Feldon 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 players will be presented with two choices: Download the new EverQuest II Extended Patcher and start on the EQ2X server, or download the EQ2 Streaming Client and start on an existing EQ2 server.
The devil in the details has been, if you don’t allow players to transfer from F2P to Live servers, how are you going to get any kind of influx of new players? It seems that keeping F2P walled off from Live servers, with regards to bidirectional character transfers, may have ironically been one deference to the wishes of customers too many.
After the jump, player reaction to the introduction of a Free-to-Play service alongside the existing EverQuest II service.
What is your initial feeling about the new EverQuest II Extended Free-to-Play service?
| Answer | Votes | Vote Count/Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Very Interested | 38 Votes(6%) | |
| Cautiously Optimistic | 130 Votes(23%) | |
| Somewhat Concerned | 130 Votes(23%) | |
| Very Concerned | 251 Votes(45%) |
Total Votes: 549
What effect do you think the new EverQuest II Extended Free-to-Play service will have on EQ2?
| Answer | Votes | Vote Count/Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Mostly Positive | 32 Votes(7%) | |
| Somewhat Positive | 121 Votes(26%) | |
| Mostly Negative | 162 Votes(36%) | |
| Very Negative | 105 Votes(23%) | |
| No Effect | 30 Votes(6%) |
Total Votes: 450
Do you plan to use the new EverQuest II Extended Free-to-Play service for your main account or character?
| Answer | Votes | Vote Count/Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 11 Votes(2%) | |
| Considering it | 39 Votes(8%) | |
| No | 399 Votes(88%) |
Total Votes: 449
Do you plan to use the new EverQuest II Extended Free-to-Play service for an alternate account or character?
| Answer | Votes | Vote Count/Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 26 Votes(5%) | |
| Considering it | 109 Votes(24%) | |
| No | 305 Votes(69%) |
Total Votes: 440
Are you considering coming back to EQ2 because of this new EverQuest II Extended Free-to-Play service?
| Answer | Votes | Vote Count/Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Very Interested | 17 Votes(3%) | |
| Somewhat Interested | 11 Votes(2%) | |
| Not Interested | 59 Votes(13%) | |
| N/A I never left EQ2. | 356 Votes(80%) |
Total Votes: 443
Are you considering quitting EQ2 because of this new EverQuest II Extended Free-to-Play service?
| Answer | Votes | Vote Count/Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 63 Votes(14%) | |
| On the fence | 131 Votes(29%) | |
| No | 229 Votes(51%) | |
| N/A I am not currently an EQ2 subscriber. | 21 Votes(4%) |
Total Votes: 444
Would you recommend the new EverQuest II Extended Free-to-Play service to a friend?
| Answer | Votes | Vote Count/Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Strongly Agree | 63 Votes(14%) | |
| Somewhat Agree | 123 Votes(27%) | |
| Somewhat Disagree | 99 Votes(22%) | |
| Strongly Disagree | 160 Votes(35%) |
Total Votes: 445
so most people dont care about eq2x and wont quit eq2 if it is released.
this is imo a very good result for SOE!
people stay on their subscriptions and potential new players spend their money for marketplace stuff on the eq2x server.
“The devil in the details has been, if you don’t allow players to transfer from F2P to Live servers, how are you going to get any kind of influx of new players?”
AB and nagafen get another hardware upgrade, other servers too. then you see the population lowered on the other live servers and then people not going to eq2x move to AB or nagafen and in the end you have 2 mega server and the freed hardware from old live servers is used for new eq2x servers. Game is going to kill itself by a competition with itself. By saying kill, i mean killing the live servers.
Recount. I answered this poll before i read the fine print. i know stupid me, when will i ever learn you can’t trust $OE.
I would be willing to bet if you ran another survey the results would be different now. People are very upset at the smoke and mirrors approach that is being used and everyone is getting very tired of SOE not telling us anything. Everything is how great the f2p will be without anything as to how they are gonna help the veteran servers. The last issue like this was the failed fighter revamp in which they finally listened to the people who pay the bill. It seems this new producer has no intention of listening to the players. 🙁
Sorry that you believe everyone who took this poll is a raider, but I don’t believe it is. However, raiders make up a part of the population just like groupers and soloers.
The current eq2x sub descriptions discourage free players from group play (cannot wear group level armor of legendary/fabled). I have read many blogs and I agree with most of them, that SOE will develop content that makes them the most money. If their free to play makes them the most money, then I can assume that solo content will be more developed than group and raid content. So every ones voice matters in this, not just one group or another, because it will effect EVERYONE.
Not a ‘raider’ in the uber sense, but I’ve changed my opinion on this (which is reflected in the poll I submitted) and am feeling quite leery of the whole thing as I learn more. So there are regular folks like me, who think this thing sorta stinks. F2P could be good, but not the way it is being implemented here.
Looking over the results, I notice that possibly the most crucial question was phrased somewhat ambiguously. The question asks whether players are CONSIDERING leaving EQ2, but the answers suggest that the intent was to ask whether players WILL leave EQ2. (E.g. how can you be “on the fence” about whether to “consider” leaving the game?) This is a bit unfortunate, because it makes a very different headline. In one case, only 14% are even considering quitting. In the other, 14% of respondents are definitely quitting and another 29% are thinking about it.
Either way, there’s still a selection bias because it’s an opt-in poll that was open for a few days on a site that is only read by a cross-section of the population. Even so, if the numbers are that 43% of players who follow the game closely enough to read one of its top fansites are considering quitting over this, the situation is far more dire than I’d expected.
I must have missed a post where someone said raiders, lol. I know I am a raider, but I also play a lot of alts in group and solo content. I do not like where they are trying to go with this as I feel it is just trying to wring every penny out of a cash cow before you slaughter it. Although this is one approach to business, it is NOT the best approach if you want your company to have any credibility in the future. Maybe smokejumper was hired to kill off this branch of $OE so they can look for more lucrative options, who knows. but right now I know my answers on the poll have changed.
I already cancelled my subscription. The gaame already has been ruined with the ease of play and the ease of obtaining PVP gear.
There was a post suggesting that everyone who voted in the survey was a hardcore level 90 raider. The post was removed and the person was banned from the site. This site caters to all types of players of EQ2, and insults are not tolerated. I’ve allowed huge latitude, but I draw the line at calling other players scrubs or saying this site only reflects one viewpoint.
Why not just make the servers they have up now F2P with the newest xpac content only accessed through a sub and leave out the market place crap? That would pull tons of new people to the game. I don’t understand why they would pull people from the already dying servers to the F2P servers…..sad
Just as proof of feldon’s statement above I posted my thoughts and partook in the poll and I have been playing since launch. and to date I have been on a raid LESS then ten times. I love the lower content and enjoy playing soloing/grouping the most.
This whole F2P mess makes me wonder if Smokejumper will require bodyguards at Fanfair?
Ther are some ppl that are very VERY ticked about the whole mess, and rightfully so. They are utterly destroying the entertainment that ppl have created for themselves since eq1.
@ n1md4 — I dont know how you can say the survey packs good news for soe. Only 51% said they wouldnt quit soe because of the change. The other 49% were broken down into those that intended to quit or were on the fence. Thus, nearly half of the respondents view the change as negative to such a degree that it is having them reconsider their subscription or drop it entirely. Clearly these are not scientificly meaningful survey results — but still they are very bad news for soe.