Upcoming Changes for Free and Silver Members

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Dexella, Mar 7, 2013.

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  1. Dexella Associate Producer

    Hi there, Norrathians!

    You may not realize it, but we talk about you all the time. All day, every day, we dream up ways to make these games better for you, the loyal players and fans of Norrath.

    EverQuest and EverQuest II have both been running as free-to-play games for a good chunk of time now. We’ve learned a lot while that’s been happening, and we can make things better for you.

    So, we’re going to take out a bunch of the free-to-play restrictions that you’re used to as a Free or Silver player. Why? Because we want you to play more of the game without restriction. We think that letting you play more of the game lets you learn to love Norrath and gives you more chances to connect with the community and make friends.

    As of mid-next week, we’re going to be removing the following free-to-play restrictions in EverQuest and EverQuest II. Free and Silver players will now have access to all of the following options:
    • We are opening up ALL CLASSES.*
    • We are opening up ALL RACES. **
    • All bag slots are unlocked.
    • All players can now use the shared bank slots.
    • The quest journal restrictions are lifted entirely. Quest away!
    • Additionally, EverQuest is allowing all players to send delivery parcels! (This change is for a game-specific change in EQ, so it doesn’t happen in EQII.)
    We hope that the Free and Silver players among us (and there are a great many of them!) will be very happy about this news. These are good things indeed!

    Have fun!

    David Georgeson
    Director of Development, EverQuest Franchise
    Sony Online Entertainment

    P.S., A few of you may wonder “well, why not unlock all the other F2P restrictions”? The answers are complex, but basically boil down to one of three reasons in every case: a) By design, Gold membership is an “everything is open” option. Free and Silver are ways to choose your options “a la carte” by unlocking them selectively, b) there are some malicious scenarios that can happen when free accounts get unlimited access to certain game features and we need to avoid those, or c) a very few things are restricted to Gold membership to let Gold membership have special privileges that can’t be unlocked via SC purchase. This is intentional, and we admit that it’s incentive to upgrade to a recurring membership.
    * “All free classes” exception for EQII only: Beastlord is still only accessible via the “Age of Discovery” expansion pack.
    ** “All free races” exception for EQII only: The Freeblood race is still an SC-only marketplace option.
    Mimixx(2) and Natsume like this.
  2. Cloudrat Well-Known Member

    I love that you are opening classes and races, because you can become attached to your avatar and it helps if you try a game and you like the toon you are playing:) Kudos on that!
    I am not seeing what actually you are leaving for incentive to upgrade to gold though:)
  3. Josgar Active Member

    Broker, Spell Upgrades, Equipment Upgrades, In Game Mail, and Character slots appear to be what's left.
  4. Elestria Member

    hiya Cloudrat,

    I can answer that our 500 station cash and extra character slots.

    lol
  5. Natsume Member

    Amazing, awesome change. The class and race restrictions were the must puzzling, they make the most sense for them to go away, the other's are a great addition.

    P.S The gold still get the 500 SC and the booster packs, along with the 3 Goblin tickets, the character slots, the spells and gear and the broker.
    Josgar likes this.
  6. Lempo Well-Known Member

    And hopefully will continue to be so.
    You can buy unlocks for all but mail, and possibly additional char slots, although I doubt that.
    FTP does not need mail, if they need something they can use the trade window.
    These new things are pretty generous.
  7. Kody New Member

    Its great that your lifting the restrictions.. but about the LOYAL fans that have been gold members since launch... you appearing to be very generous to them... but what about the people who have bought all the expansions.. paid all the money each month.. .. seems not really fair to them.. don't you think???

    Kody
  8. Dielace New Member

    Hopefully they do something for those of us that have paid for those races and classes to be unlocked. I for one paid $75 to unlock 8 classes and 2 race packs that are being made free to everyone. It's nice that they are lifting some more of the restrictions, but that doesn't make it any less disheartening.
  9. Lolnope New Member

    While I do appreciate the gesture, one of the biggest turn-offs that EQ1&EQ2 has, and why I cannot convince my friends to play it, is the free to play restrictions and how much of an effect they are on gameplay when it comes to gear/spell upgrades. There is absolutely no other MMO outside of SOE that currently forces you to do microtransactions to be able to equip your gear, or sell your items period. This is a very, very bad thing for player retention and ingame economies.

    If you are going to remove player class/race restrictions, at least make the gear you obtain throughout the game equippable without microtransactions. There is nothing fun about seeing a good piece of gear drop and not be able to equip it unless it is treasured. Not to mention this is inconsistent with later expansions, one of which is a Free-To-Play expansion, where treasured gear is non-existent.

    Please consider a system like TERA Online's subscription model. In their model, you are able to pay $15/mo for a set of convenience items with unlimited uses once per day. I feel like EQ2 could use something like this as an incentive to pay the $15/mo without completely gimping free players' ability to play at their fullest potential.

    You could have a system like double currency items gained (Obols, Spirits), double experience, and double platinum earned from chests as an incentive to pay for $15/mo subscriptions. Perhaps even give them 500 station cash like you do now. Anything but the model we have now, honestly, would work.

    And before you say that will be giving up too much money; please consider the fact that you are getting direct expansion purchases of AOD at the high price. In order for a new player to be competitive at endgame, they have to pay $40 for Age of Discovery, $40 for Chains of Eternity ($20 if they get it on a Steam Sale), and $15 a month. That is PER ACCOUNT, not even counting the multiboxers that play the game.
    Katz likes this.
  10. Mimixx(2) Member

    I just made my friend join. He really likes ranger class and finally I got someone I know to game ;)

    Best game ever!
  11. Plavem Active Member

    Hi there, Norrathians!

    You may not realize it, but we talk about you all the time. All day, every day, we dream up ways to make these games better for you, the loyal players and fans of Norrath.

    EverQuest and EverQuest II have both been running as free-to-play games for a good chunk of time now. We’ve learned a lot while that’s been happening, and we can make things better for you.

    So, we’re going to take out a bunch of the free-to-play restrictions that you’re used to as a Free or Silver player. Why? Because we want you to play more of the game without restriction. We think that letting you play more of the game lets you learn to love Norrath and gives you more chances to connect with the community and make friends.

    As of mid-next week, we’re going to be removing the following free-to-play restrictions in EverQuest and EverQuest II. Free and Silver players will now have access to all of the following options:
    • We are opening up ALL CLASSES.*
    • We are opening up ALL RACES. **
    • All bag slots are unlocked.
    • All players can now use the shared bank slots.
    • The quest journal restrictions are lifted entirely. Quest away!
    • Additionally, EverQuest is allowing all players to send delivery parcels! (This change is for a game-specific change in EQ, so it doesn’t happen in EQII.)
    We hope that the Free and Silver players among us (and there are a great many of them!) will be very happy about this news. These are good things indeed!

    Have fun!

    David Georgeson
    Director of Development, EverQuest Franchise
    Sony Online Entertainment

    P.S., A few of you may wonder “well, why not unlock all the other F2P restrictions”? The answers are complex, but basically boil down to one of three reasons in every case: a) By design, Gold membership is an “everything is open” option. Free and Silver are ways to choose your options “a la carte” by unlocking them selectively, b) there are some malicious scenarios that can happen when free accounts get unlimited access to certain game features and we need to avoid those, or c) a very few things are restricted to Gold membership to let Gold membership have special privileges that can’t be unlocked via SC purchase. This is intentional, and we admit that it’s incentive to upgrade to a recurring membership.
    * “All free classes” exception for EQII only: Beastlord is still only accessible via the “Age of Discovery” expansion pack.
    ** “All free races” exception for EQII only: The Freeblood race is still an SC-only marketplace option.
  12. Plavem Active Member

    Posted that because I thought it was funny. Its very misleading, WE ARE OPENING ALL CLASSES & RACES followed by cept for beastlords and freeblood.

    Doesn't the second statement make the first statement false?
  13. Lost_Map New Member

    Beastlord is unlocked if you have purchased the expansion and Freeblood has always been a special case.
  14. Lempo Well-Known Member

    No it doesn't you are just being you.
    Gold players do not get Beastlords or Freebloods unless they purchased the expansion that included them, preordered DoV CE (which included Freeblood)

    F2P are more than welcom to open those classes up by doing what those of us that have supported and continue to support the game.
    Karrane and Tariya like this.
  15. Foretold Well-Known Member

    There are a LOT of asterisks in this world. It's called the FINE PRINT. Start reading things... Conditions to a statement do not make the statement false.

    Example: Car sales. 0% interest* (*For qualified buyers). That doesn't make the 0% interest statement false. It just further qualifies the statement.

    Sheesh.
  16. Kody New Member

    I still say that SoE should compensate the Gold Members who have paid since day one.. they are all but giving the game away now....

    Kody
  17. Geothe Active Member

    Guess what, its called pay a subscription and no more microtransactions.
    Its entirely your choice. No monthly fee, but have to get unlockers, or Monthly fee and no need for unlockers.
    /shrug
  18. Ikcarus New Member

    What about the restrictions on gear? I cant use my characters because they wear fabled gear. Would like to use my characters in free to play ;-)
  19. Lost_Map New Member

    I'm not going to suggest this, but it would be nice to lower the price of the subscription now that more features have been unlocked for silver/free players and there is less incentive for upping up to gold status. Either that or add something new like access to the latest expansions for gold members as a way to encourage people to up.
  20. Lempo Well-Known Member

    That is ridiculous.
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