Is Everquest 2 really free?
Yes! .... and no. It is both. There is a free version and a paid version.
What is the difference between the paid version and the free version?
These are things you can NOT do in the free version:
- Buy from or sell to other players on the Broker
- Talk in World chat channels, such as General and Auction
- Use any Fabled item
- Contact Guild Recruiters through the list of Guilds that are recruiting
- Change how much of your Adventure Experience gets converted into Alternate Advancement
- Enter a few members-only zones in the game
- Have more than 2 characters on the account
How important is all that?
For having fun? Not important at all.
You can still sell loot to the Vendor to get in-game money. You might get more selling it on the Broker, but not necessarily. Many times I choose to sell to the Vendor, because the price on the Broker is about the same.
Your Experience slider bar is locked at 50%. That means that half goes into leveling up you character and the other half goes into Alternate Advancement. This means that your character will level up more slowly -- which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Alternate Advancement gives boosts and abilities which make your character stronger. Back in the days before the slider bar, I used to turn off leveling on my character for a while so that the experience would go into Alternate Advancement instead. Leveling up too fast makes a weaker character. Having your xp slider locked at 50% guarantees a strong toon in the future.
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Even though you can't buy items from the Broker, you can do quite well with gear that you get from quests and killing monsters. You can also make some of your own gear.
As for Chat channels.... Honestly, General chat is often populated by "trolls". Sometimes chatting there is like swimming in a shark infested sewer. However, it can be a good source of information. I keep an eye on it, and sometimes I learn things. But I do not participate in the inflammatory discussions, like the ones about politics.
But on a free to play account you can only read General chat, you can't ask questions there. So how do you get help if you need it?
Joining a Guild can help you a lot. You can talk in Guild chat, ask questions, and get help from your guildies. They can help you kill difficult monsters that you need for a quest, for example. Often there are crafters in your guild who can make things that you can not make for yourself, and they usually do this for very little cost to you.
But wait -- I said that you could not contact a Guild Recruiter through the list of Guilds that are recruiting! So how do you join a guild?
You can't contact a recruiter through the list, but you can send them a private message, a /tell. If you see that a Guild is recruiting, and that Guild Recruiter XYZ is online, you would type /tell XYZ can I join your guild? (Or something along those lines.) Then they can respond to you in a private message, and send you an invitation to join their guild if you both agree to it. For more information on choosing and joining a guild, see my post on that subject (coming soon).
Another minor detriment to playing Everquest 2 for free is the occasional pop-up trying to get you to pay for your account. It says something like "This requires a paid membership". Don't believe it. Most of the time it pops up when you are doing something that you can do on a free account. Also, when you log out of the game, it opens a browser window to the site to pay for the game. Just close the window, until you decide you want the paid version.
So I can really play Everquest 2 for free and have lots of fun?
Yes! Hours and hours of fun, exploring an exciting virtual world with rich graphics, filled with dangerous monsters, exciting quests, and of course, other players. Who knows, you might find some new friends!
If that is true, why would I ever want to pay for this game?
There are some perks to having a paid membership. You get 500 Daybreak Games Gold each month, which you can use to buy things from their marketplace. You get 10% discount on any cash purchases, such as expansions and add-ons. But honestly, there is not much reason for having a paid account until your character is high level. You can see my post (coming soon) on having a paid account to help you decide whether you want it or not.
What are you waiting for? Adventure awaits! Come play Everquest 2 for free! Start HERE
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