You can make money out of satisfying a niche that everyone else ignores. Especially if that niche ends up to be a lot of people. p.s. I still want to kill you. You are a pointless creature like a cockroach.
EQ Never
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tad10
Elisha Dushku
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They're not going for niche. EQN will be on PS4 and will be FTP (hopefully with somekind of gold membership for those of us who hate FTP). It seems like SOE thinks it has the (note the use of the definite article here) WoW-killer thus the secrecy and the 1 year max from reveal to release.
Who knows, maybe Blizzard thinks so as well thus the Titan reshuffle...
As to whether they actually have it...? Who knows.
mmorpgs don't exist anymore as far as I'm concerned. WoW certainly isn't. What is?
I felt Tallon Zeks racial teams pvp was great and in the early days promoted a real sense of comraderie amongst players of the same teams. It also had a bit of role play attached as the teams were human/barb/erudite, Woodelf/halfelf/highelf, gnome/dwarf/halfling, and darkelf/troll/ogre. Teams were very cool, but eventually cross teaming came around because it was difficult to get things done within your own races.
tad10
Elisha Dushku
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I have seen the light Kreugen, you're right.
Probably better that you don't watch the whole video: StoryBricks guy is very smart but longwinded. Unless you like RPGs then watch away.
http://youtu.be/OMbOkJRHhfU
I finally get storybricks after this video.
-key points after 31 min and especially after 43 min.
Rundown.
-NPCs will have emotional traits and connections (in love with, bethrothed to, owes a debt too, loves flowers, whatever)
-PCs will also have emotional traits and moods (dopey, sneezy, creepy, lovey, noble, etc) that actually matter.
Certain relationship connections will trigger other emotional traits based on PC action.
(Ben loves Jerry, if you kill Jerry Ben will hate you. Hating you means he will want to do any number of possible actions to you: kill you or hire someone to kill you (perhaps based on your level, size and strength)).
EQN will contain a bunch of these relationships. I'll give the example from the video: 3NPCs King Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot.
Before EQN/SB
A is married to and loves G, G is married to A but loves L, L is duty-bound to A but loves G.
You as a PC get to do quests for A,G and L related to this love triangle. All other players can do the same quests.
With EQN/SB
Lancelot goes away. You the player character can take the role of Lancelot if you develop a love relationship with G and take an oath to A. Once appropriate conditions are met, the story will start. There is no quest to take, the only question is whether you want to roleplay the love relationship with G and oath relationship with A. Once that happens the rest of the story will commence with you taking the part of Lancelot (with normal story progression and story arcs/breaks and forks based on the pre-created AGL storybrick).
I'm explaining it poorly so I'll do it this way:
Before EQN/SB
Drunk means having funny things happen on your computer.
With EQN/SB
Drunk means getting rolled by pickpockets. Pickpocket AI will be alert for anyone who gets drunk. You get drunk, you join the 'rolling the drunk' story.
Anyway, if SB is implemented in EQN as is suggested in the video I get the best-of: there are no quests, there are no quest hubs. Only how and where you want to roleplay your character. Each player will only take on the stories (quests) that he or she wants to take on based on how they roleplay their character.
All you want to do is fight: set your mood to adventureous and talk with people who look like they're in trouble. You want to romance a queen, set your mood to romantic and start looking for a queen.
iannis
Musty Nester
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It's a nice idea, but ultimately that is going to take too much maintenance to work in aMassiveMultiplayer Online.
It will require an evolving game environment rather than a static one and that won't happen.
Interesting idea, good tool, imperfect application. Narrow the scope and they might be onto something.
It will require an evolving game environment rather than a static one and that won't happen.
Interesting idea, good tool, imperfect application. Narrow the scope and they might be onto something.
tad10
Elisha Dushku
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It works fine. Storybricks are limited: beginning, middle, end. So lancelot roleplayer kidnaps a willing Guinevere gets pursued, fight ensues and story ends one way or another. Ends with faction hit in King's kingdom generally but positive faction with Queen/Queen's Guards or whatever. Queen goes back to King, and opening for another person to try for that story.
Edit: I should have noted that there appear to be multiple endpoints on the more complicated bricks so a player in this Plot Template doesn't have to end it the same way as the guy before.
iannis
Musty Nester
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Eh. It's just another boring quest if it has no impact. You might as well click the !, read (or skip) some text, hit accept, and go collect your ten bear asses. It's -still- run maze, hit button, receive food pellet. They're just adding a pre-maze. All that's really doing is replacing one sort of faction grind with a different faction grind.
That's exactly how it's going to play in a MMO-space. It's trying to mimic an adaptive environment within a static one. I get it. It's a step in the right direction -- it is. But you'll get bored of that within 2 weeks without truly massive dev investment. In that application it's just a gimmick, not a revolutionary next gen concept. That doesn't mean the tool is bad or the idea is bad.
If theyarewilling to invest the time into it to keep it from being so transparently mundane they might as well go full monty-mush with the idea -- because that would actually be less work but it would severely limit the scope.
That's exactly how it's going to play in a MMO-space. It's trying to mimic an adaptive environment within a static one. I get it. It's a step in the right direction -- it is. But you'll get bored of that within 2 weeks without truly massive dev investment. In that application it's just a gimmick, not a revolutionary next gen concept. That doesn't mean the tool is bad or the idea is bad.
If theyarewilling to invest the time into it to keep it from being so transparently mundane they might as well go full monty-mush with the idea -- because that would actually be less work but it would severely limit the scope.
tad10
Elisha Dushku
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There's a huge difference: you only do the stories you want to do and the stories are nonlinear and based on your style of play. If all you want to do is grind mobs you can do that. You're not being forced to go down any particular path or complete a story in a particular way. If you decide to romance the queen she'll respond until you get drunk and start hitting on her lady-in-waiting (assuming a sufficiently complex storybrick). With respect to permanent consequences beyond faction and reputation changes we'll see - I'd like to see some permanent consequences but there are limitations in an MMO but if you don't see how the content changes to reflect your style of play is next-gen then I don't know what to say: you're looking for the computer program in Ender's Game, maybe in twenty years.
I'm sure there are a lot of things about the SB/EQN interaction that I don't get from these videos for example there is a strong suggestion that SOE can use SB to give Casuals and Hardcore players completely different experiences (see the easy/hard mode discussion).
Another video by the same guy:
http://youtu.be/lpPF-32easM
Start from around 25 minutes in, plot templates around 30, easy/hard after 40.
Anyway, as noted before it always depends on execution.
iannis
Musty Nester
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But I can already do only the stories that I want to do in the current iteration of the paradigm (this is usually referred to as "playing the game" rather than being "a pathetic drug fiend") and the tasking is still just as linear in the new iteration. It will have to be without procedurally generated content devolving into such nonsense that it makes you beg for the integrity of bear asses. It's just a different way to draw the line.
That's a repackage not a reinvention.
Limit the scope of players in the space thereby limiting the possible interactions and bounding an adaptive space rather than imperfectly mimicing one in a static space and it could be a reinvention. But with their implementation it's just not one. Like you say, to do what you seem to think they're going to do with it in a MMO environment they would have to actually create Skynet.
Hell, I'm not even hating on the idea of it. I can see how it can work without science fiction adaptive self-teaching computer programs. I doubt I'll play it much because it sounds like far more smoke than fire. But to each their own.
That's a repackage not a reinvention.
Limit the scope of players in the space thereby limiting the possible interactions and bounding an adaptive space rather than imperfectly mimicing one in a static space and it could be a reinvention. But with their implementation it's just not one. Like you say, to do what you seem to think they're going to do with it in a MMO environment they would have to actually create Skynet.
Hell, I'm not even hating on the idea of it. I can see how it can work without science fiction adaptive self-teaching computer programs. I doubt I'll play it much because it sounds like far more smoke than fire. But to each their own.
Flipmode
EQOA Refugee
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Mr Creed
Too old for this shit
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Story bricks in itself is an awesome concept. Pair that with scripted day-to-day activities for npcs like in Elder Scrolls games and a complex inter-connected faction web like in EVE or EQ1 and you will have a fairly alive world. I'm a fan of that idea.
I do however seriously doubt the implementation will be as awesome as it is on paper because it appears to be a very complicated effort that can easily end up being too shallow. As soon as you see the feet behind the curtain the magic is gone. I guess it depends to what length SOE is willing to invest time, work and especially money into the project.
I do however seriously doubt the implementation will be as awesome as it is on paper because it appears to be a very complicated effort that can easily end up being too shallow. As soon as you see the feet behind the curtain the magic is gone. I guess it depends to what length SOE is willing to invest time, work and especially money into the project.
Flipmode
EQOA Refugee
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Seems to be time consuming more then anything. But storybricks software makes it pretty simple. Just a lot of npcs to program.
Flobee
Vyemm Raider
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What evidence does anyone have to suggest EQ Next will even be any good? Let alone released? I'm genuinely curious. Is there some kind of amazingly talented team behind it or just the same old recycled devs that have worked on previous fail MMO's?
taebin
Same trailer, different park
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Is there any hope, Gandalf, for Frodo and Sam?
There never was much hope. Just a fool's hope.