EQ2X *cough* "FREE" to play model is a complete sham filled with fail. But yet, there's a sucker born every minute.
That pretty much sums up the reality of it.
Whiners.
Seriously....I have one bronze and one silver account. I haven't spent a cent on the bronze and can do pretty much whatever I want in the game.
EQ2X gives players more free content than anything else out there. But...some people are just SOE haters and that will probably never change.
Why would I be a SOE hater while I have an active EQ2 regular subscription..?
I did give EQ2X a try before I resubbed for my EQ2 and saw the difference (see my pic earlier in this thread). Okay, I admit, EQ2X is a nice F2P model that would give you a good idea of the game, but as Kost says, if you don't pay a dime, you don't have to expect much of the game later on, other than grind your ass off and not see the real game as it is...
And SOE gives more free content than anyone else..? Not sure I can agree on that. Any other "real F2P game" gives their game completely for free, with item shop as addition (depending on the publisher - fluff or pay2win). SOE on the other hand gives with EQ2X nothing of the sort. The itemshop feels like pay2win, but using it is expensive, and (more importantly) will not give you extra value to the content (again, see Kost's comment).
But if you pay "subscription", you're still ripped off. You can't play all classes you cant (still same as bronze/silver), while you pay the same as on EQ2, where you DO get the whole game for the same price. And then, EQ2 does offer lower payments for extended periods of subscription, while EQ2X only gives you an option for 1 month, or 1 year where you immediately buy Sentinel's Fate and get 6K SC points, which you most likely won't use anyway...
Yeah, we're whiners all right. Just because we have played EQ2 since '04, paid SOE for all those years, and now they:
1. Shut down our free trials;
2. Forbid transfers from the "free" servers to our servers;
3. Give new hardward to the "free" servers while most of our servers are hopelessly in need of an upgrade;
4. Post a link from our forums to the "free" forums, but not vice versa;
5. Forbid our transfering to the "free" servers unless we leave behind most of the items, plat, etc., we have accumulated in seven years - oh, and pay SOE a little more for the privilege of playing the class and race we have played for years.
Yeah, why would we be whining? We should just quietly play on our dying servers, repeating this mantra until the lights shut off:
You know, I get really annoyed with all the people here that can only consider end game raiding as the way of judging a game. Look outside the box and realise that most of the MMO community are NOT hardcore, they do not post on forums, they do not check MMO sites and they don't care about having everything and being the best. These free to play options are perfect if you don't 'need' to be uber and just want to enjoy the journey.
What happened to playing the games for the story? with the EQ2X model you get access to ALL the story.. ALL the quests.. ALL the fun.
I really couldn't care less if at the end I competently do a 12 man raid.. cos after the 12 man raid theres nothing else to do anyway! Theres always got to be an end point where you have done everything.
If you can't stand others being 'slightly' better than you in terms of stats.. then either pay to compete with them or avoid ALL FTP games. If you can get over it and enjoy the ride... sit back, get immersed in the world, enjoy the fantastic lore and have fun for free. It's that simple.
The casual players that never visit an MMO fansite are much less likely to hear about EQ2X, since this is their primary advertising venue.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. Benjamin Franklin
EQ2X *cough* "FREE" to play model is a complete sham filled with fail. But yet, there's a sucker born every minute.
That pretty much sums up the reality of it.
Whiners.
Seriously....I have one bronze and one silver account. I haven't spent a cent on the bronze and can do pretty much whatever I want in the game.
EQ2X gives players more free content than anything else out there. But...some people are just SOE haters and that will probably never change.
Why would I be a SOE hater while I have an active EQ2 regular subscription..?
I did give EQ2X a try before I resubbed for my EQ2 and saw the difference (see my pic earlier in this thread). Okay, I admit, EQ2X is a nice F2P model that would give you a good idea of the game, but as Kost says, if you don't pay a dime, you don't have to expect much of the game later on, other than grind your ass off and not see the real game as it is...
And SOE gives more free content than anyone else..? Not sure I can agree on that. Any other "real F2P game" gives their game completely for free, with item shop as addition (depending on the publisher - fluff or pay2win). SOE on the other hand gives with EQ2X nothing of the sort. The itemshop feels like pay2win, but using it is expensive, and (more importantly) will not give you extra value to the content (again, see Kost's comment).
But if you pay "subscription", you're still ripped off. You can't play all classes you cant (still same as bronze/silver), while you pay the same as on EQ2, where you DO get the whole game for the same price. And then, EQ2 does offer lower payments for extended periods of subscription, while EQ2X only gives you an option for 1 month, or 1 year where you immediately buy Sentinel's Fate and get 6K SC points, which you most likely won't use anyway...
Yeah, we're whiners all right. Just because we have played EQ2 since '04, paid SOE for all those years, and now they:
1. Shut down our free trials;
2. Forbid transfers from the "free" servers to our servers;
3. Give new hardward to the "free" servers while most of our servers are hopelessly in need of an upgrade;
4. Post a link from our forums to the "free" forums, but not vice versa;
5. Forbid our transfering to the "free" servers unless we leave behind most of the items, plat, etc., we have accumulated in seven years - oh, and pay SOE a little more for the privilege of playing the class and race we have played for years.
Yeah, why would we be whining? We should just quietly play on our dying servers, repeating this mantra until the lights shut off:
"Thank you, SOE - may I have another?"
Theres more to consider here... without the new eq2x server a number of things could have happened:
Less or no support for a dying game
Less or lower quality updates (bug fixed/balancing/features)
No more expansions (or expansions which arn't as good as they could be)
EQ2 may have been shut down completely
You get the idea....
EQ2X may well be the saviour of EQ2.
..and don't bother trying to convince others this game wasn't dying. If it wasn't dying then SOE wouldn't have created EQ2X in the first place.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
You know, I get really annoyed with all the people here that can only consider end game raiding as the way of judging a game. Look outside the box and realise that most of the MMO community are NOT hardcore, they do not post on forums, they do not check MMO sites and they don't care about having everything and being the best. These free to play options are perfect if you don't 'need' to be uber and just want to enjoy the journey.
What happened to playing the games for the story? with the EQ2X model you get access to ALL the story.. ALL the quests.. ALL the fun.
I really couldn't care less if at the end I competently do a 12 man raid.. cos after the 12 man raid theres nothing else to do anyway! Theres always got to be an end point where you have done everything.
If you can't stand others being 'slightly' better than you in terms of stats.. then either pay to compete with them or avoid ALL FTP games. If you can get over it and enjoy the ride... sit back, get immersed in the world, enjoy the fantastic lore and have fun for free. It's that simple.
The casual players that never visit an MMO fansite are much less likely to hear about EQ2X, since this is their primary advertising venue.
Thats speculation, you don't know that for certain.. word gets around and they have been advertising through email as well. Every single previous/current subbed email to any SOE game 'probably' got info about EQ2X. General gaming sites advertise it as well.. such as gamespot and IGN.
Even if few casuals gamers got wind of EQ2X doesn't change how much they might enjoy it if they did anyway.
And I wasn't talking about just casual players anyway, just those that arn't hardcore gamers. Casual suggests they have limited time to spend on it or something like that.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
EQ2X *cough* "FREE" to play model is a complete sham filled with fail. But yet, there's a sucker born every minute.
That pretty much sums up the reality of it.
Whiners.
Seriously....I have one bronze and one silver account. I haven't spent a cent on the bronze and can do pretty much whatever I want in the game.
EQ2X gives players more free content than anything else out there. But...some people are just SOE haters and that will probably never change.
Why would I be a SOE hater while I have an active EQ2 regular subscription..?
I did give EQ2X a try before I resubbed for my EQ2 and saw the difference (see my pic earlier in this thread). Okay, I admit, EQ2X is a nice F2P model that would give you a good idea of the game, but as Kost says, if you don't pay a dime, you don't have to expect much of the game later on, other than grind your ass off and not see the real game as it is...
And SOE gives more free content than anyone else..? Not sure I can agree on that. Any other "real F2P game" gives their game completely for free, with item shop as addition (depending on the publisher - fluff or pay2win). SOE on the other hand gives with EQ2X nothing of the sort. The itemshop feels like pay2win, but using it is expensive, and (more importantly) will not give you extra value to the content (again, see Kost's comment).
But if you pay "subscription", you're still ripped off. You can't play all classes you cant (still same as bronze/silver), while you pay the same as on EQ2, where you DO get the whole game for the same price. And then, EQ2 does offer lower payments for extended periods of subscription, while EQ2X only gives you an option for 1 month, or 1 year where you immediately buy Sentinel's Fate and get 6K SC points, which you most likely won't use anyway...
Yeah, we're whiners all right. Just because we have played EQ2 since '04, paid SOE for all those years, and now they:
1. Shut down our free trials;
2. Forbid transfers from the "free" servers to our servers;
3. Give new hardward to the "free" servers while most of our servers are hopelessly in need of an upgrade;
4. Post a link from our forums to the "free" forums, but not vice versa;
5. Forbid our transfering to the "free" servers unless we leave behind most of the items, plat, etc., we have accumulated in seven years - oh, and pay SOE a little more for the privilege of playing the class and race we have played for years.
Yeah, why would we be whining? We should just quietly play on our dying servers, repeating this mantra until the lights shut off:
"Thank you, SOE - may I have another?"
Theres more to consider here... without the new eq2x server a number of things could have happened:
Less or no support for a dying game
Less or lower quality updates (bug fixed/balancing/features)
No more expansions (or expansions which arn't as good as they could be)
EQ2 may have been shut down completely
You get the idea....
EQ2X may well be the saviour of EQ2.
..and don't bother trying to convince others this game wasn't dying. If it wasn't dying then SOE wouldn't have created EQ2X in the first place.
Sure, the game was dying. But SOE just put a bullet in the heart of the real EQ2 servers, and for what end? Why cancel our free trials? Why prevent transfers? In either direction? Why "hide" our existence on the extended servers?
Put down the kool aid for a minute and answer these questions, if you would. I have no problem with SOE offering the "free" servers - but why drive a stake through the real ones?
Sure, the game was dying. But SOE just put a bullet in the heart of the real EQ2 servers, and for what end? Why cancel our free trials? Why prevent transfers? In either direction? Why "hide" our existence on the extended servers?
Put down the kool aid for a minute and answer these questions, if you would. I have no problem with SOE offering the "free" servers - but why drive a stake through the real ones?
Honestly? I think they plan to get rid of the live servers eventually. Why didn't they just turn the live servers into ftp? probably because it resulted in less risk in case the ftp idea failed.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Sure, the game was dying. But SOE just put a bullet in the heart of the real EQ2 servers, and for what end? Why cancel our free trials? Why prevent transfers? In either direction? Why "hide" our existence on the extended servers?
Put down the kool aid for a minute and answer these questions, if you would. I have no problem with SOE offering the "free" servers - but why drive a stake through the real ones?
Honestly? I think they plan to get rid of the live servers eventually. Why didn't they just turn the live servers into ftp? probably because it resulted in less risk in case the ftp idea failed.
I absolutely agree. So, essentially, those of us who have supported this game for years are expendable. We can either give up all we have earned over the years and head on over to the new free servers, or wait out the inevitable demise of our servers.
THAT is why we whine. Not because we hate SOE (although, quite candidly, they are not on my list of favorite companies right now), but because this is how they treat veteran players. (that said, the new seven year vet reward rocks, so take that, free servers).
They should have made the real servers free to play or, at the very least, allowed us to keep our free trials and put in transfers from the free servers to the real ones. But the the way it is now is nothing short of SOE saying screw you to their vets - their most loyal players. And this vet does not appreciate it.
I won't try and invalidate any of the previous posts because I agree with a great deal of them, but for me as a casual EQ2 player who had to stop playing because of life schedule this is a great thing. I would have never come back to EQ2 at all if it wasn't for this so EQ2X is doing something right.
I went ahead and picked up the silver membership. The fabled/legendary restrictions suck currently, but I'm hopeful they open up some of those items in time. Kinda lame I can spend a ton of time going through a heritage quest but can't even use the reward except to mount it in my home.
I would imagine if they kept going the way things were the game would be dead soon. This opens up new doors and may keep the game thriving for years to come. Even with all the restrictions I'm happy to play it all instead of the game being dead.
Ok, risk of flaming aside, I am a clear hater of so called "F2P". Every time a MMO went F2p or added F2P options the game community went downhill. Like LOTRO. I was on a RP server, and suddenly people flooded in with names like "Shutfuk" or "Hedgepee", and folks that usually acted like that. One of these new players ninja invited me 10-15 times in a row, and when I did not accept he sent me a tell "asshole". That is the way LOTRO has degraded recently. It's like you paint a wonderful and scenic painting, and the ruin it buy tossing excremets all over it. Sorry to sound harsh, but such are my experiences with F2P.
And even tho I feel GW2 looks great, the community at least here in Germany was abysmally bad. Porn dialoge 24/7. It was awful, just awful.
So sorry if it sounds arrogant or mean, but F2P brings a type of gamer into MMOs I do NOT want around me.
Theres more to consider here... without the new eq2x server a number of things could have happened:
Less or no support for a dying game
Less or lower quality updates (bug fixed/balancing/features)
No more expansions (or expansions which arn't as good as they could be)
EQ2 may have been shut down completely
You get the idea....
EQ2X may well be the saviour of EQ2.
..and don't bother trying to convince others this game wasn't dying. If it wasn't dying then SOE wouldn't have created EQ2X in the first place.
I highlighted the things that were already happening to EQ2 prior to anyone even dreaming of EQ2X. Those are part of the reason EQ2 is in the situation it is in today. It is very unlikely that EQ2X is going to resolve those issues, because it does not address the problem that lead the current eq2 servers/population to be in the state they are today.
EQ2/EQ2X is just funding the projects that may carry soe into the future and soes handling of the situation with regards to their current and loyal fanbase has been anything but commendable.
In the end EQ2X is just 1 server full of people who may or may not even be paying for the game. This is at the expense of the current servers feeling lied to and abandonded, which is a hell of a lot more players than EQ2X has.
they had (they, meaning SOE) such a great model of f2p+sub done right in the LOTRO/DDO model and they choose to ignore it.
they are a greedy corporation but hey, arent they all by definition out to get money.
Personally i have a vendetta against them for the way they handled swg and vanguard and i would think thrice before EVER subbing to a SOE game again. (i'm sure i will be tempted to for eqnext)
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
All SOE has to do is combine Gold and Platinum, and make it one monthly rate, which includes full access. Keep Bronze and Silver as is, but splitting it up into Gold and Platinum backstabs all their dedicated players.
SOE's F2P design is just a bad design. Would not be so bad that if you liked the game you could become a subscriber, but paying more than the regular servers for less? I don't think so.
Ok, risk of flaming aside, I am a clear hater of so called "F2P". Every time a MMO went F2p or added F2P options the game community went downhill. Like LOTRO. I was on a RP server, and suddenly people flooded in with names like "Shutfuk" or "Hedgepee", and folks that usually acted like that. One of these new players ninja invited me 10-15 times in a row, and when I did not accept he sent me a tell "asshole". That is the way LOTRO has degraded recently. It's like you paint a wonderful and scenic painting, and the ruin it buy tossing excremets all over it. Sorry to sound harsh, but such are my experiences with F2P.
And even tho I feel GW2 looks great, the community at least here in Germany was abysmally bad. Porn dialoge 24/7. It was awful, just awful.
So sorry if it sounds arrogant or mean, but F2P brings a type of gamer into MMOs I do NOT want around me.
I don't think these models necessarily attract "bad" or "rude" players as much as it attracts inexperienced ones. Maybe you should have explained why you were denying his requests. Not everyone knows that ninja invites are frowned upon and generally considered rude. Maybe we can fix our gaming communities by helping and teaching each other more....
Sorry for the tangeant, now back on topic...
SOE and their crappy F2P model are making the team over at Turbine look like geniuses. We already had an example of what to do in a hybrid model, and now devs can see what NOT to do.
EQII:ex pricing model blows, it's not even microtransaction game it's just an extended trial & only of a few classes, "Sub or GTFO" should be the name of this payment matrix.
I played LOTRO FTP for 3 days and hit a brick wall where I had to either grind or spend money to progress..
I've been playing EQ2X since it started, havn't spent a penny, and I'm still going. Theres no other way of judging it IMO. If you want to take either game seriously you will need to spend money but EQ2X seems to be a much better Free-to-play experience.
Meaning that if you totally refused to spend any money at all, you will have a much better time in EQ2X.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
As said in the article... Good for casual EQ2 players, but if you really start to play EQ2X, you're screwed big-time. Subscription is overly expensive compared to regular EQ2. Not to mention that you CAN NOT copy your EQ2X character to EQ2, while you can copy your EQ2 char to EQ2X...
So once in EQ2X, you're stuck with an EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE "subscription model" and no way to convert to a regular subscription, unlike with LotRo...
IMO, KEEP AWAY FROM EQ2X!!!
You aren't stuck with a subscription if you don't pay. I don't know why everyone assumes that on a F2P game you must pay. I can be perfectly happy playing these games and never spend a dime.
I understand that with LotRo you can be perfectly happy, but EQ2X is crippled beyond comparisation if you don't spend a dime. For instance, unless you "subscribe", you can't use the auction house at all (and there's no other way to sell/buy your stuff, unless you want to use the auction channel extensively). Then the classes... Even if you get a subscription you don't have them all.
Don't want to pay a thing at all, stick to bronze... And you can't even use mules on your current account to share/store extra stuff (account bank disabled). Skills..? Don't make me laugh... Only the 1st tier of spells - you wouldn't even be doing real damage to monsters (and using Expert skills on EQ2 it's already hard to kill certain monsters of equal level).
IMO, EQ2X is nothing more than a severely tuned-down version of the actual game, made almost unplayable if you don't spend a dime on it (or $10 for silver for that matter). It's all intended to get you hooked, go to gold and then find out that you're still screwed and have no way to transfer your character to the REAL game...
As I said before, say again and will say... SOE drops the ball on this "F2P" model big-time. Buying the actual game, subscribe for 6+ months is already a lot cheaper, and you will get goodies & veteran rewards...
Auction house? Is this something only on EQ2x? There is no auction house in EQII unless you mean placing things on the broker.
I played this game for 10ish hours, never having played EQ2 before, and I found the free options to be stifling. Which, wouldn't have been a big deal except you can't modularly buy the features you want, you have to subscribe to do anything good. For instance I thought "necromancer sounds fun" but not fun enough that I would subscribe to be able to play one without ever having tried it out.
I don't hate F2P games, and I realize that nothing is really F2P, but SOE's model here felt like such a scam.
I played LOTRO FTP for 3 days and hit a brick wall where I had to either grind or spend money to progress..
I've been playing EQ2X since it started, havn't spent a penny, and I'm still going. Theres no other way of judging it IMO. If you want to take either game seriously you will need to spend money but EQ2X seems to be a much better Free-to-play experience.
Meaning that if you totally refused to spend any money at all, you will have a much better time in EQ2X.
Depends on the player I guess. I've played LOTRO for 2 weeks, have the lonelands quest pack and 1100 unspent turbine points. I am slowly playing my 2 favorite classes, enjoying the game and not caring about my levels. They come too fast, to be honest.
The only thing I could do for free in EQ2X is just quest which is fine but I needed a piece of gear from the broker and could not buy or sell anything. What good is a game if you can't use what's in it? That is not very fun. I may as well keep the subscription but was hoping to save a few dollars. I do agree with lowering the subscription maybe to 9.99 so more people can join and just have the store like before if people want to get things the easy way. Peace and God bless.
Loooove how people misrepresent EQIIX's F2P model and claim it is worse than LotRO.
Here's some facts I had to point out to a person who came to the EQIIX forums and claimed the same BS...
LotRO - have to BUY content to continue playing through it
EQIIX - You get every single expansion and quest no matter your membership level up to TSO (only Sentinel's Fate isn't given for free and you can get that for as little as $10 from some places)
Free Player in LotRO are restricted to...
2 gold... highest currency type; unless you spend money
3 bags (45 slots total at max count)... unless you spend money
AH is limited - can purchase only
Mail is limited - can't send money or items
Chat is limited - /say, /guild, /group, /ooc, /advice, /trade
Rest XP... Unavailable
Bronze (free) Players in Everquest II Extended are restricted to...
5 gold PER LEVEL... 4 platinum at level 80
2 bags (80 slots total at max count)
Broker is restricted (can't use without purchase of broker tokens)
Mail is limited; can receive only
Chat is limited; /say, /tell, /group, and /guild only but can read world channels (recently updated)
Vitality bonus XP... NO restrictions
And as far as storage goes?
LotRO...
Bank - 30 slots of single item storage
Additional bank storage purchasable for coin up to 30 more single item slots (third chest costs over 2g so is too expensive for a free player)
Housing storage - 1 chest of 30 single item slots (any larger houses are unaffordable by a free player)
That's a total of 60 single item slots in your personal storage and 90 SIS worth of storage available to you with housing included
Everquest II Extended...
Bank - 2 bag slots equaling up to 80 single item slots at max count
Additional bank storage - none
Housing storage - due to the coin restrictions you can buy the LARGEST house in the game for 1plat 70g so you get 5 container slots worth up to 200 SIS at max count
That's a total of 80 SIS in your personal storage and 280 SIS worth of storage available to you with housing including since housing is so affordable in EQII.
Not to mention travel is better in EQIIX than LotRO and less time consuming. Unless you spend money, there is no way a F2P player in LotRO could ever own a good mount because they cost at least 4g whereas in EQIIX there are quest lines that reward you with mounts at lower levels (25% movement speed) or allow you to buy a 45% movement speed mount at mid-range levels for a plat and a bit (level 40 range which Bronze could have a max plat allotment of 2p at 40 so they can MORE than afford it).
You people keep looking at the restrictions and are only focusing on what you are restricted to in regards to your character personally but refuse to look at the bigger picture. You can buy races in packs of 3, you can buy classes individually if you want to play something that isn't available to you on Bronze. LotRO has only 7 classes and 4 races total while EQIIX has 24 classes and 19 races yet somehow because EQIIX basically brings their numbers in line with LotRO with what a Bronze can start with it's somehow MORE restrictive??
Sorry, but I call BS on anyone who says EQIIX isn't a freer and more viable F2P model than LotRO. Grinding achievements to earn tokens to open content? Get out! I'll take my FREE content over that any day.
Lose that cloudy film over your eyes called "jaded" and see the whole picture for once. You'll see a lot more clearly for doing that.
I have been playing EQ2X since launch and I can say that you CAN have a lot of fun for free. I did spend 10 bucks for silver for the extra character slot. I have had a blast and I do not feel the restraints at all. Granted I am not high level, and I do not care about raiding. If your main goal is all about end game raiding then maybe it's not for you, but for the rest of us, it's a great, polished, premium MMO that you can play and enjoy for FREE.
You should have left out the first paragraph entirely. I say that as an EQ2 extended player. It was just unnecessary and junvenile to throw stones.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
I have looked and looked at the F2A models available to both LotRO and EQ2. I've also played some of the more traditional F2A games. In my opinion, EQ2X is the best offer overall. Here are my reasonings:
First, I feel that in the name alone, SoE are making it clear that this is an extended trial when you try it out for free. For a trial, it's great value seeing as you can play it indefinitely without ever paying money, as long as you don't mind playing with restrictions. You can go anywhere except for the newest expac area, which I think is fair. Along with the idea of an extended trial, the trial part means they fully expect/want players to start paying them eventually, whether it's more a la carte for casual players or with a sub for players who play more often. Restrictions only really start being felt, from my experience, if you play quite heavily. This is a much better model than many of the other F2A games that promise you never have to pay but make playing very tedious if you don't and also include many hidden costs to try to entrap you. In my view, SoE are very clear with what you get and what you should expect as a free player.
Second, the way EQ2X was set up makes more sense in some ways than the LotRO model, where people who come back on the F2A version are blocked out of middle level content even if they bought the original box. It's been debated in the LotRO forums, but to me it's inexcusable. Even if I could grind out deeds, which I would find unfun, to get enough TP to get the new questpacks for free, I still think it's inexcusable as someone who bought the game at release. The only block I have as far as content goes in EQ2X is unlocking SF which is a decision I can make at lvl 80.
Third, I think the idea of the free server being separate from the regular ones is not that bad in some ways. I can just imagine how vets would have reacted, especially on the PvP servers, to people 'paying-to-win' through the cash shop or major deflation as the broker gets flooded with items.
The problems though of course are in my eyes the fact that you can't get all of the restrictions off by paying a la carte. I also think that the character copies are a major rip-off, and gold membership isn't quite up to snuff in comparison to the Live model. However, I disagree with the guy who said Platinum wasn't worth it. It is worth it to those people who want to buy things in the cash shop, have major altitis, and want access to SF. For people who like the cash shop, Platinum is a better deal than the year-long Live sub.
Comments
Yeah, we're whiners all right. Just because we have played EQ2 since '04, paid SOE for all those years, and now they:
1. Shut down our free trials;
2. Forbid transfers from the "free" servers to our servers;
3. Give new hardward to the "free" servers while most of our servers are hopelessly in need of an upgrade;
4. Post a link from our forums to the "free" forums, but not vice versa;
5. Forbid our transfering to the "free" servers unless we leave behind most of the items, plat, etc., we have accumulated in seven years - oh, and pay SOE a little more for the privilege of playing the class and race we have played for years.
Yeah, why would we be whining? We should just quietly play on our dying servers, repeating this mantra until the lights shut off:
"Thank you, SOE - may I have another?"
The casual players that never visit an MMO fansite are much less likely to hear about EQ2X, since this is their primary advertising venue.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
Theres more to consider here... without the new eq2x server a number of things could have happened:
Less or no support for a dying game
Less or lower quality updates (bug fixed/balancing/features)
No more expansions (or expansions which arn't as good as they could be)
EQ2 may have been shut down completely
You get the idea....
EQ2X may well be the saviour of EQ2.
..and don't bother trying to convince others this game wasn't dying. If it wasn't dying then SOE wouldn't have created EQ2X in the first place.
Thats speculation, you don't know that for certain.. word gets around and they have been advertising through email as well. Every single previous/current subbed email to any SOE game 'probably' got info about EQ2X. General gaming sites advertise it as well.. such as gamespot and IGN.
Even if few casuals gamers got wind of EQ2X doesn't change how much they might enjoy it if they did anyway.
And I wasn't talking about just casual players anyway, just those that arn't hardcore gamers. Casual suggests they have limited time to spend on it or something like that.
Sure, the game was dying. But SOE just put a bullet in the heart of the real EQ2 servers, and for what end? Why cancel our free trials? Why prevent transfers? In either direction? Why "hide" our existence on the extended servers?
Put down the kool aid for a minute and answer these questions, if you would. I have no problem with SOE offering the "free" servers - but why drive a stake through the real ones?
Honestly? I think they plan to get rid of the live servers eventually. Why didn't they just turn the live servers into ftp? probably because it resulted in less risk in case the ftp idea failed.
I absolutely agree. So, essentially, those of us who have supported this game for years are expendable. We can either give up all we have earned over the years and head on over to the new free servers, or wait out the inevitable demise of our servers.
THAT is why we whine. Not because we hate SOE (although, quite candidly, they are not on my list of favorite companies right now), but because this is how they treat veteran players. (that said, the new seven year vet reward rocks, so take that, free servers).
They should have made the real servers free to play or, at the very least, allowed us to keep our free trials and put in transfers from the free servers to the real ones. But the the way it is now is nothing short of SOE saying screw you to their vets - their most loyal players. And this vet does not appreciate it.
I won't try and invalidate any of the previous posts because I agree with a great deal of them, but for me as a casual EQ2 player who had to stop playing because of life schedule this is a great thing. I would have never come back to EQ2 at all if it wasn't for this so EQ2X is doing something right.
I went ahead and picked up the silver membership. The fabled/legendary restrictions suck currently, but I'm hopeful they open up some of those items in time. Kinda lame I can spend a ton of time going through a heritage quest but can't even use the reward except to mount it in my home.
I would imagine if they kept going the way things were the game would be dead soon. This opens up new doors and may keep the game thriving for years to come. Even with all the restrictions I'm happy to play it all instead of the game being dead.
Ok, risk of flaming aside, I am a clear hater of so called "F2P". Every time a MMO went F2p or added F2P options the game community went downhill. Like LOTRO. I was on a RP server, and suddenly people flooded in with names like "Shutfuk" or "Hedgepee", and folks that usually acted like that. One of these new players ninja invited me 10-15 times in a row, and when I did not accept he sent me a tell "asshole". That is the way LOTRO has degraded recently. It's like you paint a wonderful and scenic painting, and the ruin it buy tossing excremets all over it. Sorry to sound harsh, but such are my experiences with F2P.
And even tho I feel GW2 looks great, the community at least here in Germany was abysmally bad. Porn dialoge 24/7. It was awful, just awful.
So sorry if it sounds arrogant or mean, but F2P brings a type of gamer into MMOs I do NOT want around me.
I highlighted the things that were already happening to EQ2 prior to anyone even dreaming of EQ2X. Those are part of the reason EQ2 is in the situation it is in today. It is very unlikely that EQ2X is going to resolve those issues, because it does not address the problem that lead the current eq2 servers/population to be in the state they are today.
EQ2/EQ2X is just funding the projects that may carry soe into the future and soes handling of the situation with regards to their current and loyal fanbase has been anything but commendable.
In the end EQ2X is just 1 server full of people who may or may not even be paying for the game. This is at the expense of the current servers feeling lied to and abandonded, which is a hell of a lot more players than EQ2X has.
they had (they, meaning SOE) such a great model of f2p+sub done right in the LOTRO/DDO model and they choose to ignore it.
they are a greedy corporation but hey, arent they all by definition out to get money.
Personally i have a vendetta against them for the way they handled swg and vanguard and i would think thrice before EVER subbing to a SOE game again. (i'm sure i will be tempted to for eqnext)
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
All SOE has to do is combine Gold and Platinum, and make it one monthly rate, which includes full access. Keep Bronze and Silver as is, but splitting it up into Gold and Platinum backstabs all their dedicated players.
SOE's F2P design is just a bad design. Would not be so bad that if you liked the game you could become a subscriber, but paying more than the regular servers for less? I don't think so.
I don't think these models necessarily attract "bad" or "rude" players as much as it attracts inexperienced ones. Maybe you should have explained why you were denying his requests. Not everyone knows that ninja invites are frowned upon and generally considered rude. Maybe we can fix our gaming communities by helping and teaching each other more....
Sorry for the tangeant, now back on topic...
SOE and their crappy F2P model are making the team over at Turbine look like geniuses. We already had an example of what to do in a hybrid model, and now devs can see what NOT to do.
EQII:ex pricing model blows, it's not even microtransaction game it's just an extended trial & only of a few classes, "Sub or GTFO" should be the name of this payment matrix.
I played LOTRO FTP for 3 days and hit a brick wall where I had to either grind or spend money to progress..
I've been playing EQ2X since it started, havn't spent a penny, and I'm still going. Theres no other way of judging it IMO. If you want to take either game seriously you will need to spend money but EQ2X seems to be a much better Free-to-play experience.
Meaning that if you totally refused to spend any money at all, you will have a much better time in EQ2X.
Developers have nothing to do with setting up the F2P option. They only institute the programming for that particular server.
Do you honestly believe that the graphics designers, quest programmers, etc have anything to do with this?
twitch.tv/itpaladin
@ITPalg
YouTube: ITPalGame
Auction house? Is this something only on EQ2x? There is no auction house in EQII unless you mean placing things on the broker.
twitch.tv/itpaladin
@ITPalg
YouTube: ITPalGame
I played this game for 10ish hours, never having played EQ2 before, and I found the free options to be stifling. Which, wouldn't have been a big deal except you can't modularly buy the features you want, you have to subscribe to do anything good. For instance I thought "necromancer sounds fun" but not fun enough that I would subscribe to be able to play one without ever having tried it out.
I don't hate F2P games, and I realize that nothing is really F2P, but SOE's model here felt like such a scam.
I don't even believe in Jeebus.
Depends on the player I guess. I've played LOTRO for 2 weeks, have the lonelands quest pack and 1100 unspent turbine points. I am slowly playing my 2 favorite classes, enjoying the game and not caring about my levels. They come too fast, to be honest.
The only thing I could do for free in EQ2X is just quest which is fine but I needed a piece of gear from the broker and could not buy or sell anything. What good is a game if you can't use what's in it? That is not very fun. I may as well keep the subscription but was hoping to save a few dollars. I do agree with lowering the subscription maybe to 9.99 so more people can join and just have the store like before if people want to get things the easy way. Peace and God bless.
Loooove how people misrepresent EQIIX's F2P model and claim it is worse than LotRO.
Here's some facts I had to point out to a person who came to the EQIIX forums and claimed the same BS...
LotRO - have to BUY content to continue playing through it
EQIIX - You get every single expansion and quest no matter your membership level up to TSO (only Sentinel's Fate isn't given for free and you can get that for as little as $10 from some places)
Free Player in LotRO are restricted to...
2 gold... highest currency type; unless you spend money
3 bags (45 slots total at max count)... unless you spend money
AH is limited - can purchase only
Mail is limited - can't send money or items
Chat is limited - /say, /guild, /group, /ooc, /advice, /trade
Rest XP... Unavailable
Bronze (free) Players in Everquest II Extended are restricted to...
5 gold PER LEVEL... 4 platinum at level 80
2 bags (80 slots total at max count)
Broker is restricted (can't use without purchase of broker tokens)
Mail is limited; can receive only
Chat is limited; /say, /tell, /group, and /guild only but can read world channels (recently updated)
Vitality bonus XP... NO restrictions
And as far as storage goes?
LotRO...
Bank - 30 slots of single item storage
Additional bank storage purchasable for coin up to 30 more single item slots (third chest costs over 2g so is too expensive for a free player)
Housing storage - 1 chest of 30 single item slots (any larger houses are unaffordable by a free player)
That's a total of 60 single item slots in your personal storage and 90 SIS worth of storage available to you with housing included
Everquest II Extended...
Bank - 2 bag slots equaling up to 80 single item slots at max count
Additional bank storage - none
Housing storage - due to the coin restrictions you can buy the LARGEST house in the game for 1plat 70g so you get 5 container slots worth up to 200 SIS at max count
That's a total of 80 SIS in your personal storage and 280 SIS worth of storage available to you with housing including since housing is so affordable in EQII.
Not to mention travel is better in EQIIX than LotRO and less time consuming. Unless you spend money, there is no way a F2P player in LotRO could ever own a good mount because they cost at least 4g whereas in EQIIX there are quest lines that reward you with mounts at lower levels (25% movement speed) or allow you to buy a 45% movement speed mount at mid-range levels for a plat and a bit (level 40 range which Bronze could have a max plat allotment of 2p at 40 so they can MORE than afford it).
You people keep looking at the restrictions and are only focusing on what you are restricted to in regards to your character personally but refuse to look at the bigger picture. You can buy races in packs of 3, you can buy classes individually if you want to play something that isn't available to you on Bronze. LotRO has only 7 classes and 4 races total while EQIIX has 24 classes and 19 races yet somehow because EQIIX basically brings their numbers in line with LotRO with what a Bronze can start with it's somehow MORE restrictive??
Sorry, but I call BS on anyone who says EQIIX isn't a freer and more viable F2P model than LotRO. Grinding achievements to earn tokens to open content? Get out! I'll take my FREE content over that any day.
Lose that cloudy film over your eyes called "jaded" and see the whole picture for once. You'll see a lot more clearly for doing that.
I have been playing EQ2X since launch and I can say that you CAN have a lot of fun for free. I did spend 10 bucks for silver for the extra character slot. I have had a blast and I do not feel the restraints at all. Granted I am not high level, and I do not care about raiding. If your main goal is all about end game raiding then maybe it's not for you, but for the rest of us, it's a great, polished, premium MMO that you can play and enjoy for FREE.
You should have left out the first paragraph entirely. I say that as an EQ2 extended player. It was just unnecessary and junvenile to throw stones.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
I have looked and looked at the F2A models available to both LotRO and EQ2. I've also played some of the more traditional F2A games. In my opinion, EQ2X is the best offer overall. Here are my reasonings:
First, I feel that in the name alone, SoE are making it clear that this is an extended trial when you try it out for free. For a trial, it's great value seeing as you can play it indefinitely without ever paying money, as long as you don't mind playing with restrictions. You can go anywhere except for the newest expac area, which I think is fair. Along with the idea of an extended trial, the trial part means they fully expect/want players to start paying them eventually, whether it's more a la carte for casual players or with a sub for players who play more often. Restrictions only really start being felt, from my experience, if you play quite heavily. This is a much better model than many of the other F2A games that promise you never have to pay but make playing very tedious if you don't and also include many hidden costs to try to entrap you. In my view, SoE are very clear with what you get and what you should expect as a free player.
Second, the way EQ2X was set up makes more sense in some ways than the LotRO model, where people who come back on the F2A version are blocked out of middle level content even if they bought the original box. It's been debated in the LotRO forums, but to me it's inexcusable. Even if I could grind out deeds, which I would find unfun, to get enough TP to get the new questpacks for free, I still think it's inexcusable as someone who bought the game at release. The only block I have as far as content goes in EQ2X is unlocking SF which is a decision I can make at lvl 80.
Third, I think the idea of the free server being separate from the regular ones is not that bad in some ways. I can just imagine how vets would have reacted, especially on the PvP servers, to people 'paying-to-win' through the cash shop or major deflation as the broker gets flooded with items.
The problems though of course are in my eyes the fact that you can't get all of the restrictions off by paying a la carte. I also think that the character copies are a major rip-off, and gold membership isn't quite up to snuff in comparison to the Live model. However, I disagree with the guy who said Platinum wasn't worth it. It is worth it to those people who want to buy things in the cash shop, have major altitis, and want access to SF. For people who like the cash shop, Platinum is a better deal than the year-long Live sub.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.