Upcoming Changes for Free and Silver Members

Not that this comment has anything at all to do with the topic at hand, but Fableds were never done every six months.

Making all raid items prestige would just cause people who raided to no longer play the game. What would be the point of that? Currently you can wear the first two tiers of all expansions, and it is certainly possible to play in RoF content, with tier 2 VoA gear. I did it.

i personaly think this is counter productive and is going to lose alot of money because there will be very little reason to go gold and depending on how this affects the comunity i may quit altogether all this is going to do is make it where people just box more and its going to get harder to get groups and i believe that more unwanted immaturitys in the community are going to happen....... very poor decision s.o.e as i said i hope the community doesent get effectedto much by this cuz i truely everquest and would hate to leave cuz s.o.e made a poor choice...... and soe i REALY hope you read this

that makes no sense how could they be providing welfare for us wen they pay nothing and us gold members do "supports there FREE game play" and how is one paying considerably more than a gold member unless the have all access pass i pay for 2 accounts i pay 15 ea. for every month that dosent mean i pay considerably more just means i have 2 accounts

Although you would be correct in assuming players who buy nothing from the marketplace are being supported by people who do pay for things, a lot of F2P and Silver accounts pay for things all the time.

Buy access to a few races and classes, buy some housing items, buy unlockers for AAs, etc. Those can add up. Just because a player doesn't subscribe doesn't mean they aren't spending money. Many like not having to spend a set amount every month, and even myself when I played F2P games, I preferred to pay for unlockers for everything so they would be available to me forever without subscribing.

The discussion about who pays more is stupid at this point. No one knows for sure except Sony and it could easily change at any time. The argument that one type of player is welfare for the other is equally stupid.

F2P and Silver enhancements are great, but they need to stop opening so much to them FOR FREE unless they seriously start adding a lot for gold subscribers. If they don't, there will soon be little to no reason to subscribe at all. This will be fine if they can sustain the business on the cash F2P and Silver players will bring, but right now there are very few reasons to subscribe. They don't even give the free 500 SC (a weak small amount) every month to all gold players.

This is awesome! i played eq and eq2 for almost 7 years i had to quit due to time restraints and work. therefore my account / accounts were grandfathered into silver. even silver was just so restrictive. needless to say i am downoading / reinstalling eq1 and 2 right now. i'm choosing not to sub at the moment. but i will be making other purchases in-game via marketplace. i have noticed the general comments of "gold sub players are "carrying" the free to play population" this is so not true and people really need to find a new axe to grind. the last month that i did play everquest on my silver account i spent more than 75 usd in marketplace potions and other misc items. i think that is more than doing my part as a silver player to keep the everquest machine running. im not subbing to gold for one reason, i don't have time. life gets in the way sometimes, i can not speak for all but for me it is not feasible right now, and with the changes coming. i am coming back also not as a gold subber indeed, but i have a kitty lying around with some stored up money to spend in it to be used towards everquest. not a gold subscriber and not planning to be anytime soon, but i was for years at one time when it worked for me, and just wanted to say to sony. this is great tyty!! going to see a lot more people coming back once they learn of this news! and me for one i will be spreading the news to old eq friends.

Dre. I think your on point here, and I totally agree with your line of thinking in this matter. Items that were acquired when the account was on a GOLD status, those items should not be flagged as unusable to the player who earned the item when the account was gold. I also agree with you on how to make the issue more appropriate in handling with the idea of Prestige Tokens.

What I truly wish to address though is the lack of incentives for active GOLD members. While I would normally advocate against giving away the horse, wagon and heck the farm; I believe the changes that are being made will make FTP EQ friendlier to the Freebies, Silver Players, AND former GOLD members who simply cannot continue to afford to remain Gold status, I see these changes as a good thing. However, what incentives are left to GOLD players currently - not many.

SOE, you are sorely beginning to hinder and depreciate the value of being a GOLD member. SOE Devs. and EQ Gold community pay attention please, the incentives for players to remain in the Gold status currently are pathetic. Therefore, I suggest the following massive incentive to owning a GOLD membership >>> PERMANENT 100% EXP boost to the entire account.

Yes I really did just suggest that, and before anyone says that it wouldn't be fair, etc., think of everything that has been given to the FTP system. A permanent 100% exp boost for GOLD accounts would make everything fair. I am sure the Gold member community can come up with other ideas for incentives, and would encourage them to speak up on this matter as well.

Another incentive I would suggest for Gold members would be the ability to use our Loyalty Points in order to purchase Station Cash from the Loyalty Vendors in both Plane of Knowledge and in the Housing areas. (Just an idea)

I think there is plenty of value to gold sub, which is why I pay for 4 gold accounts.

Oh don't get me wrong, I pay for 3 gold accounts myself, but I just dont see Rank 2 spells etc., Prestige Gear, ability to file Petitions, and No zone limitations, are real incentives to STAY gold.

The issue I am pointing out is when you compare what SOE is giving to FTP vs. the fact that Gold members are not gaining anything and only keeping everything we already have been paying for; it really says that SOE does not favor their Gold members.

Dont get me wrong, I also have 3 FTP accounts so that I could go back and fulfill some of the DON requirements for my 3 Gold accts. for every character on those Gold accts., my concern is simply at the rate SOE seems to be favoriting the FTP players, it wont be long before we see them having full access and three months later SOE making the announcement of shutting their doors (LOL joking) because there isnt any income to support EQ.

That is why I made suggestions for what I would like to see as incentives to remain Gold.

I do not whine, I eat cheese sandwiches instead.

They aren't supposed to become equal to gold. The only way to do that is to pay a subscription fee.

Questions for the silver players:
True or False:
1. My character can still port guild members to the guild hall. In other words, I can place a guild hall anchor.
2. When the change comes, I can increase the number of carried containers to the full 10. 10 bags, in other words.
3. I cannot be a "trader" in trader mode, in the bazaar.

Very smart change on SoE's part. I was never going to even give this game a chance just because most the classes were locked. This change allows you to step into the game without preemptively getting nickel and dimed.

So is this going to move in the way of Vanguard were you get almost everything F2P but the people that sub get special bonuses? Please refer to the Vanguard site if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Hypothetical Example:

Gold player with two accounts: $20/month - $34/month depending on how they subscribe.

Back when I was a subscriber, I played about 20 hours/week. Mileage varies but lets use that number. This means I would be paying at 25 cents/ hour played with all the benefits available.

Silver player: heck, they are free so I'll start a third character.

I don't have time to play so much, so I've cut my time to about 5 hours week. In the 20 hours I play a month, I can accumulate about 200AA on each account at a charge 500 sc. per account for a total of 1500 sc. These credits cost either 5.00, 7.50 or 15.00 depending on when you purchased them.

On the low end, I'm paying the same 25 cents/ hour played with an additional account but also with reduced benefits.

Oh, and along the way I bought some bag slots, unlocked rk. ii spells, etc, etc. depending on my play style.

Given the lower cost, I think it is easier to attract more silver players (or even have gold players add on silver accounts) at the same hourly rate (or more!). Adding more (paying) silver players, on average, should up their hourly income. The truly free player will have no impact overall other than spending a lot of time in older, unused content.

About 6 or 7 months ago I came across a link that said eq was now free to play. I used to play about 7 years ago so I thought what the hey, I'll just see what it is about. I would have never started playing again if I would have had to pay the 15$ monthly subscription. Since I've been back I have probably spent about 80 to 100 bucks in the market. That's about the same as a subscription but I would not have even logged in if I would have had to pay that original 15$. I just don't like the idea of "having" to make a monthly payment but do like the game.
When I first started back up I could sit in pok and, maybe, see someone go by every 20 minutes or so. I went around norath checking things out and zone after zone was empty. I could spend 2 or 3 hrs and never see another player. General chat usually had 100 to 150 people in it. In the evening it would go over 200. When I logged in this morning at 5:00 am general chat was maxed at 400 and general1 had 190 in it. and there were people all over pok. I mean no disrespect to the gold members, but my point is that no one is talking about the fact that it seems the game was dying on the vine. would you rather have a subscription increase? How many severs do you merge before its just not profitable anymore. Seems to me the game is getting another shot at life. Is that good or bad, I don't know.

I love what they did unlock. I never cease to be amazed when folks complain that they want even more even though we already saw this when the initial F2P model came out for EQ and even after some things were modified earlier from that initial release.

That said, the one thing I really did hope would be in here is a modification to how the AA unblockers work for Bronze/Silver folks. Specifically the AA unblockers not going from where you already are, and instead going to from zero AA level. I wish they really would change how that works and instead make the code just add to your current level.

If they split solo/group prestige gear and raid prestige gear and gave the group one an unlocker, I'd buy it for several characters. They can keep the raid gear gold only for the 2 or 3 most recent expansions or for levels within 10 of max.

Will new characters created on Silver accounts now be permitted to select original racial/class starting cities?

Geez enough with the "we are gold subscriber" we carry everquest and the ftp / silver noobs, i have bought every expansion except rain of fire to this very day. everquest 2? i own every expansion except the latest one there chains of eternity. last month i played everquest back in december i spent 35 dollars in the marketplace on exp potions, a new mount and some apperance gear. some people do not sub anylonger because they do not have the time to play as much as they used to so subbing is not always the best option. in a months time when i choose not to sub to gold and stay silver. yet however i spend more than 15 bucks in the marketplace? how is it that i am not doing my part to help pay for the game? i do not care about prestige tokens?? i have to buy enough stuff allready... i applaud sony for making the changes they are talking about. got to do something to get some peeps back into the game.. the free to play buzz is over now. they came most left guess what i'm still here. am i a gold subber at the moment? no. does being silver mean i dont spend money in the market place when i am playing? wrong.... i spend plenty, i am all for sony giving the gold subscribers a lttle something extra by all means go ahead!! they deserve it. but the whole sthick that they are the only ones carrying any financial burden of the game is 100% poop. let's find a new axe to grind.