In my opinion the marketing of AoC to the Asian market failed because AoC just isn't their style of game. They like colorful and incredibly huge armor and weapons. Quick twitch combat. Games like FF, Tera, WoW. AoC just isn't their style. I for one do love RoTG. Grindy or not.
My advice would be to run urgently T6 bosses who are ready to live, rather than waiting until all the T6 will be ready.
After news of Fancom bankruptcy, people no longer want to subscribe to. Give reasons they subscribe to. I am afraid that, in a few months will be very few people stay in game.
Kattas - 10.PvP, full T6 and full AA demo
No one has been scammed. People were presented with a clear choice. Buy the expansion and pay a subscription to maintain access to that expansion, or don't. The subscription isn't a lot of money in anyone's terms, a 12 month sub equating to £1.30 a week. My 11 year old son could afford that off his pocket money and you'd have to be a stingy tramp of the highest order to find that amount prohibitive. People who complain about tiny amounts of money like that are invariably still living at home with their mum who makes all the financial decisions.
FTP gives access to a lot of the old game...if you want to do the end game material (since khitai is basically 80 level things anyway), then you can FTP til lvl 80 and sub to get the higher tier things if you want.
FTPs can even get t1/t2 and maybe t3 gear (relics) now from the world boss.
But if you are going to play a game that heavily, then subscribing for the cost of a movie with drink/popcorn a month seems like a pretty good deal to me. Plus you can do forums 24/7.
There has to be some reason for people to subscribe and support Funcom. You get the best stuff by subbing.
I bought a bunch of 3 month game cards at one point for about 8 dollars each (gave them away to friends). And an annual subscription is about 8/month.