Does EQNext even have Forums we can hang out and speculate on?

That's kinda like saying because he did a cover for Neuromancer that he's a William Gibson artist. Dude's got bills to pay.

Even if this artist only did this one image and no other art for the game; his gallery shows that he is clearly capable of doing pure high-fantasy art. Yet they either intentionally told him to do it in the very stylized method that he did for WoW; or simply allowed him to do it that style. Either way it was a huge mistake; simply because it opens them up to the obvious comparison to WoW.

With every new MMO nowadays being accused of being a WoW clone it is a bad place to intentionally put yourself. People who play WoW aren't looking for another WoW. People who left WoW aren't looking for another WoW. And people who never liked WoW to begin with don't want an MMO that looks like WoW.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. Should we avoid orcs because another game has orcs? Or should we pick and choose what features will make EQN the best game it can be? Every game gets accused of being a WoW clone because for some people that's their only frame of reference. My favorites were when people accused warhammer of stealing the setting from WoW.

EQN is definitely not a WoW clone, and frankly we can't limit ourselves out of fear. Every choice being made is based on "What will make EQN the best game it can be". And I'm confident in the team is making those choices.

WoW is also aging almost as bad as any other MMO. It's lost huge percentages of it's player base especially from Burning Crusades days. Simply because one artist may have worked on a game doesn't mean that everything he/she does immediately is compared to that game?

If that was the case Dragon Age ripped music from Everquest 2 because Inon Zur did music for EQ2 before Dragon Age. Does that make sense?

SOE should do themselves a favor and get rid of the over-exaggerated armor and go with a more realistic style. One of the main reasons anyone even plays EQ1 or EQ2 nowadays is because they have a more realistic approach to the look of races and armor.

This picture looks like it belongs on World of Warcraft website...

While you are absolutely entitled to your opinion, don't assume everyone that plays EQ agrees with you. I have played since EQs beginning and I love the "over-exaggerated" armor look. I enjoy stylized (not to be confused with cartoony) over realistic any day.

Take EQ2 for example. The first zones, while interesting I guess, we're VERY bland due to wanting to be more realistic. Slowly over time they moved away from that. EoF comes to mind. That's when the art began improving ten fold for me. I know not everyone agrees with me on the subject but the same goes for your comment as well.

If I want to play a game where the shoulder armor is the size of 6 gnomes and a sword is the size of 3 humans, I will go play World of Warcraft. I, like majority of people I have talked to, which is easily in the thousands, play EQ for it's more realistic approach to character models, armor and weapons.

Class sets & class hats were/are still very tame & certainly not flagrant or wild departures from realism, but of good & attractive creative direction!


Sidenote: if Gnomes look like SOGA EQ2 Gnomes, & not default EQ2 Gnomes, I will go SSJ4 Mystic full nerd-rage fusionaru-san... ;|


@Fictional Reality:
I will say that the quality of the Human, Dark Elf, & Half Elf models supersede any WoW material.

I personally can appreciate the Kerra look (supposedly not a VahShir, seeing as Georgeson referenced it as a Kerra).

But, the seemingly no-neck dwarf & the Orc-looking Ogre are gristling my Galifrieds... .__.''...

The flared vambraces, the excessively/unrealistically thick, immobile, & weighted armor, the Firiona Vie sword with no center of balance & no sensibly expansive, rope/cloth-wrapped handle for proper grip on what >WOULD CLEARLY< be a two-hander, & Firiona Vie losing 3 points of beauty are absolutely not okay for me... o_o''...

Hopefully all belts won't be wannabe punk-rock, "but I'm so country" perversions of buckles fit for font large enough that senile grandmas could read it.

The bow isn't too bad though, I guess...but the whole, obvious exhibition of this "feature" is also unsettling, as I'm clearly, rabidly anti-unpenalized-on-the-fly-multi-class (see #1 in the LOTPENSAB -- reputation constancy for PvP servers & a sense of community on PvE servers are A MUST -- players MUST KNOW the HISTORY of a NAME tied to a CLASS tied to a RACE -- yes, feel free to disable multi-classing on PvP servers.)

My hope is that EQNext will be too stylized for the eq2 crowd and the bulk of you just stay here tbh. EQ1s community was amazing. I guess it was just the time period and dealing with thousands of people instead of millions but every since EQ2 launched we have just been bombarded with moaning and complaining on EVERY subject that's ever brought up. Maybe EQNext will appeal more to EQ1 players so many of you won't even be tempted to spoil that game as you have this one!

You DO realize that the majority of people who complained about EQ2 were long time EQ1 players don't you? Everyone wants EQN to be more like EQ1 and a lot of people consider EQ2 a failure compared to EQ1. I have played EQ1 on and off since it was released and still log on over there.

If I want to play through tough content that takes some skill and balanced groups/raids, I will play EQ1. If I want to RP and decorate houses and guild halls, I will play EQ2.

Yes, fun to try blaming the community (a common blunder), but if you browse the links I mentioned, literally all the points I cite are spoken of by our anonymous peers (one can call this "universal coincidence", "hivemind telepathy", "demographic trends"), which, over at MMORPG.com, resoundingly appear to be from EverQuest 1.




On a sidenote, here is a link with all EverQuest Next knowledge referenced...:

Everything we Know about EQN summarized with links to sources -
http://www.eqnexus.com/forums/index.php?threads/everquest-next-compendium.188

(link above doesn't mention a focus on AI [Artificial Intelligence], which I believe there's a focus on, as IIRC, there were hiring listings for such an AI role)

Interactive Quests, dynamic dialogues? -
http://www.tentonhammer.com/everquest-next/opinions/the-power-of-interactive-quests

So... "You spoiled your lands!"

from... http://brainsnorkel.com/2005/04/21/youve-ruined-your-own-lands-youll-not-ruin-mine-i-will ... & ... http://kendricke.wordpress.com/2006/06/22/youve-ruined-your-own-lands ...

I read...

Definitely remember Gnolls saying that in Blackburrow, Antonica, & wherever else!... >|

It wasn't just Gnolls who said that. The Freeport guards were notorious for screaming that also. I heard that phrase from a lot of NPC's all over Norrath though because I was an Iksar.

I think the air is getting awful thin around your head on the horse you are riding. There was, and still is to a degree, a great community in EQ2. There was a lot of moaning and groaning in EQ1 too. Jealousy over necro fear kiting comes to mind. Also, many of the changes implemented in EQ2 were never called for by the vocal majority of the community - especially many of the mindless pvp changes. Before you throw out inane blanket statements you might try to better educate yourself. As others have pointed out many of us that play EQ2 also played EQ1 and occasionally still do. We had high hopes for Vanguard when it released, moderate hope for EQ2 and hope we don't strike out with EQNext. The very community you are slamming is the community that has supported both projects since inception and that has stood by SOE through a lot of great content and some stupidity since 1999. We introduced those worlds to our kids as well and still play as time allots.

The fact remains other MMOs have suffered huge back lash for copying WoW is a considerably less literal way. People who don't like WoW hate when other games mimic it; and people who do like WoW hate when people copy their favorite game. There are very few mmo players that don't fall into one of those two categories. Hence why copying WoW has been a death sentence for every MMO since.

Of course their should be orcs and there had better be [insert random sting of your favorite expletives] player character TROLLS but those orcs and trolls had better NOT be cartoony emo twinkly clownish Orcs and Trolls - that is what we absolutely do not want doing such will ensure that you cut many of us off that have supported this franchise since inception. A large number of us just would not move forward with you (and I would hazard a guess that many of us would prohibit our kids from playing it too just because those types of graphics would enrage our inner child that much every time we looked at it).

Omfg, I thought the "like" button on these forums was a facebook thing until just now LOL

T H I S !!! over-exaggerated armor belongs into WoW. EQ2 was miles ahead when it came to armor design.