EverQuest II Extended lets people play for free

Soon, you won’t have to pay to play EverQuest II. Well, you can if you want to. But if you don’t, you’ll be able to play EverQuest II Extended, a free-to-play version of Sony Online Entertainment’s iconic MMORPG. And by soon, I mean hopefully by August 17, 2010.

It looks like Sony’s taken note of Nexon and other free-to-play MMO publishers’ success and is going to be giving it a try with EverQuest II Extended. The game will be totally free to play, if you want, with optional additional content that users can pay for. (Think equipment, items, certain character races and classes, mounts and the Sentinel’s Fate expansion.) And it’ll offer many areas to explore as well. The free portion will allow people to journey through areas found up until The Shadow Odyssey expansion.

There will be some limits placed on EverQuest II Extended free players. For example, you’ll only be able to choose one of the four most popular character races for your character. Once you pick that character, he or she can only access eight of the 24 jobs available in EverQuest II and level up to level 80. You can also only have two characters.

If you do start playing EverQuest II Extended and enjoy it, you can also pick from a few membership option packages. There’ll be Silver, Gold and Platinum memberships. The Silver Membership Pack will be a one-time purchase pack that gives a few small bonuses, like an extra character, the ability to make a guild and such. The Gold membership will be $15 a month and tries to mimic most features from EverQuest II. Platinum costs $200 a year and essentially makes your EverQuest II Extended experience identical to that of an ordinary EverQuest II player.

Read [Gaming Nexus] Also Read [GameSpot] Site [EverQuest II]