First off, let me throw myself into the pile of folks who have played off and on for years and years. The last time I "quit" was for 2 reasons:
1) It was increasingly difficult to find unique RP with a decreasing player base.
2) Given #1, I just couldn't justify the monthly cost for the game

Let me start with the awesome. I'm SO happy that there is an option for free play of this game. Regardless of what this system does to address my #1 concern, I can at least play casually without it costing a dime. Plus, during those rare months when I have more free time to sink.. ahem... indulge in GS, I can pay for what I'll actually use instead of having a monthly bill for a game that, at times, I barely have a chance to log in to.

Besides just money... holy cow look at the numbers! When I logged in tonight, on a MONDAY, there were over 375 players online. Free to play has been out for what, a week?! When I last played, it might have topped out at 250 on a weeknight during an invasion. The character base is increasing. Likely, the player base is increasing too. This makes me 8 kinds of happy and excited to come back. More faces, more RP, more awesome.

Now let me put my weight into the restrictions. To be honest, most of the restrictions, I'm completely fine with. Yeah, I can see that my character won't advance as quickly or as smoothly as if I subscribed/purchased passes, but I could work around them. I do wonder at the point of bank account, society and locker restrictions, but none of them have been a huge negative to me at this point. I think, however, that this is because I know how I play and how often I'll be able to play, so they don't worry me as much. I will say that the poor treasure drops are a substantial negative-- the only thing that made hunting less painful was pretty treasure. If you're worried about alts "farming" then keep the daily treasure caps, but having both penalties seems excessive.

My biggest concern, though, is that new folks who sign up for F2P won't want to invest to money to see what a normal subscription feels like, so they won't really understand what they're missing or what the point of the passes are. I'd like to see a "free trial" or "restriction free" period akin to the old 30 days, or even like the random plat trials that have been dropped in the past.

Anyway, rambling aside, I see a lot of potential in this system and it makes me excited. I really appreciate the desire of the GMs to try new things to make this game grow. I hope that the suggestions on this forum are taken into consideration (tweaks can be good!) and that my sincere praise for this attempt at keeping this game alive is also taken to heart!

-Joanna
Formerly Vaedalis et. al.