Victor Barreiro Jr. / Victor Barreiro Jr. maintains The Devil’s Advocate and The Secret World columns for MMORPG.com. He also writes for news website Rappler as a technology reporter. You can find more of his writings on Games and Geekery and on Twitter at @vbarreirojr.
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It felt easier to call Everquest Next: Landmark just Landmark so as to significantly differentiate it from Everquest Next (EQN). Apparently, Sony Online Entertainment agrees, and has changed the name of it's craft-heavy version of EQN to, quite simply, Landmark.
Nothing says, “Everquest is awesome!” quite like a picture of Omeed Dariani riding the 1970s Batmobile. Everquest has come a long (really long) way since Omeed and his Batmobiling ways. In one sense, this is because Omeed now has his very own Everquest Live loveseat, and also because Everquest has grown in its own way over time, culminating in the development of Everquest Next Landmark and Everquest Next.
Every so often, the staff at Sony Online Entertainment will mention how Everquest Next Landmark has what it calls “the world's largest development team.” The world's largest development team for Landmark includes every player testing the game, breaking its functions, and essentially crowdsourcing the means for the game's coding team to push Landmark to its technical and imaginative limits.
The March 5 Landmark Live video brought some more clarifications regarding monetization for the Everquest Next Landmark, as well as how the Player Studio will operate when it comes time for players to sell their wares in-game. Aside from this, there were also some minor clarifications regarding the timeline for the game's updates, most especially Closed Beta's arrival.
This week's Everquest Next Landmark write-up isn't going to be very long, but there's going to be quite a bit of information to digest today as Everquest Franchise Director Dave Georgeson revealed Sony Online Entertainment's (SOE) game plan for monetization of Landmark as it moves through the alpha phases into beta.
Despite my best efforts, I find myself to be a horrible builder. I can craft wonderful ideas in my head, describe them with epic scale in an essay, but end up making balls of dirt on my claim. Luckily, the February 18 Everquest Next Round Table Response gave me hope that I can actually play the game in a way that seems to make sense to me as someone who's horrible at free-form creation: getting other people to help me!
I was planning on writing an article relating to what I’ve been able to do in the game, but a recent blog post by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) president John Smedley just made me throw out my plans and focus on it. Smedley discussed SOE’s vision of the sandbox, and why the sandbox model of MMORPGs is looking like the way forward for the industry. It’s a great look at why Everquest Next made a shift in its development cycle to become a sandbox MMORPG (or two).
While Everquest Next; Landmark’s Alpha doesn’t lend itself too easily to going in without a lot of information beforehand (In fact, I’d essentially given up going in completely blind 10 minutes after building my character), I thought the Landmark Alpha could afford one of my 90 minute challenges.
Aside from an update to the Everquest Next: Landmark alpha requirements, one of the other notable discussion topics this week was the weekly Roundtable, where Omeed Dariani and Jeff Butler discuss how grouping and individual contributions might work within Everquest Next.
If one video wasn't enough to make you want to scream "ALPHAAAAAAA!" then four videos will likely turn many Everquest Next: Landmark fans into a quivering mess of excitement. Better yet, that's EXACTLY what Sony Online Entertainment did since the last time I wrote about the game. Let's delve into what's happened in the past week by going through the content chronologically.
For as long as I’ve been writing for MMORPG.com and, in fact, long before that, I’ve had a keen interest in transparency and openness. It’s why I’m a fan of Square Enix’s Naoki Yoshida and his handling of Eorzean matters. It’s also why I wanted desperately to to discuss some recent goings-on on the Planetside Reddit, which basically struck all the right kinds of goodie-goodie feels in me regarding Everquest Next’s future.
While word on the Trion Worlds adaptation of ArcheAge has gone quiet again, partly due to the holidays, it seems the Russian and Korean versions have been getting a bit of attention. Russian ArcheAge fans were able to spend some time in their localization of the game, while Korea is gearing up for an update that brings some more tweaks and longevity into the formula. Let’s jump into both topics, shall we?
The decision as to whether or not to buy a Founder's Pack for any game, EverQuest Next: Landmark included, is a big one. Which package? What price? How much can I afford? In today's EQN:L column, we take a look at one man's struggle with THE DECISION. Read on before posting your own thoughts in the comments.
In this week's EverQuest Next column, we're looking at the building and process SOE is taking when it comes to making and revealing a new Norrath for EQN and Landmark.
In our latest look at EverQuest Next, we take a look back at last week's news and offer analysis about what was said. This week, in particular, we center on the day/night cycle, specialty servers and how quickly a world can be built. Check it out before heading to the comments to add your voice to the discussion.