The EverQuest community has been buzzing with rumors about a possible new version of EverQuest that is in the works. Last week Daybreak Games posted a listing on their careers page looking for a Creative Director.
Redbeard Flynn has done a good job speculating about this news in this video:
In case the listing is deleted, here’s a screencap:
Here’s Are the Clues that Stand Out
EverQuest was based on a MUD. Richard Bartle wrote a masterpiece of player motivation analysis called: Players Who Suit Muds. He put forth the idea that MUDS are comprised of 4 player archetypes: achiever, socializer, explorer, and killer. Bartle also suggested that good MUDs are ones where the archetypes are in equilibrium.
Let’s take a look at these clues in the job listing through that lens:
- The job is for Darkpaw Games — Darkpaw Games is under the Daybreak Game umbrella and was set up only to create games in the EverQuest universe.
- Emphasis on Community and Teamwork — Before she departed Darkpaw for Blizzard, Holly Longdale mentioned that any future EQ MMO would have to have these uniquely EQ fundamentals
- Put the time in, “work” hard and you get rewarded — This speaks to EQ’s core achievement game loop, and the “time” represents the progression of leveling and loot over a long period of time. This can only be an MMORPG. Bonus: nice mention of the players here
- Escape, Exploration, and High Fantasy — More references to Bartle fundamentals and mention escapism and high fantasy — all EQ fundamental game pillars
- Pre-existing IP — this can only be EverQuest (See above #1)
Clearly, someone at Darkpaw put a lot of thought into the job description. I reported in previous articles that I believe Holly Longdale and others at Daybreak spent a considerable amount of time laying the foundation for a future incarnation of EverQuest. This job posting is a result of their hard work.
Conclusion
Due to a burst of elation caused by the news, the initial article I composed was very long. It was full of possible candidates for the creative director position and I included a list of challenges he or she will face. I have since trimmed it down by 80%. I think it’s best to publish it at a later date so I can fully digest the implications and refine my analysis.
I have to be honest, this rumor is bittersweet for me due to my deep distrust and disgust with Darkpaw and Daybreak. This year I pretty much gave up on caring about EverQuest. What SOE, Daybreak and now Darkpaw Gameas have put loyal fans through is unconscionable. The time for a new EverQuest was years ago. This feels like too little, too late.
I have a feeling that this is the creative director role that Holly Longdale wanted all along but due to EG 7’s hesitation in green-lighting a new EQ. It looks like Holly could no longer wait and joined Blizzard to work on World of Warcraft: Classic.
There’s a fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me vibe about this. After the EQ Next fiasco and after years of negligence and betrayal from various studios, I’m not even sure that I like MMORPGs anymore. I’ve pretty much given up on the genre.
Then we have the timeline of announcement-to-release to consider. Look at Intrepid’s Ashes of Creation MMORPG which was announced via Kickstarter in October of 2017. It is still in alpha despite being in development for 6 years.
The sobering reality is that if Darkpaw is indeed planning EverQuest 3 it will be at least 4 years before it will be ready. That might be shorter if EG 7 gives them ample resources to hire a lot of great talent and use A.I. to expedite the production process.
Hiring a creative director is only the beginning. Whomever they choose, this person will have a lot of work to do once he or she gets hired. I think the earliest they will announce this will be next year during EverQuest’s 25th Anniversary.
The biggest red flag is the studio itself. Daybreak and Darkpaw are blood-sucking vampires that only care about profits. I was hoping that Enad Global 7 would have sold the rights to the EQ IP to a competent studio but sadly that never happened.
Having intersectionalist Jennifer Chan as the Studio head is a gigantic red flag for me as well. Even though she checks off three victim boxes in the DEI department, it’s not enough to excuse her uninspired and underwhelming tenure as studio head. The reclusive Chan has not bothered to get to know the EQ community as she promised in her first address to the community. At least in her public persona, I haven’t detected any genuine affinity for the franchise. I can almost guarantee you that she doesn’t play EQ with any degree of regularity.
Another big concern for me is that given the political nature of Darkpaw and the People’s Republic of California where they are located, they may make the mistake of making a new Norrath that is teeming with wokeness and identity politics. Former players with families that haven’t played EQ in 20 years are not going to appreciate being indoctrinated or having annoying pride pets shoved down their throats. I’m not sure if Darkpaw and Jenn Chan have the maturity and restraint to avoid adding needless leftist propaganda to EQ 3.
Hopefully, by the time an EverQuest 3 or Everquest Evolution or whatever they plan to call it comes out, the fad of wokeness and trans rights will have burned out, and video game studios will return to a state of political neutrality and stability.
Whomever Darkpaw hires will ultimately either make or break this new EverQuest. I’m both curious and terrified about who will be involved in the selection process. Putting existing Darkpaw developers — most of who don’t even play their own MMORPG — in charge of this selection makes about as much sense as putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank. All we can do is pray for a miracle and hope for the best.
-Wolfshead
Where’s Furor when you need him?
Funny you mentioned Furor. In my “Possible Candiates for EverQuest 3 Creative Director” upcoming article, he is one of my top candiates for the role.
When I see a new game, especially by a developer that is Western and in this case American developer and also AAA, I can’t help but feel the game is going to be as woke as possible:
– no genders
– women can have beards
– men can have female hairs and wear dresses/skirts
– pronouns
– pointless (to the story) shoving of LGHDTV+ degeneracy in the storylines, first saw it in ESO where they tried really hard to make it known that a female NPC had a WIFE, the word “my wife” was repeated enough times that even the most brain damaged will notice it
I have nothing against American developers, they created amazing games, like:
– Vanilla WoW
– Baldur’s Gate
– TES3 Morrowind
– HoMM3
– Age of Empires 2
– Diablo 2
and many more
but their current culture to create something very safe, meaning the game will be so easy that nobody will be left out feeling too incompetent (too big of a noob) to play the game, it will be online, but completely possible to solo the entire thing and never interact with anyone, as well as shoving woke propaganda at every chance possible, which adds absolutely nothing to the story or expands the world or makes anyone feel included is what makes me feel such games are wasted potential.
What I liked about the old games I mentioned above is that all the focus is on the story, adventure and replay value. I can play any of those games again and again until I die of old age or something else that prevents me from playing further. Heroes of Might and Magic 3 for me is the best game ever developed in the history of humanity which I still play and nothing will ever replace or surpass it for me.
In these games, the story is simple – you are a character and there are some bad guys and you have to defeat them, that’s it. Nobody cared about who was straight or who was homosexual, the point of the stupid game was:
“You go with your stick into the dungeon and beat up the evil necromancer and his zombies and that’s it.” With the added bonus of relatively interesting gameplay, loot, level ups, learning new abilities, OK music and seeing your character become stronger and the ability to develop it in a few different ways and maybe explore different parts of the world in different playthroughts… that was the entire point of games.
Nobody cared about genders or sexual preferences, now the whole fantasy genre from movies, to games is some self-insert of some troubled people who were given some kind of creating freedom and are constantly seeking validation and it’s become pathologic and they can’t derive any validation that they want to permanently taint everything they touch by inserting the validation they need, but in the process ruining entire franchises for everyone on the planet.
I think the last times I was excited about new games was around 2015 when I didn’t know or pay attention so much to the woke agenda, which at the time wasn’t that strongly pronounced either.
Now when I see a new game, my first question is, especially if I notice it’s from Western European or American developers “is it woke?”. Like that game Palia that showed in-game footage for the first time the other day and suprise! – it doesn’t have genders, only body types, it has pronouns, there is no white skin color, only dark ones, most hairstyles are afros or something afro-related.
Recently I got a chance to try out Diablo 4 on a private server, and what do I see – in the character creation, it doesn’t say “select gender” it says “select body type” and then I notice all the first 5 hair styles are the afro-related ones, because they must be the most important ones that everyone will look for, the straight hair ones were last and looked pathetic compared to curly haired ones.
In other words, I’m not excited about EverQuest 3 or any new Western MMORPG, Asian developers seem to also have dumbed down their MMORPGs and are now focusing on mobile or cross-platform between mobile and PC, which results in the PC version feeling like a lazy mobile port so more or less all hope for fun new games is lost.
I’ve resorted to playing 20 year old games, maybe sift through some indie ones that are not woke and I’m beginning to feel my gaming days are near their end. Funnily enough, I don’t feel sad or bummed out about it, in a way I’m looking forward to it as if one chapter of my life will end and a new one will begin with full force, a better one, without games. xD
Big red flag for me is the bit about “Maintain knowledge of the Global Game Market” and use that to introduce features. Means there’s no clear vision and they’re looking to copy popular features rather than be trailblazers. Also rather contradicting to have a sense of danger as well as “fairness” where you have nothing to lose.
You can’t have escapism with politics, etc shoved in your face, that’s for sure. I’m more “diverse” than Chan and I sure as hell don’t want that to be part of the design process.
Considering there was a vision for another EQ in the past and that doesn’t look like it’s on the table, the “safest” thing they could do is just recreate EQ1 and update things enough for it to be a fresh experience.
No mention of PvP I assume, which was a unique experience if you were on VZ. How is it that developers continue to think in terms of PvP and PvE being separate and still haven’t learned from all the design mistakes everyone repeats. Just means PvP will be your typical gimmick ruleset within any thought being put into the overall game mechanics.
The only non-woke game I’ve played the past 5 years is Escape from Tarkov, made by Russians. Anything coming out of the west is bound to be woke garbage. Especially with the current with the woke leadership at darkpaw.
100% right! For the last 10 years all of these studios have been activily recruiting LGBTQ types. It’s their “reality” that is being presented in these games now. Garbage in, garbage out.
Funny you mentioned Escape from Tarkov.
The creative director from Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen absolutely loves it and is the main inspiration for the PvP server in that mmorpg. According to Chris “Joppa” Perkins he wants to recreate the feeling of having to always watch over your shoulder from the moment you log in to the moment you log out. He was also a member of Darkenbane/TDC and later ToW on Sullon Zek, and spent hundreds of hours there.
EQ3 ? Daybreak ? Try looking towards Pantheon/Visionary Realms. Everquest’s spirit lives there, in my estimation.