Comments on: Everquest 2 goes Free to Play (sort of), and keeps the rabble out http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-goes-free-to-play-sort-of-and-keeps-the-rabble-out/ MMOs and game design Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:09:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Dave http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-goes-free-to-play-sort-of-and-keeps-the-rabble-out/#comment-10266 Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:29:09 +0000 https://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=4157#comment-10266 Of course, anyone moving to the new servers will also lose all their friends and guild mates, as well as most of their items and housing etc.

]]> By: Dave http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-goes-free-to-play-sort-of-and-keeps-the-rabble-out/#comment-10265 Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:28:07 +0000 https://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=4157#comment-10265 EQ2 F2P is annoying the loyal playerbase, because they will not allow F2P players to (ever) transfer to the current servers. Also, they are going to kill the trial on the current servers. So the old server populations are being intentionally killed off rather than re-vitalized (presumably to force the existing players to pay a transfer fee and then move to a more expensive subscription model!)

There’s a good blog article on the membership stuff here:

http://blog.weflyspitfires.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-extended-a-deceptive-rip-off/

]]> By: Tesh http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-goes-free-to-play-sort-of-and-keeps-the-rabble-out/#comment-10232 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:53:43 +0000 https://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=4157#comment-10232 “You need to nickle and dime F2P customers so they feel in control of what they spend”

Not exactly. You need to offer a variety of products at difference price points (including subs!), so players can purchase what is a good value for them. That might be a Guild Wars box, or Puzzle Pirates doubloons. Nickle and diming is just one option.

]]> By: Ardwulf http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-goes-free-to-play-sort-of-and-keeps-the-rabble-out/#comment-10229 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:44:17 +0000 https://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=4157#comment-10229 @Klepascovic: They’re guessing that you’ll eventually drop some money, as I have in DDO despite my intention of playing entirely for free. (I think I’ve dropped about $20) in about six months of playing.) Maybe that will be much less than you would haven spent on a sub, but otherwise, they’d never have gotten a cent from you, eh?

]]> By: Ardwulf http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-goes-free-to-play-sort-of-and-keeps-the-rabble-out/#comment-10228 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:41:50 +0000 https://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=4157#comment-10228 “Bronze” (i. e. Free) players can pay to unlock certain features. Races and Classes are two of those, along with the Sentinel’s Fate content (but maybe without the 80-90 level cap increase – I’m not clear on this yet.)

I note also that the membership matrix has already been slightly modified from where it was yesterday, so I expect a lot of the minor details to be in flux.

]]> By: pasmith http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-goes-free-to-play-sort-of-and-keeps-the-rabble-out/#comment-10227 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:54:44 +0000 https://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=4157#comment-10227 A couple of details (unless there’re different plans in place for Europe):

Even if you pay for the most expensive free-subscription :) you still don’t get access to all races. You have to pay to unlock them. That’s just bizarre to me. $200/year and pay to unlock playing a race?

There is still an item shop. For instance you can pay for access to the level cap (only available to platinum subscribers otherwise…that’s the $200 US/year tier) or the locked classes.

Apparently they’ll also sell you armor and weapons in the item shop; in an interview with Massively they even mentioned potentially selling you level capped characters!

It all seems very bizarre to me… I mean the bronze (totally free) and silver (a 1-time $10 US purchase) make sense, but when you get to the gold and platinum, that’s the monthly and yearly subscription tiers where you get less stuff than if you just play the regular game…I just don’t get it.

]]> By: Klepsacovic http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-goes-free-to-play-sort-of-and-keeps-the-rabble-out/#comment-10226 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:27:32 +0000 https://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=4157#comment-10226 I love the idea, since my brief stint in eq2 was fun, but I couldn’t get myself to pay $15 for a world in which I’d too often be alone (by that I mean weithout friends). However giving me a free world isn’t profit for them, so I wonder how they will convince a miser to give them money.

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