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Pantheon from Brad McQuaid (Everquest/Vanguard)
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Sounds interesting, the MMO genre really needs a kick up the behind to get it away from the soloable rubbish they have become.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588672538/pantheon-rise-of-the-fallen
An epic planar high fantasy MMO from renowned EverQuest creator Brad McQuaid.
An awareness that content is king.
A requirement that classes have identities. No single player should be able to do everything on their own.
A belief that game economies should be predicated on delaying and minimizing item value deflation.
A commitment to a style of play that focuses on immersive combat, and engaging group mechanics.
An understanding that a truly challenging game is truly rewarding.
An expectation that the path of least resistance should also be the most entertaining.
An understanding that player involvement is required for progression. All actions (or lack thereof) should have consequences. Positive actions should be rewarded. Apathy or lack of action should not be rewarded with bonuses.
A mindset that designed downtime should be a part of a game, ensuring players have time to form important social bonds.
A belief that an immersive world requires intelligent inhabitants.
An understanding that faction should be an integral part of interacting with the world and its citizens.
A sincere commitment to creating a world where a focus on group play will attract those seeking a challenge.
A belief that the greatest sense of accomplishment comes when it is shared. And earned.
An agreement that player levels should be both meaningful and memorable.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588672538/pantheon-rise-of-the-fallen
An epic planar high fantasy MMO from renowned EverQuest creator Brad McQuaid.
An awareness that content is king.
A requirement that classes have identities. No single player should be able to do everything on their own.
A belief that game economies should be predicated on delaying and minimizing item value deflation.
A commitment to a style of play that focuses on immersive combat, and engaging group mechanics.
An understanding that a truly challenging game is truly rewarding.
An expectation that the path of least resistance should also be the most entertaining.
An understanding that player involvement is required for progression. All actions (or lack thereof) should have consequences. Positive actions should be rewarded. Apathy or lack of action should not be rewarded with bonuses.
A mindset that designed downtime should be a part of a game, ensuring players have time to form important social bonds.
A belief that an immersive world requires intelligent inhabitants.
An understanding that faction should be an integral part of interacting with the world and its citizens.
A sincere commitment to creating a world where a focus on group play will attract those seeking a challenge.
A belief that the greatest sense of accomplishment comes when it is shared. And earned.
An agreement that player levels should be both meaningful and memorable.
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EQN looks hopeful too, John Smedley's AMA from the other day is worth a read
Something needs to shake up MMOGs anyway, thought GW2 was going to do it, but ended up being a game where everyone kind of solos at the same time.. which is a bit pointless.
The interesting thing about Pantheon is that it's not trying to be the next WoW in scale and profitability. It clearly isn't expecting 10 million subscribers which seems to be a failing of almost every post-WoW game. For years, MMOs were thrilled when they had more than 100k subscribers but suddenly WoW changed expectations. The result was endless WoW clones but far less popular yet many of the pre-WoW games are still going (EQ, EQ2, DAoC etc) whilst many of the post-WoW games have gone (Warhammer for example).
EQN, well I have to say I've been disappointed by its direction. I get what they are doing but it's far more Minecraft than EQ1 at the moment (yes I know there's a difference between EQN and Landmark). Maybe it'll surprise me but I'm really keen to experience another EQ1 style game. 15 years later and I still have many fond memories of EQ1.
To be honest, I don't think the current online gaming world could cope with a "hardcore" MMO like EverQuest was when it first released.
Back in those days everything was new and we were prepared to have to sit down and rest and get mana back for five minutes after every tough fight and we knew it was best to group up (and why the **** did we ever lose big group sizes like DAoC's eight man?) to make sure we had a decent spread of abilities to cope with mobs.
We also were happy to camp a bunch of mobs or run a dungeon repeatedly for XP rather than do quests. We also didn't know any better to complain that death meant a massive deal, it meant losing shed loads of XP to the point at which you could lose a level, it meant corpse runs which could take hours (our longest one being three hours and involving two zone changes and a boat trip).
While, like Rooks, "old time" gamers including myself would love a return to the early days of MMOs like EQ, Dark Age of Camelot and the like, unfortunately the influence of World of Warcraft means gamers expect everything laid out on a plate.
They expect a shiny icon over a quest giver's head, an indicator on a map to show them where to go, that death is a negligible option which doesn't really have much affect on game play.
I'd love to see something like this get up and running but sadly can't see there would be the numbers to support it because (for many of us, myself included) we're in our 40s and don't have the time commitment to play this much of a hardcore game any more. I have a job, I have a kid, I don't have hours to play an MMO any more unfortunately.
Atm, I'm pinning my hopes for a return to the pre-WoW glory days on Camelot Unchained
Nailed it
Same boat, loved EQ and it's foibles at the time. "AFK 10m mana'', quests hidden in [brackets], getting on the list for a FBSS group, having a corpse time out in PoF.. all of it. Now 15 years on, I just can't be staying up till 4am raiding, or be stuck in a group till they find a replacement cleric, or basically put my life on hold to play a game.
BIB: Yup totally
I think there's a happy medium to be had. Difficult does not have to mean timesink. I remember a number of quests in EQ that were mostly soloable but were split into numerous subquests. Even WoW used to have that (Mount Hyjal attunement for example) until they ditched them after The Burning Crusade. I never understood why as it gave players something to work on rather than mindless daily quests over and over again. If there's a way of personal progression at your own pace but also includes some of EQ's group and raid scenarios then that would grab me, even at my age
The 72 person raid thing. It's sad modern gamers don't really get to experience that. I still remember my first raid into the Plane of Fear (total wipe, lost my corpse and gear) and that moment we finally beat the Rathe Council (I was an enchanter so I had a key role in the raid). There's a sense of scale and epicness that you can only get with such a large raid. I'm not saying the old way of doing things was flawless, often it wasn't. But when things are challenging, and you beat them, it's a great feeling.
Ahh memories
I still remember my first dragon raid in Dark Age of Camelot, roaming down through Midgard into Malmo, the re-organisation to make sure each group had healer capacity, the two different Battlegroups being set up, 120 people all fighting to bring down Gjalpinulva and then the hour long loot distribution rolls afterwards waiting for the Ageless Dragon Etched Coif
Same with my first RvR Relic Raid in the Old Frontiers, 100 Mids versus around 120 Albs and about 50 Hibs just turning up for the laughs.
I wasn't much of a fan of DAoC really. I played it on release (because at that time you HAD to play every new MMO didn't you
Slightly off topic but it's actually WoW and EQ2's 10th anniversary this year and EverQuest's 15th anniversary next month. Now that makes me feel very old.
Well to be fair to DAoC, it wasn't supposed to be a soloing game, their whole premise was built on epic RvR battles
And yes, totally agree with you re-having to play every MMO that came out although, being a minority back then being female and a gamer, I tended to get beta invites to most of them so I knew before some launched (ie Shadowbane) that I was never going to buy and play them!
SW:G is still, for me, the absolute pinnacle when it comes to character creation. It was far and above anything that's come before and, sadly, since.
Re-the anniversaries, I know, it's amazing how time flies. I was playing an online text MUD called Avalon-rpg back in the mid to late 1990s when some of the guys who were playing it started talking about a graphical online game they were testing (obviously EverQuest) and there were lots of discussions about whether or not it would take off because of the fixed nature of the environment re quest givers etc
Understood, though I've always felt that MMOs should be soloable up to a point, probably to about 80% of the max level. I didn't like that I had to group at level 20 to get any meaningful experience. Often it was difficult to get groups too.
Well I'm male but I always registered for beta's as a female for the same reason. Never worked
I vaguely remember that actually. I was at uni in the mid 90s and got my first experience with text MUDs around that time. God bless JA.net and badly spent grant cheques