Anyone else find the Everquest landmark a brilliant idea?

[siomasm]

First off, it helps to test some of the most complex elements of their engine, as I understand it, without most of the story, combat, class progression, so on etc. Just testing a massive minecraft-esque building/resource collecting world in a way that will keep players entertained and thus testing.

Secondly, they let the players build their monumental structures of awesome for them. I mean, look at the stuff people make in minecraft. Now consider that basically thousands of people are free (if unreliable) labor towards making such works of art for EQnext.
They could even direct players via contest such as "Hey, whoever makes the best orc camp gets 5000 currency!" and then not only do players get to have fun in the creation of it, but be a part of the game development and further a part of its legacy once the game is launched and their creations are used.


It's kind of a win/win/win. EQN gets free labor on making awesome stuff, players get to make said awesome stuff and tool around in landmark for free, and both get to enjoy the fruits of their labors later in EQNext.

 

[Genocidicles]

Yeah, but how long until someone makes a giant penis statue?

 

[Summerstorm]

Yeah, i loved that idea... i loved it when "Wurm Online" did it 7 YEARS ago.

When i read the feature-list of the new Everquest i thought: "Yeah, Wurm Online with a budget... might be good".

I really hope you can define own areas with taxes, NPC's and law-entities, so you can make your homestead/village/guild/town/kingdom. THEN it will be really cool.

 

[siomasm]

Yeah, but how long until someone makes a giant penis statue?

If someone wants to waste their time and effort for the sake of getting banned and no one seeing it, I suppose that's on them. Their devs are well aware that you give people anonymity and constructive power and you end up with giant dick statues/monsters/guns/combination of the three.

Yeah, i loved that idea... i loved it when "Wurm Online" did it 7 YEARS ago.

When i read the feature-list of the new Everquest i thought: "Yeah, Wurm Online with a budget... might be good".

I really hope you can define own areas with taxes, NPC's and law-entities, so you can make your homestead/village/guild/town/kingdom. THEN it will be really cool.

They seem to be taking inspiration from star wars galaxies last I heard in regards to that. No point in "Well X did it first" when Y can potentially do it better with modern tech. Landmark as far as I know is mostly creative mode, nothing as complex as political/economical systems in yet. As for EQN proper, I think they have some ideas pertaining to ownership.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I think EQN looks brilliant on paper, but I don't see how it won't fall flat when you introduce the players. The worst part of any MMO is the community. The more control you give them over the environment and the play experience of others, the worse it gets for everyone but the griefers.

In Eve, the worst elements of the player base more or less defined the game and eventually came to own it in a somewhat charming (from a distance) fashion. EQN will go the same way unless Sony tightly controls it, and that sort of defeats what I've gathered to be their purpose. I mean what's the best case scenario if they remain hands off? Fantasy Eve, with everyone tastelessly hurling themselves against the boundaries of the system for attention and infantile gratification, atmosphere and the rest be damned? Count me out.

There's a reason why almost every MMO is a theme park instead of a sandbox, and it's got nothing to do with developer cowardice or copycat tendencies. The online gaming community is toxic, and giving them control over anything is almost always a terrible mistake.

 

[siomasm]

I think EQN looks brilliant on paper, but I don't see how it won't fall flat when you introduce the players. The worst part of any MMO is the community. The more control you give them over the environment and the play experience of others, the worse it gets for everyone but the griefers.

In Eve, the worst elements of the player base more or less defined the game and eventually came to own it in a somewhat charming (from a distance) fashion. EQN will go the same way unless Sony tightly controls it, and that sort of defeats what I've gathered to be their purpose. I mean what's the best case scenario if they remain hands off? Fantasy Eve, with everyone tastelessly hurling themselves against the boundaries of the system for attention and infantile gratification, atmosphere and the rest be damned? Count me out.

There's a reason why almost every MMO is a theme park instead of a sandbox, and it's got nothing to do with developer cowardice or copycat tendencies. The online gaming community is toxic, and giving them control over anything is almost always a terrible mistake.

While I agree the players can certainly f**k it up, they can also do some pretty amazing things at times. Damage in the world will only persist for a short period of time, much like bodies despawning, based on how many players are in the area and how much damage is being done.
Players place claims in areas, so once it's yours it cant be attacked or taken or what have you. "Everything can be destroyed, not necessarily by players".

Some things will even require the players craft special items to destroy, or that enemies can destroy. The most disruptive thing that I can think of in that context is leading back a raid boss or something to the town to destroy it, though more than anything I imagine most will just enjoy it as an awesome event.

Note: Damage lasts for about 5 minutes currently.
Players can construct simple, temporary terrain features (like a wall to CC enemies) and long term features (like houses, guild halls, castles, etc) though they haven't spoken much on player ownership or utilities of said locations yet.

 

[eimatshya]

Yeah, it looks like it could be pretty cool. I'll definitely be trying it out when it launches. I'm curious to see how much we'll actually be able to build. Can we make/place things like tapestries and flags? How much can we decorate and customize what we build?

Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on it. It's nice to see SOE moving away from the EQ/WOW model all tripple A devs have been following for the last 10 years or so. It could still end up being shit, but at least they're trying something more-or-less new.