EverQuest II Extended goes live

@cjasko94 - While I have no doubt that TOR might have a chance at being the WoW killer everyones been waiting for... far too many people who are hyped for the game don't seem to know much about it, and don't understand that its pretty much going to be a linear story driven MMO, and nothing like SWG or any other MMO out there right now. It might well be a smash hit and the kick in the ass the MMO market needs, but it might also be a massive failure and turn into an example of how NOT to make an MMO. Its just too hard to predict given how different its going to be... but I do predict its going to dissapoint quite a few people, especially old time SWG fans hoping for a Star Wars MMO that does it right.

soon to be swtor > all

I guess another EQ would be good, but what I'd wish they make is another champions game. Both champions and return to arms was crazy fun.

This is so stupid. People paying 14.99 a month only get 4 races. That makes no sense.

This comes as no supprise... free-to-play with additional paid options is almost certain to be the standard in the MMO market in the next couple years. It makes so much sense because someone whos playing you're game for free is far more likely to spend money on optional services/items then someone whos NOT playing you're game at all.

Sony will have my 200$ for the PS3's exclusive game, not for that MMOPRG.

@Delius EQ2 Extended is an entirely separate set of servers different from "EQ2 Live" that has been running since the game's launch. It sounds like you played before, so all you would do is resub on Live and you would be good to go with no restrictions. It's the EQ2X people that get hosed, have tons of restrictions, and have to pay to unlock things. The way they set up the F2P being so insanely restrictive I believe is so that people will say screw it, just plunk down the monthly fee and play on the real servers with the rest of us.

Well if your bored its loads and installs as you go with in 3-5 minutes you can create a character another 3 minutes after that and your playing the game. So if anyone is interested try it out.

I would have tried it out but the adept spell limitation kills it for me. I stopped playing my 60 Wizard because of a high resist with Master spells. Whats adept 50-60% resist rate?

That platinum tier is a bit insane. Their subscription model went both ways at the same time.

Is this the best business plan to compete with worlds of warscraft? I would think they would try to entice new players to play the game and maybe take away from

So let me get this right, SoE wants people to pay $15 a month, the normal fee for most subscription based games where you have access to everything, but your restricted to four races out of 19?! 16 of which, I might add, were always available to paying players before this new pricing model. I have several characters that are now restricted races, so... Will I now have to buy these races in order to play the characters I've been playing all along. Way to treat your loyal customers SoE.

Free MMOs are never really "free". People just need to learn that you get what you pay for. Suck it up and just buy WoW already instead of riding the garbage wave of games like Maple story, runescape, this, and etc.

@ MYellott The inability to mail out stuff is likely so gold farmers can't use the free-free accounts. Besides, I know of at least one game (Dungeon Runners) that failed that made the free game too good - nobody bothered paying money because there was really no reason to! The devs noted that when they made the free game so attractive (they were going to be paid for by advertising), their subscription rate (a whole $5/month) dropped like a brick. Its a tough line to walk...

@ Zloth2 Yep. I guess the trick is with the F2P servers is that you've got the option to play for free, and that the folks who pay are not only paying for themselves but the free folks. I do believe Sony offers multimonth discounts for the regular EQII, and Sony's Station Pass is a fantastic deal if you have gaming ADD or a family with different folks playing different games. I just bought a year's subscription to City of Heroes. $139.99 ($11.66/month) instead of $179.88 (regular monthly @ $14.99). That's not much more than how much I spend at Jack in the Box for a single meal per month, and I definitely enjoy it longer. Some of my other gamer friends sub'd to Star Trek Online because they like the game and its cheaper than them going out - important considering one owns his own business (income varies) and his wife has furloughs to deal with at her job. Go out to eat and watch a movie for $30? Or two subscriptions and a whole month of gaming together with other friends online?

Looking at the free to play tier, you are getting what you pay for: limited classes, limited races, ridiculous restrictions like no in-game mail support and gold restrictions. No thanks.

@ParagonFV, every MMO I know gives a discount for buying multiple months. $12.50/mo is actually more typical, assuming you plan on playing the game long term. Heck, wasn't Cryptic offering lifetime subscriptions for about $200 or $250? As for the folks raving about how expensive all that is - no, it's actually VERY cheap. You're lucky to get an hour of play for every dollar you spend on most games. MMO's are designed to be played long term, though, so you can easily sink 50hrs x 12mo = 600 hours per year into a game like this.

@Hellfury360 That is assuming your computer will be able to run SW:TOR and that you actually like the game. One thing I've learned about MMO's is that personal taste matters more than any bullet list of features you can come up with. I'm sure Bioware will do a superb job, but I am NOT expecting an online version of KOTOR - the design of a single-player game and a MMO that has to try and justify you paying every month for months on end are quite different. Especially since hardcore RPG fans are able to burn through content super-fast!

To everybody stating that "Xbox Live is only 50$ a year to play all the games on their system!!!" Can we back it up a little bit and truly look at what you're saying. First off, I'm honestly not a big MMO guy, but the fact is there are no MMOs on Xbox360, this is why you pay only 50$ a year to play every game. Another thing thats extremely worth mentioning is, you know all those games you pay 50$ a year to play online on Xbox360? You can play them online for 0$ a year on either the PS3 or PC. While I do think 200$ a year is a lot to pay to play a game, the 50$ a year to play games online on Xbox Live when they're free to play online on all other outlets is ridiculous. I would also like to note that most MMOs actually have moderated and constantly updated servers and worlds, whereas your average shooter or other online games never change and are only moderated when a player is reported. Please do your research and think before you type. Thank you kindly.

Alright thumbs up for a game to last us until SWTOR whos with me!!!??

Got this a long time ago in a bargain bin for like $3. Now I'lll finally have a reason to play.

@ JDWolfie $15/month for entertainment is dirt cheap. Especially if you play with a bunch of friends. MMO's have a near 50/50 split for men and women playing, I've known a lot of couples (and families) who play together, lets us play with friends who are cross-country, and many (like EQ2) have something for most anyone because there are a lot of different activities in the game (ranging from raiding to adventuring to role-playing to PVP to crafting and more). I don't know any other genres like that. $15 for a whole month. Hell, $200 for a whole year. That's honestly not bad when you get down to it. Cheaper than going to the movies regularly, that's for sure (tickets cost how much? and if you want snacks? and you're going to be entertained for two hours, maybe?). If you buy a game for $60, play for a week (how long does it take you to beat the average game?) until you're done and trade it back for $30 (probably get less, honestly), you just paid $30 or more for a glorified rental. Hell, renting would be cheaper. If you don't think its worth it? Hey, that's your opinion. But those of us who enjoy what the MMO's provide all around and use that for our primary gaming? Hey, its pretty darn good.

@JDWolfie Do the math, people pay about $16.50 a month for most MMOs (including tax), and many people have their subscriptions up all year. $16.50 x 12 = $198.

It's a good way, a really good way, to see if the game would actually be worth paying a monthly fee, for you.I it tried for a little while, got a good 20 hours out of it, it does have it's charms and I did enjoy playing as a Ratonga(rat person) rogue but...it's no WoW, to be sure.But I would never tell somebody it wasn't worth trying out.

I dont mind Eq2 going F2P. The problem is that they are restricting things so ridiculously much its just easier to pay a monthly sub and have no restrictions. 5gold per level? Come on, you have singles quests at the high end that reward 10 times that or more. What about those people?

EQ2 was fun, not enough people played it though. I actually enjoyed the environment more than I did WoW's at times. Had a more nostalgic feel to it...

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EQ2 was a fun game. I just didn't have time to play it. Even WoW started taking up to much time. I ended up quitting both games. EQ2 was the first to go. I think I played it for 6 months and that was that. I wouldn't even waste my time with these crazy payment plans. Sony is nuts doing this crap. If fell back the person who decided to sell out $200 a year to play that game. Screw that. I think MMO fees are overpriced anyways.

@ggregd $50 a year for all titles. Compared to $15 a month for 1 Game. Hardly even close in what you pay a a Years for Xbox Live. $180 a Year for 1 game.

Ok Lets make this simple for people that don't understand FTP. NOTHING is FTP you will pay for something. You have limited levels , Zones etc. The list goes on untill you pay for it. Subs keep all they pretty much have so no lose there. The design of FTP is to bring in a player base that might want to play for a while. AKA: Make Money .There is nothing wrong with this esp. if it gains a a player base. It's good for the game. And good for Current and People looking for a game they might Sub too. Its more of a Try til you Buy.

it's not like making this f2p is taking time away from other projects...

It's a fun game- lots of atmosphere and a lot of zones. Not quite as polished as WoW, but it's still got a lot of charm.

You can play multiplayer in most PC games without having to pay $50.00 a year to Microsoft. They tried to get people to pay for Games for Windows Live but it went nowhere. MMO's are the exception, but they're steadily moving toward this sort of free to play model since D&D online became a success by going FTP. No one knows exactly how this will all pan out. As of now in all these games, if you want the full game content the good old $15.00 monthly fee is still the cheapest way to get it, mostly because they don't want to pisss off current players but that will almost certainly change

@pathock3 I'd rather them make something new as opposed to breathing life into a game that probably won't be around too much longer.

@airshocker It's still in beta, the servers are separate and the players playing before have everything they still have.

How many people are still paying for this game? Apparently not enough. The game's been out there for almost six years and they're trying to pump new life into it. Current players won't be punished, but first-timers will be encouraged to try it out. How can you be upset that a company is still supporting and innovating with a game that's clearly past its prime?

If it's one thing I absolutely hate, it's developers punishing their loyal player-base. How does this benefit the people who have been playing the game for years?

I might give this a try. If i like it i might as well get the silver membership, one time $10 fee sounds appealing, no way i would pay monthly though.

Interesting system. But Gold membership, the normal $15 a month is now WORSE than it was before, and that makes no sense. They're punishing the people who've been playing for years.

@Hekynn 5 gold per level when you don't have much to buy with it is fine imo. It's not like your going to go out and buy masters for your spells and such. Hell even then almost everything on there is in gold and plat is used at much higher level it's no WoW.

er wow i thought i was looking at for a sec but oh well i dont like WoW much nor am i likeing this if they wanted it too be F2P then they should make a shop selling rare things. and make rare item drops even hard for the servers they must not know how too make a F2P game so they might as well stick too P2P

Not playing the free version since they completely RESTICTED GOLD to 5g per lvl and that STINKS! They wont get alot of player if it stays like this.

Seems kind of backwards to have a f2p micro-transaction model with the platinum subscription that costs more per year than a yearly subscription on the regular servers, which are already established, have healthy playerbases and allow you access to all the content for $14.99 a month. Sony got a little greedy here and it's not going to turn out well for them.

@ Ringx55 Agreed. And to look at the example of XBL, that's just for the service, not for any games! Of course, I think folks who want to play MMOs are looking for a very different experience than folks who don't - comparing the two really isn't worthwhile from a cost perspective...

This is an interesting approach - from what I understand EQII is still doing well, so this is a chance not to upset existing players (there is a stigma to F2P with reasons ranging from fears of dishonest game design to increase sales to the stereotype free players being nothing but a bunch of whiney griefers who only got an account to bother people), while giving SOE a chance to experiment and grow the game.

I just want to say the to everyone saying this is going to affect the current players it is not. If you actually read the details you would see that EQ2 Extended takes place on its own separate servers and has NOTHING to do with the regular EQ 2 servers or it regular subscribers. However, I played EQ2 when it first came out and I just didn't care for it. I guess it is alot better now but I just can't see myself getting back into it. Especially with SWTOR and Cataclysm around the corner. Too little too late imo.