Everquest 2 sees 300% player increase after going free-to-play

Richard Mitchell — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:00:00 EST

Proving once again that more people will try your product if they don't have to pay for it, Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley has announced a huge player increase for EverQuest 2 since it went free-to-play in December. Smedley revealed on Twitter that the player base has increased by 300 percent, with daily logins going up by 40 percent.

Smedley also revealed that item sales have gone up 200 percent, proving another, more modern adage: More people will buy your product if they don't have to buy all of it. Fascinating!

Everquest 2 sees 300% player increase after going free-to-play originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Study: EverQuest II population may be 40% female

Alexander Sliwinski — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:20:00 EST

Filed under: Culture

Shocking news: The half-naked human (elf, or cat-thing) female dancing for tips in the main city of your favorite MMORPG might actually be played by a real woman. The BBC reports on a study by researcher Scott Caplan at the University of Delaware, which examined gender differences in 2,400 EverQuest II players, and found that 40% of the gamers were female.

Although 40% does sound awfully high, it does help alter the stereotype of the genre which has a bunch of middle-aged men living in their parents' basements. Caplan says the perception of video games is in a "cultural time lag" and that people are still ascribing decade-old stereotypes to video game players.

Caplan also found an unusually high level of female bisexuality in the survey group, which was apparently "five times higher than the general population." Another thing Caplan found was that the women's self-reported exercise regimes and body mass indexes were better than the general population.

We suddenly imagine subscription numbers for EverQuest II going way up as boys clamor to hit it off with a glamazon.

[Via Evil Avatar]

Study: EverQuest II population may be 40% female originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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