Limited Rewards For Free Players

Please note that this post is dependent on the devs being able to tell the difference between an active and inactive Free account, and I don't know if they can. With that said:

I think that Free players should be able to earn a limited number of Reward Tokens for maintaining an actively used game account. A lot of Free players genuinely can't afford to (or don't have the facility to) buy stuff from the store right now, but might well be able to in the future if they're still around, but the restrictions on free players are such that it makes it difficult to keep playing long term as a Freebie.

So, as a compromise that still minimises RMT/Scam abuse, if you, say, give Free players who have played for 3 or 6 months a Reward Token so that they unlock Tells and SG Membership it encourages them to stay around. If you continue this scheme up to a cap of, say Tier 3 so that they can get Global Access as well after 1 or 2 years then it gives them further incentive to stay around and increases the changes of them spending money in the store when they can.

I appreciate that the devs want people spending money to get access to these things, but I'd hate to have players leaving because they can't afford to buy them right now and aren't able to make the most of the social aspect of the game due to the Free account restrictions.

And please, no "It's only $5" arguments. I've made the same myself but ultimately some people either don't have any disposable income or don't have access to a supported method of payment.

/unsigned. Some level of investment should be required. If someone is that interested in the game, then they should earn a couple of bucks (lemonade stand, collecting bottles/cans, shoveling snow, etc.) to give NCSoft some money.

If a free player hasn't after say 3 months spent $5 to become premium, really they simply aren't worth trying to hold onto from a business standpoint.

I'd just like to state for the record that I'm not particularly for or against my own suggestion, I've just noticed that the primary "complaint" from Free players is the lack of access to Tells, Broadcast, Globals and so forth and so this was a possible way to offer loyal players - who may have spent money but not enough to unlock Globals for example - a way to obtain those things and therefore keep them playing.

I was not suggesting necessarily giving them all the other bonuses that come with the reward tokens and certainly wasn't suggesting that you allow them to move beyond what I would consider the "essential" tiers, which contain primarily the Social components of the game.

If a player has still not given the company any money, at all, after several months, then they aren't really a customer, yes? And their "loyalty" is as ephemeral and ultimately worthless as a "well, I would have, but..." excuse.

IMHO players can be "worth" something even if they don't buy anything (or very much) from the Market. If they play the game long term, enjoy it and bring other people to play it who may themselves buy from the Market and/or subscribe then arguably they've provided a net benefit to the game.

Obviously the game can only sustain a certain proportion of non-paying players, but I don't think it's fair to write off F2P players simply because they haven't directly paid money into the game.

They already get a game for free. Sorry but if you can't spend $5 in 3-6 months... maybe the time you are spending online should be spent looking for a way to earn more money...I mean seriously $5???

Things that cost $5
A dvd - entertainment value 2-10 hours depending on how often you watch it
A Starbucks Coffee- 15-20 drinks of mediocre coffee
1.5 gallons of gas
A Popcorn at a movie theatre
A pack of generic cigarettes
A Gallon of milk
A T-Shirt
2 Candy Bars and a Soda

Seriously...
It's not like $5 is something difficult to come up with in.. THREE months LOL!

So tired of the freebies and their gimme gimme attitude. If you value them so much as a friend... there is a thing called.. PAYPAL.

/Completely Unsigned

It is bad that I support this just, because I'd like the entire game for free?

I agree with most of the posts. This just doesn't turn out to be a good idea. The fact that you get anything for free is awesome already. Paying for your subscription should come with many exclusive rewards in a F2P game. I think rewards tokens are a good part of those rewards.

But, seriously....I want the entire game for free. :P

I have seen those in help chat complaining they get little for free and that they could get so much more by having just this and just that. That they cannot afford to pay a little bit of cash to get what they want to make their gaming experience far, far better because they are spending $40-$60 on the new game coming out in 2 months, C'mon.

Yes, but they want to have that game and eat this game's cake, I mean, chat too.

Let's say you have a store that gives out free samples in hopes of getting you to buy the product that you are sampling.

Now lets say you have a person who comes into the store every single day faithfully and tries each and every sample.

It doesn't matter if they keep coming back to the store for three months, three years or three decades. Unless they actually buy something they aren't a customer at all let alone a good customer. And the only reason to give them a real product for free would be as a bribe to keep them away and leave the samples for people who might actually buy something.