Sony have announced a new subscription method for Everquest 2, EQ2 Passport.
For $5 pm you are allowed to play for 3 consecutive days in a 30 day period. Don’t get me wrong I can see why some people become frustrated with having to pay $15 pm for 30 days when they can only manage to play on a weekend or a few days here and there. I can’t however see how the passport program is enough for these players to return to the game.
Lets go through the reasons SOE suggest you use this subscription method.
Weekend Warrior
Your game, your time and your money. You choose when to play! This is your chance to continue to play the game you love, with all your friends and most importantly, when you want!
“Great” you think, “I can play just on weekends with my guild mates and friends in game, the time I have free to play”. Think again, you can play for 3 consecutive days in a 30 day period, that’s 1 weekend in 4. So you can join your friends on a weekend raid or group session for one weekend a month.
Party Crasher
With the EQII Passport, your alt accounts or inactive accounts will not have to miss another seasonal event or special game update. Visit Norrath to participate in fun-filled events and festivities at a discount.
Now here is one that allows you to keep up to date with the seasonal events, special quests that are added at certain times of the year. Many of which are the same as the same time before and to be honest I don’t bother doing often. If seasonal quests are your thing however maybe this will interest you in the EQ2 Passport?
Item Hoarder Galore
You do not have to miss another login bonus or promotional “claim” special again! Just because your account is inactive doesn’t mean your collection of goodies will suffer.
This one may be of interest to those of you that like to claim all the items. I’ve yet to find an item in my claim window that expires though.
Penny Pinching Multiboxers
Running several subscriptions might be a bit expensive these days, but not with this program! Fire up your alt accounts for a weekend raid or even a Battlegrounds match all by yourself!
Now this is an odd one, most people who multibox play on a regular basis so will have regular subscriptions. I don’t have multiple subs but the chance to “fire up” a 2nd account for one weekend in 4 doesn’t make me want to pay $5 for the privelage, maybe it’s just me? Oh and if you gave up your 2nd account your a penny pincher it seems.
Commitment Issues?
The EQII Passport program is available for a period of three (3) consecutive days per 30-day period. To continue playing after three days, you must convert to a standard EQII monthly subscription plan.
So you have commitment issues? Well here SOE are explaining that for those of you that don’t want to commit you have to commit if you want to play more than 3 days in 30.
Vets Only, No Newbs Allowed!
This subscription option is only available for inactive or closed accounts. Visiting Norrath has never been so simple or economical. This is the most convenient option available for casual accounts.
Oh and if you thought you might fancy trying EQ2 for the first time using the EQ2 Passport, it looks like you’ll need to get a full sub, cancel it for however long it takes (30 days?) for your account to become inactive and then try the passport subscription method.
Streaming Client
SOE are also pushing the “Don’t wait” message with the Passport. That’s right, you can download the new EQ2 steaming client and not wait to play. I tried the new client on my laptop when I was away from my main PC and needed to do a quick quest in game. It’s pants, big shiny garish coloured pants! I can understand someone not wanting to sit and download all the game updates, but I fail to see how sitting and waiting to download a zone each time I enter it is a bonus. I zoned into my guildhall a few times during the session and each time I had to download parts of the zone. It may have been the full zone or just bits of it but I was bored of this method after the first session and have not used it since.
Is the EQ2 passport of interest to you?
I am a casual player but I play a good few times a week and so the new EQ2 Passport subscription method holds no interest to me. I personally think they should have gone for a half price option which allows the player to play every weekend. This would mean half price subscription for less than half the playtime of the full sub, but would allow those with free time at the weekend to play the game without paying the full monthly fee.
To my mind EQ2 Passport is just a ploy by SOE to get you hooked on the game again and have you signing up for the full monthly subscription again.
Maybe there are some of you out there that think it’s worth paying 1/3 of the monthly fee for 1/10 of a months playtime? Let me know your thoughts.
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I find the whole thing a little strange too because I don't know anyone who only plays a MMO for 2 or 3 consecutive days a month. Now had it been a fixed number of hours over any number of times, I might have been tempted.
I agree with the fixed hours idea, that makes much more sense to me.
Here's a mad idea too. How about an MMO company that listens to it's customers and implements idea's like your fixed hours sub? Now that is just mad.
I could name several players (all of whom also happen to be bloggers
) who actually only DO log in a few days a month, and who would probably welcome this kind of option.
It's not perfectly implemented, but there's no doubt there's a demand for it — or SOE wouldn't have spent the man hours setting it up. If there's one thing SOE know how to do almost better than anyone else (except Disney and the WWE!) it's how to make people part with their cash and enjoy doing so.
Yeah even though I play EQ2 as my main MMO I can understand the need for alternative subscription methods. I welcome the fact that SOE have tried but as Gordon of We Fly Spitfires said above, I do think it would be better to have 3 days worth of time rather than have to play for 3 consecutive days.
If you can only manage a small amount of time in game then it's likely that time isn't going to be 3 full days in a row, it's going to be an hour here and there during the month.
I agree — though I am certain that if they offered playtime it wouldn't be 72 hours. I play quite a bit when I don't have too much work on and I don't think I rack up 72 hours in a month. So $5 for 72 hours would be a total loss for them. $5 for 10 hours, however, or maybe 15, would be a pretty decent deal.
For those who are going to stand around AFK in game a lot, as I often to, it wouldn't be, but it's not aimed at that kind of playstyle either.
Hehe thank god there is no afk brokering needed in EQ2, that could get expensive with a pay as you play sub.
I see your point though, not sure how many hours I get in each month, I doubt it's 72 hours either though.
Does seem like an awful lot of effort for something completely and utterly pap.
Yet another example of SOEs marketing dept. being completely out of touch with whats going on, if people dont want to pay for a subscription, can play one of the myriad of F2P options rather than this 3 days of eq2 a month for a few quid nonsense.