Free Everquest?

LivinDead · October 2004

I've heard a lot about this game...Mostly nothing but good words...I myself have never played it though...I bought the game and still have it but I don't have a membership...I know I could buy the gift cards and what not but I think this game should be free...With the release of Everquest II and excitement surrounding other games the gaming population is going to feel a decrease more so now than in the past cause EQ is kinda old...I'm sure Sony isn't hurting for money so this game should become free to play...Anyone else wanna rant?

namehater · October 2004

i dont know about free, because it does take upkeep, as far as paying customer support, i never saw ANY during my 4yr skit there, i semi agree with you, at least drop the price to like 5bucks a month, or at least STOP charging for their lame expansions, ah, maybe they could release a free version, but it only be like original or maybe include a couple of the earlier expansions

Crappyfox · November 2004

um hi guys i was just wondering if i should really buy the game even though the new one is coming out. so what is the game about what do u do. do u have fun straight away. does it have good cinematics. is the story line good?

have a nice day

Odenathus · November 2004

Your logic here, is slighty flawed, if I may ::::40::

Everquest 2 is not the sequal to Everquest (this per Sony) but a seperate game, destinct, and unique. Much like Starwars Galaxie, Tenaris (or whatever the name) and many other of their evil titles. Thus in the minds of Sony, Everquest is not old and outdated or even obsolete. This is, in their minds just a seperate game. I also doubt that Sony ever gave anything away for free.

With appx 30 world servers up and running, appx 500,000 active players, it is unlikely that Sony will turn loose of this money making game. Sony announced that they have actually sold over 2 million copies. Now they are trying to lure those players back into the game. New expansions, game fixes, and pretty graphics, all to try an entice those customers back into everquest.

Is it worth it? Each of you would have to judge that yourself. What you look for in a mmorpg is prolly not the same thing I look for. I can tell you that (on the blue servers) the rpg is few and far between. The game play is mostly grind. Grind for lewt, grind for exp, grind for flags. But at the same time, that grind is a level of achievement. The balance between frustration to strive harder vs the frustration to quit... that is a fine line. For many Everquest went to far and they left. For many, they are still playing and having fun beating the challenge that is Everquest.

Will Sony get those mysterious 1,500,000 players back into Everquest? I doubt it. With the release of WoW and EQ2, why should players that gave up the game, come back? They would be happier paying for a new game, new experience.

I play Everquest. I've been in the WoW beta since phase 3. The majority of my EQ guild is in EQ2 beta (I turned down the offer). From what I've seen of WoW, it's a great game, lots of fun. It just doesn't have anything to hold my attention. It's just not a long term game. EQ2? I haven't yet heard or seen anything in EQ2 that I don't already have and enjoy in Everquest, so why should I give up my 5 years of virtual achievement and start over?

Thank You, but no. I'll stick with Everquest, happily and enjoy myself for a bit longer.

Newark
DESK of Druzzil Ro

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Veni Vidi Castratavi Illegitmos

MMOnerd · November 2004

i think exaxtly the same thing..this game rules even wit the monthly fee but it will bick arse with it being free...I mean whos going to pay 15 bucks or whatever for ff11, daoc, eq2, wow, etc when u can play the best mmorpg ever for FREE...by the way u heard of guild wars right??? its a free mmo made by the company who brought you lineage 2 and city of heroes and the upcomin tabula rosala or whatever its called....

VideoGameNerd

Pharoin · November 2004

Seeing that Sony is a large corporation and is going to keep doing what it did to become large i wouldn't believe it would become free but it wouuuld be nice tho.I know it costs money to keep the game going tho but i guess no one told that to the Guild Wars people.I hope wht GuildWars is doing wil open some more MMorpg eyes

Feneant · November 2004

If you do not want to pay, run your own server. Download Hackerquest I believe it's called and install it, then you can play alone with no npcs or anyone else to your hearts content. It might be very sluggish and laggy, you won't ever see new content, no patches, bugfixes or anything, but it will be free and you will be happy! The cost of running these games is exhorbitant, I would not be surprised if Sony even merged a few Eqlive servers as they lose a lot of people to other games. The bandwith and server cost on these is hundreds of thousands a month, where is the logic in them offering this service for free and losing millions a year.

This type of thread is so bloody stupid, people whine whine whine about paying, you pay 0.50$ a day!! That's the cheapest form of entertainment in the world. For 0.50$ in the real world you can have a cup of hot water with milk less the coffee, you can watch the trailers before a movie and leave, you can have a prostitute open the door to you car and leave by the other door, you can have 2 pulls at a slot machine, you can have 2 cigarettes, 2 drinks of beer, etc!!! but you can play a game for 24 friggin hours and still you complain!

I for one am paying for Everquest 2 and have a second copy on the way, it means I'll pay 1$/day a month and I will gladly pay the money.

Feneant - Everquest 2
19th level Crusader
18th level Outfitter

MMOnerd · November 2004

Originally posted by Pharoin
Seeing that Sony is a large corporation and is going to keep doing what it did to become large i wouldn't believe it would become free but it wouuuld be nice tho.I know it costs money to keep the game going tho but i guess no one told that to the Guild Wars people.I hope wht GuildWars is doing wil open some more MMorpg eyes

That's what I want it do also!

VideoGameNerd

xanklar · November 2004

Free Everquest from the tyranny of SOE ...

Josh06 · November 2004

I agree and disagree because there has to be money in order to pay for the expense of so many servers etc and electricity.... But also I agree that the prices are too much and need to be cut down a bit. But I guess if you pay for six or twelve months it really isn't a bad investment even three months. I have EQ Mac Edition and hadn't ever played the game till it's release to Macintosh and I love it I am going to get my account reactivated but this time I'm gonna invest in like 3 months instead of paying 12.95 a month that gets annoying so I want a longer plan on my play time and really it is worth it to me to pay for even a year it's like 100 something which isn't a bad gift to give for christmas!! I do think there will be a drop in the org EQ for a bit but not a dramatic one, ppl are excited about EQ2 I know my uncle is he has played the game ever since it was out for PC he has alot of enjoyment with it so do I since I have played the Mac version. I don't think the game will ever be free but hopefully they adjust prices in the future for now I think ppl are fine paying cause they like the game so it's fine to me.

feel free to email me about my posts ect at: shaniafreak04@yahoo.com

bhug · December 2004

04.12.08
SOE offers a good deal, all the expansions + a year of subscriptionfor about $120. Considering just a single expansion used to cost $50 and the subcsription is about $15 a month getting all the 8 or 9 expansions and a year paid in advance subscription is a decent deal!
Since SOE ran out the orrig EQ devs (McQuiad & Butler) they severly shifted the "vision" to milking every possible $ from it's subscribers and triming every possible expense to maximize profits. So, no way they will go free for EQ. It would make more business sence to close down Eq than keep paying bandwidth, CS, server upgrades and employ (yes people that work there gota get payed!) staff, no way they could continue w/o revenue coming in. (Mayby a pen & paper type browser dungeon game but not a dynamic 3D game.)
Atm EQ has lost over half it's subscribers (ie. wow & eq2) so the 40k still in EQ worry about them consolidating servers (like Turbine did with AC,) to further trim expenses. How can one justify the server expense for 100 to 500 people on a server? (some servers [zek] actually have < 25 people on them !) EQ retailed 16 March 1999 and has been a standard in modern rpg. Most all the new rpg are compared to it. Even EQ2 is lacking compared to EQ.