The devil in the details: What can go wrong with Freedom {and how to prevent it}

Since I haven't seen one around, I figured we could use a thread to discuss the Freedom move in terms of pre-stress-testing, basically taking what information we have so far and seeing how it could be used to harm the game if left as is.

So, a couple offhand things;

1. Free/Premium {imma just call them F/P from now on} can't, in the side-by-side comparison, use the Help channel. Considering how many trial accounts I've seen decide to subscribe based on the assistance they got from the community, leaving it in seems like a net gain overall. Problem is, with the influx of new players, odds are we'll see a resurgence of Help goldspam. How do we prevent that?
2. On a similar note, a lot of trial accounts have complained about the inability to find teams via tells or broadcast. Suggestion: Allow VIP to "sponsor" one or two F/P players, essentially giving them a slightly expanded channel use, say tells and broadcasts, at the rate of one per minute. The usage limit should serve as a shiny carrot to dangle to spring for a subscription while preventing a flood of replaceable spam characters. The sponsorship "token" would be returned to the issuer if the sponsoree upgrades to a VIP account; it would not be returned or refunded if they go inactive or get banned.
3. There is some content that's locked away from F/P players. How does that affect VIP players that decide to team with F/P characters? Will there be a warning system in place that will basically say "This Hero will not be able to participate in the mission/arc you have selected"? Some way to quickly identify account types would help prevent that, like an icon next to the name {like bronze/silver/gold star}.

An open letter to NCsoft

A bit of clarification about point #1, Free and Premium players can use the /help channel. That will be open to everyone. One of the things that's great about the City of Heroes community is the willingness of our players to assist others; we want all players to have access to that.

So... the Free players will have the same restrictions as the current trial account now or?
(Thinking of those cursed goldseller/power level services)
This would just be a gift for them as they can freely use chars to get influence etc. Would a free player be able to send e-mail, talk in local, make teams etc?

Maybe this will help clear things a bit...

http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/fre...es.html#tabs-3

The side by side comparion shows exactly what a Free 2 play, Premium and VIp player can expect.

As you can see F2P has very limited access to chat and from what I see, aside from help, no access to any of the numerous globals players now use to find and form teams.

It says they get no access to email period so i think we can assume that includes emailing salvage, recipes, and INF to themselves.

As for the market it says "limited" exactly what that means I am not sure but for VIPs it specifies we can buy/sell/and store.

Heck it looks like if they even want access to the invention system they need to pay for it.. I assume that's what that means anyway.

Everything I see makes it clear that free to play will be little more than an extended trial sub. They get no access to incarnates and don't even get access to all of the ATs we do. Its more a way to let folks start for free, get a feel for the game and if they like it and want more they will pay the sub and become VIPs.

Another thing - free accounts can only have two characters per account - so what's to stop them from making additional accounts for another two characters each?

An open letter to NCsoft

Going the extra mile to add it so that Free players can use the tell system to Server/Global friends I think would be beyond awesome.

Probably alot of work, but would definately go along way, they get a team, make a few quick friends, and can still let those friendships grow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooGirl [*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*

Current players who switch to F2P: What happens to their alts that are in current SGs? Are they kicked out? Does the SG lose the prestige for these alts?

I'm a little worried that people who decide to go free to play are going to not be allowed to be members of SGs? Did I read that right? I can see not letting f2p people CREATE SGs, or maybe even have rank within SGs restricted.... but not allowed to join SGs at all?! That seems rather Draconian, the social aspect is a big part of this game and the freebie-ers are already so restricted in other areas such as chat. Not letting them into SGs just seems really mean.

Or maybe I just read that wrong; these threads have been hard to keep up with since the announcement.

I plan on remaining a paying player, but dislike the idea of friends losing access to the base and what have you.

I believe Premiums are able to join SGs, just not make them.

Correct. Existing accounts that stop paying are NOT Free accounts - they are Premium accounts. The only way to get a Free account is to create an account and never ever give NCSoft a penny for it. Any existing players, even ones who aren't currently active, will either be VIP (paid) or Premium (free). And both of those can join SGs.

After having been playing on Freedom for awhile I notice that the Help channel over there is filled with LF team/trial/tf already. This can become problematic soon.

I think many of us are excited at the thought of getting more players into the game, we're all just leery about what KIND of players we get into the game. No one wants a return of the bad ol' days of gold spammers or obnoxious 13 year olds hurling profanities and insults. So, the problem would be, how do we make the game feel inclusive to new (and returning) players, without being driven crazy by the flotsam and jetsam we're also going to be getting?

Here is my list of ways to break things:

1. Have letter explaining CoX etiquette. Not the formal code of conduct, we have that. Have this written out as something you have to read through along the other agreements, and something everyone can go back and refer to as well.
I think one reason we get new players who are heavy on the obnoxious side is because that behavior is the standard on other MMO's. New players want to seem MMO-savvy, want to avoid the dreaded n00b label, and want to gain respect. (Heck, we see this behavior on the help channel every day NOW!) Let them know off the bat that a) this isn't how things are HERE, b) your response is going to be negative if you do act like this, and c) if this is what you're looking for, don't bother logging in here, you won't be happy.
I know there is a page of suggestions for getting involved when you buy the game, but it doesn't address the issues we all see. Innocuous statements like "be friendly and you will find lots of nice people" can easily be interpreted as "show your inner L33tness and spam profanities, and make sure anyone who responds negatively to this is called a <homosexual slur>, so they know you're nobody's <female dog>" This is not just a product of unsupervised children run amok. It's very much due to the fact that this IS norm elsewhere.

2. Don't treat the F2P people like pariahs, even if some of them will be. Give them a little taste of the fun stuff here, and make them want more.
-I agree with 2 toons. This is a taste of our beloved altitis.
-I even agree with the people who have suggested that the VIP server should be a F2P server. Let them make starter bases there - 1-2 teleporters, 1 insp container, no sg members (don't feed the potential bullies here), and by all means, decorate your little suite to your hearts content, perhaps with limited access base items. I think this would be HUGE in terms of whetting the appetite for more! If we are insistent about a VIP server, make one. (However, since we have a gazillion more servers than we need, could we think about merging some of the less populated servers?)
-let them view (but not speak in) other channels, as previously suggested by others. Allow them to send personal tells to join teams and etc., hopefully with a disclaimer to the one getting the tell that it's from a F2P player. Look, most of us WANT to include new people! We also want a warning that this might be a belligerent jerk, too. This would also let team leaders know that perhaps the F2P player can't join, as they can't access the type of mission they're doing. As others have suggested, give an option to refuse all tells from F2P players, too. Many may like doing community service, but don't make the ones who are not interested have to deal with it.
-not sure about having their name in a different color, identifying them as second (third?) class citizens. How about on a mouse-over, or a click on player info?
-Have sufficient support staff to jump on spammers and jerks immediately, as well as we as players doing our part to report this stuff when it happens.

Quinchs' comment about how to prevent F2P players from having multiple accounts is a really sobering thought. Any ideas on how this is being addressed?

Quick question...

As a premium player, will I be able to send tells and use the global channels I use now?

Any suggestions about what to give Freeks that makes it so they have no reason to ever step up to being Preems or Veeps is a DOA suggestion.

As has been said, Freeks get access to about 80% of the game. Whittling the restrictions away to 99% of the game ain't gonna happen.

Also, some of those restrictions has nothing to do with purposely setting aside part of the game to make them want to pay for it. Many of the restrictions are to prevent Griefers from bothering the Paying Customers. And many of the restrictions are to prevent RMTers from bothering the Paying Customers or preying on the Freeks. If the Freeks want to step up and get more stuff, they should be paying NCSoft and not RMTers. The restrictions in place ensure that.

The main thing they need to do is make sure that gamers as a whole see the Freedom thing in a positive light, not just on Massively or PC gamer...the word needs to be out there, everywhere, it needs to be challenging the preconceptions of why subscription games go Free to Play.

Switching from Subscriber to Free to play (as I've said elsewhere it IS free to play and I wish they would stop trying to really obviously use marketting spin to try to make it sound otherwise, LOTRO is considered 'Free to play' by the gaming populous at large yet has basically the same model as CoH:Freedom does) is seen as a desperation move by the gaming population at large, a move to try and grab as much money from people as they can in a short space of time or lose everything.

Sorry but it is, every single MMO that has done this kind of move has done so purely out of desperation,

The reason for this...the big gorilla in the room is still subscription based and anyone switching from Subscription to F2P is seen as 'not being able to keep up''

Now don't get me wrong, CoH is basically the big Gorilla in the room for Superhero MMOs. . So CoH has that advantage.

I'm odd in that if CoH wasn't long for this MMO world, I'd rather CoH had an abrupt but dignified death rather than some prolonged half-life existence as a nickle and dimeing MMO where it just sullies it's own name and eventually peters out.

That is rather selfish of me, I admit, there are obviously people that would be out of a job if such a thing happened but there's nothing worse than seeing something you love become something you despise.

oh and Dooooom(tm).

Jesus that post was depressing...I'm sure someone will post a picture of kittens or something to cheer everyone up.

Near as I can tell, all you have to do to make the jump from Free to Premium is spend money once on the game.

So if you are a free player and want to join an SG, just cough ip $5 or so for Paragon Points and use them on something cool, and join whatever SG you want.