Confirmed: SWTOR to have micro-transactions/in-game purchases

[Wraiven]

All I am going to say, other than "I quit" is that this is pretty damn pathetic that Bioware is gonna go the f2p micro-transactions rout after only 6 months. This is the part where they, like so many other MMOs and their companies, admit they can not bring to us the game we all asked for. This is the part where they admit to themselves that they should not have place space combat on rails. This is the part where they admit to themselves that they should have fixed all those sound issues. This is the part that they admit to themselves that they should have had a finished product upon release. This is the part where they wish they had made gear that actually looks like Star Wars gear and not some rendition of Age of Conan. This is the part where they admit to themselves that loading screens are bad bad bad bad bad....LOADING SCREENS ARE BAD....and so are planets or zones that restrict you to trails and paths and do not allow for real exploration! This is the part where Bioware admits to themselves that they, like so many other MMO companies, were not ready to make an online MMO, that they honestly had no fricken clue what Online MMO players expected out of an MMO.

 

F2P and micro-transactions. How pathetic Bioware. All you guys trying to convince yourselves that this is a good thing? Sounds to me like you are trying to placate yourselves, cause you're not convincing me.

 

F2P means, "I quit, time to sell the game to Perfect World and move on to the next project."

[Valhingen]

All I am going to say, other than "I quit" is that this is pretty damn pathetic that Bioware is gonna go the f2p micro-transactions rout after only 6 months. This is the part where they, like so many other MMOs and their companies, admit they can not bring to us the game we all asked for. This is the part where they admit to themselves that they should not have place space combat on rails. This is the part where they admit to themselves that they should have fixed all those sound issues. This is the part that they admit to themselves that they should have had a finished product upon release. This is the part where they wish they had made gear that actually looks like Star Wars gear and not some rendition of Age of Conan. This is the part where they admit to themselves that loading screens are bad bad bad bad bad....LOADING SCREENS ARE BAD....and so are planets or zones that restrict you to trails and paths and do not allow for real exploration! This is the part where Bioware admits to themselves that they, like so many other MMO companies, were not ready to make an online MMO, that they honestly had no fricken clue what Online MMO players expected out of an MMO.

 

F2P and micro-transactions. How pathetic Bioware. All you guys trying to convince yourselves that this is a good thing? Sounds to me like you are trying to placate yourselves, cause you're not convincing me.

 

F2P means, "I quit, time to sell the game to Perfect World and move on to the next project."

 

I share some of your views if not to this extend. However, an attached store does not mean F2P - I would actually love to see micro transactions right now to buy character slots :/

[Gruug]

I share some of your views if not to this extend. However, an attached store does not mean F2P - I would actually love to see micro transactions right now to buy character slots :/

 

Nor does it mean you are getting the value that you pay for if you pay a subscription. If you pay a sub, you should be getting those things in game without having to put up EXTRA cash. Perfect example of this is the C-Store in Star Trek Online. You can sub OR play for free but in order to get many ships in the game you have to put up real cash even above and beyond if you are paying the subscription. Sorry, but the house is stacked against the user. Free to play is a scam and so are item shops that sell pixels for real cash.

[Valhingen]

Nor does it mean you are getting the value that you pay for if you pay a subscription. If you pay a sub, you should be getting those things in game without having to put up EXTRA cash. Perfect example of this is the C-Store in Star Trek Online. You can sub OR play for free but in order to get many ships in the game you have to put up real cash even above and beyond if you are paying the subscription. Sorry, but the house is stacked against the user. Free to play is a scam and so are item shops that sell pixels for real cash.

 

So in my particular example, what do you suggest? That Bioware allows us unlimited (ok, say 16) character slots for free? Or say they have reason not to do that...and also not to add a store, to never allow more than 8?

Edited June 14, 2012 by Valhingen

[boxfetish]

Why who cares??

 

What is the difference to you if I quit my job and go on wellfare so I can sit at home and play video games all day to get my PvP gear or Stay at work and fork over some extra cash so I can get it???

 

You're clueless. Bioware doesn't come down to where you work and tell you how to assemble Big Macs, so why do you think you know the first thing about telling them how to do microtransactions. You don't, so give it up. There is no way that even Bioware/EA is stupid enough to offer gear or progression for real money.

[Wraiven]

You're clueless. Bioware doesn't come down to where you work and tell you how to assemble Big Macs, so why do you think you know the first thing about telling them how to do microtransactions. You don't, so give it up. There is no way that even Bioware/EA is stupid enough to offer gear or progression for real money.

I am going to save this quote in an email. When what you say "there is no way" to, I am going to keep this quote and give it back to you when this actually happens.

[Blackardin]

All I am going to say, other than "I quit" is that this is pretty damn pathetic that Bioware is gonna go the f2p micro-transactions rout after only 6 months.

 

I would share this concern if this was actually true. This place is a virtual warehouse of misinformation only exceeded by the level of gullibility.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Blackardin

[Pcolapat]

I would share this concern if this was actually true. This place is a virtual warehouse of misinformation only exceeded by the level of gullibility.

 

I hate to break it to you, but F2P and microtransactions are a certainty. Confirmed or not it is coming.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Pcolapat

[Macabrae]

It looks like SWTOR has lost quite a few subs that to make up for it, they announced at E3 they will have micro-transactions.

 

At Last, Free!

 

As anticipated, EA is opening up its portfolio for free gamers. According to a recent news feed from Reuters, EA is planning to offer at least 15 levels (from July) of its magnum opus, Star Wars: Old Republic for free to play. The company expects that this free offering will boost its dwindling subscriber base going forward. EA lost approximately 400K subscribers in the fiscal fourth quarter. EA expects to earn significant revenue from additional features and through micro-transactions by selling in-game based items.

 

Source:

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ea-showcase-games-e3-143015708.html

 

WOW has Micro-transactions as well...all games do no matter what their subscriptions look like. It's good business, stop with all the negativity and doom and gloom.

[Bethmora]

Come on, everyone knew this was coming, thats how they make extra money. Im fine with it as long as there is a way to earn tokens in-game like on LoTro.

[Blackardin]

I hate to break it to you, but F2P and microtransactions are a certainty. Confirmed or not it is coming.

 

As I stated, a virtual warehouse of misinformation. One person posts an article from one source, it was demonstrated to be misrepresented, people read the first line, blow an emotional gasket, promulgate it into law and begin parroting it across the land as if fact.

 

Now, I certainly would be interested in this topic if someone could post further information from reliable sources so as to confirm it, especially since someone did some research on it and found that the quote was originally from 2010 when initial discussion ensued and not one word was mentioned about the entirety of the game becoming free to play.

 

At this point in time we can only confirm that they are doing no more or less then Wow has been doing for years, marketing with a loss leader of free game time, planning to sell peripheral items, the most common marketing tactic in retail sales. Everything else is little more then conjecture and hearsay.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Blackardin

[Spuck]

As long as it's basically cosmetic stuff, then I don't mind at all.

 

I played Star Trek Online... there I paid their store so I could play as a Ferengi species! It's all good. Now offer me Bothan's!!!!

[Erasimus]

let me repost this for you

 

real money for items that wont effect anything? just like my sub cost now doesn't give me anything, including new vanity items. I would like more mounts and pets and good god some armor I want to wear. is it so hard to make 100 tiny droids and monsters, why dont we have a HK mini pet, or mini games or more than 3 mounts. were is our sub money going bioware. we pay monthly and dont have these things.

 

bioware is pushing its fans to far, we put up with alot and still pay monthly for a unfinished game and now they want us to pay for new items and most likely future content on top of our sub fee that is already not not worth the cost????

 

heres a idea give your subscribed paying costomers the new items for free and remove the hutt observer and other mini pets from the game along with the mounts and armor and then sell that as microtransactions, oh thats right nobody wants any of that crap for free thats why you pawned it off on subscribers and are saving the real items for microtransactions

 

this pisses me off more than all their stupid mistakes combined.

 

"hey want to run hardmodes to get that mount"

"why I can just pay $5.00 and get that awesome new one from the shop"

 

"check out this rare pet I finaly got off the lost island boss"

"thats dumb look at this voiced Kowakian monkey-lizard I paid $9.00 for"

 

"why does your lightsaber say "Luke skywalkers lightsaber" the skywalker family wont be around for 3 thousand years"

"I got it off the store they probably thought it would sell better"

 

This hasn't happend in WoW and won't happen in SWTOR if it is done right.

 

Your Subscription gets you access to the servers, pays for server maintenance, helps pay for new content releases (quests/story/OPs), bug fixes, the creation of new in-game items, etc.

Store pets, mounts, etc. are just for fun and are never, in WoW, the same as the pets, mounts, etc. you can get in-game through Raids, Quests, or whatever.

 

The store mounts are nice, but usually don't compare to the hard to get in game mounts.

 

Everyone knows what the store mounts, pets, etc look like so you don't get any "Bragging Rights" for store items (something that is important to many gamers.).

 

Bottom Line - When done right , store items like cosmetic changes to your character, name changes, vanity pets, vanity mounts, etc. are just for fun, don't give you an in-game advantage. They do generate additional money, some of which, can then be used to fund new OPs, content, creating of in-game items, etc.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Erasimus

[Nighthawked]

This hasn't happend in WoW and won't happen in SWTOR if it is done right.

 

Your Subscription gets you access to the servers, pays for server maintenance, helps pay for new content releases (quests/story/OPs), bug fixes, the creation of new in-game items, etc.

Store pets, mounts, etc. are just for fun and are never, in WoW, the same as the pets, mounts, etc. you can get in-game through Raids, Quests, or whatever.

 

The store mounts are nice, but usually don't compare to the hard to get in game mounts.

 

Everyone knows what the store mounts, pets, etc look like so you don't get any "Bragging Rights" for store items (something that is important to many gamers.).

 

Bottom Line - When done right , store items like cosmetic changes to your character, name changes, vanity pets, vanity mounts, etc. are just for fun, don't give you an in-game advantage. They do generate additional money, some of which, can then be used to fund new OPs, content, creating of in-game items, etc.

 

I agree. If you look at the mounts and pets in the Blizzard store, I do not think you can get ANY of those in game. So what does it matter?

[boxfetish]

How? Just because you don't want to spend the money on something doesn't make it a disadvantage. I guess allowing people to pay more for first class puts you at a disadvantage on airplane?

No I don't. I'm perfectly fine with people in first class, because I'm not competing against them.

 

This.

 

A better analogy would be purchasing college degrees or spots on a professional sports team. How would you like it if anyone who forked over $100,000 to Harvard could get the Bachelor's degree of their choice? You want to compete against them for employment? How about if anybody who could pay $30 million dollars could purchase a starting spot on a pro baseball team? If you were a pro prospect in baseball would you want to "compete" for spots against people who could just buy them?

 

People who say that just selling gear and levels doesn't effect people who have to work for it and doesn't devalue the whole process are just children (literally or figuratively) who haven't learned the value of anything yet.

[GnatB]

It's not the F2P to lvl 15 that bothers me. It's the idea of them selling items that can only be attainable buy forking over more cash-even if it is cosmetic. For instance, different color ligtsabers, pets, exclusive gear, mounts, etc... the list goes on.

 

So, you mean like the Razor crystals, CE/DD vendor stuff, etc?

 

Oops, already tehre.

[Freezzo]

I'm a completionist and I would HATE to have to pay for stuff other than sub/expansions. The only thing I can understand is character transfers, although that should be a free service as well. I pay a sub to play the game, don't withold anything from me for additional content! This isn't BF3.

[VelumArgentum]

If this game becomes F2P, as much as I love it, it will seriously cheapen the game for me and I would have to rethink my dedication to it.

 

I wouldn't mind paying $20 a month if that meant we could all hold off on the F2P model, because its a really ****** model as far as competitive gamers seeking in-game accomplishments are concerned.

[TUXs]

Come on, everyone knew this was coming, thats how they make extra money. Im fine with it as long as there is a way to earn tokens in-game like on LoTro.

 

lotro was/is F2P and they've turned their micro transactions into a way to squeeze every last cent out of those dedicated to them. Turbine is NOT the company you should be pointing to as an example of anything, except what NOT to do.

[Kthx]

I hate to break it to you, but F2P and microtransactions are a certainty. Confirmed or not it is coming.

 

Let's make a $100 bet you and I, if you are so certain. It'd be nice to see you put your money where your mouth is.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Kthx

[Killishandra]

Sorry i just dont think paying for a game to use real money to buy stuff in game so you can look COOOl is cool. its lame. dont get me wrong though if some one wants to buy something from me for 200 real dollers i am all over that but dont expect me to buy anything.

[Spuck]

I am of the belief that F2P, at least early levels, and "micro transactions" in the majority of new/upcoming MMO's is the wave of the future. More and more companies are going that route... or thinking about it at least.

[Ngamok]

It's not the F2P to lvl 15 that bothers me. It's the idea of them selling items that can only be attainable buy forking over more cash-even if it is cosmetic. For instance, different color ligtsabers, pets, exclusive gear, mounts, etc... the list goes on.

 

Which just about every game does? WoW, RIFT, TERA......

[Vis-Tecum]

So, you mean like the Razor crystals, CE/DD vendor stuff, etc?

 

Oops, already tehre.

 

one time promotional items free when purchasing products is not the same as a cash shop but people will call it what they want, the CE vendor stuff is closer to a cash shop even though its still a one time promotion. people were not happy about the C.E. vendor before launch and as they add to the items you can get there I will bet people are going to get more angry about it, I think the main thing that saved it at launch is that there was nothing worth complaining about

 

promotional items should not be covered by my sub fee, new content and items being added to the game should be covered by my sub fee and attainable in game, perferably through fun methods adding to gameplay as well

 

knowing E.A. this will probably not end up being just cosmetic and my guess is it will include alot of cash only medpacks and stims for real money especialy since they are moving away from the reusable items

Edited June 14, 2012 by Vis-Tecum

[Drudenfusz]

I wouldn't mind some MT, but only if they drop the sub first and keep the MT just to cosmetic and convenience stuff.