[Loampounder]

It sounds more like perfect is hypothesizing.

It seems he did the blog when bored and fishing for a job in the industry and he probably got some bites. I don't know if it's SOE, but he probably got a new master who told him to shut up.

[Lonestryder]

Given the recent trends, does anyone actually think EQ-whatever-is-next will not feature and singularly focus on microtransactions and hero-icon-solo-centric gameplay?

[Arctic_Slicer]

Originally Posted by Loampounder

It sounds more like perfect is hypothesizing.

It seems he did the blog when bored and fishing for a job in the industry and he probably got some bites. I don't know if it's SOE, but he probably got a new master who told him to shut up.

If that were the case wouldn't he have simply killed the website like he did after SOE bought out Sigil?

[dabble]

Originally Posted by Lonestryder

Given the recent trends, does anyone actually think EQ-whatever-is-next will not feature and singularly focus on microtransactions and hero-icon-solo-centric gameplay?

I think they will kill the Everquest Name with this effort and then go on to say "We are no longer making Everquest titles due to a lack of demand for this type of game"

One thing I have noticed recently is a dramatic increase in smaller developers creating interesting and diverse titiles. I think we are moving into the era of the Niche game where 50-200k players will be good business for these smaller companys. More games, more choice, all good in my book. They just need to make a few PVE titles now to balance out the rush of Sandbox PVP.

[Dragon-RD]

Originally Posted by dabble

I think they will kill the Everquest Name with this effort and then go on to say "We are no longer making Everquest titles due to a lack of demand for this type of game"

One thing I have noticed recently is a dramatic increase in smaller developers creating interesting and diverse titiles. I think we are moving into the era of the Niche game where 50-200k players will be good business for these smaller companys. More games, more choice, all good in my book. They just need to make a few PVE titles now to balance out the rush of Sandbox PVP.

I agree but it seems to be the older MMORPG players that are jumping to the indie titles. You might remember me saying before that World of Warcraft was my first MMORPG but I like the idea behind MMOs and 4 years of WoW you do end up searching elsewhere.

In fact I was searching elsewhere in Jan 2007 when I joined this forum and found Vanguard. This left me with a bitter taste in my mouth from the guy that I had heard helped shape the genre.

I enjoyed a brief spell in UO before finding Darkfall was releasing shortly. I liked Darkfall and am enjoying the trial. It seems the US server is far more populated than that of EU at least basing that off the trial.

I've now started to really like the skill based systems rather than "Just buy some new skills" so I'm keep an eye out on these type of things. In fact I'd love to see UO get a sequel judging by "UO2" it's probably a good thing it was canceled as it looked pretty poor by 2003(?) standards.

But indie companies are moving away from the whole World of Warcraft clones and you're right it's only a matter of time until the rest of market catches on.