SOE Live 2014: More EverQuest Next tidbits

With so many keynotes, panels, Q&As, and opportunities to chat with devs at SOE Live, there's always an avalanche of information to sort through. So here's a compilation of tidbits relating to EverQuest Next that we gleaned from the con.

• There will be guild homes and towns in EQN; these will be really special and hard to get.

• The devs are committed to taking all the races through the foundation workshops.

• SOEmote has improved significantly (and looks much more natural).

• Players know that Qeynos will exist, but Freeport and it's current state are still a mystery.

• Devs are experimenting with social hubs that players can check anytime from anywhere, even getting alerts for high-profile happenings.

• Factions are spread out across the land, so there will be multiple opportunities to learn a class, not just "visit one guy on one mountaintop."

• Being heroes of the world does not just mean slaughtering things; you can build temples to the gods, open trade routes, even help farmers with crops.

• Even small changes to world are tangible: If you help merchants become wealthier, they walk around in better apparel and show off that wealth. The "quest completion log" is, in effect, an account of the changes you see.

• NPC groups will ally with and help each other as well as fight against each other.

• No decision yet if food and drink will be necessary.

• The future may hold player-fiction contests for official lore, but there's nothing planned in the short term because of the excessive time involved to review them -- time needed on other aspects of game right now. SOE says, "We need to make sure that every detail of the story that we release fits into the continuity of the world; we're a stickler about that."

What happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas, at least where SOE Live is concerned! Massively sent intrepid reporter MJ Guthrie to this year's SOE Live, from which she'll be transmitting all the best fan news on EverQuest Next, Landmark, H1Z1, and the other MMOs on SOE's roster.