As far as EQ HD. Whenever I go over and talk about different things in EQ that worked, I'm never advocating for a return of "just EQ". I, personally, do think EQ:HD would fail. What I'd like to see is someone sit down, like Blizzard did, and really look at what made EQ work, what made it fun, and interesting (As well as looking at the MUDS it would derived from). But then instead of going in with the philosophy of just increasing access, instead take a different route to emphasize. Revolutionize another underused aspect of EQ that kind of got left in the dust by the "access" revolution. And do that without giving upeverythingfrom WoW's design either (But maybe dialing back a few changes that would interfere with the new design).
Kind of vague, I know. But it feels like there is a lot left unexplored in terms of design mechanics--because everyone assumed increased access was a silver bullet, given how it grew the industry. Like as if the rest of the "formula" for MMO's was perfect and as long as it was easier to get into, more people would play--but that's obviously not the case, the rest of the formula has been neglected. One of the reasons why I'm excited about EQN, even though it's not really what I wanted, is because they seem to be doing that. They went in a different direction than I would have, if I could go back and focus on a little aspect that made WoW/EQ great, but the point is, they focused on an aspect OTHER than that drive to increase access--and I think that's a big step.
I think we've run the access well dry. Decreasing time and social interaction has hit a kind of inverse curve now--where the more WoW tries to reduce them, the worse it makes the game. That doesn't mean we reset back to EQ, but maybe it means we dial it back a little and look at what other levers can be pulled.
