Image via Complex Original
If you were a gamer visiting Las Vegas in the last four days, chances were it was because of SoE's annual fan gathering. Previously known as the SoE Fan Faire, SoE Live was held at the Planet Hollywood hotel for the first time.
This larger venue (over last year's event at Bally's) meant a big turnout, well timed especially considering the wealth of panels and some huge
announcements, most notably Everquest Next.
Here are my ten takeaways from attending this year’s show:
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Fierce Cosplay Competition
The SoE Live cosplay competition might be limited to characters from SoE games, but that's
more than enough to showcase the kind of variety you'd see at any other convention with cosplaying. MMOs in particular allow for extra creativity especially if you're coming as your own customized avatar. If you prefer, you can go as a more recognizable character such as a boss or a notably NPC from a game's PvE narrative.
Never Enough Dragons
Dragon's Prophet might be mistaken as a gritty, playable version of How to Train Your Dragon or a Pokemon-inspired monster collecting game with an emphasis on dragons, not that there's anything wrong with either. These dragons might be small enough for you to ride them as a bucking bronco (that's actually how you capture them), but the enemies are often ten times larger. This results in a compelling David (and Dragon) versus Goliath vibe to Dragon's Prophet.
Planetside 2 Goes Jungleside
Any game expansion announcement is a big deal when you're talking about a new continent.
Hossin marks the fourth for Planetside 2, a jungle continent to complement the game's desert, highland, and ice landscapes. Four continents in eight months since the game's release is doubly impressive when the majority of each environment is handcrafted with minimal copy and
pasting of assets.
Each facility in Hossin has a unique layout and introduces a new building type: the interlink facility.
Always Time To Pillage and Plunder, for Money
Along with the sellers booths, the artist tables, panels, and parties, SoE Live also has its own eSports, in the form of tournaments over a number of SoE games. Prize purses ranged from $1,000 for Legends of Norrath to $10,000 in a 'Pillage and Plunder' Everquest II Tournament.
Always up on the latest web broadcasting platforms, SoE Live partnered with Twitch TV to live stream many of these matches.
Enough Room to Pool Party
The keynote alluded to stories from last year's SoE Live at Bally's and how the hotel could not contain the revelry of the SoE fans.
By all accounts, the generous size of the pool floor at Planet Hollywood was more than enough for hundreds of attendees to roam comfortably. The non-pool area was so large, in fact that I initially had a hard time finding the two pools. With all the space, the event could have benefitted from a couple more bars to help shorten the consistently long lines for alcohol.
DC Universe Online Goes to the Nether World
Sons of Trigon marks the eighth DLC for DC Universe Online, so you almost can't blame SoE for trying something drastic this time around, namely turning Gotham City into an underworld landscape (not that the city wasn't already dark and dicey to begin with).
This episode helps resolve a cliffhanger from the main game involving the devilish Trigon. It also introduces his sons, each inhabiting a part of Gotham themed on one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Look forward to a difficulty level similar to the challenges of the previous DLC, as well as the addition of some new DCUO characters including Constantine and the Fearsome Five.
Never Forgetting its ‘Fan Faire’ Roots
Having attended my share of overly scripted and stiffly presented keynotes, the casual nature of SoE Live's keynote was immensely refreshing. It helped that SoE community relations director Linda Carlson was a co-host, and a well-dressed cosplaying one at that. Her banter with cohost and SoE executive producer Mark Tuttle made for great comedy which included a lot of audience interaction. I just wished more games industry on-stage personalities had Mark's radio broadcasting experience in working up a crowd.
Minecraft Meets Everquest
There are those who want to adventure as the developers had designed, and there are those who want to be the designers. As a complementary release to Everquest Next, Everquest Next Landmark is a platform and canvas by which players have access to nearly all the design tools that SoE had in creating EQ Next.
Voxel-based object construction also means destruction, a key feature of the game. When you combine player imagination, these tools, and SoE's Player Studio, you're talking about participants making actual money from selling their uniquely designed objects.
Bigger Everquest With Agile Adventurers
Notice the lower level in this screenshot?
It's just a hint of Everquest Next's verticality. Don't be surprised if you turn into an accidental Everquest archeologist as you dive into the lower depths of Norrath. You could try to stay on the surface, just watch out for the fragile crusts that can give way after a well-placed enemy attack.
At least SoE has given you and all other EQ Next adventurers a level of mobility that EQ and EQII characters never had. Some races and classes will have a naturally easier time traversing the land, but all character types can be upgraded to be fast moving climbers and floaters, among other movement skills.
Everquest Rebooted
Everquest Next is not only the first new non-expansion pack Everquest in nine years, but also a reboot of the series.
'Reboot' is a word that SoE hasn't been shy in using and have even gone as far as to draw comparisons to--for better or worse--J.J. Abrams' work on the new Star Trek movies. From the hands-off demos, Everquest Next surely looks like a gorgeous and detailed game primed for a 2014 MMO audience. Whether it will draw the majority of classic Everquest fans remains to be seen. Yet those fans will not be ignored as expansions for both EQ and EQII were announced at SoE Live as well.