I get the feeling that letting F2P players move through member areas or get XP in member skills is, to them, a rather messy issue and one they'd rather not devote resources to at the moment. However, the new layouts of Taverley and Burthorpe, being much more self-contained, would make such a change much easier.

Exactly. They put one of those beginner area guards on white wolf mountain, and could also use them in the same way the Taverly gate is currently used.

I really, seriously hope not.

 

I think they've done enough recently, and with them working against botting membership status I'm led to assume is increasing again..

I get the feeling that letting F2P players move through member areas or get XP in member skills is, to them, a rather messy issue and one they'd rather not devote resources to at the moment. However, the new layouts of Taverley and Burthorpe, being much more self-contained, would make such a change much easier.

Exactly. They put one of those beginner area guards on white wolf mountain, and could also use them in the same way the Taverly gate is currently used.

 

It would not be as simple as JUST that.

There would be the choice of including the whole area or just the towns, eg do these need a fence hemming off the withches house dark wiz tower etc.

Making sure any quests in they area have coding fixes so f2p can't accidentally start them (eg Fishing Contest, Hero's Quest, Troll Stronghold) and of course there is blocking off the Northern routes through troll lands out into Fremmink and making sure Taverly dungeon is locked off, or atleast most of it is. Then there is the question of some of the shops and tutorial quests that would enable f2pers to gain some levels in herblore and summoning in particular; do they allow that? Do they keep them members only? If so which shops etc need the members only locks applied?

Which are all things they've done in the current free world.

 

Some NPCs and items that require membership do not show up at all on free worlds (Gertrude, doogle leaf spawns), while some other areas can remain fenced off (One could easily be added at the point where a lot of member stuff is in Taverly dungeon, if there isn't one already). I'm pretty sure passage through troll country is already at least partially restricted by the troll quest chain, which could remain member's only (Possible exception of Death Plateau). For many of the shops and such, allowing access for F2P'ers wouldn't be too game breaking (The 2h shop in Burthrope has nothing but f2p items, some addition could be made to the summoning and herblore shops... Though I'm pretty sure a lot of the herblore shop's stock is f2p already, or could be made such if this is done).

 

Only brought it up in the first place because it seems like lot of the changes made to the Burthrope/Taverly area seem to support it :razz:

Not to mention there are member's only areas in the free worlds already (like the Edgeville furnace). The herb shop could simply have a lock on it saying "you must be on a member's server to access this area".

I wasn't trying to say it was impossible, just that it is much more complex than *just* putting a border guard/gate on wwm

i'm p2p, and honestly, with all they've been taking from the f2p players, f2p deserves a free trial.

Just to beat everyone else to it:

 

F2P deserves nothing!

 

Still, I am surprised that Jagex doesn't give F2P a free ~week. That surely would draw in some more members.

I would love to see a sort of "sign up" trial where *every* free to play player has the option to get 7 days of membership, but it isn't limited. That is, each account can only get 7 days for free, but the first 7 days are free (similar to WoW). This means its not a promotional *event* because each player can "activate" the trial period on their own time (when they might potentially have more time)

 

I wouldn't limit what skills could be gotten, but there would be a max level cap (but one that shouldn't be acheivable in an average week of a new player's time)

i'm p2p, and honestly, with all they've been taking from the f2p players, f2p deserves a free trial.

 

I don't agree on that notion. Why do you think f2pers 'deserve' a free trial of the member's game? If my inference is incorrect, then feel free to correct me.

Why does someone deserve something for free when others pay for it? I mean heck, If we're focusing on giving people p2p content for free why should I continue to pay?

 

Jagex is a company, an increase in a pure f2p community doesn't help them very much does it?

A marketing move that draws in potential customers to switch over to P2P from F2P might help them :rolleyes:

A marketing move that draws in potential customers to switch over to P2P from F2P might help them :rolleyes:

It would also help to draw in new players, since there's been a noticeable lack of them in recent years.

Since getting more people interested in your product is usually a good thing.

I don't have a problem with a free trial. I believe that a free trial will bring new f2p's into membership quicker and create a more fluid transition.

 

It may encourage long term f2p to sample the full game but I think it just as likely those players will do it for the trial period then revert back to f2p. I find the arguments for updating old content in f2p and giving more areas/skills to f2p ridiculous as it is only career f2p's who will find it boring. Any new players to RS I have met in f2p are usually excited and thrilled at all the content they get for nothing and may well move on to members, as I myself did.

I fully believe the f2p community will remain f2p if Jagex did the trial or not. It would just give them more reasons not to pay. As for new members, I'm not sure they would notice as for a new f2p player there sure is quite a bit of content to do. Seems unneeded and just a bonus for the long term f2pers.

Problem is between WoW F2P and RS F2P w/ mems trial s could you train RS member only skills as a trial? That'd be strange.

I fully believe the f2p community will remain f2p if Jagex did the trial or not. It would just give them more reasons not to pay. As for new members, I'm not sure they would notice as for a new f2p player there sure is quite a bit of content to do. Seems unneeded and just a bonus for the long term f2pers.

 

The long-term F2Pers wouldn't become members, no. But short-term ones might do. Also, this is a tutorial, there's no point in it for long term players. We're not talking about giving F2P more content to give them more content but to make them subscribe.