EQ is going free to play..

[Labyrrinth]

As of March 16th, via an announcement from Sony, EQ will go into F2P mode.

[Silentone]

time to brush off my lvl 65 cleric/monk lol... they are prollly worse off then rolling new characters =p

[loneless999]

free to play BUT stupid restrictions on such and old game it wont help the population at all

[Rooj]

It's fake F2P. You basically have to pay to get anything worthwhile.

[Labyrrinth]

Originally Posted by Rooj [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It's fake F2P. You basically have to pay to get anything worthwhile.

Or, I know this might be a foreign concept, you can earn it the old fashioned way! You don't have to pay for anything.

[Danyelle]

Originally Posted by Labyrrinth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Or, I know this might be a foreign concept, you can earn it the old fashioned way! You don't have to pay for anything.

You misunderstand:

http://everquest.station.sony.com/free/index.vm

EverQuest requires an internet connection (which you are responsible for) in order to play. The FREE access requires payment if you wish to upgrade your membership or make purchases in the in-game Marketplace. The Silver Membership can be purchased via a onetime Station Cash transaction (Silver Pack Item) available for $5.00 USD or 500SC in-game. Gold membership is available for $14.99 USD per month.
All membership levels are granted full access to game world through the EverQuest House of Thule expansion. The Veil of Alaris™ expansion must be purchased separately.
The four free races included with FREE and Silver Memberships are: Human, Erudite, Barbarian and Gnome.
The four free classes included with FREE and Silver Memberships are: Warrior, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue.
Levels are limited by the expansions owned. The House of Thule expansion will allow for a maximum level of 90. Level 91 to 95 requires the purchase of the Veil of Alaris expansion.
Subject to content unlock.
Players must own the Veil of Alaris expansion and have a Silver or Gold membership to own a Guild Hall that can be placed in a Neighborhood zone.
FREE and Silver Membership accounts will receive customer service to resolve real money transaction-based issues only. Support for other gameplay and performance issues is available at the online knowledge base.

>only 4 classes
>only 4 races
>limited customer support

Yeah no

[Labyrrinth]

Originally Posted by Danyelle [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You misunderstand:

I totally did misunderstand! Thanks for clarifying [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] and my apologies to Rooj

[Taco]

So, they are going to obviously grandfather in all of our old characters and put us on silver members for all of us who have ever subscribed in the past....

I have to admit I stopped following modern EQ after OOW...so when I looked into some of the more recent changes to the game I was surprised to see spell ranks, and tiered equipment like in more modern MMOs.

Sadly that hurts the silver members from ever being able to get themselves properly geared, so its really just a way to get up to the end game where the top gear is necessary.

-They are capping silver members at like 47,500pp(lmao), and 1000AA's...so once again..its just to tempt people into going gold at some point.

This system may be "ok" in EQ2, but that game is incredibly easy to play most of the way up to the end game, and from my memories in EQ1 the game is hell bent on equipment & AA progression to be of any use to others....the 2 things they are really limiting here.

Similarly to EQ2 again they are jipping silver members from access to the "broker" system. Why cant they atleast give people access to the damn player run economy...a central component to any MMO...even LOTRO gets this done better with minor limitations.

/rantoff

[stormlord]

F2p? I think their servers will get more activity. But not sure it'll help any. A guy who can't afford a game isn't going to afford it after it becomes f2p, either. It only works if he/she actually can. But I do think that F2p can make a game feel more active when it's in fact struggling to get by financially. And F2p is really a misnomer. The advantage of these micro-transaction systems is that you can fit the payment scheme to -you-. So if you only play in the first expansion then you only have to buy that single expansion. And if you want to level slow then you don't have to pay for experence boosts. There're choices. However, game companies can use these microtrnsaction schemes as an excuse to take in more money than $15 per month. In fact, they might be receiving hundreds of dollars per month for some players. And this is for non-boxxers too.

If they added a progression character or something it would be better, much better. But EQ is so old. So old. It does not have any life left for me. Too much time. But I would recommend to them to stop this progression server thing and evolve it to a progression character. This way, it can go on and on and will be available on all the servers. The idea is to progression through each expansion up to the highest just like on progression servers, except you do it as a character (possibly with others who're flagged as progression characters or some other mechanism to group with others to accomplish the tasks). This would use the available content more effectively. Right now, the content is mostly empty and not used, unless it's a hotzone or up-to-date.

[Lids]

Come on guys, nothing is "FREE".