What does the new EQ2X free-to-play service mean for EQ2 Live players?

Tuesday SOE announced they would be offering a free-to-play service, called EverQuest II Extended (EQ2X), in addition to their current traditional subscription-based EverQuest II (EQ2 Live). On the EQ2X server players will be able to purchase useful items in the Station Marketplace with Station Cash, SOE's virtual currency. Naturally this caused a bit of a stir in the loyal players in EQ2. Is this the oft-mentioned real money transaction “slippery slope” that started with Exchange Servers, or simply evidence that the world is moving on and that change will not kill the games we know, love and obsess about? 

Dave “Smokejumper” Georgeson, EQII senior producer, was careful to let it be known right from the start that they had heard the player base, and that the existing servers and monetization model would not be changing. According to Georgeson the game on the two services will be identical. The major difference, beside the subscription model, is the presence of a “more robust Marketplace” on EQ2X, providing useful, non-fluff items to EQ2X players, for cash.

It's Just Like a Mini Mall, Y'all

When Station Cash and the Marketplace were introduced to EQII, itemization of Station Cash items was one of the main concerns of the players. Alan “Brenlo” Crosby stated that items with stats would not be available on the Marketplace, but in the live game some mounts with minor stats and great runspeed have slipped in. Players generally seem of the opinion that it is game-breaking to buy your goodies instead of earning them in game.

“We specifically separated the services because feedback from you folks has always been that the bulk of existing players would hate having the free-to-play marketplace items on their worlds. That they want players to have to earn everything in order to succeed,” Georgeson posted.  A lot of players giving feedback on the official forums wouldn't mind a service that incorporated both models on one server, but do not like the unfair advantage allowed by making useful equipment available in the “mini-mall” Georgeson was pleased that some players were open to that idea but said “we'll still be running the Extended service though, because the current list of features is not necessarily all that we want to try in that environment. There are no guarantees that all subscription players will enjoy or tolerate the future changes we might make in that environment."  At the very least SOE has taken their current subscriber's feelings on microtransactions into account when developing this program.

Ne'er the Twain Shall Meet

The two subscription services are completely separate. EQ2X will has its own Battlegrounds, forums, leaderboards, and chat channels. EQ2 Live and EQ2X will receive the same content updates at the same time, but there will be no interaction between the two models. Players from EQ2 Live will be able to pay $35 to copy a character, stripped of most of its items, to the EQ2X servers, but not the other way around. And to many players that's a problem.

When this service goes live the current free EQ2 Live trial will no longer be available, as SOE is seeing the free member level of the EQ2X service as a trial. Players that click through a banner or ad to the game will be given the choice of the “Free” EQ2X or EQ2 Live. The problem is that, unless a new player is brought in by a friend using the recruit-a-friend program or buying the box off the shelf and jumping in blind, they'll most likely be starting on the EQ2X servers, and there is no easy way to change to the traditional subscription model on the EQ2 Live servers short of starting completely over. While Georgeson mentions frequently that the EQ2X service is in Alpha and may change, he seems pretty set on no transfers from the EQ2X to the EQ2 Live servers. It's obviously been discussed, as Georgeson posted:

The flow of players is one-way right now...but that's not necessarily permanent. Here's the reasons:

1) We wanted players to be able to copy over and try out the new servers, but didn't want to force them to leave the subscription servers to do so. So we implemented the "copy" process instead of a "transfer".

2) We didn't implement a copy from Extended to subscription for two reasons:

a) We didn't feel that players would want to see characters that "bought their way up" showing up on the subscription servers, and;

b) The copy processes allow really nasty character dupe issues if you can copy both ways.

So, for now, we're only offering copy in one direction.  This is not necessarily permanent. But we'll have to discontinue the copy service first, *and* we'll need to feel that players won't get upset about characters coming from the Extended servers.

The issue for veteran players is that, as the EQ2X model stands now, there will be no natural incentive for new players to start or move to the traditional EQ2 servers, which will eventually cause population loss, atrophy and server merges. And, according to many nay-sayers, the death of the traditional game.   “You are correct that the current model doesn't encourage new players to go to the subscription model. But its not our intention to have you languish as a backwater," said Georgeson. “What we are doing is new. As such, we will adapt and learn as we go, just like every game does whenever they try something new. We've heard your concerns. Loud and clear, believe me. But until we see real results after we launch the service, it's all speculation.”