EverQuest is Going Free to Play!(Original Story Link)

/Tell Norrathians INCOMING BUFFS!

Hello everyone - I hope you all are doing well early on in the New Year! With an exciting Veil of Alaris expansion just released in November, we're thrilled to announce the next big adventure for EverQuest®. After listening to your feedback and suggestions over the past few years, I'm happy to announce that in early March 2012, EverQuest will be going free-to-play.

We're excited to be expanding the EverQuest experience by making the game more accessible to every type of player so that you can choose to play the game in a way that suits you best. Anyone who wishes to start, return or continue to play one of the "Best Games of All-Time" can simply download and play EverQuest on their terms – think of it as Free to Play, Your Way. Recurring subscriptions, non-recurring subscriptions, Silver or Free memberships, item unlockers, and more. The game will now be setup to be flexible so that *you* can decide how much to pay, based on how much fun you're having.

EverQuest players are some of the most loyal, long-standing players of any MMO in existence. With the gaming landscape changing every day, we want to ensure we continue to evolve the game to keep players engaged and bring in even more new players to further expand the community. With no up-front costs or required membership, we might see a new player or two along the way, and more people is always a good thing!

Once we go free-to-play, here are some of the upcoming features and events you can expect:

On Friday, March 16th, EverQuest becomes a teenager: 13 years old!!! We will be having some extra added events in the game starting that week leading up to that Friday and we're introducing some new items within POK to let you know what's in store.

With the free-to-play launch, a renovated everquest.com website will be unveiled and after that, we will bring you upgraded EQPlayers pages.

We have improved the functionality of our Map system! Some improvements include being able to view appropriate level content for your character on the map, allowing you to find zone lines much easier; and also showing you your wisps on the map to help navigate to where you want to go!

Also at the free-to-play launch, all players will receive a Welcome Pack containing items to add to your gameplay experience. You'll be able to summon a unique Mercenary to fight by your side and we're including some Bayle Marks to help pay for the services of your newly summoned Mercenary.

A couple of Experience Potions are also included to help you increase your experience gained while adventuring. For all the collectors that like to show off all the great wares to your friends, we're giving you an item to display in your home and add to your collection. And finally, you'll be able to customize the appearance of one of your weapons with a Weapon Ornamentation - also included in the Welcome Pack. So be sure to check the claim window for your free gifts.

We, the EverQuest dev team, are very excited about this new flexible system. Free-To-Play is the best fit for EverQuest and we are looking forward to supporting the game and our dedicated fans for years to come. This is a great year for everyone associated with EverQuest and SOE. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what's coming in 2012.

One last note, we will be doing a Community Webcast on Thursday February 2, 2012 covering all of the exciting free-to-play details. Please be sure to send in any questions you might have via the Facebook page or Twitter so we can respond with answers during the Webcast.

See you in game very soon!

Thom Terrazas


EverQuest Producer
AKA "Phathom"
For more information on the transition to free-to-play please visit the FAQ and free-to-play matrix(Link).

They also just drove an axe through the skull of the Mac server. (link) Loyal customer base on a server that's been in the black for almost ten years, fucked over because SOE can't or won't devote the resources to incorporate the Mac code into the new pricing model.

What a shitty company.

Wow.

Yeah, I'm not on a mac..but that's still pretty low.

I tried...briefly to get on my eq accounts, both 1 and 2. I kept getting dead ends, like they use some port than your router normally blocks.

_________________
Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

Yeah I actually still play Cakvala here and there so this nice that I dont need to pay for it anymore.

I wonder if this will drive up some people logging back in and just to see whats going on.

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

Was hoping this would happen eventually

_________________

Neither erudites nor enchanters (you were an eru/enc, right?) are covered in the free to play package, so you'll have to pay anyway -- probably more than you're currently paying. Plus they'll nickel and dime you for in-game items and services.

When they say "free to play," they mean "pay to play." The free option gets you four classes, four races, four bag slots, a hard cap of 100 platinum per level, and access to no more than 250 of your AAs.

Payment details are here. Same system they'll be using for EQNext.

Fuck if I'll touch a SOE game again.

Let me know when they'll pay me to play.

wow, that's some limited criteria. Well, free is free...too bad its not worth logging on just to chat with friends anymore.

_________________

FYI



Free Gnomes!

_________________

From what I can tell from the FAQ, pre-existing characters are fine.

_________________

World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

How I miss my gnomish pimp from EQ!!! Gnome Powa

From FAQs http://www.everquest.com/free/

8. If I decide to downgrade from the Gold to Silver or Free membership, what will happen to the Gold perks I had with that membership?

You don't lose anything permanently, but Gold membership content will become inaccessible to you until you repurchase a Gold membership. Letting a membership lapse is similar to allowing a subscription on the regular EverQuest subscription service to lapse, where you become unable to access the features of that service until you renew your subscription.

- Character Coin Limits: The amount of coin you have is unaltered when you lapse your Gold membership. However, you'll be unable to gain any more coin until you reduce your current coin total below the Silver or Free per character limit.

- Backpack and Bank limits: Any bags or items that are in bag slots that are no longer available in Free or Silver will be mailed to you using the parcel system.

- Quest Limits: If you already have more quests in your Journal than are allowed at Silver or Free, those quests still exist, but you'll be unable to add new ones until you reduce your quest count to below those limits.

- Character Slots: When you downgrade from Gold, all characters that are on the account will still be visible to you. Characters that were created before February 29, 2012 will be allowed to log in (regardless of if you are currently over the cap of characters or do not have their race or class unlocked). Characters that are created on or after February 29, will only be available for use if you have both the race and class unlocked. For character slots, only the most recently logged-on characters (up to the character slot cap for your membership level) will be available for play.

- Items: Any Prestige Items become unusable if you downgrade from Gold. They will remain equipped, but will be tinted yellow and will no longer function. You can use them again when you renew your Gold membership.

- Spell/Skill Tiers: When downgrading membership, any Rank 2 or Rank 3 spell will stay in your book. When you cast these Rank 2 or Rank 3 spells, they will cast as the Rank 1 version. In any content where there are no spell ranks, you will be able to continue to use those spells as normal.

- Alternate Abilities: All Alternate Abilities already earned will remain usable if you choose to downgrade your membership, but if you are over the limit that you are allowed to earn (based on membership level) you will not be able to earn any more Alternate Ability points.

- Races and Classes: Any character you created before February 29th 2012 will be playable regardless of race or class. New characters that you create will be limited to the four available races and four available classes unless you purchase access to another race or class or upgrade to gold.

One other thing, it appears if you ever had an active Everquest account, your default free to play level would be silver.

1. I used to play as an EverQuest subscriber before it became free-to-play. What does this change mean for me?

If you have an active subscription when the free-to-play conversion takes place you will automatically be converted to Gold membership status, with full perks and privileges. This conversion will be seamless and you will not need to do anything for the conversion to take place. Your Gold Membership will continue as long as your subscription remains active.

If you cancel your Gold Membership you will be converted to Silver Membership when your Gold Membership expires.

Previous EverQuest subscribers who did not have an active subscription at the time of the free-to-play conversion will automatically be converted to the Silver membership.

Level ninety-goddamn-five?

<gunmouth/>

Supposedly it's not that bad to level anymore, but the few weeks I tried EQ again I could never get the fucking hang of things enough to see.

_________________

World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

it was slow for me when I tried it again, probably due to the fact that I never did quests to upgrade mercs, just stayed with the top one you could buy.

I simply cannot believe anyone would still want to play EQ in the year 2012, with all the other options out there. Even if it was 'pay me to play.'

Neesha!!! Where is your love for EQ after all these years.

Mac server saved. Will be unchanged and no subscription.

http://twitter.com/#!/j_smedley/status/ ... 6482680832

They just now got to Plane of Time there like two weeks ago. It's actually a huge accomplishment seeing as how every encounter they have from Planes of Power is the old old old old crazy as shit overturned versions from the Furor "You have 14 days" era elemental planes.

This is huge. I believe its one of the first "good will" decisions I've seen from SoE in a long, long time.


Good for them. I'll definitely knock around time to time especially if they have a small spike of new players.

Man, I was knocked just about outta my socks by Smed's post. Not only is SOE keeping the server alive, they're making it free to play with no marketplace or other microtransactions. We don't have the full details yet, but it sounds like it will be literally free. Lemme dig up Smed's quote...





Sounds to me like EQNext will see a multi-platform release. I'm reading this as an olive branch to the small but tight community of Mac gamers.

I'm in the guild that just cracked Time, and yeah it's been interesting playing through the PoP content as it was in late '02-early '03, especially on a low-pop server where the average raid size is maybe 25-30 people with a smattering of boxes. Lotta interesting quirks that've been lost to the sands of time on PC servers: shakerpaging, bards AE kiting, no charm nerfs, pre-nerf Dust ring in Air, slow reversing Fennin, and of course the assbeat pre-nerf non-gimping Rathe that no one ever downed PC-side. That was fun.

We also had a few days to explore the version of Time that was behind that cockblock version of the Rathe. It was, as expected, totally fucked. Thankfully, we got a code update on both the Rathe and Time, so I'm looking forward to fun farmin' times ahead.

I have to say it's pretty amazing that Smedley's still doing EQ.

_________________

That's really awesome. It definitely gives me an itch but I have no where near the time to dedicate to it.

I still have my PC Gaming rig which I played SWTOR on but i'm attempting to convert over to MAC. Since I run a primarily Apple school, I just like it better.
However, if they release an EQNext Mac version, i'll be there for sure.