EQ2 Goes Free to Play too

[Ard]

Welp, looks like EQ2 is joining the bandwagon, sorta.  They're adding free to play servers, as well as leaving subscription only servers.  I can't really say I'm all that surprised by this change.

Producer forum post:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=483443

F2P faq:
http://everquest2.com/free_to_play/extended_faq

F2P server membership tiers:
http://everquest2.com/_themes/default/images/extended/membershipMatrix.jpg

[Mrbloodworth]

You are joking!

I was considering trying this again too.... Was looking at my CE just last night!

[Ard]

Still sifting through the info, but it's looking like the f2p accounts are really, really gimped.  Moreso than I would have expected or hoped for.

[Mrbloodworth]

Wow, its smokejumper.

[Simond]

Still sifting through the info, but it's looking like the f2p accounts are really, really gimped.  Moreso than I would have expected or hoped for.

They get what they pay for - and the one-off $10 upgrade ungimps some of it.

[Mrbloodworth]

His shield example is going to be a hot issue. Watch.

[ezrast]

Except for the level cap, the free accounts have all the restrictions I would expect from a two-week trial. And then if you pay for a monthly subscription on the Extended servers, you still have to pay extra for features that are included in the identically-priced regular subscription. It's like they think that the point of free servers is to draw people in and then milk them for more than their regular players pay already.

[Murgos]

Except for the level cap, the free accounts have all the restrictions I would expect from a two-week trial. And then if you pay for a monthly subscription on the Extended servers, you still have to pay extra for features that are included in the identically-priced regular subscription.

I don't think that is what it said.

[Ard]

The gear and spell limits were what I was refering to.  Especially if it blocks the grandmaster/master II spell upgrades from leveling, or the class quest rewards, especially the lower level ones they just put in a few months back.  That seems a really weird restriction, especially since I'd put money on legendary/fabled gear showing up in the station store.

[Mrbloodworth]

One year for 200 bucks? The fuck?

[ezrast]

Except for the level cap, the free accounts have all the restrictions I would expect from a two-week trial. And then if you pay for a monthly subscription on the Extended servers, you still have to pay extra for features that are included in the identically-priced regular subscription.

I don't think that is what it said.

It is; look at "Player Character Races" in the "Gold" column.

[Zetor]

Man, I was getting my hopes up when I clicked this thread, but that membership chart looks pretty blah. No AH, no mail, gimped storage/quest log, losing out on half the races and classes, best skills, inability to equip epic gear, "frequent upgrade popups" ()? Eh, I hope they change some of this stuff.

I think the lotro f2p design is much much better: some convenience from the store but no 'musts', you can get access to locked content and remove your limitations by doing one-time purchases instead of forcing a subscription on players, etc.

[Mrbloodworth]

Producer Dave Georgeson interview:

[Sky]

All those restrictions...AND pay $35 per character to transfer over? Notice even the platinum you have to buy character race options? The fuck? And as far as bringing new players into the game, they will then be stuck on the f2p ghetto server. Nice. I mean, I get the itch to play EQ2 every now and again, and I'm real casual, but the bronze and silver do nothing at all for me. They really aren't options for EQ2, being limited to expert spell tier and no fabled/legendary gear?

/ignore

Hey mmo genre? Good luck with this new direction, guys.

(plz to give normal subscribers the 20 shared bank slots and 10 character slots okthx)

[HaemishM]

Yeah, the free game seems a bit gimped for the hardcore crowd, but might be a fun game to put in the "I need an MMOG fix" rotation. 2-bags for the free option is a helluva restriction - you won't do any crafting with that. But EQ2 crafting blew, so no big loss.

[Sky]

His shield example is going to be a hot issue. Watch.

Oddly that's the single best piece of gear my SK has, a fabled shield I got off the broker Slow-played to mid 40s and still the best gear I can get is someone's cast-off non-bound items. Grr.

And hell, that SK has raided.

EQ2 crafting doesn't blow, it's pretty good. You at least want crafted food, ammo and totems, even if you aren't a soloer (my SK's armor is all self-crafted and decent).

[Ard]

Have to wait to see how much things are going to cost to unlock I guess, before I go into a real nerd rage.  The $25 mounts from a few months ago do not bode well for this however.  It's like most game companies have forgotten the micro part of microtransaction.

[Mrbloodworth]

With free-to-play gameplay and access to experience point enhancing items, is SOE afraid of a mass exodus of players from the main game once Extended launches? "If there is a mass exodus," says Georgeson, "That'll just prove that this is something the players wanted."

Balls of steel.



That 200 a year stuck me odd, I paid less than that for a lifetime to LOTRO.

Where is my free plantside fuckers?

[Segoris]

EQ2 crafting doesn't blow, it's pretty good. You at least want crafted food, ammo and totems, even if you aren't a soloer (my SK's armor is all self-crafted and decent).

The items you could craft in EQ2 were good quality items, you are right. The process and crafting UI, however, is pure shit.

[Soln]

true about everything (Craft et al).  This is a bad F2P model.  It has more clauses and fine print than a credit card application circa 2006.  Who's the audience for all this detail?

This model only might appeal to people who have never played EQ2 and are starting chars from 0.  It should've been a model that was also attractive for people who've quit and who might've been persuaded to return to dribble in some cash.  Instead, looks to do the opposite.

Couldn't they have just done, for example, 2 tiers?  "FREE" and "NOT FREE".  Although, I guess since this is EQ2 we have to nuance everything into multiple skills and tiers... Journeyman, Adept, Expert, Master, Epic, Fabled, Smedleyd...  == Bronze, Silver, GOLD BITCHAS, Platinum, Existing Sub Schmuck, With or Without Station topping....  MBAlolz

[HaemishM]

EQ2 crafting doesn't blow, it's pretty good. You at least want crafted food, ammo and totems, even if you aren't a soloer (my SK's armor is all self-crafted and decent).

The items you could craft in EQ2 were good quality items, you are right. The process and crafting UI, however, is pure shit.

This is what I meant. One afternoon trying crafting drove me screaming from the crafting area never to return. Talk about a fucking grind of monumentally fucktarded proportion.

[Mrbloodworth]

Perhaps they will add a crafting scroll then.

[Lantyssa]

I was excited, then I realized it'll probably cost an arm and a leg to get a non-gimpy copy of my Arasai SK copied over and I lost interest.

[Mrbloodworth]

I think I read 35$ transfers.

[Goreschach]

You could just buy a new game for that much.

[Soln]

$35 per character not per account and that includes 0 gold and only what you can carry (nothing in the bank or on the broker)

[HaemishM]

This is not the type of thing you'd transfer a character for, IMO. Start a new character. Since it'll be a virgin server, you'll have plenty of opportunity to group up with complete retards.

[Soln]

but then you'd be restricted to 4 gimpy good races and 8 vanilla classes


and then the joy of grinding 80+ levels again

[Tebonas]

No Shaman in Free Play means I don't care. No roaming around with my Everquest 1 Barbarian Shaman after his unfortunate Plane of Time Incident, telling the young ones to get off his lawn and asking everyone how they were stupid enough to misplace Halas.  

[Segoris]

I think I read 35$ transfers.

$35 transfer....plus buying access to that race (arm) plus buying access to that class (leg).

[WayAbvPar]

I don't even remember what race/class my EQ2 character was. When I saw the thread title I was momentarily intrigued (especially since I came here directly from canceling my LOTRO sub), but it sounds like it is a rape job. Shocking from Sony. 

[Sky]

The funny thing is when I saw LotRO go f2p I thought "Hm, if EQ2 does that it might be interesting." Guess not. I guess I could do that $5 log in for a couple hours thing (since "72 hours" is about 3 hours of actual gameplay)  

Really...I don't understand what's going on at SOE, pretty much since Scott H left. All these announcements and playing the traditional model is still the only one that makes sense.

[koro]

$200/year and you still have to pay extra on top just to get access to all the other races that you'd get access to via simply paying $15/mo on a standard live server?

Plus the $10 fee to upgrade you to "Silver" nets you almost nothing in return.

This is, like, double clownshoes.

[Mrbloodworth]

While i find the idea of playing around in eq2 again attractive, some of that seems ify, I'm not sure how, after seeing other examples of F2P conversion some of that strikes someone at SOE as a good deal.

[Merusk]

Except for the level cap, the free accounts have all the restrictions I would expect from a two-week trial. And then if you pay for a monthly subscription on the Extended servers, you still have to pay extra for features that are included in the identically-priced regular subscription. It's like they think that the point of free servers is to draw people in and then milk them for more than their regular players pay already.

It's SOE. That's been the idea behind most of their pay-to-access features in all their games since day 1.

I was intrigued until I started reading this thread.  Turbine figured out a good way of doing this.  SOE, not so much.

I also love the kick in the teeth that is "Oh hey, go ahead and pay for a standard sub but you can't play any of the POPULAR races.  Erudite, Human, Half-Elf, Barbarian for you, even though you can make the locked races on every other server!"