Which is why i said it shouldn't be anything that's a real big deal. Nothing that can turn the tides in PVP or leave other players out like special zones.
You never, ever want to segregate the player base, no matter what. I think that the VIP-Only server was actually a terrible idea. Your biggest marketing force in a game that's F2P in some fashion or another is other players, seeing them have fun with some toy or another, or showing off some costume or another and having them go "Oh, cool, THAT looks fun! I want to do that!" and paying for it.
If they're in their own little dimension, then you've effectively reduced your in-game advertisement, and CoH certainly didn't need help having less advertisement for its features.
As somebody who's gone back and forth being both VIP and Premium often as money becomes tight or not (and ironically has probably spent more than just somebody who was VIP the whole time because of it), nothing defeats the spirit of F2P faster than if the players in the Premium game get stomped by VIP players.
People aren't stupid (at least when it comes to this), if they see game set up that to de facto compete you have to be VIP, even if Premium or Free options exist, they're going to see right through it, and it'll turn people off to the game very quickly. I mean, PvP was never a 'huge' part of this game, let's be honest, but why step on the few toes that do enjoy it?
I hope if this game is survived or succeeded by a sequel that whomever runs it understands the F2P model isn't supposed to try to 'trick' players into subscribing, rather it's meant to get people to spend who otherwise won't or can't subscribe long term.
Having goodies for VIP people is important, and having goodies for long-term or 'Super' VIP players (like if Super VIP get more points per month or extra costume slots or quicker travel to zones or other 'convenience of life' upgrades) isn't a bad idea, just don't don't tie the ability to realistically compete in the game to the 'Super' VIP model or set it up in a way where all the VIP or 'Super' VIP people have their own little parties elsewhere away from the rest. It will shoot the whole F2P model right in the foot.
Even though I had enough Reward Tokens to start to run out of things to even get aside from the repeatable objects, I think it was a bad idea to have a lot of the costume pieces be Reward Token only. I also thought it was a bad idea for them to be Veteran's Only when they came out. They're absolutely no reward for people who didn't happen to want to make a Boxing character, and it stymies anybody who wanted to make one but hasn't (or isn't going to play at all now they can't make the character they want). I think that it would had been better if those costume parts be available, even if in the Premium market.
I would had rather opened a Reward Token and gotten a bonus of PP to spend on the character costumes I wanted rather than "Hurray, now I can get Boxing Gloves that I'll never ever ever use!". It would had made me feel a lot more appreciated, and I suspect if some new player saw a Boxing character and was like "Oh, that's cool, I'm going to make something like that.. oh never mind, I can't." it'd be a good way to get them to lose interest in the game.
On the other hand, I wholly support the idea of things like /vault or /auctionhouse or the Reveal power being Reward Token rewards, as that's a good sort of convenience to reward your long term players with.
I would offer caution on what's offered via the store/VIP/Super VIP what have you. I'd rather not have it turn into "Pay To Win" that some of the other MMO games have, such as DDO or LOTRO with what can be acquired. In my opinion, the Free to Play model the MMO Fallen Earth offered was the best one. For example, subscribing players could..."bypass" EXP debt if they "forget to duck" in a fight and get knocked out.
The other thing is this. Let's say(especially in this economy), that you're going along as a subscriber, 15-20 clams a month, but you have a period of time where you're hard up on money, and you have to pass on subscribing to the "yellow banana sticker" super VIP status, the status where you get an exclusive costume, or nifty aura, what have you. What happens then? Do you rip away that costume/aura from the person until they get back on their feet?
My experience has been that characters with power sets that aren't unlocked get locked. Characters with costume pieces stay unlocked and so do the costume pieces and slot... as long as you don't try to edit that costume slot. At which point your costume piece would sort of vanish as if you had turned off the option to show pay-for costume pieces, and you have to either buy them or back out of the menu.
How about a free server transfer and a free rename token every month?
The former is 'no reward' for 90% of customers. I know I had a huge stack of sever transfers before Black Friday. Rename Tokens are more useful, but how many people actually just 'happen' to need them on hand?
Honestly sever transfers were effectively rename tokens anyways.