Everquest Next Message Board

You can now join Landmark for just £14. Sony’s Minecraft-esque adjunct to EverQuest Next has lowered the barrier of entry into the closed beta so even a frugal Scottish freelancer can stroll in. I’ve spent the weekend wandering the worlds, admiring what’s being built and testing the tools.

I am currently not dead, but if I died and you were to look through my search history and Twitter account, you’d probably think Landmark was the killer. I’ve only been able to play it with passive-aggressive search engine queries and complaining on Twitter. There is no game here. Not yet, anyway. Landmark, has a bright future, but it’s also a honest-to-glob alpha, and probably one of the earliest games I’ve ever bought from a major company. Here’s what I’ve typed into Google and Twitter, and here’s what those searches say about the state of the game.

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"Free-to-play is the way that gamers should want their MMOs to be. If we don't do a really good job, we don't make a dime... it's entirely our responsibility to make sure you're entertained." Everquest Next director David Georgeson explains to IGN why he considers free-to-play superior to other, pay-up-front models.Read more...

I always did think that EverQuest Next Landmark was kind of a clunky name. And, true story, I know plenty of people in the gaming industry – devs and journos alike – who don’t understand that it’s an entirely separate experience from EverQuest Next proper. So I suppose it only makes sense that SOE’s decided to shave it down into to a more prim and proper “Landmark” and leave it at that. It’s still the same massively ambitious world building tool/game, however, and you can now buy into its rocky yet rollicking closed beta.

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Everquest Next Landmark, everyone's favorite voxel-based multiplayer mining and building simulator , is entering closed beta after about two months' worth of alpha testing. But, more importantly, Sony Online Entertainment has decided to share some of the best-looking structures players have created during that time.Read more...

Everquest Next Landmark might be in early alpha, but that doesn't mean its players are any less creative. Take jordanneff's tree fort: while simple, it's a very good example of just how clean and great-looking you can make your buildings in this game. With a good lighting setup, you're basically all set.Read more...

As we recently reported, EverQuest Next Landmark’s paid alpha is officially up and running, and we’ll bring you streaming video and impressions of it soon. But first, I’d like to tell the story of an EQNL adventure that you probably won’t be able to have, despite the MMO/space-age imagination engine’s formidable voxel-powered flexibility. I have seen the very limits of Landmark’s evergreen realms, tunneled to its deepest depths (and then well below them) and built an even giant-er ice cream in its skies. It was astounding fun – not necessarily more so than regular Landmark, but in a different sort of way. The only problem? I wasn’t playing by the rules.

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On Friday Sony Online Entertainment surprised its fans by announcing the early launch of the alpha test for EverQuest Next Landmark, the all-mining, all-crafting aspect of the next-generation fantasy MMO. I entered that alpha test, and I tore a hole in the world. Read more...

I have played EverQuest Next Landmark, and lo, it was akin to using Photoshop to birth worlds from my finger (and brain) tips. Also, a giant ice cream cone. For all of SOE’s boasting, there’s actually some awe-worthy power in the toolset, and that’s not even all there is to the game. Landmark is a universe of exploration, combat, and survival that will constantly expand as players build onto it. From a standpoint of scope and ambition, vanilla EverQuest Next pretty much pales in comparison. If you still don’t understand exactly why (SOE did a horrendous job of explaining it early on), there’s a fairly substantial video below that ought to help.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbmhA4qvx4

When I was but a wee young’un, I played the original EverQuest until I felt more lizard person than socially confused middle-schooler, until I could fearlessly face down even the most mildly irritated of dogs because they weren’t Sand Giants. If you had asked me back then, “Gee Nathan, where do you think this series will end up in 13 or so years,” I would’ve been way off the (land) mark. And then I would’ve said something stupid and obnoxious and I would totally understand if you just hauled off and punched teenage me in the mouth. He had it coming. Point being, EverQuest Next: Landmark is more hyper-advanced Minecraft evolution than massively multiplayer role-playing game, but it’s a foundation on which we’ll be able to build infinite MMO worlds, quests, storylines, and dreams. SOE’s EQN is just a single twinkling star in its gigantic galaxy. So of course, I used it to build a giant ice cream cone.

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Few details revealed at SOE Fan Fair.