What would it take for a new mmo to recapture the feeling of eq?

[Clark]

Originally Posted by andrew23 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Community... here's why...

1) Grouping begins early, and levels are slow. So time playing/meeting/building relationships is longer and has a long lasting "real" effect. A few days missed in WoW will have characters at such a level difference they will no longer group.

2) Players know their character and the world, and are willing to interact with other characters in it. You will find more interaction in buying an EJAC than you will find in a week of WOW. Unless you consider "gogogogogogogogogogo" interaction.

3) Difficult and rewarding. The slow progress and challenging mechanics have you coming back for more when you actually get somewhere. Because it feels like you've attained something, and you want to continue your legacy.

4) You can begin meeting/playing/working with end game players as early as level 46, which only promotes the team work mentality. Unlike other MMOs where anything less than MAX level and some drops is UNACCEPTABLE!

As far as "time consuming and life draining" comments, lets not be naive. Nerds dump TONS more time into WOW than they should. TONS of time into LOL, TONS of time into COD. Everquest doesn't require more time than any other video game. What everquest does require is a team player attitude and a level of focus that sadly most people don't have. So they claim it takes forever, but really... it only takes forever if you suck ass at networking, have no social skills, and lack the focus required to earn your keep.

This is a really good post man.

[Trojanman]

A lot of great points here, I like threads like this.

I think most of you are right, no other game will capture what EQ did when it came out for several reasons. Another of which is that it came out at a time where online games were typically 16 players or the beefier counterstrike games could get up to 32? Here comes EQ with a truly massive amount of people that can interact together. This was before social media and before anything online offered that much direct user to user interaction...

I think the next big "EQ type" experience (if by this we mean revolutionary MMO), would have to include 2 things that are attainable in the very near future: VR and player effected environments (roguelike might be the wrong term?)

When EQ came out it wasnt graphically impressive, but it was about on par with other games of the time. Like I mentioned above it was the amount of people that can be immersed in the world at one time that was the draw. Today this is commonplace so it would need some new element of engagement to draw that massive immersive feeling. The obvious one here would be VR. Integrating this is a no-brainer moving forward but the first to do it well could pave the way for the next wave of MMOs.

The second would be an ever changing world where massive battles or player decisions could change the course of the server's physical landscape. This was the one thing I was excited about with EQ next and although ambitious, if done well could end all for me. I am not talking about a minecraft mmo where people could build dick statues all over the world. a system where to a limited degree destruction to structures could occur and mobs could relocate according to the environments conditions. Named mobs could not be "camped" because once they die... they cannot exist there any longer and would have to spawn at another place/time on that server. I could go on...

[applesauce25r624]

I'd rather recapture UO

[Evia]

To me, everquest was magical because it successfully made me feel as if I was in a world within a world. All the modern mmos make me feel like I'm playing a game. EQ does something that makes all the time sinking acceptable because it falls in line with more of a fantasy world simulator then an actual video game. The community/people really drive most of what goes on and the world is huge, vast, and mysterious.

[Troxx]

Originally Posted by paulgiamatti [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Substantial, substantive support from a playerbase.

I don't really think EverQuest was successful in its heyday just because it was one of the first MMOs; I think it was successful in its heyday because people were willing to invest insane amounts of time into it. I think people were sort of caught off-guard by this thing, and just kinda dove head-first into this huge fantasy world and willfully forgot about their real lives.

Most people quickly found out that doing so is simply not a sustainable way to entertain oneself. Online gaming addiction saw a meteoric rise into public awareness immediately after these kind of games hit the shelves, and World of Warcraft was largely developed in response to this problem, which is why it's so intent upon not only rewarding the casual gamer but being entirely designed around their needs.

And honestly, I don't really see anything wrong with that. Games that require investing inordinate amounts of time into them now have a more reasonable place in the gaming world among niche audiences and hardcore gamers. As long as a game requires people to invest as much time as EQ does just to see its end game, I really don't think we'll ever see another one quite like it - at least not at the caliber that EverQuest was during its peak years. Or, at least not until society no longer demands that most of us actually have something of a real life or hold down a job or support ourselves in some way.

It would take a completely different gaming landscape for something like EverQuest to actually be profitable in 2015. In short, developers don't care because developers have to eat.

Can't be said better than that.

/thread

[Champion_Standing]

Plenty of good MMOs out there that have everything people are claiming here makes EQ the best. It's just nostalgia.

[Roth]

Originally Posted by Champion_Standing [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Plenty of good MMOs out there that have everything people are claiming here makes EQ the best. It's just nostalgia.

This is not true, other mmo's don't capture the right spirit. I think the truth is people don't really know what makes eq so great so they say a couple things and someone applies it elsewhere and says "well you should like this it must be nostalgia". That's such bs. I don't care about wow the same way I care about eq. It's not nostalgia, and when I bring new players to eq they can usually see what I see in it and they're amazed. If other mmo's were so great I'd go play those and be happy with them but it's not the same experience here.

[Champion_Standing]

Originally Posted by Roth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This is not true, other mmo's don't capture the right spirit. I think the truth is people don't really know what makes eq so great so they say a couple things and someone applies it elsewhere and says "well you should like this it must be nostalgia". That's such bs. I don't care about wow the same way I care about eq. It's not nostalgia, and when I bring new players to eq they can usually see what I see in it and they're amazed. If other mmo's were so great I'd go play those and be happy with them but it's not the same experience here.

So it all comes down to some intangible feeling you get when playing....hmmmm


There are people who feel this way about WoW, UO, DAoC and about a lot of other games. Put EQ down on paper and its a pretty unremarkable time sink.

[Roth]

Originally Posted by Champion_Standing [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So it all comes down to some intangible feeling you get when playing....hmmmm


There are people who feel this way about WoW, UO, DAoC and about a lot of other games. Put EQ down on paper and its a pretty unremarkable time sink.

For me I think it's special because the world feels realistic and doesn't feel like a game. It's challenging and I feel like an explorer and there's a strong community. To this day I still tell non eq friends when I talk about the game the time I was in dalnir and some other group went to 3rd floor and lost their corpses and we tried to bail them out... long story but interesting. I think these types of things were just fun and a different experience that I haven't been able to find in other games. When I play eq it just hits the right spot.

edit: btw I forgot to add the dalnir experience happened here probably a year ago [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.], feels like a longer time than it was. That just proves my point though lol. I'm still making new memories on project 1999 and it's just an extension of my experience.

[pharmakos]

the sense of mystery was a huge part of it at first. it took months for people to figure out how to do the epic quests. you won't see that in a game for a long time, probably. people like instant gratification too much these days.