I agree that the way it is planned to be implemented will bleed the live servers dry. I kind of hope that isn't the idea behind the implementation, but they must know what kind of effect this will have on the current servers.
That being said, it's really a no-win either way for the current subscription players. If it's implemented the way it is set up now, then the live servers will slowly, but surely, bleed players out, and without a free-trial and all new players being directed towards F2P...the writing is on the wall. However, if they went ahead and integrated their current F2P model onto live servers in addition to the current sub model, many of the current players will revolt and up and quit, especially the end-game raiders who seem mostly opposed to the "pay2win/F2P" implementation.
I understand why they are doing it, Smed has said for years that F2P is "the future of the MMO industry" and he's probably right, at least from a business standpoint. From what I've seen so-called F2P brings in much more revenue then the current subscription model.
Still though, I don't agree with what they're doing, they should've just left EQ2 alone and just continued to make their new games F2P. If EQ2 was really in such bad shape population wise, which I really don't think it was by all estimates I've seen, they should've just did what they did w/ EQ, continue to support it, and get what money they can from it while it lasts. When it is no longer profitable just shut it down...that would've been much easier to accept then watching a game that I've put so much time into continue to operate, but in a way that I don't want to have any part of.
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