I agree with you and disagree with you.

I've played MMORPGs that were pay-to-play. I've played free-to-play MMORPGs that were just as good, but had goods that you could buy (like exp rate boosters) that didn't really affect the player vs player aspect of the game. I've played MUDs that were free to play and offered nothing if you donate, and I've played MUDs that were pay-to-play. There's always a huge difference between 100% free with no extra goods to buy and games that have something you can buy.

Sadly, money makes the world go round. CF is fine as it is, but the playerbase keeps dwindling and new blood is getting harder to find. However, CF is AMAZING and lots of people should want to play, but they just don't know about it. With added income, the CF staff can get more marketing, add people to enhance content, and draw more players to it. Yet, getting people to donate altruistically is hard. I admit that I really only donate when I want my PBF posted. If there was something that I could buy that wouldn't affect PVP but was a neat perk, I'd probably do it. At the same time, I'd be adding to the CF coffers, which in turn would fuel the marketing and content of the game.

Though, I'd like to see some unique characters for free anyway, so if you imms would like to do it, great. The problem I see with it, just like with the minotaurs, is that you have a person that gets a minotaur once, levels to 10, and then plays other characters while logging in the minimal time to keep the character from auto-deleting. *shrug*