Everquest II Extended

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Everquest II Extended is a free-to-play version of the 2004 game called Everquest II. It is often referred to as EQ2X for short, whereas the original Everquest II game is often referred to as "EQ2 Live".

Since 2009, several of Everquest II's competitors have switched to a free-to-play membership model, or have announced their intentions to do so. In early 2010, Sony Online Entertainment consulted the EQ2 player population to determine the extent of support for adding a free-to-play model to EQ2. The resulting product, EQ2X, was unveiled in the summer at FanFaire 2010. A significant Game Update coincided with the beta release of EQ2X, which revamped the game's user interface and newbie experience and revised many of the previous rules related to character creation.

In December of 2011 free-to-play access was added to the existing EQ2 servers.

1 Overview of EQ2X
2 Membership Plans
3 Relationship with EQ2 Live
4 Download and Play
5 Further Information

Overview of EQ2X Edit

The basic game is free-to-play, with several restrictions in areas such as classes, races, equipment, spell quality, and communication.
Some of the restrictions can be eased by paying one-time fees to unlock them. These unlocking fees are paid through the in-game Station Marketplace, using Station Cash.
Other restrictions can only be removed by agreeing to pay a monthly or yearly fee.
Equipment and other benefits can also be purchased through the in-game Station Marketplace.

Membership Plans Edit

There are four tiers of memberships in EQ2X:

All new players begin with a Bronze membership. This entitles the player to create up to 2 characters, choosing from 4 races and 8 classes, and allows them to advance up to level 80. They are limited to Adept spells, cannot use Legendary or Fabled equipment. They get no shared bank slots and are limited to 20 simultaneous quests, the money is limited to 5 gold pieces per level. A few of these limitations (such as race) can be unlocked through one-time purchases in the Station Marketplace.
For a $5 one-time purchase, the player can upgrade to Silver Membership. This adds 2 more character slots and raises the limit on number of quests up to 40, 20 gold pieces per level as money, and inventory slots, and enables unlimited chat channels and guild creation. They are limited to Expert spells, and still cannot use Legendary or Fabled equipment. The broker can be used for buying but not selling without broker tokens that must be purchased from the Station Marketplace.
For a $15/month recurring fee, the player gets Gold Membership. The Gold Membership is close to what EQ2 Live subscriptions enjoy: 7 character slots, unlimited spell and equipment tiers, and no artificial limitations on quests, money or inventory slots. They can play any character class, but are still limited to 4 races (the remaining purchasable in packs). The broker access is given now without tokens.
The Platinum Membership plan was discontinued in December 2011. This membership fee included 10 character slots and all 19 races. It also provided the latest expansion pack for free, enabling character advancement to level 90. (All other tiers had to purchase the most current expansion pack to unlock levels 80-90.) Furthermore, the player was granted 500 Station Credits each month to spend in the Station Marketplace. Though discontinued, anyone who paid for this access level prior to December 2011 continued to get its benefits until their paid time expired.

View the official membership matrix.

Relationship with EQ2 Live Edit

Prior to December 2011 the free-to-play membership model known as EQ2X was separate from the existing Everquest 2 servers. A new server, Freeport, was created specifically for EQ2X. As a result, a separate (but substantially identical) client program had to be installed in order to play on the EQ2X server.

A separate discussion forum also existed for EQ2X prior to December 2011. Though the EQ2X forum still exists (as of January 2012) EQ2X players were redirected to the regular EQ2 forums. EQ2X Official Forum Announcement

As of December 2011 free-to-play access was added to all of the EQ2 servers, but limits on playable races and classes, spell and gear quality remain intact unless players subscribe to the game. Other restrictions (listed above) still apply as well, based on account status as a Bronze or Silver Member.

EQ2 Live subscribers were able to pay a fee to copy their characters over to the EQ2X Freeport server. The copied characters only retained items that are untradeable. Currency did not transfer with copied characters. Copied characters received all of the benefits of an EQ2X Gold membership, for as long as the player continued a subscription to EQ2 Live. However, this did not entitle them to Gold membership benefits on newly created EQ2X characters.

Subscribers who had characters on the Freeport server prior to the addition of free-to-play on all servers were "grandfathered in" and retain access to those characters, provided they were created prior to December 6th 2011. In addition, some of the free-to-play limitations on race/class do not apply. Those who had EQ2 accounts with characters on any server prior to December 6th 2011 were also granted Silver Membership for pre-existing characters. View the official announcement from SOE.