E3 2011 MMO Previews and Predictions: EverQuest Next, Star Wars, Defiance, And More!

E3 2011 is almost upon us. But it’s not all about the latest Dragon Age sequel or first person shooter clone. There’s plenty of news coming from MMO developers as well. New titles just announced, long-standing games rolling out new expansions and hot titles on the verge of beta testing are lining up to show off their latest bells and whistles. Let’s dive in and take a look at what next week holds for the MMO fan in all of us.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Previews earlier this year showed off new group instances as well as the latest class builds. E3 promises the same. To allow us to play group instances, Bioware often offer all four classes in the same faction for demo play. Will it be the Galactic Republic or the Sith Empire? With the Sith Inquisitor and Sith Warrior getting alot of attention lately from Bioware in the form of class videos, my money’s on the Dark Side.

E3 2011 will heavily involve the MMO realm. What would we like to see? More about PvP play would be top on the list. There has been some brief previews, but more in-depth play would be welcome. And why not a raid? Sure, a pick up raid of gaming journalists wouldn’t be the well-oiled machine of most high level guilds, but it would give us a chance to see what Bioware has in store for end game content.

Finally, I would like to see more about crafting. Are there crafting halls? Instances where the loot is designed for crafters like in RIFT? Display stands to show your goods like in EverQuest II? Can I build my own droid?? This die-hard crafter wants to know! If Bioware wants to release the game this year, some of these areas of gameplay need to be rolled out to the public soon and E3 is a great place to do just that.

Trion’s Defiance

From the developer that brought you RIFT comes a new MMO born from a partnership between Trion and the Syfy Channel. Little is known about this game other than the name, Defiance, that is an “action MMO” and that it will be tied into a new SyFy primetime series of the same name. This game is only being demo’d behind closed doors at E3 this year, but expect a flood of news to hit as soon as the con gets underway. After the terrific job Trion did with RIFT, we expect great things from this new title as well.

Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard

Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online has been steadily rolling out content updates that follow the Fellowship on their way to Mordor. After the last two major expansions that covered the mines of Moria and the forests of Mirkwood, the devs are gearing up for LotRO’s third expansion, The Rise of Isengard, that heads further south covered in The Two Towers. We expect to see the new content from the expansion including Saruman at his tower. Though this won’t include Gondor, the promise of Rohan content means a possibility of mounted combat. 

EverQuest Next/Planetside Next

Sony Online Entertainment will probably be spending most of its time NOT talking about the recent attacks by hackers on their user database, recent staff layoffs or cancellation of long in development action spy MMO The Agency. What they would rather be talking about instead is DC Universe Online and the two big MMOs in development EverQuest Next and Planetside Next.

Not much is known yet about EverQuest Next. The game was announced last year at SOE’s annual Fan Faire in Las Vegas along with two gorgeous screenshots and footage of the panel where developers talked in generalities. Many MMO gamers enjoyed the original EverQuest back in the day, but don’t have the time for the hardcore grinding that defined the game. This reimagining of the world of Norrath with state of the art graphics engine and the latest in game design may just be the ticket for SOE to keep this franchise alive. Hopefully they will have more to show us at E3, even if it’s additional shiny screenshots.

Planetside Next is SOE’s sequel to another long-running title of theirs, the MMOFPS Planetside. Though not yet in open beta, Planetside Next was first supposed to come out in early 2011, but SOE layoffs have now pushed the launch to “later in the year.” There has been very little information available about the title despite its imminent arrival except for some screenshots and a lot of hype. A playable demo at E3 would go a long way in generating the kind of buzz SOE is going to need to get this shooter MMO off the ground this year.

This is just a taste of the MMO goodness that is being rolled out at E3 this year. CCP’s EVE Online, action MMO TERA, Nexon’s Dragon’s Nest and Vindictus, Wargaming’s World of Tanks, the Neverwinter Nights MMO and more are on tap to display their wares this year. And its not just traditional PC MMOs on the floor anymore. Spacetime Studios is following up their successful mobile MMO Pocket Legends with an early look at their space-based MMO Blackstar. Add to that Facebook MMOs, multiplayer online battle arenas, console MMOs and more and this promises to be an E3 unlike any other for the MMO fan.

What MMO previews are you looking forward to the most from E3?