SWTOR "looking at free-to-play"?

[LovarBoy]

Do you know a game that became more successful and gained more players after going F2P?

 

 

Age of Conan, Lotro, Aion?

 

They've got much more than they got at least as an P2P-game.

[Bloodstealer]

lol You do realise that Free to Play players will end up paying more the content that monthly subscribers.

 

Even in LOTRO you still have to retain a monthly sub to get all the content free and the people who pay $ to unlock everything acutally end spening much more.

 

SW:TOR is free to level 15 and if they used Turbine then " Free" players won't even be able to leave starter worlds without paying money. -

REALLY.. SINCE WHEN???... When was the last time you played DDO.. cos F2P players can do an awful lot more than that and with one small purchase in the Cow shop they become Premium with even more incentives, not to dissimilar to a full sub paying player like me.... and then they also have guest passes and guild mates, friends family can purchase turbine points for them to open up additional content / features.

 

Yes F2P means there is a limit to what content & features you get.. where would be the sense in not having that.. no MMO is a charity is it - though some MMO's like DDO also provide the ability to earn Turbine points in game in which to buy additional content/features.. just down to how much your prepared to utilise the model and how patient you are.... it comes to down to how you play the time/money thing really.. if your paying a set sub like SWTOR but only get a few hourse a week then F2P may be a more justifiable use of that equation... if your hardcore 24/7 then maybe not but then F2P doesn't necerssarily mean that game subs are taken out of circulation....

 

So lol the last lol is really on the people who cancel and hope the entire game is "free" lol.

 

No MMO nowadays will go entirely free to play... some charge for a box set to gain an access code, others give you free download with limited time/content...... and anyone who thinks SWTOR will ever be a totally F2P game are simply on the wrong medication.

But they may decide that F2P provides more value for money compared to the monthly sub so may indeed cancel and go F2P with it... come down to the individual, there wants/needs, there personal situations and how much they feel the game and their time is worth.

Edited June 15, 2012 by Bloodstealer

[Glaucos]

If this game had a over a million subs they could not all fit on the limited number of destination servers they have right now. Think about that.

 

..so you call yourself a server pro? And you know what technique is behind those servers? Scaling servers can be many physically clustered server that a player knows only under one server name....

[Glaucos]

there is only one thing that I don't like at F2P concept:

 

even in the game, There will be difference between those who have more money and those who do not. I think in a game should all be equal in some way. We have enough this kind of differences in our real life.

 

 

Heads up people.

 

Server merging, group-find tool, free play till lvl 15 and upcoming content this year will boost SWTOR to more subscribers. I am definitely sure that SWTOR will keep more than 1 Mio. Subscribers for a long time .

[SithVeritas]

Is this what SWTOR has come to? I remember the hype and everything that came with it, hard to believe it's turned into this. My sub is running out today I think and I'm not resubbing. Abandoning ship until BW can finally assure me we're on track to be the awesome forever-MMO.

[cool-dude]

I will be a bit upset if SWTOR becomes free to play any time soon, because I will feel ripped off having paid for subscriptions. If they truly do make the game free to play anytime soon, it just proves to me that the game is in trouble.

 

I will not be resubbing.

Free to play this early will just piss me off.

Edited June 15, 2012 by cool-dude

[Ravagexe]

SWTOR is definitely going up after this last Server Transfer attempt and lots of good thing coming up.

The game is finally rising from the cesspol it fell, We dont have an official expansion yet. There are lots of good things that we can implant, Pod Racing, Freeroam space, new worlds and such...

 

It would be total suicide run to turn the game into F2P in next 2 years. Even Blizzard knows that as soon as WoW goes completely F2P, the game will die in less than a month for good.

[ChazDoit]

Man, if not having a subscription means your game is doing bad, then I guess Guild Wars 2 must be utter sh*t

[JediCahlwyn]

What the hell is wrong with you people? Seriously!

 

Unsubbing? Why? Do you like playing or not? If the answer is yes then sub, if no then unsub and LEAVE.

 

Worried about F2P? Why? It'll be the same game regardless. You can still spend $15/mo on micro transactions and it will be the same experience.

 

Seriously you lot like to get all indignant and whiny and rage against anything! If Bioware said they'd custom tailor your game experience to whatever you want (easy, hard, expensive, free... whatever) you'd complain that the mystery in whether you get what you want was spoiled and rage. Let it go people, geez!

[arkzehhh]

Here is the biggest joke about f2p.....

 

Wait for it....

 

It sucks.

 

It's nothing like the gaming experience you're used to in any game you've ever played (probably) before. Trust me, you'll end up spending more and you won't be happy because someone spent even more and got *just* that much better than you.

 

Welcome to the new market of gouging out consumers.

 

I support the subscription model and so should you.

 

this, pretty much.

[Bloodstealer]

Do you know a game that became more successful and gained more players after going F2P?

 

Lots actually.... DDO was dead in the water until the F2P model was introduced and now has a much larger community with regualr content updates (some of which is included for F2P / Premium players).. sucess... fact!

 

AION has grown since F2P.

LoTRO has grown and is pumping out updates and expansions at a healthy rate of knots

AoC has grown nin popularity since F2P

 

Simple facts are that people like free trials, they like freeplay, they like free anyhting... its how you then adjust your playstlye to suit the model or use the model to your advantage.

If your planning on playing the game long enough then - say in DDO's F2P model it might be worth paying a small one off fee to purchase some Turbine points.. enough to buy an adventure pack, or another toon slot etc.. you then become Premium and that opens up more things... it you then go off and start earning some Turbine points ingame, bank them up and then when your ready purchase say 12000- 20000 TP's which added to the ones you have earned will pretty much buy you the full content spread of the game... and depending on your playstyle it could work out to be less $$$ outlay in your first year than a full 1 yr of monthly subs would cost you in the first place.

Then you carry on earning more TP's, so that when the next update comes along you can use them to purchase the pack... no need to spend any more...

Its all swings and roundabouts.. you just have to decide when to get on and get off... noone forces you to do anything you dont want to.

Edited June 15, 2012 by Bloodstealer

[Galbatorrix]

$15 sub = I'll be here for a while as long as we get updates.

 

F2P = Bye, bye SWTOR and back to WOW.

 

F2P games are complete and utter trash. I don't need to play a gimped game that constantly wants to dip into my wallet again so I can obtain my next companion, expand my bags, buy perks, etc. No thanks.

Edited June 15, 2012 by Galbatorrix

[JediCahlwyn]

$15 sub = I'll be here for a while as long as we get updates.

 

F2P = Bye, bye SWTOR and back to WOW.

 

F2P games are complete and utter trash. I don't need to play a gimped game that constantly wants to dip into my wallet again so I can obtain my next companion, expand my bags, but perks, etc. No thanks.

 

I prefer the sub model.

 

But I don't think you, or many of the others, know how good F2P games work... it just isn't like that.

[ChazDoit]

I'll just sit here and wait for someone to answer to this

 

Man, if not having a subscription means your game is doing bad, then I guess Guild Wars 2 must be utter sh*t

 

Besides, the one size fits all $15 models is just outdated, take WoW for example, in Asia you can pay by the hour, by the day, even if they are a subscription based game, they are flexible.

 

As someone already said in their post, many players just get online on the weekends, or maybe can't play on the weekends so, if you play 8-12 days a month. Why the heck are you paying for 30 days?

[GreatGarth]

F2P would be great. My cheap friends would then play.

[Excorsion]

lol definitely thinking of holding after my time expires for the game to go free to play. I was already thinking of it with how the game is dying so badly they had to merge every server and not just a few and the many many other signs of how bad the game is doing. Don't see the point in supporting a game that will go free to play in time so it would be a better idea to wait it out. And for the false hope of it just the 15 levels, yeah... let's keep saying that's all it will be, lol.

 

Really....how well is that MMO you created doing? What? you don't have one?

 

if the game goes free to play.. then it does... But you evidently liked it enough to pay for it to begin with. So all we get from your post is that you are instant gratification kiddie which should never be factored into a decision on where the game is going.. Most game companies know they can just throw you some pixel drugs and have you hooked.

[Bloodstealer]

$15 sub = I'll be here for a while as long as we get updates.

 

F2P = Bye, bye SWTOR and back to WOW.

 

F2P games are complete and utter trash. I don't need to play a gimped game that constantly wants to dip into my wallet again so I can obtain my next companion, expand my bags, buy perks, etc. No thanks.

 

You think your not already paying for those things in your $15 a month.... F2P just means you get to choose if you want them or not... currently you get no choice in that... your sub only grants you access to play the game with your 8 toon slots.. that wont change cos they cant suddenly say sorry were now F2P so you can only have 3 slots instead, not unless they want to bit their own noses to spite their faces..... new players maybe but thats a decision of package they would need to make..

As for updates and content, I have not seen a F2P MMO model that has actually worked negatively regarding releasing new stuff.. its in their interest to do it more often surely....

I find your idea of F2P to be somewhat baseless really... but each to their own I guess

Edited June 15, 2012 by Bloodstealer

[skinthinner]

Server merging, group-find tool, free play till lvl 15 and upcoming content this year will boost SWTOR to more subscribers. I am definitely sure that SWTOR will keep more than 1 Mio. Subscribers for a long time .

 

Then there are those who see reality clearly and understand that server merges, a group finding tool, and free play till lvl 15 at way less than a year into the game are all signs of an immanent collapse, and a game that didn't hold people's attention as intended.

Edited June 15, 2012 by skinthinner

[Zoggel]

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[jgelling]

Well, this isn't the first time that lead game designer has strayed from the official corporate message - remember his less than inspiring statement after the layoffs?

 

Maybe they just shouldn't let this guy give interviews? Don't they have PR people for a reason?

 

Even if things were so bad they were going to do this before GW2's rumored Thanksgiving release, I can't see any advantage hinting at it now.

Edited June 15, 2012 by jgelling

[Ravagexe]

Main reason Im playing Online games with subs is to get away from that terrible crowd of humanity. Most of those underage kids cant afford to pay. And Im happy about this, it goes F2P > Gazillions of sad kids and troll will devour the game. Its like combining game itself with the official forums. Bug abusers, Trolls and Admins that cant give any less damn about. Your average F2P.

[cool-dude]

Man, if not having a subscription means your game is doing bad, then I guess Guild Wars 2 must be utter sh*t

 

If Bioware switches from their original planned payment plan to free, it means the original plan is no longer a valid option. Considering that Bioware has recently had some layoff issues with their development team, and a significant loss to subscriptions( for a game this young), it is a reasonable assumption that the game is facing some trouble. About GW being utter ****, the difference between SWTOR and Guild Wars, is that instead of subscriptions, they have expansions. This has always been their method of making money, and it works very well.

Edited June 15, 2012 by cool-dude

[Aimey]

Not at all, at most we will have f2p trial upto lvl 15, if any mmo is heading towards f2p its wow, the huge merging of its china/asia servers, its black market selling BIS items and the real money ah going into it. remember that wows biggest playerbase is in asia/china market and raiders arnt going to be happy that you will be able to buy bis and what were raid only items for real money.

 

So as swtor is expanding into the asia market at the same time wow is declining in it very fast. SWTORS ip is strong enough to keep it subscription game for years, and look at other ea mmos like warhammer, they are still sub games so no, this will stay subs.

 

Besides the logical argument of wow still having 10x the subscribers any other mmo would be happy to have, the real money ah is Diablo not wow. Playing the expansion beta for wow and there is no real money ah in sight or being planned that anyone knows of.

[Crosswinder]

Greetings folks!

 

We have had to remove a few posts from this thread for being spam, off-topic, and or disruptive to the conversation. In order to help keep the thread on topic and constructive replies to these posts have been removed as well. Please feel free to continue talking about the free to play MMO model and how it relates to Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

 

And as a general and gentle reminder to everyone, please remember the following:

 

• Insults - Please do not resort to or use them in any way in your posts. Posts should be productive, not destructive.
  
• Trolling - Please do not post messages that are purposefully designed to provoke, antagonize, or otherwise elicit a negative emotional response.
  
• Agree to Disagree - Be respectful of others' viewpoints even if they are opposite of your own. Discuss disagreements constructively.
  
• Report, Don't Respond - Utilize the Report Post feature to report possible rules violations, rather than responding to or fighting them.
  
• Ignoring - If you feel you simply cannot get along with another community member, please place them on your ignore list.
  

 

Thank you!

 

Wow! We have a yellow in da house! Thats all that you can tell us Bioware? We payed for this game a half of year. Last 2 months I was stuck on server with 2-3 people online. But I payed for support my game and team. And now when the time is com I NEED YOU - you have nothnig to say. Just say - wait a sec we will consult our bosses wil be fine for today.

[Galbatorrix]

I prefer the sub model.

 

But I don't think you, or many of the others, know how good F2P games work... it just isn't like that.

 

 

I tried my best to play LOTRO and was constantly reminded that the game was F2P because I'd want to try something, click on something on my UI, etc and be pointed to the store. Again, no thanks.