Comments on: Will EverQuest III be Free Realms II?

By: Everquest 3 Contrarian | Stropp's World

Everquest 3 Contrarian | Stropp's World — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 01:11:44 +0000

[...] been a little discussion of late about the nature of Everquest 3. Tipa has been proposing that EQ3 will use the client/server model that seems to work so well for Free Realms. This model [...]

By: KnowMadd

KnowMadd — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:12:41 +0000

When my daughter plays Free Realms, the bandwidth to do anything else is limited to the point that it is stupid. Streaming a game engine in todays average internet is stupid period.

I will not let anyone play a game on my network that completely hinders everyone else on the network. I can run three SWG accounts concurrent, my daughter on Wizard 101, and the wife can still surf / facebook no problem.

As soon as Free Realms is up, everthing else moves at a snails pace.

Only word for that is “FAIL”!

By: Don't Fear the Mutant » And then there was E3

Don't Fear the Mutant » And then there was E3 — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:22:24 +0000

[...] own events later this year. Who knows if SOE got something big to show at Fan Faire (hopefully Tipa’s “Free Realms-based” EQ3 or something completely different) and Blizzard probably saves the next expansion for World of [...]

By: Wolfshead

Wolfshead — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:59:57 +0000

Just a few thoughts here…I loved the original EverQuest. I loved it’s rich lore and geography. The problem is that SOE let the group focus of EQ get away from them as it morphed into a raiding game. Raiding MMOs are unsustainable and financially impractical.

The question that SOE should be asking is this: given the reality of Blizzard’s stranglehold on the MMO market what can we do to bring the original EQ fans back into the fold?

The magic of EQ was in those first 3 expansions *before* raiding became the dominant play style — those expansions should be the template but with a careful balance between solo, grouping and raiding.

As far as Free Realms influencing EQ3 this is a great point. I love the look and feel of the art in Free Realms. For once SOE has got it right. Finally they learned that consistently executed stylized art is the key. Look at EQ versus the Ruins of Kunark expansion. The artwork was completely different in style between those 2 offerings. Goblins in EQ looked vastly different then the goblins in Kunark.

SOE commits the same sin with EQ2. The artwork is not cohesive nor is it consistent. The average player may not pick up on this but subconsciously it works against the overall enjoyment of the player.

Nothing would make me happier to see SOE win back all of the players that migrated to WoW and bring in all of the new ones. If anyone can do it it’s SOE. It seems with Free Realms they’ve learned some lessons from Blizzard on how to make a successful children’s MMO. If EQ3 is in the works then it would most likely be available on the PS3 as well as the PC. I’m sure they’d give it a new name instead of EQ3 :)

By: Emmwynn

Emmwynn — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:56:58 +0000

Whilst I’d love to see an EQ3 in the spirit of EQ1 I’m afraid it won’t happen. Free Realms is the most successful SOE MMO-style game and that business model is one of free-to-play with microtransactions. EQ1 and EQ2 have never come close to the success of Free Realms and they’ll be voices in the heads of SOE telling them that the Free Realms business model is the way forward. The slow movement towards microtransactions in many of their existing games should give an indication of this. EQ3 could well be free and supported by microtransactions and that’s not a game I’d want to play. I hope I’m wrong. I hope they simply see EQ1 coming towards the end of it’s natural life and plan to provide a modern successor that plays in the same way as EQ1. I suspect my initial thoughts are closer to the truth thous.

By: Tipa

Tipa — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:54:57 +0000

If EQ3 is the same sort of play experience as EQ or EQ2 (both quite different from one another), then it could be a problem. But if we look to EQ Online Adventures, the version for the PS2, there’s a hint of how EQ could be put on a console. Simplified interface, huge, glorious monsters, dazzling effects and so on. I really wanted to play EQOA but couldn’t afford the fees involved. So SOE has done it once.

Will be fun to see how it develops!

By: Ryver

Ryver — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:31:37 +0000

Perhaps FR scales down well, but when turning everything up, I see my temp/activity/fan speed on my graphics card (ATI 4850HD) just up quite high. Of course, I’m not sure I could stand helping my daughter play it on lower settings. Pretty graphics do help, even when stylized.

For those curious:

Intel C2D 3.0GHz
ATI 4850HD
8G RAM

So the computer isn’t a slouch, but FR can consume more graphics power than I expected. Typically, more than most of my other games (though, they are on medium settings in some cases).

By: We Fly Spitfires

We Fly Spitfires — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:06:37 +0000

I would love to see EQ3. I’m still enjoying EQ2 but I need to something new and exciting cause I’ve just got that ‘been there, done that’ feeling with EQ2.

People worried about EQ2 killing off EQ but it didn’t so I’m not worried about EQ2′s population if EQ3 came out. There are plenty of players who have left SOE games completely and would come back to EQ3.

By: Green Armadillo

Green Armadillo — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:06:48 +0000

I think this is a good bet. The FR engine seems solid enough, and includes many of the features that the hypothetical mystery Sony project is likely to want.

Personally, I don’t “think SOE should just abandon EverQuest, as if there was a taint on the brand”, but I do think it would be a mistake to bring out EQ3 while EQ 1 and 2 are still going strong. I enjoy Norrath, and having a future game set in the world would make me more likely to buy it. The problem is that I would cancel my EQ2 subscription to do so.

By: rob

rob — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:44:32 +0000

I believe that Guild Wars has a similar “download when you need it” thing going on. Granted, Guild Wars is not the best example of a massive persistent world either. However, since this is talk about reusing the ENGINE for EQ3, I think you are making a giant assumption to assume that the method of delivery of the “zone assets” is tied to the engine. Besides, it seems to me that it would be trivial to just include the zone assets in the installer ( pre-loaded ) and write a patcher/updater to simply keep them up to date. Then you never have to download a zone on the fly.

It works like this for Free Realms because free realms is meant to be a lighter weight experience by design. They want someone to see it, click the “play” button and be in the world playing mini games ASAP.

I don’t think this would be a bad thing for EQ3 to take advantage of. Hell, I was considering playing Eve last night but didn’t because I remembered that I had uninstalled it and by the time it would download again I would have been asleep anyway. I see no reason why you couldn’t give players both options. Download a massive client today and never have to download a zone mid-game, or download only a handful of zones for now and get the rest later on as you need it. So long as people understand how it works, I think it could be a great thing.