In July, SOE announced that EverQuest II was planning a free to play service. In one of the fastest MMO announcement to MMO reality turnarounds I’ve ever seen, they successfully launched their beta of EQ2X on August 19th after delaying 2 days from their originally planned launch date of August 17th. The new server, separate from their regular “live” servers, is appropriately named “Freeport”.

EQ2X is an interesting beast. Boasting a slightly complicated membership matrix, there are several different ways to pay for your gaming experience. The free to play options of bronze and silver offer a stripped down version of the game with fewer storage slots (bags, banks and housing), restricted broker usage, access to fewer classes, and reduced spell and equipment grades. The other options aren’t free to play at all: they’re subscription based. I’ll let the matrix speak for itself, but I will say that the current structure and inability to really get your free to play “à la carte” is a bit of a let down for me.

You can't make one of these - unless you drop $7.50 on the race pack!

As a huge fan of EQ2, I couldn’t wait to jump into the game on the 19th. The new EQ2X beta launcher with streaming capabilities is awesome. I was through character creation and in the game in roughly 10 minutes. Immediately upon login I dropped $10 on the silver membership, a one time purchase to give you extra bank and bag slots as well as access to the public chat channels. These really are absolute musts if you plan on playing – even casually.

The next thing I looked at was the Station Cash Store, or “SC Store” for short. What I saw there was pretty standard F2P fare, although it seemed rather expensive:  a guild charter for $10? A mount for $25? Extra bags (not bag slots – bags) between $15-$20? You can even purchase crafting materials in stacks of 200, for $4 -$6. That’s not my thing – but it is there for you if you want it. The race packs seemed reasonable at $7.50, but I noticed that the store was missing one huge thing: classes. There are no additional classes available for purchase at the free to play bronze and silver levels. You must subscribe in order to access the other classes. And, if you ever unsubscribe and go back to your bronze or silver account, that class becomes unplayable. Another let down.

$25 sparkle lion, but no purchasable classes? Boo!

On the bright side of things, as a casual player, the EQ2 starting experience is still nothing short of awesome. You’re rewarded level appropriate gear for all of your quests, especially those in the new starter zone of New Halas. You’ll get new bags and harvesting crates to put all your goodies in. You’ll get a house to decorate. You have access to all of the tradeskills with what seems like no limitations. You can even join a guild, group, and do every available quest – just like the full experience.

Amazingly, the community on the new server has been nothing but friendly. I joined a guild my second day in and tonight I was greeted with something amazing: 3 40-slot bags from the guild leader (I never had bags this large in the live game!). The SC Store equivalent of these crafted bags is a $20 purchase. They really do go a long way in making the silver level experience that much more enjoyable now that the stress of inventory management has been reduced.

I told you I had a huge bag.

Other than the let downs of having the EQ2 F2P experience less “à la carte” and more “subscribe or be gimped”, I’ve been having a ton of fun since the beta began. My swashbuckler is now level 15, (with the AA/Exp bar locked at 50% – another stipulation of staying bronze/silver) my outfitting is up to level 16, my adopted guild is nice, I have huge…bags, and most of all: I don’t feel like I’m playing a crappy free to play MMO. I really hope that SOE brings classes to the SC Store as well as additional options to unlock bag and bank slots with a one time purchase instead of a subscription. But, as the game is now and with the support of a guild, I can see this being a totally viable, fun, free to play game in a virtual world I adore.