Post by Morreion on Aug 19, 2010 9:53:16 GMT -5
SOE updates EverQuest II's UI and kicks off the Extended beta (Massively)
Happily, EverQuest II's user interface got a much-needed facelift with today's GU57 patch. The update ushered in a new hotbar, merged windows, and a choice between a red and a blue theme.
...In all of the hubbub of the new patch, it's important not to overlook EverQuest II's other big update: the kickoff of the public beta for EverQuest II Extended (EQ2X), the F2P version of the game. You can check out the full patch notes over at EQ2 Wire.
...In all of the hubbub of the new patch, it's important not to overlook EverQuest II's other big update: the kickoff of the public beta for EverQuest II Extended (EQ2X), the F2P version of the game. You can check out the full patch notes over at EQ2 Wire.
EverQuest II Extended – My Two Coppers and a Tour (Ten Ton Hammer)
hat I like about the Extended server:
* - Quick start and user friendly design. It is clear that the changes have been made to entice new players.
* - Reasonable items offered on the Marketplace. Nothing puts the player into super duper god mode, rather it hands the ultimate casual player who has a little spending money on hand the tools to get through the game without having to constantly play catch up.
* - It’s on its own server. I’d faint then /rage_quit if this touched the live servers as I’m sure many players would. It reminds me much of the Live Gamer Exchange servers but Instead of players getting the cash for selling the items, it’s going directly to SOE.
* - It shows off the best parts of EQ2 before you realize you’re missing anything with the bronze package. I love the newer starting zones and it is easy to leisurely work your way through that content without feeling like you have any time constraints like you always feel with limited time trials.
Pop up ads are more than enough to keep me away.
What I don’t like about the Extended server:
* - Coin is not offered for sale through the Marketplace but it almost seems like it should be. Items offered for sale are not bound to you in any way so you can buy a stack of ulteran diamonds and immediately toss them onto the broker essentially paying real life cash for plat. It just seems like they should cut out the song and dance and make plat buyable or stop players from abusing the system as they surely will.
* - Lag, lag, lag. Because the game streams, if you actually want to play right away, it is fairly choppy at first. Performance is a big deal on a first impression and poor performance is going to turn a lot of players off before they’ve had a chance to really check out the game. Streaming is a nice idea, but it definitely needs some work.
* - Upgrade reminders. Every 60 minutes a window pops up letting me know that I was bumming on a bronze package. This quickly became REALLY annoying and not in an “Oooh, I so wanna upgrade now that you’ve reminded me for the 10th time today!” sort of way. My suggestion would be to have these reminders pop up when players attempt to do something that is limited (like sell on the broker or once gold limits have been reached, etc.) rather than getting all up in my Kool-Aid about it. The constant pop-ups just feel desperate and do nothing to motivate an upgrade purchase.
* - This is what is replacing the free trial. That means that unless you are directly referring a friend to play, all new players will be sent here rather than the original servers. Once players are established here they really have no reason whatsoever to play on non-Extended servers. Why is this bad? SOE is striving to renew interest in EQ2. The goal is to filter interested players to the Extended server meanwhile the population on the older servers will continue to shrink as vet players move on to newer games. If things go according to plan, the old servers will get smaller and smaller while the Extended server(s) will get bigger. For vet players and guilds on dwindling servers, this blows.
* - Quick start and user friendly design. It is clear that the changes have been made to entice new players.
* - Reasonable items offered on the Marketplace. Nothing puts the player into super duper god mode, rather it hands the ultimate casual player who has a little spending money on hand the tools to get through the game without having to constantly play catch up.
* - It’s on its own server. I’d faint then /rage_quit if this touched the live servers as I’m sure many players would. It reminds me much of the Live Gamer Exchange servers but Instead of players getting the cash for selling the items, it’s going directly to SOE.
* - It shows off the best parts of EQ2 before you realize you’re missing anything with the bronze package. I love the newer starting zones and it is easy to leisurely work your way through that content without feeling like you have any time constraints like you always feel with limited time trials.
Pop up ads are more than enough to keep me away.
What I don’t like about the Extended server:
* - Coin is not offered for sale through the Marketplace but it almost seems like it should be. Items offered for sale are not bound to you in any way so you can buy a stack of ulteran diamonds and immediately toss them onto the broker essentially paying real life cash for plat. It just seems like they should cut out the song and dance and make plat buyable or stop players from abusing the system as they surely will.
* - Lag, lag, lag. Because the game streams, if you actually want to play right away, it is fairly choppy at first. Performance is a big deal on a first impression and poor performance is going to turn a lot of players off before they’ve had a chance to really check out the game. Streaming is a nice idea, but it definitely needs some work.
* - Upgrade reminders. Every 60 minutes a window pops up letting me know that I was bumming on a bronze package. This quickly became REALLY annoying and not in an “Oooh, I so wanna upgrade now that you’ve reminded me for the 10th time today!” sort of way. My suggestion would be to have these reminders pop up when players attempt to do something that is limited (like sell on the broker or once gold limits have been reached, etc.) rather than getting all up in my Kool-Aid about it. The constant pop-ups just feel desperate and do nothing to motivate an upgrade purchase.
* - This is what is replacing the free trial. That means that unless you are directly referring a friend to play, all new players will be sent here rather than the original servers. Once players are established here they really have no reason whatsoever to play on non-Extended servers. Why is this bad? SOE is striving to renew interest in EQ2. The goal is to filter interested players to the Extended server meanwhile the population on the older servers will continue to shrink as vet players move on to newer games. If things go according to plan, the old servers will get smaller and smaller while the Extended server(s) will get bigger. For vet players and guilds on dwindling servers, this blows.
EQ2 Alternate Advancement (Ten Ton Hammer)
These abilities are there for you to further customize your character. The points will essentially boost various stats and abilities that will be useful in your everyday play, so it is important for good end-game play to have these! There are many top end guilds that won't recruit players than don't have all 250 of their APs earned and assigned.
There are caps on how many APs you can earn. You can have 160 until level 70, 200 points until level 80, and 250 total at the level cap of 90.
You will find your achievement trees on your main menu under "Alternate Advancements" once your character has dinged level 10 (assuming you have the expansions). You may spend your point as you earn them, or save them up and spend them all at once. Either way, I strongly suggest that you do your research and find out which lines would most benefit your sub-class, class, and playing style.
There are caps on how many APs you can earn. You can have 160 until level 70, 200 points until level 80, and 250 total at the level cap of 90.
You will find your achievement trees on your main menu under "Alternate Advancements" once your character has dinged level 10 (assuming you have the expansions). You may spend your point as you earn them, or save them up and spend them all at once. Either way, I strongly suggest that you do your research and find out which lines would most benefit your sub-class, class, and playing style.
There is a useful section for AA recommendations by class that I'll certainly be looking at.
The Tattered Notebook: F2P bombs and views from the fallout shelter (Massively)
So what, if anything, does all this mean for the future of MMOs in North America? Is it, as more than a few snarky email commenters have informed me this week, the beginning of the end of the "dinosaur" that is the subscription model?
Hardly.
The reasons why are two-fold. First, as I mentioned above, SOE isn't doing this because the company thinks F2P is the awesome utopia that many of its supporters believe it to be. It isn't an altruistic experiment designed to help the poor afford to game, or to give current customers more value for their money (actually the goal is less value, but I digress). No, it's about cold, hard survival and adapting by any means necessary. When the market changes again, whether because the number of moochers renders a truly free-to-play model infeasible or whatever the change-instigator happens to be, SOE, Turbine, and everyone else will change right along with it.
The second reason isn't so much a reason as it is a series of examples. Many folks seem convinced that the entire industry is heading toward F2P (and it may yet be; I can't say for sure, other than to point out that I think such talk is premature, especially in America). Invariably, their conversations steer clear of TERA, DC Universe Online, and Final Fantasy XIV, three of the four most anticipated AAA MMOs of the next year. Guess what all those titles have in common? Yeah, that's right, a subscription model.
Hardly.
The reasons why are two-fold. First, as I mentioned above, SOE isn't doing this because the company thinks F2P is the awesome utopia that many of its supporters believe it to be. It isn't an altruistic experiment designed to help the poor afford to game, or to give current customers more value for their money (actually the goal is less value, but I digress). No, it's about cold, hard survival and adapting by any means necessary. When the market changes again, whether because the number of moochers renders a truly free-to-play model infeasible or whatever the change-instigator happens to be, SOE, Turbine, and everyone else will change right along with it.
The second reason isn't so much a reason as it is a series of examples. Many folks seem convinced that the entire industry is heading toward F2P (and it may yet be; I can't say for sure, other than to point out that I think such talk is premature, especially in America). Invariably, their conversations steer clear of TERA, DC Universe Online, and Final Fantasy XIV, three of the four most anticipated AAA MMOs of the next year. Guess what all those titles have in common? Yeah, that's right, a subscription model.
EQ2 Sorta Free to Play – Pitchforks or Pom Poms? (Journeys With Jaye)
And there’s the root of the problem. New players will undoubtedly go to the F2P servers, which will lack the onramp to socialization that older servers with well established guilds can offer. This is huge, because guilds are a key part of enticing a player to stick with a game over the long term. I’d go as far as saying that the high turnover rate of free to play populations might even discourage potential subscribers from making that jump and investing themselves in the game.
Meanwhile, old servers will be faced with the slow evaporation of the playerbase that naturally occurs. Everquest 2′s population is very guild centric (and I say that as a good thing). Without a stream of new players, these guilds will have a very hard time recruiting new members and maintaining healthy rosters. Community will slowly dry up, and the incentive for the remaining players to stay will slowly diminish.
I understand the desire to keep store bought items away from the classic servers, but in an attempt to do so, EQ2 is going to end up undermining the whole concept of community that’s been such an important part of the game. I really hope they continue to examine how much this will affect the future of the game on current servers.
Meanwhile, old servers will be faced with the slow evaporation of the playerbase that naturally occurs. Everquest 2′s population is very guild centric (and I say that as a good thing). Without a stream of new players, these guilds will have a very hard time recruiting new members and maintaining healthy rosters. Community will slowly dry up, and the incentive for the remaining players to stay will slowly diminish.
I understand the desire to keep store bought items away from the classic servers, but in an attempt to do so, EQ2 is going to end up undermining the whole concept of community that’s been such an important part of the game. I really hope they continue to examine how much this will affect the future of the game on current servers.
Everquest 2 Extended (Keen & Graev's Gaming Blog)
Clearly the “Extended” servers will be ones where the rich get richer. I don’t expect their communities to be anything like the normal EQ2 community either because of how fragmented the players will be. Yet, at the same time, this is a “new” server and that brings with it popularity. I really do expect this “experiment”, as Dave Georgeson calls it, to fail over time and it all comes down to that membership matrix.
It needs to be “more free”.
It needs to be “more free”.
