Obsolete F2P, any advice to improve it!!!

[zujilin]

I believe (and I say this as a premium player) I think it came time to review the F2P model or at least make it less restrictive if you, Funcom, you want to attract new people.
The WB that you have introduced, give gear T1 and T2 as if they were peanuts or candy at the Halloween party, they also give relic and rares T3 and weapons and accessories equivalent, so why there are so many closed doors if players f2p have access to that level of gear?
To my advice:
1) T1 should be totally open, it is useless to keep Vistrix closed for a stupid cape that is now obsolete, the F2P have access to the legendary capes of WB!

2) T2 should be totally open, what sense does it hold closed that place when players F2P have access to that level of gear but then do not have experience in playing at that level?

3) T3 should be open, at least partially open at least the lower floar of T3, thanks to the rare relic T3 and T3 generously offered by WB f2p also have however access to the gear T3, also it is about to introduce LFG and LFR, might as well the F2P have access too!

4) If you want to make more money and sell more RotGS open the Khitai in the same way it opened Gateway to Khitai, open world, instances closed. Open NG, Chosain, KK and Paikang maps, but keep closed instances (Pagoda-Flame ... T4. Etc.). It is right that those who paid for it can not find the doors closed on his face.
Item epic in khitai (helmet, chest, boots and wrist) will buy (respectively 16 and 12 golds), the limit for gold of F2P is 10 gold, they may still not buy them, the remaining 4 pieces (legs, shoulders, gloves and belt) can be found only in the instances (that are closed to them), then what's the problem in letting them enjoy the new maps and quests and some blu item (they probably will not want them either, since you gave them t2 and t3 easy by WB)?

5) Make these changes known and I do not mean the silly letters that come to those who are already your customer (we pay you, we know), but make it known on forums and websites unrelated to your community!

[Kogoro]

An idea I had was instead of what you mentioned, they open all tiers up to tier 3, but just not include any gear drops. That means they can participate in the raid fights and mechanics, but will be unable to roll or obtain the gear that drops from the raids.

Would be the ideal "carrot on a stick".

Two things they HAVE to fix:

1. Allow F2P players to PM subscribers without the subscribed players being forced to add the F2P players to their friends list, AS LONG as the subscribed players send the first PM. This way, gold spammers cannot PM players (unless they buy a subscription) and you can still start a conversation with F2P players without flooding your friends list.

2. (MOST IMPORTANT) Allow F2P players to be able to READ Global chat, but unable to talk in it. Many new players when they join this game find that nobody is chatting in /nph and they assume the game is dead. If new players had knowledge of the global chat, they would see the game is very much alive and stick to it. They might also subscribe to be given access to speaking in Global.

[Flip--]

One thing (I think) that is not that well known to F2P - if you purchase something in the item store (yes real money) you get full global access.

[gcustoms]

Less restrictive? It's already pretty open.
Do you not remember the old model?

[Belsvard]

i would say:

- Open all t1 and t2 raids
- Open khitai to all who already bought it, this pisses everyone off, why do you charge for something they already paid? not good
- remove everything that has content for limited time and sell unlimited access, of course at a higher price
- let players get FC points from archivements, at least enough to buy a vanity armor or something.

Reward the player that plays your game, that makes them happy, do not punish them for not paying, some just can't or don't want to because they don't like how the company treats them. a focus on the user experience is something this game is lacking... they want to be rewarded, they want to feel special.

the last f2p model update was great compared to the first, but still a long way to go

[ckirmser]

After a year or so of F2P, I saw no problem with it.

It's free, I played, so it seems to have met the basic requirements.

Further, it led me to subbing for the past several months.

I'd say their F2P is spot on.

[Jaedelyia]

F2P model is fine as long as you don't hit the 80. Many other MMO introduce way more stupid restriction the AoC does. That said, they should really open Vissy and T2 because it's way more interesting than T1 and gives a better impression on raiding than Yakh, for instance. (Ha, instance)

[ZackApior]

Vistrix and t2 should be totally open for f2p. I would just make 1 restriction in w1 - shards in loot not visible for f2pers to avoid farming and ruining economy.

I wouldn't mind opening Northern Grasslands as well and Pillars of Heaven - 1 of most deserted dungeons in Khitai. Not sure if Breach is open for f2p, if not then open it, I have never seen any announcement in global for that dungeon. Or open Khitai open world areas (no dungeons) for those who purchased Khitai already. Possibility to buy epic faction gear could be blocked for f2p.

[Kurt2013]

You can argue about more access, but even if you see f2p now as extended trial or demo version to make the game appear more populated...this fails because of many unnecessary restrictions.
I do not think more free instance access will work, but they should offer more comfortable and cheaper ways for f2p to spent money. Also the access limitations as you say in some places do not make sense. For example the incentive to spent money or sub would be higher, if f2p with khitai expansion could enter the basic zones and easily buy an access pass for a dungeon, if they should feel like it and the price was right (which atm it is NOT). The way it works now is rather like "oh, i can't go there anyway, why bother?" than "cool! my friends are all there, i need to be there too!".

But the main problem is the limited payment methods now. They might work for US based players, but in other parts of the world credit cards are not as common or trustworthy. Personally i could only give them money by paypal or credit cards. Which only makes sense, if i really wanted to buy something and it would be worth it...while with international bank transfer it would be different for me (less risk, more control, more convenient).

[zujilin]

Vistrix and t2 should be totally open for f2p. I would just make 1 restriction in w1 - shards in loot not visible for f2pers to avoid farming and ruining economy.

I wouldn't mind opening Northern Grasslands as well and Pillars of Heaven - 1 of most deserted dungeons in Khitai. Not sure if Breach is open for f2p, if not then open it, I have never seen any announcement in global for that dungeon. Or open Khitai open world areas (no dungeons) for those who purchased Khitai already. Possibility to buy epic faction gear could be blocked for f2p.

these are things that I have already suggested in my post if you read them. It is not necessary to prevent f2p to buy epic gear if Funcom let them get in Khitai (who bought RoTGS), the F2P players have a limit of 10 golds, the epic item cheapest costs 12 golds, the problem was resolved alone.
Breach and Forgotten City are closed to f2p!