I just started over and used my old main for crafting only..
I feel like they did not do enough to make old returning players say "hey, I wanna subscribe again"..
It was more like "Hey guys, come back and see how much we have locked you out from! You'll be pleasantly surprised!"
It's still a great game, but for a returning character, unless you plan on subbing right out of the gate again it would probably be better just to start over with the new players to the game and decide if you want to sub then..
Besides, I couldn't even get back into my old character.. I just couldn't remember how he played and I didn't even know where I was in the world and what I was doing..
No vet rewards, locked up items, not many higher levels to group with yet...
Originally posted by William12 A lot of misinformation here. They have said almost all quest rewards can be used by f2p no matter the quality and I leveled from 1-30 and almost every blue item i seen was useable by f2p.
Blue items have been lifted I have started doing the banisher's questline for crafters and so far I have received like 12 "gold" "orange" items that I can't use atleast they can give us options this or that............this game needs a middle ground F2P matrix or it's gonna die There is a middle ground. It's called paying a couple cents to unlock items you feel you REALLY WANT...this is just one big experiment for SONY....right around the corner is
GUILD WARS 2 massive mmo that offers all content with a ONE box purchase which is like
It offers most of its content, for 60 dollars. It too has an in game store with exclusive items.
100 times better than Vanguard. There are a few things GW2 does better than VG, but VG appeals to a totally different crowd of people. I wouldn't say GW2 is better than Vanguard as it stands, except for PvP.
Vanguard is not free to play because you cannot play and be competitive in any way without paying. Some games will make it so that you gain your competitive advantage faster by paying such as getting leveling boosts and such but that really only shifts the timeframe in which you gain the advantage. The advantage is still available to all if they are willing to replace money with time.
Vanguard is different because you are hard limited in item progression if you don't pay. In Vanguard you either subscribe or you pay to equip the better items on an item by item basis. This makes it the very definition of pay to win. How is it really any different to pay to equip the best items or to simply buy the best items direct from a cash shop.
In real free to play you can play and be competitive without spending money. you may have to spend much more time playing. Farming more gold or grinding levels because not paying makes it take longer but you can still get there without paying. This is not the case in Vanguard. If you choose to not pay you will NEVER be able to equip your character properly for endgame.
Vanguard is now the definition of pay to win. And it will stay pay to win until it gets rid of this ridiculous item limit.
SOE's problem with free to play is that they believe that it has to be structured in such a way that everybody is eventually forced to pay or go away. Players must be tricked into paying.
SOE needs to understand that "Players ARE Content." In an MMO you don't need to make everybody pay. You just need enough people to pay. But you will loose even your paying customers if they don't have enough people to play that MMO with. An MMO without a community is dead and makes no money at all.
SOE needs to realize that Players are not a problem that needs to be paid for. Players are a resource that need to be invested in.
Originally posted by tank017 Lol,companies are going to try and make a buck somehow.no mmo will ever truly be free
Wrong,
AION is completly free, no need to buy anything........
And how is that going for them? They made less money than they wanted, sales are down.
How are game companies going to keep the doors open?
Or is it ok for a small amount of people to support the game habits of a larger group?
Yes, it is. Because players are content in an mmo. Players are also a limted resource. I am not saying that I would rather spend $150 a month so that 9 other players can play for free but then we need to recognize that a game doesn't necessarily have to make $15 for every player that connects to it. That is still viewing every player as a liability.
The other way to approach it would be to say how many people do I need to be payers to break even. 50k? Well does that mean I should force everyone to pay $15 and hope I get 50k to pay. What if I could get 500k to play for free so long as 10% of them monitized? It will cost a little bit more to serve 500k players but not by much. The economics of scale in this industry are unbelievable. Especially for SOE which already has several games running and so the infrastructure is already in place and probably paid for. and in the case of Vanguard, the game already existed.
Remember, non-paying players provide several things. First. They provide themselves to paying players to be interacted with. They are the people that make your guild grow from 10 to 100. They are the other people in your instance group. They are your opponents in PvP. and they are the buyers and sellers that make your economy run smoothly. Non-paying players are also very often the young kids that have all that extra time to work on Wikis and dungeon guides and things like that. They are the kids who have extra time to farm resources so that something can be sold on the exchange. Non-paying players are also free word of mouth advertising to their friends. And in the end, they are potential paying customers. Not all of them will turn into paying customers but some will. If they are playing your game and not someone elses that is.
Originally posted by tank017Lol,companies are going to try and make a buck somehow.no mmo will ever truly be free
Wrong, AION is completly free, no need to buy anything........
And how is that going for them? They made less money than they wanted, sales are down.
How are game companies going to keep the doors open?
Or is it ok for a small amount of people to support the game habits of a larger group?
And they still probably made 1,000 times more money during the quarter than Vanguard.
This is Vanguard's last desperate attempt to stay alive. Tacking on a half-assed extended free trial isnt going to keep the doors open.
And yet if a person is not willing to spend, what? 10 dollars? A bit more? to unlock a few things then I highly suspect that there is something else going on.
It's either standing on ceremony "well it says 'free' and if i have to pay anything at all, even a penny then I'm walking away" or they really were only interested in playing for a short period and then move on to the next free game and just continue the cycle.
Recently I did an informal poll and of the people who responded, a good many indicated that in any free to play game they would spend a few dollars but not too often. In the interest of full disclosure I also voted that way.
If one were to come to Vangaurd and spend a few dollars then one can pretty much just enjoy themselves without any real fees at all.
people tend to value things that they spend money on and spend money on things they value.
If spending a fraction of what you would spend on a sub game is an issue then that makes me wonder what mmo's you do spend money on?
And I"m curious, in the f2p games that you've played, have you ever spent any money and if so what were the items as well as the amounts?
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
People will also value that which they spend time on. Opportunity costs after all. In this sense time really is money and visa versa. People will often spend much more in time on a hobby than they do in money but they value the products of that hobby no less and often much more.
Don't discount the value a non-paying player can add to a game world simply by spending time in it, if it is structured correctly anyway.
So the main (pretty much ONLY) issue presented here is that only subscribers and people who pay to unlock the items can use top gear. Most of the posters who have issue with that have written off the entire free game as a result. It is simply that important to you.
I think devs make top gear and epics such a core feature in today's games because they know you guys a lot better than you know yourselves.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
its easy to predict that Vanguard will raise its player base for a few weeks then loose it again.
This F2P Model isnt and wont be the solution to Vanguards playerbase problems. Its to restricted and has nothing to do with "FREE" to play.
Sooner or later you need Orange or Better Items.........
Its just another Trial in another form.... thats a fact
I'm enjoying the game to its fullest at the moment, without paying. A lovely flux of new players, but alas I don't think it will last either.
But I don't really think you thought what you wrote through. Sooner or later you will need orange or better items? Hehe the levling in this game is slow, it used to be slower, but its still slow. And you lose xp when you die. If you by some months get towards max level, and you feel you need orange to play - you have spent and AMAZING lot of hours on the game. But you still won't pay a dime? I mean how is that even possible? Nobody can be that cheap? And who would want to spend that amount of time and not support the game? Haha wow that statement is just astonishing. And you really expect to put in that amount of hours and not pay? I just don't know what to say, its just incredibly dumb. Think about it man.
About housing having to sub to be able to access it, well seeing as housing is limited in the game afaik it seems only natural to not make it available to freebies.
I would like to see a lower sub, or maybe a lower sub option, like a silver membership. While there is an okay middleground, there could be more options.
Oh and I just have to comment on the guy just below you who says this(Starpower):
It's forever you say? .. I don't play MMOs forever and there is no garuntee this game will be around forever, so a forever deal is a good deal for SoE, not so much for me.
What he is refering to is unlocks are forever but its a bad deal because he doesn't play mmorpgs forever. Oh well lets turn that around and says, subs are a bad option, items are forever there too, but I mean I'm not going to play the game forever.
Lol what the heck? Think it through man come on, that is just hilarious.
I probably do it sometimes too, but there are so many flaws in this thread, a very good read indeed. And I mean no personal offense, its just weird how some people totally lose sight of reality when they bash.
Originally posted by William12 A lot of misinformation here. They have said almost all quest rewards can be used by f2p no matter the quality and I leveled from 1-30 and almost every blue item i seen was useable by f2p.
Blue items have been lifted I have started doing the banisher's questline for crafters and so far I have received like 12 "gold" "orange" items that I can't use atleast they can give us options this or that............this game needs a middle ground F2P matrix or it's gonna die...this is just one big experiment for SONY....right around the corner is
GUILD WARS 2 massive mmo that offers all content with a ONE box purchase which is like
100 times better than Vanguard. I dont' know what they were thinking or they didn't realize that ANET was going to release Guild Wars 2 in August thats like David and GOliath....okay most people probably can afford a pay and a not pay mmo but which MMO are most players going to play come August 25th....yah I thought so.
Oh I have no doubt that guild wars 2 will be a major success, and as far as the beta goes, the game is good no questions asked. But you can't really compare the two games, well you can, but its not really fair. They are just too different. Sure its the same genre, but maybe its just me, but the mentality is very different. And a lot of mechanics ofc.
I saw a first look at vanguard from mmobomb lately. I can't fault the guy too much I guess, but he did nada research before playing, it seemed, and he just assumed it was - just another f2p mmorpg. Well thats not really a fair assesment and not a good way to show the game - no mention of 3 different ways to play the game. But seeing as they make a first look of every single mmorpg out there I guess thats just how things are. Pretty useless first looks most of them, no depth, no research, they just talk about what they see for the first 5 mins. Gives us very little.
its easy to predict that Vanguard will raise its player base for a few weeks then loose it again.
This F2P Model isnt and wont be the solution to Vanguards playerbase problems. Its to restricted and has nothing to do with "FREE" to play.
Sooner or later you need Orange or Better Items.........
Its just another Trial in another form.... thats a fact
Oh and I just have to comment on the guy just below you who says this(Starpower):
It's forever you say? .. I don't play MMOs forever and there is no garuntee this game will be around forever, so a forever deal is a good deal for SoE, not so much for me.
What he is refering to is unlocks are forever but its a bad deal because he doesn't play mmorpgs forever. Oh well lets turn that around and says, subs are a bad option, items are forever there too, but I mean I'm not going to play the game forever.
Lol what the heck? Think it through man come on, that is just hilarious.
Your counter arguments make zero sense
You compare my comment to items being forever. Last I checked I don't pay for items like I would have to with unlocks. Second comment about subs being bad.. last time I checked I talked about paying for permanent options. If you want to make a comparison, that even makes remotely sense then bring up lifetime subs and even then.. it doesn't quite fit
You need to learn to understand what you are reading before you reply. Or maybe I just have to cut it out for you with a knife and fork. Paying for something you are going to have forever is great if you somehow save money. If it gets to be more expensive, based on how short you actually play certain titles you are getting a bad deal. it doesn't matter if you pay for something that is going to be there when you return in 2 years if I don't return in 2 years.
I mean seriously that can't be that hard to grasp, It's about money ...or maybe it can. If you want we can discuss how unlocking slots are "expensive" or "unnecessary" then we can tackle that too
If you have any other questions then refer to my previous posts.. it's all in there. Including not expecting a free ride, not in VG not anywhere
Vanguard players: we will come back if you add endgame content and fix performance
*SoE adds endgame content and greatly improves performance*
no one comes back
Vanguard Players: we will come back when you start supporting the game and when there are people to play with
*SoE starts supporting game and players are back*
People making posts like the OP are worse than SoE. The attraction to ex=Players is that SoE is doing what they said needed to be done for them to come back. The f2p is for new players (who have very little issues with it when you are in game and not on forums) not cheap vets who are going back on their word (collectively)
Okay let's end this discussion with this since it is not going anywhere.
For the people QQing about the F2P model. SoE DOES NOT GIVE A **** about what you think.
For the people in the middle complaining about the gear requirement. Read above ^^
For the people that are saying they can enjoy the game already. Congrats and have fun. See you in the game.
This is how SoE treats customer feedbacks and suggestions. There is no point to argue with each other since let's be honest the people arguing with each other in this forum probably doesn't want to play with each other in game anyways even if VG was a complete True F2P model.
Next, if you want games that have a model that make no money why would therebe future game developers for MMO? Just make indies games and win.
Also, SoE has made a TON of money since F2P so that adds to another reason why SoE will not give a **** about anything you are complaining about.
Okay let's end this discussion with this since it is not going anywhere.
For the people QQing about the F2P model. SoE DOES NOT GIVE A **** about what you think.
For the people in the middle complaining about the gear requirement. Read above ^^
For the people that are saying they can enjoy the game already. Congrats and have fun. See you in the game.
This is how SoE treats customer feedbacks and suggestions. There is no point to argue with each other since let's be honest the people arguing with each other in this forum probably doesn't want to play with each other in game anyways even if VG was a complete True F2P model.
Next, if you want games that have a model that make no money why would therebe future game developers for MMO? Just make indies games and win.
Also, SoE has made a TON of money since F2P so that adds to another reason why SoE will not give a **** about anything you are complaining about.
This ^
If you cheap people prefer Aion or Lotro or DDO or whatever because you think their business models are better, just play those games and stop bitching about your precious nickels and dimes already.
Personally I don't think any of them are comparable to VG when it comes to actual quality. So what if the ftp matrix isn't perfect? When it comes to games I value my time more than my money; I don't see a problem with spending some money on a game I like, but I would never spend time in an inferior game just because I can have more free gametime there.
Imo ftp is an emergency solution though, I prefer to pay a sub and have equal access to everything. Sadly that model didn't work out for VG but hopefully there will be more reason to sub now.
The purpose of the f2p model is to give you an insight of the game. Not more, not less. If you like what you see, go ahead and subscribe.
Do not expect to get a non instanced MMORPG of similar depth with active ingame support for no monthly fees. It's not going to happen and it's not doable, unless u want to end up with a Pay2Win cashshop and/or massive advertisment, simple as that.
If you and/or your friends like Vanguard but refuse to pay 14$ a month then I really don't get you. 14$ a month for a hobby, that's not even 0.5$ a day. People with such attitude are the least to help VG.
Comments
I just started over and used my old main for crafting only..
I feel like they did not do enough to make old returning players say "hey, I wanna subscribe again"..
It was more like "Hey guys, come back and see how much we have locked you out from! You'll be pleasantly surprised!"
It's still a great game, but for a returning character, unless you plan on subbing right out of the gate again it would probably be better just to start over with the new players to the game and decide if you want to sub then..
Besides, I couldn't even get back into my old character.. I just couldn't remember how he played and I didn't even know where I was in the world and what I was doing..
No vet rewards, locked up items, not many higher levels to group with yet...
Vanguard is not free to play because you cannot play and be competitive in any way without paying. Some games will make it so that you gain your competitive advantage faster by paying such as getting leveling boosts and such but that really only shifts the timeframe in which you gain the advantage. The advantage is still available to all if they are willing to replace money with time.
Vanguard is different because you are hard limited in item progression if you don't pay. In Vanguard you either subscribe or you pay to equip the better items on an item by item basis. This makes it the very definition of pay to win. How is it really any different to pay to equip the best items or to simply buy the best items direct from a cash shop.
In real free to play you can play and be competitive without spending money. you may have to spend much more time playing. Farming more gold or grinding levels because not paying makes it take longer but you can still get there without paying. This is not the case in Vanguard. If you choose to not pay you will NEVER be able to equip your character properly for endgame.
Vanguard is now the definition of pay to win. And it will stay pay to win until it gets rid of this ridiculous item limit.
SOE's problem with free to play is that they believe that it has to be structured in such a way that everybody is eventually forced to pay or go away. Players must be tricked into paying.
SOE needs to understand that "Players ARE Content." In an MMO you don't need to make everybody pay. You just need enough people to pay. But you will loose even your paying customers if they don't have enough people to play that MMO with. An MMO without a community is dead and makes no money at all.
SOE needs to realize that Players are not a problem that needs to be paid for. Players are a resource that need to be invested in.
All die, so die well.
Yes, it is. Because players are content in an mmo. Players are also a limted resource. I am not saying that I would rather spend $150 a month so that 9 other players can play for free but then we need to recognize that a game doesn't necessarily have to make $15 for every player that connects to it. That is still viewing every player as a liability.
The other way to approach it would be to say how many people do I need to be payers to break even. 50k? Well does that mean I should force everyone to pay $15 and hope I get 50k to pay. What if I could get 500k to play for free so long as 10% of them monitized? It will cost a little bit more to serve 500k players but not by much. The economics of scale in this industry are unbelievable. Especially for SOE which already has several games running and so the infrastructure is already in place and probably paid for. and in the case of Vanguard, the game already existed.
Remember, non-paying players provide several things. First. They provide themselves to paying players to be interacted with. They are the people that make your guild grow from 10 to 100. They are the other people in your instance group. They are your opponents in PvP. and they are the buyers and sellers that make your economy run smoothly. Non-paying players are also very often the young kids that have all that extra time to work on Wikis and dungeon guides and things like that. They are the kids who have extra time to farm resources so that something can be sold on the exchange. Non-paying players are also free word of mouth advertising to their friends. And in the end, they are potential paying customers. Not all of them will turn into paying customers but some will. If they are playing your game and not someone elses that is.
All die, so die well.
And yet if a person is not willing to spend, what? 10 dollars? A bit more? to unlock a few things then I highly suspect that there is something else going on.
It's either standing on ceremony "well it says 'free' and if i have to pay anything at all, even a penny then I'm walking away" or they really were only interested in playing for a short period and then move on to the next free game and just continue the cycle.
Recently I did an informal poll and of the people who responded, a good many indicated that in any free to play game they would spend a few dollars but not too often. In the interest of full disclosure I also voted that way.
If one were to come to Vangaurd and spend a few dollars then one can pretty much just enjoy themselves without any real fees at all.
people tend to value things that they spend money on and spend money on things they value.
If spending a fraction of what you would spend on a sub game is an issue then that makes me wonder what mmo's you do spend money on?
And I"m curious, in the f2p games that you've played, have you ever spent any money and if so what were the items as well as the amounts?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
People will also value that which they spend time on. Opportunity costs after all. In this sense time really is money and visa versa. People will often spend much more in time on a hobby than they do in money but they value the products of that hobby no less and often much more.
Don't discount the value a non-paying player can add to a game world simply by spending time in it, if it is structured correctly anyway.
All die, so die well.
So the main (pretty much ONLY) issue presented here is that only subscribers and people who pay to unlock the items can use top gear. Most of the posters who have issue with that have written off the entire free game as a result. It is simply that important to you.
I think devs make top gear and epics such a core feature in today's games because they know you guys a lot better than you know yourselves.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Only having the original backpack and one bag is a big issue too. At least to me. You can't even unlock additional bag slots as far as I know.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
I'm enjoying the game to its fullest at the moment, without paying. A lovely flux of new players, but alas I don't think it will last either.
But I don't really think you thought what you wrote through. Sooner or later you will need orange or better items? Hehe the levling in this game is slow, it used to be slower, but its still slow. And you lose xp when you die. If you by some months get towards max level, and you feel you need orange to play - you have spent and AMAZING lot of hours on the game. But you still won't pay a dime? I mean how is that even possible? Nobody can be that cheap? And who would want to spend that amount of time and not support the game? Haha wow that statement is just astonishing. And you really expect to put in that amount of hours and not pay? I just don't know what to say, its just incredibly dumb. Think about it man.
About housing having to sub to be able to access it, well seeing as housing is limited in the game afaik it seems only natural to not make it available to freebies.
I would like to see a lower sub, or maybe a lower sub option, like a silver membership. While there is an okay middleground, there could be more options.
Oh and I just have to comment on the guy just below you who says this(Starpower):
It's forever you say? .. I don't play MMOs forever and there is no garuntee this game will be around forever, so a forever deal is a good deal for SoE, not so much for me.
What he is refering to is unlocks are forever but its a bad deal because he doesn't play mmorpgs forever. Oh well lets turn that around and says, subs are a bad option, items are forever there too, but I mean I'm not going to play the game forever.
Lol what the heck? Think it through man come on, that is just hilarious.
I probably do it sometimes too, but there are so many flaws in this thread, a very good read indeed. And I mean no personal offense, its just weird how some people totally lose sight of reality when they bash.
Oh I have no doubt that guild wars 2 will be a major success, and as far as the beta goes, the game is good no questions asked. But you can't really compare the two games, well you can, but its not really fair. They are just too different. Sure its the same genre, but maybe its just me, but the mentality is very different. And a lot of mechanics ofc.
I saw a first look at vanguard from mmobomb lately. I can't fault the guy too much I guess, but he did nada research before playing, it seemed, and he just assumed it was - just another f2p mmorpg. Well thats not really a fair assesment and not a good way to show the game - no mention of 3 different ways to play the game. But seeing as they make a first look of every single mmorpg out there I guess thats just how things are. Pretty useless first looks most of them, no depth, no research, they just talk about what they see for the first 5 mins. Gives us very little.
Your counter arguments make zero sense
You compare my comment to items being forever. Last I checked I don't pay for items like I would have to with unlocks. Second comment about subs being bad.. last time I checked I talked about paying for permanent options. If you want to make a comparison, that even makes remotely sense then bring up lifetime subs and even then.. it doesn't quite fit
You need to learn to understand what you are reading before you reply. Or maybe I just have to cut it out for you with a knife and fork. Paying for something you are going to have forever is great if you somehow save money. If it gets to be more expensive, based on how short you actually play certain titles you are getting a bad deal. it doesn't matter if you pay for something that is going to be there when you return in 2 years if I don't return in 2 years.
I mean seriously that can't be that hard to grasp, It's about money ...or maybe it can. If you want we can discuss how unlocking slots are "expensive" or "unnecessary" then we can tackle that too
If you have any other questions then refer to my previous posts.. it's all in there. Including not expecting a free ride, not in VG not anywhere
Vanguard players: we will come back if you add endgame content and fix performance
*SoE adds endgame content and greatly improves performance*
no one comes back
Vanguard Players: we will come back when you start supporting the game and when there are people to play with
*SoE starts supporting game and players are back*
People making posts like the OP are worse than SoE. The attraction to ex=Players is that SoE is doing what they said needed to be done for them to come back. The f2p is for new players (who have very little issues with it when you are in game and not on forums) not cheap vets who are going back on their word (collectively)
So the OP can play his lvl50 characters for free, but it is not free to play according to him. Right.
That the game isn't to his liking as f2p account, is besides the point. He CAN play for free. They never said that you can have everything for free.
"They want me to either pay for a subscrition or an unlocker ? Nah this is not Free to play."
Of course it isn't completely free, anyone expecting that...
This Free to play Model is far to limited , its another free Trial as usual for SOE. This F2P Model wont bring back VG..
Of course it's limited, they do not employee people so that you can play their game for free. What is wrong with you? lol
VANGUARD is still PAY TO PLAY because no one will ever reach level 50 in this F2P Model with fun......
Players do not need the best items to reach the max level. Why are you spouting nonsense?
<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.mmorpg.com/profile.cfm/username/Sovrath"; href="http://www.mmorpg.com/profile.cfm/username/Sovrath"; title="View information about Sovrath" suhlink"="">Sovrath, it feels sometimes that you are the most sain person here at mmorpg.com
Okay let's end this discussion with this since it is not going anywhere.
For the people QQing about the F2P model. SoE DOES NOT GIVE A **** about what you think.
For the people in the middle complaining about the gear requirement. Read above ^^
For the people that are saying they can enjoy the game already. Congrats and have fun. See you in the game.
This is how SoE treats customer feedbacks and suggestions. There is no point to argue with each other since let's be honest the people arguing with each other in this forum probably doesn't want to play with each other in game anyways even if VG was a complete True F2P model.
Next, if you want games that have a model that make no money why would therebe future game developers for MMO? Just make indies games and win.
Also, SoE has made a TON of money since F2P so that adds to another reason why SoE will not give a **** about anything you are complaining about.
This ^
If you cheap people prefer Aion or Lotro or DDO or whatever because you think their business models are better, just play those games and stop bitching about your precious nickels and dimes already.
Personally I don't think any of them are comparable to VG when it comes to actual quality. So what if the ftp matrix isn't perfect? When it comes to games I value my time more than my money; I don't see a problem with spending some money on a game I like, but I would never spend time in an inferior game just because I can have more free gametime there.
Imo ftp is an emergency solution though, I prefer to pay a sub and have equal access to everything. Sadly that model didn't work out for VG but hopefully there will be more reason to sub now.
The purpose of the f2p model is to give you an insight of the game. Not more, not less. If you like what you see, go ahead and subscribe.
Do not expect to get a non instanced MMORPG of similar depth with active ingame support for no monthly fees. It's not going to happen and it's not doable, unless u want to end up with a Pay2Win cashshop and/or massive advertisment, simple as that.
If you and/or your friends like Vanguard but refuse to pay 14$ a month then I really don't get you. 14$ a month for a hobby, that's not even 0.5$ a day. People with such attitude are the least to help VG.