Interesting points Ariana Greene, It does sound like a troll alittle bit but just in case it’s not… I’ll try to explain.
For years it was a subscribtion only game, same as World of Warcraft but that one still is for example. When a “Pay to Play” subscribtion based game gives any what so ever options to experience it for free you have to know that it implies some serious limitations for those accounts. I am an Alpha player. I can argue that there is indeed discrimination but it’s either on a more subtle level than what you are pointing out.
So!
What you are pointing out is a little twisted but I can see how that can be frustrating. But in reality it’s what we all had to accept as a “fact of nature”. That’s the “given”, those are the “conditions” under we can play the game without paying for sub. We Can’t do anything against that. It’s common practice. Every corporation has ONE and only ONE goal. To sell. Not to make you happy, but to Profit. To FAK the laws of nature and get out 2 from inputing 1. I know it, You know it, Everybody knows it.
There is definately the feeling that as an Alpha player you ARE the content. That’s how they designed it. In the trailers they’ll show those sleak oily ships (unavailable for Alphers) having great adventure or battle and it will end with a “PLAY FOR FREE TODAY” written with utilitarian font. That’s misleading is what it is. They won’t put in the trailer that as an Alpha you can plex your account if you play 10 hours a day for 3 months without dieing even once. They won’t place in the trailer that when you buy Omega time, you still have a good 2 years of focused learning of speciffic skills before you can do anything you want to do. That’s not a good selling point so its hidden. Big oily sleak ships having a battle is good selling point. They won’t include that you can spend the day harvesting gas which can’t be compressed for some islandic brain reason and all your time spent harvesting the gas can be made for nothing by totally non-interractive encounter, when pther players blow up your 1000 EHP cargo ship at the gate. What is it made of? Today’s printed eddition of “Islandia Today” weted by the rain? Those are points that can and probably should be addressed. Those are designs and game foundamentals that can make a positive difference.
The doubled training time and the limited ships availability aren’t that IMO