Hi there, folks,
The community team was nice enough to aggregate all the responses we got from players over the weekend about the EQN Landmark business plan that we presented to you.
All in all, it was great feedback and we really appreciate it.
Responses on the various community feeds (FB, Reddit, forums, Twitter, etc.) was generally neutral or positive. By our tally, it was almost entirely either neutral or positive with only a small amount of negativity (less than 5% of responses).
That?s a fantastic initial response! But we also wanted to take a moment to answer the questions we saw appearing in more than one place.
This response by no means ends our conversation. However, it does catch us all up to the same place so we can have better conversations moving forward.
Thanks for reading!
-- Dave.
What is the difference between Landmark and EQN? Will they have the same business plans?
There are very large differences between Landmark and Next.
Landmark is a gigantic sandbox world, where we give you all the tools that we use to build EQN and let you go nuts, developing and refining all the stories, adventures, and worlds that you desire. All of the content in Landmark is created by you, the players, and the game is generally system-oriented. Landmark also embraces all genres. There can be sci-fi right next to fantasy right next to a Madison Square Gardens boxing arena.
In Landmark, you not only show the world your own imagination, but you get to wander through the minds and dreams of countless thousands of other players as well.
EverQuest Next, on the other hand is directed content of a Heroic Fantasy nature. It?s still a giant sandbox to play in, but the focus is different. EQ Next provides the story, adventure and focus for the players, and the creativity players provide is all in how they react to those situations and deal with those plot developments.
The business plans for the two games are NOT identical. We?re planning some similarities, but honestly, we have lots of time still to develop what?s needed for an EverQuest Next business plan. We have no intent to just carbon-copy the Landmark plan over to Next.
What about All Access membership?
All Access is a membership plan you can subscribe to in the Landmark marketplace (after it launches publicly). That item lets you gain access to
allSOE games. By itself, that?s worth quite a bit. However, each game in the SOE stable will have a short list of benefits that players will get when they play that game. Landmark is no exception.
The details of what will be included for Landmark if you have an All Access membership have yet to be determined.
What about Market Stalls (and by extension, the virtual coin, in-game economy as well)?
This is a pretty extensive topic that probably deserves a write-up of its own, but there have been lots of tangential questions about our business plan that revolve around the fact that you guys just simply don?t know much about our in-game economy yet. (Because we haven?t told you. Oops.)
The in-game economy is robust, but personal. Everything is centered around players finding each other and socializing to make trades/purchases. Items we expect to see traded/sold include resources, crafted items, and templates.
Of course, we have secure trade so that you can trade 1-on-1. There are also Market Stalls at the hubs. These Stalls can be rented for virtual coin or for SC. (Templates can be traded 1-on-1, but cannot be sold in the Market Stalls for virtual coin. They can, however, be advertised at Market Stalls if they are accepted on Player Studio.)
What about Marketplace and NO TRADE?
In many other games, any item purchased on the marketplace is NO TRADE or can only be shuffled between characters on your account.
Landmark is a bit different. Marketplace items are initially locked as NO TRADE for up to 12 hours after purchase, but then become unlocked thereafter so that you can freely trade or sell them to other players. (You can use your purchase yourself during those first 12 hours, you just can?t trade it yet.)
Why the up-to-12-hour delay? It?s nasty fraud prevention stuff. It?s important. But no more than 12 hours after purchase, your item is unlocked for trading!
What resources will get sold?
All resources will be available for sale. Even the super-common resources like dirt and stone will be available. Resources will be in small and large SC bundles, but the number of resources within each bundle will be scaled according to rarity. (In other words, there is far less obsidian in a resource bundle than there would be in a copper bundle of the same price.)
At this time, there are no ?in-game only? resources.
Will cosmetic items be limited exclusively to the marketplace?
No. Although some outfits may be limited to marketplace only, there will be other appearances that are dropped in-game and not available on the marketplace.
Will we sell additional inventory space (bag, vault, chest)?
Yes. Eventually. Not at marketplace launch, but during Phase 3.
Will we allow people to make items (outfits/tools/weapons/etc) in Maya/Blender/Maxx/etc. and submit them to Player Studio?
Yes. But we?re not announcing details on that yet. We have some cool plans and if they come through, it will be much nicer than what we?ve offered in the past.
When will EU players be able to participate in Player Studio?
We are hard at work getting that set up now. We?re working on the major EU countries first, and then we?ll continuously add as we go. There are many tax laws and reporting structures for the different countries, and it takes a reasonably serious investment of time and effort to get each of them running. But we are committed to making this a worldwide game and opening up Player Studio to the world is part of that.
Is there a limit on how many claim flags we can purchase for SC?
Yes. But the rules around that are in flux right now. Let?s discuss this again later, please.
Will purchased claim flags have the same upkeep as a crafted claim flag?
Yes. There is no exception to Upkeep just because you purchased your claim flag.
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The original thread, "The Business of EQN Landmark (revealed!)" can be found
here.
