They merged after over a decade of a successful pure P2P server environment. That’s very successful for a MMO run. But yet again, this thread has nothing to do with a P2P model vs. a F2P one. I’m not sure if you understand the purpose of this thread, so I recommend reading my previous reply or the OP more carefully. I’ll restate it here too though. This thread is about seeing community interest in a P2P server that runs alongside the F2P ones.
The reasons for this are many people are not satisfied with the pay2win shop mechanics and heavy trading restrictions. Many also would prefer a steady paywall styled cost to play the game mixed with occasional vanity purchases without needing to deal with the negative effects of pay2win gamble items entering the playing and marketing environment of the game.
By having two different styled servers to choose from, it also gives players a different experience than the other servers. People could choose their server based on their preference for a P2P environment or a F2P one. The P2P server would be especially doable in that bots will always pick F2P servers over a single P2P server when they are all in the same server list for a MMO.
Having an extra P2P server would also help mitigate some of the traffic from the other servers. While only having one P2P server (as opposed to the multiple F2P ones) would ensure it has enough players on it to have a thriving community.
As for competing with WoW, this game clearly has a completely different target audience that the WoW one and having a P2P server mixed with F2P servers would not change that in any way, shape, or form.
Yes, RO headgears did have stats. But, they were all in-game for the majority of the game’s life and at the peak of its popularity. It wasn’t until the game shifted to a F2P model that cash shop stat hats were introduced. Also though, the game existed in an other time, where the default character customization of RO was more acceptable. Today, that level of aesthetic customization really doesn’t hold up. Having headgears serve fully as vanity items alleviated that some though. Thus another grievance players have with the concept.
Seeing as there is community interest in a P2P server that runs alongside the F2P ones, I don’t believe there would be much of a negative for ToS. If anything, it’ll please more customers more completely. The only difficulties would be changing a few of the server rules for the P2P server and adding a verification to their cash shop procedures that checks the customer’s server destination for their desired cash items.
This is a very small adjustment for a big boost in community approval and new player interest as IMC will be reaching out to the crowd that would normally look ToS over for not having a P2P environment option available. There are simply many who just wouldn’t be comfortable with the F2P servers with how they are currently being presented, especially from the Steam crowd. First impressions are important and IMC could really limit their audience if they don’t take in consideration the backlash their current implementations are already creating.
Regardless, this is about bettering things for the community by giving them more options to choose from for the type of playing environments available to them. No one stands to lose anything from that.