EverQuest II grandfathers in established characters

EverQuest II players got a pleasant surprise today, as Executive Producer Dave Georgeson announced that any and all characters created prior to Age of Discovery's launch would be grandfathered into the game. This means that any characters that were locked due to a player going from, say, subscription to free-to-play are now available. The company is also refunding any Station Cash points spent to unlock these characters following the expansion's release.

From the full announcement on the EQII forums:

But, we don't really want to force those decisions on returning players. It's not a fun experience to come back to something that seemed exciting (F2P) and then get hit with a bill as soon as you arrive, just for the privilege of using your current characters.

So here's what we're going to do.

*Every* character that was created before 12/06/2011 at 12:01 a.m. will be grandfathered in without race or class restriction. This means that regardless of your membership level, you will be able to play any character created before 12/6 without paying for race- or class-pack unlocks.

For any player that previously subscribed to EQII Live servers, or as a Gold or Platinum member on EQ2X, we will also refund all the class/race pack purchases made after 12/06/2011 at 12:01 am and before the time of this posting (12/08/2011, 4:30pm) so that no one loses any SC due to this change.

Reader Comments (39)

SOE gets a lot of flack, but sometimes they redeem themselves. I'm sure people will still find some part of this to complain about though.

@(Unverified)

Gonna have to agree with you, nice to see them get it right when they do.

I don't really play EQ2 but this sounds like a classy move.

If Champions did this I might actually have went back to it.

Awesome. That explains where my 4k station cash points came from. Took a break from mmos in preparation of swtor. Still plan on playing eq2 every once in a while. Thanks SOE!

I think this came from the flood of forum posts by people asking what the heck was going on. SOE sent out an email to everyone saying that EQ2 was F2P, but didn't mention -anywhere- in that email that you'd have to buy race/class unlocks if you didn't sub.

While there are many people who followed EQ2's brand of F2P since its inception as Extended, there were many more who knew nothing about it and had quit Live for various reasons. So getting that email really was a slap to the face, and could have ended up being quite the PR nightmare.

In the end, I think they made a very fair compromise. People get to play their old characters now forever free, with the understanding that anything new they make falls under those restrictions. That gesture alone will probably get them more money than forcing those people to pay to unlock their beloved characters.

It's a nice change, but sadly I'm still probably not going back to my old account. My characters will mostly be naked since all the gear I had was fabled/legendary :(

If they let you keep that gear I'd get back into my old characters.

@edgecrusherO0 You do not lose any gear. You would need to buy unlocks (at $0.30 each) to equip any new gear, but anything you already have equipped is unlocked.

@edgecrusherO0 To equip new Fabled/Legendary gear, that is.

@edgecrusherO0

Or just buy a sub, the way you always did. That makes you a Gold player, with Norrath as your oyster.

@Ardwulf
When did this go in? It hasn't been mentioned in the FAQ or matrix before. Can you unlock plat too?

If Ard is right, this is nice. If not its naked 90s with frozen assets.

@Ardwulf

Let's also remember that any master skills will also go away. Overall EQ2 F2P is still terrible and P2W. Not that it matters, I came, I saw my FPS, I left. 7 years later and the game still can't run on AMD's best.

So back to Rift and started a Defiant Assassin, good times are here again :D

@Solude

Just a note: Master level spells/abilities that you already have do not disappear, you keep them and they continue to work, though you can't scribe any new Masters without an unlock or sub.

Oh no, I already deleted one of my locked characters in order to play, before they made this announcement D:

Both of my Arasais are locked still....

@InkSix They're working on having them unlocked tomorrow, after the next hotfix.

smart move.

Where's that thumbs up button when you need one.

SOE come in for a lot of flack, mainly from hardliners with a chip on their shoulder from years ago, but in truth they're no different to any other company - some things they get right, some things they get wrong.

What sets a good company apart from a bad one is when they are able to step up to the line and admit they got something wrong and then do the right thing by way of fixing it. SOE have got a lot better at that in recent times.

This is a very good move, both for the returning players and for the company. I'd have to admit, however, that it ought to have been foreseeable and therefore sorted in advance of the F2P/P2P merger.

I approve. Its nice to see a P2P -F2P conversion that actually rewards returning players that don't want to pay.

Certain other conversions leave me very upset that they give absolutely no benefits to having paid for the game in the past, and put you on even level with people who never gave them a dime >,

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EverQuest II grandfathers in established characters

Reader Comments (39)

Posted: Dec 8th 2011 11:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 8th 2011 11:36PM Celtar said

Posted: Dec 8th 2011 11:31PM Eamil said

Posted: Dec 8th 2011 11:32PM stealthrider said

Posted: Dec 8th 2011 11:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 8th 2011 11:55PM ed511df3 said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 12:47AM edgecrusherO0 said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 2:04AM Ardwulf said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 2:04AM Ardwulf said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 3:34AM pcgneurotic said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 7:38AM Solude said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 7:45AM Solude said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 10:18AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 12:50AM h4ngedm4n said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 12:53AM InkSix said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 1:16AM ed511df3 said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 4:22AM nevin said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 4:36AM Amlin said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 6:09AM Seffrid said

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 6:38AM scfs123 said

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