Yesterday's interview with Jeff Hickman - lots of answers

[stephenalandavie]

So reading this, sub guys dont have to buy new content?

[Valkirus]

Now, you're changing the subject. Is it or is it not an advantage?

 

Not convenience, not fluff. This is exactly what Turbine did. We're taking the screenshots just like we did with lotro. Time will tell. Every other game that has gone F2P has done this. Bioware copied wow and now they're going to copy lotro. What they need to do is make some content to keep the subs they have. All we have to look forward to is annoying gating and cartel cash sinks even as subscribers.

 

The big lie is Jeff saying people who quit said they didn't want to pay a sub so they are making it F2P because that's "what the players wanted". No, they quit because $15 a month wasn't worth waiting for new content that never came.

 

I hope they do copy LOTRO FTP...lol. I was level 64 when I unsubbed from it , this was before FTP model came out...but when I came back as a FTP player..I had a lot of Turbine points , could keep 7 of my 9 chars....all the gold I had was still accessible and all the content I had paid for before I still could access. On all my 7 chars if I wanted to level them to 65. And al the gear I had before was still there on my chars the same as when I unsubbed. I could not care less about some pots which buff player's stats which I can also buy with points if I wanted to. No big deal for me.

[Celebrus]

I hope they do copy LOTRO FTP...lol. I was level 64 when I unsubbed from it , this was before FTP model came out...but when I came back as a FTP player..I had a lot of Turbine points , could keep 7 of my 9 chars....all the gold I had was still accessible and all the content I had paid for before I still could access. On all my 7 chars if I wanted to level them to 65. And al the gear I had before was still there on my chars the same as when I unsubbed. I could not care less about some pots which buff player's stats which I can also buy with points if I wanted to. No big deal for me.

 

So, in other words, it definitely has pay to win aspects (that you don't really mind, personally) and it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination for us to assume that SW:ToR will too.

 

Thanks. I'm glad we all agree here. You really didn't need to go on and on though, could have just said, y'know...."You're right."

Edited August 2, 2012 by Celebrus

[Bahlmung]

The big lie is Jeff saying people who quit said they didn't want to pay a sub so they are making it F2P because that's "what the players wanted". No, they quit because $15 a month wasn't worth waiting for new content that never came.

 

You're contradicting yourself. If a player quits and states the reason as being the subscription fee, or the lack of new content.. BOTH would endorse ea/bw to move to a f2p system.

 

Here's how it works... People come back, people leave. Some change to f2p, some keep their sub.. either way wont matter much. The results that f2p is looking for is to use the money from the new shop, along with the sub money to increase content. Regardless if this system fails or not, the few months will see content released at a faster pace than lately. Thus giving those players who "quit because 15$ a month wasnt worth waiting for new content" no reason to leave, or at least not that reason to leave.

 

After the first few months pass, the revenue will either increase or decrease obviously. Also obviously, this will be largely objectified based on the content they release and how good it is. If they see increased revenue, I wont swear, but the likely hood is that the store will remain mostly the same as it is from launch, with new items that are similar to the ones already there (if it aint broke, dont fix it) if revenue drops then gimmick items (+stats, guaranteed craft stuff, ect) will probably be added. In either circumstance, the system still works to release more content at a faster pace.. Of course tho, if the game dies out and the money isnt there to staff enough people, the pace can still stop.

[Valkirus]

So, in other words, it definitely has pay to win aspects (that you don't really mind, personally) and it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination for us to assume that SW:ToR will too.

 

Thanks. I'm glad we all agree here. You really didn't need to go on and on though, could have just said, y'know...."You're right."

 

Pay to win is dependent on what you want to do in the game. I donot play any game to get on a ego trip for one thing, so I donot care how much better others are than I am...and really..if you are a subber and a FTP player buys pots to buff his stats, the odds are he will still be far lower than you are with your sub base gear. So it is only pay to win if you are up against players with the same gear level as you are and you buy pots to buff your stats.

 

The sub base players has no concerns because he can get those with coins and he will have better gear anyway. Now when you think of games like D3, then they are most certainly pay to win. Because there is no sub and all players have access to the same gear.

[JimG]

There will be nothing you can buy with CC that will give you an advantage over other players in a competitive arena.

Yeah, that's how CoH started too....and then a few months later, they were selling rare recipe sets in their store.

[Jarlgon]

Matt said, "We're reacting because the players want it this way. There are folks who have been telling us they want it F2P since trying it, since buying it, and they see the subscription as a needless barrier... and we agree. In general, consumers today want flexibility and we're going to give it to them."

 

Most of the threads I have seen about SW:ToR and f2p have been negative, so where the hell did this "Matt" get his information from?

[Varicite]

Hey Captain Paranoid. DDO and LOTRO are using the same model SWTOR is suggesting, and NEITHER of those games are Pay2Win, and BOTH of those games are the most successful models of F2P out there.

 

So try again, only this time, with less delusion.

 

Do you honestly expect people to take you seriously while writing nonsense like this?

 

Or did you just not play LotRO as a free player? <.<

[LaVolpex]

guys forget about the f2p rainbows and sunshines crowd, its obvious they dont see the potential pitfalls, and they dont see how the f2p/cash shop model exists for the sole purpose of profits, and they WILL test the waters with pay2win items , and if people eat them up , the floodgates will open, like it has happened in every other f2p game wiht a cash shop

 

you guys are welcome to try and convince these people this is a bad idea, but not even bioware can stop this now, its just a name that exists on papers and stocks, but EA is running the show now, and they DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU or the money you have spent, they only want more of it at any cost , IPS , franchises, and developers be damned

[Soluss]

Under the old system none of the store items would have existed. So if you ignore the shop you will never notice.

 

Yeah, amazing how they couldnt give us that type of content before... when we asked for it. Now they will be doing mostly that because they chargin extra for it

[CorellianWannabe]

Yeah, amazing how they couldnt give us that type of content before... when we asked for it. Now they will be doing mostly that because they chargin extra for it

 

Makes me wonder if they deliberately held back the content so the subs would fall to a level deemed acceptable for a f2p transition-since so many keep saying how it's a better business model.

[Bahlmung]

Makes me wonder if they deliberately held back the content so the subs would fall to a level deemed acceptable for a f2p transition-since so many keep saying how it's a better business model.

 

They unintentionally already admitted this. There are some things we wont know, like some people who have said it's bs that the companion will get released before the actual good content. That part could just mean that they've worked longer on the story and content behind the attack bot, or it could just simply be that there is less to that content than the rest of it. But as far as if they held back this content?

 

They've already openly admitted that it's a lot of work to transition from a pay to play to a free to play system. If you read into that with a little bit of logic you know that this means they had to be thinking of this for months at least. Another example is that they've admitted they've reconstructed much of the staff in order to focus on releasing content at a faster pace. You can imagine that researching and studying on f2p systems, deciding what system (or elements of systems) to use, and reorganizing your staff would take more than a few weeks even.

 

Reorganizing the staff; again.. Imagine if you were lets say a food server... even if you go from applebees to chiles, you'll have to learn some new stuff, get situated in your new place of work, ect. In other words reorganizing the staff also means that content cant be worked on as hard or fast.

 

So in conclusion, if you're a businessman and you know that just going to f2p would cause some delays in the release of content... who wouldn't hold it back till the launch of f2p? However, on the other side of the coin, you as a businessman want this new content to be the best it possibly can. You know you're going to have skeptics of the f2p system, so waiting on it can be a good thing. If the content is surprisingly good then the chances the people who quit from this f2p system might come back just to see what all the fuss is about.

 

 

edit: The first part is just an obvious fact of life to me, you can bash me on that part.. the second "flip side of the coin" is just how I would run things. If I were EA I might even break my promise and hold back some content a few weeks more just to ensure it's amazing after seeing all the lost subs and complaints.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Bahlmung

[KivanSane]

I suppose the biggest problem is ....

 

When I'm 50, and my charactar is pimped out and I can do the highest tier pve stuff (and I hate pvp) ...

 

Why would I continue to buy stuff from this game ?

 

Lets face it. Finish up the story , and you got a stripped down game of "gather equipment" , and there's nothing special about the equipment except better and better stats. Nothing to really catch the imagination.

 

This F2P better be selling us new content, new story and lots of it , because right now thats the only thing they shine at. And if they blow it ... nothing else they have does much more than imitate what other games have. And sometimes poorly imitate.

[KivanSane]

So reading this, sub guys dont have to buy new content?

 

Sub guys get ripped .

 

Basically , you have access to the new content *UNTIL* you shift to free to play , then you lose it all. Penalty for stopping coughing up bucks.

 

They might even refuse to let you buy access to the optional content because you already have access to it, thus you blow the cartel coins on other stuff, run into a rough patch , desubscribe ...and are suddenly locked out of a lot of things, things you weren't allowed to unlock while you were a paying customer.

 

The only way around this is to go Free to Play immediately , and with self dicipline limit yourself to 15$ / month to unlock stuff, and then it never goes away.

[Helistin]

I'm confident this is a good new start to the game and...wait a minute! Did i see name Jeff Hickman in the topic title?

[Emeda]

I'm confident this is a good new start to the game and...wait a minute! Did i see name Jeff Hickman in the topic title?

 

Yeah. I always though james ohlen did all the interviews about upcomings in SWTOR

[DrowNoble]

HK51 is something they really want to get in the game sooner rather than later, while Makeb is further down the line.

 

oh man lol

The new companion is a higher priority then new content

 

That is pretty much the direction of the game

 

I also like the part where he talks about content updates every 6 weeks. Whereas we were told previously there would be new content every month and we still havent seen one content update since

 

But I guess now that the ftp model will be in effect and non subs will have to pay for content, maybe they will have more efficient content updates

 

Just more fail

 

Of course they want HK51 in first, it will require you to re-roll an opposing faction character and play longer. Remember they said you'd need a "mid-level" character of both factions to get him. So if you been a loyal imperial, you have to start a level 1 republic and get him to "mid-level". They don't want to release higher end content that you'll burn through in less than a week, they want a time sink that will force you to play longer.

[Blaac]

Lets face it. Finish up the story , and you got a stripped down game of "gather equipment" , and there's nothing special about the equipment except better and better stats. Nothing to really catch the imagination.

 

Welcome to MMO's...

 

This is nothing new. What does everyone do when they hit max level in every story/gear driven mmo. You gather gear. You do dailies. You run the same instances and raids over and over again until your eyes bleed. I think you would be hard pressed to find an MMO doing well in the market that doesn't turn to this at end game.

[Kreedlore]

 

 

 

DID BIOWARE LOOK TO OTHERS FOR GUIDANCE?

 

 

 

 

This Idea was stated long before the game launched. But yet they hit every pit fall in the game design ,so no I don't believe this time they have learned from their mistakes or other's mistakes.

 

For the rest of the questions good on ya for asking. I just have no faith with them that they are solid commited answers. I think in the end they are going to struggle with everything they try and do.

[krystianswtor]

Jeff hickman!

 

 

 

 

 

Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!

[siant]

You wanna know who Jeff Hickman is ? He was the guy in charge of costumer support for DAOC. And then he got somehow propelled into the role of a producer. Then he went to Mythic and somehow became executive producer there. Yes you heard right, a former head of customer support is now in charge of making an mmo.

 

Just another stone in the mosaic why WAR and Swtor failed, they hired the wrong guys.

 

 

you also forgot how he was hired by bioware on this game as community manger and seemed to pass on that postion just before the 1.2 warzone bomb shell dropped, in a sentence "anything this man touches turns to crap".

[WillCaedes]

Awesome, so not only are us subbers getting screwed over by this F2P crap, they've also given the game to the man who ran WAR (another failed EA project) into the ground? Geeze, EA must really want this game to die.

 

Course I better start keeping my comments to myself, some carebear PR moderator might come along and ban or disallow me posting in the forums if I keep talking "bad" about EA/TOR/Lord Bioware

[Pirindolo]

Not happening. $15 to stay heh. If you cant pay one month tho or just dont want to pay you can still login and do something anyways. Better than now where you pay $15 and if you stop you lose access to everything.

 

Better than now? Let's see:

 

Now you pay 15 to get content A + content B + content C available.

 

After F2P Yo still will be paying 15 only for the very same conten C (and a few cartel coins), since content A and content B will be free.

[DrowNoble]

Well if Bioware is going to claim they are looking at other F2P games for inspiration (or whatever) for a F2P transition, they should look at CoH. Major patches still rolling out including free content for subs. I'm sorry but so far the "content" that has been released so far has been rather lackluster. A new warzone doesn't help those that don't pvp.

 

Bioware needs to pick up the pace. Patch 1.4 and 1.5 should be out by the end of the year, at the very least, to have any decent pace going. They can't slog along like Blizzard does.