EverQuest Next and the great MMO hope
Posted on August 1, 2013

Tomorrow is a big, big day for a lot of folks: It’s the day that SOE will finally pull back the curtain and show us what EverQuest Next is all about. To say this is anticipated is understating it a tad. SOE is preparing for record attendance at SOE Live this week and folks that have gotten an advance look at the title (under NDA) report being bowled over by it.

EverQuest Next has a lot riding on it. For starters, it’s the next chapter in SOE’s flagship EverQuest franchise and the first EverQuest title in many years. EQ’s glory days of being on the top of the heap are in distant memory. In a year where WoW is declining by over 2 million subscribers and Blizzard’s next MMO hit the reset button, SOE has a good chance to swoop in and get all sorts of attention. It’s shaping up to be the best time to ramp up the hype machine and get EQ back into the gamer vernacular, is what I’m saying.

SOE hasn’t been shy about talking up how awesome this game will be, either. It’s not just the next EverQuest game, but it’s the next huge sandbox game. Smedley’s used the promise of EQN to soothe the hurts that Star Wars Galaxies’ demise caused, and I know not just a few people that are praying and hoping that EQN will be a spiritual successor of sorts to SWG. There are quite a few sandbox MMOs in development right now (ArcheAge’s move to the west comes to mind), but this could be the biggest one of them all.

So. Lots riding on this. Personally, I’m interested if not invested in what will be revealed tomorrow. I have no hatred of EverQuest, but it’s never been my gaming “home” at all. SOE as a whole hasn’t ever bowled me over with its approach or selection of titles. Maybe that will change. I’m open to it. What I’m more cautious about is the whole sandbox thing. Everyone’s got their own interpretation of what a sandbox should and shouldn’t have, but what concerns me is how much structure underlies such an experience. I’m not a fan of a complete playground where everything is shaped by players and there’s no effort on the part of the game to provide guided experiences or give me a clue what to do. That said, I think we definitely could use a good shake-up in our approach to MMOs, and I won’t be that guy who crosses his arms and grunts, “This is too different!” just because it’s not like your standard game.

Style and game personality will be an influencing factor as well. I have never liked the EQ art in either game, so EQN could either attract or repel me depending on its feel.

I know a lot of folks have pledged their loyalties to WildStar or The Elder Scrolls Online as the next big thing right now. I have a feeling that EverQuest Next will be bumped up to that same level as of tomorrow. I’m excited to see if that’s the case.

So on the eve of the EQN reveal, what are some of your thoughts on it? Hopes?