EverQuest Next Lore: Shades of Grey
The lore of EverQuest is changing significantly with the reimagining taking place in EverQuest Next. Not all of the changes are sitting well with veteran players, especially as those changes…
The lore of EverQuest is changing significantly with the reimagining taking place in EverQuest Next. Not all of the changes are sitting well with veteran players, especially as those changes…
Two days ago Omeedd Dariani left Sony Online Entertainment. Omeedd was the Senior Brand Manager of the EverQuest franchise. I mean no disrespect to Omeedd as a person -- none…
Dear SOE, I'm one of your original players back from the EverQuest days. I played the original EverQuest for many years, and I have continued to follow and play just…
"...Choices matter --Â even bad ones." Â That's a quote from our interview with Mark Jacobs in response to whether or not players should be allowed to "gimp" themselves at character creation.…
The idea for today's post comes from one of our long-time readers, Bhagpuss. While discussing yesterday's topic of older MMO combat being much slower, and as a result much deeper,…
I love the image above from a post I wrote a year ago about combat in MMOs changing from slow and methodical to fast-pace button mashing. The summary you all can already…
Downtime has always been considered a negative. It's meant to be something players have to mitigate. Developers create abilities meant to reduce downtime or make it more bearable. That said,…
I touched briefly on the idea of character advancement in yesterday’s post, and I think it warrants further discussion.  Right now MMOs seem to have one common theme: Pick a class, quest to level, unlock all abilities, then do end-game activities to get loot to make your abilities better.  That’s the gist of character advancement.  If I were responsible for looking at how characters would advance, level up, improve, etc., in a MMO here’s what I would do.
Specialize
Play-style should radically change based upon one’s chosen profession. Â I use the word profession in its truest sense. Â Wizards being blacksmiths, blacksmiths being thieves, everyone being everything, it just doesn’t make much sense to me. Â Professions require extensive training, prolonged study, and practice. Â I like when players need to specialize and choose a path. Â Be one thing, and have the game be capable of supporting whatever choice you make by providing a unique and 100% fulfilling experience.
Advancement
Blacksmiths should become better blacksmiths by making weapons. Â Thieves should become better at stealing and moving about undetected by actually trying to do so. Â Warriors wanting to increase their strength and skill with a blade should have to go out and slay beasts. Â I like when I see that my character has become better at using swords because I have actually used a sword. I’m not a believer in universal advancement or “choose where your point goes” systems. Â If you use a sword and gain a level, why should you be able to increase your armor value? Â I’m not saying that everything should make perfect and realistic sense — it’s a game after all — but these things are capable of being great gameplay mechanics. (more…)
Critiquing quests is quickly becoming the norm around here.  Every time a new MMO comes out the first thing I'll say is how much the questing sucks.  Killing ten rats has…
Fifteen years ago my friend asked if I would be interested in seeing something no one has ever seen before. Â "I am a tester for this game that's not really…