On the screen, a lumbering Kerran warrior slashed his way through foes in a whirlwind of blades, while by his side, a mage teleported a few yards forward to keep up with him. So far, I thought, so familiar. Impressive though the models were, their flashy variations on familiar MMO attacks left me ready to dismiss EverQuest Next as a visually appealing but by-the-books MMORPG. And that's when something wonderful happened. The mage unleashed a spell that shattered a small land bridge behind her, killing some pursuing enemies and cutting off the rest. The duo then faced a massive golem, whose special attack hit the ground so heavily that it shattered thin ground and dropped them a massive cavern below. My mouth dropped. Unwilling, skeptical, I nevertheless mouthed the words to myself, "This changes everything."
EverQuest Next is the Minecraft of MMORPGs.
You'll likely hear this many times over the coming months, so allow me to get the ball rolling: EverQuest Next is the Minecraft of MMORPGs. Its beautiful models and environments may not bear any resemblance to the blocky visuals of Mojang's masterpiece, but it operates under much the same principles. Let your warrior leap and let loose a shockwave upon his landing, and the resulting crater remains long after. Miss a slash with your sword, and it chips the surrounding stone. For that matter, just whip out a shovel and you can dig into the world around you. This is powerful stuff, almost enough to make Skyrim's open world look about as interactive as World of Warcraft's. Indeed, deep down, I think this is what many of us hoped The Elder Scrolls Online would be like.
Seeing all this in action serves as a reminder that MMORPGs still possess the potential for wonder, and yet developer Sony Online Entertainment's approach isn't without its dangers. Knowing my fellow MMORPG enthusiasts all too well, I couldn't help but wonder what would stop the more industrious (or trollish) types from whittling down this rebooted take on Norrath down to nothing. The answer, as it turns out, should please admirers of beautiful zones but sour those who like to knock down a building and say, "I did that." Not everything can be torn down, and much of the destroyed material eventually regenerates after varying periods of time.
"We have a city called Qeynos, and if everything was destructible, it'd be a parking lot in no time because players would blow everything up," said Dave Georgeson, EverQuest Next's director of development. "So what we'll do instead is we'll have things that are player-destructible and monster-destructible and not destructible." That's not so true of "EverQuest Landmark," however, a type of content generator scheduled for release at an unspecified date later this year, which will allow players to create their own assets for possible inclusion in the live release of EverQuest Next. It's also not so true of the multi-tiered subterranean zones mentioned above, which apparently exist in a much more dynamic state of flux than the world above them.
That's partly because these underground zones will generate the resources for crafting and construction on your own plot of land in Norrath. "We want to make sure that you just can't go to a webpage and find where you're supposed to get something," said Terry Michaels, EQ Next's director of development. "We actually want players playing our game, not reading a webpage and following step-by-step instructions on how to achieve a goal."
We actually want players playing our game, not reading a webpage and following step-by-step instructions on how to achieve a goal.
But therein lies another possible hurdle for this ambitious new approach to world interactions in MMORPGs. Any mention of actual questing was strangely absent from the hour-long press reveal yesterday, aside from an intriguing emphasis on what the team calls "rallying calls." Rallying calls are essentially dynamic events on steroids, resulting in the construction of entire cities through the help of both NPCs and players, which serves as a means of showcasing EQ Next's so-called emergent A.I. In the given example, hostile forces might start harassing the construction of a new wooden village, prompting its residents to open a quarry to build stronger stone walls. That decision in itself might lead the enemies to escalate their attacks into sieges.
Fascinating stuff, and well worth an article of its own. Yet I initially worried this Minecraft-themed MMO world might be so freeform that it doesn't even boast something with the structure of Guild Wars 2's hearts to spur progression. Steve Danuser, EQ Next's creative director, told me that I had little reason to fear that lore aficionados would be left behind. "We have what we called 'authored content,' which is how we deliver that story content to players," Danuser said, "and it's something that everyone can participate in." As to what form that authored content would take? Danuser informed me that I'd have to wait until today's panels to learn the precise answer.
EverQuest Next could also fundamentally change the concept of a "home server" as we know it.
All of this world interaction seems aimed at shaking up the popular MMO template with a refreshed sandbox vibe, to the point that EverQuest Next could also fundamentally change the concept of a "home server" as we know it. As things stand, servers are normally judged in terms of raiding progression and personality, but with EQ Next, we could find some real differences when traveling from one server to the next. "Because we have such a dynamic world, said Georgeson, "you may not see the rallying call your friends are seeing, and depending on player interaction, you may not see it for a while." There may be greater meaning behind Georgeson's comment: SOE's new massive project may reintroduce some of the social cooperative that's slowly fallen out of favor in a genre that's paradoxically dependent on it for its very existence. And if that's true, I can't wait to play more.
That stray comment may also hint at something more significant:with EverQuest Next, SOE could be relighting the sandbox torch that went out with Star Wars Galaxies. From what I've seen, this particular project doesn't look destined to go the way of Alderaan. EverQuest Next reveals some of the hard lessons learned from over 14 years of MMORPG development, and its player-made content and claims of an open approach to development demonstrates the same love of its communities that SOE's shown us with Planetside 2 (along with the latter's graphics engine). It may be that I'll change my mind once I get a better understanding of questing and combat, but for now I'm looking forward to seeing if SOE can rebuild the MMORPG space one voxel at a time. For world interaction alone, this is one to watch.
Leif Johnson is a contributing editor to IGN who loves online role-playing games. Follow him on Twitter @LeifJohnson.
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