What does it take to get veterans to return to the game?

[Boomthunder]

I haven't posted or even thought about AOC for a very long time. Decided to see what's up with it - nothing's really changed.

Played for the first 2 or 3 years but let my sub run out.

What would it take for me to come back?

Well, to even come back F2P I'd like access to the things I bought and all of my characters. I bought Khitai, I should have access to it. I put work in to all characters I should have access to them and all my achievements up to when I stopped paying. I would open up T1/Vistrix, and all classes access to F2P also. This lack of access is the single biggest strike against me returning to AOC. Look at Everquest for an EXCELLENT free to play model.

I'd reexamine to cost of things in the store vs cost of FC points. For many things the value just isn't there.

It also mystifies and eludes me why they don't have an "all in one" pass for AOC, AO and TSW. I would likely buy a discounted year of that JUST because I'd play one of the three off and on at different times to warrant the year's pass. Again, see SOE's all access pass. This pass should have been in place for TSW's launch.

I would look at adding more variety of look through drops (again, see EQ's ornamentation system) and through the store. It would allow players to customize their look more while still designing a relatively narrow amount of gear stats.

A better LFG/Guild system would be nice. The chance to find rare loot off pretty much anything would be nice. A reason to do all content would be nice - not the 'best path' to gear up. Not saying soloists should get everything groupers get should get everything raiders get - but a variety of viable content to do would be nice. Enough of the same ol' same ol'. Go back and reitemize. We're all hankering for villa runs, right?

I fear the crowd has turned... I'll stop with that.

-Boom

[Raeil]

I haven't posted or even thought about AOC for a very long time. Decided to see what's up with it - nothing's really changed.

Played for the first 2 or 3 years but let my sub run out.

What would it take for me to come back?

Well, to even come back F2P I'd like access to the things I bought and all of my characters. I bought Khitai, I should have access to it. I put work in to all characters I should have access to them and all my achievements up to when I stopped paying. I would open up T1/Vistrix, and all classes access to F2P also. This lack of access is the single biggest strike against me returning to AOC. Look at Everquest for an EXCELLENT free to play model.

I'd reexamine to cost of things in the store vs cost of FC points. For many things the value just isn't there.

It also mystifies and eludes me why they don't have an "all in one" pass for AOC, AO and TSW. I would likely buy a discounted year of that JUST because I'd play one of the three off and on at different times to warrant the year's pass. Again, see SOE's all access pass. This pass should have been in place for TSW's launch.

I would look at adding more variety of look through drops (again, see EQ's ornamentation system) and through the store. It would allow players to customize their look more while still designing a relatively narrow amount of gear stats.

A better LFG/Guild system would be nice. The chance to find rare loot off pretty much anything would be nice. A reason to do all content would be nice - not the 'best path' to gear up. Not saying soloists should get everything groupers get should get everything raiders get - but a variety of viable content to do would be nice. Enough of the same ol' same ol'. Go back and reitemize. We're all hankering for villa runs, right?

I fear the crowd has turned... I'll stop with that.

-Boom

There was a big discussion about having access to Khitai at the time AoC went free to play. Basically it boils down to if you had access to all areas of the game for free there'd be no reason for you to ever pay Funcom another cent. Good for you, bad for Funcom and the game shuts down. My understanding is that the method of payment and access for new content going forward is under discussion and may or may not change.

The class restrictions were removed some time ago. Free to Play can play any class now.

Even EQ has it's own restrictions on free to play. Like not being able to use end game gear among other things.

Things in the store seem a bit high to me too.

The all access pass thing was nixed because they have different licensing deals with different publishers for each game. Or something to that effect. Would be great though. Or a lifetime sub for AoC like TSW has.

Being able to change the look of weapons and shields would be great.

You actually can get nice random drops. Any bag in Khitai has a small chance at giving a blue item and a very small chance of a purple. I've gotten about eight of the blue drops, some of which I'm still using though some got replaced by raid gear, but they are pretty rare. That was a lot of playing to get that many. But I certainly wouldn't say no to more solo content.

[coldcrom]

I think a win-win solution would be to give FTP players access to the Northerns Grasslands, with access to rank 3 in the factions there (no epics) and access to normal mode 6 mans in NG (no epics). That way they can see what post 80 looks like and getter a proper feel for what the game offers.

Also offering a free access all areas weekend each quarter could get older players, guilds and friends (who's accounts have lapsed or gone FTP) to come back and catch up and maybe resub.

[Hekenkel]

Gear farming is starting to destroy this game
same go's with the stupid raiding.

The Content people look for is nowhere to be found in AoC, reason why it's continue to decline till only the people are left that still like raiding only.

each month i return for the Cloak quest i see Nothing but absolute nothing have chanced.
Bet all those others thinking the same thing.

[Chass-]

Well recent changes has been great for aoc, on the pvp front and they are saying "we will give you t5" is also great.

Best way now is: Hello guys, we will launch new expansion(does not need to be huge), guess what! Its F2P for new players etc for 2 months! Yes! Come back u traitors that quit the game. As the game has gotten a lot better, with a long "trail" period with new content and lots of positive stuff ... yeah you got it!

[Kurt2013]

You are right for a certain type of veterans, but it will be temporarily, since gear progression like in aoc is a vicious circle.

AoC now lacks the fun route to create new veterans and i fear since khitai it attracted the wrong crowd (the temporarily one). What is missing right now is content veterans play with non veterans, including some progression and fun for all involved.

Game world expansion (with not only t5+ content) would be nice, too. Something to explore, new stories etc.. But i doubt they want or can do that now.

Some system changes to the better and more player choices and options (like for example with faction gear, but with less grind) would do wonders for all. To funcoms defense, they tried a bit of that recently, but not wholehearted and halfway as usual. They have the infrastructure to do so i am certain, so all is not lost.

But i guess this happens when you let dedication and creative vision as well as immersion get clouded by greed (back in 2011...now they have worse problems than greed) or do shameless inhouse competition. Imo the tsw >> aoc policy was completely unnecessary and both games paid for it.

In my experience aoc had many polarizing "events" over the years, that were not healthy (for some pvpers it was 1.05, for some the khitai expansion, for some the death of rp servers, for some certain revamps, for some the grind and gear power explosion and for others the merges with finally the server move to us, destroying the gameplay for many customers). There were healthy events too...but they are sadly kind of overshadowed or not able (or designed) to counteract the other events. It was too much of "take it or leave it" choices...instead of paying some homage to what was done before and give players choices (or a proper transition period).

[-Tutu-]

Surely I would like to see "dungeon finder" for pugs that would teleport you to place when joining queue, so you do not have to wait 20 minutes before everyone arrives :-)

[Boomthunder]

There was a big discussion about having access to Khitai at the time AoC went free to play. Basically it boils down to if you had access to all areas of the game for free there'd be no reason for you to ever pay Funcom another cent. Good for you, bad for Funcom and the game shuts down. My understanding is that the method of payment and access for new content going forward is under discussion and may or may not change.

The class restrictions were removed some time ago. Free to Play can play any class now.

Even EQ has it's own restrictions on free to play. Like not being able to use end game gear among other things.

(snip some things here)

You actually can get nice random drops. Any bag in Khitai has a small chance at giving a blue item and a very small chance of a purple. I've gotten about eight of the blue drops, some of which I'm still using though some got replaced by raid gear, but they are pretty rare. That was a lot of playing to get that many. But I certainly wouldn't say no to more solo content.

Having access to Khitai, which I bought, would show they valued the things I did buy while playing. Same with access to all my characters I had while playing. Look at it this way, they cut me off from something I bought, why should I give them money to access what I paid for? Makes no sense. Funcom would then get revenue from folks like me via their store and new content which I would be MUCH more likely to do if they didn't sell me something and then take it away.

When EQ went F2P they gave everyone all expansions aside from the latest one. They bring out one expansion per year and a LOAD of stuff in their market place. Some of it via their player studio which, at this point, FC can't compete with. EQ also puts in very desirable features with their expansions, making them something you'd consider getting even if you can't do the content yet. EQ's restrictions are on prestige augments and, of course, anything in the newer expansions if you did not buy them (usually by level. Don't have expansion X? Can't get to level 100 and use the level restricted item). Their restrictions are very lax. Certainly more lax than "That's great you bought it but we're cutting off access until you pay us one way or another."

Good to know all classes are open. Now they just have to give access to the characters I had when I was a paying member. Not creating new ones is fine and not returning that slot as usable if I delete is fine. Progress in F2P will be limited anyway, allowing me to play those characters would be a nice gesture. Keep the slot restrictions for new accounts while enticing returning players.

Random drops in Khitai are nice and that was there before I quit, I believe, but what about the rest of the world? Can't get at Khitai (which I bought), remember...

FC's mistake in free to play was giving way too little and not making a compelling case for resubbing or buying what they offer. Again, not allowing me access to Khitai was a huge strike. Not having access to my characters was another strike. Initial restriction of 2 gold was far to little (I know it's 10 now). I can see a new player running out of options on things to do in very short order. Opening up T1 raids should be a no brainer (and vistrix).

F2P has to be a vehicle of advertisement. The more you let players do the more likely they will be to stay, pay something, and tell their friends about it. In my opinion FC misses the boat on many things marketing wise (hint: it's not about advertisements) and f2p for players that stopped subscribing, and new players, is absolutely one of them.

I know I point back to EQ a lot, but they really nailed their F2P model there in terms of f2p content available and items to buy. It got me to resub.

AOC's resub usually consists of exp potions, I have a load of those as is - don't need more. A little more creativity here would help.

[Raeil]

There are the jeweled chests that randomly drop in the rest of the world with blue items. Also in Turan there are some daily quests that result in blue armor of your level. Including the no drop pieces like breastplates.

I totally forgot about Turan and Dragonspine. If you buy Turan, it's 10 bucks last I looked, you have access to it forever even as free to play. Dragonspine is completely free but you need to be subbed to access it.

They've also revamped a number of dungeons into unchained versions with different mechanics and new and improved loots. With unchained raids in the pipeline. Can't say for sure but I think you need to be subbed to have access to these.

There's also the world bosses one week out of every month that drop T1 and T2 raid items and rarely T3 relics and T3 level accessories. I assumed you knew about this so didn't mention it before. Killing twelve of these results in an epic cloak as well, though it only counts one kill per month so it takes twelve months at the least to get the cloak.

Keep in mind that originally if you canceled your subscription you had access to nothing at all. Zero of anything. If you did have access to Khitai and all character slots as free to play what would you be willing to spend money on then? I can't speak for Funcom but I'd guess that's what they need to know.

Edit to add that you also get 200 bonus Funcom points each month that you're subbed now.

Suppose the above should also read what would then entice you to sub if you had access to Khitai and all characters as free to play.

[Kurt2013]

Probably not with the current shop and pricing there, but imagine a bunch of convenience products that could come in accountwide bundles for a reasonable price.

Sure, you would have those "leechers" who will keep playing and not spending regularly, BUT as boomthunder reasoned, they already paid something (same with char slots, permanent access passes etc.) and they actively encourage others to pay this too while keeping the gameworld alive. Also they might be tempted to buy other things from time to time, when they want or need it (like boosters, temporary access to endgame etc.). For example the money i spent as f2p equals or is more than the money i spent while subbed (for years). Of course you have to offer something valueable under this f2p model (and here permanency and accountwide options are keywords).

The AoC shop is just weird, as is the f2p model...on one hand you have ridicolous restrictions that hurt the game...on the other hand they gave away things for free, that would have been ideal canidates for the pay to access ONCE model and for special hybrid offers. And lottery now.

Do you know that even if f2p wanted, they could not access dragonspine or t4/t5 or the unchained dungeons unless subbing? That they removed convenient payment methods for european players?