I have noticed recently that I am no longer able to post on the forums with a F2P account. I like to keep my characters distinct and tend to post accordingly.
If I were a new player, I would be extremely disheartened that I could not post and comment to better understand and participate with the GS community.
Are F2P no longer allowed to post on certain boards, and if so - which ones, and why? (this happened sometime in April or May, since my last posting on my F2P)
I am getting "You cannot post to that topic." in Red now, when I went to update. This is now at the top of nearly every board thread for my F2P account, including this one.
-Talinvor
social:
Tah'lon Vorrith/Talinvor
Social CHE:
https://www.facebook.com/theobsidiantower
Website:
http://tahlon.obsidiantower.com
CHE Website:
http://obsidiantower.com
INSPADES
GS4-AULIS
Re: F2P accounts and the Forums
06/05/2016 06:13 PM CDT
There was a very long discussion about it, which eventually had to be closed because it was tiering off into other tangents that weren't F2P related. But the main reasons the forums are the way are for F2P I'll copy/paste below.
The change was done to make it easier for Staff and F2P users to have easier communication across the board. Instead of random posts being spread all over the place F2P users now have an easier way to find a condensed location where their questions, concerns, etc. may be easily found and answered by Staff. This is because the F2P playing experience is different from a subscriber's experience, mechanics-wise. So it is more easily to differentiate on whether the post concerns something specific to F2P or something that any user would experience.
~Aulis
Forums Manager
QC'er
While I appreciate the shout out (even if it was beneath me) and the theories behind why GM Aulis has made his stance the way he has, it's actually not as some describe. However, it did play a role to why it came to be.
When F2P was to launch, the forums were going to have this same lock down. But most our website tools are custom, and whether you love or hate the forums, they are part of that custom work. So the tools needed for such a lock down weren't available. That's why this didn't happen at the time of the launch.
Our onsite people were able to complete that task last week and was put into place shortly after. GM Aulis is our forum manager, and I worked with him to reorganize some of our threads to make better sense. Personally, with the size of GS these days, I'd be willing to combine more, but for now, this helps us watch areas of interest better. I have no control over the forum's software or any development time that goes into the onsite projects. But APM Liia and myself did handle it as instructed, as well as with some guidance and discussion from our senior staff.
So this change was two things. One is what GM Aulis has already pointed out. While most of you have been subscribers now or in the past, you actually don't know how intimidating forum communication can be to a new player. New player acquisition is something I've been working on for awhile. It's not exactly as easy as you'd think. And two is because the recent situation going on with posting privileges. We cannot ban a F2P player effectively and prevent them from coming back with another account. We discussed the options we had, and this was the original concept with F2P's birth in GemStone IV, so we went with it.
The outright disrespectful posts and the immense time that has gone into responding to it is a factor in why the trigger was finally pulled. There were a few posts I reviewed that spelled out the need to move this direction. GameMasters are not punching bags. Whether you agree or disagree with the recent changes to the game is up to you. We are moving the GameMaster culture to one that wants to communicate better with the community. And it's taken awhile to get things moving in that direction. I refuse to have them burn out because of that behavior though. I could go into the details, but that's not something I really want to do here. I do not want the game to revisit the tenure of the former leadership.
But as to the comments of disenfranchising long-term customers or a flimsy PR response, you're certainly not the F2P audience we get feedback on. Real legitimate new players cannot navigate the forums well. They couldn't find the F2P topics. They felt new players were quick to bash them on questions. Trust me, I have seen the emails and cancellations over it. Anytime we aim for growth, it gets pulled away from us. Or a player get introduced to third-party programs or sites and they quickly become bitter on over 20 years of gripes. People who don't even know the struggle, because it's pushed onto them and they join in.
F2P wasn't aimed for people who wanted all the benefits of subscribing for free. It was intended to get people to try the game for however long they want to play. If returning customers wanted to give it a go, they could. There is a no strings attached method to playing the game.
Now Doug found all the forums that are flagged for F2P. We have some other topics in this category that cover that. And we also will monitor the need to add to this category or revisit the permissions on other topics. But for the purposes of F2P, this really isn't a bad thing, and something that will help us with communicating properly. We fall victim of talking to players like you always played the game. We've marketed and announced new items in a way that makes any new person go, "huh?" This will help in the long run with that.
Wyrom, APM
On that note, I'd rather not open that discussion back up again because it has been thoroughly debated through and through already.
~Aulis
Forums Manager
QC'er
The change was done to make it easier for Staff and F2P users to have easier communication across the board. Instead of random posts being spread all over the place F2P users now have an easier way to find a condensed location where their questions, concerns, etc. may be easily found and answered by Staff. This is because the F2P playing experience is different from a subscriber's experience, mechanics-wise. So it is more easily to differentiate on whether the post concerns something specific to F2P or something that any user would experience.
~Aulis
Forums Manager
QC'er
While I appreciate the shout out (even if it was beneath me) and the theories behind why GM Aulis has made his stance the way he has, it's actually not as some describe. However, it did play a role to why it came to be.
When F2P was to launch, the forums were going to have this same lock down. But most our website tools are custom, and whether you love or hate the forums, they are part of that custom work. So the tools needed for such a lock down weren't available. That's why this didn't happen at the time of the launch.
Our onsite people were able to complete that task last week and was put into place shortly after. GM Aulis is our forum manager, and I worked with him to reorganize some of our threads to make better sense. Personally, with the size of GS these days, I'd be willing to combine more, but for now, this helps us watch areas of interest better. I have no control over the forum's software or any development time that goes into the onsite projects. But APM Liia and myself did handle it as instructed, as well as with some guidance and discussion from our senior staff.
So this change was two things. One is what GM Aulis has already pointed out. While most of you have been subscribers now or in the past, you actually don't know how intimidating forum communication can be to a new player. New player acquisition is something I've been working on for awhile. It's not exactly as easy as you'd think. And two is because the recent situation going on with posting privileges. We cannot ban a F2P player effectively and prevent them from coming back with another account. We discussed the options we had, and this was the original concept with F2P's birth in GemStone IV, so we went with it.
The outright disrespectful posts and the immense time that has gone into responding to it is a factor in why the trigger was finally pulled. There were a few posts I reviewed that spelled out the need to move this direction. GameMasters are not punching bags. Whether you agree or disagree with the recent changes to the game is up to you. We are moving the GameMaster culture to one that wants to communicate better with the community. And it's taken awhile to get things moving in that direction. I refuse to have them burn out because of that behavior though. I could go into the details, but that's not something I really want to do here. I do not want the game to revisit the tenure of the former leadership.
But as to the comments of disenfranchising long-term customers or a flimsy PR response, you're certainly not the F2P audience we get feedback on. Real legitimate new players cannot navigate the forums well. They couldn't find the F2P topics. They felt new players were quick to bash them on questions. Trust me, I have seen the emails and cancellations over it. Anytime we aim for growth, it gets pulled away from us. Or a player get introduced to third-party programs or sites and they quickly become bitter on over 20 years of gripes. People who don't even know the struggle, because it's pushed onto them and they join in.
F2P wasn't aimed for people who wanted all the benefits of subscribing for free. It was intended to get people to try the game for however long they want to play. If returning customers wanted to give it a go, they could. There is a no strings attached method to playing the game.
Now Doug found all the forums that are flagged for F2P. We have some other topics in this category that cover that. And we also will monitor the need to add to this category or revisit the permissions on other topics. But for the purposes of F2P, this really isn't a bad thing, and something that will help us with communicating properly. We fall victim of talking to players like you always played the game. We've marketed and announced new items in a way that makes any new person go, "huh?" This will help in the long run with that.
Wyrom, APM
On that note, I'd rather not open that discussion back up again because it has been thoroughly debated through and through already.
~Aulis
Forums Manager
QC'er
