What if free players could play treasure hunts and get the reward, but they have to do it under quest conditions?
Making it very hard to complete, like "no character deaths" and similar. And no. I don't think this would be a good idea, it would mean ultrahardcore free content, and having paying customers actually get less value for their money.
Ah. Well, as someone who hasn't yet spent money on the game, I'd love this. However, I can't say this would be a good idea because it seems that: ....would be the case.
Can't paying customers already do treasure hunts as quests? (I'm only halfway through the campaign right now.) My idea is that free players can also be guaranteed these items, but have to work much harder to get them. People are supposed to be paying for convenience, right?
No, those adventures are supposed to be premium content - meaning that if you give them to free players, even at a more difficult challenge, you're making the reason for buying the premiums less reasonable.
In effect removing all incentive to actually pay for these treasure hunts... Well, maybe if it were "1 hitpoint" quest... Or "all drawback". Latter only because it's annoying to get the gear, not actual difficulty. Edit: I'm not actually against it. Just doesn't sound too smart from revenue standpoint.