SOE created EQ2 7+ years ago and when it released it was the most graphically beautiful MMO to date. It even blew away most non-mmo games. At the same time Blizzard released their MMO with the graphic detail of a game written in the 90's. Terrible polygon counts with horrendously undetailed textures. Over the years it seems almost every MMO released has went the route of WoW, releasing terribly undetailed graphics to accomidate ancient computers. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but the majority of the games being released look like they're 5-10 years old before they even hit the market. PLEASE, for the love of all things good, do not do that with EQ Next. I know you've already stated that you want the game to run on all systems, and that's a terribly huge red flag that suggests the graphics will be low detailed, cartoony, and overly "glowy". EQ2 went with a realism vs cartoon approach and I just really hope you stick with the realism side of things. I'm so tired of getting excited for new games just to have them end up looking so lousy that it detracts from the game-play. I seriously hope you let some of the player base in to see things before you go so far in one direction that it's irreversible.
I would rather a game be playable and stylistically interesting rather than technically impressive, but clunky and stylistically bland. The only zone in the original EQ2 that looked cool was Solusek's Eye. The character models were and are still pretty blah, and the armor models were plain and uninspired. Not to mention EQ2 has been riddled with performance issues since launch, even on current computers thanks to the whole single-core fiasco. I would prefer a stylistically interesting game that runs smoothly, though I doubt EQnext will appeal to me anyway.
I thought that I read somewhere that EQNext was going to use the same engine that Freerealms uses. I may be way off base though, I'm pretty tired.
While I understand where the OP is coming from and agree on some points-- I can safely say that EverQeust Next will not shoot for a more realistic graphics style and will be "scaled" to work with many different types of PC systems. You can not blame the team for doing this as it has made World of Warcraft extremely successful. If anyone thinks that Sony Online Entertainment is stupid enough to try and do what they did with EverQuest 2 graphically, they're out of their minds. Everquest 2's graphics engine is a complete mess. Even on the highest end systems, the game runs poor. I would love nothing more for them to shoot for a graphically and technically impressive game, but I have no faith that they will tackle this task as they have not shown they're willing to take a gamble with many things in the time I have been playing their titles. I apologize; that is only my opinion though. Graphics are also a personal opinion. I personally love the graphical style of titles such as World of Warcraft and Tera Online. One thing to remember (as someone else mentioned above) graphics do not make a good game. You could use Final Fantasy XIV as a good example of this. I do not mean to disrepect anyone who developed Final Fantasy XIV, but it is a perfect example of a beautiful disaster. While I am on the subject, I wish the best for the future updates in that game. Who knows though! The developers of EverQuest Next may just pull the rabbit out of the hat and surprise us all with a lovely looking game and great game play! Currently, we do not know enough about the project so why don't we wait and see, yes?
Smedley has already stated that they are intending on using the Forge Light graphics engine for EQNext, the same engine that they used for Planetside 2. If you haven't seen footage of Planetside 2 yet, then you should, because it's amazingly beautiful. The lighting effects are marvelous! Imagining that engine, as I play Planetside 2, in an EQ setting is awesome.
