Arena Net is a business; they need $$$ incentive for this to happen. I as a player don’t mind it if there are restricted access F2P players boosting the sPvP playerbase for when Leagues comes out (those queue times I potentially worry about, especially if people want team and solo queues).
Trick is restricting F2P playerbase while still providing incentive to play/grind and spend in gem store. So that it’s reiterated, restrict them to HotM/sPvP only; no WvW or PvE.
*Limit character slots and bank/bag access; the player needs to use gems to expand. Although, what just stops them from having multiple accounts for several characters. Then again, each account/character will have its own MMR, so I do not know on that end.
*Could potentially restrict ranked game access until either a high rank level (less trolls due to amount of time committed) and/or purchased access via gem store.
*To continue on with that idea, limit interaction with community; isolated on F2P lobbies, restricted mail/whisper access (e.g., cannot whisper someone unless they have you added on friend’s list or they a F2P player). Reward more access as the player’s rank gets higher to a limit (e.g., permission to whisper people freely at X rank, access to trading company at Y rank, etc); give option to maybe buy early access to these features via gems or full-game upgrade.
*Leave reward tracks, but maybe slow progression down to something like half or third of the current rate. Got to leave the incentive there to keep playing for unlocks; they stay playing means more people to potentially buy from the gem store for outfits and other aesthetics. I’m unsure about hotjoin reward track progress though.
*Got to remember they need transmutation stones to alter gear appearance and you get very little dyes inside sPvP to my current knowledge (maybe via laurels…). That there is potential incentive.
*If uneasy about the idea, use it as a ‘promotion’ marketing type thing for a few weeks or a month. If it is successful, think of it for long term; if it is not, well, you gave yourself a backdoor to use.
These features I mentioned above could potentially be purchased via gems separately, and the purchase of the game could just be a ‘bundle’ type deal. I do recommend leaving full character build access compared to standard player; just restrict their community interactions, convenience, and aesthetics.
I’m sure I could brainstorm more crap up, but I’ll leave it to others for now. The pros of this is an increased playerbase resulting in faster queues (i.e., can make more league tiers and/or solo/team queue without the queue times being potentially large), potential popularity boost in the game esports/twitch wise, trial edition, and provides a potential increase in revenue via gems. The cons of course is that the player base may potentially be toxic and/or full of youth (con to many people… I know I was a youth once too…), f2p reputation (although could be great marketing ploy as most people I know nowadays have never heard of this game…), and the risk of this backfiring.
As a disclaimer, I got very limited knowledge on what the design and maintenance cost of this endeavor would be, so I cannot actually do a cost vs profit analysis. I do not know how many people would initially bombard the game, as well as how much it would cost for the server upgrades, data storage, and crap like that.
Got carried away typing… GJ to anyone that actually read this; it’s more for skim read and brainstorming ideas with my opinion(s).
TL;DR – Yes, this can be good; just limit the F2P access and reward them with some access as they level rank up. Provide them with gem store incentives for aesthetics (dyes, transmutations, outfits, etc.) to generate some $$$. The above goes more indepth.