So big announcement

[Xolanne]

You can read and comment here:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=483444

The tl;dr version is. There is a new EQ2 Free to Play server up. Its in pre-beta now. You can try it out at:
http://launch.soe.com/eq2x/

Jokes regarding the name are welcome. Honestly, its just asking for it LOLZ.

There are membership levels, silver and gold. Gold is 15 bucks a month and is essentially the same as normal EQ2. Only difference is there is a lot of better stuff in the marketplace to buy.

It seems to have more response than the whole free to play, but fighters will no longer critically heal. So flame on about that one as well. Fighters will no longer be at the top of the heal parse in non-hardmode raids.

[Caith]

Interesting, here's hoping it gets delivered well. Only question I have, is how extended interacts with BG's. Hopefully, it's the same as regular servers.

[Kulthor]

Haven't read the full thread yet, but sort of a let down.

They should follow DDO's model abit more and make the classes, races, bag bank slots and the rest purchasable for the ftp members, and also turn the instances into purchasables also for the frre/silver members and free to gold + members.

[<3leo]

Didn't they say they would never go F2P? I'm not against the idea-I think MMO subscriptions are on some levels unnecessary, I just swear I remember reading that EQ2 would never adopt this model.

[Fonrian]

I'm holding out for the game that comes out with the "pay-you-to-play" model.

[<3leo]

I'm holding out for the game that comes out with the "pay-you-to-play" model.

That's called Box Sales/Serviceman Online and it FUCKING SUCKS-interface is totally weak and the gameplay consists entirely of sitting your avatar at a desk doing pricing mini-games or pking retarded outside sales reps for being stuck in 19-fucking-82... "Erhm, wotz this internets I hear aboot?"

[Morix]

The feedback thread about this on the official forums is highly amusing. That being said, don't read it if you value your sanity. I stopped after about 30 pages and nearly drowned myself in the closest toilet I could find.

DOOM!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Some of the points they make are a little valid. I do wonder why this sort of thing just wasn't implemented on the Live servers rather than segregating them out to new servers. I could totally see f2p style gaming on the regular servers along side the veteran players, but the sad thing SOE really can't win here. If they did do it like that, then all those people who're bitching about a new server would instead be bitching that their play server is going to get a load of inexperienced dolts who don't know what they're doing.

However, I'm not worried about a f2p server stealing away new players simply because, and maybe this is just the cynic in me talking, but I have doubts about EQ2's real overall ability to attract new players. I kinda think at this point anyone who is ever going to play EQ2 already has played EQ2.

The other problem with that thread is Smokejumper is coming across as kind of a douche. He should probably let Amnerys do the talking for him.

Now, I wouldn't mind moving to a f2p server, except a number of conditions would need to be met to satisfy me which just won't happen:

1) I want free character transfers.
2) I want to keep all the same names I have now.
3) I want all of LBB to come with me, because I only like playing where my friends are.

Like I said, not going to happen. I have no interest in starting over on yet another server.

In regards to BGs, I believe they said the f2p server would have it's own BGs which would not interact with Live server BGs, so they're taking a hit there as well.

[Caith]

The only complaint that I have heard about it if it was implemented on live servers, would be having to deal with newbs that don't know what they are doing. And I think that is a load of crap. It's not like they are buying new level 90 characters with raid gear and are going to fuck you over in your labs run, or raid. No, they are going to be making new fucking characters and leveling. If that was a valid complaint, then they would have to have the same complaint about new players who just happen to be paying for the game. And if they complained about that, they need to be taken out and shot for not realizing that without new blood, ANY game is dead.

Personally, i don't see this attracting a ton of new players, but I do see it attracting a lot of old, cancelled accounts.

[Xauxau]

Well, I went and looked at what you get for free:

2 character slots.
Pick from 4 races: Human, Erudite, Barbarian, Half Elf (the "human" races)
Pick from 8 char classes: Warrior, Sorcerer, Rogue and Cleric subclasses. (the easiest to learn the basics?)
Limited cash per character & 2 bag slots per character (ouch!). No shared bank.
No Expert or Master spell access. No use of legendary or fabled equipment.
Level cap of 80. No Sentinel's fate access.

Plus you get "frequent upgrade reminders" during play.

Its actually a very limited set up, and players who stick around to the point they become "serious" players probably will be tempted by the Fabled equipment and Master level abilities they stumble over.

For a onetime $35 fee, they'll _copy_ a liver server character to the EQX servers. Station access account holders are treated as "gold members". Gold membership seems to be just like live server account except the 4 race limit remains in effect (weirdness). Sentinel's Fate purchase carries over from EQ2live to EQX.

I don't know what to think. On the one hand I'm with Morix: everyone willing to give EQ2 a try probably already has. But ... a part of me suspects that a lot of people are simply unwilling to commit to a monthly fee. There may actually be a substantial population of people who can be lured into spending a bit of cash on a "free" online game who would never commit to a subscription fee. I can't blame SONY for wanting to find out if that's true - look at the ridiculous sums of money Zynga brings in with its button mashing games on Facebook. And EQ2X will be a tremendously well-polished and expansive product as F2P games go.

So ... we'll see. Since my Station Access gives me gold membership anyway, I might start a character or two up to check out the newb rush...if there _IS_ a newb rush.

[Osmosis J]

im still wondering what happened to all the banners for EQ2 i used to see a few months ago. Now there isnt a single shred of advertisement anywhere which has always been their downfall

[Xauxau]

Actually, I've long thought EQ's downfall is the IP. Its got a pretty lackluster & uninspired fantasy backdrop. The lore is like something cut & pasted from a random nerdy, teenage dungeonmaster's D&D campaign. In fact, I suspect that was the original source of most of the lore.

[Xolanne]

Actually, Xau is onto something. It might be fun to hit that initial server rush again on a "new" server.

So a few things, the server transfer is a COPY to the EQ2X server. so you get to keep your existing character.
NOTE: You only get to keep Attuned, and No-Drop items and a limited amount of cash. So you leave a lot behind.

I would be into starting anew on this server. If nothing else it might be fun to get that "new mmo" experience by piling into an initial rush and we would have the advantages of 1) being gold access and 2) knowing the game well. I'll wager battlegrounds there might have more activity as well with a larger base of people to gank. Additionally, we would be more competitive in the higher brackets (if we made it that far).

Might be fun to get the old guild back together in a game and give it a go. Those of us with memberships could help pull the free players along and honestly, what else are you going to play right now?

[Caith]

I would be into starting anew on this server.

I will not be.

To copy the characters that I have over, it would cost somewhere close to a grand. And as for starting over fresh. I've spent years building up the characters I have. Starting over fresh isn't something I'm interested in.

[Xauxau]

The more I've thought about EQ2X, the more curious I've become about SOE's mid-to-long term intentions. It seems that segregation of the F2P and Subscription-based versions of the game would make very little sense if the F2P version is actually successful....especially if part of the F2P goal is to get a percentage of the new players to eventually convert to gold membership. Wouldn't the people most likely to upgrade to a full account be those who join a guild and spend a lot of time with serious players who already have a full account? That basically describes the existing subscriber base....which they are segregating away.

I'm starting to think one of two things is happening. Either someone at SOE wants to move the entire game to F2P but needs to demo or half-way house the concept for a while first...or....there is a lot of disagreement about whether to stick with the subscription model or go F2P, and this is a sort man-bear-pig offspring of a dumb-fuck compromise decision. OR maybe both.

They'd probably be better off biting the bullet and making the existing servers F2P to L50 or L60 or even L80. Maybe they worry that would torque off a lot of the existing players, but judging from the forum response they seem pretty PO'ed by EQ2X as it is. (I mean more pissed than the forum crowd usually is about change. They are always pretty pissed.) At least if they did that, there would be an influx of new players to the existing servers.

[Caith]

A friend of mine who's a guild leader of a raid guild just cancelled due to this, and his reasons are akin to what we've been talking about.

Basically, what he said is this. He's been fighting against player attrition for the last few years to keep his raid guild in members, something thats a constant battle. Now, with the f2p servers coming online, he feels that SOE is actively working against him by trying to draw people to the f2p server rather then the live servers, either as new characters who would rather start out as a f2p, or to play with friends who only want to be f2p.