I think this is the correct forum for this.

I'm sure you guys have been keeping track?

Basically, SOE have sold off their European player base like cattle to a company called ProSiebenSat.1's gaming division known as Alaplaya, a company well known for poor account security, poorly supported browser based games that are rife with hacking, that official representatives have stated they will do nothing about...

The deal applies to more than just EQ2.

It will mean region locking, IP blocking, etc. - EU players will not be able to connect to US servers, and vice versa. The whole SOE "play your way" motto has been shot to bits now that they will decide it for us. This will tear apart communities and separate real friendships. This affects people at a very personal level. For me included, in the past 8 years of playing, I have made real friends.

The official forums have had a new record set, almost 100 pages now of 100% negative feedback regarding this new deal.

Please check it out and let me know what you think! If you are passionate about this game, or would like to see this premier, mature franchise live on and keep its legacy, then sign up to the forums and make your voice heard - sign the petitions, and let them know that this is not what the players want.

Just for clarification - EQ (and other SOE games) accounts could log onto any server previously, regardless of region (both location and game version), e.g. an EU player could play on NA servers, and now with this there will be a complete lock out in both directions, thus potentially breaking up guilds and friendships that are formed cross region?

Yes, it's been a big selling point of the game since the early days of EQ going back to 99

Also, update: Yay coverage! http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/23 ... #c35438700

If they do go along with the deal (as ive heard it not 100% done yet) then they will end up loosing a massive fan base/ money.... They should leave the game alone, I agree with making improvements but everytime they "improve" something it just seems to make people unhappy and make it harder for people starting out to actually understand and get into the game

I've been keeping track of this from the links you've been posting on Facebook, Aaron.

I haven't seen this on RPS or Kotaku yet, you could try emailing them to try and get more coverage on this.

I don't often check those sites. Massively is the main source for MMO news and I'm glad they covered it I'm sure perhaps Kotaku will do an article on this also. There's little else to report on other than the fact the community is in outrage, so perhaps they are waiting for more official word before writing something up?

Looks like PSS1 have already made a cock up and announced that Vanguard will be going F2P, ahead of any SOE announcement! Oops!

I'm sure the Vanguard players are happy though.

RPS would love this. They're PC only, do a lot of large article/thought pieces and talk a lot about region free gaming (generally with regards to DD pricing, but this would probably be interesting to them to). Contact them, give them a good rundown and some links.

You might find this interesting if you haven't read it already, Aaron: http://www.arksark.org/blog/5588/eq2-who-are-proseibensat-1-anyway/

It affects Planetside 2 as well.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/24/oceans-apart-planetside-2-region-locked/
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/02/23/soe-announce-deal-with-new-european-publisher-planetside-2-will-be-region-locked/

Yes, I believe it affects 8 games including EQNext.

There's a LOT of news coming in today...

EQ2Wire.com has the best coverage.

Breaking news today is... their Associate Producer has left EQ2 (and possibly SOE entirely, but it's not confirmed - no official post yet)

So...

It goes like this... This is the story of EQ2...

New Senior Producer David Georgeson joins...
Makes big sweeping changes to the game
Promises not to add cash shop and microtransactions to the game
Implements Marketplace, a cash shop and microtransaction service to the game
Promises this is not some way to break in to the F2P market, EQ2 is a premium subscription game, etc. etc.
EQ2 goes F2P - SOE make millions out of cash shop
Free players go on to Freeport server, separate from Live gamers - promises to keep free players separate because they are different types of players
Makes all servers F2P allowing free players to join live servers, to prevent segregation of players
Strikes deal with Pro7Sat1 - nobody cares, as no details announced
Announces himself and EQ2's best senior developer have moved on to a new project
Announces new senior producer of EQ2
Shit approaches fan
Deal with Pro7Sat1 details are revealed
Segregation of communities is in!
Community is in outrage
Shit hits fan
Hundreds of accounts cancelled
Pro7Sat1 trying to do damage limitation
SOE remaining mostly silent
Associate producer announces on her Twitter she is leaving

...

And now you're up to speed!

This is why people are fed up of SOE.

I read about the Associate Producer thing, but was unsure of the significance.

It's just funny that now that the damage is done, a large portion of the senior team behind the game, some that have been there for the whole duration, have moved on to other projects, or left entirely.

Update: also their community relations manager moved to a new project.

SoE Sucks

Sad times