next when I actually know what it is I'm talking about. If nothing else, however, getting to play with Landmark as a side effect of Next being created might make the whole thing worth while anyways.
It's not a traditional mmorpg no. That's why it's called Next... it implies a new style of game. I look forward to it. I've been playing mmorpgs for many many years and to be honest i think the genre is incredibly stale. I don't want to play the same game for 10-15 years. I like having options and EQN gives me those options. My hope for it, is that it brings back emphasis on exploration and adventure. The AI and the changes that take place to the world can make it fun to just head out and stir up trouble in the wild! I mean a lot of you guys are looking at it the wrong way. No levels doesn't mean no sense of progression and power growth. You will gain access to more powerful skills and stats. There are still rare items and drops not sure where you got that from. Also just because the game doesn't have 50 abilities mapped to your hotkeys with a emphasis on watching cooldowns and tapping keys doesn't mean no skill will be involved. You are going to have to react to combat more than in traditional games where you stand in one spot spamming cooldowns. I love the art style and i think it gives a very warm and colorful feeling to the world without being full on cartoonish. It's like a water color painting imo and i think the lighting effects are amazing. Also not everyone can simply press a button and be everything, you have to work on unlocking the classes,then the is the matter of good versus evil classes that not all alignments will have access to,then there is the matter of skilling it up, then there is the matter of which classes you blend PLUS the matter of which weapons you choose. It creates a much broader system than most of you give it credit for. As for the series being "dumbed down over the years" The same is true of every modern mmorpg and virtually every single game ever since atari 2600... games progressively get easier and more accessible to appeal to a broader audience. It may suck for hardcores but money talks and game devs are in it for $$$ more than anything else! Never forget that! Most people don't want to spend hours retriveing a corpse or grinding off debt/releveling a toon anymore. A very small percentage of players actually miss that system. I get the appeal of steeper death penalties = a greater sense of danger and adventure because i remember those days. However i think a lot of you would find going back to that... it's mostly rose tinted goggles syndrome and you won't enjoy it as much as you think. Try P99 if you don't believe me lol. And lastly, no sense of goals? It's WAAAAAY too early to talk about what goals people will be working towards in EQN... honestly i think you guys are overreacting. None of us know all the details about EQN. Very little is known and the game is far from being released so take in a deep breath and relax. For those of you who truly hate the idea of EQN and a new style of sandbox mmorpg... you have EQ1 and 2! They will continue to be supported for quite a long time i'm sure. Check this out and rejoice, i'm sure it's just what the hardcore oldschool fans are looking for http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/11/01/brad-mcquaid-looks-to-kickstarter-for-new-mmo/
