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.
https://forums.station.sony.com/eqnlandmark/index.php
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, …