If there's one pastime that MMO fans share, it's making predictions. Which games will succeed, and which ones will struggle? Which will go free-to-play, merge servers, or even shut down? And will there ever be an MMO that's crowned as the WoW-killer?
But what about the bigger picture of online gaming in general? We've seen it come a long way over the past decades, and it's not always easy to see where it's headed. SOE's director of development of theEverQuest franchise, Dave Georgeson, sat down with Massively at PAX East this year to prognosticate on the future of online gaming. And of course, part of that future includes EQ Next, and while he still can't talk specifics, he did shed some light on the philosophy behind the game's design, with some hints about what players might see when it's revealed at SOE Live this summer.
We began with a discussion about what the future looks like and how EQ Next plays into that future. Georgeson said he feels that SOE is already tipping its hand somewhat with what it's added to EQ andEverQuest II. What the studio is essentially doing is making the game more open to players, with features like Player Studio and multiple free-to-play revisions. When the players can participate along with the developers in creating the game, the developers can continue making professional content, like the upcoming blueprint feature in EQII. There are many ideas being pushed along the way, and those ideas are "seriously on steroids with EQ Next," as he put it, but that won't be revealed until August at SOE Live.
In order to look at the future, we must consider the past, so we took a little trip back in time to when Georgeson took over as Executive Producer of EQII. His handle, SmokeJumper, originally came from his work with PlanetSide when his job was jumping in and putting out fires, so to speak. When he later rejoined SOE, EQII wasn't in trouble, but he felt the team needed a recharge. There was too much lather-rinse-repeat going on, and he felt the team needed to be reminded that the game was really cool and doing better than many other MMOs newer than EQII. After that, he focused his efforts on getting the game into the press more, partially through increased marketing but also by releasing things like Dungeon Maker and SOEmote. While some watchers questioned whether these were things the game needed, his answer was yes because it gave the game global press and kept the game became "alive" in people's minds. As a result, the game's numbers are stronger than they have been in years.
The future of free-to-play
Free-to-play was also a really good move for EQII; F2P doubled the game's numbers overall. But Georgeson acknowledged that it was a risk and that SOE was worried it might lose core players who had been loyal through the years. So the devs launched it with a very tight matrix at the beginning and watched it closely over time to see the effect. What they saw was that the original free-to-play model was actually driving people away because they felt SOE had its hand out all the time, and that's not what anyone wanted players to feel. Over time, SOE has eased many restrictions to make it feel much less intrusive.
In a perfect world, Georgeson hopes for a free-to-play model in which the free-to-play part is "invisible until you want it." SOE's devs want to be "white hats," to be able to entertain and have players want to opt in to pay. Going forward, Player Studio will be bigger and bigger, and the game will be even more opened up to players. That allows the devs to focus on making better and better professional content and let players create items for the Marketplace.
But what about the bigger picture of online gaming in general? We've seen it come a long way over the past decades, and it's not always easy to see where it's headed. SOE's director of development of theEverQuest franchise, Dave Georgeson, sat down with Massively at PAX East this year to prognosticate on the future of online gaming. And of course, part of that future includes EQ Next, and while he still can't talk specifics, he did shed some light on the philosophy behind the game's design, with some hints about what players might see when it's revealed at SOE Live this summer.
We began with a discussion about what the future looks like and how EQ Next plays into that future. Georgeson said he feels that SOE is already tipping its hand somewhat with what it's added to EQ andEverQuest II. What the studio is essentially doing is making the game more open to players, with features like Player Studio and multiple free-to-play revisions. When the players can participate along with the developers in creating the game, the developers can continue making professional content, like the upcoming blueprint feature in EQII. There are many ideas being pushed along the way, and those ideas are "seriously on steroids with EQ Next," as he put it, but that won't be revealed until August at SOE Live.
In order to look at the future, we must consider the past, so we took a little trip back in time to when Georgeson took over as Executive Producer of EQII. His handle, SmokeJumper, originally came from his work with PlanetSide when his job was jumping in and putting out fires, so to speak. When he later rejoined SOE, EQII wasn't in trouble, but he felt the team needed a recharge. There was too much lather-rinse-repeat going on, and he felt the team needed to be reminded that the game was really cool and doing better than many other MMOs newer than EQII. After that, he focused his efforts on getting the game into the press more, partially through increased marketing but also by releasing things like Dungeon Maker and SOEmote. While some watchers questioned whether these were things the game needed, his answer was yes because it gave the game global press and kept the game became "alive" in people's minds. As a result, the game's numbers are stronger than they have been in years.
The future of free-to-play
Free-to-play was also a really good move for EQII; F2P doubled the game's numbers overall. But Georgeson acknowledged that it was a risk and that SOE was worried it might lose core players who had been loyal through the years. So the devs launched it with a very tight matrix at the beginning and watched it closely over time to see the effect. What they saw was that the original free-to-play model was actually driving people away because they felt SOE had its hand out all the time, and that's not what anyone wanted players to feel. Over time, SOE has eased many restrictions to make it feel much less intrusive.
In a perfect world, Georgeson hopes for a free-to-play model in which the free-to-play part is "invisible until you want it." SOE's devs want to be "white hats," to be able to entertain and have players want to opt in to pay. Going forward, Player Studio will be bigger and bigger, and the game will be even more opened up to players. That allows the devs to focus on making better and better professional content and let players create items for the Marketplace.
