New ideas for F2P, restrictions, and bringing new people in...

[TX_Angel]

With the astronomical amount of credit card debt in this society there's every reason in the world to not have one.

 

Since when does "having a credit card = filling it up and not paying it off?"

 

I have tens of thousands of dollars of open limit on my cards. They are all set to auto-pay in full each month. I never charge anything that I don't already have the money on them to pay for. Simple.

 

The difference is that I get purchase production, fraud protection, and cash back while using them, and a 30 day interest free loan from Bank of America.

 

Then there is the issue of credit card fraud. Even though you aren't liable the hassle involved with disputes, account closures, re entering info and so forth isn't worth it when you can easily walk into any major department store and buy a game card.

 

Hassle? Have you done it recently? BofA lets you dispute right on their web site. They take 5 min on the phone if you would prefer, it isn't remotely a hassle.

 

When I had my account number stolen recently (unrelated to my identify theft thing), I went to their web site, marked the last "good transaction", the rest were charged back, they canceled the card and issued a new one which I had 48 hours later.

 

No stress to me, since I have other cards to use in the meantime. And the cards I use for the "monthly auto-debit stuff" like DirecTV and the water bill are different to the cards I use in stores and online.

 

This really isn't hard, if you take an ounce of prevention and planning to it.

 

F2P restrictions are fine as is and personally if you ask me they need to be stricter. If its basically a trial account it should be treated as one.

 

That is exactly what my OP suggested.

[Mohamaguena]

One single character per account (GLOBAL) without restrictions but just only one if you want to get access to other story lines, or play another class then you probably sub becouse you see some potential otherwhise you leave the game.

 

 

I'm F2P old gamer tired of scams want to pay for what I consider worth my resources F2P players are not POOR players we just came from very bad gaming experiences. 90% of my friend list are F2P player always experiencing and looking for new chalenging games to play arround.

 

This is my 2nd month sub and also bough some CC on the store so you can be sure that the F2P community it's helping enough this game for survive.

 

Please, treat us well.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Mohamaguena

[nanamaryjj]

Adding a card also serves no purpose, as credit sellers would just use stolen cards like they would do in other games.

 

Personally IMO only thing that needs changed, is to ease up on the restrictions like hot bars, FPs and an increase to credits, since heroics drop them like candy

 

One way to stop credit sellers I suggested in other post, is remove slicing from crew skills and make it a subscriber perk, credit sellers woild never sub as it wouldn't be worth their time

[branmakmuffin]

90% of my friend list are F2P player always experiencing and looking for new chalenging games to play arround.

For free.

 

[Mohamaguena]

For free.

 

 

Yes, that's important

[Thoronmir]

First: Let's just set aside the whole credit card suggestion. I believe it's a nonstarter and does little to accomplish the stated goal of the other suggestion: Get players paying.

 

Second: Removing restrictions but capping level/progress is a viable alternative to the current system. Both are designed towards giving a F2P player a taste of the game with the intent of inducing said player to subscribe. The current system (with which I am fine) employs the "stick" of restrictions. The proposed alternative of capping progress utilizes the "carrot" of allowing the player to experience everything the game offers ... without letting the player ... er, finish. There, I said it. Capping progress is just one, big, tricksy tease that promises everything, but stops you at third base.

 

Third: One could argue that striking the F2P players with a softer stick might induce them to subscribe. Others could argue that swapping out a sturdy hickory switch for a silk ribbon moots the purpose of the stick. Regardless, we should not seek both the easing of the stick and the offer of the carrot. We cannot make F2P the more attractive choice.

 

Of all the F2P/subscription revisions I've seen, I actually like the level cap idea. Impose a level cap on F2P and I could then endorse easing some F2P and Preferred restrictions (like the credit cap). Of course, as posited, the OP's suggestion dooms the Preferred option. If I cannot access my 65s once I drop my sub, then my characters are being held hostage. I, personally, have no qualms about requiring a (subscription) fee from players to extract their characters from limbo. But I imagine some players would blow their tops like characters in a Jet.com commercial.

[rklontz]

Since when does "having a credit card = filling it up and not paying it off?"

 

I have tens of thousands of dollars of open limit on my cards. They are all set to auto-pay in full each month. I never charge anything that I don't already have the money on them to pay for. Simple.

 

The difference is that I get purchase production, fraud protection, and cash back while using them, and a 30 day interest free loan from Bank of America.

 

 

 

Hassle? Have you done it recently? BofA lets you dispute right on their web site. They take 5 min on the phone if you would prefer, it isn't remotely a hassle.

 

When I had my account number stolen recently (unrelated to my identify theft thing), I went to their web site, marked the last "good transaction", the rest were charged back, they canceled the card and issued a new one which I had 48 hours later.

 

No stress to me, since I have other cards to use in the meantime. And the cards I use for the "monthly auto-debit stuff" like DirecTV and the water bill are different to the cards I use in stores and online.

 

This really isn't hard, if you take an ounce of prevention and planning to it.

 

 

 

That is exactly what my OP suggested.

 

Now you are assuming that every one is in the same financial situation as you are. Financing 15 dollars a month at an interest rate is 15+% is (average interest for people starting out is 20+%) ridiculous and in my opinion financially irresponsible.

 

Yes I have had to deal with the whole cc fraud thing and it is a royal pain in the rear. In paricular it is incredibly difficult with BofA. There is a reason they are the lowest rated bank for customer service in the US.

The whole only allowing cc users to play is a foolish idea and limits the player base to a point it would be financially unwise and detrimental to the company as a whole.

[TX_Angel]

First: Let's just set aside the whole credit card suggestion. I believe it's a nonstarter and does little to accomplish the stated goal of the other suggestion: Get players paying.

 

Thanks for saying that. It feels like everyone focused on that and ignored the rest. If the credit card idea is a nonstarter, or just bad in general, fair enough, I have no problem with that. It was just one of many ideas I posted about.

 

Second: Removing restrictions but capping level/progress is a viable alternative to the current system. Both are designed towards giving a F2P player a taste of the game with the intent of inducing said player to subscribe. The current system (with which I am fine) employs the "stick" of restrictions. The proposed alternative of capping progress utilizes the "carrot" of allowing the player to experience everything the game offers ... without letting the player ... er, finish. There, I said it. Capping progress is just one, big, tricksy tease that promises everything, but stops you at third base.

 

You summed it up perfectly. Enjoy the full game unrestricted, right up to a point, then sub time comes.

 

I don't think it is helping the game to have a million people playing for months on end for free, never to pay anything (or $5 once, which is almost the same thing).

 

The question of F2P restrictions comes down to "what is most likely to get people to sub". Maybe the current system is it, maybe not. I was putting fourth a suggestion on ideas that might improve the conversation rate from F2P to subs.

 

Third: One could argue that striking the F2P players with a softer stick might induce them to subscribe. Others could argue that swapping out a sturdy hickory switch for a silk ribbon moots the purpose of the stick. Regardless, we should not seek both the easing of the stick and the offer of the carrot. We cannot make F2P the more attractive choice.

 

^ This, all this, one thousand percent this. Too many of the F2P threads want to ease the stick without improving the carrot. All that does is make F2P more attractive.

 

Of all the F2P/subscription revisions I've seen, I actually like the level cap idea. Impose a level cap on F2P and I could then endorse easing some F2P and Preferred restrictions (like the credit cap). Of course, as posited, the OP's suggestion dooms the Preferred option. If I cannot access my 65s once I drop my sub, then my characters are being held hostage. I, personally, have no qualms about requiring a (subscription) fee from players to extract their characters from limbo. But I imagine some players would blow their tops like characters in a Jet.com commercial.

 

Consider this. I have 30 toons on Harby right now, if I unsub, I won't be able to play with them all. Since I have all the server slots unlocked, my understanding is that 14 of them will be "held hostage", since the max limit is 16 under preferred with all server slots unlocked.

 

So, how is having max level toons "held hostage" by a level cap limit for F2P any different than having toons "held hostage" by a toon limit for F2P?

[TX_Angel]

Now you are assuming that every one is in the same financial situation as you are. Financing 15 dollars a month at an interest rate is 15+% is (average interest for people starting out is 20+%) ridiculous and in my opinion financially irresponsible.

 

There is no interest charged if you pay your account in full each month. You get at least a 25 day grace period, but decent cards give you more than that, I think BofA gives me 35 days, but either way, I haven't paid them a dime of interest all year, despite charging many thousands of dollars to my cards.

 

Having credit cards does not require being in a great financial position, it requires $200, which if you don't have, you probably need to fix that before playing games.

 

Take $200 into BofA, open a secured credit card, you'll get fraud protection, cash back, and a "real credit card" that no one but you will know is secured. As you save more money, you can slowly add to it, give them another $100, your limit goes up $100.