October 8th, 2009 : MMO Makeovers  

A couple days ago, MMORPG.com published an article called the “Top 5 MMOs That Need Remakes.” As one would imagine, it’s a listing of MMOs that are too outdated to meet today’s expectations but definitely had something going for them once upon a time. And sure, who wouldn’t want to rekindle the magic if they really enjoyed a game that’s now past it’s prime? There’s no blue pill for that, but take what worked well, then add improved artwork and engines and you’ve really got something, right?

For myself, the old flame is Everquest, my first MMO love. But you can’t remake EQ. If anything, EQ2 is very much an attempt at that and has achieved a reasonable amount of success, but it didn’t light a candle in comparison for me. It was too different… heck, today’s revamped EQ1 is too different even. While each new MMO takes ideas from the old ones, constantly finding ways to improve upon the genre, I feel like you can never go back home. The old graphics, odd quirks (aka bugs), and roundabout way of doing things were part of EQ’s identity. You can’t retool the terrain until it’s unrecognizable and call it by the same name (granted, WoW plans on doing just this with their Cataclysm expansion, but I’ll hold off on my comments regarding that till I see for myself).

Felwithe, the High Elf city of Everquest, in all it’s box-y glory is on the left. On the right is Tunaria, the new Felwithe of EQ2.