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EverQuest II: Free To Play Service Coming Mid-August
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
MMORPG.com's Michael Lafferty has big news today for fans of Everquest 2: EQ2 is going free to play in mid-August. Michael had the chance to sit down with Producer Dave Georgeson to talk about this major step for Everquest II and for Sony Online Entertainment. Find out what it means for subscribers and new fans alike.
Sony Online Entertainment unveiled a major parallel stride for EverQuest II and the catch-phrase is “Free-to-Play.”
This is not to say that EQII will be entirely free to play. Actually, the announcement is that there will be a parallel service offering that is intended to draw in new players and allow the game to grow.
Read the Dave Georgeson interview.
Comments
Oh god...its the end of the world...SOE does something that makes sense...argh my brain its ooooozing out.
Except, they need to follow the LOTRO model a bit better. Some of the charges , especially the level from 80-90 one is complete BS.
How is LOTRO's better?
In LOTRO you get 1-50 free (cap 65), plus no quests after level 20.
In EQ2 you get 1-80 free (cap 90), plus all the quests up to level 80.
Because based on the chart, you have to pay $200 a year for that extra 10 levels.
In Lotro, I can keep my regular subscription and I get everything. In EQ2, on this model, the regular subscription still doesn't give you the extra 10 levels. That's the difference.
You can still pay 15$ and play like you allways have with this as well.
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Yes, but to get the extra 10 levels you have to pay EXTRA on top of the $15 a month.
You just need to buy the expansion.....
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
You just need to buy the expansion.....
Is that all it is? I already own the expansion. They need to state that on the chart, it's misleading.
the end of P2P is near
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Nah, just the end of ONLY p2p. The real factor here is OPTIONs. As it pulls more people in for minimal cost. It's the "big restaurant adds an "a la carte" plan to their full course menu". Everybody wins, at least as long as the content is worth it hehe.
I literally just finally dove and and bought this game last week.
Could any of you EQ2 vets tell me if this is going to have much of an impact on the sub crowd?
(Yes, I read the charts and other info I could get my hands on, just want opinions)
Or, in EQII, you can just not buy the last ten levels... and get the rest of the game for free. My "oh my..." reaction certainly applies, here. And if this works, I can see Vanguard getting the same treatment. Kudos to Turbine for leading the way with this, but SOE's counter-move is brilliant.
I can't wait to try it. The only bad thing is they want to sell items with stats in item shop. =/
i think this is a very clever move by SOE. they know that this game has got a loyal hardcore of players that will continue to sub and will never leave there servers but then at the same time there opening these F2P severs which will bring in a huge influx of new players who normally wouldn ever have given the game a chance.
Isuspect that theres gonna be a lot of snobbery from the existing player base concerning the new servers/players but as far as SOE are concerned, financially they cant lose.
If someone is talking in general chat in a language you dont understand, chances are they're not talking to you. So chill out and stop bitching about it!
Yeah, I think it will, downward. X amount of people will either start fresh on the new server(s), pay the transfer fee and put their time in on the new server(s), or cancel their subs and drop the game.
There's nothing to push the crowd in the upward direction, the free trials are going to referral only, and the supposed new players who try the game are getting driven on rails straight to EQ2X.
The population on the Live servers almost *has* to drop, there are good incentives to jump off, almost none to jump on.
Avatars are people too
Played trial enough to like it, but not sub it. I'll probably buy the silver thing only.
bloop
The chart does not seem to adress normial sub users.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Not that I see no, the Platinum level simply has a few extra things like shared bank and stuff, and if you didn't have the Sentinels Fate expansion you get it for free. I am surprised SOE took this long for a tier sub model to be in place.
If they did this for station access to allow a cheaper price for less games I might resub on EQ2+DCUO when it gets launched. Right now station access is worthless to me because I only want to play 2 games anyways.
The chart is only about extneded servers..
You can Sub on Extended OR normal servers.
I dont know why anyone who subs would want to be on extended servers though...
It will have unfair items unlike the normal ones.
so pretty much they are marketing EQ2 extended as a completely differnt game as the normal EQ2
On station EQ2 extended will be listed seperately from normal eq2.
and if you have station pass you get gold on eq2 extended and subbed to eq2.
Can you transfer your character from a p2p server to ftp server?
Ya for a $35 fee lol.
They said since its two differnt games pretty much.
Like EQ2 extended plays like free realms from your browser.. and it has completely seperate servers from normal EQ2.
I agree. EQ2 pricing looks even worse than LOTRO
By paying $14.99 a month, the same price paid by subscribers to the main game, players of EverQuest II Extended will get full access to nearly everything the game has to offer, though they will still have to purchase additional races and levels.
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.
There's only two reasons you play on the extended servers rather than sub servers.
1. You plan on buying enough stat enhancing items to give you an unfair advantage.
2. You plan on playing the game without paying a red cent.
Are either of these things actually good for the game?
If you think this is the end of the sub model, keep in mind that EQ2 was a failure just like lotro and DDO. It may share a namesake with a game that was important and successful, but the sequel was not. It was a game completely overshadowed by WoW and is now almost 6 years old with struggling sub numbers.
And if they were confident that they could increase sub numbers and not just make a money grab, then stat affecting items would have no place in their cash shops.