EverQuest II is F2P as of today. (12/7/2011)

[SunnyD]

You're all reading this going "EQ2 already is free to play in the EverQuest II 'Extended'" variety. Yeah... you're right. But...

As of today, SOE announced that the "experiment" of EQ2X is over and they're going to make ALL of EQ2, the full subscription based servers and all, free to play.

They will be rolling the EQ2X and EQ2 servers all together, changing the feature matrix, and EQ2 proper will no longer require a subscription.

Here's the new level/feature matrix in all it's glory.

I am looking forward to playing my old characters.

Upcoming F2P FAQ as well.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Meh, I'm done with MMOs. I wish I had as much free time now as I did back then.

 

[brandonb]

I haven't played since beginning of Kunark but I knew I had like a 72 defiler or some lvl near there at the time. It would be nice to wipe the dust of his feet and give it another try. Just wish I had a better internet connection at home.

 

[Ross Ridge]

I think my account excedes most of those limits, on both the Free and Silver levels. Hmm... and of course the free 450 Station Cash port my account has for whatever reason is just short of the 500 I would need to buy the Silver level.

 

[Soccerman06]

Still have to pay for your best abilities? lame

 

[Throckmorton]

They need to make Everquest 1 free to play!

 

[SunnyD]

I think my account excedes most of those limits, on both the Free and Silver levels. Hmm... and of course the free 450 Station Cash port my account has for whatever reason is just short of the 500 I would need to buy the Silver level.

If you were EVER a subscriber, you're automatically upgraded to Silver level.

 

[wheresmybacon]

I might check this out. I sold my old EQ account in 2004 and only did a trial of EQ2 back in 2006.

Been playing a lot of TF2 lately but maybe I'll get into this since it's free.

 

[Bateluer]

And flush goes whats left of EQ2.

Wonder if this means that EQ3/Next is going to be officially announced soon?

 

[SunnyD]

And flush goes whats left of EQ2.

Wonder if this means that EQ3/Next is going to be officially announced soon?

Not sure what you mean by that. Contrary to what most people think, F2P isn't the death knell that people think it is. It's simply a different business model, one that seems to work well if implemented correctly. Apparently Sony feels EQ2X did well enough to migrate EQ2 proper over to the same model - and that generally means their F2P model is making MORE money than the subscription model is.

I'd see this as a GOOD thing.

 

[Newbian]

Still have to pay for your best abilities? lame

Welcome to the future of 90% of the games as it looks like this is the new way to make more money then what even subscription makes you.

Hell even fps are doing this sadly.

 

[SunnyD]

Updated, EQ2 went fully F2P (yesterday) today.

 

[Bateluer]

Not sure what you mean by that. Contrary to what most people think, F2P isn't the death knell that people think it is. It's simply a different business model, one that seems to work well if implemented correctly. Apparently Sony feels EQ2X did well enough to migrate EQ2 proper over to the same model - and that generally means their F2P model is making MORE money than the subscription model is.

I'd see this as a GOOD thing.

Profits may go up, but game quality drops off a cliff. Happens every time a subscription game goes F2P. All the good, mature players leave, to be replaced by idiots.

Face it, EQ2 is dead.

But, like I said in my previous post, with SOE killing off EQ2,are we going to get an official announcement for EQ3/Next soon?

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

They need to make Everquest 1 free to play!

Hell, I wish you could just post on the Sony EQ forums without a subscription.

 

[peonyu]

well shit, time to play my shaman again. I love EQ2 it is a great game [with a equally great tho small community], its problem is entirely with Sony and their complete lack of advertising. If they advertised their game more than say...Never, they would not need to go F2P. When I was playing it I cant count how many times other people said the same thing.

 

[peonyu]

Profits may go up, but game quality drops off a cliff. Happens every time a subscription game goes F2P. All the good, mature players leave, to be replaced by idiots.

Face it, EQ2 is dead.

But, like I said in my previous post, with SOE killing off EQ2,are we going to get an official announcement for EQ3/Next soon?

New content wise im sure the game is dead now. But it really has been dead since the Shadow Oddysey, Sentinel's fate was just a ok expansion and the newest one is rather blah from what Ive seen. Sony has put the majority of their dev time into the "WoW" type of setup with Arena and BG's after SF came out, so it was only a matter of time till they put the game on auto and let people just pvp and play the old content.

EQ3 would be cool to see but im not holding my breathe for it. Sony was cheap as hell with EQ2 and didnt even advertise so I would be surprised if they would put some real money towards EQ3.

 

[SunnyD]

Profits may go up, but game quality drops off a cliff. Happens every time a subscription game goes F2P. All the good, mature players leave, to be replaced by idiots.

Face it, EQ2 is dead.

But, like I said in my previous post, with SOE killing off EQ2,are we going to get an official announcement for EQ3/Next soon?

Not sure why you continually harp on this - SOE is it's own problem, but F2P is not a problem here. Companies that have solid titles have found F2P to be beneficial over the long run, and the "good, mature players" that enjoy the game won't leave. If EQ2 dies, it won't be from F2P.

As far as quality goes, considering their F2P launch also coincides with a large content expansion, I hardly thing SOE is planning EQ2's demise any time soon.

Personally, I'll be quite happy to have yet another title that I've played in the past where I can come and go as I please without worrying about subscriptions and the elitist assholes that go along with them.

 

[Markbnj]

I was up for trying this, because I played EQ for a long time and always wanted to have a look at EQ2. But it turns out I'd have to pay if I want to play a ranger, so I'll pass.

 

[zinfamous]

I was up for trying this, because I played EQ for a long time and always wanted to have a look at EQ2. But it turns out I'd have to pay if I want to play a ranger, so I'll pass.

that's why I couldn't get in to LoTR after it went F2P. had to pay for the class that I wanted to try, and near about everything else. lol

I get it, of course--but I'm that cheap.

Why doesn't everyone just go to the ANet model? pay to enter the game, no subscription, ever. Micro transactions within the game, but you never have to pay for anything that unlocks a core game mechanic (classes, skill trees, normal storage slots, etc), only extra shiny things to pimp up your experience, if you so choose.

 

[Craig234]

If you bought EQ2 but didn't install it, do you get silver when you install it now?

 

[Craig234]

There are different models, but World of Tanks got the most money from me by far of any F2P.

 

[dajeepster]

time to revive my characters... i haven't played in 4 years..

 

[SunnyD]

I was up for trying this, because I played EQ for a long time and always wanted to have a look at EQ2. But it turns out I'd have to pay if I want to play a ranger, so I'll pass.

The part that irritates me is that NONE of my previous characters are playable without paying for various reasons (mostly because I have to pay for a given racial or class pack) which blows balls, especially considering I bought and paid for several expansions which gave access to those races previously (ie: fae).

Son, I am disappoint.

 

[Blintok]

The part that irritates me is that NONE of my previous characters are playable without paying for various reasons (mostly because I have to pay for a given racial or class pack) which blows balls, especially considering I bought and paid for several expansions which gave access to those races previously (ie: fae).

Son, I am disappoint.

no longer be disappointed. old players rejoice.

Smokejumper:

"Hi, folks,

We’ve been listening to you since we launched the Free-to-Play service across all servers. One of the most frequent issues is from folks that used to play EQII Live and are now coming back to the Silver membership level and becoming very confused because they’ve never played under those restrictions. “Why can’t I play my characters? Why are they locked?”

Of course, the reason is because those players are returning to a Silver membership (which is free of charge) and those older characters are often locked behind the Silver membership race/class restrictions. There are two easy ways to get around those restrictions: Upgrade to Gold, or buy the race/class packs.

But, we don’t really want to force those decisions on returning players. It’s not a fun experience to come back to something that seemed exciting (F2P) and then get hit with a bill as soon as you arrive, just for the privelege of using your current characters.

So here’s what we’re going to do.

*Every* character that was created before 12/06/2011 at 12:01 am will be grandfathered in without race or class restriction. This means that regardless of your membership level, you will be able to play any character created before 12/6 without paying for race- or class-pack unlocks.

For any player that previously subscribed to EQII Live servers, or as a Gold or Platinum member on EQ2X, we will also refund all the class/race pack purchases made after 12/06/2011 at 12:01 am and before the time of this posting (12/08/2011, 4:30pm) so that no one loses any SC due to this change.

Of course, this doesn’t affect new characters created from now onward. If you are playing at Silver or Free membership levels and want to create a *new* character, you’ll still be subject to the regular membership class and race restrictions.

We think this should make a lot of folks happy and we’ll get this done as soon as humanly possible, either today, or first thing tomorrow.

See you in-game! Enjoy!"

 

[SunnyD]

no longer be disappointed. old players rejoice.

**snip**

Thanks for that. The eq2 forums were unusable for me - I couldn't even post to complain. THIS makes me happy somewhat. I still find it irritating that I won't be able to create NEW characters of those classes even though I had previously purchased expansions that specifically enabled those races.