Hey everyone! I'm a newcomer in the forums so go easy on the hate haha. I've been reading forum posts of great players leaving (you will be missed) because the new DLC is not accessible to F2Pers. As a F2Per myself, I understand their concerns. However, I think this issue can easily be solved in a way that will benefit all parties involved (F2Pers, P2Pers, and Three Rings).

Several days ago, I was discussing the new DLC with my guildmates. Knowing that I am a F2Per, one of them thoughtfully offered to buy me the DLC (there was a discount), gift it to me, and let me pay for it in CE anytime I wanted. I'll keep his/her name anonymous, just in case people start begging him/her to buy them the DLC (if you're reading this, you know who you are, thank you!). Although I declined (the DLC content was still low in my priorities), his/her offer made me think.

Why can't the F2Pers buy the DLC from the P2Pers? It would go something like this: The CE paid by the F2Per will be more than the CE the P2Per could get if the P2Per had used the money to buy CE directly. For example: a P2Per can get (at best value) 20000 CE for $49.95, which is 400.4 CE per dollar. At full price, the DLC costs $5.95 to the P2Per, equivalent to 2382.38 CE. The F2Per could then pay maybe 3000 CE (subject to haggling between the two parties of course) to make it worth the P2Per's while. This way, everyone wins:
- The F2Per gets the DLC without paying a cent.
- The P2Per gets more CE for his/her buck's worth.
- The game gets more balanced as a whole, as F2Pers also get access to paid content. This might (hopefully) bring back the players who left, which would improve the community.
- Three Rings has more paying customers. If each P2Per were to only buy 1 DLC (you can't use 2 of the same DLCs can you?) then Three Rings would only get that much. This way, the P2Pers would also represent the F2Pers as paying customers.

Now I know that this solution has probably been proposed before, and has several weaknesses, but I believe these weaknesses can be counteracted just as easily.
- If F2Pers don't want to shell out the effort to gather CE, I think it's their (our? Since I myself am a F2Per) loss. I believe Spiral Knights is a great, innovative game, and that its content is worth the money. However, some F2Pers (like me) do not have the capacity to pay Three Rings using money. Think of gathering the 3000 CE as working for that money. We need to show Three Rings some support too, we can't just expect them to keep generating new content without pay. After all, this is their job guys, they get paid for this. If we don't pay them, by effort or by cash, who will?
- The second problem is supply and demand. With P2Pers being the minority (I think, correct me if I'm wrong), there is not enough people who would pay dollars for CE at any given time. However, with careful planning, I think we could synchronize P2P energy purchases with F2P DLC purchases. This can also be expedited by trust between traders, and hence payment by installments. I realize that this is probably the biggest challenge in fulfilling this vision, as I would imagine that P2Pers do not buy 3000 CE daily.
- Which brings me to the third possible problem - fraud. This kind of system is very difficult to run if everyone is trying to scam each other. I have no solutions about this, but I'm optimistic enough to believe that the Spiral Knights community is earnest and honorable enough to avoid doing this.
- Last but not least, the 3000 CE may be a steep price. As mentioned above, this is very subject to inter-personnel haggling (I don't even know why I used that price as an example). Then again, think back to your earliest days of playing. When I saw that we needed CE to play, I groaned "not another pay to win MMO". However, I gave the game a chance and after buying my first 100 CEs, I realized that that was the best gaming decision I have ever made. Come to think of it, haven't we been doing pretty much the same thing so far? When we buy CE in the market, isn't that CE that a P2Per has bought?
In summary (or TL;DR), we could start up a system to fix this fiasco. To the F2Per, buying the DLC is like buying something from the supply depot. To the P2Per, this is a way to get more CE for your buck. To Three Rings, more profit. I think the best part about this solution is that it requires no updates. We won't need a patch, so Three Rings can continue generating new content (which is, from what I have heard of the DLC, quite phenomenal) while we fix the problem. Let's band together to save the game we all know and love, who's with me?