Official F2P Announcement

[ScarletBlaze]

so many howler monkeys!

 

There is only one rule you need to apply here for good decision making: If you are enjoying the game keep playing, if you are not enjoying the game, quit and move on to something else. That is it.

 

This.

[Helig]

It seems there's little reason for me to subscribe once F2P hits. I don't raid anymore, so Operations content is useless to me. I rarely do space missions. And I have very little interest in appearance\convenience "fluff".

 

Realistically, I'd be paying for lifting the limitation on FPs and Warzones per week. Which is, to say the least, a ridiculous thing to pay a subscription for. I want more incentive to give my money to Bioware. Give me what I want and I'll give you what you want.

[Kubernetic]

No, no no NO! That does not fly. Let people buy that stuff to keep! Why do you want to make your players, your customers angry when they switch to an alternative business model? Sure, you lose some kind of safety net, but if you really need to extort people into subscribing like that, it just means that the alternative model is deeply flawed. It means that free players are really just being subsidised by the subscribers, instead of being another viable source of revenue.

 

I'm not sure about other people, but for me that'd mean that I'd stop playing the game. It's been really tedious to get the character set up, and losing that is a setback no matter how you look at it.

 

Switching models should not incur such drastic penalties. It should mean selectively paying for what you want to play, not suddenly having your game experience and characters neutered, robbed, and kicked in the face.

 

What penalties? If you stop paying for your subscription, you get converted to the F2P level of service. That isn't a penalty, it's just you being assigned accordingly due to your new payment structure.

 

Just because they aren't granting you grandfather rights forevermore doesn't mean you're being punished. It just means you aren't going to be rewarded with some super-duper status as a former subscriber (short of what they've already said in terms of coins per month subscribed, etc).

[viperathouse]

Thank you EA, you are succesfull again and kill another game. I bought your game and subcribe. Now you decide to go F2P. I dont care what restricted have f2p. You r not listen to us dont care us. Man look WOW they stiil not F2P, only have until 20. And you by the way , in that short time you said us game is going f2p.

YOU LOSE EA AND BIOWARE, AND I M ALREADY CANCEL MY SUB. I DONT THINK THIS GAME LIVE LONG.YOU SHOULD LISTEN PEOPLE WHAT THEY SAID TO YOU BOIWARE, PEOPLE SAID THIS "WE WANT KOTOR 3". I HOPE YOU REGRET WHAT YOU DONE AND DO THE RIGHT THING.

Edited July 31, 2012 by viperathouse

[DuckKing]

so many howler monkeys!

 

There is only one rule you need to apply here for good decision making: If you are enjoying the game keep playing, if you are not enjoying the game, quit and move on to something else. That is it.

 

I'm glad to be a howler monkey, it's better that we send out backlash to Bioware so they can learn from their mistakes. Have fun playing this game. I know this may sound so clichéd but you are simply a fanboy playing a lost cause. Some day I hope you realize the truth and see where this game is headed... in the most deepest, darkest part of the mariana trench.

[JamieKirby]

Wow, giving up on the game already, pretty sad and pathetic.

 

Oh well, might as well move on.

[MajorVan]

Well don't run to GW2 too fast. It's already a F2P and will become a P2W game as well. Foolish GW fanboys! muhhahahahahaha i call it first!

[Hellsworn]

As a pre-order collectors edition owner, I already felt cheated now I just fell like a complete hardtard who has the rug pulled out from underneath me. I should have just drove to BW in austin, walked in the customer service dept and said Hey, here is 179$ and some change. I just wanted to hand you over free money, considering the VIP + CE vendors are a complete rip off....

 

No No it's ok BW, 179$ was easy to make in these hard economic days, don't worry about it my treat.....

Edited July 31, 2012 by Hellsworn

[belizar]

Well don't run to GW2 too fast. It's already a F2P and will become a P2W game as well. Foolish GW fanboys! muhhahahahahaha i call it first!

 

again BUY TO PLAY ISNT FREE TO PLAY

 

and their cash shop is open since beta 1 event nothing u cant get in game with a bit of grind read up on gw2 before u type crap

Edited July 31, 2012 by belizar

[supafreak]

Seems fine, I hope they're not expecting me to keep my sub going for some "cartel coins" though...lol.

how about warzones, operations and flashpoints, and using the GTN often?

F2P looks like its getting just enough bare bones to almost classify as just a really long trial, but it'll never be comparable to the full game

[TxAstarte]

LOTR also stopped making suginifcant expanshions

 

with a game like this with full VO i really dont see any major updates comming soon. it will more likly end up and small updates with rehashed diologue.

 

The Riders of Rohan beg to differ with you...

[mjwalsh]

unsubbed lol.. this is so funny. changing my guild to guil wars 2 right now. will be playing just to pass the time until the day gw2 comes out, then you will never see me again.

[DahLliA]

60% who cancelled presumably didn't though.

 

The other 60% probably wanted a good game and we know how well EA does those...

[Kellour]

It does kind of seem like Bioware cares more about the people who haven't started playing yet, and not so much about their current subscribers. I mean, if they had fixed many of the glaring problems the game shipped with (Ilum, I'm looking at you amongst many others..) they might not have lost the number of subscribers that they did to begin with.

 

Now it seems like, between the layoffs and F2P the few people left employed at Bioware are spending all their time not trying to stop the subscriptions from bleeding out by fixing/tweaking/adding content, but by trying to fill the holes left by paying subscribers, with F2P players.

 

Wouldn't it behoove you to make the game better so you can actually hold onto those F2P members you hope you're going to get in the fall? I mean, a piece of coal is still a piece of coal even if you paint it gold.

[Kigr]

Yeah guyz, Biower will lose trust.

I wont ever buy any MMO from EA or Bioware again.

 

To those who right about GW2 lets meet there

I was loyal i got screwd, then dont care about TOR anymore. GL HF Bioware/EA will watch how this game fall's with satisfaction. Wish you worst

[kilrautheus]

Just a suggestion BW & EA, Give all the "subs" enough coins for everything in your market or just give all subs everything in the market. A subscriber should Never have to shell out more than their monthly fee.

 

Won't happen though and I could care less. I'll play until it's no longer fun or I see something I can't have without giving greedy a holes more money. At that point my wallet and I will go somewhere else.

[Shawndeberry]

I think it's funny EA makes this F2P yet still haa warhammer P2P.Maybe it's cuz EA thinks they can still save this game but who knows.

[Segundus]

Free to Play will NOT ruin this game, it will SAVE it. Another game I also love to play is DC Universe Online. They went through this same thing shortly after release. When Free-to-Play was announced all the haters screamed it was the end of the game, the end of the world, and the end of everything we know and hold dear. All Chicken Littles screaming the sky was falling. For a long time the forums were filled with apocalyptic talk of how F2P will cause DCUO to die within a week of it going active.

 

And you know what? It's subscriber base went up by 1000% within the first few months of F2P. Since then they have had regular content patches (which are free for paying members) and tons of other new great stuff. The game went from dull to an absolute blast, and it was all thanks to F2P. As a paying subscriber, I didn't lose anything, and in fact I gained a lot more for my money. I saw a ton of new players come in and love it so much they also became paying subscribers. SOE ended up making more money off the F2P model then it did with a straight P2P model.

 

Sure there were some hiccups, like server overloading but they fixed it quickly. Just as Bioware will do the same should it happen. I have faith that Bioware can handle any problems they encounter and come out on top. All you doom and gloom trolls can go ahead and leave, because soon the population will be replaced with people who actually love the same, just like the current DCUO player base. And you trolls WILL NOT be missed!

 

I, for one, am really looking forward to Free-to-Play, AND I WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP PAYING FOR MY ACCOUNT. In fact, I just bought another account for someone, and when it goes F2P I will end up bringing in more people who will eventually end up buying too. This game is about to get a whole lot better! Count on it! Thanks Bioware!

[herosol]

i will keep my subscription for as long as PVE/PVP gear is not available via a "cash-shop".

 

As soon as statted items become buyable, I am outta here. I can even tolerate D3's RMAH, but I quit once i saw people buying items for $250.

 

other than that, i dont mind a new influx of players. This will be my last MMO ever. And GW2? Please. Have any of you guys even played GW1 trilogy extensively? It was a great game for a little while. But it wasn't the best. So what makes people think GW2 is suddenly going to be come the God of MMOs?

 

It won't.

[Kubernetic]

It does kind of seem like Bioware cares more about the people who haven't started playing yet, and not so much about their current subscribers. I mean, if they had fixed many of the glaring problems the game shipped with (Ilum, I'm looking at you amongst many others..) they might not have lost the number of subscribers that they did to begin with.

 

Now it seems like, between the layoffs and F2P the few people left employed at Bioware are spending all their time not trying to stop the subscriptions from bleeding out by fixing/tweaking/adding content, but by trying to fill the holes left by paying subscribers, with F2P players.

 

Wouldn't it behoove you to make the game better so you can actually hold onto those F2P members you hope you're going to get in the fall? I mean, a piece of coal is still a piece of coal even if you paint it gold.

 

Dunno... as a player who's been here since the Friday of Early Access... sure looks like they're trying to keep me around as a player.

 

I just think they want more players like me... who can work around the bugs that exist and still enjoy the game and keep subscribing and having fun playing it... and are more interested in finding new players like me rather than bending over in unfortunate (and sometimes backwards ways) to try to entice back a bunch of overly self-important players who rage-quit and kept advertising other games instead on this game's own forums.

 

That's okay by my book, and sounds like a good business decision going forward.

[Orionmajor]

Old Today , 11:19 PM | #1

Report Post

I have played on City of heroes, DCUO and WoW.

 

Now, I do notice that f2p was NOT the end of the world for CoH nor DCUO, indeed, new content came smoother, quicker. It also was a lot easier that find people to do missions with. This was good news...

 

However, there were also bits where Richer people bought toys, play to win. Now, I have no problem with people paying to get something they want online, but some of those people made me want to strangle them, as some of them were the people that bought everything but a Clue how to play. However, with a larger playerbase, it was easier to ignore them.

 

In the short run, Freemium, F2P, will not be the death of this MMO. The other games I mentioned are going strong.

 

However, this is bigger than just an MMO. I am going to say something that might be a bit outrageous, but, "search your feelings, you know it to be true."

 

Electronic Arts, and to some extent, Bioware, has just crippled the idea of great games. It will be a long time, if ever, anyone tries to make an MMO that has a serious amount of craftsmanship or content. MMOs have been relegated to glorified nintendo.

 

Ok, why do I say that? Bioware, for all the mistakes they did, was the one developer that tried to take on Blizzard, to offer something different, more Epic, more about storyline. Other MMOs had a famous franchise, yet totally delivered something that was NOT up to the theme. Star Trek Online, I aimed that one at you in particular. Matrix Online, what needs to be said? Bioware tried to be cinematic, having DIALOGUE, voice acting, moral choices, actual storytelling. A common criticism of MMOs was that they were developed too quick without fan input, this has developed over two years, with plenty of fan input and beta testing. They spent more money in the development than many movies, why not, some games make more than the movies.

 

Well, they could have used more help from the NcSofts, or the Sonys, as the actual MMOs aspect got off to a rocky start with the server flap. Still, they did resolve it. But then the "This game will never be WoW" folks came on, doing their TROLLING and BULLYING. I would love to think Blizzard was paying these folks, not like MMO companies have not done that (Champions Online, ye who tried to bribe guild leaders to recruit, even though it was against your own ToS, that was aimed at you.) However, the sad truth is, WoW produced a culture that considered serious gaming a THREAT. Out came the man-children that only did half as well because they spent their rent money on gold farmers.

 

Sadly, Bioware did not communicate as well, using twitter, where they could have simply used the forums, and built the community that makes a subscription game work. Also, and I believe this was EA's demand, they did layoffs once the game was launched, not realizing that they needed that small army to maintain the game. However, I will also say that for all the mistakes made, they were trivial compared the standard in the industry, whether it is WoW, or SoE that let themselves get hacked. Yet, people got in the internet, and let the vitriol fly, not constructive critiques, but pure armchair warrior internet anonymous venom! All the effort they piut in development to make sure that they listened to the fans went out the window, as SOME of the fans here acted as whiny as the dweebs who play WoW. You talked about wanting to be served steak, and you yelled because you wanted a burger and fries!

 

What does that mean, it means that any company that tries to develop a franchise will run, as people will not dare risk offending the fanboys, nor sink money in, only to be yelled at louder! Hell, why even DO franchises when you wind up paying some estate, not like fans support them.

 

It means that any attempts to do detailed graphics, voice acting, or storylines will be rejected. Why do storylines when all people want to do is PVP?

 

It means that games will be directed at pre-teens. Now, some 15 years old kids I know play better and more maturely than some 45 years olds, however, the majority, they are not. Expect the ratings to go to rated G.

 

It means that development will be gimped, because development does not pay off. Why spend all that money listening to fans on forums when they will only use that against you?

 

In short, as much as EA and BW are to blame, so are many of the players. If Gaming goes back to crap, it will be because the players demanded crap.

 

I plan to stay here, even though I will be watching what happens. If people destroy this game, I might go back to CoH or DCU, though, I would miss the fact that my characters here have a story and soul, and that this game encouraged that. I also would be reluctant to leave here for whatever the next great MMO is, because I know that the same rogues gallery, the "this should be like WoW" types, the "No one listens to ME" types, and the "I want easy power" types, will attach itself to the new game like fleas to a dog. Maybe console gaming will save MMos, in fact, I recommend to BW or anyone that they should start developing the next MMOS for consoles, as sad to say, the PC gamers USED to be more mature, but they may gave gotten a bit senile.

 

Orion Major, aka Zetero, Ebon Hawk.

 

Cipher Nine, signing off.

[tzipidamus]

The problem for me at this point isn't F2P. It's trust.

 

BW wasn't able to deliver in the past but now I'm expected to believe they will be able to do so in the future because of F2P? It's a bit insulting that their PR folks think we're so stupid as to ignore what has happened to date. The glorious opportunity this game represented has been completely squandered. Shame on you, EA / BW.

[Tuscad]

Some further details (more than are on www.swtor.com/free) can be found in our FAQ here: http://www.swtor.com/support/helpcenter/6449. It should answer some of your questions!

 

I like how you want us all to go to facebook and vote instead of on the forums...

[Katarine]

BOIWARE, PEOPLE SAID THIS "WE WANT KOTOR 3". I HOPE YOU REGRET WHAT YOU DONE AND DO THE RIGHT THING.

 

That simply is not possible. BioWare no longer exist. It is simply a name EA bought up & fleeced their customers using a trusted name. Now that we know better they'll completely absorb the 'BioWare' name & look at buying out another name/franchise & milk that til their customers realise they've been fleeced too.

 

EA have only one priority, 'MAKE MONEY'

 

We, the 'Customer', are merely a means to reach that end.

[Kashley]

Lmao... I cannot even say I am shocked at this point. Game officially just took an arrow to the knee.