Can EverQuest Next Be The Game That Breaks The MMORPG Mold?

Hype is just part of the fabric of video games in the 21st Century. Rumors, speculation, teasers, trailers and press relases are all just ingredients in the industry stew, and even though we sometimes profess to hate it, we eat it up just the same.

Nowhere is that more true than in the world of MMORPGs, where fans of the genre (and I include myself in that group) take things to another level. Almost every release gets probed to see if it can be “The Next Big Thing,” and players usually get whipped into a frenzy while the title in question is still in beta.

The “World of Warcraft” juggernaut has set the bar for success ridiculously high, and anything that doesn’t meet those lofty expectations is deemed a failure by at least part of the broader MMORPG community. Got two million players? That’s nice and all, but since your game didn’t turn out to be a “WoW killer,” it isn’t good enough.

That’s silly, of course, but the legitimate part of the criticism stems from the fact that a certain sameness has crept into the genre that has proven hard to cast off – and make no mistake, it’s partially because “WoW”  turned into such a phenomenon. Almost all MMOers enjoy some of the games that are out right now, but we’re also hungry for something to truly shake things up.

Thus, when a game comes along that might break new ground, we fall over ourselves to see who can praise it the most. That brings us to where we are right now, on the heels of SOE Live and its reveal of “EverQuest Next.” Without disparaging some of the best video games sites in the world, here are just a sampling of some recent headlines:

“EverQuest Next lives up to the hype, is frickin’ insane” – Destructoid

“EverQuest Next is Real, and it’s Amazing” – IGN

“EverQuest Next Could Fix Everything Wrong With MMORPGs” – Kotaku

Keep in mind that all of these were written about a game that is so far away from release that it just began accepting applications for its closed beta. The hype machine is back in operation, and it’s got the throttle wide open.

There are undoubtedly good ideas that have already been showcased for “EverQuest Next,” things like destructible environments and a level-less progression system. Some of them have already set off the MMORPG community’s other odd obsession, which is arguing over whether new game concepts are really “new.” A few people inevitably get offended that their favorite games weren’t properly credited for what they brought to the table.

I don’t care much about that, only if the new game is going to be fun. Specifically, I want it to remain fun for months after I start playing, since this is suposed to be what MMOs offer that other games don’t.

If “EverQuest Next” is going to succeed on this front, it needs to carry out its plan to have an actual dynamic world, one that changes in ways the players control and perhaps the developers can’t even predict. Other games, most notably “Rift” and “Guild Wars 2,” went part of the way there with dynamic events, but the zones in which they occur still return to normal once the events run their course.

Just like Mike Fahey said in the Kotaku piece linked above, I want the game world to change so that if I roll a new character, it’s going to have a different experience right from the beginning than the one I played for the previous two months. I want the orcs I ran off last week with my main character to be gone for good, and it would be really cool if cities would have different businesses and buildings if I haven’t visited them in a while.

The companion software called “EverQuest Next Landmark” has the potential to help out a lot, offering players a chance to design structures and objects that might end up in the game world. The Foundry is one of the most interesting parts of “Neverwinter,” proving that when you have millions of players, some of them are going to come up with content that the developers might not have – it’s just a matter of sheer numbers. In the same manner, “Landmark” can help “EverQuest Next” fulfill some of its promises.

Yet the fact of the matter is that it’s way, way too early to know if SOE has something that is revolutionary or simply evolutionary on its hands. Some game will eventually come along and drag MMORPGs kicking and screaming into a new era, but it’s foolish to think we can identify which one it will be ahead of time.

Let’s enjoy every piece of information that comes out concerning “EverQuest Next” over the next year or so, but let’s also take a few deep breaths and keep our hopes from getting too ridiculous . If if does turn out to be the game we’ve all been waiting for, it’ll just be that much sweeter when it happens.

The views expressed in this article explicitly belong to the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of, nor should be attributed to, GameSided as an organization.