Six Reasons Why … Everquest 3

(sparked by this post at Massively)

(And before I begin, let me just say that for the record, I doubt we’ll see “EQ3″ announced anytime soon.)

Here’s my advice to anyone who might be producing a game that might be “Everquest 3″ –

Take the word “Everquest” out of the title.

Yes, you read it right.  I wish I could find the forum posts I made about this topic YEARS ago, as to why I feel it’s a bad marketing choice to continue to call the franchise “Everqest [number]” … but alas that post is lost with the original EQ2 forums.

So the short and simple reason is: it’s brand confusion.  In the 5 years I have been playing Everquest II (TWO) … I have mentioned it to various gamers and their reaction has always, and I mean ALWAYS, been this:

“Oh, you play Everquest?  Man that game is OLD!  I didn’t even know it was still around!”

and this is immediately followed by my qualifying statement that I play, in fact, Everquest II — which is an entirely different animal from its predecessor.

After having this occur to me over, and over, and over again, I stopped bothering to explain the difference to people, and when they replied with the above response, I simply said: “Yeah.”

SO INSTEAD OF CALLING THE NEXT SEQUEL “EVERQUEST [NUMBER]“

…. CALL IT …

EMPIRES OF NORRATH !

And here’s why:

1.) People who know will still get that it’s an Everquest game, because anyone who’s played EQ or EQ2 knows what “Norrath” is, already.  Therefore, the need for a numerical qualifier, or the re-iteration of the Everquest name, becomes moot.

2.) MORE IMPORTANTLY, those who have NOT played either of the first two Everquest games, but may have heard less than good things about them, may be less likely to make snap judgments on the game. A name carries a lot of things with it, including past critical reception, and even old ideology.  (The former for EQ2, and the latter for EQLive i.e. “ultra-hard, grind” etc.)  By omitting that particular word you potentially bypass a LOT of pre-conceived notions and snap-judgments.

3.) By not confining the game within the constraints of the name “Everquest” — designers may ultimately (within some limitation) be able to expand upon the worlds, and races, of Norrath in truly unique and innovative ways.  Again, becuase those pre-conceived notions are not necessarily there.  It will still be the Norrath that everyone knows and loves!  BUT, it can be so much more!  Truly new continents, new races, new lore … that’s where the EMPIRES part comes in!

4.) EQ2 introduced dozens upon dozens of “factions” — and they’ve really come to be a huge chunk of both storyline lore, and even gameplay elements.  What better way to tie this in than with a new title that introduces this notion in full?  That Norrath is really a world comprised of EMPIRES … not just bits and pieces of displaced, xenophobic tribes.

5.) With the title “Empires of Norrath” — you have a lot of room for PVP or RVR scenarios to move to a more central spot in the theme.  Norrath already has good an evil cities, and races.  EQ2 built a lot of that up, already.  It’s almost PRIMED for great RVR contested areas and some really great storyline.  (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a PVP’er and I prefer games to be about 80% PVE and 20% PVP or RVR, in terms of zone/areas, but many, many people like PVP/RVR, and that cannot be ignored in the modern market.)

6.) EoN would be the acronym.  It can’t get much better than that for your viral marketing campaign.

So.

There it is.

I doubt SOE will use it, because that would mean they would need to give me some kind of compensation (I’ll take cash or checks, please.  Or a job offer!) … but hey.  Here’s to hoping they DON’T call it plain “EverQuest III” !