2006 Wishlist

When you wish upon a star...

As promised, my 2006 wishlist for EQII. Before I get into my wishlist I would like to mention that the EQ2 Daily podcast crew also did a wishlist during their latest show and had some good ideas.

I agree with them that a tradeskill revamp to add some fun to the underground dungeons of tedium, as I once called them, would be great. Water focused content sounds entertaining. I am also with them on PSP to EQII interactivity as I briefly mentioned here. Okay, let the wishlist begin:

Storyline: I hope a compelling large-scale and dynamic storyline develops that will give a sense of purpose to player actions in EQII. Here's my post on the subject. As a part of this storyline, I hope that players can have permanent changes on the world of Norrath through their action or inaction.

Raid interface: Here is a fantastic opportunity for EQII to set themselves apart. If they can change the raid interface to allow for easier switching of raid members between groups it would be amazing. Can you imagine a drag and drop interface which allowed the raid leader (before combat) to pull players from one group to another or switch players in two groups? How about designating a group leader with a mouse-click? I really hope SOE puts their best interface people to work on the raid interface.

Guild housing: I was hoping for Guild housing back in May and I'm still hoping. I realize this can be tricky to implement but I think it has a lot of potential.

Armor models: The lack of diversity in the armor models has long been an issue for me and while I have seen some models recently that I like, there is plenty of room for improvement.

EQ2 Players: I wrote about how bad the EQ2 Players services were back in July and I have not seen much of an improvement. I don't even mind the concept of asking players to pay for optional services but when those services are lame and badly implemented it is a problem. SOE has a fantastic chance to really make the EQ2 Players free and pay service a desirable and exciting part of the game. But right now it has a long, long way to go. Let's see a combination of exciting new ideas and fixes to the existing systems in 2006.

Arena: It is a shame to waste what could be an exciting diversion. We need some rankings systems as soon as possible. You can read more of my thoughts on this here.

Racial Diversity: Right now, visual look is the only thing that sets the races apart. Where are the race-specific items, armor, quests and content?

Subclass Diversity: The 1-20 revamp may address subclass diversity in the early game but I would like to see it carried into the higher levels as well.

Mini-Games: Sure, the idea of mini-games may sound silly. But some fun little mini-games could add some much needed variety to gameplay and be a big draw.

Itemization: I feel that many of the items in game could use some work and some additional variety is much needed. Overall, the item situation is best described as bland.

Heroic Opportunities: A good system that has been neglected and needs some tweaking. Bring back some excitement to it as I discussed here.

Quests: Keep them coming. I want innovation, fun events, compelling dialogue and story and alternate solutions for completion.

Graphics: I like the high fantasy style graphics of the expansion and I would like to see things continue in that direction. I want to see the team take some chances on some really interesting and exciting graphical content.

Faction: I would like the faction system to be meaningful throughout the entire game, from the first mob you slay to the last.

Beyond that, just surprise and amaze me with things I have not thought of! Not too much of a tall order, is it?