Feldon 
Here is the updated Free-to-Play Frequently Asked Questions page from EverQuest2.com. You may also go straight to the Membership Comparison Grid which compares Free, Silver, and Gold subscription levels.
1. When will I be able to play EverQuest II for free?
We do not have an exact date at this time, but we are anticipating releasing EverQuest II as Free-to-Play early December 2011.
2. How much does EverQuest II cost to play?
Basic access in EverQuest II is free! This includes access to a large portion of the game. However, there are also paid memberships that grant access to different content that are also available. Free membership gets access to seven years worth of gameplay and diverse zones released from EverQuest II‘s launch through EverQuest II: Sentinel’s Fate. Free members will not have access to the most recent expansion packs EverQuest II: Destiny of Velious and EverQuest II: Age of Discovery. However, both Destiny of Velious and Age of Discovery are available for purchase.
You can play all the way up to level 90, the highest level available in the game. You have access to the game’s eight character classes, and four of the most popular races in the game from which to create your character. Additional choices can be purchased both a la carte and with memberships.
3. What are the differences between Free, Silver, and Gold memberships?
The features and benefits of Free, Silver, and Gold memberships are detailed on the EverQuest II membership matrix page (click here).
4. What is included with the Free membership?
Free players have access to a lot of content in the world of Norrath. You’ll have tons of gameplay at your fingertips. Additional content, features and services are unlocked through individual purchases or by upgrading your membership to another tier (view matrix).
– Create characters in any of eight classes
– Choose from four different races
– Advance up to the current level cap5. What is included with the Silver membership?
With your one-time purchase of a Silver membership for 500 Station Cash, you are permanently raised to that membership level. There is no recurring fee for this membership (view matrix).
– Two additional character slots (four in total)
– In additional bag slot for your inventory (three in total)
– More chat options (/shout, /auction, /level)
– Extra inventory capacity
– Increased quest journal limit
– The ability to create guilds… and more!6. What is included with the Gold membership?
A Gold membership is $14.99 per month. Gold members can choose either a recurring or non-recurring payment method (view matrix).
– Seven character slots, full access to all races
– Ability to equip Legendary and Fabled items
– Full access to Master character skills/spells
– Six bag slots for your inventory (instead of only two or four)
– Unlimited coin limits
– Access to the “Broker,” our huge in-game player-to-player marketplace so that you can buy and sell with other players for in-game coins
– Actively hold up to 75 quests in your quest journal7. Why should I upgrade my account to a Silver or Gold membership?
Quite simply, better features! Buying a Silver membership is a one-time purchase of only 500 Station Cash that adds two extra character slots, two backpack slots, a larger character coin limit, unlimited chat access, and the ability to collect more active quests.
Upgrading to the monthly Gold membership lets you use some of the game’s most powerful items (such as Legendary and Fabled items), upgrade to the most powerful spells and skills, gives you access to all 24 classes in the game (up from the original eight offered at Free and Silver), seven character slots, access to six backpack slots, no per character coin limit, access to the player-controlled Broker system, in-game mailing privileges, and more!
8. I used to play as an EverQuest II subscriber before it became Free-to-Play. What does this change mean for me?
If you are currently paying for an active monthly subscription in either EverQuest II or EverQuest II: Extended, you will automatically be rolled into a Gold membership, with full perks and privileges. This conversion will be seamless and no change will need to be made by the player. Membership will continue to recur as originally specified by the subscription.
Previous EverQuest II subscribers who did not have an active subscription during the Free-to-Play conversion will automatically be converted to a Silver membership. Certain restrictions are placed on this membership level. (Click here to find out more.)
9. Will there be Priority Queuing for Gold members?
Yes! Gold (and grandfathered-in Platinum) members will get priority if we experience queues when logging into the game.
10. I have an All Access membership. What does this mean for EverQuest II?
Being an All Access member you will receive the premium Gold level membership. However, Gold access is only available while you have an active All Access subscription.
11. Will I need a credit card to play the game?
A credit card is not required to play EverQuest II as a free member. You can log into the game without entering any payment information. If you do decide to purchase a Silver or Gold membership or buy items from the Marketplace, you will need to fund your Station Cash wallet through one of the available methods of payment (including using a credit card, a Station Cash card – available at most large retailers, or SMS).
12. Do I need to have a recurring membership in order to take advantage of a Gold Membership in EverQuest II?
Based on player feedback, at the launch of Free-to-Play, you will have the option of choosing between recurring and non-recurring memberships. You can also use Station Cash to purchase non-recurring subscriptions, but there are some benefits to setting up a recurring membership. It’s completely up to you.
13. Can I buy a subscription with Station Cash?
Yes, you can purchase non-recurring subscriptions with with Station Cash. There are however, benefits to purchasing a recurring subscription.
14. I have previously purchased EverQuest II expansion packs. Will I still have access to that content?
Yes! Any EverQuest II expansion that you previously purchased will continue to be available to you, subject to your current EverQuest II membership limitations. Free members will be able to access all previous content up to and including the “Sentinel’s Fate” expansion. “Destiny of Velious” and “Age of Discovery” are both available for purchase.
15. Will development efforts continue to be focused on EverQuest II?
Yes! Development efforts will definitely continue to be focused on EverQuest II. Click here to read more.
16. Will I have to re-download EverQuest II or EverQuest II: Extended when everything goes Free-to-Play?
No, you will not need to re-download the game. Other than patching, it will be a seamless transition when EverQuest II goes Free-to-Play.
17. What if I already had a Platinum membership in EverQuest II Extended?
We will no longer be offering a Platinum membership plan. Current Platinum members can continue to retain their Platinum membership status for as long as they continue to pay their subscription. If there is a lapse in payment, a new membership tier must be selected (view matrix).
A Platinum membership included everything in Gold plus the following:
– Full access to the game, including the “Destiny of Velious” expansion
– Ten character slots
– 500 Station Cash per month18. What if I currently have both an EQII subscription and EQ2X memberships?
If you currently have both an EQII subscription and EQ2X Gold or Platinum membership, these accounts will be combined at the time of the Free-to-Play switch (November 30, 2011). Any unused game time will be credited to your account.
19. Do I get anything in-game for playing EverQuest II?
Yes! All current, returning and new players will receive a Welcome Pack for each character on their account. Players can use the /claim command in game to receive the Welcome Pack, which contains non-tradable items:
– A Bag to store your goodies in
– Experience Potions
– Vitality Potions
– And much, much more!20. Will I be able to sell or gift items that I purchased in the EverQuest II Marketplace?
Marketplace items are usually labeled as “NO-TRADE” (can’t be traded to anyone) or “HEIRLOOM” (can only be traded to other characters on your account). To be eligible for Gifting, you must have been a Gold member for 30 or more days.
21. What happened to Live Gamer?
After careful consideration and review, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and Live Gamer (LG) have mutually made the decision to discontinue auction services currently available in EverQuest II (EQII), Free Realms and Vanguard. Beginning on December 7, 2011, SOE will suspend exchange services for all three games. For EQII, SOE will merge the LG exchange-based servers with its existing game servers, specifically Vox will merge with Nagafen and The Bazaar with Freeport. LG continues to be a valuable partner to SOE for a variety of e-commerce services. SOE and LG will be updating the FAQs from time-to-time to help answer questions you have regarding the discontinuance of the auction services.
Below is a timeline of the changes to Live Gamer:
– November 21, 2011: Last day to transfer items from game to your LG holding area.
– November 22, 2011: Players will no longer be able to post items, characters, or coin to Live Gamer Exchange in EQII
– December 13, 2011: This is the final day for players to return or claim any items, characters, or coin to their accounts
– December 14, 2011: Live Gamer Exchange is suspended in EQIIWe anticipate the merges will occur on or about December 15, 2011. We will keep you updated on dates and details via the EverQuest II forums!
22. What will happen to my characters when I have to transfer from the Live Gamer servers?
The Bazaar server will be merging with Freeport and Vox will be merging with Nagafen. In some cases, this may mean that your character totals are more than what is included in your membership plan. To avoid any problems, you will want to log in as your favorite characters right before the server merges so that they are at the top of your character queue list. If you want more character slots, you will need to purchase them in the Marketplace.
23. Why can’t I copy my characters to EQ2X anymore?
Due to the upcoming Free-to-Play transition, we have disabled free character copies from the Live servers to go to EQ2X.
24. What is happening to the 14-day Trial?
When we go live with the new EQII service, the 14-day Trial will end. All current and previous trial members will be converted to the Free membership status after this date, so even if you had a free trial months ago, your characters will be waiting for you (subject to restrictions based on your membership level).
25. What is happening to the Recruit-a-Friend program?
As of November 10, 2011, you can no longer recruit using the Recruit-a-Friend program. In order to receive the Recruit-a-Friend bonuses, players you have recruited will need to subscribe by November 22, 2011 at 11:59 PM PST. We will offer a new Refer-a-Friend program in the future, so stay tuned.
26. With Free and Silver memberships there are character coin limitations. What happens to the coin I earn once I reach the limit?
Any coin earned beyond your current coin limit is lost. You can continue to earn items and experience, but coin will no longer be accumulated. The only way to increase the amount of coin you can collect is to upgrade your membership. If you are a Free or Silver member who comes back after the Free-to-Play transition, your coins will be locked as per your current subscription plan, but not gone.
27. What chat, in-game mail and Broker restrictions do Free and Silver players have?
Silver and Gold members have access to all chat channels. Free and Silver players can receive in-game email, but can’t send any until they upgrade to Gold. Broker access is restricted to Gold members only. Free members can’t use any of the “broadcast” channels, such as /auction, /level, /shout, or any other chat option that broadcasts to a large amount of other players.
28. 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 II 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 bank slots that are not available in Free or Silver are still present when you downgrade from Gold. However, you can only move items from those slots to other locations. You can’t use items while they are in those disallowed slots, and you can’t add anything to those slots until you upgrade back to Gold.
– 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, your maximum character slots are reduced. If you had more characters than are currently allowed, the extra characters become unavailable. However, they are not deleted. They are still available if you upgrade back to Gold status or purchase additional character slots.
– Broker: If you had items for sale on the Broker when you downgrade from Gold, those items will stay on the Broker, but you will not have access to the Broker. If the items sell, the coin will stay in the Broker account until you upgrade back to Gold and can open the Broker interface again.
– Items: Any Legendary or Fabled items are automatically removed from your character and placed in your inventory when you downgrade from Gold. You can use them again when you renew your Gold membership.
– Spell/Skill Tiers: Any spells/skills upgraded to above Adept/Expert level are unchanged when you downgrade from Gold. However, you’ll be unable to scribe any further upgrades beyond your Silver or Free limit until you upgrade to Gold again.Special Cases
1. I have active, paid accounts in EverQuest II (EQII) and EverQuest II Extended (EQIIX), how will they be combined?
The vast majority of our player base will not notice a thing as we convert to the new EverQuest II service. We wanted to outline a few of the “edge cases” that may occur with the conversion if you have accounts in both EQII and EQIIX. This listing is meant as a guide to some issues you may see but will not be able to cover all potential issues.
After the conversion takes place, if you have any concerns about your account, membership, billing or time credited, please contact our Customer Service reps. We will happily navigate the numbers with you: http://www.soe.com/en/support/
If you are currently paying for a 1 month EQIIX Gold membership AND you do not have a current EQII subscription:
- At the launch of the new EQII service, SOE will set you up with 1 month recurring Gold Membership for the new service and your next billing date will remain the same as it was for your previous EQIIX Gold Membership.
If you are currently paying for a 1 month EQIIX Gold membership AND you are also paying for a 1 month EQII subscription:
- At the launch of the new EQII service, SOE will add the remaining time from your 1 month EQIIX Membership over to your EQII Subscription time and convert that subscription to a recurring Gold Membership for the new EQII service. Your next billing date will occur at the end of the combined gameplay time and will be set as a 1 month recurring Gold Membership.
If you are currently paying for a 1 month EQIIX Gold membership AND you are also paying for a 3 month EQII subscription:
- At the launch of the new EQII service, SOE will add the remaining time from your 1 month EQIIX Membership time over to your EQII Subscription time and convert that subscription to a recurring Gold Membership for the new EQII service. Your next billing date will occur at the end of the combined gameplay time and will be set as a 3 month recurring Gold Membership.
If you currently have a multi-month subscription in EQII that you have canceled but still have remaining gameplay time AND you are currently paying for a 1 month EQIIX Gold membership:
- At the launch of the new EQII service, SOE will add the remaining time from your 1 month EQIIX Membership time over to the remaining time on your multi-month EQII Subscription time and convert that subscription to a recurring Gold Membership for the new EQII service. Your next billing date will occur at the end of the combined gameplay time and will be set as a 1 month Gold recurring Membership.
If you currently have a multi-month subscription in EQII that you have canceled but still have remaining gameplay time AND you have a cancelled 1 month EQIIX Gold membership but still have remaining gameplay time:
- At the launch of the new EQII service, SOE will add the remaining time from your EQIIX Membership time over to your EQII Subscription time and convert that subscription to a non-recurring Gold Membership for the new EQII service. At the end of this combined period of gameplay time, you would no longer have access to your Gold Membership plan.
If you currently have a Platinum Membership in EQIIX that you have not canceled:
- At the launch of the new EQII service, SOE will set you up with all of the Platinum Membership benefits. You will retain these benefits as long as you remain on that recurring Membership plan. If you cancel from that plan, you no longer have the option of reinstating a Platinum level Membership as that level is being eliminated. Your next billing date will occur at the end of the combined gameplay time and will be set as a 12 month recurring Membership with Platinum benefits.
If you currently have a Platinum Membership in EQIIX that you have canceled but still have game play time remaining.
- At the launch of the new EQII service, SOE will set you up with all of the Platinum Membership benefits. You will retain these benefits for the duration of your current Platinum Membership plan. Since you have canceled this Membership, once you reach the end of your 12 month membership you will no longer have access to your Platinum Membership benefits.
2. My game account was suspended or banned at the time of the conversion – what happens now?
If your game account is banned or suspended at the time of the conversion, please contact SOE Customer Service for information: http://www.soe.com/en/support/
Note: forum bans and suspensions do not affect the status of a game account, merely your ability to post on the official forums.
December… R.I.P. EQ2.
*circles the month in his calendar*
And SJ has killed another game.
Glad I went cold turkey a few months ago. Makes the death of the game easier to take.
Glad that SOE is not listening those above. Turbone only had one percent leave due to switching to F2P, this is proven. Profits soared, subscriptions soared. I’m sorry that some are upset but this will SAVE the game.
If you like your subscription, you can keep your subscription.
Where have I heard this sort of talk before…
I had no idea how restrictive the lower levels were. Either everyone will go to gold, or we are going to have a lot of players that can’t raid — no legendary or fabled items can be worn by anyone with less than a gold membership, and you can’t use the broker, either. What is this going to do to the game’s economy?
I don’t care for the extra layer of complexity by having to use a credit card to fill my station cash wallet for a recurring sub, rather than paying directly, but in some ways I suppose it’s more secure, given their track record.
Grats! This is going to be an exciting time for EQ2 almost which i was still playing. I’ll probably check things out over the xmas holiday.
Blockhead – why do you think so? All I know is that every single person I know in real life is now looking for another game to play. That’s not really very exciting.
I’m sure the two people you know are Steve
lol, all I can say is right now there are so many knee jerk reactions, it is a wonder that everyone does not have bloody noses. We all knew this was coming, and you will see more and more of it. The old business model does not work anymore. You should all realize that. We have been complaining about not enough server population for too long. The F2P server has more population than any except the RP servers. If this brings in new peeps, I am all for it. Once they get to the higher levels and want to experience the higher content they will go gold. Just the way it is. isthe old EQ2 gone, probably, what does the future hold, I will wait and see. I have not seen a single person in my raiding guild say they are gonna quit because of this. Maybe you might like the changes. try it, it won’t cost you anything. 😛
Canceling Recruit A Friend with no warning a few weeks before a new expansion? Awesome
Pushing complaints about it into the F2P announcement thread, when it had no mention of this, so that you can spend your time ignoring a single thread instead of many? Priceless
this is mistake imo
24. What is happening to the 14-day Trial?
When we go live with the new EQII service, the 14-day Trial will end.
trial players cannot try the non-free classes unless they pay cash?
/pay40$
/bug
/petition
/wait
/wait
/emote is sad.
/quit
SOE shareholders are clearly not watching their investment.
Time to fire some bad managers.
Time to hire the right people.
Chicken – well, my entire group (full group plus a few more) is pretty much moving on to SWTOR (except me I think I’m done with MMOs) so yeah. The group I used to play with is looking at the door.
Tell me how this is a good thing. Tell me how this changes anything on the development side of things. Tell me how this is going to get SOE back on the right track.
Kruzzen – please tell me when WoW went F2P (since the old business model doesn’t work anymore). Is SOE having problems because of their subscription model or because they pretty much destroy everything they have touched in the last 5 years.
This comment section and countless others are full of examples as to why the subscription model is NOT EQ2s problem.
Ok… I’ll voice my opinion with a single sentence:
SmokeJumper is a bastard
I don’t think this is the end of the game, turbine had success this way, since the launch of EQ2X we knew this was in the pipeline. I hope it works out for SoE.
Please explain to me the logic…
Let’s see what the future holds:
SilverAccountBob> Lvl 90 Wizard LFG Kael or ToT preferred (fully treasured geared and expert spells looking for group, don’t care about loot since I can’t use it. CM 65, CC 80)
GoldAccountBill> Group looking for dirge or coercer then gtg.
GoldAccountSteve> Group looking for chain healer PST.
GoldAccountAnna> Drunder PU raid looking for very high DPS, min CM 190.
GoldAccountGuildLeader> Wicked High End Adventurers Guild is looking for 2 dirges, 1 illy, 2 leather healers. We raid 3 days per week. min 180 CM and 200 CC. Send tell for more information.
GoldAccountSam> Beatlord LFG
GoldAccountJeff> Beatlord LFG
GoldAccountCynthia> Beatlord LFG
GoldAccountArio> Group looking for troub.
GoldAccountBruce> Beatlord LFG
GoldAccountJanine> Beatlord LFG (Can play pally but will roll Beastlord)
GoldAccountNigel> Beatlord LFG
GoldAccountGertrude> Discovery!!! [Great Stick of 18 white slots]
GoldAccountRune> Nah I prefer my [Awesome blade of 7 blue slots]
GoldAccountGertrude> WTS [Great Stick of 18 white slots] bids starting at 160p 40 inc.
How is this helping server population???
Just wish they ripped off the bandaid last year…
I don’t get the death of the game talk. The game was already dead. This will draw new attention to it and bring life to the lower levels. High end you would have to subscribe or be considered a joke. They removed the game breaking marketplace items from the X experiment. And if you don’t want to group with people in treasured don’t.
Nothing will change for me. I’ll be subscribed and will only group with players equipped enough to do the content I play.
Adding the non recurring options for subscription including a in game non recurring option is pretty cool too. I wonder though if people will start spamming that they are gifting gold subscriptions for plat though.
Good decision! F2P was the reason that I and some friends returned to EQ2 last year.
It will help to get new players to the abandoned live servers.
And don’t be afraid: EQ2 isn’t the mmo game for wow noobs 😉
@Just Another Pawn: silver account players can use legendary or fabled loot and also can learn master spells. they just had to buy unlockers at the marketplace.
Hey guys. I’m on a silver account and I have master spells and fabled gear. I’m not sure why marketing loves to cover it up, but you can buy little unlocker token things that let you use that stuff without subscribing.
I know of a couple of long-time games that went f2p. City of Heroes is one of them. While I don’t play that game anymore, from what I can tell by comments made by players, it’s doing better than ever. I don’t think this is the end of EQ2. This is an awesome game. There are just too many MMO’s out there. Most are less than great. Some started out with high hopes of making it, but have fallen by the wayside. Some are limping along, while others are thriving. New games are coming out, and it’s only natural that people will try them out. Some will stay with their new games, and others will not. Learning a new game, building up wealth, skill, and equipment is not easy, and after investing time and money in EQ2, why would folks just abandon it? With the game going f2p, more players will be able to try it and see for themselves how awesome it is. I, for one, will be playing EQ2 and Star Wars. I love this game, and really resent all the nay-saying that goes on here.
Veterans are screwed if they play one of the races or classes that are NOT included in the free plan, and let their Gold sub lapse.
All that blurb is as clear as mud. I can’t see anything that refers to station accounts, only standard ones.
Xalmat, when you say that Veterens will be screwed if they use a non-free class/race and let gold lapse… you do realise that if they do it now they can’t play at all?
Surely playing the free classes for free is better than not playing at all if you can’t pay that month?
Sheesh. This is the best thing to happen to the game possible. Live is being cancelled and all servers are being moved to the new Extended model!
So Does this mean that the EQ2 players that have multi-month Sub will not be able to get a multi-month Sub in the NEW model?
The amount of live folk in this thread that don’t know what they are talking about is astounding.
a. silver can buy unlockers for most all gear, spells, etc.
b. if your gold account lapses you don’t lose anything it’s just locked until you pay for your gold sub again… or pay for the unlockers.
c. Steve… maybe if you gave the freeport people a try you would find out that they are generally nicer, and more polite than the majority of live folk that are throwing tantrums over this. You might find some new friends… just food for thought.
d. If you say you quit the game… for the love of all things holly quit the forums too!
This is great news and I am certain it will bring back a lot of casual players that had ended their subscriptions due to the fact that EQ2 simply had nothing to offer them. I would actually prefer to pay to unlock my mystic, pay to unlock my bag slots and stuff like that as that is things I keep and they will stay with my character than pay $ 14.99 a month for a game that offers me nothing but inane soloquests with no grouping and no attainable or worthwhile goals.
I am less happy about AoD not including Velious but since most free players probably will be doing SF content it is nothing I worry about at the moment.
But this WILL change the game and if successful they will have to continue to introduce easier dungeons with less scripting for the casual crowd (compare to Rifts very clear and understandable dungeon difficulty progression).
The worst part isn’t even the impact to EQ2. It’s that seeing them do these types of things kills my anticipation for EQNext. Previously I would have been a lock to buy the game sight unseen.
So are they rolling back all of the changes to the EQ2X model over the last year? Including:
– Classes: Currently unlockable, matrix says it’s back to subscriber only. If this is true, refunds for bronze/silver players who purchased classes?
– Broker access: Currently, you can withdraw your earnings, remove items you have listed, purchase items, and pay for credits to list items. FAQ says the broker is gold only.
– Legendary+ gear/Master+ Spells: FAQ says restricted, currently unlockable on a per upgrade basis.
These changes represent the difference between Silver as a viable alternate payment method versus Silver as an extended free trial. If they really have been removed, and not just necro-copy/pasted from last year’s announcements, that’s a huge step backwards.
Add 29. “When is Sony going to start advertising so their games can stay populated?”
I’m sorry, but if Sony doesn’t Ad their products, how the heck are people know that this is even happening. They’re throwing in expansions for EQ1 and (I heard) a DLC update for Vanguard, but who is going to notice but the existing and dwindling playerbase?
@Green Armadillo: According to SJ, for silver players “nothing at all will change.” Plus, marketing has consistently failed to produce accurate information about F2P ever since it launched. That matrix is almost certainly outdated (or, if produced recently, just plain incorrect).
Makes no sense at all for someone like myself who played since launch, but quit because I couldn’t justify spending 14.99 a month for a game I didn’t have time to play regularly anymore. I thought at first it was a good idea to come back, until I realized I had to pay money to unlock my established characters for not only profession but race as well… deceptive and I am truly done now.
For Free-to-Play to be financially viable, they have to lock away certain things. Some games require payment for certain dungeons. EQ2 free-to-play requires payment for certain races/classes.
I guess I never realized how many people who quit the game would be willing to come back if they could play for free. I thought people generally quit EQ2 because they didn’t like the game/community anymore.