Don't hold back Feldon, how do you really feel about this?

But what if EQNext doesn't have any characters who are developed over years? What if there are no houses or guild halls? What if there are no epic quests or raid zones?

What if EQNext has disposable characters and no character progression?

Smed keeps telling us EQNext is going to revolutionize the entire genre. Maybe he means it. Maybe when it comes we won't even recognize it as an MMORPG at all.

Until I see it for myself, I won't believe anything I read about it.

Maybe there's no combat in EQN and it was a sick, twisted joke.

I seriously was interested in Wizardry Online until I read the words "permadeath". I don't care that there's a Marketplace way to undo the permadeath, it's a complete turn-off to even contemplate that happening to my beloved avatars. I'd rather have a bunny-foo-foo game with no combat than permadeath.

If by permadeath, he means that you need to have arrangements to get a rez (by other player or device or running spell), or say have a clone ready for when you die, then this could be alright. If it is like Wizardry where there just is some random number generator that will end your character on any given death, then it is a really dumb idea.

So now Georgeson is scrambling to cover up Smed's mess: https://twitter.com/Qixter/status/309440854030958592

@eq2gu Nope. Not happening. Many of us here like permadeath, but no.

Bhagpuss,

I guarantee there will be housing and guild halls in EQN, though they will probably be more realistic than they are in EQ2 and EQ. The question of character progression is valid though. I seriously doubt that there will be none, but it is probable that there won't be levels and that the advancement system won't involve an exponential power improvement like in EQ and EQ2. It could be that there will be an asymptotic progression toward a power level only 2X to 5X the power level of a starting character. That would keep all content relevant for the entire life of the game and could allow for harsher death penalties.

So my guess from this is that there will be a major "death" penalty, perhaps like the original EQ.

Kind of wonder if he's talking about EQ Next being permanently dead as a project, not sure why he would tweet that though.

Or maybe if its not the PC's maybe its a world where NPC's die permanently? Something where quests are randomly generated with no two being the same? That would be an interesting idea, I like the idea of the world being more interactive, although just changing names and the number or rats to kill would get old fast.

Or maybe he's just having some fun?

Man the amount of crazy conspiracy theories some people have about SoE and Smedley is almost as insane and nutty as the ones you hear on the History Channel.

There's a lot of raging gamers at the moment.

Yeah, all ten of them.

Once more they show they dont understand what everquest is (Why not an EverQUEST without any QUEST). look like a strong false good idea. Increase the death penality side, why not but they are clearly not enough skilled for try so risky thing. And certainly not with the hardcore model. There is nothing to see with Diablo/Torchlight like in EQ
All i see they want turn a huge deep game in trash game. EQ4 will be a small flash game at this rate

funny one.

I personally welcome a penalty for death. I would prefer a UO or EQ1 style penalty but I'd take permadeath over the current MMO "punishment" systems for dying. Currently people are way to careless with their adventures purely because you only normally have a repair bill of some sort that, unless completely new, doesn't really matter hardly at all.

Point being whether permadeath or something else a little less drastic, I welcome a death penalty versus the current systems.

Either way my money is going to ElderScrolls Online instead. AFIAK the best of EverQuest are the memories of what it once was. I've made it a habit never to play any MMORPG that's either open world PVP, or has permadeath, because IMO it isn't fun having my hard earned rewards taken from me by either the server deleting it, or some player killer who thinks he's all that and a bag of chips.

@Cyliena - You may wanna look at Wizardry Online a bit more closely. Character death does not seem as harsh as they make it out. If you die, you have a timer (~18 min I believe) to get to the ressurection stone of a dungeon. In fact, the tutorial even kills your character to show you how to recover from it.

IMHO, until someone can guarantee that death can't be caused by outside influences such as power failures, ISP drops, or any other out of game influence Permadeath has no place in a MMORPG. Especially a MMO that requires a serious time investment to advance/progress.

I like the way UO did it, when you died, you became a ghost (other playres couldn't understand you unless they knew the language of the dead). You could respawn yourself at a penalty, or get a rez by another player or NPC cleric. But you'd wander the lands as a ghost if you chose either of the 2 former options. Allowed for great roleplaying, some people even chose to stay ghosts, and roleplay and 'haunt' cities and players.

Downside of course was your body stayed where you died, so we might be looking at corpse runs again /shudder. lol

Smed has probably just checked his calendar and realised he is overdue to poke the community a little.

I too quite liked the ghost business - meant for some great tales trying to get a group back to a corpse to retrieve it. Yes is could be annoying but now death means nothing. Permadeath is too far for me tho - I like to get attached to my toons over time and develop them - I'd never do anything if I feared permadeath. Grouping would be hell - one duff group and everything ends, and we all know how hard it can be to get a good group reliably.

Elder Scrolls gets my future interest too, even if there won't be ratonga.

@Feldon

Well Smedley never said the permadeath was for the players, people are just assuming that.

Either he is dropping some sort of playful hint at EQNext, which is definitely promised to be very very different to EQ2 or EQ1.

Or he's just having a joke with the team. Assuming he's not having a joke with the team, and the comments by Smedley and David Georgeson are both true then maybe he wants to drop some hints for the upcoming game and have some fun with the playerbase.

I cant imagine a game world that stays coherent and has killable NPC's (when I say NPC's I mean like Anotonia Bayle) without requiring massive upkeep (the matrix online had the live storyline but that was never sustainable), but a game like that would definitely be unique.

Okay, call me a cynic, but this whole thing just smells of:

Smedley pontificates aloud, "What can we do to get people talking about our game while we try to revamp everything ...?
Heh, here's an idea," quips Georgeson, sarcastically, "why not just tweet that we're adding in perma-death?"
"Hey yeah! That'll get 'em talking!" replies Smedley, excitedly as he logs into Twitter.
"Uhhh, uhhh . . ." stammers Georgeson, "I was kidding . . . "

It'll probably be another 2 years or more (since they're totally redesigning the EQNext concept) before anything is even close to ready to show the public in EQNext. But they really DO have to keep people talking about it or it WILL be forgotten. It just seems to me a ploy to get people talking . . . kind of like SOEmote. Or, to quote Feldon above:

Sometimes the articles practically write themselves.

@Gourdon

stopping powercreep makes it a lazy man's fps.

massive power advancement is as central to the theme as wizards and dragons. Exponential power gains are the norm, anything else and you leave the world of high fantasy.

There is already a genre for nominal avatar differences. Its first persons shooters.

What you are describing would not remake MMORPG, it would be a fps like unreal tournament with a more limited ability schema for player types with a high fantasy skin over the top. Thats just grotesque. With the bonus of click targeting, yay!

Something tells me that this EQN is going to be a game designed for current players' kids (or grandkids). If that's the case, then I wouldn't bet on the game becoming MORE hard core than typical games out these days...nor would I expect it to require more time commitment at one sitting.

So, what would EQN look like if your preteen (or maybe teen) kids in the house were to throw all of their allowance (and anything they can suck out of you) into an EQ MMO?

@stringer .... or someone could have done the numbers and realized that the only untapped gaming market out there is the over 50's. Baby boomers with lots of free time and enough cash to play a game every day.

Want to have a second WoW? Find a new untapped (largely) player base.

But I guess your scenario is more consistent with what the game publishers think is the "real market" for computer games: white, male, middle class, 11-16.

I'm @EQ2GU, I just tweet out what ever Feldon puts out there.. I didn't have anything to do with it!

Or Whatever the official forums post.

I can just imagine the level of death threats that would emerge in-game if this feature was ever placed in. To the ten people who think this is a good idea, yeah you'll blow that nostalgia off once you die ingame start tossing furniture around attempting to gain your cool just to later on find out where the healer lives IRL so you can go shoot him for not properly healing you.

or someone could have done the numbers and realized that the only untapped gaming market out there is the over 50's. Baby boomers with lots of free time and enough cash to play a game every day.

Find solid proof and actual data on this instead of pure guessing.

If I wanted permadeath I'd go attack real bears with a sword and shield.