Subscription What we get & want.

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by Hamma

Higby has mentioned there will likely be a premium option.

Likely has to be one to fit with their station pass model as well.

[Skitrel]

Alright. So, there's a really, really simple way this should be done.

Subscribers get some special subscriber visual bonuses, they get "supporter" icons and the like to show they pay, and their monthly subscription translates into station cash they can use in the shop. Ideally the best way to go about this bit is to give people slightly more for their subscription money than they would get as not a subscriber. An allowance of sorts.

By doing so SOE gets the benefit of having a core subscriber base that they can rely on to follow typical patterns, allowing them to toy with and be adventurous with the F2P things in shop to see what they can entice people to buy and not.

[raykor]

I definitely prefer playing a traditional subscription based game but I suspect that this premium plan is simply a bundle that includes a subset of what will be in the store at an appropriate “bundle” discount.

What I would prefer is that they offer completely separate servers for FTP and traditional subscribers; but I doubt that will happen.

I’m not too worried about them “selling power” in their store but I think the community you get in a FTP title is very different from a sub-based game. I also think that there is no chance whatsoever that they will be able to control the hacking on FTP servers.

Oh well, I’ll squeeze out what fun I can from whatever they decide.

[Lokster]

All I can say is that people who expect to get EVERYTHING from the cash shop just for buying a one month subscription are absolute retards. Those new to f2p should seriously keep in mind that SOE needs to make money for continued growth and support of PS2.

As many sensible players have suggested, a subscription should increase things like XP and resource gain. And should decrease things like cert timers and cost of other items in the cash shop.

They aren't inventing the wheel here. There are SEVERAL successful f2p - cash shop models out there to "borrow" ideas from. From what little I have heard about the shop -- It seems the PS2 team is on top of it...