Freedom? Hardly

A suggestion: the game accepts Paypal. With it you should be able to send your friend money to their Paypal account (or make a paypal account where you deposit money and give them access to it). With that, they can buy the points directly.

Edit:
Yeah, I'm just repeating what Samuel_Tow said.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

That's why I always advocate Second Post After Zwillinger -- SPAZ.

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Options:

• Purchase a 30-day license (160 PP)
• Use a 2nd build (free, level 10+)
• Subscribe
• Hope you have tier 7 completed

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

Interesting idea, but I see some real issues with it. In your hypothetical scenario (IOs degrading to SO level) how would frankenslotting be handled? What would a acc/dam/end IO turn into? Some IO combos can cram the equivalent of eight or nine SOs into a power. Separating those enhancements out to reduce them to SOs would be a challenge. In addition, non-set IOs would be affected on a sliding scale, because level 50 IOs are of a higher value than level 30 IOs. Finally, non-set IOs under 30 would actually be upgraded if converted to SO levels.

Personally, I think the invention lockout for premium players is a good place to differentiate between premiums and VIPs, and it's not as if the license is that expensive.

The problem with all of those is the whole 'first experience of a returning player' part. Apart from the last one (and that represents a *lot* of vet time), all of those put some sort of barrier between you and the game. They're all something you have to *do* before you can play that character. Being told you have to buy something (or resubscribe, spending $ either way) right off the bat to un-gimp your character certainly has the potential to be offputting. Leveling up a fresh alt build (even assuming it wasn't in use) is, like a respec, a pain in the rear - especially if you've been gone for a while and things aren't as familiar anymore. First impressions are important - if they're a returning player, they've already stopped playing once. You don't want to give them a reason to stop again before you've properly had a chance to lure them back in.

I firmly believe that the game will be different tomorrow than it is today. However, that does not mean that how the game is today was wasted effort. The presumption is sometimes that if the devs change things, it was wrong before and right now. But its part of the natural evolution of MMOs to introduce new things, and change old things given the new context they exist in.

That, and over time new technology (i.e. code) will be added that will give the devs better options to deal with things like free player chat and teaming, or other issues involving changes to game mechanics. I'm also hopeful that some things aren't available to premium players simply because they've frozen the store for launch, and things like IO licenses to unlock the use of previously slotted IOs in legacy characters are likely to arrive after launch, although it would have been my preference for the devs to address that sort of problem before launch.

But the fundamental philosophy that the free game be limited and by definition the limits will actually have to limit players, and not in trivial ways, is not likely to change nor do I want it to change. The devs have decided to implement a new business model that retains focus on the subscribers while allowing for ala carte limited play (up to the degenerate case of zero purchases) and I for one would like to see where that goes before trying to change it to a more F2P-based model.

As much as a barrier compared to not being able to play the character at all? That is what it comes down to.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

It´s possible to pay your subscription with Paysafe Cards in Germany.
I saw that those are also available in the USA, so i guess you can pay your subscription with Paysafe Cards as well in the USA.

If we´ll be able to buy Paragon Points with those, you could buy one and tell your friend the number
of the card so he could use it to buy Paragon Points.

Might be the best option if there won´t be a feature for gifts.
If not, Paragon Studios should really think about it.

I'd still like to see them put in an impossible-to-miss popup and a grace period on IO access expiration for returning Premium players. Give them a free week, maybe even two, so they can play around with their characters as-is, but let them know that after the grace period is over they'll have to pony up for continued access or switch to a second build.

If you're saying even if we put in a feature to allow players to buy back unlocks for their characters even if they don't subscribe that's just not enough for some players, then those players will unfortunately be among the players we won't win back. I'm comfortable with that.

Considering all of the variations on spelling a Z name that I've done, I approve of this EDIT.

You don't have to replace anything. Leave the IO build in place until you buy IO access.

Switch to your second build. Put in your build. Fill with SOs.

Profit!

I am here to atest that the game is easily playable without any of the above. None of the stuff listed except chat capability and trading existed in the game at launch, and was not added for quite some time. We were still able to play the game just fine, so will the F2P people. If they gave the whole game, what would be the impitus for anyone to actually pay for the game?

No, this comment didn't scare me off of reading the Blog. The fact that it is aBlog scared me off of reading it.

Believe it or not, the costume options are not the end all be all of this game. I certainly don't think it is the deciding factor to weather you Pay to Play or go it Free. I would say that power/AT selecetions would be a much bigger concern, as would anything that actually, you know, made your character more powerful; like IO's and Incarnate stuff. Huh. that must be why that stuff is limited to people willing to support the game with money, fancy that.

I agree, they are unlikely to ever get rid of it, but anything they can do to squelch it, even just a little, is welcome.

You don't have an argument from me that VIP players and new F2P players will very likely enjoy their experience in COH Freedom. However, I certainly feel there's an argument that can be made that returning players may not necessarily enjoy their free experience.

I know a number of former long-term subscribers who were seriously considering returning as Premium Players when they first learned about COH Freedom, but have since decided against it. The number one dealkiller I've heard is that they fall below the 5 year, 3 month veteran badge threshold needed to return to their characters as they remember them (i.e. access to their existing IOs). The $2 invention license thing isn't going over very well with them and they don't want to go through the onerous process of respecing or creating a new build. They recognize that the game is completely playable without IOs, but being blocked from using the existing loot that they worked so hard to acquire is leaving a pretty sour taste in their mouths. So they're taking the path of least resistance...they're just not returning at all.

It's my opinion that bringing returning players back into the fold as Premium Players is key to making the transition to COH Freedom a successful one, as the game is far more likely to capture revenue (whether through microtrans or reupping subs) from these players than from free-to-play players. I personally feel the primary problem with the account and rewards system as it is set-up right now is that it lumps two completely different psychographic groups into the same behavioral group. It just doesn't do a very good job of taking into account the different interests, motivations and expectations (whether justified or not) of returning players as compared to free-to-play players. Granted, most subscription MMOs who offer a free-to-play elements don't do a very good job either, but it's my humble opinion that COH could do much, much better than the current proposal.

I totally recognize that it's tacky to link one's own blog in a message board discussion, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm pretty darn sleepy and I think the blog post I wrote about psychographics and COH Freedom is by far the most important of the blog posts I wrote and it conveys my thoughts far better than what I've written above:

http://manoasmusings.blogspot.com/20...of-heroes.html

That was my original understanding too. That both Premium and VIP got reward tokens but after being challenged on it and not being able to pin down the quote I got the impression of I've kept quiet on it.

Still that was the original impression I had of the reward system. ::Shrug:: I just can't prove that I'm right....

colloquialisms they are always the tricky thing with languages. Complete misunderstanding is the formal proper phrase while gross misunderstanding is the regional/dialect phrase. I suspect it is used more commonly in US english but not so much in other english. Or at least it isn't used that way commonly.

And that is our diversion into language variations based on region.