I honestly don't think it'd be very hard for the next EverQuest to be good. MMOs should step away from just handing out content and gameplay like free candy. I liked EQ's quest... because I wasn't dragged into them every 5 minutes. You had to find the quest.. actually look for it.. then all the keywords and such. There was no mini-map and tracker to guide you to your obstacle, made it a little more realistic in a sense. And the items would actually be worth it, generally.
I just think it's ridiculous when your first set of quested armor/equipment as a newbie toon (usually a forced quest too) comes with attribute enhancements. What is the point of that? There is no point to it, maybe except some sort of feigned sense of accomplishment for the sod playing the game? Little to no death penalties, Not really earning most equipment, having levels handed out to you on an hourly basis... these are the things that probably irritate me the most in MMOs.
Like I recently started playing a Free-to-Play MMO, Loong: Power of the Dragon. I specifically played this game for it's lack of classes.. in the sense that you choose what sort of skillset you want your character to utilize. Everything else about the game, save the graphics... is completely boring. You can follow the ''main quest'' line straight to max level, I think. You can get more quests than you'll ever possibly need, and not only does your quest tracker give you the details and names you need; say you need to kill a monster or talk to an NPC, clicking the name will actually make your character run straight to the target.
Sorry, that's too easy.
There's no adventure in that.. no thrill, no excitement or sense of exploration. Take the Quest out of EverQuest and that's exactly what you get, boredom. I'm just tired of MMOs with no challenge to them. I'm also tired of the ungodly amount of emphasis placed on Raiding. I don't really know what's so good about raiding. I enjoyed it in EQ, because you can feel pretty boss when you walk into a God's personal plane of existence and mop the floor with him/her. Raids nowadays are a little too generic, and the players have everything down to a science. It's challenging, in the fact that it takes a raid-group.. but not challenging in the sense it's really not very hard for veteran players who have their heads screwed on straight.
The next EverQuest doesn't really need any hip and hot new systems, crafts, graphics, whatever.. it just needs to stop copying WoW. But since Sony likes to be unoriginal and half-ass everything... maybe they could just copy the original EverQuest's concept.. and just roll it over with some good ol' fashioned modern technology. Then it wouldn't be a total loss. Then it wouldn't be as bad as they're undoubtedly making it right now.
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