Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

EverQuest II is going to offer a free-to-play option along with several new subscription plans. At Ten Ton Hammer, we've always felt this title has been one of the most full, enjoyable MMOG experiences available in today's market and the news that it will now be more accessible means exciting times ahead with EverQuest II Extended (see the press release for the official announcement).

Sony Online Entertainment recognizes the power of their game and as Dave Georgeson steps up to bat as the game's producer, the future is looking brighter still. We got on the phone with Dave to discuss the new revenue model and what, if any, changes this means for the current subscribers. Dave was happy to answer our questions and give us a bit of insight as to their choice for another industry first: offering free-to-play services on completely different servers than those of the current live game subscribers.

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Ten Ton Hammer: With the introduction of EverQuest 2 Extended, what are some of the changes going into the game?

Dave Georgeson: We've done a ton of stuff to the game. There's an improved UI; we've changed a lot of the new user experiences; we fixed some of the skill progressions at the lower levels so that you get more useful spells, and less of the stuff you don't need. For example, you don't need four versions of taunt before you're level 15. We've also made the tutorials a lot easier to understand; used a lot more pictures, making it a lot more intuitive for players.

When I first took over the game I very quickly realized that the game was fantastic. There was a lot of depth, a huge feature set, and a lot of different things you could do. There are a lot of MMOs that only dream of having all the stuff that is in this game. But, a lot of it was really hard to learn. The learning curve was pretty fierce. We were asking a lot from the players. We wanted to change a lot of that so people could get into the game and enjoy it easily. I think we've made pretty good strides towards that.

The free-to-play stuff is separate from that. It's not coincidental that it's coming out at the same time, but we would have done the changes that we're doing now anyway. The game needed those changes to attract new blood.


Ten Ton Hammer: So the changes in the game are also going to happen on Live?

Dave: Yes. That's kind of a given for all the future stuff that we do.

There is a subsection of stuff in the marketplace that is free-to-play specific--it only shows up on the extended service, but other than that, everything is the same between the two services. When we put out the expansion this coming winter it will be available on both services at the same time. Whenever we do a game update it will be available at the same time on both services.

Ten Ton Hammer: Can you give us an example of the kinds of things that will be available on the marketplace in Extended but not on Live?

Dave: Sure. The Extended marketplace has a lot of convenience items in it. They are not items that you have to have. We're not balancing the game so you will feel you need to purchase anything.

For instance, if you have a lot of good gear but don't have a great shield you can buy one from the marketplace that has good stats. It won't be the best stats. There will always be better fabled and legendary items than you'll be able to get in the marketplace but you can get a solid piece of equipment for you level and class. There are hundreds of items available but for each class there are maybe 25 items you can choose from.

Then there are potions. There is a self-rez item, a heal potion, a buff potion, attack potions--things like that so that when you don't have a group they will be very convenient items to have. They don't change the way you have to play the game but if you want to play it more casually and substitute some of your cash for time you will have that option.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there anything that will be available on the Live server marketplace and not on Extended?

Dave: There will be items available on both Extended and Live, but stat items will be on Extended only.
One of the cool new things we'll be adding to both marketplaces is Heritage armor appearance items. One of the sets coming up real soon is a Dark Elf set. That will be available on both services. But anything that will directly affect the game as far as being able to get you ahead faster or purchasing stats, those are only available on the Extended marketplace.

This is mostly because our players told us that they definitely do not want those types of items on the subscription service servers, so we're not putting it there.