Everquest Next Landmark

December 29, 2014December 29, 2014

2014 Reviewed Part 1 : January To June

In this post I will review 2014 from a largely virtual world perspective for the months January to June. This is part 1 of 2 as part 2 is still a work in progress but will hopefully appear tomorrow. I’ll combine both posts into another post for easier future reference once they are both completed. These posts will miss lots of big and interesting stories because the nature of the beast demands some brevity. These post may well look longer than they actually are at first glance because of images and pictures. The aim of posts such as these are to give a brief overview of the year, rather than an in depth review. An in depth review is too long for a blog post, it may make for an interesting book.

Anyway, on with the show, as they say.

January

January started with a look back to 2013 and the number of private region losses. The scores on the door from Tyche Shepherd displayed a slow down on the number of regions leaving the Second Life grid, something that would continue during 2014.

2012 Net Private Region Losess – 2865 (12.0%)
2013 Net Private Region Losses – 1719 (8.2%)

The virtual world of Kitely moved to a different pricing model which largely did away with the pay by the minute options as these had not been popular.

Blackened Mirror poster should be here — The Blackened Mirror Poster

Season 2 of The Blackened Mirror was taking a mid-season break but would return by the end of January. The show was recorded in Second Life.

Linden Lab were Raising The Roof : The HTTP Project. This project, which had started in 2012 was aimed at improving HTTP communications to improve the end user experience. Linden Lab would continue working on improvements during the year.

Second Life users were getting frustrated by tax and account information requests from Linden Lab. They would continue to be frustrated by these requests throughout the year despite Linden Lab improving their communications and information on these issues.

Second Life got a mention in the comedy show, 2 Broke Girls.

Then came the storm to warm up many a chilly January evening, Cloud Party announced that they would be closing their virtual doors on February 21st.

This was quickly followed by even more news to warm up January, Aston Villa fan and Linden Lab CEO, Rod Humble, was leaving Linden Lab. This created a Twitter storm.

Continue reading “2014 Reviewed Part 1 : January To June”

March 21, 2014March 21, 2014

How Will Second Life Fare In The Face Of The Rise Of The Sandbox MMO?

Second Life has in many ways been way ahead of the pack. Their free to play model was controversial when launched but has proven to be the right model and now many MMO’s follow this model. Second Life introduced user generated content to 3D worlds and whereas some of that content has definitely been controversial, Second Life trailblazed as a platform of creativity.

In terms of empowering content creators, Second Life has once again trailblazed, by allowing content creators a means to make real money from their creations, Second Life tapped into a massively underestimated market. Second Life has therefore been quite ground breaking in terms of bringing together these concepts, but now others are starting to take note, they are starting to see the potential and they are hoping to get their share of the pie. The people who make content creation tools are also seeing the massive opportunity that is knocking louder and louder, they are making their products more accessible by offering different payment options and making their tools free or cheaper.

The likes of EverQuest Next Landmark are already attracting attention and will allow content creators to build and have the opportunity to make real money from their creations. Others will be watching with interest to see how this pans out. There is without doubt fear about user generated content but the window of opportunity is wide open.

Then there are the tools, yesterday the Unreal Engine 4 was launched with a very affordable licensing model for pretty much anybody. The full engine and source is $19.95 a month and then 5% of any game sales, in games sales and advertising. The previous Unreal Engine was not an option for indie developers, in an article on Gamautra they quote Epic’s Tim Sweeney as saying:

it’s typically cost millions of dollars… negotiating has involved teams of lawyers, looking at the shape of the industry now we realize it’s an outdated model, looking at the possibilities for the engine, we started out from scratch. We came up with an entirely new business model for the Unreal Engine which we are announcing today.

Now, absolutely anybody can gain access to Unreal Engine 4 by subscribing to the engine for 19 dollars a month — and you get access to everything” .

Now it dangles there as an affordable option and it’s not just game developers being wooed, they are also chasing content creators:

To help you get started, we’re shipping lots of ready-made content, samples, and game templates. You’ll find it in the Marketplace in the Unreal Editor. Right now, it simply hosts free stuff from Epic, but its resemblance to the App Store is no coincidence: It will grow into a complete ecosystem for sharing community-created content, paid and free, and open for everyone’s participation!

These platforms, games, development engines etc. are stepping on Second Life’s toes and more of them will be stepping on their toes, will Second Life prosper?

Continue reading “How Will Second Life Fare In The Face Of The Rise Of The Sandbox MMO?”

March 21, 2014

EverQuest Next Landmark Announces Closed Beta

EverQuest Next Landmark has announced that closed beta will start on March 26th. EverQuest Next Landmark, for those who don’t know, is a hotly anticipated online social building game linked to EverQuest Next. For example, from the blurb :

This is your chance to help build a game! Build alone or in groups to create Landmarks. Join massive construction contests and your creations could last forever. The best buildings players create will become permanent fixtures in the EverQuest Next world.

It’s a sandbox game, you can build with their tools and people have been happily building away during the Alpha process, now it’s getting close to Beta time.

There will also be opportunities for people to sell their wares for real cash via the Sony Online Entertainment Player Studio, although this will initially be restricted to those in the United States the plan is to extend this to other countries, it should also be noted that sales via the Player Studio will be for multiple games, so content creators may see plenty of opportunities.

There’s a rather epic forum post discussing the business of EverQuest Next Landmark, it’s a free to play title so selling items and encouraging people to purchase items and subscriptions will be important. The opening post, from an official bod, also discusses players selling items :

Phase 4: We launch Player Studio. At that point, all of our players can start submitting templates to the store and letting other players buy them. This should occur early during Closed Beta.

Hopefully that means people from outside the United States will be able to sell items. However it should be pointed out there’s a rather hefty commission fee for selling goods this way:

SOE will share 40% of the net amount it receives from the sale of the item with the player that created the item.

Plenty of content creators will baulk at that, but opportunity knocks for those who think it’s a reasonable trade off between reach and sales. Time will tell whether it’s a success but it’s encouraging to see other products offering content creators the option to sell their own wares.

There are a couple of ways of getting into closed beta, you can purchase a Founder’s Packs, which gives you unlimited access to the Landmark Closed Beta or you can apply to acquire a Time-Limited Closed Beta Key, which is a free method of getting into the Closed Beta, but is far more limited than the Founder’s Packs options.

Founder’s Packs come in three varieties, priced at $19.99, $59.99 and $99.99. All three varieties will allow you full closed beta access. The packs are:

Settler Pack – $19.99

Unlimited Closed Beta Access
Settler Flag ItemPlant your flag in EQ/EQII
Founder’s Pickaxe
Title: Founder
Forum Title: Founder

Continue reading “EverQuest Next Landmark Announces Closed Beta”

February 12, 2014

Enter Sandbox – Take My Hand, We’re Off To Never Never Land

It seems very likely that the freedom people have to create local regions or islands within Second Life with different forms of governance will result in many different utopian ‘experiments’. This is something that will be fascinating to watch, and may even inform decisions about the real world.

Philip Rosedale 13th April 2006 – INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP ROSEDALE, SECOND LIFE

In my opinion the solution is focusing a lot more on letting players make and be content for each other. Battlegrounds are an excellent example of an Evergreen style of content where it’s the players themselves that actually create the content. Auction houses are another example. So are things like storytelling tools in SWG.. or the brilliant music system in LOTRO. Building systems into the games that let the players interact with each other in new and unique ways gives us the ability to watch as the players do stuff we never anticipated. We’ll see a lot more creativity in action if the players are at the center of it. Imagine an MMORPG of a massive city.. and the Rogue’s guild is entirely run by players. Where the city has an entire political system that is populated by players who were elected by the playerbase.

John Smedley 11th February 2014 – The Sandbox MMO

I’ve opened with the above quotes to demonstrate firstly that eight years is not as long in technology circles as many think. Secondly it’s to emphasise that sandbox concepts are spreading and are going to create virtual worlds galore. John Smedley is the president of Sony Online Entertainment and in the blog post I’ve linked, makes excellent points about the power and potential of a sandbox MMO. Sony Online Entertainment are really starting to impress me lately, Everquest Next Landmark will allow user created content.

They are also dipping their toes into the water of allowing players to sell content. They are bringing together some of most wonderful concepts of Second Life in a more controlled environment, but they also recognise the beauty of such an environment.

So why is it that when we see talk of sandboxes and user generated content, the media shy away from talking of the ultimate sandbox that Second Life is? Why is it left to people such as Draxtor Despres to highlight the many wonderful use cases of Second Life via The Drax Files? Part of the problem of course is the mainstream media who don’t want to talk about the brilliant sandbox that Second Life is when they can create seedy headlines instead. This is why people don’t realise there are Orcs in Second Life!

Continue reading “Enter Sandbox – Take My Hand, We’re Off To Never Never Land”

January 29, 2014

Everquest Next Landmark Announces Alpha System Specs

First of all, you may be wondering what Everquest Next Landmark is. I’ll provide Sony’s words:

EverQuest Next Landmark is a Free to Play, next-generation online sandbox game. Build and explore a world unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Bold claims and not much to go on you may be thinking, so I’ll provide more information from Sony:

Build Anything — Create and build anything you can imagine. With Landmark’s state of the art tools, you have unprecedented control over your creations. A range of materials with realistic physics means how you build makes a difference.
Explore — Explore massive Landmark worlds and claim territory, building materials and much more. Delve deep into the earth and discover procedurally—generated adventures that will never be the same twice!
Make Your Mark — The best buildings players create will become part of Norrath — the EverQuest Next world — FOREVER! We’ll run exclusive contests to design parts of the world AND our designers will keep an eye out for the coolest fortresses, castles, caves, treehouses, fireplaces – anything awesome that fits within the world of Norrath.
Collect — The rarest resources, objects, gear, character customizations and secrets are scattered across the worlds of Landmark! Can you find everything?
Earn Money — Buy and sell items in Player Studio, SOE’s marketplace for player-created goods. Design, create and sell items and earn real world cash on every purchase! Click here for more details on Player Studio.

The last point may be the one that grabs the attention of Second Life content creators, although it should be pointed out that for now, Player Studio is only available for US players. The text I pasted doesn’t actually include a link for Player Studio, but one I made here does! Eligible creators can earn 40% of net sales, here’s a bit more info:

SOE’s Player Studio program invites players to download sample geometry files for actual in-game objects and through the use of standard third party art tools, learn how to develop, design and personalize items of their own – from re-coloring and re-texturing, to reshaping an item’s geometry. Once complete, players are encouraged to name and create a description for their item, describe how the item will fit into the game’s ongoing narrative storyline, and submit it to SOE for review and possible inclusion in the SOE Marketplace. If a player-created item is selected for inclusion in the SOE Marketplace, SOE will share 40% of the net amount it receives from the sale of the item with the player that created the item.

The link also has links to 3D modelling software, such as Maya and Blender as well as links to Adobe Photoshop, familiar tools for Second Life content creators, so there’s potential here.

Continue reading “Everquest Next Landmark Announces Alpha System Specs”