http://launcher.station.sony.com/
thats a link to the station launcher. everyone knows it well but with RoK they are changing it to run in the background alongside EQ2 to update the game constantly. They are making it so the game must be ran through their patcher everytime. Even after the patch its still connected.
I tried changing the art for the launcher once but when I used it again it seens that the files didnt match up and redownloaded.
So this means that since the patcher is always on and always checking the files in EQ2 how are you going to connect to another server?
Not only does that suck but it also takes up an additional 200+mb of ram to run it alongside the amount eq2 was already stealing.
This seems pretty crappy. Any ideas/comments? hopefully it wont work out like it sounds.

The Station Launcher is an optional download. Don't use it and it won't update. But thinks for the info.

Its optional for now. After RoK they said it is supposed to be mandatory to update in the background. Ill see if I can get a quote or something from a dev.
EDIT:
http://launcher.station.sony.com/faq.vm

Cool, if you can get the quote from a dev that'll be different but from that faq.

Can I uninstall Station Launcher after I complete my download?
Yes, you can uninstall Station Launcher, however doing so will result in losing the ability to login and play your games. Many Station Games are frequently updated, and the Station Launcher is required in order to apply these updates to your games.

Sounds to me you don't have to have it installed to play.
Also you can just tell your firewall to block it since it's not part of the game it shouldn't effect eq2 itself. But we'll see what happens, there's a way around everything.

'Yes, you can uninstall Station Launcher, however doing so will result in losing the ability to login and play your games.'
you can choose not to put then you cant play eq2. Im not saying you cant get around it. im just saying that it will be an issue soon.

Well, see, heres the thing. If it is mandatory, and it has to ran to play the game, we still should not have to worry. There are two files that you can run from EQ2 to play your game, EQ2.exe which of course is the patcher, and everquest2.exe, which is the game. The first will be replaced by the Staion Launcher, the second will still remain in place and the "launcher" will launch this after the file check and updates have been preformed. You can still skip the launcher, new or old all together with the second file like we have for years with EqEmu and now with EQ2Emu.
There is always away to bypass the patcher because the patcher is just that, the patcher. Not the actual game.
--UPDATE--
I downloaded the launcher and took a look at it. It still leaves the everquest2.exe file in tact and it can still be executed on its own with out the requirments of the launcher. In addition the "Always Acitve" thing looks more like a convinenice feature than something thats really going to matter. I have never seen them constantly update the game minute after minute, so its just really all show. Kinda like Steam.
Also, after patching today to LU39, making the client compatible with LIVE, I can still close down the patcher, boot up everquest2.exe and log in to LIVE servers just fine. I think its safe to say that we are in the clear.

Maybe I do not understand what you're talking about, but from my understanding, the Launcher already allows "update while I am playing" as an option. And anyone playing legit SOE games use their launchpads for this reason. Running the game exe directly will circumvent patching, but will also not allow obsolete clients to connect to their servers (and I imagine they religiously track IPs and Client Versions somewhere... data is power!)
If the emulator plans to cruise along with Live EQ2, then I can see it being a problem for those without an account (have to log in to patch). But if we plan to have a launch point (say Kunark?) and sit on that for a year during development, I still do not see the problem. Maybe I am an optimist. But there's more than one way to hack a product.
Which, speaking of paranoia... anyone who doesn't understand "referrers" probably should stop linking everything from this site to SOE. Who knows how popular this domain will become with them, eh?

In any event, people who want to play in the Emulator and on Live will (ideally) have two full EQ2 directories...Launcher install and updates will only effect one of the two, whichever one you connect to Live with.
Emulator folks won't patch after installing RoK-Retail anyways, hence the need for 2 installations.