Potential "free to play for everyone" idea

Tier 5 is the only tier where it seems difficult to get groups, specifically the operations.

Free content, with cosmetics and convenience items, seems to be the way games are going.

The type of costume customization we have is truly superior to anything else out there. The fact that they have done zero to take advantage of this is one if the most bizzar situations with this game.

Yeah, some games have face and body sliders... Big deal. You never spend time looking at another players face, and their bodies are always covered up anyway.

like I said b4. make a GOOD game, and they will pay to play. simple. but they just CANT seem to get past the fast $$$ grab crap...

I personally would prefer open content and locked loot
make all group content open for everyone, but only people with the DLC and/or subbed can get the DLC specific loot while playing it.

The way how I see it is to remove legendary.
Like what they did with f2p & premium with cash.
You spent 5.00$ you increase your in-game cash by 500.

So every 5.00$ = 500

So if you was around since 2011 & Bought the game on CD for 60$.
It adds to 1500+6000=6,500

imo they need to undo AMs and go back to the old days when the population was actually there.

hold only 50 styles?

This is not accurate. Blanket statements like this make assumptions. There are people, granted probably a minority I'm sure, but there are those among us myself included who prefer the role playing aspect of an MMO to gear chasing. I could care less if my troll has crafted tier 8 mods in CR172 or vendor mods in CR170 like she currently is and I'm not putting effort into getting that last little bit of numbers. It's meaningless to me. Not everyone cares about numbers. Every tier will eventually be obsolete. Every piece of gear will eventually be upgraded. All that time and effort gearing up, gone at the next DLC, Obsolete at the next tier.

Creating a character you like, something original that has that look and style you want, to me that's what comics are about and that is where DCUO stands apart from other MMOs. It's dynamic, personal comic book. As someone said in another thread this is my comic book and my character is the star of it. Gear is absolutely secondary to that. While you may disagree and I support your right to do so, that's the thing about games with lots of different aspects. It caters to both my play style and yours and I like that about it. I don't have an issue with gear chasers. To the contrary, their money dropped on RB helps fuel new content and that keeps the story going so they're good for my comic book even if they don't appear in it.

I'm not sure why you highlighted that part of my post, then wrote what you did. You totally reinforced my point. Lol

I

I don't see that. You said: dress up second to gear progression. I said gear progression is meaningless. How is me saying gear progression is pointless reinforcing your opinion that it's a higher priority than style. Ver batim, you said: Whether you admit it or not, playing dress up is only second to gear progression. That in no way do I agree with nor did I reinforce.

The point if that paragraph was about how important character customization is. Which you seem to agree with.

That's all I'm saying

I do, I just think that in the long run it's the only thing that really does matter.

I'm on the same page. I definitely get more out if playing dress up than I do with the gear progression. Especially now with thevCR Differential in place

I sort od doubt that is the issue.. The man spent years running City of Heroes and just like every other on line MMO in existence it had its share of gold spammers as well. The difference was over there at COH we all had a global name. So if you befriended someone while playing one ALT and they accepted it didn't matter what ALT you logged on as after that. They could check their friend's list and see you were on as which ALT you were playing and you could do the same. How does that apply? Because if you ignored a gold spammer over there no matter what ALT you were playing there advertising was GONE. Also COH actively battled those people.. Players didn't even have to report them. They had Game Masters on line 24 hours a day 7 days a week and if they saw one, OR one got reported, they got banned on the spot. Now that didn't mean they couldn't create a new account and just start all over but that account was dead in game. Now as to your last question My guess would be all of those spammers have free accounts.. not sure how much that sort of thing even pays but my guess is not a lot so why would they waste a penny to be a premium or a SUB when they can pay zero and advertise on LFG, shout, trade or just about anywhere?

Honestly I really don't think DCUO even bothers to try and battle them. I do know COH tried for the entire time the game existed and never really won. As fast as they'd ban one spammer account they'd just go create a new one. Here I think its even easier. ON COH I had two accounts because there was a set limit to how many ALTS a player could maintain on one account and by the time that game died I have over 50 between the two. Now in order to do that I actually had to use two different email addresses because when I tried to create the second and used my normal email their security program came back and informed me an account in that name already existed. HERE? Years ago I got a "warning" and a 3 day ban which I still insist was their so-called security system screwing up because I really can't see how a character I was using as a drone to just log on, check email, store the stuff in email attachments and then log back off could have possible used an illegal MACRO on a mission. That ALT never left the mail area of the Tech Wing of the Watchtower and never ran ANY mission.. BUT the point is I had a buddy I came here from COH with and I wanted to at least be able to contact him to let him know what had happened so I created a new account. I used the exact same email address and within minutes was on line and for the next three days and the two off us just goofed around as I played that character until my "other" account was reinstated. LOL not sure where they draw the line, if they even bother, but knowing THAT .. potentially a spammer could have 5 or 10 accounts all under the same email address. Ban one and within seconds they could be right back on line.

Okay let me start by saying I don't disagree with your thinking .. its insane. I can start a new alt.. in 7 hours or less be level 30 and using the almost 100 marks I have earned doing side missions, along with a gift of a CR 78 necklace and 2 CR 78 rings I have a huge supply of from drops in the vault that character is CR 43 or 44 within minutes of arriving in the Watchtower. Already skipped a whole tier without running a single mission. Run the OA alert a few times along with the solo challenges and in days your CR 53 and in Central City where the daily mission alone pay out 2 marks a day. I've had alts hit CR 70 in a week or less depending on how much time a day I am willing to play them. And in five days between CR 73 unattended armor drops from doing the Siege and Morrow bots along with CR 73 unatunned drops where I can actually pick which piece of armor I want/need I can be CR 84 and on to the next tier. Spend enough Replay badges and farm Raven and POOF the same day I hit CR 84 I am now CR 94 or 95 from the corrupt armor she drops. So its entirely possible, without even trying hard, to go from level 1 to close to CR 100 in two weeks or less.

BUT OMG not another huge game change .. How many players did this game lose when GU47 hit? How many will it lose during the 5 months with no new content we are looking at while the go BACK to quarterly releases instead of monthly? How long will it then take to revise the entire system AGAIN to do what your suggesting and with the tiny Dev staff we know we have available to do so are we looking at another 5-6 months with no new content? Its asking too much of a player base that we know darn well is obsessed with getting everything FAST. You want to know the only people that would gain anything from your idea? The daybreak stockholders because if the game didn't lose every single player they currently have with back to back delays in new content... THAT player base that NEEDS to have everything right this minute would do exactly what they always do.. SPEND more money on replays so they can KEEP racing higher and higher up the tiers. As evidence of that fact think back to before content was coming every month. There were players that logged on DAY 1 of new content , spent Replays like mad until they had every single bit of new armor and had complete every single feat and then within two days or so were back on these forums complaining how bored they were. Its been going on for the entire 5 years I have played and I don't see any signs that it will change no matter what they do.

Interesting suggestion!

Stop now, too close to a breach of contract as it is

I think that a free to play game with micro transactions as it's backbone is a very good idea, I also think that it would have to come at the expense of players that have subscribed. That being said there are ways to avoid even that fallout. But in earnest it would be great if this were modeled after other games that made use of the market place as THE money maker other than replays. They are part of the market place. I love what you guys have done this far, to take it one step farther PVP can be a steady income as well, there are places that you could go into with micro transactions that will make people squirm, but in the end the customer base is here.

I don't know. I, personally, am completely sick and tired of f2p games and their nipping at my wallet for every little thing. I want to pay a subscription fee and get it all, not be nickle and dimed to death with microtransactions like Armories. That alone is what is probably going to drive me back to WoW. Yes, they have a store with a few mounts and pets on it but the vast, overwhelming majority of the game's assets are available as part of the box price plus the subscription and earned by playing the game. If I pay the fees, I get it all.

Here, I pay the fee and I get some of it. Armories are borderline mandatory. If you want to utilize them, pay up. Unless you replay, your progression will most likely (due to the fickle whims of RNGsus) take FOREVER. You'd better pay up, sucker. You want the ability to use those teleporter mods that drop all over the place? Pay up. Do you like that cool material system they came up with? Well, you'd better have deep pockets, either in-game or IRL, and pay through the nose for the only example yet released. Do you find those Time/Space Capsules interesting? Well, the keys will cost you except for the as-yet-unknown in-game method of obtaining them. It's all paper cuts but they add up. I know they give us a stipend with our membership but that does nothing for the perception issue. Once I pay my fee, I still have multiple pay-gates before me to truly enjoy everything DCUO has to offer and it annoys me to no end.

Jeez, I feel like I'm channeling that TechWarrior guy with this wall o' text but I felt the need to rant a bit. Thanks for reading and fire away.

I agree and I also am with you. So hear me out here.
I think that what has been done is great, and I think that any Program, Game, or otherwise that hopes to survive in a society that is hell bent on wanting things in the here and now has to adjust to the current climate of people and tastes.
In today's Society we are bombarded with ads whether it be from our phone, tablet, or sometimes clocks, and TV's/ We are an ad based society in America. Unfortunately that is the largest part of this games player base. I know there will be hate from other people who are not in the US, in fact one of them for me is a friend in Canada. But in reality this game is made and produced in the US. That being said there are many games that have been very successful in what they have done on a truly Free to play model.

League of Legends to name one of the ones that is truly at the top of its form is successful because the things that make it money are based on a market place. Most everything that they offer is cosmetic. And they are probably going to hit an all time high this year and have many artists that back them just to be acknowledged by the. I can think of one band in particular that made an amazing climb based on being the intro song for them.

I am not always into PVP, but they have tournements dedicated to just that, and the truth is here is where you retain the 5 year customers. If they are and have been here that long there are tons of the older players that would lunge at the chance to show off and compete in a tournement to be the best and show what they have learned.

Not only the PVP we have would benefit in that it would have a new surge of growth, and could survive without ever losing pace with PVE. The same maps and models that are used for PVE could be adapted into working PVP maps, the code is there the only real task is taking out PVE adds.

It ends up as a winner for both sides:
PVE gets new content and MP items
PVP gets new maps and competition