I think Turbine is doing F2P correctly. You’re not limited to the point that you can’t stand to play, you can still do a whole lot. I’ve been playing LOTRO beta for the free accounts and I’m loving what they’re doing. DDO also did it correctly. I’m not a fan of micro or macro transactions, but if SOE is going to go with this model, do it on all servers and don’t limit the experience for new players.

Turbine wants us to have fun with the game so we’ll buy it, SOE wants us to buy it so we’ll have fun.

Gearwise, they can make and use Mastercrafted. Right up to the level cap they have (80th), Mastercrafted is already the preferred option for most players. It’s better than most of the Legendary they are ever likely to see and most of the older Fabled that drops outside of raids.(For that matter, even the Treasured gear in recently revamped zones like Lavastorm is better than most old Legendary).

Bag space sounds like an issue until you realise that it is easy in EQ2 to get bags that hold in excess of 40 items. The basic starting allocation of two of those already gives you more potential free bag space than some F2P games give AFTER you spend money on bags from the cash shop. With two slots in the bank that’s pushing 100 storage slots, and that’s not counting your House vault which could more than double that.

I’ve spent a brief time in the Alpha, playing as a Bronze account (you get the option in Alpha to upgrade but I waned to see how Bronze might play when the thing goes Live). I haven’t had time to check what housing is available for Bronze players but I’ve read nothing about restrictions so presumably you can live in a mansion if you choose, which gives you the best part of the entire game for free!

I was a little dubious about the Bronze and Silver schemes when Isaw them on the comparison chart, but once you get into the game and see what they mean in practice, both look hugely attractive. For the average casual player who will never raid, there’s pretty much nothing beyond Silver that they’ll ever need.

35$ is really steep, I agree.

I have two problems with this:
1) the $15 gets you less than you do today
2) if I want to move to the new servers (if only because that’s where all the new players will be going and the old servers are just going to die a slow and lingering death), I have to reroll and throw away years of progress or pay $35 a pop

When DDO changed, I got to continue the same character I had progressed back when I subscribed, and could pay $15 to get the same thing I got back when I subscribed. I was hoping SOE would do something like that. Oh well.