Ever, Jane Is Now In Free-To-Play Open Beta
Following a rather long Closed Beta, Ever, Jane, the roleplay-heavy MMORPG set in "Regency England and the works of Jane Austen," has finally entered a free-to-play Open Beta state. You can now the game from the official website completely free of charge and begin your life in Regency England.
As the game is free-to-play now, it is now ed by a cash shop. Players can buy Pounds Sterling Regency, of which they are given 111 for free, and purchase various types of clothing, two of which will only be on sale during Open Beta. For the time being, the most expensive garments are only a mere $5. I imagine that new types of items will be added to the cash shop as the Beta progresses. Unfortunately for those of you who missed out on the game's crowdfunding efforts, it does not seem as if you can purchase a house at this time.
Other new features included in the first Open Beta release are a revised version of the village of Tyrehampton, additional customization options when you create your character, a Dressing Room where players can change their clothing, the first iteration of carriages that players can drive, the first version of "a possible new village named Oakston," and a new story called "In Want of a Spouse." Additionally, all of the game's previous Stories have been recreated using the game's in-development Story Builder tool. With that out of the way, more Stories are currently being worked on. It is noted that the Story Builder tool may even be made available to players, if all goes well.
Matt's Take:
It has been over half a year since I interviewed 3 Turn Productions' Judy Tyrer about Ever, Jane and, at the time, the game was supposed to enter Open Beta this past January. It's nice to see that, despite being delayed another seven months or so, the game has, in fact, made it to Open Beta. With the introduction of a cash shop, I'm left wondering if they abandoned their initial plan to introduce a tiered subscription model that would mirror an in-game system of varying social classes, but it was mentioned that the team wasn't planning to introduce subscriptions at all until after Open Beta.
Now that it's free-to-play and the barrier to entry is significantly lower, it's certainly worth taking a look to see if it's a game you might be interested in playing. That being said, it does seem as if it is still fairly light on content, relying more heavily on roleplay than anything else. I imagine that would quickly change, should the Story Builder tool be released for players to use.
