Ea tells Raptr that they are considering f2p

[TheProthean]

as the title says ea's ceo has admitted that they plan on considering f2p in a interview with raptr

 

http://raptr.com/RaQin_Whaitera/news/50097a255721570cf1/ea-boss-admits-the-old-republic-subscription-video-game-news-videos-and-file-downloads-for-pc-and-console-games-at-shacknews-com?fb_action_ids=343035212437359%2C342700159137531%2C342700065804207%2C342700055804208%2C342699799137567&fb_action_types=raptrconnection%3Aread&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22343035212437359%22%3A10150935645971196%2C%22342700159137531%22%3A10151056360665761%2C%22342700065804207%22%3A10151089247102700%2C%22342700055804208%22%3A10151033954812410%2C%22342699799137567%22%3A10151036568722710%2C%22342699615804252%22%3A10150983742648897%2C%22342699592470921%22%3A10150983742648897%7D

 

if this goes thru i will def be leaving swtor. i love the game but i do not wish to deal with the constant trolling that comes along with a f2p model, and hope that they still keep a sub model for there LOYAL customers

[DarkZeron]

Free to play isnt free but its not the devil many say it is.

[Thaltom]

Old news is old.

[TheRealCandyMan]

Old news is old.

 

Isn't this the first time that EA has talked about F2P rather then just speculation?

[ripster]

Online reporting is trash. They could ask a guy if he has heard of F2P, heard of SWTOR, and make a link that the guy is stating SWTOR will go F2P. Worse is that it is usually a paraphrase of a paraphrase of snippet of an interview.

[TheProthean]

it is the first time that ea has come out and actually said they might try it.

 

in previous interviews they avoided the questions

[Nyoro]

Well what do you know, it already is free to play!(up to lvl 15)

 

Of course If it goes fully f2p I'll probably jump ship. The community change coupled with a cash shop would be more than I could take.

Edited July 23, 2012 by Nyoro

[TheProthean]

that is considered more of a trial in most peoples eyes

[Tuscad]

as the title says ea's ceo has admitted that they plan on considering f2p in a interview with raptr

 

http://raptr.com/RaQin_Whaitera/news/50097a255721570cf1/ea-boss-admits-the-old-republic-subscription-video-game-news-videos-and-file-downloads-for-pc-and-console-games-at-shacknews-com?fb_action_ids=343035212437359%2C342700159137531%2C342700065804207%2C342700055804208%2C342699799137567&fb_action_types=raptrconnection%3Aread&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22343035212437359%22%3A10150935645971196%2C%22342700159137531%22%3A10151056360665761%2C%22342700065804207%22%3A10151089247102700%2C%22342700055804208%22%3A10151033954812410%2C%22342699799137567%22%3A10151036568722710%2C%22342699615804252%22%3A10150983742648897%2C%22342699592470921%22%3A10150983742648897%7D

 

if this goes thru i will def be leaving swtor. i love the game but i do not wish to deal with the constant trolling that comes along with a f2p model, and hope that they still keep a sub model for there LOYAL customers

 

I wouldn't be suprised if they went for it considering that Ultima Forever (also being made by Bioware, rumored to be team Bioware Mythic) is going to be F2P when it launches. In fact I wouldn't be suprised that they do it because then it would just give me a final reason to quit.

[Thaltom]

it is the first time that ea has come out and actually said they might try it.

 

in previous interviews they avoided the questions

 

The news site minces his words up. Notice how they don't directly quote him anymore. If they did it would show he isn't leaning towards F2P. He mentions something about "different models" which is in reference to the F2P trial up to level 15.

[nissanmaxima]

This game will be Free to play sometime this year. No need to go and search for articles about the possibility of it. Just kick back, enjoy the game and wait for the day when we will not have to pay a fee every month to play it.

 

Deny it all you want, F2P model is coming soon for SWTOR and it is not such a bad thing. If it ruins your gaming experience, then go find something else to play. Simple

[Nyoro]

This game will be Free to play sometime this year. No need to go and search for articles about the possibility of it. Just kick back, enjoy the game and wait for the day when we will not have to pay a fee every month to play it.

 

Deny it all you want, F2P model is coming soon for SWTOR and it is not such a bad thing. If it ruins your gaming experience, then go find something else to play. Simple

 

Can you tell me this weeks winning lottery numbers while you're still at your crystal ball?

Edited July 23, 2012 by Nyoro

[ripster]

Deny it all you want, F2P model is coming soon for SWTOR and it is not such a bad thing. If it ruins your gaming experience, then go find something else to play. Simple

There is a difference between denying fabricated claims of what EA/BW execs are saying and vague predictions that apply to the MMO model as a whole.

[Shingara]

Can you tell me this weeks winning lottery numbers while you're still at your crystal ball?

 

No No i want the numbers but wait, they know the future so why havnt they won it :rak_02:

[Lheim]

Free to play isnt free but its not the devil many say it is.

 

Mm. I used to be morally opposed to F2P - but seriously, nobody is really playing the pay-to-win card. Otherwise? You know exactly what you're getting when you pay for an item in a cash shop. That's .. that's moral; that's capitalism and trust between buyer and seller. Whether it's a good deal is entirely up to you.

 

Subscription MMOs? Hell, I used to be under the impression we were not only paying for access (which other games give free), but new content. I used to think that subscription was for a certain premium and polish level. With the polish of F2P games nowadays, with WoW in a 9 month dry spell and this game sauntering around like it's on laurels.. wow's cash shop items and macro-transaction account services, and this game likely to have them too.. I dunno any more. I don't know what I'm getting, for certain, by paying a subscription fee.

Edited July 23, 2012 by Lheim

[HammersteinSW]

Riccitiello says that the "softness" of Star Wars led to its current partial free-to-play model. "Our conclusion was we had a great product in Star Wars, but that the subscription model in the world of free-to-play was challenging," he said.

 

Ahahaha, look at this man talk. They still don't get it, do they ? The game launched without any of the quality of life improvements that players have come to expect from a 2012 title. Instead we got 2004 WoW in a Star Wars skin plus voices all wrapped up in the *******st game engine possible aka The Hero Engine.

 

To the suits at EA - what cost you subs is not that you had the wrong subscription model but that you had the wrong game for a subscription model. If you had launched with all the improvements of the last 6 months then maybe things would be different now - but the game still suffers from so many bad design decisions it's mind boggling.

[TheProthean]

all i ask is that when it does go f2p. keep a subscription model as a option as well.

 

i have played many f2p games over the years, and to stay geared and be a contributing raider in most of them you need to spend more than the monthly 15 dollars that subs charge

 

for example, in allods online. to even be accepted into raids, you have to spend 200 dollars PER CHARACTER to increase your stats in the cash shop.. not to mention every mount is ONLY available for purchase from the cash shop for the modest price (i jest on the modest part) of 15 dollars per mount and 5 dollars per mount skin.

 

i greatly prefer a sub model, which is why i curently pay monthly for lotro, dcuo, as well as swtor instead of using these f2p models these games offer

[HammersteinSW]

all i ask is that when it does go f2p. keep a subscription model as a option as well.

 

i have played many f2p games over the years, and to stay geared and be a contributing raider in most of them you need to spend more than the monthly 15 dollars that subs charge

 

for example, in allods online. to even be accepted into raids, you have to spend 200 dollars PER CHARACTER to increase your stats in the cash shop.. not to mention every mount is ONLY available for purchase from the cash shop for the modest price (i jest on the modest part) of 15 dollars per mount and 5 dollars per mount skin.

 

i greatly prefer a sub model, which is why i curently pay monthly for lotro, dcuo, as well as swtor instead of using these f2p models these games offer

 

Look at Lotro for a successful f2p game. Either stay f2p and buy modules from the cash shop or buy a monthly sub for the full game. Plus there's tons of nice goodies in the cash shop which don't break the game.

 

On a more serious note - this will go down as the biggest fail in the history of mmo design. SWtor was supposed to be the 900 lb gorilla that would grab a huge share of the mmo market - instead they might be f2p within 12 months after launch.

 

How stupid does one have to be to fail when one has Star Wars, Bioware and the biggest budget in mmo development history ? I think the only guys who did their job were the voice actors, the rest - from game mechanics, to technology (Hero engine lol), to armor design - is a lesson to future mmo developers on how not to do it.

 

They only needed to steal what other mmos did right:

 

PvP from DaoC or Shadowbane

PvE from WoW

Economy and Crafting from SWG

Game Engine from Aion (Cry Engine ??)

a skill based class system maybe (UO or pre-NGE SWG)

 

...and there you have it. Then you only need good artists who actually "get " Star Wars to make you some nice planets and gear and off you go. Instead we got the worst possible and most generic WoW clone - and by that I don't mean 2012 WoW but 2004 WoW.

Edited July 23, 2012 by HammersteinSW

[Insomnio]

In fact, they were and are inspecting different f2p models.

 

The surveys of "would you pay this much for: " were fishing to see how much they could ask "loyal" players to pay for items without putting them off too much when they open up the cash shop.

[Bethmora]

as the title says ea's ceo has admitted that they plan on considering f2p in a interview with raptr

 

if this goes thru i will def be leaving swtor. i love the game but i do not wish to deal with the constant trolling that comes along with a f2p model, and hope that they still keep a sub model for there LOYAL customers

 

Its funny that these ppl say they will leave swtor if it goes F2P. Now i have seen the same ppl say if it does they wioll go play GW2, hhm a F2P game, so you will leave one for going but will play one that is. how lame is that? you wont leave as in the other 10k ppl ************ about F2P.

 

look at Lotro, a great game and in many ways better then swtor and its doing fine and has a great Exp coming out soon.

[Arlbo_Nabbins]

The news site minces his words up. Notice how they don't directly quote him anymore. If they did it would show he isn't leaning towards F2P. He mentions something about "different models" which is in reference to the F2P trial up to level 15.

 

Its more that they won't rule out f2p elements in the future. Of course they are continually looking at ways of increasing revenue and they may want to add some things in the future, that does not mean that the game will ever go full f2p and they can't say "SWTOR will never go f2p" because then they will be accused of lying if they add something that is f2p some time down the line.

 

I fully expect that SWTOR will end up going Hybrid in a few years, you either pay a monthly sub for full access or you play for free and buy each planet, extra character slots, OPs access etc. Buying access to everything bit by bit will probably end up costing about the same as 2 years of subbing (and in those 2 years they will add more content). Before that we will probably see a cash shop for cosmetics and character services (renames, transfers, appearance change etc).

 

That model is not a problem as long as p2w elements don't become part of the game. Subs suit regular players and piecemeal content purchases suit occasional players.

Edited July 23, 2012 by Arlbo_Nabbins

[Arkerus]

Welcome to a month ago.

 

This site didn't even post his words correctly.

[PuntaSur]

"Free to Play" is not something to desire. There are two paths after going free to play, and both suck:

 

Path One: means less resources to make any improvements, which means the game stagnates and flat lines.

 

Path Two: means they add purchasable content improvements (gear, mounts, etc) via a "real dollar" vendor, which means it is now "pay to win" and the cost can be considerably greater than a flat subscription rate if you want to keep up and enjoy the game.

[Arlbo_Nabbins]

"Free to Play" is not something to desire. There are two paths after going free to play, and both suck:

 

Path One: means less resources to make any improvements, which means the game stagnates and flat lines.

 

Path Two: means they add purchasable content improvements (gear, mounts, etc) via a "real dollar" vendor, which means it is now "pay to win" and the cost can be considerably greater than a flat subscription rate if you want to keep up and enjoy the game.

 

See what I mean about how people talk about f2p.

 

There is a third Path, the purchasable content is content that you get for free if you sub or its cosmetic/convenience items, nothing that any subscriber needs to buy to remain competitive in PvE or PvP. Admittedly I haven't logged in for about 4 months but LoTRO chose path 3 for f2p. If you had a subscription you did not need anything from the shop.

[Tuscad]

See what I mean about how people talk about f2p.

 

There is a third Path, the purchasable content is content that you get for free if you sub or its cosmetic/convenience items, nothing that any subscriber needs to buy to remain competitive in PvE or PvP. Admittedly I haven't logged in for about 4 months but LoTRO chose path 3 for f2p. If you had a subscription you did not need anything from the shop.

 

When it comes to EA there are only two paths.