Well that was unexpected! Today Sony Online Entertainment announced that EverQuest II would be adding permanent free-to-play servers. The game will still continue with their subscription servers as well, providing players with a choice of which payment method they would prefer.

Dave Georgeson, EverQuest II Producer, said about the change, “We’re not the first folks to entertain the [free-to-play] idea for an MMO, but we do have the biggest and best virtual world to offer in such a model and we firmly believe that we can expose thousands and thousands of new players to the world of Norrath if we embrace that concept.” Georgeson stressed that the current subscription servers will be kept separate from the new f2p realms, and that this decision will not affect subscribers’ gameplay experience at all.

Current EQII players can download the “EverQuest II Extended” test client through their account information. The Extended service will realistically cost about $15 each month for maximum effectiveness, according to the game publishers, and there is no word yet on when the new realms will be released for the public.

Which big MMO provider will be the next to join the free-to-play movement?

What’s up Trekkies? Executive Producer of Star Trek: Online, Dan Stahl, has beamed down this little number – a State of the Game for the upcoming launch of Season Two: Ancient Enemies.

The release also covered what has been going on in STO in the last 6 months, quickly recapping all the major updates like Character Respecing, Fleet Improvements, Veteran Awards and a host of other changes.

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Former professional pitcher Curt Schilling and his team at 38 Studios are moving. With their first project in the works, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Schilling is taking his team from its Maynard, MA home to Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Apparently, not everyone is happy with the move. Developers Demiurge Studios expressed their concern in a strange open letter addressed to Schilling and company.

“I write to you today to address the announcement yesterday that you are moving your company away from Massachusetts to Rhode Island.” Begins the letter written by Chief Executive Officer at Demiurge William D. Reed.

Reed’s letter expressed his concern over Schilling moving the Studio from its MA base to Rhode Island. Reed goes on to express how much 38 Studios will be leaving behind if it leaves MA and more or less begs Schilling and his team to stay.

Reed ended the letter with this statement, perhaps making the letter a ploy to lure Curt and his team away from 38 Studios or possibly merge? “Curt, we love our home state of Massachusetts. In the end, if you really move your company down to Pawtucket, it will be a loss for the Boston game community. If anyone on the talented 38 Studios team wants to stay in Massachusetts, where we play major-league ball, they’re more than welcome to join the team at Demiurge Studios, the state’s soon-to-be largest independent game studio.”

The entire letter is an odd sentiment. MMOCrunch dug deeper into the Internets to try and find out what this weird little communication was all about. It seems that 38 Studios will be getting $75 million in loan guarantees by moving the studio to RI, but is obligated to generate some 450 jobs by the end of 2012 for this service.

The open letter to Schilling and company is definitely out of the norm in terms of usual business practices – perhaps its just a letter to express care and concern between friends, maybe it’s the first move in trying to get Schilling to reneg on his move and partner up with Demiurge? Fans will have to wait and see what the potential move brings and how 38 Studios reacts to the letter.

For the full open letter, click here.

Executive Producer Lance Robertson recently delved into the topic of cross-nation communication within NetDevil’s upcoming space MMORPG Jumpgate Evolution (JGE).

The ability to speak to nations (The Solrain Commonwealth, Quantar Paths, The Octavian Empire) other than your own has become a topic of interest within the JGE forums. Currently, nations are unable to engage in communications with other nations, in his forum post, Lance explains that this is a very intentional exclusion within the game. These nations are basically in all out war and only interact with each other through combat. If given the ability to speak to other nations, the feel of the game would be completely different, nations would have a tougher time being prideful, which is an integral part of the game.

Lance reflected upon successful MMORPG’s such as Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC) and World of Warcraft (WoW). Midgard vs. Hibernia vs. Albion in DAoC created battles of epic proportions in the Realm vs. Realm system, and the great rivalry between Alliance and Horde in WoW is only better fueled because players cannot speak to their enemies.

“We also don’t want to provide any in-game tools that could allow for any sort of “espionage game.” Rampant paranoia, defection or collusion weakens nations and undermines the team feeling of ‘we’re all in this together.’ If you prefer a game that provides for spying and back-stabbing then JGE may simply not be for you. Jumpgate is about the war, and about being part of a strong nation. Anything that goes on outside of the game will obviously be beyond our ability to police, but we’re not going to provide any in-game mechanisms for this undesired behavior.”

For more information on JGE communication you can visit their forums.

Perpetuum, a new MMO by Avatar Creations, posted some new gameplay screenshots last week. The game’s developers appear to be taking pages from many different books, and the outcome is shaping up quite nicely. What we have here is a futuristic Sci-Fi MMO, set in a far away world inhabited by robots. We humans have set out in a conquest to exploit the outer reaches of space for technology and resources. Much like Mass Effect, this series of events is set in motion by an anomaly that allows humankind to jump a significant technological gap, and propagate itself out into the universe. This results in the discovery of a distant planet that closely resembles Earth. Perpetuum tells the story of our Earthly colonists’ struggle to uncover the secrets of an indigenous robot species.

The game itself is likened to EvE Online, due in part to it’s intricate harvesting, crafting, and economic systems. Players are to interact on one persistent server world with formable terrains and dynamically changing vegetation. Finally (and, again, much like EvE), players gain skill over real-time, and may choose to join a corporation or pursue personal interests.

Perpetuum promises vibrant, fast-paced combat, with 30 robot types and hundreds of equipment items. From the looks of these screenshots, that is exactly what we can expect.

Bioware Mythic has just revealed the new payment options coming to all European Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot players.  Players are told that they will still have the option to purchase game time codes from the EA online store, as well as some new payment methods that may be preferred.  The game time codes will still be sold in 30, 90, and 180 day packages for both Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot.  European players now have the option to set up an automatic billing plan by using a valid Visa, Mastercard, Discovery or American Express card.  Mythic is currently working on a wider selection of European billing options, but in the mean time Mythic will be providing introductory pricing.  This will only stick until they have released their full line-up of billing options.  The current prices have been posted by Mythic and are all in USD with the additional “Added Value Tax”.

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Ngames’ award winning and highly anticipated Fairy Story Online (FSO) is making waves in the MMORPG community.

Currently in open beta, Fairy Story Online is a very unique MMO that features a setting tailor-made for players who want to be social and yes, even romantic. Of course, raiding with a side of romance in MMOs is nothing new, thousands of marriages have stemmed from two people connecting in game. However, Ngames has decided to turn the tables a bit and develop a game where everything about it enhances a player’s social and or romantic experience. The music, the fantasy background, the child-like ambiance, and the fairy-tale gameplay have all been created to make sure the player has fun interacting with their gaming friends.

Let’s not forget this is an MMO though, and like in any decent MMO, there are a variety of characters one can play, cool mounts and pets to use (Praying Mantis’, Tigers, Yellow Cows). Don’t believe this game is geared towards a social experience? Well, FSO also features a system where players of all levels can switch on an optional automatic-combat system which basically does your fighting for you so can socialize while fighting.

To sign up and get swept off your MMO feet, you can visit the FSO website.

If your an active player in the city of San Paro, then check your email accounts for your new APB buddy key.  As of right now, Realtime Worlds is offering all APB players that have purchased game time for their accounts, a free buddy invite sent directly to their email.  Don’t worry, if you have not yet purchased game time, you can do so until August 8th when the free buddy event is over.  After purchasing your game time, you to will receive the buddy email to get your favorite friend in the action.  If you convince your friend to purchase the full game, then you will be awarded with four-hundred Realtime World points.  These points are equivalent to a month’s worth of action district time.  If your friend doesn’t buy the game, then they will still have seven hours across five days to play.

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A new Facebook game is coming, and it calls itself Kogamu.  This new game is a free to play MMO that is currently in its closed beta testing phase.  Not much has been released on the game yet, other then it is a “hardcore” action MMO that will give you some kind of customization options for your skills.  The game also advertises that it will include vicious monsters, dangerous maps and grueling dungeons. This is nothing we haven’t seen before, but hey, it’s free, it’s friendly, and it requires no download what so ever.

Beta Sign ups for the game are going on right now so head on over to the Kogamu Facebook page for your chance to be selected.  Just enter your email and your good to go.  I hope to see you all in game, and good luck!

I have been playing MMOs since 2002, and before that, MUDs, and in all that time I have never become actively engaged in what we would describe as a free-to-play (F2P) MMO that are so popular today. F2P MMOs vary, but the basic premise is that the game is free to get, has no monthly fee, but has some sort of shop that you can buy in game resources with. The shop varies between games, some having mostly cosmetic stuff (new shiny mounts), others having the best items in the game, and anywhere in between.

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