“Going Free2Play” implies we have to pay anything beyond the initial game cost - ie, a subscription.
Adding on to that, it also implies that we’d have to pay to access additional special content - oh wait, we already do that with the DLCs that are there…
It seems to me we already have the best middle ground here, no subcription fees for online play and extra content we can get (and those also cheaper than a subscription would likely cost over that time frame), and a way for the development to still be funded without getting into the terrible Pay2Win-land that so many F2P’s end up in.
The problem is that there are to many servers. Lower the number of existing servers and you will have a populated server. the other problem is that there are players who want one spot to build on and thats it. if its not empty, they will switch servers. so youll end up with like 4 to 5 people on a sever. same with pvp … i got sick of pvp servers because you get raided over and over again until you have nothing…thats simply anoying. switched to a pve server because of that.
If they made the base game free to play i suspect they’d sell a crapload of dlc packs. The DLC are all genuinely fantastic and very appealing to anyone who has an interest in building. It would be a smart move that may flood the game with players.