i keep seeing eq next pop up in these threads but i know nothing about it other than it is getting made. so whats the excitement for it? any news floating out there yet?

I'm not a big fan of Asian mmos(and games in general) so the only upcoming MMOs i'm looking for is The Elder Scrolls Online and EverQuest next. ESO is only for the setting and possible RP potential and I don't really know much about EQ but I think I can trust soe to not be completely lying about the little information they have told so far. But MMORPGs in general are only fun because of the player interaction, the combat, graphics and other systems usually svck when compared to singleplayer/smaller multiplayer games and there is going to be a lot of those I'm looking for.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/14/everquest-next-is-pretty-crazy-says-soe-president-were-not-trying-to-make-wow2/

This is pretty much all I've heard, it's not much but it got me interested. And I guess there is some nostalgia hype just because it's EverQuest too

Because there are quite a few Everquest Fans out there.

thanks for the link. i was wondering if the hype was on the name alone or if there was info out there. i must admit that even know i know nothing about it (have not read the link yet) i was excited just knowing another EQ is coming out lol

Hmm, they've said its biggest sandbox MMO ever created.... It should mean

Skyrim kind of open world game (SOE has donw this numerous times before, Everquest games, SWG, Vanguard...)

Some sand tossed in, like buildable houses, maybe buildable guild cities (SOE has done this before in SWG...) probably somekind of dynamic public quest, monsters what moves around. (maybe if we're very lucky they use sand too.. )

Player-made-content, its already confirmed.

It uses same engine as Planetside 2 (just download it free from Steam and put the max details, it looks pretty damn awesome..)

Of course old-school Fantasy style. Should sink very well for ES fans.

Not sure about combat, but its gonna be awesome its like Planetside 2.

Check this one out http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/eqnext-pax-interviews.5240/

FFXIV (A Realm Reborn) = Crappy WoW clone with better graphics

ArcheAge = Totally different sandbox based game, will not directly compete with ESO (no more than EVE does)

EQ Next = Not in the same league as ESO. Please dont compare crappy discount games with top tier quality games.

Blade&Soul = Similar to TERA - great combat but it will not have to content that Western audiences demand. Asian MMOs are always low on content and high on grind.

Edit: There are no known MMORPGs that are comming up and that will be directly competing with ESO (except perhaps FFXIV but I do not consider that a AAA title like ESO). The only rumor of another upcoming AAA MMORPG title is Project Titan by Blizzard which sources call a "casual MMO". Overall, if you dont like ESO you will not have many choices for AAA titles in the ThemePark MMORPG category. Personally, I wish there was more competition in that market - but all we have gotten lately are crappy discount games like FFXIV, Tera, SWTOR, TSW etc.

Funny how eq dominated as the least sandboxy game of the first gen games. it is concidered by most to have started the whole themepark trend, and here are people praising eq v.3.0 as the next great sandbox!

just plain crazy!

I didnt praise it, I said its most interesting of those what OP suggested.

Also Force Light engine is very capabel to do aerial stuff... so I wouldnt be surprised if you can fly some Dragons in EQN. Grab a combat copter in Planetside 2 and imagine IF it was Dragon.

I'd consider FFXIV to be a crappy clone of FFXI. The spectacular failure that was the original release of FFXIV should pretty much sum up anything else about the game. The game will succeed but only because of how much people love the now terrible final fantasy name.

Just read this statement http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/23/storybricks-team-announces-everquest-next-collaboration/

DAFUQ?
there was no grind in TERA.

What about it? Some random (writing?) group tossed a few buzzwords (including 'sandbox') into a press release. So what?

combined with what was said in the pax east interview thread i posted earlier the way that he describes the game in the second interview tells you the structure is sandbox.

I forget which article said how many are in beta, but it's somewhere along the lines of 500,000, and it's not even open beta yet. It's true the vast majority are those still clinging to the FF franchise, and I personally don't see it bringing enough innovation. To each their own though, I love the FF series, and I also love the community and social aspects of the game, that's its main selling points to me. Most of the beta testers come from Japan though, and I would only guess it's 100,000 for U.S./EU.

I don't remember Tera ever being a grind, so I'm not sure where you're getting this "Asian MMOs are a grind" thing.

Just because a game is themepark or sandbox, doesn't mean they won't compete with each other. I prefer sanbox/themepark hybrids, yet I've been stuck playing themepark games the entire time. Won't those that feel the same way, who are currently only investing in themepark switch over to games like EQ Next or ArcheAge when they are released?

I agree 100%! You summed up my fears for ESO fairly nicely, and my thoughts on ArcheAge perfectly.

I can't disagree with you ARR appears to have many faults still, though I believe it to be a massive improvement form the first title. We'll just have to see how much after the NDA lifts soon/open beta rolls around.

Overall some really great points throughout this thread, I'm pretty impressed this hasn't at all gone very negative.. yet.

The last 10 lvl of Tera where a grind fest(EU/NA Version), but in the original game there was a lot of grind throw all lvls.

No they weren't, if you didn't leave out half of the quests in the mid-levels. (which most people did)
It was just poor quest design/localization.

All MMOs svck. ESO is a WOW clone. if you don't like it play something else. ESO will tank super hard. Ronald Reagan is the Devil. ARR will not have Chocobos and there will be mandatory Blitzball tournaments for the right to play the game normally. Jesus is a Velociraptor. The Beta invite you want will never come. You will be forced to subscribe to every subscription based MMO on the market. Oh and the cops are looking for you because you are swine....

I iz totalz srs...

Ah. You're taking them at their word. Not an approach I'd ever considered with SOE- I tend to consider buzzword filled marketing speak as pretty hollow at this stage of development.

thats how i feel about every game company. of course they are going to tell people what they want to hear and only highlight the good. black & white always comes to mind when i think about games where i fell for the hype based on the devs word

For me, ESO appears to satisfy my desires for an MMORPG. I hate modern MMOs for a few reasons. One, the combat systems are typically lackluster and boring. Autoattack, 1-2-3-4, rotate CDs, easy. There's hardly any skill involved. ESO's system is hopefully moving away from that, and the class-based role systems to some extent. I'm a little wary about the soft-lock targeting system, but I understand why they have to do it. Guild Wars 2 has a decent combat system, but their counter-mechanics and telegraphing needs work. It's really hard to know when to interrupt, etc. and it boils down to CC > nuke while dodging around. ESO' finesse system at least attempts to reward skill, and appears to create more depth than button rotations. ArcheAge is the only one on the OP's list that really appeals to me, but their combat system seems utterly similar to previous games.

I hate themeparks. I like open-ended worlds without any set progression paths. I'm not entirely sure ESO will provide this type of world, and there is obviously some sort of gear progression, but I can make do if the combat system is worth it. Dev-designed objectives and goals are typically boring and repetitive. It's much more satisfying to make your own fun, but to-do lists cut into that (questing, daily quests, dungeon grinding, etc.) I'd prefer to spend the majority of my time PvPing, but BGs tend to get repetitive, too. RvR-style at least holds some degree of freshness every fight.

Cooldowns. I really don't like cooldowns. They seem to be the Devs' way of offering OP abilities in a balanced fashion by making CDs extraordinarily long, and many abilities are filler. Resource management without cooldowns tends to be more engaging for me. If they can combine counter-player, twitch-play, strategy, and resource management well, they will have a deep and satisfying system in my eyes.

So, ESO seems to be the game for me.

While I love the Idea of Sandboxes like ArcheAge, my biggest problem with a game like that is.. TIME. Unless you're a teenager with no job, or a person sitting at home all day because you're on welfare or disability, you're going to find yourself unable to compete with the other players that have absolutely nothing better to do than play 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. Especially in a game where everything takes so long to do and there are soo many things you can do. You could literally spend hours of gameplay in ArcheAge simply growing trees and then cutting trees in order to build a ship. then you have to get a donkey and carry all your chopped up wood.. very slowly to your building location. Is that fun? I don't really think so.. but its necessary if you want to compete with the hardcoe higher lvl players that will be raiding your farms and PKing you day after day after day. They will probably ambush you while you're carrying your wood too and steal it... making your many hours of work completely pointless. Meh.. not for me.

Im glad ESO won't be a Sandbox like ArcheAge. I have other things to in life than play an MMO.

Disagree. Its primarily themepark but they have several sandbox elements. These mostly have to do with freedom: the open class system, the flexibility of weapons/armors/skills, multiple ways to approach quests, ect. Cyrodiil also sounds like its one big sandbox, albeit surrounded by three theme-parks.

I agree with you that MMO players are more interested in this game than SP TES fans though. That's clear to me on every fan site because I am often the odd man out. Unfortunately, this speaks to their design philosophy.

They should have gone more "Skyrim online" and less "Elder Scrolls MMO." Its telling that the entire development team is made up of Elder Scrolls newbies...not a single carry over dev that I am aware of. They should have sprinkled the team with SP Elder Scrolls devs, former and current. Its extremely disappointing that they turned down Michael Kirkbride to work on the game. He would have brought the game in a direction that would be more comfortable and pleasing to long-term fans of the series.

Still, I'm generally happy with their direction even though there is no shortage of things I'm upset about.

ArcheAge: I will try and I did follow it very closely but it depends on what features Trion launches it with and how badly unbalanced it is.

FFIV: Maybe.....a big maybe but it will not be the only MMO I will play

EQnext: Before SOE Hell YEA sign me up since SOE took over the whole EQ franchise and the extra sour bitter taste in my mouth I dont care about any game they release even if it is the second, third, 10th coming, the one game to rule them all.

Blade&Soul: use to look fun but now just seems meh and from keeping up with the latest news I might give it a try if there is nothing else to play.

Edit: AA starts off very very linear and in a themepark which then leads out into a sandbox.