Everquest Next LM Alpha is live....if you got $60.

But yea it is all in the name of "pre-order", isn't that right defenders of greed? But wait....EQ Next Landmark is a free 2 play release.....so much for that theory.

Give us $60 and we will let you test our f2p game for us. Welcome to the new level of bullshit. Thank you defenders of greed and stupidity for making this such a popular new business model.

Story here

Paying to alpha test a f2p game is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard in a long time. When did people get so stupid?

It is the "gimme now!" pc generation. I miss the good old days when pc gaming was a hobby more than it was a business.

People paying for what they want - what complete idiots! It would be much smarter if you made people's buying decisions for them, vfibsux and -wildflower-.

Look what the cat dragged in....what is your excuse for this Captain Pre-order? Thank you for contributing to the decline of pc gaming sir, I applaud you. Now go give SOE your money, they have been wondering why you are taking so long to come and test their game for them.

While I find it hilarious that people would pay money for a F2P alpha, I can't blame the companies for trying it. If there are enough people willing to fork over cash, I can't blame them. But you won't see me participate in that ridiculousness.

edit: I shouldn't post before my morning coffee... dat grammar lawl

Agreed. Monkey business.

I was SO stoked for this game when it was first announced, then they released the information on this cynical monetization scheme and I lost nearly all hope. It looks great, but despite their recent arguments to the contrary SOE is showing their hand that they are still willing to strangle every last micro-trans cent out of their customers in the name of short term profit. Definitely looks like it will be PtW at this point. Which is really disappointing since the game itself looks like a lot of fun once the true MMO portion is released.

an alpha? really?

next thing you know they'll be charging for a chance to see concept artwork while the game is in pre-production.

meh, to me it looks like an empty version of minecraft.

The only good things are the graphics and everquest next combat... where enemies are not even on release.

all you do is grind materials and craft, no physics with water or clever mechanics like minecraft.

Just a shallow "lets play sims in mmo fashion"

patience is not a virtue to you is it?

"people paying for what they want" .... translates as "People hopelessly obsessed that they lose their grasp on value" ... "oh i must play a broken version 2 months early, heres £60!"

Well if you have money to spend and you're really interested in the game then that's not really a bad idea.

This isn't Everquest Next, this is Everquest Next Landmark. This is the building and minecraft version where you can build things in an MMO setting. The actual RPG wont be released until next year

Hell, I'd set $60 on fire before I'd give it to SOE for the privilege of alpha testing their game.

Normally I don't have a problem with these "pay for alpha/beta" because your actually paying for the game or premium game time and the alpha is just added incentive, but it looks like here you are literally paying for alpha access...that and some vanity items.

I'd never pay for that.

It was in the post, just not in the title. In the end.....does it matter when you see what the real topic is? $60 to get in the alpha of a free 2 play game is what is in question here, not exactly which game we are talking.

oh go choke on your passive aggressive bullshit KH.... nobody around here is buying anything you say. all you do is go around bitching at everyone and intentionally being controversial. its exhausting to watch.

I'm confused, why are people saying it's free 2 play?

Aren't both Everquest Next Landmark and Everquest Next paid games?

Werent they giving keys away in the printed PC Gamer Magazine or was that for something else?

Let's see - a thread where people are whining about a game for no reason...and I'm the one here trying to start controversy? Interesting. People are buying something they want, SOE is selling something people want to buy - yet here you babies are, getting your panties in a bunch over a transaction where all parties are satisfied.

So the person complaining about a game that isn't even out yet is going to educate me about patience?

If you're not a fan of Everquest Next, don't support it. It's not just about about paying money for an early access. There obviously are tons of people who want to support the game. People around here act as if supporting game development is a scam. Pathetic and sad, really. Get a life?

KH would pay for a black and white, hand drawn early concept artwork of a CD Case at full price cause he thinks it's "supporting the game"...

Seriously though KH, if this is going to be free 2 play, you really think it's right to charge full price for an early alpha?

.... you live in your own little world don't you?

Where did I complain about the actual game? I have seen the "current alpha footage", you know, what videos are for, showing how the features work, you know, a basis for an opinion on the direction of a game. not that I said it was crap, just very shallow looking, based on THEIR PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL.

how are you supporting game development by throwing money at them? you realise they 1) already had the funding to make what they are making, 2) would at best effect post-release production if at all.

this isn't kickstarter you fool, this is a gaurenteed in a set direction (like dayZ) game that is being charged £50-90 when ITS FREE2PLAY 2 months later and will actually be somewaht finished.

They have shown their current alpha build, it has sod all, even release is going to be missing loads of elements.

This from Sony Online Entertainement ... an AAA production franchise like everquest.

I swear you lack some sort of mental capacity. or as mentioned above, a hipster douche just "fighting common sense for attention"

meh, to me it looks like an empty version of minecraft.

The only good things are the graphics and everquest next combat... where enemies are not even on release.

all you do is grind materials and craft, no physics with water or clever mechanics like minecraft.

Just a shallow "lets play sims in mmo fashion"

how are you supporting game development by throwing money at them?

You didn't know game development costs money? No wonder you're not so bright...

I'm not buying this. I'm defending people's right to support a game and make purchases they want to make.

Sony is going "This is the game we're going to make. If you want to give us money to help support this game, we will give you a bunch of bonuses, including alpha testing".

You act like people are paying $60 because they just want to play an alpha for the world-builder or something. Are you guys insane?

I do honestly think playing an MMO before completion state isn't the brightest idea, so I'd never recommend this personally. I don't see a problem with letting other people buy what they want though....

Now maybe if this was access to EQN itself I'd pay it. But I have no interest in landmark.

You get a bunch of nice goodies, but you'd have to be an uber-enthusiast to want in. I've been a long time fan of Everquest but I'll definitely wait until long after release to give it a shot. I feel like F2P games always take a little while to hit their stride. Maybe I'll play it when it hits the PS4.

I do love EverQuest...

Though this likely isn't the Everquest we've grown to love. :(

Thank god though. I'm ready for something new. I'd have to see something *extremely* cool regarding Landmark or EQ:N before I could consider ponying up the cash. I'm excited for the direction it's going though.

You see KH, funny your argument for this kind of crap since it has been debated was "it is a pre-order"....and there was some logic to that. But now you are just talking out your ass.

Hmm, I don't think any of the goodies from EQN:L transfer over to EverQuest Next itself.

Now that the NDA is lifted.. be advised: the alpha is complete SHIT. Not that the game itself isnt cool. its the state it is in. absolutely horrible. someone said to the SOE preseident that he thought it was badass yeah its bad and its ass alright.

Log in issues, crashes, lost claims, laggy game, terrible fps (even on higher end machines) tools stop working, claim issues, erorrs, etc.

Whats even worse is just the way SOE is handling it....they still have yet to issue us an apology DG ...one of the devs even posted on twitter "oh such it was such a great launch were lifting the NDA" the ****? it was a TERRIBLE launch. the problem is instead of stating "We fucked up" to the people who actually paid to get in......they are still in PR mode and are still trying to market this peice of shit now when it is BROKEN and near UNPLAYABLE. Then they flat out lie to us and keep saying alpha will be under NDA , NDA, NDA and within hours of alpha people are streaming it on twitch......report it to the staff. they say theyll deal with it.......dont. turns out John lifts the NDA.

oh now if isnt the stupidest fucking thing ive ever seen. (the day after a boring as shit two hour SOE livestream that only showed very little new about the game and one of the highlights was an interview with the idiot bimbo Curse interview girl.,..

the problem is they just marketed the alpha like it was a privalge like you pay early be one of the first people to play landmark help us out blah blah blah. they just hyped it up so much thousands of people went on board becaus they thought it would be great..from ALL the videos they showed us so far the game looked pretty polished.......only to find out that geee they didnt prepare from going from a few hundred people on a server at once to a few thousand.....

and this isnt some amature start up company either , this is fucking Sony ONLINE for Gods sake.......they created Everquest 1.. been into MMOs longer then Blizzard has, if ANYONE should know how to launch an alpha and do it right you would think these idiots would be able to.

nope. Doesn't help that they released the alpha after back to back days of press day + SOE campus event.....i bet at then they were already worn out...but they released it anyways because the Genious John president of SOE wanted it out by the end of Jan......MISTAKE.

The problem is they just got too many fucking people in the alpha because half of the people thought it would be a beta......and now instead of fixing the god damn issues they are running around like a bunch of idiots with their head cut off. they posted this nice thread about how its the islands in the game that caused the issue, so they patch it.. reopen the servers.. crash loops.. people STILL having issues with claims

and instead of FUCKING just adding more servers (there are only two) no......they "may" add more servers tommorow.

just check out some of the recorded streams people have on twitch and see what i mean.. laggy as shit.....

and to top it off the fucking lying ass Terry the senior producer said oooh ooh one of the benifits of getting into alpha is you'll be able to personally connect with the development team because we want your feedback and blah blah blah. BULLSHIT. not ONE..not ONE of the fucking developers i tried to fucking message personally (without cursing) has wrote me back......not ONE. and ive had replies from Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus, Mark Rein, President of Epic games, Gabe Newell (did an interview with him via email before half life 1 came out) not long emails mind you but at least they were nice enough to write me back......was pen pals with Marc Laidlaw for a few years but he got overly busy me thinks (got his and near the half of the valve team's autograph they personally mailed me a poster too!)

but apparently SOE are are a bunch of stuck up asses. Oh but theyll write cute little twitter replies to everyone else,...

and that Emily girl. ugh what a slut acts like shes such a nice nerdy maybe but cute community manager whatever and that other fat girl whatever her name is but yeah figures Emily woudnt write me back..bitch...typical women these days are like that ya know.

**** them....if i had nothing better to do id demand a refund on this peice of shit but i want to play Landmark so ill just hold in there till they "decide" to get off their butts and fix the god damn thing.

Jesus christ and now they are doing ANOTHER downtime switching a card or something......said itd be 40 minutes......yeah right.'

DO NOT GET A FOUNDERS PACK NOW...WAIT..WATCH THE LIVE STREAMS AND WAIT TILL THEY FIX THESE ISSUES.

but the problem is they keep doing PR and marketing the shit game instead of coming clean with us who paid 100 bucks for it and say there are serious issues and we will fix them.

God i have had enough SHIT in the past month or so...i was looking foward to help out with this game to give me something to do and spark creativity but gee cant do that if the fucking peice of SHIT doesn't even WORK.

sorry for sounding like an ass but im just fed up with this shit,. but whatever......got into Trove alpha for paying the 20 buck pack which they are rolling out invites and guess what? they cut it off last week to the 17th and i ordered on the 18th yeah fucking figures.

**** you Sony Online for promising us something great and deliving something that is busted and is complete shit. FIX Landmark you fucking morons!

I think that was pretty much a given, it's Sony lol.

Lol @ people expecting actual gameplay from an alpha launch

****, most MMO's offical launches are fucking disasters. And he's expecting a working game, first day of public alpha state? From Sony?

Do these people jump off bridges expecting to grow wings and fly away? I have zero sympathy for people that don't think before pressing the "purchase" button.

Should be eligible for a refund

Tera launched okay, but the Tera devs are insanely talented at programming/artists.

You complain about quality and demand an apology...did you miss that this was an alpha?

Who in their right mind wouldn't expect a ton of issues from an MMO alpha that's basically a building simulator for the real game.

I have no sympathy for you and your pathetic rant and sexist remarks. Grow up and learn how to read before you purchase into and alpha next time.

Amazing that all a company has to do is call it an alpha when they charge you and according to KH they are off the hook for all wrongdoing.

First and last early access alpha for me is Day Z.

From now on I am just going to wait till its fully released, Alpha's should be free. People should stop buying unfinished products its giving the wrong message to developers.

Amazing that people can't comprehend "you get what you pay for". If you're paying for an unfinished game and you're expecting anything resembling a finished one - you're a dumb ass. Plain and simple.

Yeah I agree, DayZ will also be my first and last.

I don't mind developers releasing Alphas to the gamers to get feedback, but they should be free. Or at least by invite into a closed Alpha.

Why should it be free though when there are tons of people who pay for alpha's and are satisfied? You make it sound like you're owed something just because it isn't at its 100% yet. Yet if you go to the DayZ store page - all you see are satisfied customers recommending the Early Access purchase. Are developers being assholes just because a minority here doesn't share everyone else's preference? (Not saying that's what you're implying, but that seems to be the general implication of the thread.)

Well there's the problem. There are idiots that pay for it so the developers keep charging for it. If no one paid for it then Alphas and Betas would be free like they used to be.

Soon we'll be paying for the next memo that goes around the developer's office with ideas about their next game. It's gotta stop.

So let me get this straight - people are idiots because they don't share your preference? I think you're doing a good job at demonstrating how childish your mentality is.

If you go to the DayZ store page - all you see are satisfied customers recommending the Early Access purchase. But according to you - other people are idiots because they don't share your vocal opinion that belongs to the minority. Nice.

Alpha's have never typically been open to the public or open through invitation, care to list a couple? The only open betas have been stress test's - and at that point players have no input on the game (as opposed to people who are in the early access program's for alpha games). There have been other beta's that would be free through invite - but typically only players who have already spent money on that developer's previous entries get invited. And once again, these players only get to play and search for bugs - they don't get to offer input on new gameplay features like people do in DayZ or other Early Access titles.

No, we are idiots (notice I said the word we) because we let developers get away with it.

If people weren't that desperate to play the game yesterday, they wouldn't pay for Early Access or the likes. Then the developers would have no choice but to invite them for free to these Alphas, simple.

You have the opinion that paying the developer from the moment they draw a polygon is "supporting" them. I, like many others, don't agree with that and will only pay for a finished product (whilst free access to Alpha, Betas etc for gamer feedback is welcomed).

I wonder why game developers get away with it though? I don't see Michael Bay charging money so people can have an early look at the next Transformers Script, or Stephen King charging money so people can read the first two sentences of his next book. Oh that's right, cause for some reason gamers are desperate to play these days...

So we are idiots for wanting to play unfinished games and influence how the final product is made? I disagree. Tons of games would have been SPADES better if they were influenced by their fanbase. I think the real idiots are people who buy purchase these early accesses and are unsatisfied (because they were expecting more than an unfinished game). Plenty of people buy these and are satisfied. You're lying when you say people used to get invited people to alpha tests. When in the past have people ever been invited to alpha testing? Name some games. And what about people that don't get invited but really want in anyways?

ROFL......pot, meet kettle.

Yes, you are a fucking idiot if you pay to get in an alpha for a free to play game. I-D-I-O-T. This was the next step to your wonderful "early access" pre-order bullshit you have been defending, can't imagine where it goes from here.

And I asked you before but your ass never answered, why are you defending this shit? Your excuse before was "it's a pre-order"....well what about this one man? This is not a pre-order because the game is fucking free. I don't even think you know what you are defending anymore, just stfu.

That's funny - I don't remember calling anyone an idiot for having a preference. You and Felipe on the other hand have done so numerous times. It's sad you don't realize how childish it is for mocking people for their preferences. I respect people's decisions to not purchase early access products. In fact, I recommend only enthusiasts who want to throw their money away at the games they want to see made to do so.

As for you and Felipe - anyone who doesn't agree with you are idiots. You're nothing but big babies. I haven't seen this sort of mentality since elementary school. You guys should be embarrassed of yourselves, really...

I defend anyone's right to spend their money how they see fit. The idea that you think you know how to better spend someone's money for them is hilarious. Grow up. Maybe someone really likes Everquest and wants their ideas to make it into the game? The fact that you care so much how someone spends their money is pathetic. If they're satisfied with their purchase - it's none of your business, is it?