Where's EQ3?

[Thales]

Hey, everyone!

Long-time, no-post.  I hope you are all well.  I see that activity on this site has fallen off.  That's too bad.  You have (had?) a great community here!

Last time I posted here, I was getting into Aion.  I have since gotten out of it.  It was a totally different experience from my only prior MMO experience, EQ2.  It was fun for a few months, mainly while I was gaming in the protected newb areas.  However, open PvP and the extreme scarcity of gold made progression way less fun than in EQ2.  If I wasn't getting endlessly ganked by people 20 levels higher than me, I was scrabbling to earn enough gold to pay off my experience debt from dying.  I've since done some pretty in-depth research into all the other MMOs I could find and have concluded that none of the current ones are for me.  I'm pretty firmly set against games that have a significant PvP component, and definitely not *open* PvP.  I also don't want a game that doesn't have mentoring.  One of the nice things about EQ2 was that, years and years on, people were still playing the low-level content in groups.  All three guilds I was in in my short time in Aion collapsed in large part because the guild members could not group together once their levels achieved a certain dispersal.  You could roll an alt, but you'd have to keep rolling new alts in perpetuity if you wanted to be able to do the low-level content with new friends. 

Anyone have any inside information on when we might see a successor to EQ2?  I have concluded that EQ2 was essentially the right game for me after all, but I somehow can't bring myself to re-subscribe after leaving.  I gather that Vanguard was meant to be the spiritual successor to EQ1, but it never took off.  What else does that leave?  FFXIV? 

Thales

[Kaid]

EQ3 is being worked on or eq next or whatever its in dev name is but no clue how far out it is. I think the next big name mmo thats on the horizon would likely be biowares starwars mmo.

[Perragin]

If they make EQ3 less group required I'll be all for that!

[Kaid]

I would agree although from what I hear they have gone a long way to making eq2 a bit more soloable. I myself like a good mix of solo/group content eq2 especially at launch was way to group oriented. If you did not have a group you could not do much and most character classes were so focused on their speciality they could not reasonably solo in an amusing fashion.

Honestly I have no problem focusing group content towards bigger quests and dungeons. Outdoor stuff should for the most part be fun and soloable or done in small groups of 1-3 people because a lot of folks don't want to be in a big group all the time sometimes they like to putter around by themselves.


Ideally they would make a lot of use of PQ like mechanics from warhammer where solo or group dosn't matter as all can help contribute to the objective without needing to be grouped.

[Brasse]

Here's the insider information on EQ3/Next: I haven't got any, hehe.

Not a word of a lie: even though I work for SOE, all I can tell you is that there are people working on the next concept, but no one has any idea of the scope, style or other details of the next big thing.

It's a MYSTERY!
I am as intrigued as anyone else.
;-)#

[Thales]

Hey Brasse!

Thanks for the inside scoop!  I'm sad to hear that EQ Next isn't very far along in development.  It seems like there is something of a gap in the market right now that it could fill.  I mean, has there been another successful AAA-rated PvE fantasy MMORPG released in the last few years?  I can't think of one.  According to mmodata.net, the overwhelmingly most popular MMOs right now are, in order, WoW, Aion, Runescape, and the two Lineage games.  It looks like people strongly prefer fantasy PvP games.  <sigh>

I hope FFXIV is amazing.

Thales

[Wren]

I have no insider info for you, but I sure would like another PVE fantasy-style *big* game to come out. I'm ready for something new and exciting in this regard. EQ2 has a number of solo quests, but really, if you care about advancing your character's gear at all, you will need to group, and that I don't like. The gap between casual players and the hard-core seems painfully wide. But, that may be just how the hard-core like it. I dunno.

While I wait for something else (hopefully better) to come along, I'll continue slowly plodding around in EQ2.

happy day,

wren

PS--Thales, hope you're well. I can honestly say you are one of the people I do miss in-game.

[Thales]

Hey, Wren.

Good to hear from you!  I see that Puchi is level 87--congrats!

Yeah, I miss you guys in EQ2, too.  I can assure you that, should a big new PvE fantasy-style game come out, I will be ready to try it with you!  Finding people you enjoy playing with is clearly key to getting the most out of a game. 

I agree that it's best if there are abundant solo options.  In Aion, you run into massive soloing roadblocks which cause your progress to crawl to a halt if you don't have a regular group to play with.  You make very slow progress toward the next level while trying not to go broke paying to rez yourself over and over.  It's pretty painful.   I have learned that, when PvP is an option in a game, people tend to prefer it over PvE, so PvE stagnates.  Even if you don't prefer PvP, you have to try to get PvP gear just so you can have a chance of surviving the constant random ganking while you're trying to accomplish PvE goals.  If they took the PvP out of Aion, so that people focused more on instances and less on realm-vs-realm PvP, it would be basically a perfect game.  It's an amazing template for a wickedly good successor to Everquest. 

After I played Aion, I tried playing Oblivion, which is a single-player game.  As I expected, after the initial thrill of being able to solo everything, and so to make rapid progress whenever I had time to play, it got a little boring playing by myself 100% of the time.  I stopped playing it when I realized it was basically DOOM with prettier graphics and a more complicated story. 

I will certainly post on these forums if I find another good game to try.  I'm sure one will come along eventually.

Take care,

Thales