Moment in history: The taunting by the EQ2 subscribed players.
That sound you hear are the dominoes that keep falling, the latest to hit the hallowed free 2 play/premium service ground is Everquest 2.
There’s a twist. Where the other freemium games let subscribers and freeloaders mingle, EQ2 will be setting up a walled garden with the subscribers in their vast playgrounds, and the freeloaders in their ghetto.” – Tipa from West Karana
It’s interesting that SOE is giving their reason for the “beta/extended” servers as, “Extended is an accessible game purposely developed to grow the gaming community through new players. The free adventure service allows new players to experience more quality content and increased participation than the previously offered 14-day trial.” Yet they have built the equivalent of the Great Fire Wall of China to keep the “Alpha” players (what they call the subscribed servers) separate from the new wave of players they are trying to attract. Don’t tell me you actually had visions of gaming with your long time EQ2 friends? Not if John Smedley can help it.
It seems that the only way new blood will get into the game with the Roman Citizens…er….subscription players are for the pleebs who are persona non-grata to find a way to hurl their characters over the wall to the servers that are free of freeloaders. But that may just be a bit hard to do in some cases with your spells limited to the adept level. For those of our readers who have never played EQ or EQ2 think of this as strapping a ball and chain around Frodo’s ankles and THEN letting him loose on the Dark Lord.
So lets mix a few metaphors and talk about the two bandwagons that have come pulling up to the gates of our little mmo kingdom. The first are Facebook games intent on telling us that “social” is defined as getting spammed by people you have never met before with virtual gifts of sheep and plants along with requests to tend the same. The second bandwagon is redefining the word “free” for us. What was it my grandmother called it? Oh yes, “being nickel and dimed to death”.
Yes look to the horizon and see the waves crashing on our shores like a mighty tsunami. That’s Mickey Mouse telling us how much fun we are going to have tending HIS sheep, and growing HIS potatoes now that they many Facebook developers that Playdom has been acquiring are about to take up residence in the Magic Kingdom. See the many game publishers waving all the glittery pretty ponies in our faces yelling FREE, FREE, FREE…no really.
The opposite side of this particular coin, is that if you really can contain your excitement and resist the temptation to buy the magic potions of level capping, the elixer that will make you level quicker, and don’t mind staring over the mighty wall that the players who AREN’T persona non grata you can still have a bit of fun…yes, for free.
Thank you we will still keep our Eve Online and World of Warcraft subscriptions firmly in place.
See you online (in Azeroth and somewhere in Caldari space)
The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team