A friend and I were talking about EQ2 and what improvements we would love to see over the next few expansions We went over new races, new classes, and finally we came to Transmogrification. My friend Isult is a smart cookie and she loves lore, and so most of this idea belongs to her. I can also quote her as saying, “The Keeper of Secrets is restless.” She actually studies lore, mythology, and all that jazz in real life.
So what do we mean by transmogrification? Think Gandalf the Grey becoming Gandalf the White. Everquest players could undergo a transmogrification quest and become a higher power. This could mean that maybe they skip levels, and buy doing this quest they get a couple new powers that they wouldn’t have gotten just by leveling, or perhaps at level 100 players can do the quest and get a permanent stat increase. Players could also be allowed a new title since although you are the same person, you are different, a more powerful version of you. Of course this would have to be the most difficult quest the game has ever seen.
Our third idea on this comes to Everquest 3. Yup you heard me right. This November EQ2 will be 3 years old. If in fact they just began working on EQ3 it would probably be done in another 2 years, so that would make EQ2 5 years old. That is IMO old enough to begin again. Especially with all the other new games coming out. So what does transmogrification have to do with EQ3? It could quite easily be made into a quest to bring your EQ2 character over to the new world.
Conjuring Candles 
I love this kind of idea Adele. One of the things I really liked in the MUD days was the fact that in some of them, at max level you would pick what essentially amounted to a prestige class. Then you began again and could level up as that character. So you would be a 100th level Rogue and a 35th level Assassin, for example.
I like the idea of actually migrating a character from one MMO to another – keeping some continuity there. I had the same thought the other day on EQ3 – that by the time EQ2 is five years old, won’t they want to have something else in production by that point. I know that I would anxiously await a third EQ to see what they do.
There will be no EQ3, no chance, not ever, an especially not when the 1 and 2 are still in existence. Cleanse your mind of the idea now and speak if it no more.
If EQ1 and EQ2 make money, profit, cash, anything that benefits SOE there will be an EQ3. It does’t matter even if its a good thing, it will happen. Thats business. No way SOE sits around and lets the world of EQ die out with so much invested in the franchise.
I too, Kevin, have been thinking a lot about Everquest 3. Brent is just in denial:) They could slowly close the gap between EQ and EQ2 and merge them together, and as for Everquest 3, I can almost bet there are people working on it right now, and they are jotting down our ideas:P
/em puts away his writing tablet…
Listen to Brent. Please. 🙂
I’m not speaking for the business decision makers at the company, but EQ and EQII still have a lot of potential and adding a third one to the pile would start to dilute that. The projects like Free Realms and the Agency are better business ideas (IMO) because they are trying something new.
Transmorrification isn’t a bad idea mind you, but no EQ3.. please 🙂
Ok, so maybe it isn’t in the works atm, but rest assured that one day it will come. It might not be next year, or the year after that, but there will be a day when EQ3 is announced.
Yay for Transmogrification!
I had read a recent interview at WarCry with Mr. Smedley in which he stated there will likely be another Everquest mmo, but it is not in the works at the moment. But this was said after he stated they never should have called it Everquest 2 because it was such a different game and misleading. So I would imagine that the third version would be based on the same lore and world but be titled differently. Have a feeling this will be quite a few years down the road. And assuming I’m still alive and kicking I’ll be there!
I doubt they’d let you port your character over to the new world. Any EQ3 would have new game mechanics, and it wouldn’t make sense to have people start out at max level or whatnot. And there’s very little difference in porting your character in the new world as a level one and just rolling someone new with the same name.
Maybe people could transmogrify themselves back into level one characters, with some sort of bonus to make it worth their while during the second go around, like Ascension in Kingdom of Loathing. That way low level content is revitalized. Perhaps the bonus would be to retain some (limited) aspects of their former class while they play a new class. Actually, I just want something like the job system from Final Fantasy XI. I hate having to reflag my alts and redo quests.
Well the moving to the new game, of course it woudln’t be the same person, as it wouldn’t have the same looks or graphics, but perhaps a new being of your former self with some added bonus like you said.
In all reality though, when we discussed this topic it is something we would like to see implemented in EQ2, perhaps around lvl 100 or so.
You heard it here first folks…
The World of the Legends of the Dark Ages of the Ultimate Anacharious Norrath Online’s Call 59!!!!
Coming to a server near you in 2054
=)
Haha! Can we shorten it to WLDAUANOC59? The other is a bit long…
If Everquest 3 ever hits the shelves, I’ll be the first person in line for ice skates in Texas.
LOL…When J and I were talking about this, an EQ3 was only mentioned as a possibility for affecting the implementation of this whole transmortification process. To be perfectly honest, I don’t relish the idea of an EQ3 for various reasons…not the least of which is that I finally have EQ2 running pretty stably on my computer (which is about as stable as Cybil, Lyndsay Lohan and Brittany Spears combined).
Now the whole concept of transmortification ties in with the concept of archetypes in myth, legends, literature etc…all cultures are bound by thee archtypes and these archetypes know no cultural boundaries-hence, every culture has a story of cleansing via cataclysmic mass destruction (say, by flood which exists in the bible as well as in the “Story of Gilgamesh”) every culture has a story of a father who must sacrifice a son (Abraham and Isaac, as well as William Tell and his son with the apple-check out the Tell story sometime…that whole episode is much more sinister than simply Tell’s skill in being able to shoot the apple off the son’s head). Now, apropos our discussion of transmortification-every culture also has a story of great heroes that rise from nowhere and from very simple lives to positions of huge greatness, power and wisdom…typically at some point this also entails some sort of abasement and a period of great personal loss, trial and suffering…3 times at least for the story of Jesus…we find it in the story of Parzival and the Grail. Somewhat more recently we find it embedded in the form of Prince Hal in Shakespeare’s Henry plays, which make up the Richardian cycle in the “History” plays supporting the Tudor myth of rule. Even more timely to the concept is Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars series, the sacrifice of ObiWan, which makes him even more powerful in supposed death, and also in the abasement and redemption of Sipowitz in NYPD Blue. However, from an EQ2 application the true touchstone would have to be Gandalf the Grey and his encounter with the Balrog in Moria…he falls into the very depths of the earth (perhaps farther, even) undergoes nameless trials and reappears changed, transfigured and even more powerful as a result of the trials he endured during his fall and journey back to Middle Earth.
All that being said, there is a precedent already set up in EQ2 in at least 4 instances that come to my mind: Rodcet Nife, for example, is supposedly not a god nor even a minor deity, but a traveler…now whether he be a traveler of space or of time or a planar traveler is impossible to say…but his ship (which makes up the home of the priest faction in North Qeynos) certainly crashed and his period on Norrath, for him is probably nothing short of a trial, although he did much good…where he is and what he is up to at the moment is anyones guess.
Then we have Firiona Vie…the illegitimate daughter of Tearis Thex and half sister to Lenya. She started out, as per archtypes, from a humbled, shameful beginning and ultimately became the greatest of Paladins and heroine of Faydwer. Supposedly, she is now a lesser deity (depending on what lore you follow). In any case she’s not around at the moment so she could quite possible be in the process of attaining even greater heights…perhaps.
Now for poor, poor Lenya…A child of the highest privilege…imprisoned for a time in the towers of Highkeep…changed into a fish…changed back from being a fish…overshadowed by her illegitimate half-sister Firiona. Now she’s queen of what should have been Felwithe, but because of her fascination or whatever with Mayong (who has greater powers than even a greater vampire ought to have and therefore somehow may even be some sort of minor diety himself) has ruined the kingdom, making it New Tunaria…changed the subjects from Koada’Dal to the monstrosities that are Renda’Dal…and who knows what’s going on with the troglodyte Myr’Dal…in any case, she’s the only Koada’Dal in the city of Koada’Dal. She’s at the absolute lowest point of her abasement and I’m not sure there will necessarily be redemption for her…if the game progresses that far or in that direction (remember, there are rampant rumors of a supposed cleansing of Rivervale so the Halflings can regain their homeland…maybe the same will happen to New Tunaria).
And there is even debasement and redemption amongst the gods…Mithaniel Marr and his sister Erollisi visited Norrath in their true forms (which supposedly was not allowed or thought to be not possible or whatever) and the 2 of them underwent all sorts of trials, with Mithaniel getting himself imprisoned and ultimately (although the lore gets really hazy here) getting involved in an incestuous coupling with Erollisi from which the Barbarian race was created.
In any case, I am in no way advocating that this transmortification lead to characters becoming minor dieties or anything at all like that…it does seem like a really neat idea to introduce very deep character development/progression and vastly expand and clarify the lore via super difficult/involved questlines etc. Perhaps not something that every player would even want to even pursue.
If anyone has any interest I would definitely recommend checking out “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” and “The Power of Myth” both by Joseph Campbell and then also check out anythign by Carl Jung dealing with the concept of the collective unconsciousness of man…all of those deal with the concept of archetypes and to a certain degree the laws of myth, legend and fantasy.
Sorry I’m so long winded J…lol…don’t cut off my posting privleges!
I can see an everquest 3 only when eq1 and eq2 are no longer profitable.
[…] This last idea ties in with idea three, and what sparked my thinking along these lines was a post over at J’s site. The idea was that of a character morphing into a higher/better/or […]
Actually, look it up on SOE and everquest website, EQ 3 will be out next fall
Instead of making a EQ3 they should make a form of Everquest for the game consoles. If they had commercials and stuff for it, they would make bank.
No please stay on the computer but new classes and races would be good and also they should add new lower level starter zones the old ones are very boring. They should fix in pvp that you are not allowed to camp a person if you have already killed them once they are off your recent list they are allowed to kill you. One last thing they should make is FLYING MOUNTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!