EQNext" will be the world's largest sandbox-style MMO ever made"

[sparks]

EQNext is going to be player driven content with a huge emphasis on player designed dungeons

so you do all the work and they charge you for doing it?

maybe they can use player paid servers and they can charge you to put them up
maybe they can just charge you and then say drm and have the gov regulate your use of the game.

God I hate sony

 

[notarat]

" Something you've never seen before. The MMO world has never seen before. We didn't want more kill 10 rats quests. We didn't want more of the same. If you look at the MMOs out there, they're delivering the same content over and over again. So are we. We need to change that. When we released EverQuest, we changed the world. We want to do that again with a different type of game."


at the very least, they 'get it'...they realize why mmo's suck...the first step in solving a problem is admitting you have one

Speaking as a Ratonga, this pleases me. My family is finally SAFE!

 

[ob1]

My froglock kin also concur with the above poster about safety at last...

 

[hdawg06]

Lets just hope snakes don't learn how to kick again...

 

[SeaFoam]

I really hope this gives me the feeling that the original EQ did when I played it. I haven't had an MMO since that did, no surprise or adventure.

I may get it, but I definitely won't be playing it like I used to. 30+ hour dungeon camps.... Jeez

 

[Goride]

Ultima Online was an example of a great sandbox MMO.



(well great prior to the implementation of Trammel, then the game started going down hill)

 

[polydiol]

I can only hope that they can duplicate the original Everquest experience and not allow dps meter type shit.

 

[Bdonedge]

SOE, TAKE MY MONEY!!!!

It's so weird to think that they scrapped everything. They were saying like 3 years ago that EQnext was revolutionizing the MMO industry...looks like they didn't mean it then...

 

[Trimlock]

Hard to build a healthy player base when a majority want instant gratification or low amounts of competition.

EQ - Gratification achieved through intense competition over a mob that took 7 days to respawn (some 14). You want to down it? Come prepared to survive and hope your cleric is worth their salt.

WoW (I like WoW) - Gratification through easy trade skills, through easy dungeon grinding, through dailies, through very un-inspiring raids.

I remember in EQ running into unrest and almost crapping myself when I ventured into the house for the first time. First time seeing a grey triangle with arms flying around come out of that house I again crapped my pants. Finding the secret door and falling into a pit of shrooms ... again crapped my pants. There was so many suprises, exploring moments, intrigueing areas (Mist Moore had the patent on interesting areas, gardens?) and random amazements that I doubt any game will hook me like EQ did.

Putting this back into a game is commiting suicide as it doesn't fit the "feed me now" model eveyone wants. A developer won't make a game if it doesn't have a chance to compete against whats out there.

 

[Vega]

I remember in EQ running into unrest and almost crapping myself when I ventured into the house for the first time. First time seeing a grey triangle with arms flying around come out of that house I again crapped my pants. Finding the secret door and falling into a pit of shrooms ... again crapped my pants. There was so many suprises, exploring moments, intrigueing areas (Mist Moore had the patent on interesting areas, gardens?) and random amazements that I doubt any game will hook me like EQ did.

Putting this back into a game is commiting suicide as it doesn't fit the "feed me now" model eveyone wants. A developer won't make a game if it doesn't have a chance to compete against whats out there.

Man, don't remind me of stories like that. EQ was the glory days of MMORPG's. Exactly stuff like you posted, has never been in any MMORPG since. Everything else is candy land. I can remember hundreds of stories about EQ. I can't remember diddly squat from playing all of the noob trash over the last decade. I couldn't delete crap like Rift, SWTOR and GW2 off of my hard drive fast enough.

 

[Bdonedge]

I don't care what anyone says. I hope this game isn't casual and I hope there is a grind like the first one and you HAVE to group

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Hard to build a healthy player base when a majority want instant gratification or low amounts of competition.

EQ - Gratification achieved through intense competition over a mob that took 7 days to respawn (some 14). You want to down it? Come prepared to survive and hope your cleric is worth their salt.

WoW (I like WoW) - Gratification through easy trade skills, through easy dungeon grinding, through dailies, through very un-inspiring raids.

I remember in EQ running into unrest and almost crapping myself when I ventured into the house for the first time. First time seeing a grey triangle with arms flying around come out of that house I again crapped my pants. Finding the secret door and falling into a pit of shrooms ... again crapped my pants. There was so many suprises, exploring moments, intrigueing areas (Mist Moore had the patent on interesting areas, gardens?) and random amazements that I doubt any game will hook me like EQ did.

Putting this back into a game is commiting suicide as it doesn't fit the "feed me now" model eveyone wants. A developer won't make a game if it doesn't have a chance to compete against whats out there.

Appealing to everyone never works. EQNext should focus on bringing back the old EQ crowd, plus those interested in tough games. They will not get 12 million subs, but if they do it right, they can make plenty of money by making a good game.

EQ being hard and extremely stat heavy is what got my attention.

 

[Scoobydo]

Very true,

EQ was a very successful game within the first year it was active, even before Kunark. The subscription numbers were 225,000 according to wikipedia.

 

[Casus]

If EQ Next is the Fantasy equivalent of EVE...

I just might pay for an MMO again.

 

[hdawg06]

Appealing to everyone never works. EQNext should focus on bringing back the old EQ crowd, plus those interested in tough games. They will not get 12 million subs, but if they do it right, they can make plenty of money by making a good game.

EQ being hard and extremely stat heavy is what got my attention.

No way they will try to appeal to the small niche audience that found EQ enjoyable early on. Considering EQNext has an estimated budget of ~100million, there is no way they would shoot for 500k subscribers. The game probably has to sell at least a million copies just to be considered mildly successful. Look at SWTOR. The game has been a flop, yet the game sold 1.5m copies and kept well over a million subscribers for 6-8months.

First off EQNext needs to ditch the class setup. It was fine back in 1999, but just has no purpose in todays gaming market. The classes are so limited that even with stuff like skill trees and alternate advancement, each class is basically a carbon copy of each other with different gear (nearly the same if at max raiding level). Lets have some variety. I want to see a wizzy type class able to use a pimpin sword if need be. Not being told he can't equip it because he does not meet class requirements.

Second, the leveling system (ie 1-60 in a straight line always the same no matter what) has to be ditched. The whole lets level just to get high and get new spells/skills is mundane. A large amount of skills are not used often or become replaced by others earned near the higher levels. Look at skills in EQ that were completely useless: Intimidate, Disarm, Bind Wound. These were nearly all worthless except for in the very beginning, and only the latter was even mediocre then. Yes they occasionally worked, but even if they did the majority of groups didn't want feared mobs, or the npc didn't have a weapon. For a few characters like rogues and warriors, basically everything you earned skill wise that was used on a regular basis was handed to you between 1-20 or via AA. I would like to see actually unique characters based on skills, yes some worthless skills may need to be earned to unlock better ones along the way, because bland carbon copies of each other really don't set the game apart and will probably kill off a large portion of subscribers after a while. Plus the original EQ has so many damn classes, 16, but only a few are really needed. I'm not saying make it like WoW where everybody can have 2-3 different roles, but everybody realizes that druids/shaman can't heal very well so a cleric was basically a required class, while something like a berserkers, rogue, etc were all interchangeable and making groups hard to come by at late hours or on low pop servers.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

So, you want an EQ that's nothing like EQ? It's already uninteresting if they shoot for the WoW crowd. I don't find any of those games enjoyable.

 

[Bdonedge]

If they put an AA system in at launch, I will be very happy. I always thought that system was unique and definitely rewarded you for how much time you were able to put into it. And it's a variation of character customization

 

[Bdonedge]

No way they will try to appeal to the small niche audience that found EQ enjoyable early on. Considering EQNext has an estimated budget of ~100million, there is no way they would shoot for 500k subscribers. The game probably has to sell at least a million copies just to be considered mildly successful. Look at SWTOR. The game has been a flop, yet the game sold 1.5m copies and kept well over a million subscribers for 6-8months.

First off EQNext needs to ditch the class setup. It was fine back in 1999, but just has no purpose in todays gaming market. The classes are so limited that even with stuff like skill trees and alternate advancement, each class is basically a carbon copy of each other with different gear (nearly the same if at max raiding level). Lets have some variety. I want to see a wizzy type class able to use a pimpin sword if need be. Not being told he can't equip it because he does not meet class requirements.

Second, the leveling system (ie 1-60 in a straight line always the same no matter what) has to be ditched. The whole lets level just to get high and get new spells/skills is mundane. A large amount of skills are not used often or become replaced by others earned near the higher levels. Look at skills in EQ that were completely useless: Intimidate, Disarm, Bind Wound. These were nearly all worthless except for in the very beginning, and only the latter was even mediocre then. Yes they occasionally worked, but even if they did the majority of groups didn't want feared mobs, or the npc didn't have a weapon. For a few characters like rogues and warriors, basically everything you earned skill wise that was used on a regular basis was handed to you between 1-20 or via AA. I would like to see actually unique characters based on skills, yes some worthless skills may need to be earned to unlock better ones along the way, because bland carbon copies of each other really don't set the game apart and will probably kill off a large portion of subscribers after a while. Plus the original EQ has so many damn classes, 16, but only a few are really needed. I'm not saying make it like WoW where everybody can have 2-3 different roles, but everybody realizes that druids/shaman can't heal very well so a cleric was basically a required class, while something like a berserkers, rogue, etc were all interchangeable and making groups hard to come by at late hours or on low pop servers.

Can you show me a link for your estimated budget of 100 million? I don't buy that number without some proof

 

[Climber]

The only thing I remember about eq was just letting my bard auto level skills while I slept or was in school. As soon as DAoC came out I was gone. Nothing compared to DAoC rvr for me. EQ was just a mindless grind that rewarded playing time. Hated every moment of my time in EQ. AC and DAoC are my fondest mmo memories.

 

[TheMadHatterXxX]

Anet said the same thing regarding GW2, and in the end, it's still just "kill 10 rats" over and over again. No matter how gorgeous the world or action-oriented the mechanics, it's still just the same grind, no different.

Hey hey hey! They're not rats they are skritt!

 

[Stiler]

So, you want an EQ that's nothing like EQ? It's already uninteresting if they shoot for the WoW crowd. I don't find any of those games enjoyable.

WoW plays pretty similar to EQ, just easier without all the things that worked in the 90's for mainstream pc players but wouldn't work that well today.

I mean do you really find corpse runs fun? Losing lv's? Having to wait HOURS if not days for a spawn while some asshole comes along and takes it ?

I say good riddance to outdated design.

Time to move on imo.

I think nostalgia is clouding a lot of what you guys found "fun" about EQ. A lot of the design was done because well it was new. Compared to today a lot of what EQ did doesn't hold up well, and you can see for yourself by playing it still.

A lot of us have grown up since playing EQ back in High school and having to spend all that time waiting for mobs, doing corpse runs,t hen losing level's, it's just not that "fun" because it helps the game feel less like a game an dmore like "work" and that isn't why I play games, at least anymore.

I hope EQnext doens't play anything like the current mmo formula (which is mostly based on EQ, the theme park design, loot-focused game that gear makes your character and the same special based combat.

The things I DO hope carry over from EQ are the races, the lore, the special skills that made classes feel different, the epic dungeons, huge open non-instanced world that made the world feel all "Connected" and alive , unlike EQ2 which was HEAVILY instanced (I hate instances, especially in the open world) instances need to be used very sparingly and only for specific story/dungeon elements.


The way the current mmo market is a lot of us want something different, something that isn't simply chasing WoW's tail by making the same basic mmo with a new coat of paint slapped on it. If we want that we'll just go back to WoW where we've invested hundreds of hours nad know the game/people that play it.

The gear focused "carrot on a stick" needs to die. Leveling up to get "phat loot" so you can kill bigger enemies to gain even more "phat loot" is boring and gets SUPER REPETITIVE fast.

The only game that didn't give this feeling was UO, which like EQnext mentions was a sandbox game, and unlike most mmo's sandbox games usualy don't focus on the gear, but rather the world and gameplay, which is what matters most in games imo.

 

[Vega]

The only thing I remember about eq was just letting my bard auto level skills while I slept or was in school. As soon as DAoC came out I was gone. Nothing compared to DAoC rvr for me. EQ was just a mindless grind that rewarded playing time. Hated every moment of my time in EQ. AC and DAoC are my fondest mmo memories.

You probably never played on the EQ PvP servers. It was pretty epic.

WoW plays pretty similar to EQ, just easier without all the things that worked in the 90's for mainstream pc players but wouldn't work that well today.

I mean do you really find corpse runs fun? Losing lv's? Having to wait HOURS if not days for a spawn while some asshole comes along and takes it ?

I say good riddance to outdated design.

Time to move on imo.

I think nostalgia is clouding a lot of what you guys found "fun" about EQ. A lot of the design was done because well it was new. Compared to today a lot of what EQ did doesn't hold up well, and you can see for yourself by playing it still.

A lot of us have grown up since playing EQ back in High school and having to spend all that time waiting for mobs, doing corpse runs,t hen losing level's, it's just not that "fun" because it helps the game feel less like a game an dmore like "work" and that isn't why I play games, at least anymore.

I hope EQnext doens't play anything like the current mmo formula (which is mostly based on EQ, the theme park design, loot-focused game that gear makes your character and the same special based combat.

The things I DO hope carry over from EQ are the races, the lore, the special skills that made classes feel different, the epic dungeons, huge open non-instanced world that made the world feel all "Connected" and alive , unlike EQ2 which was HEAVILY instanced (I hate instances, especially in the open world) instances need to be used very sparingly and only for specific story/dungeon elements.


The way the current mmo market is a lot of us want something different, something that isn't simply chasing WoW's tail by making the same basic mmo with a new coat of paint slapped on it. If we want that we'll just go back to WoW where we've invested hundreds of hours nad know the game/people that play it.

The gear focused "carrot on a stick" needs to die. Leveling up to get "phat loot" so you can kill bigger enemies to gain even more "phat loot" is boring and gets SUPER REPETITIVE fast.

The only game that didn't give this feeling was UO, which like EQnext mentions was a sandbox game, and unlike most mmo's sandbox games usualy don't focus on the gear, but rather the world and gameplay, which is what matters most in games imo.

Yes, I would rather have all of those features back. Corpse runs were excellent ideas. There should be a penalty to death. Not this trivial dust yourself off like nothing happened crap in virtually all current MMORPG's. Do you know what comes with an actual death penalty? Fear, excitement, nervousness, tension. Games today have ZERO emotional qualities. Why cannot people understand that? I almost freaking fell asleep playing a game like GW2. I think EQ PvP servers got just about everything right, although I am a more hardcore gamer. Seems us hardcore gamer's cannot have anything for ourselves anymore. There is no large money in it, you have to go to the mass swathes of mindless noob's out there to get large sums of money. It's a shame that gaming has been so trivialized.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

WoW plays pretty similar to EQ, just easier without all the things that worked in the 90's for mainstream pc players but wouldn't work that well today.

I mean do you really find corpse runs fun? Losing lv's? Having to wait HOURS if not days for a spawn while some asshole comes along and takes it ?

I say good riddance to outdated design.

Time to move on imo.

I think nostalgia is clouding a lot of what you guys found "fun" about EQ. A lot of the design was done because well it was new. Compared to today a lot of what EQ did doesn't hold up well, and you can see for yourself by playing it still.

A lot of us have grown up since playing EQ back in High school and having to spend all that time waiting for mobs, doing corpse runs,t hen losing level's, it's just not that "fun" because it helps the game feel less like a game an dmore like "work" and that isn't why I play games, at least anymore.

I hope EQnext doens't play anything like the current mmo formula (which is mostly based on EQ, the theme park design, loot-focused game that gear makes your character and the same special based combat.

The things I DO hope carry over from EQ are the races, the lore, the special skills that made classes feel different, the epic dungeons, huge open non-instanced world that made the world feel all "Connected" and alive , unlike EQ2 which was HEAVILY instanced (I hate instances, especially in the open world) instances need to be used very sparingly and only for specific story/dungeon elements.


The way the current mmo market is a lot of us want something different, something that isn't simply chasing WoW's tail by making the same basic mmo with a new coat of paint slapped on it. If we want that we'll just go back to WoW where we've invested hundreds of hours nad know the game/people that play it.

The gear focused "carrot on a stick" needs to die. Leveling up to get "phat loot" so you can kill bigger enemies to gain even more "phat loot" is boring and gets SUPER REPETITIVE fast.

The only game that didn't give this feeling was UO, which like EQnext mentions was a sandbox game, and unlike most mmo's sandbox games usualy don't focus on the gear, but rather the world and gameplay, which is what matters most in games imo.

No, I did find EQ to be very fun. I played it all the way up to mid 2009, so it isn't nostalgia "clouding" my view. I like not being rewarded every step, I like learning how to play the game better by trial and error. Part of the fun is the risk. If there is no risk, what's the point? One thing we all learn when growing up and having a family is that instant gratification often negatively impacts our long term enjoyment. Earning our rewards is what we want, being patted on the back every 5 minutes just because we're logged in isn't.

That said, EQ now is a much different game than it was vanilla. I'm not saying I want a vanilla EQ experience. Many of the changes have been hugely positive for the entire MMO industry. I don't want vanilla EQ, I want an improved EQ. Not an EQ that has everything that made it unique stripped out of it like some of you are asking for. It shouldn't be EQWoW or EQGW2 or EQUO. It should be EQ, but better.

 

[hdawg06]

No, I did find EQ to be very fun. I played it all the way up to mid 2009, so it isn't nostalgia "clouding" my view. I like not being rewarded every step, I like learning how to play the game better by trial and error. Part of the fun is the risk. If there is no risk, what's the point? One thing we all learn when growing up and having a family is that instant gratification often negatively impacts our long term enjoyment. Earning our rewards is what we want, being patted on the back every 5 minutes just because we're logged in isn't.

That said, EQ now is a much different game than it was vanilla. I'm not saying I want a vanilla EQ experience. Many of the changes have been hugely positive for the entire MMO industry. I don't want vanilla EQ, I want an improved EQ. Not an EQ that has everything that made it unique stripped out of it like some of you are asking for. It shouldn't be EQWoW or EQGW2 or EQUO. It should be EQ, but better.

Well SOE themselves has said they want to revolutionize the MMO genre. Please tell me how a rehashed version of EQ with some modern niceties is revolutionary?

 

[DeathPrincess]

It doesn't matter how big the world is, it matters how much there is to do in the game. If there's 10000 things to do, the game can be 1 room. If you then get 10000 things to do and spread them over 10000x10000km, is still going to have as much stuff to just more spread out.

There needs to be proper density and variety in stuff to do, and enough differences in the world to justify it size. Otherwise it's going to be like those early Eldar Scrolls games where theres a huge play area, but it's just full of the same copy/paste village over and over and over made of the same 3 textures and nothing really to do in them.

Also you're going to need a significant playerbase to not make the world feel like a ghost town when going from place to place.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

It doesn't matter how big the world is, it matters how much there is to do in the game. If there's 10000 things to do, the game can be 1 room. If you then get 10000 things to do and spread them over 10000x10000km, is still going to have as much stuff to just more spread out.

There needs to be proper density and variety in stuff to do, and enough differences in the world to justify it size. Otherwise it's going to be like those early Eldar Scrolls games where theres a huge play area, but it's just full of the same copy/paste village over and over and over made of the same 3 textures and nothing really to do in them.

Also you're going to need a significant playerbase to not make the world feel like a ghost town when going from place to place.

Skyrim isn't that old.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Well SOE themselves has said they want to revolutionize the MMO genre. Please tell me how a rehashed version of EQ with some modern niceties is revolutionary?

Booting casuals out of the market would be revolutionary.

You can keep the same feel, but add dynamic quests in a sandbox game. Actual dynamic quests.

 

[JayteeBates]

EQ continued to be good even after Verant was no more, in spite of the small and vocal group that says anything after Velious sucked.

These expansions killed the game for me:
7.Gates of Discord (February 2004)
8.Omens of War (September 2004)


I was a hardcore EQ player in college and those just killed it for me.

 

[hdawg06]

These expansions killed the game for me:
7.Gates of Discord (February 2004)
8.Omens of War (September 2004)


I was a hardcore EQ player in college and those just killed it for me.

OoW was a great expansion. GoD really sucked. Epic 1.5 and 2.0 were just awesome.

 

[xkilla101]

Nah. Anything after Velious did indeed suck. I played Shadows of Luclin, but it just wasn't the same anymore somehow. Maybe it was the new models and overall graphical overhaul they did right around then, but something was lost in the transition I think.

When exactly did Verant get dissolved into SoE proper anyway?

 

[DeathPrincess]

Skyrim isn't that old.

Skrim used at least 12 textures! But it kind of shows the point, if Skrim was in a world 1000 times bigger, but was just copy/paste copy/paste all the way, would you really want to play it more, and would you really bother travelling from end to end, or just stay in the area where the first/second copy of everything was?

Game world size doesn't matter really, it's how much they fill it with. They'll need a huge amount of unique stuff for a world this size, and with the time constraints, i'm guessing they probably wont. Would much prefer a much smaller area with much more stuff!

 

[TwistedAegis]

Booting casuals out of the market would be revolutionary.

You can keep the same feel, but add dynamic quests in a sandbox game. Actual dynamic quests.

If you're paying for a monthly sub, I see no reason why they shouldn't develop a system where writers and coders can't put in new and special quests on a regular basis - bi-weekly, maybe even daily. In a non-instanced world this would be a hell of a lot of fun, IMO. Tie quest rewards to guild, faction, or race perhaps - make the quests bigger than the individual, and find a way to reward those who participate, but also those who belong to the aforementioned groups who perhaps weren't able to make that quest but have been logged in for X amount of time in the past Y amount of time?

Example: Wednesday afternoon, an earthquake hits a certain region and unleashes a demon from the pits of hell that requires large #s of people to defeat. Each guild/faction/race, wtfever you want to split it up, gets some type of proportional benefit for the rest of the week (improved EXP? DPS? Whatever) based on how much they contributed to taking him down.

Perhaps not the best example, but something that better emulates a living, dynamic world, rather than - hey, do this same daily quest every day, with the person giving you the same dialog over and over again!

 

[bigdogchris]

EverQuest started it's "new era" when PoP was released. Classes were essentially rebalanced starting at 61, and combat was changed by enemies hitting much harder but having lower HP.

 

[Bdonedge]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKj36GJj_i8

 

[LeninGHOLA]

If you're paying for a monthly sub, I see no reason why they shouldn't develop a system where writers and coders can't put in new and special quests on a regular basis - bi-weekly, maybe even daily. In a non-instanced world this would be a hell of a lot of fun, IMO. Tie quest rewards to guild, faction, or race perhaps - make the quests bigger than the individual, and find a way to reward those who participate, but also those who belong to the aforementioned groups who perhaps weren't able to make that quest but have been logged in for X amount of time in the past Y amount of time?

Example: Wednesday afternoon, an earthquake hits a certain region and unleashes a demon from the pits of hell that requires large #s of people to defeat. Each guild/faction/race, wtfever you want to split it up, gets some type of proportional benefit for the rest of the week (improved EXP? DPS? Whatever) based on how much they contributed to taking him down.

Perhaps not the best example, but something that better emulates a living, dynamic world, rather than - hey, do this same daily quest every day, with the person giving you the same dialog over and over again!

Yea, that makes things fun. Old GM events in EQ were sort of like this(same in WoW, I'm sure), as was when my old guild woke the Sleeper and he ravaged basically all the zones on that continent once he was freed. That was before I joined, but is still talked about in EQ to this day.

 

[Stiler]

No, I did find EQ to be very fun. I played it all the way up to mid 2009, so it isn't nostalgia "clouding" my view. I like not being rewarded every step, I like learning how to play the game better by trial and error. Part of the fun is the risk. If there is no risk, what's the point? One thing we all learn when growing up and having a family is that instant gratification often negatively impacts our long term enjoyment. Earning our rewards is what we want, being patted on the back every 5 minutes just because we're logged in isn't.

That said, EQ now is a much different game than it was vanilla. I'm not saying I want a vanilla EQ experience. Many of the changes have been hugely positive for the entire MMO industry. I don't want vanilla EQ, I want an improved EQ. Not an EQ that has everything that made it unique stripped out of it like some of you are asking for. It shouldn't be EQWoW or EQGW2 or EQUO. It should be EQ, but better.

I understand wanting death to mean something, but you have to balance it. EQ corpse runs could be fun, but in area's where it was simply not possible, where you'[d lose hours trying to get your corpse, that isn't what I remember being "fun" about EQ.

I played UO around the same time as well and UO had pvp with FULL loot, that meant every single item on you could be looted (by other players) when you died.

That was exciting to me and gave pvp/death meaning, but the game was balanced in regards to this sot hat items you lost didn't usually equate to hours and hours if not days of grinding to get. It hurt to lose things, and you didn't wnat to, but if you did it wasn't like "Shit, that's 10 hours wasted for all my gear!"

 

[LeninGHOLA]

OoW was a great expansion. GoD really sucked. Epic 1.5 and 2.0 were just awesome.

GoD introduced a lot of great things for raiding, but you had to be geared on par with upper tier VT/EP stuff or better to ever make it anywhere. Basically, it did nothing for anyone but high end raiders. I loved the raids and progression, but those that weren't bleeding edge were left out of 90% of the entire expansion.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

I understand wanting death to mean something, but you have to balance it. EQ corpse runs could be fun, but in area's where it was simply not possible, where you'[d lose hours trying to get your corpse, that isn't what I remember being "fun" about EQ.

I played UO around the same time as well and UO had pvp with FULL loot, that meant every single item on you could be looted (by other players) when you died.

That was exciting to me and gave pvp/death meaning, but the game was balanced in regards to this sot hat items you lost didn't usually equate to hours and hours if not days of grinding to get. It hurt to lose things, and you didn't wnat to, but if you did it wasn't like "Shit, that's 10 hours wasted for all my gear!"

Things like losing your corpse in PoFear/Hate/VP sucked. Even NToV could be a logistical nightmare. I was OK with it, but I definitely wouldn't force that level of hardcore on the general populace. Things aren't like that in EQ now. It's still pretty brutal, but nothing like pre 2005.

 

[Trimlock]

Nah. Anything after Velious did indeed suck. I played Shadows of Luclin, but it just wasn't the same anymore somehow. Maybe it was the new models and overall graphical overhaul they did right around then, but something was lost in the transition I think.

When exactly did Verant get dissolved into SoE proper anyway?

Verant Interactive was finishing up Shadows of Luclin when the final merger was done(in the middle of Velious). At that time Planes of Power was being developed and zones were made.

I got to see SoL in all its buggy glory but the expantion prior to SOE completely running it over with steam roller then setting it on fire and flushing it down the toilet the expantion was fun and very explorative. The shroom zone I have a ton of fond memories of, very unique area. Sseru, the cursed, emperor, Vex Thal were all increadibly unique encounters and their zones were awesome prior to the SOE crapification.

LDON and Ykesha were both crap and I lost a lot of give-a-shit with those expantions. Even though LDON brought back Mist Moore (the encounter) still didn't care.
PoP being the last remnant left of VI, SOE learned a lot from their mistakes with their adjustments of SoL and stopped making every encounter a pain in the royal ass. They also made some zones very unique and there were definitly some very fun encoutners in PoP

 

[Trimlock]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKj36GJj_i8

the music was amazing, it helped make every aspect of the game awesome, especially the cities and the magical forest areas.

oh and the elite combat music

video gave me goose bumps