A NEW EQ?!!
I recently had someone mention to me they heard there was an Everqest 3 in the works. I chuckled to myself, and said yeah right. I don't ever seeing that happening. I just might have to eat those words. I don't mind that one bit if it's the case ;) But I am sure it will be a wait for hearing more on that.
Zam/Allakhazam has it posted up on their site(s). I recently got around to seeing it, so the news isn't new. I do check out many other sites quite often and I saw this mentioned, just thought I would look into it. I try to keep up on things but sometimes things get past me, so no this isn't anything new.
While there is no big news with S.O.E. on it, here is a quote from the 10th Anniversary EverQuest Book written by Rusel DeMaria and Paul Lipscombe: "So you can see there's a lot to wrestle with as we begin laying the foundation for EverQuest 'Next.' As I write this, we have concept artists and game designers working hard in our studio-taking the lessons of the past, the best parts of the present and the most promising ideas for the future-to bring the world of Norrath to a new generation of players, as well as the dedicated legions of fans who made the EverQuest franchise timeless. I hope we'll see you there."
So all we can do is wait and hope for the best. As much as I liked EQ2 it wasn't a game to hold me like the original. If they were to do another, lets hope it is more like the original. It could be console based, who knows. If that was the case it would not be of interest to me, sorry I'm not much on console games unless my son badgers me into playing.
Speaking of EQ2, Shards of Destiny patch was released today. Some cool things along with it.
Chronomagic.
This works similarly to mentoring except:You do not need a mentoring target.You can only choose levels in increments of 5.You do not receive the bonuses granted from mentoring other players.
Player houses have been given an extra room!
Achievements
"The new achievement system gives players a fun new way to track their accomplishments! Most achievements will award players with achievement points that can be used to compare their progress against other players. Some harder to complete achievements will offer non-stat item rewards. The basic categories are General, Dungeons, Exploration, Player vs. Player, Quests, Raids, Tradeskills and Triumphs. Triumphs are large scale achievements that combine multiple achievements into one large one. An example of this would be to do all of the combat, quest, and exploration achievements in a specific area."
Currently there's some cool in-game events, but I'm not currently active, if I do play one of the two EQ games anymore I prefer the original. That's just me. Definitely good stuff there though.
More and more new games!
So it seems on the horizon we have DC Universe, yet another comic book style game. I'm not sure if I could stomach playing any more super heroes in the near future. I have my hands full with Champions Online. I suppose this will be the first to use real super heroes we all know and love. This is also a S.O.E. game.
Star Trek Online. This could be a Trekkie's dream game. I'm not into the space type MMORPG. But it is nice to see different types popping up. They are currently accepting closed beta applications. So head over there if you're interested. Think I will have to pass on that.
However.. I am interested in SWTOR. When I was five I had a pair of R2-D2 Underoos I ran around in the house with lol. I have always been a Star Wars fan so this game holds some interest to me. Not much news lately though :( If you have not checked out the current classes you can check them out here.
The three new releases in the MMORPG Genre, how are they doing?
Champions is doing well, they recently had another patch to smooth out some kinks such as retcon costs. A free retcon is being granted to all characters created before September 22nd, 10AM UTC. More money will be dropping off mobs and from quests to help resolve the problem. I am glad to know they are keeping in touch with the players issues.
Fallen Earth did an overhaul on the female character's faces due to player request. It seems the females were not so easy to distinguish from the males. They do indeed look better IMO. You can check out some pics and more info on Massively. They also had another patch today, the full notes included; Fixed a server lockup due to actor generators. Fixed some cases where events would not update correctly.
Aion is booming obviously ;) While I have had a really easy time logging in with (HAHAHA NO QUEUE TIMES... sorry had to say it), other servers have had horrible wait times. NCsoft has stated they are keeping tabs on it. I assume it will slow down in time, I remember waiting up to 2-3 hours to log into WoW in the past when servers started getting full. Only time will tell if they will need to expand on servers, for now it is best to wait and see on this I suppose. I remember logging into WAR and not seeing more than two people before the server merges.
Speaking of server merges..
Recently SWG had server merges. This is a good thing. A game of it's age begins to need the servers merged. It helps with the community and finding more players to do things with. It does not mean "OMG THE GAME IS DYING!111" It's something that happens to a lot of older games. With the exception of one.. Before I go onto that route, I did notice SWG has a buddy/recruit system in place with rewards. Sweet.
Back to what I was saying.. Actually the game six years old, about a year older than WoW which I just noticed. But then again WoW is the juggernaut of the MMORPG industry currently. So neither is old when compared to Ultima or EQ, still not spring chickens.
Every game out now is trying to compete with a five year old game. I surely hope S.O.E. comes out with guns blazing on Everquest 'Next'! How ironic would it be for EQ to take the lead again? Oh one can dream right?
I have played two out of the three new releases (Aion and Champions), and constantly I see people talking about WoW. Compare it to WoW, ask if there are options for this or that like WoW. Is the PvP like WoW.. and so on. The chat is constantly flooded with talk of WoW either it being good or a random STFU and go back to your WoW fanboi!
It is still there, an imposing game, in a world where new games are trying to get footing. If Blizzard had any common sense they would take note that they are still in the lead and keep people interested with (yes, I am going to say it..) NEW CONTENT on a bigger scale with expansions.
Had Cataclysm come out this year instead of next would I have gone to other games? I highly doubt it. I do want to see other games prosper, it's so nice now to have more choices. Then again if Everquest used all the resources they put into EQ2 on EQ would I have left? Maybe, maybe not. I still miss the game, I just don't miss many things about it.
So Blizzard could try to top it's own game like S.O.E did and possibly fall off the top.. or top themselves. Nostalgia holds a lot of power, while newness fades quickly. Or they could get their arses in gear and start doing things to keep players.
Also I wanted to give a /salute to ixobelle the lonesome hero.
And thats all I have to say for now ;)
-kaozz
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