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'EverQuest Next' and 'Landmark' revealed, players build the world

Taking cues from worldwide success "Minecraft," the first piece of Sony's multiplayer online adventure "EverQuest Next Landmark" is to let players tunnel, dig, and build their own monuments and housing.

Revealed as part of the annual SOE Live fan fest in Las Vegas, which ran August 1-3, free-to-play offering "EverQuest Next Landmark" gives players the chance to craft to their heart's content.

Frequent reference was made to a "regular block-building game" (read: "Minecraft") when elaborating on some "EverQuest Next Landmark" refinements to standard genre practice.

Players will be able to erode, smooth, and change the size of basic building blocks in order to create more sophisticated designs.

There's a chance to earn decent coin, too, when players sell their better creations to each other via Sony's Player Studio marketplace.

The cream of the "Landmark" crop is also likely to end up integrated into the full "EverQuest Next" game, successor to 2004 launch "EverQuest II."

"EverQuest Next," too, has been taking notes from other popular titles. Full destructibility will be part of "EQN," a long-running theme of the "Battlefield" action series, while the efforts of "Guild Wars 2" to make players feel significant have not gone unnoticed.

Added to that is a lush, almost cartoon-like art style, reminiscent of a hand-drawn Disney feature, popular Korean MMO "Ragnarok Online 2," emerging contender "FireFall" or earlier 2013 hit "BioShock Infinite."

"EverQuest Next Landmark" is due to launch towards the end of the year; both it and "EverQuest Next" are accepting beta testing applications at everquestnext.com/beta-registration.

EverQuest Next SOE Live highlights reel: youtu.be/SYTgjc7V-ds

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