Preview: EverQuest Next Landmark is Minecraft meets next-gen MMO

Earlier today, Sony Online Entertainment unveiled their grand vision for the future of MMOs — EverQuest Next, a game that offers players a "living world" with the ability to "produce new content alongside the development team." But while EverQuest Next can be thought of as the island on which this vision is housed, EverQuest Next Landmark is the bridge in which you get there.

Let's just get this out of the way, EverQuest Next Landmark is more than just a companion game. I'd actually argue it plays just as pivotal a role, if not more, in helping SOE achieve this vision. That's because Landmark lets you, the player, create the fully destructible world of EQ Next, block-by-block through the voxel-based system. Hence, the comparisons to Minecraft.

In Landmark, you'll enter a world that's inspired by the environments of EQ Next. You'll carve out your plot  in this world and begin molding the landscape to your liking, creating the objects within using the same precision scripting tools that SOE uses to construct the EQ Next world.

It gets really compelling when you consider that you'll be "working" alongside the actual EQ Next to incorporate your buildings into the actual world of EQN. SOE will provide "specific guidance" on what they want help building, but this is the internet we're talking about, so I hope they are prepared for a lot of phallic inspired buildings.

"For anyone who has ever thought about becoming a game developer, here is your chance," SOE boasts. "Together we will build extraordinary things!

EverQuest Next Landmark will launch this winter as a free-to-play game. The early release will allow it to serve as a "gateway" to EverQuest Next in a multi-phase release strategy where SOE will "guide the development of selected structures and environments for inclusion in EQ Next."

Check out a more in-depth preview of EverQuest Next here.