With Eve gone, only sub based MMOs left are FFXIV and WoW

[Jandor]

Apologies if you responded to this before my editing... over reacted and jumped to conclusions.
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You don't get to redefine F2P just because you don't like the option available.

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Is it limited by a time frame as a trial typically is? No. Are you ever required to pay to play the game? No, unless you want all the bells and whistles that Sub models enjoy. Logically speaking... that sounds like a F2P model.

I appreciate the apology, not often you see that on the internet. Thanks.

I'm not trying to redefine F2P though. Look, I don't know how much experience you have with Eve, but you seem to framing it as free with a subscription that grants some nice optional extras. It's not though, the limits are almost excessively restrictive to anyone who's spent a bit of time in game, new players won't particularly notice or care but by removing the time limit they can get veterans with lapsed accounts to log back in and chat with old friends. A good chunk of them with probably resub as a result, it's pretty clever to be fair.

Putting 'EVE F2P mode' in FFXIV terms though, it's like being limited to level 30 on your starting class, no other battle classes, no jobs, max level 5 on crafter and gathering classes & no retainers. You could play like that for a bit but honestly, advertising that sort of heavily diminished experience as F2P FFXIV would be pretty misleading at best.