Froob GMI Access

As I'm sitting here moving 10 backpacks of symbs from my doc to one of my bank mules I was thinking of how nice it would be if my froob toons had access to the GMI.

You can already buy Mail access for $5, why not add an ala carte option to buy GMI access for a one time cost of $10 or $15 (with the requirement, obviously being that you buy Mail access first). I'd gladly pay $15-$20 for the convenience of being able to use mail and sell stuff directly from the toons that hold things rather than having to deal with it on my paid characters.

Suggested tons of times, in multiple threads. FC rolls out brand new GMI system with no connection whatsoever to Alien Invasion - still requires Alien Invasion. They had their chance, so I seriously doubt they will budge on this. Boggles my mind as well. Just be glad froobs can at least search it now so they don't have to be totally in the dark as to the market value of the stuff they have.

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Originally Posted by Trypha

Suggested tons of times, in multiple threads. FC rolls out brand new GMI system with no connection whatsoever to Alien Invasion - still requires Alien Invasion.

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GMI replaced org city shops...which required AI.

on another AI note.....make the Aliens on noob island "cloak" "invisible" to froob...since they've no AI expansion ^_=.

still wanting Jobe Plateform free for froob access ^_=

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Originally Posted by Psikie

GMI replaced org city shops...which required AI.

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They are no longer meaningfully connected, with the small exception of the tax building. Imagine what it seems like from a brand new player's perspective, to load up the GMI for the first time and ask, "what does this have to do with aliens?"

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Originally Posted by Psikie

GMI replaced org city shops...which required AI.

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Originally Posted by Trypha

They are no longer meaningfully connected, with the small exception of the tax building. Imagine what it seems like from...

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Org city, and org city shops were a benefit of purchasing AI expansion along with AXP perks. GMI replaced the loss of org city shops, so unless you purchase AI, NO SOUP FOR YOU! You can't take a paid benefit and gift it to free players. Same with Jobe/SL access. Now if in the future those open up for free accounts I along with other paid account players would have no reason to fund the game with our subscriptions since there would be nothing to pay for because it's all accessable to free players.

I understand why org city related items require/required AI. The GMS was in an org city.. that connection is very clear. The GMS, however, is gone.

The fact that the GMI replaced some functionality of the GMS isn't relevant to the fact that an in-game auction house (whatever you call it) is a standard function of pretty much every game on the market now (regardless of game age). Now that you no longer need to enter an org city to make purchases, Trypha is correct, it simply doesn't make sense for the game devs to shut froobs out of using it.

If you look at other games, there are limits set for free-to-play players.. that I agree with totally, but not being able to post items really hurts us paid players too. There's tons of stuff that froobs obtain via their escapades on RK that many of us would purchase if it were on the GMI to buy. That means opening up froobs to use the GMI to sell (even in limited quantities) would help their paid playerbase.

And that's the real argument for GMI access for froobs, or giving anything new whatsoever to froobs. The free player experience is comprehensive and rich and doesn't require anything added that the rest of the game doesn't need as well. But certain changes to free play benefit paid players, and those should be considered - giving limited GMI access (just a few sell slots) for a fee (like the mail system) helps expand the market and even produces real dollar revenue.

The suggestion in the other thread about opening SL to froobs can only be justified on the same basis, and that is a somewhat weaker argument (which I nevertheless support) - the GMI move seems obvious.

I wanted to make another thread about it, but - thank Search - I found this one.

Major BUMP! It's somewhat frustrating to have to "bypass" the AI requirement (asking other players to buy it, mules buying stuff from GMI, etc) but I can't think of a person that would buy the expansion because of GMI access...

Well something Rift has done since going F2P is allow free players to browse and buy, but not sell unless they've paid some money for sell access. It's a step up from what AO currently has going on at least. A one time $5 or $10 GMI access fee like mail access as proposed makes a lot of sense.

So I don't know why froobs shouldn t get GMI access.

The credz from a froob looks like the credz from a paid acc.

So anyone should be happy that there will be some more consuments in the space...

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Originally Posted by Traderjill

As I'm sitting here moving 10 backpacks of symbs from my doc to one of my bank mules I was thinking of how nice it would be if my froob toons had access to the GMI.

You can already buy Mail access for $5, why not add an ala carte option to buy GMI access for a one time cost of $10 or $15 (with the requirement, obviously being that you buy Mail access first). I'd gladly pay $15-$20 for the convenience of being able to use mail and sell stuff directly from the toons that hold things rather than having to deal with it on my paid characters.

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*Necro-Bump for the original post*

After a fruitless search on the account page, I noticed GMI still cannot be activated like the mail service.
Frell.

Take my money Funcom!

Gotta agree with the arguments above, having an AI requirement made sense when the GMS was inextricably linked to player cities, which were one of the main features of AI. Now that it's an entirely independent entity the restriction is just confusing and lacking any real justification. The history really doesn't matter at all, what we need to consider is the current state of the game. The closest thing to the GMS/GMI we have in the game is the Funcom store, and that's freely accessible and usable by froobs, so there's a cognitive dissonance between that and the market.

Froobs will never get access to GMS selling. It's out of FC interest. Closed GMS stimulates us to pay for our main account. And it is very strong stimulation... So don't start jumping to conclusions about froob's access to the GMS.
It's just busyness.