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(Returning Vet) So that I understand this mess...
slickmajestic
Posts: 3 Arc User
I started playing CO back in early 2010, not long after release. I was a monthly subscriber for around 2 straight years, and then subbed in/out sporadically until around 2015, so that I could continue the heroic escapades of my my heroes. In that 5 year window, I spent a great deal of time and money on this game: costumes, costumes, subscriptions, costumes, costumes, subscriptions, costumes... In that 5 years, I also met a plethora of great people in the fantastic community CO always had/will, and participated (and won) who knows how many costume contests.
Today: I have 12 characters on my account, 8 of which are max level, and all but two have been with me since 2010-2012. These are GOLD characters. I am sitting here right now staring at them in my game window. Which is all I can do now, apparently.
So that I understand: whatever sorry company owns this game now (Perfect World who has changed their name to ARC, to what, hide the fact that they were Perfect World? Only to change their name from ARC to something else in another 3 years? To deceive folks again?) has decided to eliminate subscription models. Fine. I get it. So is the way of the gaming world. Yet, to access my old GOLD characters, as a veteran player, as someone who has given this franchise some wealth, I have to now turn them into an Archetype, then pay $20 dollars (or something) to upgrade them to Freeform?
PER CHARACTER?
That is what I am coming to understand?
If that's the case, then I have to say my characters are at their end. Even if I won the lotto this Thursday, as much as I love my characters, out of spite/principal, I would not give this money grubbing company a dime for this nonsense. You are blocking my characters behind a monumental pay wall; characters I've had a lot of fun with; that have profiles, personalities, achievements; that have who knows how many costumes a piece ... for 20 bucks per toon? That's not only a slap in the face to anyone who used to play this game, but it's a ridiculous business model. You are basically telling any old players, "We don't want your business."
I would like to be incorrect in my understanding. I do not think I am. Am I?
- Disgruntled ex-Dark Enforcers player who masqueraded under the MC umbrella as myriad character names...
-Who is also very unhappy...
-... and disappointed...
Today: I have 12 characters on my account, 8 of which are max level, and all but two have been with me since 2010-2012. These are GOLD characters. I am sitting here right now staring at them in my game window. Which is all I can do now, apparently.
So that I understand: whatever sorry company owns this game now (Perfect World who has changed their name to ARC, to what, hide the fact that they were Perfect World? Only to change their name from ARC to something else in another 3 years? To deceive folks again?) has decided to eliminate subscription models. Fine. I get it. So is the way of the gaming world. Yet, to access my old GOLD characters, as a veteran player, as someone who has given this franchise some wealth, I have to now turn them into an Archetype, then pay $20 dollars (or something) to upgrade them to Freeform?
PER CHARACTER?
That is what I am coming to understand?
If that's the case, then I have to say my characters are at their end. Even if I won the lotto this Thursday, as much as I love my characters, out of spite/principal, I would not give this money grubbing company a dime for this nonsense. You are blocking my characters behind a monumental pay wall; characters I've had a lot of fun with; that have profiles, personalities, achievements; that have who knows how many costumes a piece ... for 20 bucks per toon? That's not only a slap in the face to anyone who used to play this game, but it's a ridiculous business model. You are basically telling any old players, "We don't want your business."
I would like to be incorrect in my understanding. I do not think I am. Am I?
- Disgruntled ex-Dark Enforcers player who masqueraded under the MC umbrella as myriad character names...
-Who is also very unhappy...
-... and disappointed...
Post edited by slickmajestic on
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While I hate the old subscription system, it was a hell of a lot better than locking up so many freeform characters and opportunities behind a $20 paywall per character. This new system has heavily damaged the possibility of previously subscribed players returning because a majority of their freeforms are now locked away behind that $20 price tag, and nobody wants to convert their carefully crafted freeforms into the rigid AT system, which most of the time winds up not even matching their character's original designs any more.
And I will always be @DZPlayer122.
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Simple solution would be: all previous GOLD characters still under an active account turn FF automatically. But that would never happen because of the "potential" lost revenue. If one returning player pays 20 bucks, ARC wins out, since said returning player won't likely play for longer than a one (1) month sub anyway--and while doing so, returning player might also pay to unlock another slot because these wallet-raping pay models of today bank on a person succumbing to desire over logic, temporary as that desire might be. Which is why you simply implement three (3) month sub-windows, which is what they used to do here, IIRC.
Anyway. I appreciate the time and response, deadman. It's what I'd feared. Time to go delete CO for good, sadly. At least some of my characters live on influentially in the novel universe I'm currently penning (read: typing). Which is more beneficial than playing video games these days anyway. I actually wanted to log in a bit as some of them to read over my profiles and what not, just play for amusement when I got tired of writing... Alas, alas, alas...
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Oh, and Perfect World is the publisher; they haven't changed their name. Arc is the game-launching platform PW wants you to use, so it can try to direct you to playing other PWI games. If you don't like that, it also launches through Steam, or just by starting the .exe file. (Do only old farts like me still remember how to use .exe files?)
Overall, your rant comes off as someone looking for a reason to hate. You really shouldn't bother. Life's too short. Play this game, or don't - the choice is yours. But don't spend so much time and effort driving up your own blood pressure - it's really not worth it.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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I look at this way... If I played the game for a year at $19.95 a month that's pretty much the same cost as unlocking 12 character slots. Personally, I just waited for a FF slot sale and bought two of the three packs. Then I used those to unlock my six favorite characters. Also, AT's are lot better than they used to be. So I play my AT's more frequently now. And I believe you can convert your old FF's to AT's for free. So you can access your old bios that way.
I don't play as much as I used to... but the game is still playable.
Personally, if I were a periodic subscriber who only wants to play for a month at a time I'd pay the $20 to unlock one of my old Golds each time I came back. More than the monthly sub, but that character is then always playable until the game shuts down (or they change the TOS again
Past (2010 ... 9 years ago): I pay $15.00 per month for full access. Pre-AT, pre-GOLD, pre-F2P. I then continue to play $15.00 per after the F2P model was introduced. I did not play every single month of every year. I played on and off from 2010-2012 consistently, then sporadically until 2015. I haven't logged in since. I pay TO PLAY. When I am not, I don't pay anything.
After F2P, all of my characters are Gold. As I mentioned this includes 12 total, 8 at Max Level.
Moving forward, let's just stick my 8 main characters. When I paid $15.00 per month, I got access to all 8 characters in all their heroic glory. I could play any of them any time I wished. When I didn't pay, I lost access to them. Fair. In 2015, I left.
Today: 2019, 4 years after my last pay time. 8 characters I used to access monthly for $15.00 are now locked behind a pay wall of $20 each. Instantly, for me to come back in and enjoy all of those characters, I must shell out ... $160.00! Up front (barring any discounts, which you have to wait for and keep an eye on).
As a returning player, do you think that is an attractive scenario? If you were gone for 4-5 years, and characters you used to have full access to for a flat fee are no longer available to you, and to get them you must up front pay $160.00, that sits well with you? Really? Of course not. It only makes sense if YOU KNOW FOR A FACT you will be playing for at least another year (or at least 10-12 more months of game time). I know for a fact I am not.
I would not pay $20.00 to unlock 1 character because I might not even play for more than a few days, at most. That isn't worth the cost of re-admission. It's not logical. I always jumped between my characters, as this game promotes that. As I mentioned: I have a lot of costumes, achievements, items, money, tied to those characters as a whole. I no longer have access to that the one day in 2019 I decide I want to return because they've screwed over their old player base.
I understand the argument that "If you had played consistently since 2015 you would have saved money by unlocking them all..." but that only applies IF you have been consistently playing, which I have not. Nor has anyone else who is "returning" (hence the term).
Let's equate this to a game anyone can understand: WoW.
I could go on for another 5 years and not play this game for a total of 10 months. But even were I to, spread that $150.00 sub money out over 5 years, just for the hell of it.
Don't jest, either. This is 2019 on a game made in 2010 that was never all that deep/large to begin with, but definitely isn't some well-funded game of today with tons of new features and development in the pipe like WoW or any major market MMORPG. So asking someone to pay up front in good faith for a game that might not be around another 2+ years is ridiculous.
Please put things into perspective before you try and lambaste someone for complaining about not having access to all of the characters they spent years playing/building in a sensible pay model because PW/ARC/Cryptic/WHOEVER screwed up their model. It's not my fault. I was simply someone trying to understand it after being away half a decade. And I have, now. And I opted not to resurrect my characters because the admission fee vs. enjoyment factor does not balance out personally. Nor does it for many other returning players who have been away for years in my same boat. I know this because I came from another forum (MMORPG.com) where we had a thread going on about this ... only reason I came to make sense of it. Guess they were right.
It's not about not wanting to pay. It's about not wanting to pay inflated fees for the same content I used to have full-access to for a much lower price, when I wanted, it on demand. And not paying inflated fees to an aged/aging game.
I've been paying MMORPG fees since the days of 1997 Ultima Online ... and even Sierra's The Realm. I don't need someone on the internet trying to tell me, "I'm willing to pay ... until I saw it cost money." Please. This isn't even really about a dollar amount, it's about how uninviting this is to any old players in the same boat as I am. Sorry.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
But to come in at this late date and subject us to yet another tirade? You're not going to find a lot of sympathy. We all bitched about it at the time - that's how we won what concessions we got, there weren't going to be any originally - but as Spinny points out, that time is done. It makes about as much sense as going into a discussion forum at space.com and filling an entire page with complaints about why SkyLab was abandoned. Yeah, a lot of people would feel that way too - but unless you've got a time machine, it is what it is, and all you can do is accept it or move on.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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If you're not likely to play for more than a few days then take the freebies on offer. Claim the Premium Pack (it's free to ex-Gold Subscribers, Bonus Tab in the Zen Store), roll a new character and play one of the free archetypes or one you've already unlocked. Spend $10 and buy a new archetype if you don't like those. If you want to play an old FF character, pay the $20; the Premium Pack gives you a free respec so you can bring it up to speed with the power changes around. Otherwise it's LTS. Those are the choices. Subscriptions are gone, and they're not coming back.
Hmm, a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black? Did you bother to hunt around on the forums to see how this very topic had been discussed to death when it was happening? Bottom line is that the people who own the company that owns CO believe they will make more money (which is their goal) by implementing the changes they have introduced. Whether it works out this way in the long run we'll have to wait and see. Probably the majority of players wish that subscriptions were still a thing, but they aren't. So, your options are really: just walk quietly away, rant on the forums to people who can't do anything to change the game and walk away, deluge the actual owners with correspondence (not sure how much weight letters from people who now only put in maybe $15/year will carry), or find someway to play that you can enjoy.
=Pieces of Stuff=Knock Dead=Cruel Yule=Cremator=Toys from the Attic=
=Gnosis Arcanum=Twenty Seven=Kama D=Critic=Creep Freeze=
=Mangled Man=G.I. John Doe=2D.=Lung the punch drunk monk=
=By the sword=Scild Truma=Shadow Puppet=Lu-7=Erysichthon=
=Nimravid=Buzzard Kill=Lorenzini=Schema=
Never had a sub running though; to much of an irregular visitor.
edit:
looks more like 45 bucks but I'd not against being corrected
He who posts 2 years before he joins
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/comment/10732872
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tl;dr: It’s a bear trap, and people are going to keep stepping in it, so you might as well get used to the cries of “Ow, my leg!”
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
Reality here is, PWE made a business decision to limit their support of those people. Most likely, that means they don't represent a large enough fraction of revenue to be worth the cost of supporting their preferred play style, and yes, if you're one of those people it sucks.
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We've been used to people coming on the forums and doing big pointless rants years before the sub change even happened, but thanks for the tip!
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
IIRC you are a black belter in CO-Fu knowledge. Any idea to the actual price tag? pantagruel01 says it might just the normal FF slot and nothing else. Tried that too a few years ago; but at that time C still sold subs so turning ACs to FF was only a sub thing back then I guess. Which reminds me... could I technically delete my lvl 20something Freeform char and just click the Devastator char over to the FF slot or will the FF slot be deleted too?
He who posts 2 years before he joins
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/comment/10732872
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Was about to tell you that not only old farts remember how to use .exe files. Than I remembered I was using computers since windows 2.0 before switching to 3.0/3.1, etc. At which point, I realized I would be part of the "old timers" club. And to think I was only a kid back than and people that remember those times are considered "old timers" for remembering such things.
Now, to address OP's complaint. Not sure if this was mentioned, but, you do not have to unlock all your toons at the same time. Also, it is not $20 for a single slot, it is $30. With a discount pack of 3 for $60. So, to convert 8 toons, you would need a total of $180. Or, that $180 would be used to convert 9 toons. You are not looking at the picture right OP. You are to busy thinking you have to dump all the money at once. Instead of just putting in $30 here, $30 there, maybe that $60 one time. In reality, you should be spending that $180 over the course of time that you'd spent that $180 on subscription. I like how sistersilico said something, but, was wrong about it. I'm not telling you to do the math, I'm telling you you are looking at it incorrectly. That $30 for unlocking one toon, think of it as spending two months worth of sub money on it. This is not money math, but TIME math. In short, instead of looking at the price tag, recognize that your sub was just a TEMPORARY unlock on your toons. And than recognize that after spending the $180 over the same amount of time unlocking your 8/9 toons as you would have spent that $180 on a sub, you would never again have to pay a sub. Otherwise, recognize that to unlock your toons "forever" without purchasing an LTS and instead via a subscription model, you'd be paying way more than $180 in the long rung. You need to change how you are viewing it from "I HAVE TO PAY ALL THE MONEY NOW!" to "I can just pay for one this month, maybe pay for another or more a few months later."
Seriously, you think YOU, with TWELVE toons have it bad? I'm just happy I got an LTS so long ago so that I do not have to buy enough Freeform Slot unlocks for 200 toons, which around 180 are filler, vast majority of them level 40. So, at this point, I'll tell you this, do the math for me on how much it would cost me to unlock each and every single slot as Freeform if I did not have LTS. And than recognize...you are not getting screwed, you are just screwing yourself by looking at the situation wrong. The total price to unlock all twelve, is $240 - $360, and if you stagger that amount over the course of a year, you'll find that you have not spent that much more than you'd normal spend.
tl;dr: Stop looking at the total cost, and just spend what you can each month individually. No need to do one large lump sum.
The price is that of a FF slot, nothing special going on there. As for the Devastator thing, no clue.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Question. If you subscribed and than stopped subscribing and than logged onto the game, would you be shocked to see your free form toons suddenly locked?
Nope. What I would be surprised at is seeing that instead of the $15 it previously cost to play all of those characters I had to pay $20 EACH (key word) to be able to play them now. That's the part that the OP was shocked about, so why ignore that KEY point in your question?
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
I was able to test this, and an old, empty freeform slot can be applied to a current AT slot to make it freeform.
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See this is why it gets the responses it does. You say $20 EACH, but you leave out the fact that that's permanent access, while the 15$ was for just one month. You're trying to present it as if you have to pay more now, when that's technically not true because the entire pricing system has changed. Eventually people just get tired of pointing out the same thing over and over again to people making the same false claims over and over again. Yes, 20 bigger than 15, but also forever longer than one month.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Well, to be fair, my question DID indeed ignore the money cost. But, my points in my previous post did not. And, not sure why people keep saying $20, it is $30 for the free form slot (with a buy two get one free pack for $60, the free form slot was originally $50 with no discount pack of three, am I the only person that actually knows this? And if not, why has no one but me corrected people here?). But, if OP (and you) do not see how this is the better model overall, even with people trying to explain why it is not so bad (jerkyness or not), than, in reality, there is nothing that can be done for OP (and you, and others that think the same). You guys are stuck where you are at, and are not willing to listen to logic (regardless if the logic is from someone being a jerk or not).
I agree, the price is still to high, but, I HIGHLY doubt they will lower it. For the same reason why lockboxes will not go away, the price will not be lowered. Cause, despite the hate they get, people still buy them (the keys of the lockboxes in that case).
To illustrate the point being made here. Let's say a new player joins the game, actually, lets say we have two new players joining. One a few years before the removal of subscriptions. The other after the removal of subscriptions. Player A is the former, Player B is the later.
Player A joins, after playing a little bit, he decides he likes the game and wants to play with Free Forms. He decides that for the time being he will play only two characters for one year. After the year, he will be taking a break for one reason or other. That is $15 x 12, or $180 just to play two toons, for one year.
Now, Player B joins, and after playing a little bit, he decides he likes the game enough to unlock free form for his two toons. So, he spends $40 once...and will have them as free forms for the rest of the game's life. He will not have to spend another dollar to play them as free form.
Who spent the most? Obviously, the guy that subbed for a year. Even if subs were still a thing, people that sub will basically almost ALWAYS be spending more money to play their free form toons than people that unlock their free forms the way it is now.
But, as I have pointed out in another thread. This really only applies to people with a small number of toons. Twelve toons, would cost only $240 to $360. At that point, might as well buy lifetime and never worry about this again. The people that REALLY suffer from this change are those that have LOTS of toons and were not lifetimers. I have 200 slots. If it wasn't for the fact that I am a lifetimer, to unlock them all, would cost me $4020 (66 purchases of the three pack, which gets 198 slots, plus 2 single slot puchases). Even people with the new hard max of 50 toons would have to spend $1020 to unlock them all. But, something tells me that OP is not like me and most likely will never have as many toons (nor close to 50).
So, if you and OP want to look at cost alone. Look at what it would cost someone like me. Suddenly, $240 to $360 doesn't look like a bad deal (even if it still is compared to just getting a lifetime subscription). On the other hand, if he was someone like me with a lot of locked toons, I'd feel bad for him. But, twelve, is not a bad number.
-=-=-=-=-=-(CO in-game handle: @WarCan )-=-=-=-=-=-
"Okay, you're DEAD, what do you do NEXT?"
I absolutely get all of that. And you aren't "wrong". But you are completely missing the point. Yes, it is true that $100 (the price of "unlocking" 10 FF characters at $20 each) is less than $180 (the price of paying $15 per month for 12 months). No one is denying that math.
But the part you are so completely missing is "human" element to this scenario. If a person says to themselves "you know, I think I'll check out this game I used to play", that person isn't thinking about an EXACT amount of time (like 1 year) that they are *possibly* going to play. They just want to check it out again.
And if upon logging in they see it would cost them $20 *EACH* (key word, so don't pretend it's only $20 we're talking about) to play their old characters when it previously only cost $15 *TOTAL* (another key word) to play them all, that is a major shock and turnoff.
That is the situation the OP found themselves in. And their is nothing "wrong" with being sad/disappointed by it, or saying so here on the forums. I get people having a tendency to white knight and defend things they like, but again; the OP did nothing wrong here.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
I completely understand the math, and you aren't "wrong". However you are completely missing the "human" element of this situation. Yes it is true that $100 (the price of unlocking 5 FF characters at $20 each) is less than $180 (the cost of paying $15 per month for 1 year). No one denies those figures.
But the point you are missing in all this is that when a person says "you know, I think I want to check out that game I haven't played in a while", they aren't thinking about an EXACT amount of time they will potentially play for; they just want to check it out.
So when that person who used to be able to play their characters for $15 total (again, we don't know how long they might play for) is suddenly faced with the reality that it will cost them $20 EACH (key word, so don't pretend we're only talking about a single character here), that person is going to be shocked and disappointed and probably turned off of even coming back to the game.
So yes, you can work out the math for how it might be better in the long run to just spend the $100 to unlock 5 characters. But that ignores the completely human and natural reaction of seeing such a high cost being upsetting to someone who just wanted to check out the game again.
That is the situation the OP found themselves in, and there is nothing wrong with anything he said. I know some people get personally offended whenever someone says something about a game they like, but in this case the OP did nothing wrong or worthy of some of the responses he got.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
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If they only had FFs and there were still subs they would have to pay a re-entry fee of 15$... so I guess we've heard of that here, for several years. What was the point you were trying to make?
I'm not missing that point at all. If someone doesn't know the exact amount of time they're planning to play, then being able to unlock characters permanently is very beneficial.
And yes EACH. You already caps-locked that, and then I pointed out that you're ignoring the fact that it's also PERMANENTLY. If that person comes back for a month, unlocks a toon, then doesn't play for two months, comes back and plays for three months, they won't have to spend anymore money to use that character, as opposed to before where we're talking 60$ to access it for those four months.
This is why the EACH argument is so disingenuous, because it ignores the fact that the fundamental process of gaining access has changed to the degree that simply comparing numbers to numbers is no longer valid. Hence: Yes, 30 bigger than 15, but also forever longer than 1 month.
*eye roll*
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I should have said “purely free-to-play MMO”, because that’s what CO is now. Unless you’re a former subscriber who’s returning to the game. For players like that, they valued having unrestricted horizontal access to all their characters for the limited time that they chose by stopping and re-starting their recurring service fee. It’s like turning the gas service on and off at the summer cottage. Now that option is gone, and the model’s been turned sideways: Choose one of your characters and pay up now, but you can access that one for eternity*, whether you’re playing or not. That’s why I call it a re-entry fee. I’m disappointed that Cryptic didn’t have some option to grandfather those players into the post-sub era. Maybe they could have awarded one free FF unlock if a player had multiple level 40 FFs or 35-39 FFs with a sufficiently high number of hours played. On the gripping hand, the game has become alt-hostile in general, so I guess this is truth in advertising?
* For sufficiently “It would be much cheaper to repurpose CO’s servers for MtG than expand the data center” values of eternity.
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
We made numerous arguments in the epicly long thread when their plans were first discussed. One of them was this.
They chose to go a different way.
PWI has pretty much done away from with subs for most of their games.
/shrug
Also pretty much this.
To be fair, once you start getting around to responding to the same complaint several times, it gets monotonous. Which causes frayed nerves and lack of patience. Trying to stop people from beating a dead horse, can only only keep their wits and patience for so long.
One person talked about the "human" element and people using math forgetting about it. But, at the same time, I can and will turn that argument against them and you. Are are forgetting you are talking with humans, who are tired of explaining the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
Like one person stated, in the past, if you went from gold to silver and did not want to re-sub, you were FORCED into converting toons into ATs. That is no more than basically starting from scratch with a free AT, at least, those toons were higher levels. So, that argument is rather worthless.
I'd agree it would be rather annoying. But, at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised. Because I'd have already known that would happen, because I pay attention to the differences between the account types and what happens when you go from gold to silver. Sometimes, when people tell you to pay attention to the game, they are right. And in this instance, they are right.
To put it bluntly. If I paid into a monthly wine of the month club, and got wine sent to me every month. And if I suddenly stopped paying, should I be expecting wine still? The answer is, NO. I should instead expect no wine till I pay again. Might sound harsh, but, that is how things work in reality.
OK. Then I’m justified in scolding you for not catching up to what else I wrote on this thread, and you have no right to complain that you were scolded.
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
No, you missed my point with the last bit. After all, your last thing you said was pointless. Let me put it this way, very simple like. Going back to my wine of the month club. I want more wine? But, not paying the sub? Than I got to buy each bottle of wine separately. In CO's case, this is no different. So, no, you had ZERO justification in "scolding" me in such a failed fashion.
So, seriously, stop thinking you are in the right here, you aren't. You have failed to understand how things now work and now think you can just "scold" people that disagree with you? Grats, you do not understand how people work or how you should have handled the situation. By the way, I'm always told that when people resort to "scolding" and insults and such in a debate/argument, that is because they have no real way of disproving or "beating" a point being made. If I somehow offended you, for that is what it feels like, I'm sorry. But, your behavior is even worse. You had NO RIGHT or JUSTIFICATION to scold me when I am actually right on this matter. Why? Cause you are not thinking about what people that are disagreeing with you are actually saying.
But, there is one thing I had always thought since the sub change happened that you had suggested that should have been done also. That there should have been a way to ease already existing gold account free form characters back into free form. As you called it, "grandfathering".
But, the rest of what you've been saying was in the wrong, again, you had no right or justification to scold me, or anyone. You are not my parent. You are not my employer. You are just a person on the internet. In truth, even I don't have the right or justification to scold you. But, your behavior actually DOES give me that right. So, yes, I have the right to "complain".
If that's the case, then there is no entry fee for that returning player to start playing again and they are retaining quite a few benefits from the time that they did play. Say a returning player with 50 max level characters converts them all into ATs, they now have a force of 50 max level toons with gear with which to farm questionite to start picking up FF slots - that's a far cry from a new player with 2 toons. It's hardly the same as "pay a fee or start over". Throw in the fact that you, as a previous subber, now get the higher Questionite refining limt for free via the whatever-it's-called pack, and you have quite the Questionite production factory. Also, converting that slot into an AT in no way prevents that player from turning that slot into a FF slot in the future, so there is zero opportunity cost involved. So in this way, the more characters you have that you need to convert, the more characters you have to farm up the currency to convert them.
Yes, Freeforms are great, better than ATs, but I think some people are really overblowing just how much better. In fact some people are acting as though the game is unplayable with ATs, when in reality power mix-matching is just one aspect of the game. People playing ATs can do all content in the game, so there's really nothing to the claim that you have to have FFs immediately upon returning. It's a preference, not a need.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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