| Mail |

You might also like: WoW Insider, Massively, and more

More Sites You Might Like

EverQuest 2 going free-to-play (again)

by Griffin McElroy on Nov 30th 2011 10:00PM

No, you and you internet browser haven't slipped backwards through time -- though EverQuest 2 already went free-to-play last year (with the somewhat confusing, browser-based EverQuest 2: Extended), the game is going really free-to-play starting December 6. A post on the game's official site clears things up: The offerings of Extended will be folded into the rest of the title, and membership will be broken down into three tiers: Free, Silver and Gold.

Free members get a handful of races, classes, character slots and other utilities, while Silver members ($5.00 or 500 Station Points per month) get ... well, a handful more. These two tiers also have the option to purchase some items (like races and classes) piecemeal. Gold members ($14.99/mo.) get unrestricted access to everything. Check out this handy rubric if you're still confused by all these precious, precious metals.

Source: Sony Online Entertainment

Tags: EQ2, everquest, EverQuest-2, free-to-play, mmo, mmorpg, pc, soe, Sony-Online-Entertainment, station

Reader Comments (28)

Quick squeeze out some money cause WoW Patch 4.3 is out and SWTOR is almost here.

@(Unverified)
This town is big enough for the three of 'em

@(Unverified)

It's survived for 7 years, the launch of WoW, every single WoW expansion and another Star Wars MMO.

@(Unverified)

I don't know if you ever played both games and did it with an open mind but EQ2 is a much, much better game than WoW.

The management of the game was a total failure.

@(Unverified)

It looks more like they're going with the City of Heroes approach to this, except you can't buy any of the other classes, and you're restricted to weaker spells and equipment. Hellgate London launched with this ideal, that paying players would get the best stuff ever and only the best stuff. That didn't quite pan out all that well.

Paying to win is easily viewable in this title. I was interested at the idea of a Dark Elf Shadow Knight, or a Human Mage, but this just kind of kills whatever interest I had. Bad show Sony.DCUO was completely open for free, and made it so you WANTED to pay by having cool new powers... not by nickle and diming people with an overglorified trial trying to shake you down for a monthly subscription fee.

@Arcaria

I would say Metacritic would disagree with you about Everquest II being better than WoW. Reviewers gave WoW and all the expansions at least a 90% average while Everquest II and its expansions range in the upper 70s to low 80s.

Why not some more news on the DCUO flash. If electricity is tank my controller gear is screwed!

@arucious
The electricity power was available on the selection screen for a very brief time period about a month ago (you couldn't play as it though) and it was a healing power, not tank.

Looks like Sony finally got the picture after trying it with DCUO.

I may actually try this just for the heck of it (never played Everquest, I know, I know, surrender yon gamer card..)

@TheKillingJoke

Don't feel too bad. 90% of the people who claimed to have been EQ1 players never played it either.

You and you? c'mon man.

I'd give all of the Everquests in the world for a DAoC 2.

@RickGhastly

Camelot, was really ahead of its time, i enjoyed it. Technology wasn't there though. Albion Highlanders ftw.

The days when Alienware's Area 51 model, was a Pentium 3, 700mhz, 2G RAM, for $4000....

It has become more newsworthy to announce when an MMO is NOT going free to play.

Too bad this game is ass terrible. I love love loved the first one.

@SuperWoody64
The game is not that bad. I played EQ from launch to 2006, played EQ2 for a month at release and it was no where near as good. Walked away from it for a few years and then started playing it again two years ago and had a great time. It's way better than a lot of MMOs, but no where near as good as EQ1 was (and I say was because its been ruined many times over for a while now).
I'll stick with LOTRO still til SWTOR, but it may be worth checking out EQ2 again when it goes F2P...

> ($5.00 or 500 Station Points per month)

When did Silver become $5/500SC *per month* instead of a one-time unlock? I logged in to check the Black Friday deals and it looked like my account was still Silver'd, and I haven't given them a dime since, like, Black Friday/Christmas last year.

@DataShade Have to second this. You scared me for a second, author man. Silver membership has always been a one time, flat fee of $10 (or now it's $5? Completely worth it).

just another reason why this genre has turned me off almost completely. when i loved MMOs no one was concerned with tiered/paid/free content to the point where games are just e-stores with graphics.

@bunkness

Unfortunately, the old school way of MMO's is gone forever. Most of the people who played back then have either adapted or left. I grew tired of being the old man on the porch screaming "get off my lawn" so I had to quit about 6 months ago. I've even completely ignored my Old Republic beta emails.

It's just not the same and that's because of the new crowd which drastically outnumbers the original players.

@bunkness

Agreed, although I still play MMOs, its hard not to see the path they have gone down. Don't know what to do in game? Youtube it, log in, and tell everyone how EZ it is...

Wow, some of the things they restrict for free players looks pretty bull crap.

Limiting free players to "adept" (mid tier?) level spells, how much gold they can have, how many quests they can have active in their log, what basic chat functions they can use (/say, /tell, /guild) and what level of customer support they get is kind of stupid.

Especially the customer support one. That one blows my mind.

@Snadados If you join a Guild then the Free tier is fine up until about level 45-50 (out of 90). At that point you will outgrow your wallet. That should give you plenty of time to decide whether you want to invest any money in the game.

Then a flat one-time fee of $5 and you will be set all the way up to 90. The only reason to go Gold is if you plan on being in a raid guild or you just really have to have the absolute best spells and equipment.

ER WHEN IS EVERQUEST ONE GOING TO BE FREE!

Damn, that's a mighty fine screenshot.

There seems to be some confusion in the post, and I don't blame you Griffon, most people are confused by the constantly changing pay-to-play ladder EQ2 has had lately.

Silver is a $5 one time flat fee and is a pretty good deal. It removes or reduces the worst restrictions and opens you up to 95% of the game.

Also, the Extended version was not browser based, it was a stand-alone streaming client. You have to download the whole game on a download-as-needed basis.

For anyone wondering EQ2 is now WAY more streamlined. Expect to level and get where you need to go much faster that in previous years. As someone who played this came at launch and sporadically in between I feel EQ2 at its best right now.

"browser-based EverQuest 2: Extended"

What are you guys smoking? its not browser based. *facepalm*

Breaking News

EverQuest 2

EverQuest 2 going free-to-play (again)

Reader Comments (28)

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 10:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 10:09PM arucious said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 2:22AM Courtney said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 7:50AM Arcaria said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 8:51AM ShivanSwordsman said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:43AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 10:08PM arucious said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 2:55PM Cave Johnson said

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 10:29PM hami83 said

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 10:51PM TheKillingJoke said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 7:55AM Arcaria said

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 10:58PM lsrs said

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 11:10PM RickGhastly said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 7:29AM Negatron said

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 11:19PM Lerkero said

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 11:28PM SuperWoody64 said

Posted: Nov 30th 2011 11:52PM beano311 said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 1:13AM DataShade said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 2:00AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 1:58AM bunkness said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 7:53AM Arcaria said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 7:56AM Negatron said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 10:51AM Snadados said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 3:44PM ElementalFiend said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 12:51PM vamplifire said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 2:50PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 3:38PM ElementalFiend said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 4:23PM Viiral said

EverQuest 2 Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a stranger in a strange land

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW