This week’s Massively Overthinking comes to us from Patreon donor Roger, who fully admits he still has EverQuest Next on the brain.
“Since we won’t see a new addition to the franchise, let’s play the imagination game. If you could help choose the genre for the next EverQuest game, other than MMO, what would you like it to be? MOBA? Single-player open world? Cooperative/competitive shooter (why not)? Anything!”
We know that Daybreak is working on another game, but it’s unlikely to be an MMORPG (as tipster Chris pointed out, the team asked for experience working on shooters). But will it be part of the EQ lineage? Let’s play!
​Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): The very first thing I thought when I heard it wasn’t being released was, “Why don’t they just make it a small scale multiplayer RPG?” The idea of NPCs with their own lives that can organize attacks on players has kind of been something I’ve wanted return to ever since Asheron’s Call 2’s beta experimented with it (which actually pissed off a lot of players). It could be like Animal Crossing, with elves and swords that stab instead of hang nicely on your wall!
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): Confession time: I have never really found the EverQuest lore compelling in the first place, so I don’t feel all that attached to it the way I do for Star Wars, The Elder Scrolls, or even Guild Wars. My reasons for wanting to see more EverQuest games is that I want Daybreak to do well, I wanted a major AAA MMORPG with all the bells and whistles, and I love when MMORPG IPs push boundaries and cross into the mainstream. New EverQuest games also force Daybreak to keep the old ones alive. So I suppose my reasoning is more meta here than anything, but I’d like to see Daybreak use the IP for a shooter or survival sandbox — yes, we have lots of both, but very few in the high-fantasy space.
And then? Yeah, EverQuest III, please.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog):Â Interestingly enough, the EverQuest franchise has branched out beyond MMOs, including a digital card game and a couple of solo releases on consoles. I don’t think any of them did gangbusters, but they were definitely trying to ride the wave of EverQuest popularity in the early 2000s.
I’m sure you could shoehorn EverQuest into just about any genre, but I’m not sure that any other than MMO would fit it. Maybe a sprawling, open-world single-player RPG, as seems to be the rage these days, would be interesting with the EverQuest overlay. But really we just need Crossy EverQuesty so that Firiona Vie could play Frogger with fast-moving dragons and kobolds.
MJ Guthrie (@MJ_Guthrie, blog):Â If you’d indulge me, I actually made a pitch for player-run servers for EverQuest and EverQuest II that would allow the admin to dictate which timeframe that Norrath exists in. Barring that, how about a Norrath-themed survival shard? They are all the rage right now! Imagine beating folks to the furniture drop and finding some awesome paintings, curtains, or even a wine cart? This time, however, Fippy gets to be an epic raid monster like the Broodmother in ARK. At the very least, make him a Dodorex; that poor Gnoll truly deserves it!
My next plug is for a Dishonored-style single-player stealth game. Sure, this pretty much leaves my favorite classes out, but sneaking around into the various keeps and dungeons to foil evil (or good?) plots would be fun. And oh, the Easter eggs that could by hidden all over!
Your turn!
