VIP - F2P Conversion -- Experiences / Thoughts / Discussion

[Inkblack]

I'm curious about people that have converted (either way) and why they did it. Here's my story. Feel free to add yours.

Ink

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I converted my account last week from VIP to F2P, with ~3,400 free points banked at the time of conversion.

Why did I convert?

When I first heard about this, I automatically did the mental arithmetic to figure out how much I'd spent on DDO to date, and how much all of the items would cost me. I think it took me a week to calm down, and realize that this was just like a new release going on sale after its been out for a while. Then I looked at the items, and added up how much I could expect to pay per year to continue to play. With Turbine's historical rate of production it seemed like a no-brainer.

So far it isn't working out, since I've spent much more than I would have on a subscription to get my account to a status I'm happy with. I'm hopeful about the long term though. I figure I'll break even in 6-8 months.
Any issues with the conversion?

First, buying character slots was a pain. I couldn't seem to get multiples into the store. Maybe it was user error, but I eventually just bought them one at a time.

Second, when I gained enough experience for level 20 on a character, it said I needed a sigil. I had an icon at the top right of my screen. I tried to buy a sigil, but the store said there wasn't one for my level. Very frustrated, I logged out and back in hoping to get the store to reset. The icon disappeared, and I levelled without any problem. I don't know if it would have let me level with the icon still on the screen -- I didn't know at the time to try it. I did bug report this.
Purchases to date:

6 extra character slots (to get all 10 chars) - Caught a sale, and went ahead and did it. It's nice to have all of my characters available.

Every adventure pack with a raid (7 of them) - Personal preference here, because that's most of what I do. (Side note: It is kind of a bummer to purchase the Abbot, but then be afraid to run it because of the Mordenkainen's bug. I do think bugs will have to be evaluated on whether or not they affect paid content, and use that as part of a priority system.)

Reaver's Reach - I think it was on sale, plus I was still trying to get some dragontouched items.

Sorrowdusk - Purchased when I joined a pug on my lowbie.

[7-day_Trial_Monkey]

wrong post *edit*

[ogboot]

edit

I used to pay, was here for launch and paid for over a year. took a break came back for about 6months or so on a couple occasions. f2p pulled me back into the game again and i'll be here as long as the business model stays this way.

I'd like to say that I think f2p is a wonderful idea. In a perfect world I do not think it should have been necessary, everyone should have loved DDO from the start enough to pay for it. However, although subscription games are fairly common i have a hard time justifying yet ANOTHER monthly bill, so being able to pay at my leisure is a good thing. Hopefully more people will give the game a shot and ultimately put some money into it. i'll certainly end up paying for content.

Right now i'm going to ride f2p as far as i can, then start hitting adventure packs, character slots, etc etc. To those playing f2p now, consider buying something! Spending money is what will keep this game alive, and if you enjoy it enough to play it often then think of it as a donation with benefits.

[Fenrisulven6]

I downgraded last month. Budget tightening up. I like F2P because I can still run 4 of my fav toons when I have time, but I miss having access to Deleras and VON. Unfortunately, I spent alot of my TPs before I knew I was going to downgrade, and I'm about 100 short of purchasing VON.

OTOH, there's still alot of fun quests I can run - was surprised I still have access to Redwillow, Gwylans, SC and Tear.

So, all-in-all it balances towards the plus side.

But I'll be re-subing by January.

[Bashiba]

I quit about 15 months back and came back to try out the free to play. At first I didn't like it because of all the restrictions, but once I read about being able to grind out favor for points I thought I would give it a go. Since I have spent $38 on the the 3300 point pack, I have been careful to only buy content on sale, and bought pretty much all the content I want and I am playing different toons across multiple servers for more favor so I can get more content. It kind of sucked that I basically had to abandon my original server, but its kind of fun starting over on the others being broke and not being able to twink.

[Fenrisulven6]

....because Beholders are yummy

[Inkblack]

I quit about 15 months back and came back to try out the free to play. At first I didn't like it because of all the restrictions, but once I read about being able to grind out favor for points I thought I would give it a go. Since I have spent $38 on the the 3300 point pack, I have been careful to only buy content on sale, and bought pretty much all the content I want and I am playing different toons across multiple servers for more favor so I can get more content. It kind of sucked that I basically had to abandon my original server, but its kind of fun starting over on the others being broke and not being able to twink.

It will be interesting to see if we wind up spending more than the VIP's. I've bought the 3,300 pack as well, so we're both in the hole vs. VIP at the moment.

[SirShen]

I have gone from VIP to Premium Player. I bought alot of points on beta. So have bought FvS and Drow and some char. slots when they were on offer. I also bought packs on offer. I will wait for the others to come down in price before i buy them.
I feel great that i dont have to worry about finding the money each month, it has taken a stress away from me. I love the game and will go VIP if anything comes out new that i think is worth getting VIP for but only for a month.

Only thing i hate is leveling sigils.

[TehSilence]

Hm... has anyone addressed what would happen if you were at a level cap, went to VIP and leveled, then went F2P again at the next cycle? Would you be stuck at whatever level you were again until you found a leveling sigil?

[Nyvn]

Hm... has anyone addressed what would happen if you were at a level cap, went to VIP and leveled, then went F2P again at the next cycle? Would you be stuck at whatever level you were again until you found a leveling sigil?

VIP's don't need sigils, in fact they don't ever show up for VIPs. If you were at level 4 then went VIP for a month you could level all the way to level 20. If you played enough that is. Otherwise you'd have to buy a sigil for whatever the next point you needed it was, 8, 12, or 16. You won't de-level back down though.

[wolfy42]

You can buy sigils though and they are not really that expensive....so it's not that bad.

I'm trying out F2p a bit right now..havn't invested much in TP's since I already had a bunch from before. I plan on going VIP again after I get my new characters up a bit more in levels. I figured I don't need a VIP account for the first 10-12 levels anyway so I might as well try it out (and get a chance to take advantage of the sales which you can't as a VIP).

I like the F2P setup so far...although you do have far less freedom especially early unless you buy the adventure packs. There really isn't much difference for the first 4-5 levels but the syndicate quest line, STK and Tangleroot are huge to be missing.

If you buy those adventure packs though it wouldn't be that big of a difference. I'm really testing the waters now to see if it's worth investing in F2P or better to just stick with VIP every so often till I run out of new content/characters to play.

If you have the money....it is way easier to just go with VIP though. Tons less you have to worry about. Even just buying the most important content in the game will cost you at least 4-6 months of VIP status. I guess it really depends alot on what you are looking for, but for me I am thinking that VIP status is probably the easiest way to go (no sigils, auto account bank, 6 more character slots etc etc).

[Anton27]

I been playing DDO for a few years now and had stopped playing about a year ago, just because of few players and lack of groups to run with.

I came back when it was F2P (was invited for beta but didn't play long on it). I found out I was a premium member because I purchased the original game and was a subscriber before and played a rogue and leveled to 4 and bought a sigil with some turbine points I saw I had so I could level some more.

After a few days I subscribed again because of the amount of players and I will be making Stromreach my second home.....Think I will take residence in House J. I have my eye on a cosey little house there.