SWTOR "looking at free-to-play"?

[jgelling]

How is that a lack of an end game? Thats a lot of content for a game that has only been out 6 months and they intended to add a new operation and flashpoint plus a whole new planet with more levels.

 

You know, no matter how many times someone says this, it's still irrelevant. Absolutely no one cares how long a product's been out.

 

You don't go shopping for a car and pick the inferior new car because it's just as good as a car the competitor had put out 8 years ago and might be even better a year from now!

 

No one cares: SWTOR is competing against a metric crapton of other MMOs and really RPGs given how the game plays, and all that matters is how SWTOR *today* compares to those other games and that really huge MMO *today* in terms of features and content. The game could be 6 months old, or 6 years old, and it makes absolutely not the slightest bit of difference.

 

If it wasn't ready to compete today feature for feature with the competition today and offer some competitive advantages, it wasn't ready for release.

Edited June 15, 2012 by jgelling

[ChazDoit]

They are going from PR Nightmare to PR Nightmare, because they tell fairy tales.

 

They say how great everything is, they say how successful everything his, how big, how amazing, how unique, how fantastic.

 

I have to agree, I like the game, but every article they put out is perceived negatively, like Daniel Erickson saying "we didnt expect players to burn through the content so fast" it makes them sound dumb.

 

They should aproach the media when the have something substancial, like "hey we fixed open world pvp, here it is, look at it"

 

I dont know what Emmanuel Lusinchi meant by saying "looking" at F2P. Was he just referring to the free trial? do they have plans to make it full free2play? buy2play? pay2win? What he said could be spinned in any way possible, I mean no disrespect to the devs, but they should just shut the heck up, all this vague talk is making them look bad.

[cronpants]

Weather you think the game is good or bad, or you think F2P is good or bad, Bioware keeps going from PR nightmare to PR nightmare.

 

400k subscribers lost

Layoffs

Server Merges disguised as free transfers

And now they are "looking" at Free-to-Play

 

Swtor is getting slaughtered by the media and public opinion is that the game is failing/failed, heck even some of the subscribers wish the game to fail (which is silly because basically they are wishing to lose all the money the invested in the game)

 

You hit the nail on the head. It's amazing how many people playing this game want to see and have wanted to see it crash and burn from day 1.

 

SWTOR is a fun game, the community however, is disgusting.

[OmegaJinjo]

Game's doing great!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noKVrNK2VKM

[jarjarloves]

You know, no matter how many times someone says this, it's still irrelevant. Absolutely no one cares how long a product's been out.

 

You don't go shopping for a car and pick the inferior new car because it's just as good as a car the competitor had put out 8 years ago and might be even better a year from now!

 

No one cares: SWTOR is competing against a metric crapton of other MMOs and really RPGs given how the game plays, and all that matters is how SWTOR *today* compares to those other games and that really huge MMO *today* in terms of features and content. The game could be 6 months old, or 6 years old, and it makes absolutely not the slightest bit of difference.

 

If it wasn't ready to compete today feature for feature with the competition today and offer some competitive advantages, it wasn't ready for release.

even by WoWs current end game it's doing great. WoW has what 6 raids? SWTOR has 3 thats not bad.

[FeelFlow]

Interesting.

 

I could see them cutting the sub $ per month and charging for new planets and instances ie paying for new content.

 

So instead of the 'your monthly sub gets you access to everything' it'll more be that you have to pay for an entrance ticket to access certain features.

 

Then perhaps paying for new non core gameplay features such as being able to customise your ship, appearance, character name change, paying for cool armour, weapons etc (appearance only - not 'pay2win')

 

This could be a good thing in that BW will be able to see what's popular and focus their resources there. Though my worry is that it'll all go a bit lowest common denominator and that the storyline will not have too much attention bestowed on it going forward. I hope that doesn't happen.

 

I don't think that we'll ever see a traditional MMO xpac from BW - just micro updates.

Edited June 15, 2012 by FeelFlow

[jgelling]

even by WoWs current end game it's doing great. WoW has what 6 raids? SWTOR has 3 thats not bad.

 

No idea if that's true - but why wouldn't a rational consumer choose the game that has a cross-server LFG tool and twice as many raids as of today then? I don't see "good" there - I see a non-competitive product.

 

Anyway, their main competitive advantage was supposed to be this "story-driven MMO" experience, yet they haven't added any content in that area, yet. Did they not expect people would give up on the game after they vanquished the supreme villain and you declared them Darth Awesomesauce?

 

Why is Darth Awesomesauce wanting to run dailies? I don't get it - he's Darth Awesomesauce.

Edited June 15, 2012 by jgelling

[Typeslice]

You know, no matter how many times someone says this, it's still irrelevant. Absolutely no one cares how long a product's been out.

 

You don't go shopping for a car and pick the inferior new car because it's just as good as a car the competitor had put out 8 years ago and might be even better a year from now!

 

No one cares: SWTOR is competing against a metric crapton of other MMOs and really RPGs given how the game plays, and all that matters is how SWTOR *today* compares to those other games and that really huge MMO *today* in terms of features and content. The game could be 6 months old, or 6 years old, and it makes absolutely not the slightest bit of difference.

 

If it wasn't ready to compete today feature for feature with the competition today and offer some competitive advantages, it wasn't ready for release.

 

If you expect a new game to release with the same QUANTITY of end game content as a game that has been out for 8 years, you seriously don't know what you're talking about. New content in MMO's trivializes previous content; therefore, comparing apples to apples would be to compare latest content to latest content. In doing that SWTOR is on par or better than most in the market.

[Namesis]

No, he didn't. But again, that would require people to actually read the original article with the full interview with the EA boss, and not rely on the two paragraph article everyone is refering to.

 

Yes yes he did checkout the gamebreaker article they are going ftp only question is when. My edumicated guess is as soon as the code is done because this game is in deep trouble.

[Oronoco]

This game doesn't deserve to be a subscription driven game. Development is pathetic, at least with free-to play players really don't have to expect too much.

 

Am I in a different world of gaiming? I feel like these patches are fast and closely scheduled. that's development right?

and how is expecting less better?

 

well son you're not getting **** for christmas, but hey you can look under the tree for free... It might have presents under it. but you cant open them unless you pay.

[Mallorik]

Seriously who cares about "cata" L2spell by the way. This isn't wow of 2004, 2008, or 2012. This is swtor and it doesn't matter what any game has or had and sure won't help the help the game in anyway apparently so let's forget about every other game and concentrate on this one hmm? But yeah there is content, 3 ops now and another one that is coming plus another pvp arena mixed with ranked wz. Seriously is a shame for the game to be doing this bad with that much content in 6 months.

 

LOL, L2spell what? it really bothers you that much that i used the abbreviation for cataclysm that everyone uses?

 

You should probably focus more on not posting ignorant replies to posts you dont understand. And next time try not to contradict yourself in your own post. Maybe that will "help the help" you in the future lol, i hope you just play an english teacher on a video game forum and arent one in real life.

Edited June 15, 2012 by Mallorik

[jgelling]

If you expect a new game to release with the same QUANTITY of end game content as a game that has been out for 8 years, you seriously don't know what you're talking about. New content in MMO's trivializes previous content; therefore, comparing apples to apples would be to compare latest content to latest content. In doing that SWTOR is on par or better than most in the market.

 

Quantity or quality - that's the only two ways to compete. You've either got the competition beat on quality, or quantity (for the price). Maybe there's a reason no one's been able to remotely compete with the established brand? SWTOR doing better than most in your estimation amounts to what, when no one has even come remotely close to challenging the leader?

Edited June 15, 2012 by jgelling

[Typeslice]

Yes yes he did checkout the gamebreaker article they are going ftp only question is when. My edumicated guess is as soon as the code is done because this game is in deep trouble.

 

All he said is that they've considered it. That could mean as little as it was an agenda item at a weekly meeting.

[OnlyNameLeft]

Who cares what the OP was talking about? You replied to a post that was talking about this article. Their assertions are completely irrelevant, whats relevant is what the EA guy said.

 

And what he said was, "We're going to be in the business from a long term standpoint so absolutely we're going to embrace free access, free trial, ultimately some day we can move in and embrace that model."

 

What seems to have most people up in arms is the last bit, "ultimately some day we can move in and embrace that model." Most of the sky-is-falling crowd and the forum haters have taken it to mean that SWTOR will embrace the F2P model. If, however, you read the article as a whole you would see that this is in reference to the current model WoW is using. Prior to the above quote, Gibeau was quoted as saying, "WoW is a free download that you pay a subscription to after a period of time. We're cognizant - we see that." Thus the reference to "embrace that model" is a direct follow from his previous statement concerning WoW's free download and subsequent P2P model.

 

This is made less clear by the writer due to his interjection between these lines in the form of a paragraph that referenced a now deleted article that tried to use the exact same quote to give the appearance that SWTOR was going F2P. It breaks up the flow of the conversation and obscures the true intent of his dialog - the more cynical would see this as skewing a story to fit the writer's needs, but as I do not know the writer I will not pass judgement.

 

So basically, both their assertions and what Gibeau said are relevant. The assertions are because they are misleading and should be recognized and addressed as such, and the statement by Gibeau is because, given a modicum of reading comprehension, it is clear what his intent is and it allays the imending doom of F2P.

 

Link to article in question

[OmegaJinjo]

WoW actually only has 1 relevant raid with 3 difficulties (although one of those is Raid Finder). Firelands is somewhat relevant I suppose since it still has the legendary staff, but for mostly casual endgame PvE people, the only thing to do is Dragon Soul, and has been the only thing to do in that aspect since December. That's just endgame PvE though, IMO (stress that, my opinion), there's more to do in WoW in other aspects of the game besides endgame PvE, and that's what makes it a bit more appealing.

I really want to enjoy TOR, but most of the time I just sit around fleet thinking what to do. the options without a group are just dailies or level an alt. The group finder and transfers will help this situation a lot though, if it works as they and we hope, jumping on to do a quick FP or Ops will get me playing a lot more again.

[Typeslice]

Quantity or quality - that's the only two ways to compete. You've either got the competition beat on quality, or quantity (for the price). Maybe there's a reason no one's been able to remotely compete with the established brand? SWTOR doing better than most in your estimation amounts to what, when no one has even come remotely close to challenging the leader?

 

Did you completely gloss over the last part of my post? How is the quantity of non-trivialized end-game in SWTOR not on par with other games?

Edited June 15, 2012 by Typeslice

[TonyIommi]

You know, no matter how many times someone says this, it's still irrelevant. Absolutely no one cares how long a product's been out.

 

You don't go shopping for a car and pick the inferior new car because it's just as good as a car the competitor had put out 8 years ago and might be even better a year from now!

 

No one cares: SWTOR is competing against a metric crapton of other MMOs and really RPGs given how the game plays, and all that matters is how SWTOR *today* compares to those other games and that really huge MMO *today* in terms of features and content. The game could be 6 months old, or 6 years old, and it makes absolutely not the slightest bit of difference.

 

If it wasn't ready to compete today feature for feature with the competition today and offer some competitive advantages, it wasn't ready for release.

 

If we follow that then no new mmo will ever be able to compete with warcraft. Hell Titan won't be able to compete with warcraft...

 

Back on topic though, the trolls feel they smell blood in the water and have thus taken to the forums in manfuactured outrage. The post in the OP says nothing about f2p merely that Bioware (like any other business) is reassessing it's businnes model in the face of competition. EVERY company does this including large multinationals. Apple does it, Microsoft does it, Blizzard/Activision does it, and yes EA/Bioware do as well.

[Typeslice]

If we follow that then no new mmo will ever be able to compete with warcraft. Hell Titan won't be able to compete with warcraft...

 

Back on topic though, the trolls feel they smell blood in the water and have thus taken to the forums in manfuactured outrage. The post in the OP says nothing about f2p merely that Bioware (like any other business) is reassessing it's businnes model in the face of competition. EVERY company does this including large multinationals. Apple does it, Microsoft does it, Blizzard/Activision does it, and yes EA/Bioware do as well.

 

This..

[lickyboy]

They will never get a penny out of me again, so yeah F2P is the only way i'll ever even think about playing again. Fiasco after fiasco and the reaction time of a slug. Pity they can't run an MMO as efficiently as they do policing the forum

 

GW2 beta has been 100x more enjoyable and they seem to have a clue what they are doing.

Edited June 15, 2012 by lickyboy

[LovarBoy]

Game's doing great!

 

 

I bet Snow White and the seven Dwarfs would be jealous if they would know what fairy tales BioWare can tell.

[Typeslice]

They will ever get a penny out of me again, so yeah F2P is the only way i'll ever even think about playing again. Fiasco after fiasco and the reaction time of a slug. GW2 beta has been 100x more enjoyable and they seem to have a clue what they are doing.

 

Except for when no one could log in the first beta weekend and the forums erupted worse than here, right?

[TonyIommi]

Except for when no one could log in the first beta weekend and the forums erupted worse than here, right?

 

The Gw2 forums IMO tie with only d3 for being troll filled and rotten. So many people will be so disappointed.. It's great I can't wait for it.

Edited June 15, 2012 by TonyIommi

[Oronoco]

Interesting.

 

I could see them cutting the sub $ per month and charging for new planets and instances ie paying for new content.

 

So instead of the 'your monthly sub gets you access to everything' it'll more be that you have to pay for an entrance ticket to access certain features.

 

Then perhaps paying for new non core gameplay features such as being able to customise your ship, appearance, character name change, paying for cool armour, weapons etc (appearance only - not 'pay2win')

 

This could be a good thing in that BW will be able to see what's popular and focus their resources there. Though my worry is that it'll all go a bit lowest common denominator and that the storyline will not have too much attention bestowed on it going forward. I hope that doesn't happen.

 

I don't think that we'll ever see a traditional MMO xpac from BW - just micro updates.

 

Never paying for an expansion would be awesome in my opinion. But if I have to pay for micro expansion like new planets and ops. Then I dont see the difference. So far they have been releasing a large amount of content (time considered) and could within a year have more endgame content than 'the competitors'

 

While I partially agree with the idea that it must compete with current products, those products were released with less than they currently have. Also I think that the upcoming mmo's and other games having better graphics, will have little affect on SWTOR's sub numbers. refer to 'the competitors'

[lickyboy]

Except for when no one could log in the first beta weekend and the forums erupted worse than here, right?

 

I had no problems login into any of the Beta Weekends or the stress test, and even if I did its's a Beta so its to be expected.

[InvisiblePerson]

You can't spell ignorant without IGN.

 

Is there anyone shocked that a major MMORPG is looking at how the different MMORPG models work? They're a business, of course they're going to go with the most profitable model and going to weigh their options. If I'm looking to replace my current car and say I'm looking at hybrids, it doesn't mean I'm buying a hybrid. it means I'm going to look at my options and if that option is in my best interest I'm going to select it.