Next: Finally, The Debate Is Settled. Previously: Black Desert Online.

Goodbye EverQuest Next

125 words.

I don’t have much to add to the EverQuest Next wake that hasn’t already been said, except for this possibly controversial thought:

I’m kind of glad they cancelled it.

Wait, wait, let me explain. We’ve known all along that Landmark was the prototype for EverQuest Next. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was dreading the day that they released Landmark with Norrath assets and called it EQN, because Landmark is not a very good game. There’s no doubt in my mind that EQ1 and EQ2 fans would have hated it.

Imagine how bad it would have been for the MMORPG industry if they had pushed out the next, long-awaited, highly-anticipated EverQuest game and it had been the same dismal failure that Landmark is.

Related

Next: Finally, The Debate Is Settled. Previously: Black Desert Online.

This page is a static archival copy of what was originally a WordPress post. It was converted from HTML to Markdown format before being built by Hugo. There may be formatting problems that I haven't addressed yet. There may be problems with missing or mangled images that I haven't fixed yet. There may have been comments on the original post, which I have archived, but I haven't quite worked out how to show them on the new site.

Archived Comments

bhagpuss 2016-03-13T15:10:05Z

The thing about EQNext, of course, is that the very last people Smed, Smokejumper, Jeff Butler and the rest were interested in pleasing were existing EQ/EQ2 players. They have always been considered the problem, with their calcified expectations and inflexible attitude. I’m pretty sure the plan was to leave them all in their walled gardens playing the two old games and attract an entirely new, younger, more commercially attractive demographic to play EQNext. That’s the main reason almost no current DBG customers will be particularly sorry to see EQNext out of the picture.

As for Landmark, it’s far from being a dismal failure. It’s a really enjoyable, fun toolset. I find it so addictive that I have to keep well clear of it or I lose whole days. It needs optimizing and some tidying up but it has huge potential to be popular - provided they do not try and sell it as a “game”, let alone an MMO. It really isn’t anything like a game and probably never will be. They should promote it as a toybox and support it that way.

EverQuest Next and the End of the Classic MMORPG | The Ancient Gaming Noob 2016-03-13T16:33:04Z […] Endgame Viable […]

Athie 2016-03-13T18:32:45Z

Yeah — it was never going to feel like existing EQ games, but SOE already knows that it’s a bad idea to compete with their own games.

But also, yeah. Landmark has some nice elements. But how many people love the combat or the movement — two of the most EQ:N elements of the game? It’s clear that they were still years and years away…

UltrViolet 2016-03-14T11:06:31Z Agreed.. Landmark does what it does fairly well, but I look at it as a failure because I don’t think any of their initial promises ever came to be.

UltrViolet 2016-03-14T11:08:36Z The only part of Landmark that I really enjoyed was digging for ore. :)

Sorry, new comments are disabled on older posts. This helps reduce spam. Active commenting almost always occurs within a day or two of new posts.