Starseeker
Starseeker is another new contributor to EQ2Wire and wanted to share a viewpoint on the aftermath of EQ2’s F2P announcement. This is my commentary on Free to Play. I have to get it off my chest. EverQuest 2 is an old game, 6 years, that is a long time for an MMO. I have been playing this game since launch. I remember the days when you would have spirit shards, and experience debt that would take away XP instead of just give you a % penalty. I remember when your guild could lose levels, and when there was heroic...
Month: July 2010
Druidess
Our own Druidess gives her perspective on the long-term effects of StationCash and what Free-to-Play means for the future of EverQuest II. Since SoE decided not to sugar coat the news on F2P, I figured I’d return the favor and save the sugar for cookies I plan on baking later.
Feldon
EQ2Wire has never had the privilege (and responsibility) of covering a game whose Senior Producer posts almost as frequently as a player. And yet that is where we find ourselves today. Traditionally, EQ2Wire has sought to highlight and quote every post by the current EQ2 Senior Producer. Posts were so rare from Brenlo and Bruce Ferguson that this made sense. However it is impossible to get a clear picture of the storm facing SmokeJumper, the entire EQ2 team, and indeed Sony Online Entertainment, without reading each and every post by both SmokeJumper, and his lead man — Greg “Rothgar”...
So far we’ve had over 550 responses to our EQ2Wire EverQuest II Extended (F2P) Survey and we’d like to share the results with you! We asked for your initial impressions of the new F2P service, whether you would move either a primary or secondary characters to the service, what effect you think it will have on the game, and finally whether you would recommend such a service to new players. We now know that the 14 day Free Trial will be going away, and the Recruit-a-Friend service will be receiving some type of revamp or nerf going forward. New...
With Game Update 57, various in-game Merchants will start carrying StationCash items. If you think this is worthy of further comment, well read on… If not, well, the word of the day is “slippery slope”.
Between the avalanche of news about Free-to-Play, the new UI, and Guardian tweaks (coming approximately one month after GU57), it’s been easy to overlook the new Spell Animations which went to Test along with GU57. In short, all particle systems and related animations associated with casting spells and combat arts have been revamped. This means every animation such as roots or chains coming out of the ground, explosions, streaks of light, glowing colors, and pyrotechnics for all of the spells and combat arts of all 24 classes have changed.
There has been a lot of anger towards the new Free-to-Play service. Not the least of which has been from players currently on existing servers that continue to struggle with lag. Thus far, we’ve heard that Free-to-Play will be launching with one server initially from an existing stock of decommissioned servers, with other servers to follow, possibly old EQ2 servers as they are upgraded to new hardware. In mid August, the Antonia Bayle and Nagafen worlds will find themselves within the comfy confines of a brand new server.
TenTonHammer has landed another exclusive interview with Dave Georgeson on EQ2’s new Free-to-Play service. You can read it here.
Dethdlr
Here are your update notes for Wednesday, 28 July 2010: UNDERFOOT DEPTHS Energized Taehric Construct (challenge mode): The Construct will try and cast Crippling Judgment on his main target whenever possible, rather than a random fighter. The construct will try and cast Curse of Befuddlement on priests in separate groups, whenever possible, avoiding casting it on two priests in the same group whenever possible. ITEMS The Twisted Alloy Wristlet’s proc, Torturous Paths, has had its damage increased and its proc chance raised. Many mage items within Underfoot Depths have received pet effects. TINKERFEST The Tinkerfest quest “Great Balls of...
In the aftermath of EverQuest II picking up a Free-to-Play service, count on Massively to land an exclusive interview with EQ2 Senior Producer Dave Georgeson.There, you can find his thoughts about what F2P will mean to EQ2.
Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson has followed up today’s big news with a blog post over on the Station Blog on what we can expect at Fan Faire, the future of the EverQuest II Extended (F2P) server, and some hints about what’s coming in updates surrounding the Destiny of Velious expansion. You can read his post on the Station Blog here.
The EverQuest II Extended (Free-to-Play) Servers are now online and ready for Alpha testing. You may immediately start playing EverQuest II on the E2E server here. The EverQuest II Extended (Free-to-Play) Service also has its own independent Support Forums launching today.
There will be a lot of reactions in the coming days in response to the announcement. I’ve been surprised how many have had positive reactions to the speculation here and on EQ2Flames who think F2P on a separate server, or for levels 1-50 are a good idea to bring in new players and then convert them to a Subscription account. And no doubt there are many who feel that any opportunity for people to “buy” progress threatens the moral center of character advancement in this game. We’ve got a survey here on EQ2Wire that you may like to fill...
Where there’s smoke, sometimes there really is a fire. During a Stratics E3 interview in June, Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, then-new Senior Producer for EverQuest II was asked point blank: Will EverQuest II would be transitioning to a F2P setup as Lord of the Rings Online did in June? His response has been thoroughly dissected and analyzed: The current subscription model isn’t going to change. The people that are playing the game as it stands right now really like the way it is. They don’t want us to sell items for power in the marketplace. They want to be able...
Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, EQ2’s Senior Producer, has brought us a surprising announcement that EverQuest II is adding a totally separate Free-to-Play service. Hi there, Norrathians, As they say, the one thing that’s always true about the world is that it changes. That’s true of the world in general, the game industry, and it’s always been true with “EverQuest II”. The very nature of an MMO is change. We listen, we adapt, and the game grows in features, content, and fun factor as the months and years pass. Now, the expectations of gamers and the industry itself are changing around...
Rothgar has posted some additional thoughts and clarifications about the new User Interface facelift for EQ2 in Game Update 57 on the EQ2 Forums. After the jump…
Early birds trying out Game Update 57 on the Test and Test Copy servers have encountered an intriguing error message when they try to purchase something from the Broker. (don’t be alarmed by my ProfitUI broker window, it’s the message in the lower right that is worth a second look): You must upgrade to at least a Gold membership in order to purchase items from the broker.
Zoltaroth has made some changes to the automated Test Copy scripts so that characters will copy within hours rather than being on a 24-48 hour cycle as they are now. To copy a character to Test Copy, type /testcopy add on any live server. You will then need to choose to login to the Test server when starting up EQ2 with your choice of launcher.
Game Update 57 is now up on the Test and Test Copy Servers and we’ve got the Update Notes. We’ve already taken some new screen shots of the new default interface including the new pictorial tutorials for new players. User Interface – One of the touted features of Game Update 57 is the revamped User Interface. The Persona and Inventory windows have been merged into a Character window. The XP bar has become a sort of “dock” at the bottom of your screen. All buttons and window corners have been rounded off. And for the most part, everything that...
Some very interesting comments on the EQ2 Forums regarding players wanting to transfer off PvP servers from Rothgar: We’ve been discussing our server transfer policies over the past couple of weeks but don’t have anything to announce yet. We’ve commented on this subject in the past and are aware of the desires for people to have more open transfer policies between PvP/PvE and LG/Standard servers. As soon as we have something to tell you, it will be announced. But for now, understand that your voices are heard. This may also have some ramifications for LiveGamer <-> Standard servers, but...
Breaking News from the SOE Block Party. Reporting by Serianna. a big hint about larger item limit in houses, possibly from being able to use a 2nd expander. new zone is going to be a guk zone. possibly going to see a differentation in the lower guild halls (halas to look more like the halas housing etc) but still in way early stages on that. not green lighted but devs pushing for it. new crafting quests in mid teirs. some big announcement coming tuesday from smokejumper. also talk about making BGs more dynamic. traps, levers, movable objects etc. with...
We’ve got Live Coverage of the SOE Block Party by Serianna of Crushbone! If you couldn’t make it to the SOE Block Party, you can still keep up with what’s going on! Serianna is sending us updates and photos from the ground.
I am really keeping these non-EQ2 posts to a minimum as per the request of readers during the spring Survey. But there’s a lot of news around the industry and in related games, and since Comic-Con is going on, well, we’re going to step out of EQ2 for a second for a few updates… First-Timer’s Guide to Fan Faire First up, Minerva, Community Relationships Manager for SOE Denver, has posted A First-Timer’s Guide to Fan Faire. It’s really an accounting of her experiences at last year’s Fan Faire event. A travel diary if you will, which may give you...
Aidis Darvidas
Tinkerfest is a wonderful time each year that players get to experience the zany background of the gnomes and their kooky inventions. What will go boom this time, who will be the new victim or merciless tests with flaky machinery!? When will the madness end? Starting Friday July 23rd at 12:01am PDT Tinkerfest will be in effect. Bringing to you several quests, lovely house items and fluff and yes, the shinies are back! Be quick to jump on this upcoming weeks event as it will only be available for a short time, ending on August 2nd at 11:59pm PDT...
Although most of what we’ve been hearing from Rothgar over the last year has been closely tied to sorting out Battlegrounds, addressing Server Lag and Performance, and directing Server Upgrades, one of his big passions has been to upgrade the default EQ2 User Interface. So far, the coolest news about Game Update 57 has been that it will include a pretty substantial polishing up of the default UI. Today, Rothgar has posted some tantalizing details of just what we can expect. And if you will be attending the SOE Block Party (if you will be at Comic-Con, there will...