Release the F2P restrictions.

[Kogoro]

I think it is about time Funcom removed the restrictions from Free to Play. They need to attract players into Premium instead of forcing them to in order to get all of the available content.

A F2P model I would like to see Age of Conan adopt is the one that Rift currently uses. It gives pretty much all of the games content for free, but also has a lot of neat things you can purchase from the in-game store such as Mounts, Vanity, potions, and a daily recharge of a 40% experience increase.

Here are some things Funcom could offer in exchange for removing the free to play restrictions. These offers will encourage people to go Premium instead of forcing them to pay to get access to the full game:

- 15-30 AA points each month (for faster progression)
- Free server transfer every 2 months of being a member(questionable)
- Offer a 24 hour cooldown +40% experience buff for 2 hours. (max 7 charges)(faster progression)
- Offer more mounts, more vanity gear and a 20% discount for premium users.
- Offer a 24 hour cooldown +40% PvP experience buff for 2 hours. (Max 7 charges)(faster progression)
- 20% mount movement speed increase(quality of life boon)

These are just a few ideas (mostly copied from Rifts free to play setup), and I am sure if Funcom were to be creative, they could think of other reasonable and non "pay to win" type offers to encourage players to become premium.

Not only will the game become more popular(which it desperately needs) thanks to a generous free to play option, but it will also attract more Premium purchases. A restrictive free to play model usually pushes players away from the game(usually because of frustration) rather than encourages them to become premium.

Worst case scenario, you will get a bunch of new Free to Play players but the game will still become more popular via word of the mouth.

Please consider this Funcom(if they are even reading).

[Anubium]

It costs 9/month to get an annual subscription. If Funcom doesn't get the money in then they can't keep the game up.

The items in the shop are overpriced for the most part: a regular horse costs about $6 US or so, and its one gold in game. Funcom should revamp the item shop prices to make them more reasonable then they can sell more things.

The bottom line is whether Funcom makes more money from the item shop or from subscriptions. Since the game is not booming, there are fewer people to pay to play. If the FTP crowd does not put in enough money to keep the game afloat then we will lose the game entirely and only Funcom knows the bottom line on costs.

Putting up another sub offer with a mount or some such for each character might help. Opening up more content for FTPs is happening already.

Limiting AAs and t3/t4 raids to subscribers only sounds fair to me, since if you enjoy the game by lvl 80 you should be willing to pay to get the better content. If you do an annual sub even without perks you get to pay 9/month and that's a good deal imo. I pay more to go out one night for a movie and snack night.

This whole getting a free lunch doesn't really make sense to me: if something is worth playing then helping to pay for the game's upkeep seems reasonable to me. Opening up everything for a FTP would reduce Funcom's income over time and I don't know if they can afford it: only they know how they are doing financially and how going FTP affected the game.

I can see opening up more content (t2 raids) to FTPs might help, since the raid leaders can make rules for pugs on what gear is required before allowing people with cruddy gear in a wing2 raid (like the guy on global lvl 80 with green 40 lvl gear wanting to raid khitai or t2s...). Hopefully t3/t4 pugs won't accept people who don't have any gear in their raids, thus encouraging people to get a sub.

[Loaf-of-Evil]

Both of you have good points. Unfortunately, it appears the majority do not look at "value". Anub, even though you are correct about the value, people want shiny things. They want things to sparkle. $9 cheaper than a movie does not sparkle. FREE content, EVERY area available, AWESOME mount for $5. That is sparkly and shiny and what will bring people and sales in 2013.

Giggity.

[Kurt2013]

If the monthly cost is cheap enough for people (assumption) and the sub value is increased (content limit, inventory limit, shop discount, AA etc.), then where are the subscribers?
There are probably enough people who will think the sub is not worth it (again, assuming they could afford it).

Questions should be, how can they earn money from those people in f2p and why do they not sub, if it is so fine?

About the f2p system:
There are some restrictions that make sense, but in general it should be possible to get the same experience in the game, if you pay at the shop (either by buying temporary access or permanent upgrades).
This is definitely NOT the case right now. You are either subbed or not. Not being subbed locks you out from playing regularly with friends (unless you pvp or rp).

On the other hand even now, there is a great possibility with complete access to the old world for f2p and a great number of f2p vets to use that to bridge the pve gap or make the old world appear more lively.

Here are my two cents about changes:

- allow for accountwide buy option for EVERYTHING possible for a reasonable price
- allow for one time permanent upgrades to cancel the f2p restrictions of bank space, quest space, quest log, inventory space and resource space for a reasonable price (and accountwide option of course)
- allow for more inventory upgrades (bank and inventory)
- offer temporary content access pack bundles (kk grinder pack (KK and KK instances), nm grinder pack (ng and chosain access, instances there), Bori grinder pack (border kingdom access), raider packs (t2,3,4+) etc.)
- offer regularly upgrades for cultural vanity, maybe even temporary offers available only at special times
- add existing npc clothes to the shop
- add existing emotes to be bought from the shop
- add existing companions/mounts to be bought from the shop
- balance the pricing (cheap for vanity charbound, thrice that for accountbound and higher prices only for temporary offers)
- remove the chat restrictions without ANY condition

What funcom did right recently:
- higher gold cap (10g now)
- more funcom points to use in the shop for premiums

I do not count the class restriction removal as good thing here, because for them it would have been better to just treat them as suggested above (for at least a one time cash return for a permanent upgrade).

[timewaster]

I don't agree with the OP here but do agree with most of Kurt's post. Although I do think that OP's buff could be added to the shop without lifting F2P restrictions.

Personally I think F2P cut off mostly from end game is a reasonable pay wall (I actually felt like they should have kept 80-80 dungeons on lock down too but it's been done and now there will eventually be unchained versions of most things anyway). The game content wise there is already plenty given away for free, but some of the add-ons/shop items could use an upgrade and some restructuring/repricing to make them more appealing. Also I see no reason why there should not be other ways around that pay wall (or at least parts of it) aside from subbing.

One thing that might be worth considering for the general F2P restrictions (gold, chat) is a "paid but non-sub" status like they have in some games like they have in SWTOR or DCUO. Meaning if you buy Turan or GotGS or just an extra toon slot, your gold limit goes up and you can now message all players, since you have now provided an identity are/are paying something and are (likely) not a spammer. Business wise getting someone to jump from fully free to buying something is a big jump so incentivising that more seems smart. That said I've never understood why they don't just have a chat throttle instead of disabling messaging of subs. That still hurts me as a sub sometimes in zone trying to communicate/group...


I feel like strictly per toon inventory/etc upgrades (in any game) are gouging (unless it's really cheap) and sort of a waste. It you happen to like playing alts instead on a single or few super-pimp toons the cost curve is way out of hand there. I will not touch bank upgrades with anything but bonus points per toon but might if it was account wide. I agree roughly with the previous balance comment.


Also, note to Funcom: a reasonably priced account wide upgrade up for either 1) resource storage so I am not constantly full just from gems+alchemy mats or 2) account wide shared material storage like in guild wars = I buy that on the first day (of course it would help if the crafting revamp is done well and also knows how to integrate lower level mats into upper level use like any good system will...).


There are actually a lot of things that AoC can do as a "hybrid" model that don't just have to copy the next guy in line that would probably help cash flow some as long as they 1) make sense and 2) seem fair in price and practice to the players.. It is astounding how often this does not happen due to various companies attempting money grabs, harpooning, or just being out of touch with players. A fairly treated fan base = a loyal fan base, which cannot be underestimated in terms of long term impact (just look at EVE).


Actually, please Funcom designers/business team just read Ramin Shokrizade's blog if you aren't already.

[Kellaxe]

I think the F2P model is a little broken. First, they need to make being premium better, and second the F2P needs to be less restrictive.

Both would pull more people in, and the more they play, the more likely they become a premium...

[Apexpredator]

F2P if a bad business model. What funcon should do is not change a thing, spend about 5-6 million in advertising on TV - game mags, websites and increase the foot traffic.

People are not subbed because like me, I wish I didn't. my server is DEAD. No updates, no merge it's ****

[Mysticblood]

Some things in the cash shop are overpriced but most itemized products are competitive to other f2p models. Unfortunately we hit a point where people don't want to pay a sub for an mmo, they are realizing they don't have to pay a month sub. Aion, tsw, gw2 all completely unrestricted and huge populations. If they released the f2p restrictions (which is too heavy) and a little smart promoting the population would boom and the money fc pulls in from the cash shop will be far and beyond what it AND the subs are pulling in now. The secret is population, not taking long time dedicate sans for granted and making the pay more.

Death to p2p

[K4nnyc]

The F2P model is broken. It's too restrictive and the items in the cash shop are massively overpriced.

Sub costs. IMHO its not worth the sub cost at the moment. Funcom do not do any regular content updates to warrant even the current low subscription price. Typically paying a sub infers that the producer actually produces new content and rolls it out monthly. Thats how it works in most other sub based games. We go 6-12 months with no pve content, no fixes, no class balance, no revamps, no pvp content whatsoever.

So lets recap. Overpriced (macro not micro transaction) shop. Near ZERO content production, but there is a monthly sub... No wonder the game's on it's arse.

[Mokona]

Agreed with K4nnyc, there is nothing to bring me back to the game at the moment. Hell, even as F2P is not worth to login since most of my characters, with lots of AAs, are blocked or gimped. I'm not interested even to run Atzel Fortress for the fun and enjoy the old content whatsoever or to buy occasionaly some crap from the in-game store.