http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=110810
Today, an interesting post caught my eye. "Should EQ be free to play?" At first I thought to myself that this was going to be some half baked suggestion that the game is old and needs to be free now... or something dumb....
Instead I found a really well thought out suggestion... make original EQ free to play. Allow all of the original 50 levels of content to be open to the public and free to anyone to play. charge a subscription for anything after 50...
The beauty of this is many fold... The current free month is really just not enough to establish a strong feeling for EverQuest. Not only that, but the best part of EQ is after level 50.... and there would be a constant supply of players trying out the game.
Of course there would be the odd ball, "I'm not gonna pay for this" types that live an entire life at levels 1-50... and of course there would have to be the "get a subscription" spam to anyone who was playing 1-50 for free...
But the idea is EverQuests 1-50 population is weak, this is a way to improve it and attract new players at the same time. There is no hope for EQ if we cannot improve the current 1-75 grind. The populations are low, and many new players are simpley not able to find groups to progress through the early stages of the game. But make the 1-50 content free to all and you will have a decent sized surge of players in that content area... I'm not sure how many people would play EQ if it were free from 1-50.... but I'd consider the amount to be fairly high.
The real question would be the free -> paying user turnover rate. But I believe firmly that EverQuest sells itself. Once players have a chance to level through the first 50 levels with a healthy community, there will be a bound with the game.
I can only guess at the technical diffaculties of implementing a system like this to the EQ billing system...
I would think there would need to be other limitations for the system... but I really like the concept of the entire thing.
Ok... that's my highlight for the day!!
Game ON!
-s.funk
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3 comments:
I have to admit bringing in new blood by hook or crook is a good idea and I think the free to play original EQ would do just that.
With it only costing $20 to catch up on all expansions now, I think you would see great results with this.
Outstanding idea. It's so refreshing to see someone actually propose a viable solution instead of just bitching about the problem. Kudos. I hope the producers consider this constructive and IMO brilliant idea.
Thanks! (but the originator of the idea is not me!) I feel about the same way as you Uuuarius... thanks for the post!
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