Seriously, I've been pleased to partake in the EverQuest Next: Landmark Alpha phase, and I've got to say that the level of honesty, communication, and overall transparency coming from the Development, Community Management, and flat out Management team has been nothing short of mind-boggling.
The John Smedley of Star Wars Galaxies infamy has clearly learned quite a few things over the intervening years of being one of the most player-hated names in the industry, and is currently leading Sony Online Entertainment to a place of really being a leader in delivering what the customer base wants – by LISTENING TO THEM, then building that.
It's really an amazing thing to see.
By the way, as of this afternoon, the Everquest Next: Landmark Alpha Forums are visible to the whole world. You still need to be an Alpha Tester to post, but you can read the forums and witness the culture change at SOE for your own eyes. I recommend this.
I like the New SOE | Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog
Sony Online Entertainment deserves enormous praise for what they’ve done recently. I’m not even talking about any of their games. Let’s set the games themselves aside completely and just talk about the way in which I feel like they are taking the MMORPG (and gaming) industry to an entirely new level of communication, customer service, …
Old time SWG fan and I was kind peeved at John for awhile back in the day. However, with SWG there was more going on behind the scenes than what SOE could let on. It had more to do with licensing with Lucasarts. And the fact that the had to close the game recently because the licensing ran out! and SWTOR was being made.
With EQ Next. Of course they are transparent it's their bread and butter IP that they own! SOE has always gone all out on the EQ titles. So not entirely surprised. But I am very pleased with the innovative things they are churning out in this MMO. I'm so on board for playing it.
how is Landmark? I've been meaning to sign up and get in on that… just keep forgetting heh
I think the Smedley I was familiar with from EQ and SWG was abducted by aliens and replaced by a changeling. The kind of communication coming from SoE and Smedley around Landmark is nothing like I've seen from them before. I like it.
And Landmark is disturbingly addictive in ways I didn't think it would be. When my claim was bugged I was okay with just … digging. For hours.
+Brett Bjornsen It's the Much-Better-Looking-Not-Minecraft or 3D-Terraria you've always wanted.
There were huge issues with people being able to claim land over the weekend and up to this week (too many people, not enough free space).
The original 2 servers had 26 procedurally generated "Islands" that are 2mi x 2mi x 1mi deep.
Last night (about 2:30am PST) they added another server (and 26 islands).
This afternoon, they added an additional 13 islands to each server.
There is finally some breathing room.
The new features and fixes are coming daily, and the list of features that are in the pipeline for "before Closed Beta" is pretty impressive…
And, SOE is offering 100% money back, since Alpha isn't for everyone…
Pretty cool stuff… I'm a fan of Alpha's when they're fun (was in the first 100 for SWG Alpha way back when… nothing like testing /dance emotes with big named devs for a whole weekend)
How long is Alpha slated for?
The dates posted on the Trailblazer and Explorer Editions listed Alpha access as Not Later Than 28 February (actually delivered, as strongly hinted, on 31 January) and Closed Beta is listed as Not Later Than 28 March.
I wish I could find the post (again) that contains the upcoming feature list for Alpha.
cool… was planning on ordering this payday… so, may be in there on the weekend…
+Brett Bjornsen
I found the post.
https://forums.station.sony.com/eqnlandmark/index.php?threads/everquest-next-landmark-alpha-faq.2665/#post-75566
What Isn’t Here Yet? What’s Coming Soon?
Our intention is to get all of this stuff working before we go into Closed Beta. (Closed Beta is the next stage of our testing where we hand-invite people to join you Alpha folks. Open Beta beyond that is where we just open the game to anyone that wants to play.)
Combat (vs. Hazard NPCs) – Yup! Monsters. Danger. Risk. Beware!
Health & Endurance – Right now, you can’t die. Don’t get used to it!
Damage, Death and the Death Penalty – See? Not kidding. Weesa gonna die!
Underground Biomes – Underground is pretty much undeveloped right now. The caverns aren’t in and we haven’t separated the resources out into tiers of depth. That’s all coming soon and is in-progress.
Guilds – Self-explanatory.
Groups – Self-explanatory.
Friends/Contact window
Marketplace Offerings- We’re doing our Free-to-Play strategy a lot different this time around. We intend to very much be the good guys in our industry. Nearly everything that we sell for Station Cash will also be earnable within the game. And we’re putting a lot of faith into Player Studio also. We’ll define our strategy to you in a lot more detail as Alpha progresses.
Tool progression – A bunch of this is in the game already, but we’re going to be changing it pretty constantly as we test and get feedback from you. Don’t expect this to be complete. It’s not. It will change often, but we’ll work hard to keep you informed of how and why.
Map – The map is the backbone of Landmark and it’s going to be getting a ton of features. It’s how you find friends, locations that interest you, communities that want to build what you want to build and more. We’re going to put MAJOR effort into it soon.
Buff UI – We don’t yet have any way to show you a unified vision of the various stat bonuses and abilities that you gain through progression and gear. Coming soon.
In-game Mail
Notification display and tray (mail, time, fps)
Item linking (add to chat)
Collaborations – This is a structure we’re creating to allow easy and simple co-op building between players. Right now, you can set permissions for other players to join you and work on your claim together, but it’s not what we’d call streamlined or intuitive. We’ll be working on that soon.
Player merchants – This is how you turn resources (which can be awkward to barter) into coin that’s easily traded. NOTE: Merchants do not SELL anything. If you want to buy something, then buy it from a player in the Stalls at the Hub. (NOTE: Market Stalls are coming soon in Alpha.)
VOIP support – Right now, you’re constrained to text chat. VOIP will be coming soon.
SOEmote – The code support is done, but not the interface for using it. That’ll be added soon also.
Social Networking Connections (Youtubes, Facebooks)
Configurable Keybindings – Sorry that you can’t edit your keys right now. Soon!
sweet
I wasn't an MMO player back when SWG was around, but I can say that my last year and a half being heavily invested in Planetside 2, it has been a pleasure to interact with Smedley and his team. Since I never had the bitter taste in my mouth over past mistakes, I've learned that you can take his word as truth, but not his timetable
I played SWG from the start and was there through the whole ruination of the game debacle. I admit when I saw Smedley's name attached to Landmark, I cringed. However I have to say any of my fears have so far been unfounded. Their amazing communication through all the issues and fixes and their attention to player input has been stellar.
I was wondering why I could see the forums without logging in this morning! That answers the mystery. I'm so glad they are restricting the general public to lurker only.