Free-to-Play EverQuest 2 'Extended' Launches
EverQuest II Extended, the free-to-play version of Sony Online Entertainment's fantasy MMORPG, has launched
Adventurers playing for free will face a number of restrictions on character, bank and bag slots, playable races, chat options and the like, which can be raised or removed with several membership plans. A one-off fee of $10 upgrades you from a Bronze member to Silver, while the $14.99/month and $200/year Gold and Platinum options offer even more. There are also optional microtransactions for items and other content.
EverQuest II Extended is entirely separate from regular, subscription-driven EQ2, using different servers and different forums so current players can avoid the proles.
While EverQuest II continues to receive updates and expansions--the next, Destiny of Velious, is due in February 2011--SOE is also working on the next major entry in the MMO series, currently known only as EverQuest Next.
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Onward, to futility!
replyThose plans are bizarre... if you subscribe to the gold, you are actually more gimped than if you subscribe to the normal servers? What is the point, why would someone not just play on the normal servers? o_O
Also, can't purchase classes, which would probably be one of the most desired things? Can't purchase char slots? Or bag slots?
What are you doing, SOE? All you had to do was look at what Turbine is doing and do that! :P-
SOE similar to many other Sony branches... seems to make some truly odd choices. It seems to be a common theme through almost all branches of Sony besides their TV division. Sony has always been a company with great technology.. only held back by the asshats attempting to run the business. They seem to have no idea what they are doing and the various groups never talk to eachother so they double efforts, work against eachother and publicly contradict eachother.
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Ok, after lurking on their forums a bit and reading some dev posts, my conclusion is that this is less of a microtransaction model and more of a "unlimited trial where you can buy a few perks if you want, but we'd really rather you just buy a subscription" model.
Weird. -
http://everquest2.com/free_to_play/game_overview
Wow, that is kinda crazy.
But, ya know, it does make some sense for people that want to play an mmo, but maybe don't want to get that into it or, like me, don't have the time to play much - making a month subscription almost a waste of money. If WoW had this, but let me play on the normal server with my friends, I could see doing this just to keep in touch with my guild friends. -
The only difference between the gold, and subscribing on normal servers is the fact of the additional races. That's it. You still have to purchase the expansion, just like the normal servers. Plus, they can purchase the remaining races if they so choose. So, it's not that huge a difference. Also, this is still in beta. I'm sure things like purchasing classes and the like will be available later on.
There's a lot more discussion about it on the EQ2 forums. Myself, along with many others, believe that what they are trying to do is kill off the population of the normal servers in favor of this model. What they are doing is forcing everyone who doesn't buy the game to play on this new server. There's no free trial anymore. The only way to get a free trial and play on normal servers is to do a Refer a Friend. And even if you do purchase the game, they still shove this F2P server down your face. There's little to no incentive for playing on the original servers. The senior producer has even been quoted saying that he believes that the F2P server is "where the raiding will be". He said this not long ago at SOE Fan Faire.
All in all, a lot of us EQ2 players feel that this is a horrible move. Many are only continuing to play until something else(SWToR, FFXIV, etc) comes out.
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