Sony Online Entertainment has released their latest Developer Diary video for EverQuest Next Landmark, this time touching on the subject of crafting. Landmark's Lead System Designer, Michael Mann, dishes out the information on where, what and how to craft in the game.
As the MMO genre has grown and matured, demands for convenience have seen massive increases in solo-able content. Instant group finders abound, and community ideals erode in the glare of instant access group content, designed to be completed without any need for communication.
Many people see this as a problem, the strength of the MMO genre is the persistent nature of the experience, what good is it if all its parts are disposable?
What is the answer to this problem? Many think it is to wind the clocks back to a pre-World of Warcraft state, but this is simply not possible. The realities of making online games has changed dramatically, playing with other people over the internet is now no longer a novel concept. This was a time without YouTube, when social media was in its infancy and people thought Steam was something that came out of a kettle.
This evening's EverQuest Next Landmark livestream was helmed by Senior Brand Manager Omeed Dariani, Community Manager Colette "Dexella" Murphy, Senior Producer Terry Michaels and Lead Designer Darrin McPherson.
Colette encouraged those attending the EverQuest Community Event on January 31st to email communityevents@soe.sony.com to let them know where you're coming from and how many people are coming with you. Demo and on-site tour participation require an NDA, and those who are under 18 must have a parent or guardian present.
Terry and Omeed went on to discuss the alpha, stressing that the game will be in an earnest alpha state with it estimated to only be about 65% or so complete. Alpha testers will be integral to assisting with not only finding bugs, but also helping to shape the game. A "DevTalk" feature will eventually be introduced, enhancing the dialogue between developers and community in-game.
Join SOE on Twitch TV on Wednesday, January 15 at 4pm PT (7pm ET) as they discuss claims in EverQuest Next Landmark!
It's time for the first livestream of 2014! We're excited to be back on Twitch TV, sharing Landmark news with all of you.
On Wednesday, January 15, join Colette "Dexella" Murphy (Community Manager), Omeed Dariani (Senior Brand Manager), Terry Michaels (Senior Producer), and Darrin McPherson (Lead Game Designer) as they discuss the Landmark Community Celebration on January 31 and delve into the details of CLAIMS - How big are they? How do they work? and more.
Make sure you log in and join us live in the chat room on our official Twitch channel!
Join EverQuest Next Landmark Associate Producer Eric Smith as well as Lead Building and UI Designer Jake Sones as they show off the advanced building tools in the latest developer diary!
Like over 900,000 other people around the world, I have been celebrating the New Year with the alpha release of DayZ, the zombie themed survival sim from the imagination of Dean 'Rocket' Hall.
In DayZ, players are thrown into a hostile environment with no direction or encouragement other than their own will to survive. A gaming experience like no other, DayZ forums have been full of player stories since the first days of the Arma 2 mod version.
This is exactly what sandbox games are all about, emergent experiences that come about through players interacting with the game and each other, creating pockets of narrative as spontaneous as they are unique. These are the stories we remember most vividly, even in games that weren't designed to include them.
Players are demanding ever-increasing levels of agency in their games; we want our actions to impact our environment in meaningful ways. But what if we, as players, don't know what actions we can perform?
There are many things that go into making a great game. Story, art, sound and mechanics come together to create wonderful backdrops and tools for us to live out great adventures in an artistic medium quite unlike any other. But as MMO gamers, we know none of that matters if you don't have Endgame.
It is Star Wars: The Old Republic's second birthday this week, and it's pretty safe to say it's not been as smooth a ride as many expected, though I will hastily add that I understand why many people like it and continue to play it.
SWTOR was sold to us with the promise of grand, fully voiced story that would lead us across the galaxy we traversed so many times in our imaginations. A grand ambition for any developer, being able to achieve this in an MMO setting pushed even Bioware's abilities to the limits. And by golly, they pulled it off. The stories were compelling, the characters were rich and the settings were well sculpted and felt authentic. Only later did we realise it was all for nothing.
In single player games, a lovingly crafted interactive experience can be an absolute joy. I could have cried at the ending of Telltale's The Walking Dead (though of course I didn't as I'm a big tough guy), and the world of Fallout has been my home for more hours than I care to think about. But MMOs are not bespoke solo adventures, you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
Senior Producer Terry Michaels and Senior Art Director Rosie Rappaport provided a Dev Diary video explaining how the team created the world graphics of EverQuest Next Landmark.
They needed to create a different world than in the previous games: a giant world that could be explored to find new areas. But such content cannot be handmade or the content would become stale very fast.
They first created concept arts, then field guides with details of everything fitting in the environment, then created individual concept pieces based on those (mountains, trees, rocks, grass). The next step was to create a tool with procedures and rules to generate content automatically.
Five types of very different regions were created:
Sony Online Entertainment will be holding its second EverQuest Next Landmark livestream at 4pm Pacific on Wednesday, December 11, 2013. Tune in to the EQNext Twitch TV channel as they "dig a little deeper into mining and more in Landmark!" If you missed the first livestream you can catch up by watching the highlights.
Ann "Cyliena" Hosler, Managing Editor
Follow me on Twitter: @Cyliena
Less than six months after Dave Georgeson stunned the crowd at SOE Live, players will be getting their hands dirty building in EverQuest Next Landmark. With such a short turnaround, it seems the fundamental purpose of Landmark has been lost on many of us, I still see the big questions asked: 'What is the difference between EverQuest Next and Landmark? Why is it a separate game at all? Is it just a fancy housing system?
These are pertinent questions that need to be answered, but underneath the true nature and purpose of Landmark is hidden, and it is this hidden nature that gets me so excited for what's in store. And I want you to share that excitement because I'm a massive nerd and that's what we do best.
So with that in mind, it's time to talk about Landmark, and how it's so much more than a way to build your EverQuest Next Guildhall.
