Meta-Changes

With Freedom comes numerous changes. Change in the form of F2P/Hybrid. Change in the form of microtrans. Change in the form of content delivered and on and on.

What I'd like to discuss here is the unseen changes. The small little things that have to be amended now. In the way we view the game, it's community and the way we play. First up is one I've brought up elsewhere.

Blind invites being rude/not a team worth playing with.

This might be an easy adjustment to make, then again it may prove to be such an ingrained idea for the vets that we don't shake it that quickly. Fact is though, come Freedom, blind invites will be the only way to roll for the majority of players. Free players won't be able to communicate with us and vice versa. It ceases to be 'rude' when it's the only option.

Costume Contests could be considered rude.

This might be a stretch, but considering that, with Freedom comes a division in the game population we must also consider the impact that will have in our 'festive' activities. Since the free players can't win anything, by virtue of not being able to trade or e-mail, they won't be able to participate by default. So sometime down the line, just as blind invites eventually became rude, it may turnout that announcing a CC gets you heckled in local. This in turn will mean it stops being a fun activity and starts to feed into the Us vs Them mentality. Even leading to CC's being griefed all the time. Hypothetical as this is, I think it merits some discussion.

So, what else can we think of that will need to change? Am I wrong in thinking long held mindsets will take time to alter? Do they even need to?

Freeloaders can stand in a CC line with everybody else. Just because they have less crayons then we do doesn't mean they can't paint a pretty picture. Just because I have more options then they do my costumes aren't guaranteed to beat theirs in a beauty pageant.

Tuff titty said the kitty when the milk went dry. They can go Premium if they want to continue their beauty pageant career.

And that's kind of the point here. That kind of attitude, avoidable or not, is not really conductive to a friendly community.

An open letter to NCsoft

What Quinch said, really. 'Freeloader' isn't exactly the friendliest way of putting it.

Actually, who the hell, am I buttering up? It's a damn ****** way of putting it, and everyone knows it. I still think the utter lack of useability for Free accounts, which is basically the uber-gutted trial accounts up to level 50, is a really damn stupid move. Yes, I know that they want to entice people to go Premium or VIP.
But doing that by locking away basic functionality is NOT a good idea. I wasn't even aware you couldn't even TRADE as a Freebie. Does that mean you can't get insps? Enhancements? If so, BANG goes a major part of PuGs and teaming in general; "Anyone got a waky/two oranges?" etc.

Which is a BAD thing for a game as team friendly as this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

What kind of community is it where VIPs and Prems have to change their behavior, abandon a Paragon tradition because Freeloaders might get their feelings hurt.

We can be a community with the motto "Winning is it's own Reward" or we can be a community with the motto "Winning doesn't matter Unless it comes with a large Reward".

I'm not the one who wants to do away with CCs, I don't want to take away the chance for Freeloaders to win a contest. I wamt them to enter. I just don't care if they can't get the prize money, they can live with tells and broadcasts that say "Great Coustume, you deserved to win".

When I first heard of Freedom I though CCs would be perfect for the freeloaders, all those people standing in the same place for 20+ mins, talking in local. I think CCs are a great way for Freeloaders to meet others, getting rid of CCs just sounds like a plan to screw over everyone. Even Freeloaders.

Every time I see Dios quoted, I'm reminded of why I have him on ignore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

The idea that we should get rid of Costume contests just because some free players might not like not getting the reward is so freaking absurd. I'm honestly baffled that someone even considered it. I'm even more baffled that basically everyone in this thread seems to agree with it ...

Free accounts are just trial accounts without a time limit. We didn't do away with CCs for the trial accounts did we? If anything, community stuff like this will act as an incentive for free players to go premium or VIP if they want to join in.

The only one here advocating removal of CC's has been in Dio's head.
Please actually read the thread before responding.

We're attempting to discuss the unforseen repercussions of certain activites and or long held traditions, not advocating it's removal...

If anything, the discussion should provide alternative ways to prevent things being an issue.

Free accounts being dolled up trials is fodder for discussion if you'd like. Nothing changed due to trials before because they were simply that. A peek at the game, a taste before buying. Since the trials were more limited in scope and use nothing had to change within the community. As they would become part of said community upon end of trial period.

With the new hybrid model, free/premium players are going to become a large, if not the largest, percentage of our population. There for it will no longer be considered 'Our' game. This is why I feel certain things need to be re-examined before they sneak up on us.

Free players can't trade but can they still be gifted to?
If I have an enhancement and right click it and to to the option "Give to" will it let me give it to them?
If so maybe the prizes just need to stop being influence.

I believe you can still give things like insp and enhancements.
I thought about suggesting that, if a freeber wins a CC, instead of influence we could offer a rare recipe or such. Though, they are limited in use of the market as well. It's also worth noting that I doubt most players enter CC's for the influence. I suspect most do it for the recognition. So it's probably a non issue.

Good point about changing the culture of the game. Blind invites will become the norm, and we'll simply have to adjust. I do understand limiting free players' ability to spam chat channels and the goal of hurting RMTs "business," but I don't understand why they can't trade with VIPs, premiums, and / or each other. It would also be good if free players could respond to tells sent to them, if not begin such a conversation.

As to costume contests getting griefed, that's just a given. We can put griefers on ignore or remove local and help channels from our main chat window (I think these are the only two channels free players can use). People have suggested making a chat channel for free players, and I think this is a good idea but suspect that "help" will become that if one isn't set up. It would be nice if they could at least join the mentor's project chat channel as that is devoted to helping new and returning players anyway.

As an aside, I'm really quite horrified by this "freeloaders" attitude. I sincerely hope that everyone who thinks/feels this way removes themselves to the VIP server on day one of launch. They'll be happier there, and I think that it will make a more welcoming atmosphere for new and returning players.

The idea that a costume contest would be considered rude because not everyone has the same options and/or cannot accept payment is incomprehensible to me. I'm reminded of the Vonnegut short Harrison Bergeron.

Should everyone go around in monochromatic unitards and not use /tells to communicate since not everyone can do that?

This is not Sparta... this is madness.

I love how the people in this thread who are so worried about the community and are so worried about the froobs (free + noobs, is that better) they want to throw the whole idea of using tells to recruit teams right out the window. You can still send a tell before you send an invite. There isn't going to be a single player of this game who won't get the tell. If a Prem or a ViP gets the tell they'll have a clue what the team invite is for, they can decide to accept or decline without having to fiqure out what the teams plan is from team chat. The froob will see your tell and be expecting an invite shortly.


"lvl 25 team, doing alingment mission in talos"
Send Invite

Thats going to work a lot better in I21 then just sitting at the team search window sending out invites to people who have no clue that an invite is coming their way.

A freebie can win the contest but can't collect. Big deal. Where I'm from, we call them Rhode Islanders.