In an apparent effort to woo former EverQuest players back into the fold, SOE is offering them a free level 85 Heroic Character (https://www.everquest.com/heroic). They can also upgrade one existing character to level 85.
It's a good deal for someone who wants to play EQ again.
It is and they are offering the same deal for EQ2.
Sounds very similar to what Blizzard just did with WoW. Allowing people who pre-purchase the next expansion to instant boost a character to 90. Its really sparked off a lot of controversy in the WoW community. A lot of complaints on how "noobs" wont know how to play their class, etc. I don't think either EQ or WoW aiming this at new players, I think at this point both are just trying to maintain their current subscribers and maybe bring back old players.
The biggest difference is that it will cost $49.99 to get a level 90 WoW (https://us.battle.net/shop/en/product/world-of-warcraft-warlords-of-draenor?utm_content=left-banner&utm_medium=launcher&utm_source=internal&utm_campaign=wow#deluxe/?utm_source=internal-WoW-Launcher&utm_medium=leftside-ads&utm_campaign=WoWx6-presales) character and nothing to get a free level 85 character in EQ (https://www.everquest.com/heroic).