I was attracted to the expansion and the headlines that the game was really going to be "free". What I think I understand is that  some of the content is "free"  and some of the content is NOT "free".The expansion...the new class... the crafting changes  are NOT FREE. But I'm certainly not certain of these statements and would appreciate someone in the know who can educate me.

http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Membership_Matrix_%28EQ2%29

all expansions are free though Sentinels Fate

this does not include Age of Discovery and DOV

DOV is being sold for 20.00 in the SC store   (was 15.00 on 12/6 only)

DOV offers nothing for anyone under level 85 and DOV did not raise the level cap

AOD is 40.00, has no adventure content, its "feature only" expansion

no one needs AOD unless you want to play a beastlord or some other feature

I logged in today and noticed my 2 characters I had on there, a level 90 ratonga warlock and my 21 kerra warden were locked.  I rolled a new character, a human inquisitor, just to see what I would have to buy to stay F2P.  yeah...it's a bit pointless, it's just better to resub than to try and buy piecemeal everything you would need to take a character to level 90 and most of it would be spent on buying bag slots and broker tokens and item unlocks.  What a crock.  I really wish SOE would make it a bit less transparent that they make games for money far more than for the benefit of making something entertaining.  And they wonder why their game is on the F2P server merge final stand.  It's like they lost all sense of making these things after EQ became popular.  I just don't get it.  I almost think they are worse than Cryptic(before Perfect World bought them).

Originally posted by elocke

I logged in today and noticed my 2 characters I had on there, a level 90 ratonga warlock and my 21 kerra warden were locked.  I rolled a new character, a human inquisitor, just to see what I would have to buy to stay F2P.  yeah...it's a bit pointless, it's just better to resub than to try and buy piecemeal everything you would need to take a character to level 90 and most of it would be spent on buying bag slots and broker tokens and item unlocks.  What a crock.  I really wish SOE would make it a bit less transparent that they make games for money far more than for the benefit of making something entertaining.  And they wonder why their game is on the F2P server merge final stand.  It's like they lost all sense of making these things after EQ became popular.  I just don't get it.  I almost think they are worse than Cryptic(before Perfect World bought them).

Strangely enough, was having that same chat with a guildmate (level 60 something) who has been playing on a bronze account and has been perfectly willing to live with the bag slot limitations, buys item unlocks rarely, (is happy to not wear fabled/enchanted gear) and says for him, the game is pretty much free.

Not how I want to play of course, but I've been willing to pay them 15.00 for a gold membership all along, I never believe anything in life worth having is free.

Free will be the utter irritation, annoyance and general bad feeling you get when dealing with Soe, not free will be anything to do with bag slots, gold and generally making your way to 90 in any enjoyable format.

Originally posted by elocke

I logged in today and noticed my 2 characters I had on there, a level 90 ratonga warlock and my 21 kerra warden were locked.  I rolled a new character, a human inquisitor, just to see what I would have to buy to stay F2P.  yeah...it's a bit pointless, it's just better to resub than to try and buy piecemeal everything you would need to take a character to level 90 and most of it would be spent on buying bag slots and broker tokens and item unlocks.  What a crock.  I really wish SOE would make it a bit less transparent that they make games for money far more than for the benefit of making something entertaining.  And they wonder why their game is on the F2P server merge final stand.  It's like they lost all sense of making these things after EQ became popular.  I just don't get it.  I almost think they are worse than Cryptic(before Perfect World bought them).

I agree. When I rolled on Freeport I just made what I could without unlocking, a human wizard. Even with this the broker tokens and bag and bank space add up pretty quickly. Then of course you can pay $10 to upgrade your account silver. Whats really sad is when a fabled item drops you have to buy unlockers for that as well, even with a siver account. So yeah, I think if you have toons already your best bet is to just pay the sub fee.

Originally posted by elocke

...  What a crock.  I really wish SOE would make it a bit less transparent that they make games for money far more than for the benefit of making something entertaining...

News Flash!   SOE is a for-profit operation!   Whyever would you expect otherwise?