I think it is bad to take away something that people had to pay for, without a refund. It's just deceptive and wrong, regardless of the intent. It's not like it was breaking anything in the game to let people use it. But taking it away after people have spent anything on it all (DKP, previous gear, or even just time) is just plain wrong.
I think one route they could take at this point would be to go the old prenerf/postnerf item status. Essentially if you got in before the nerf then congrats. Ie circlet of shadows. I still believe they should have done this for the hornscale blade/eok raid/chase weapons that had 8k procs on them for almost a year.
From people who have allowed their subscriptions to expire, not from people who have played free to play all the way to 110. It's nearly impossible to do the latter. But many people do the former so as to switch mains when they need to, and to support their main characters with long duration spells, etc. Actual free to play players are few and far in between, and before you say this is generous, you need to actually know what other games with free to play services do. I'll just mention a single game for you to look up: Path of Exile - all expansions free, all content free, all servers free, free content updates every month, and the only pay features are cosmetic and convenience. Imagine having this entire game free except for what's available on market place. That's what Path of Exile does.
If you had any illusions about being able to use RAID gear as a FTP .. then you're the problem, not DB. I agree with the poster that said you have more to worry about raiding as a FTP than them making this gear prestige .. can't use decent augs, gear, RKIII, limited on AA. personally, I'd like to know who ALLOWED you to raid RoS with a FTP account. They're the ones that need to be punished.
This isn't about your personal opinions on how other people can play. If you don't want to allow F2P toons in your guild, then don't. But this is about taking something away after people have invested something in getting it. It's not right.
The gear is not rockstar at all? That statement is completely absurd. It's raid gear, it's just below the actual dropped raid gear, it's raid gear that is better than EoK raid gear.. but it's not rockstar? Let me give you a single comparison to put things in perspective for you. Vital Phlogiston Belt - AC 314, HP 6340 Cactus Leaf Belt - AC 334, HP 6670 Wow a whole 20 AC! , and a whole 330 HP difference! So it's two tiers of raid gear with a very small difference, Phlogiston is rockstar A.F. please don't try to discount how awesome it is.
This argument doesn't hold any weight. Example - Anyone that has ever started a "flavor of the month" class (Druids w/ OP dots... Zerker dicho alts) only to be letdown when the nerfs came. What should they do? Let them change to another class at the same level/aa amount because they "took something away" from said classes? Its Everquest, from time to time things happen that make people unhappy or feel slighted, quit or deal with it. I'm going to assume you will go with the latter.
Class balance is completely different from buying equipment that you later can't use due to changes they made six months down the line. It's not like you wasted your time, as the character is still there and can still be used, unless you're going to claim correcting a balance issue makes the class useless? The actual analogy would be: I paid 200 DKP for raid equipment that could be used by all classes. Then later they decided to make it warrior only. Now I wasted 200 DKP for equipment I can't use. Should I just deal with it?
It's not like the OP wasted his/her time, as the gear is still there and can still be used... once they sub the account.
Then it is no longer free to play, is it? Why should the guy be pressured into paying because developers decided to change his equipment six months after release? Had this been a bigger deal, you could even argue it's false advertisement. Imagine buying a car, and then the dealer tells you six months later, hey you can't drive the car any more unless you pay us for a new service. You think people wouldn't law suit for this?
Guess the person should sue and see how far it goes then. Good advice!! In the meantime, they should subscribe, support the game, and use the raid gear.
I don't think op was mistaken to use raid items on an unsubbed alt. IIRC t1 CotF raid loot wasn't prestige. (maybe RoF too?)
Here come the armchair lawyer arguments... have you ever read the entire user agreement you click "agree" to when creating an account? I sure haven't... but I would assume that within that large amount of text is a statement saying that the creators/developers of the game can/will adjust the game as to how they see fit. Its not as if they promoted the phlogiston gear as the new FTP raid gear.. personally I think conflagrant gear is amazing for ftp accounts.. basically tbm raid gear (minus the focii). Anyone that purchased phlogiston via dkp/plat(FV) shouldnt be surprised about these changes as raid-tier gear has never been non-prestige (correct me if i am wrong).
i apologize for only buying the expansion for 3 accounts and only subscribing on one.... guess that isn't enough "support". apx... 3 expansions x $40 + $120 x 1 for my year subscription on my main = $240 in the last 6 months.... guess i don't support the game enough. will have to work on only supporting it on 1 toon.
I won't bother trying to argue that what the developers did is illegal. But it certainly violates the spirit of the bait and switch law. Sure, you could argue that you didn't know, that the equipment was supposed to be subscription only but a bug prevented it from being so. Those would be valid defenses. But you certainly cannot, as people have tried to argue in this thread, just pretend that it's okay to make this change at any time and that the customer only has himself to blame. What I find ridiculous is not so much that they are able to make a mistake, even a six months mistake, with the limited time and focus they have today; but more people's attitude towards the victim which is NOT the company.
Just be grateful that they did this now, when people are just starting to gear alts and not 3 or 4 more months down the road when many will have fully geared their alts.
Armchair lawyer is right...you didn't even bother to read the document you then tried to quote? Just stop.
Philosophically no, it's not OK to suddenly change non-prestige item to prestige after 6 months, for a number of reasons. Also to address something someone said which was that 'Raid items are always supposed to be prestige' that's not true. In plenty of old expacs where there is non-prestige raid gear. People may have made decisions based solely on the fact that this gear is non-prestige- such as spending more dkp or bidding on an item just for that status. People may have spent far more money than usual to buy those items because they weren't prestige, and they wanted them for a F2P or Silver account... it's just not 'right' to do to a player. Also, if you are a dev and you allowed people to use something for an extended period of time a certain way, you shouldn't retroactively change an item anyway. Changing it moving forward , maybe, but not OK retroactively changing items someone already has. Previously the devs had enough respect for the player base to allow both versions to exist creating 'nerf' and 'pre-nerf' versions. Nope. Not ok.
I've got a char with 6 pcs, that's currently Silver. There is much precedence for Tier 1 raid gear to be non-prestige. This could most certainly be considered Tier 1, the regular drops Tier 2. Changing it 5 months later is somewhat lame. The last few expansions, we haven't had more than one tier of raid gear so... it's all been prestige. It would be nice to at least have a way to recover the kit used to make the item + the original conflagrant item via a turnin.
