Whilst reading a new site I discovered about MMORPG’s, a small news article caught my attention. The article in question talks about a 10th Anniversary Everquest book which in the final chapter suggests there is another instalment of Everquest in very early development. The author of the article comes to this conclusion from a piece of text in the book which does seem to point to another Everquest based game, though it gives no details as to whether the game would be an Everquest 3 or a console spin off.
I for one would obviously give EQ3 a try should there ever be such a game, as I’m a long time fan of the world of Norrath. I played the original Everquest for a good few years and have played EQ2 from beta until now. Despite EQ2 “dumbing” down a bit to appeal more to the WoW crowd than the original would have done, Everquest 2 is still in my mind the best MMORPG out there.
There is one problem though, the text from the book talks about bringing the world of Norrath to a new generation of players. For me this means making a game more akin to WoW than the original EQ. WoW is what I do not want a 3rd Everquest to be like. Before you get the wrong idea, I’m not slagging off WoW, although World of Warcraft is not for me due to it’s graphics and easy mode gaming style, it has brought a lot of players to the MMORPG genre who wouldn’t normally even think about playing such games.
I would prefer EQ3 if it happens, to market itself towards the older MMO players, those that like a challenge. There was something to be said for real death penalties where you had to run back to your corpse, along with the fact you couldn’t just flee from creatures and always make it out alive. Vanguard promised this kind of game, but never really delivered due to it’s disastrous launch.
I still live in hope that such a game may be developed one day. After all whilst the largest market is no doubt the younger gamers amongst the MMO community, there are a lot of gamers out there that do want something a bit more difficult. Those gamers that don’t whine when something isn’t given to them on a plate, or that enjoy levelling that you can’t do from 1 to max in a short space of time. These games will in the long run make you more money as they stay with games for longer periods paying more in subscriptions than the players who jump into an MMO hit max level and leave. These games also do not have to be raiders, many in my guild would love such a game to be developed and we are all casual gamers. The level cap for those of us that played Everquest was something that took a long time to reach, but gave a great sense of achievement when it was obtained. Not all casual gamers like easy mode MMO’s.
I would like Sony to recognise this market and aim the game at those players rather than try to make the next WoW.
What are your thoughts on a possible Everquest 3? Or what are you looking for in a future MMO?
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I actually think EQ1 was the best MMPORG it was my first one and after spending 7 years playing it i can say that theres no other game that i have played for that long.
I remember in unrest the challenge it was the first time i went there it was just a challenge to get into the zone trying to avoid those nasty goblin and once there all the train it was scary haha you had some train that was so bad that everyone in the zone where dying
Anyway every zone felt a bit the same it was exciting i actually think the system to have people to group together instead of soloing was what made EQ1 one of the best game. Most of the games now these days are made to allow people to progress faster soloing but in EQ1 you needed an actual group to be able to gear up.
I hope they do Everquest 3 and i think that it would have a very good chance to be one of the best mmporg if they try to base it more on the EQ1 with better graphic i actually would love to see some kind of copy of EQ1 with much better graphic but with the same zone and same content that they have in EQ1 since this game has probably 200% more content then any other game.