Gamescom Interview with Jeff Hickman about the future of SWTOR

[CorellianWannabe]

I do not advocate the selling of cap level gear of any quality level.

 

I don't care if they sell non-cap level blues in this game because they don't create an imbalance in the game. Not even in PvP, because frankly the PvPers are going to bein min/max purple/orange gear for PvP.

 

Please do not misrepresent what I said and then try to use it as an argument.

 

So you draw the line at obsolete raids for some reason?

[Andryah]

So you draw the line at obsolete raids for some reason?

 

NO.... I draw the line at cap-level. CAP-LEVEL, as I have said multiple times.

[Andryah]

 

So by your logic, raid gear is a convenience at level 50, because it doesn't carry you through the latest raid, just keeps you from having to farm a set.

 

Same for pvp-selling battlemaster just makes it easier to get war hero. So what's your opposition to said gear being sold for cash?

 

I never said raid gear was a convenience at 50.

 

As for the rest, asked and answered already.

[CorellianWannabe]

I never said raid gear was a convenience at 50.

 

As for the rest, asked and answered already.

 

why isn't it? how is gear from eternity vault anything more than a convenience for a level 50 character? They'll get new raid gear if they raid, it's useless in warzones, and the most it will do is help them finish dailies faster. How would it unbalance the game to sell it in the cash shop?

 

I don't see why level 40 gear is good to sell for cash but level 50 is inviolate for some reason. Does that mean you'll approve of it being sold when the level cap raises?

[Flying-Brian]

So how does the selling of blue gear effect the balance of low-level pvp, when the f2p players, who are the target market for buying said blue gear, will only be allowed access to like 1 warzone per day?

[Durasturan]

So how does the selling of blue gear effect the balance of low-level pvp, when the f2p players, who are the target market for buying said blue gear, will only be allowed access to like 1 warzone per day?

 

because warzones are not the only way players encounter each other in this game... add in the fact that they stated certain features would be a la carte meaning a f2p player could purchase unlimited warzones if that's what they were interested in and couple that giving you an advantage over not just new free to play players BUT ALSO new subbed players as well and you begin to see the problem right?

 

so you have a bunch of free players that can only access one wz per day but you also have some that have "unlocked" warzones and BOUGHT gear with real money.

 

do you think those new f2p players are going to have a positive experience when they

1. don't get very much experience because they can only play one a day and

2. are getting face rolled by my twinked out alt and

3. are ALSO losing to newbies that PAID for their gear

 

it's a lose, lose, lose for free players which will not foster a desire to PLAY MORE, they will either choose to PAY to become competitive "if I can't beat him without buying blue gear than I guess I'll have to buy blue gear..."

 

or they will leave... which is NOT what anyone wants to happen

 

Look at it like this... if you can only do 1 warzone a day you aren't going to be able to gear up with wz comms

and if you can only do 3 fp a week you can't gear up with fp drops

that leaves buying gear for credits... except they've already said free accounts will have limited access to the GTN

 

or crafting, which is very difficult to do as a first time player without a main to feed your alt mats or creds

 

that leaves.... buying gear for money!

 

it's forcing new players into buying gear to stay competitive and that's wrong, antithetical to the objective of f2p, and an example of how this is turning into just another cash grab.

[Vellem]

Do you play LoTRO? If not, you have no context for what you quoted. And the gear referenced does NOT carry the player though content. At the levels it's available, it's convenience to the player honestly. Personally, I have always just used top end crafted gear in LoTRO, becasue contrary to what the other party stated, shop gear is not really noticably better except right at the transition barrier of the 10 level gap between sets.

 

Umm, yes it is. I can go dig up some screen shots if you want. If you buy the store gear at lvl 30 you will not find anything close to it stat wise dropped or crafted until you hit lvl 40 and even then it is close. So their lvl 30 store sold gear is nearly equivalent to lvl 40 gear that is dropped or crafted. It doesn't matter what you personally feel. Stats are stats and numbers don't lie. That to you is convenience but not an advantage? Wow I really don't know what to say to that.

 

And you are making the (wrong) assumption that just because some guy in some video says that the gear being introduced here won't be any better than what is available already and you buy it wholesale. Like turbine never said something at first about their cash shop and went back on their word at a later date. Hmm, like how they said they would never sell gear with stats on it and then, oh look!

 

Then people like you will come along and say, "Oh, it isn't a big deal, it's not end game gear." While they keep adding pretty much everything but endgame gear to the store (Why sell the raid gear when you can sell the raid instead? Dragioch ring a bell?) and after enough time has pased if you are a min/max type of player and want to stay at the top of the game you will be spending a lot more time (and coins) in the store.

Edited August 18, 2012 by Vellem

[Andryah]

And you are making the (wrong) assumption that just because some guy in some video says that the gear being introduced here won't be any better than what is available already and you buy it wholesale. Like turbine never said something at first about their cash shop and went back on their word at a later date. Hmm, like how they said they would never sell gear with stats on it and then, oh look!

 

I make no assumption. I take him at his word in the video. If you don't that's on you, I really don't care.

 

Then people like you will come along and say, "Oh, it isn't a big deal, it's not end game gear." While they keep adding pretty much everything but endgame gear to the store (Why sell the raid gear when you can sell the raid instead? Dragioch ring a bell?) and after enough time has pased if you are a min/max type of player and want to stay at the top of the game you will be spending a lot more time (and coins) in the store.

 

I have no problems whatsoever with regard to what Turbine has done in terms of managing their cash shop content since they went Freemium. Most people do not, from what is observable in the player base. And it certainly has not destroyed balance in the game in any way, no matter what a minority claims.

 

It is not a big deal as far as I am concerned. If you feel it is, once again, that is on you and you are free to decide to participate or not participate.

Edited August 18, 2012 by Andryah

[Anvil]

OMG! What have we said? Fall...

 

Does the guy not even know whats been said before he takes interviews, thats not a good sign at all.

[skinthinner]

I think it's hysterical that instead of debating people's interpretations of the video, you just claim that no one must have watched.

 

We all watched, the only difference is that we recognize placating lawyer speak and pc bs when we see it.

 

They will only charge for "beefy content chunks" what the heck does that even mean?

 

Why was HK in the BETA but there is still no release date?

 

Why were we promised content updates THIS MONTH and all we got was a sloppily thrown together even that doesn't even have rewards for 80% of the classes?

 

Why are they backtracking away from their original promise that "subs will get access to all content for free," and now saying "well there may be some content they have to pay for."

 

Where is the secret space project they've been working on for 9 months but can't even tell us WHAT IT IS much less show us a single screen shot of it?

 

Where is the revamp to Ilum and expansion on owpvp they promised us 6 months ago?

 

Why do we STILL not have an appearance tab? The ability to queue 8 mans in reg wz, automated server transfers or many of the other things promised to us so many months ago?

 

Why have only HALF of the promises that came out of the Guild Summit been followed through on?

 

You see there are so very many broken promises here mate, so many things that were never followed through on.

 

Remember the huge "wall of crazy" that they said they were looking at putting in the game "hopefully starting at the 6 month mark."

 

Yeah they haven't even begun dev on those yet...

 

So when they make promises, instead of being mr. rosy glasses, glass half full guy, I see it for what it really is... more ceo speak to keep us paying while they pull the wool over our eyes.

 

This. Oh so much this post.

 

The promised things out the rear, and failed to deliver most of them. Now, no matter what they claim, the majority of their dev teams will be focusing on the f2p aspect (hint, it has happened in every game that has went f2p in recent times).

 

Welcome to the bold new SW:TOR! Same as the old one, only with more micro-payments to recoup lost budget money.

 

(...and yes, I did cancel my sub. Broken promises, lack of real content updates with 'daily' missions being the thing to keep people playing, and of course the whole get rid of most of the staff and move to f2p as hundreds of thousands of folks bail on the game.... here's another hint - for the makers of the game this time - find out why people are truly leaving and FIX it. Throw your resources at the issue and FIX it, rather than half-*** everything as you have been doing.)

 

Also, as an aside, the person in the interview has a less than stellar track-record of games that have, well, FAILED. Why do people on these games keep getting jobs in the industry? I point you to all the Warhammer folks, STO, Champions Online (heck all Cryptic), the new COH team, Cox, etc.... it baffles the mind.

Edited August 18, 2012 by skinthinner

[SamuraBob_Fl]

With group finder already out, staying geared while leveling is amazingly easy. Running a few FP's will get you orange gear, and you upgrade it by running more FP's as you level or using planetary commendations.

 

So I don't see the problem with selling leveling blues. If you're not capable of figuring out how to stay geared, you don't deserve the money.

[XTREDEN]

hah cocky dude. I have played every game Mr. Hickman has been put in charge of from the launch to demise. Here is a fact, they all went from great pvp to bad pvp, they all lost subscribers and they make me miss early days of DAoC rvr (which I give him credit for being a part of and ruining). If history repeats itself, we can look forward to TOA with scrolls you buy from the cash shop.

[christhesithlord]

Selling any gear with stats is pay to win.

 

No. Pay to win is selling gear with stats that are extremely difficult to get, or not available in the rest of the game.

[spectreclees]

No. Pay to win is selling gear with stats that are extremely difficult to get, or not available in the rest of the game.

 

Except if you pay to get gear that is close or the same as what is out. It's pay to win. You can pay and win at anything in the game with your gear.

[Neminos]

wait...did he elude to the fact that subscribers MIGHT have to pay for expantions like the new planet? seriously? why would i subscribe then?

 

I love this game but if I have to pay for new content that may be the end for me. Then perhaps subscribers will get the new major content at a discount.....

[Mikro]

The post has now been updated with the transcript of the interview. I will paste the transcript here in case someone wants to quote things. One request please. I think you are taking the Pay to win discussion too far. I understand some of you feel that what was said means P2W and others do not think so. Can we please acknowledge the differences and move on?

 

 

We are here with Jeff Hickman. If you would like to introduce yourself to the Star Wars: The Old Republic community, because people have not seen much of you before. They do know that you were the Live Producer before, but the first we really heard of you was when you made the announcement about free to play. If you could tell us about your previous work and what is your future role in Bioware.

 

Jeff Hickman: I am currently the Executive Producer on SWTOR. My background; I've been in the MMO industry since 2001. My first game was Dark Age of Camelot. I worked on Dark Age from the time it launched, joined Mythic about 6 months before it launched; helped launch that game. Eventually, in 2004, became the Executive Producer of DAOC. I was also the Executive Producer of Warhammer Online, so that was my game. So, for 13 years I spent my time building, launching and running big MMOs, that's what I do. Of course, this was all in Mythic Entertainment and Mythic in 2006 became part of Electronic Arts and in 2008 Mythic became part of the Bioware team within Electronic Arts. So, in 2010, after we launched Warhammer Online, Ray and Greg came to me and said: “Hey, we're getting ready to launch SWTOR. You're the guy who's launched, probably more MMOs than most people on the planet. We'd love your help, would you like to come down and help us launch SWTOR?” and I said: ”Sure, sounds good”. I moved to Austin, I love Austin, and I became the Executive Producer of Live Services. What that means is that I was basically responsible for anything not development related. That's Customer support, it's live production, which is the guys who monitor the live servers, who patch the live servers, who take care of emergency issues and that kind of stuff, responsible for the Community team, I was also deeply involved with Marketing, Operations and with dev to a point. My partner was Rich Vogel and I literally sat in the office with him, this far away from him, and between him and I we mad the decisions for the launch of the product and what TOR was gonna become. Rich has since moved on, he's looking for different things for his future, and so I'm still responsible for Live Service and they also rolled up the development team underneath me. I've got 14 years of experience to involve and it's an awesome opportunity and a super big honor for me. You know, I'm working with guys that quite literally are my heroes in the gaming space. You talked about James Ohlen and having your first interview with James back in 2010. Well, James Ohlen and (I grew up?) playing Baldur's Gate and KOTOR and other games that were my beloved games before I even got into the industry back in the 90s and James was the guy on those games and now James Ohlen sits three feet away from me, he's my creative director on TOR, this is his game; and what an honor it is to have this opportunity.

 

Yet it is a big responsibility as well

 

Jeff Hickman: Yeah it is!

 

Because you are actually in charge of making Free to Play a reality.

 

Jeff Hickman: Absolutely

 

That's how I gather things are, that was your first announcement so I presume that is what your task is specifically. So, how do you plan on accomplishing this?

 

Jeff Hickman: Lot of hard work. I think you hit it on the head. While I have broad responsibility across the development team, you know James is still the Creative Director; he's the one who decides what the game is, the vision of the game. This is a James Ohlen product if you will and so he's still deeply, deeply, involved in that. I help to make the decisions around a lot of the business aspects of the game. James and I work very closely together to make sure that the things that he wants to do with the game make sense from a business standpoint. Make sense within the kind of holistic structure of the game and so the Free to Play are both he and I, and the entire team of course, (there is a) giant team behind this, looking at what are the right decisions for taking this game Free to Play. What modifications do we make to the game? What does a Free to Play player experience when he plays the game? What does a subscription player experience when he plays the game? What are the different things that we need to do to keep our players engaged and how can we change the way that we've done things in the past to provide more frequent content updates; to give the Free to Play player a great experience, yet entice them pay a little bit here and there … This is all about business so we want a great game experience the people will love for years and years to come. What my actual plans are? Do the right thing for both our subscribers and for our Free to Play player. Do it as quickly as possible in a very high quality manner and provide a great play experience for both.

 

Since we are talking about “as quickly as possible” … Is November the month?

 

Jeff Hickman: What have we said? Fall. Fall is what we're aiming for. It is all we've said so far.

 

At the investor's call ….

 

Jeff Hickman: They said … but it is fall

 

So you are broadening that deadline. Does that mean sooner or later?

 

Jeff Hickman: As soon as it's done at the right level of quality is when we're gonna launch that thing and we think that we can hit the fall.

 

You've announced several new pieces of content. New warzones, new raid. Is that planned to come out before free to play launches or after?

 

Jeff Hickman: They are not dependent on each other. If you're a subscriber it doesn't matter. As a subscriber you get all of that stuff. As a F2P player it almost does not matter either, because as a F2P player the restrictions you have, for example, one of the restrictions we'll have is we will have a restriction on F2P players about how many warzones they can play in a given amount of time, so when we put out Ancient Hypergates, if you are a F2P player you will have that restriction. So, if you are currently a subscriber, which is the only kind of players that we have, you're gonna get it no matter what. So, it doesn't matter (if it's released before or after F2P). We do not look at it that way. We have a track, a team of people working that are working on those six week content updates and those people, while integrated deeply with what we're thinking about F2P, are not dependent on it. So, we're gonna do that as fast as we possibly can, because we believe strongly that players want to see more frequent content updates and than we're also gonna do the F2P piece as fast as we can also. It is all about Bioware quality. We are not going to launch any of these things until they are ready to go and we have, I think, really strong plans around both right now.

 

You answered a lot of question about the F2P model that you are going to be providing, but there are still some small things that we would like to find about. Will subscribers have to play for any kind of content? So, while it was just a subscriber game you would pay for a major expansion, but right now; I am guessing you are currently focusing more on smaller content...

 

Jeff Hickman: Yes

 

What (if anything) will subscribers have to pay for after F2P launches?

 

Jeff Hickman: I wish I had a solid answer for you on that. We're still in discussion about some of the larger content updates that we're planning. Great example is the planet Makeb. We've talked about Makeb, we have a lot of plans around Makeb. I wish I could give you more details, but I can tell you that I think the playerbase is going to be really, really pleased. More story content. New and interesting things for the players to do. More systems and interesting functions in the game ... I can't go into a lot of detail, but around things like that … This is a pretty big piece (of content). It is probably all that I can say. It is definitely still for discussion whether we sell that to the subscriber or the subscriber gets that for free because it is a big beefy chunk of content.

 

Makeb is going to expand the level?

 

Jeff Hickman: … I can't talk about that right now. She'll kill me.

 

Jeff Hickman: I think you guys will be very happy with what we have planned.

 

The one question I have personally is … How do you change a story MMO into a cash shop MMO? Because, you're introducing a cash shop into a story MMO. There is definitely a process there. If you can talk about that that would be great.

 

Jeff Hickman: I think the core of that is actually fairly simple to explain, though it might be a bit more difficult to implement. If you look at what we're planning on doing; the thing we're giving away for free is the story. We talked a lot about … months of deep investigation … what are the restrictions the F2P player has in the game, and there was a lot of people who were saying you've got to restrict the story. The story is what it's all about and therefore you have to restrict it. We actually believe the opposite. We think that the story is so core to the gameplay experience; the love and wonder of what Star Wars is; that breaking up the story in some sort of way is just not the right thing to do. We want that kind of casual player to come in and kind of start to play with the story and get drawn into what they are doing and we're willing to give that away for free. There are so many other things outside of that that you can do that, that as a subscriber you will get for just being a subscriber, or as a F2P player you can buy out of a kind of À la carte way; you know – here's a menu of things: You want more bank slots? OK. You want more warzones? OK. Whatever happens to be. So, for us, that is kind of the core of it. Give the story away. Make the casual player understand what that is. Don't try to monetize that. Monetize all the things around that. I think, actually, as we looked through it is not as complex as you think it is (Ed. Note: converting story mmo to F2P). It is very difficult (Ed. Note to develop that system if it was not there before), believe me, the team is working really hard over there; working day and night to get this done, but it is pretty straight forward to understand once we through everything on the paper and went: “That actually makes perfect sense.” and we feel pretty good about it.

 

The major question about F2P; when any F2P project is announced or talked about is what's gonna be in the cash shop? Lets just put this question out there in as plain and as simple form as possible. What's your stance on Pay to Win?

 

Jeff Hickman: Pay to win is not something that we like. I don't want to unbalance the game by putting things out on the store that somebody can walk in on day one, buy and be the winner. Having said that, there will be some things that we put out in the store that do enhance power value in some way, but not at the top end. Trying to think of a good example. We may put a medium level blue piece of armor on the cash shop for example. We might do that. We haven't decided and we're still talking about this, but it's one of those things it is like … most players will have something better than this anyway, but if you don't here's the way that you can get a leg up to at least make you equal with the normal players. That is kind of where our thinking is at, but we are still discussing it. But we do not believe in Pay to Win.

 

I have to ask you this question. It is a really strange thing to have been said. Just a couple of days ago the new General Manager

 

Jeff Hickman: Matt Bromberg

 

He said that you are going to be introducing a new raid, a new warzone and multiple 50+ space battles. What does 50+ stand for?

 

Jeff Hickman: That's a great question. It's one way of saying that they are hard mode space battles. They are space mission for players that are level 50, who have done all their space missions. Who have a super upgraded ship and now want a big challenge and I can tell you they are a big challenge.

 

You answered this already, but I just want to pass this onto you because this is a community question (Ed. Note question sent to us by the community to ask the SWTOR team). I think it is important for me to relate what the community wants me to ask you.

 

Jeff Hickman: I do to.

 

The number one question was: “What's going to happen with our story?”. Now we have the Epilogue screen. Some people have it for months and they want to see what happens to their companions and …

 

Jeff Hickman: So do I. I've seen some of it actually, because we do believe in story and we have plans for story moving forward. Makeb is probably the biggest example of that. Makeb is a continuation of your story.

 

That's my next question. Why the space missions and not Makeb?

 

Jeff Hickman: The easiest way to say this is there are actually two very different team working on these things. We literally have a team, team catalyst is what they're called internally, that is responsible for these frequent content updates. There's a team who is responsible for warzones and flashpoints and some operations and some of the events. This is the team for doing interesting, frequent content updates. We also have a space team. We have a team that all they do is space and they've been working on these hard mode space missions for months now. And than we have another team that is working on Makeb. These three teams, while they work closely together, they are not dependent on each other and when one is finished with whatever they're working on that is when we launch it. Makeb is on its own timeline and on its track and its not a matter of us choosing between the two, it's a matter of which one is done first. That's it.

 

One last question. I've been following the game for a very long time. There is one marketing story that we've heard all that time: “This is a subscription game, we plan to make this a subscription game”. We know how that went. We've seen the past 6 months. We're at a new point of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Going forward you are going to be leading that new push for SWTOR. In your words, tell us about the future of SWTOR.

 

Jeff Hickman: I think that the future of TOR is about lowering the barriers for people that would like to play the game, but are not ready to commit to 15 dollars a month or who are willing to wait for 3 or 4 months for a new content update. Lowering the barriers to get into the game and stay in the game I think is probably the number one piece of the future that I am focused on. Free to play is a part of that, because I think money is a barrier to a lot of people, and so I look at the focus on Free to Play, the focus on more frequent updates, yet a continued commitment to things like story and that is the future of TOR for me. It is a future where we have more people playing than we ever had before, where we have a wide variety of options on how you want to play so you play the way you want to and pay for the things that you want to pay for and enjoy the game you want to enjoy it. That is the future of TOR.

Edited August 19, 2012 by Mikro

[Mikro]

OMG! What have we said? Fall...

 

Does the guy not even know whats been said before he takes interviews, thats not a good sign at all.

 

That is not what happened. You should watch the video to see what happened. There was an exchange with a PR person that was sitting next to us and he was confirming with her what he is "supposed" to say.

[XTREDEN]

wait...did he elude to the fact that subscribers MIGHT have to pay for expantions like the new planet? seriously? why would i subscribe then?

 

I love this game but if I have to pay for new content that may be the end for me. Then perhaps subscribers will get the new major content at a discount.....

 

He said they are still discussing it, which means they are discussing how to justify it to the community of subscribers that are waiting for it.

 

And on the super secret space project, It's either hardmode space rails or its not coming is my impression. It doesn't make sense to make rails harder only to break it off rails (which is what many of us thought the project would be). It will be crap if its on rails, whatever it is.

[Skoobie]

That is not what happened. You should watch the video to see what happened. There was an exchange with a PR person that was sitting next to us and he was confirming with her what he is "supposed" to say.

 

Which is different then what was already said.

 

He also didn't seem to know that anyone already mentioned a level increase.

[Durasturan]

With group finder already out, staying geared while leveling is amazingly easy. Running a few FP's will get you orange gear, and you upgrade it by running more FP's as you level or using planetary commendations.

 

So I don't see the problem with selling leveling blues. If you're not capable of figuring out how to stay geared, you don't deserve the money.

 

Because the free to play accounts can only run 3 fp PER WEEK and only one WZ per day making it literally impossible for them to gear themselves through those processes, additionally they have restricted access to the GTN meaning buying and selling crafted guy to acquire upgrades will be much more difficult for them.

 

This isn't an issue for level 50 WH geared ranked pvpers and it's not an issue for people in campaign and black hole gear, who this is IS an issue for are the "hordes" of new players they are predicting (accurately or not who knows) that will join the game.They are forcing them into an untenable situation where the traditional routes to gearing up are NOT available to them.

 

and before anyone says "so what, they can sub if they want gear her der"

just remember: it's all about incremental change, and that statement is essentially saying: "I don't care if they make the free portion pay 2 win with gear bought straight from the website for real money because that will NEVER happen to subbed players..."

 

if free to play becomes pay to win it's only a matter of time before that seeps in and contaminates the rest of the game like cancer mastitizing to the bones.

[Durasturan]

I certainly hope so. And why Makeb or in fact any content should be released at launch is beyond me. In my opinion, the content released at launch was adequate. People these days are never happy. And you know... I am a happy person and my attitude towards everything is more positive because of this.... Not going to change it.

 

Yeah all that content that they showed us in Beta like... the HK companion that they took out of the game only to promise to readd at a later date for maybe possibly a small extra payment on top of your sub...

 

or how about Ilum, man that open world pvp, super sweet, except for when they removed it from the game after breaking it with a promise to fix it and now six months later, now that the game is free to play (ie filled with microtransactions) they can re-add it, or at least you can buy it for another small fee...

 

and the space update they've been promising us for the better part of a year now, that will be available as well... for a small fee of course...

 

and the new races they've been telling us they would add for the past 4 months... you'll get those soon too, not sure how much each though...

 

I've been paying my sub for nine months now under the expectation that they would be adding the content that they promised me only to find out that I may have to pay an ADDITIONAL fee on top of that... gee I was under the impression that's why I gave them $135...

[TheRealCandyMan]

He said they are still discussing it, which means they are discussing how to justify it to the community of subscribers that are waiting for it.

 

And on the super secret space project, It's either hardmode space rails or its not coming is my impression. It doesn't make sense to make rails harder only to break it off rails (which is what many of us thought the project would be). It will be crap if its on rails, whatever it is.

 

His exact quote starting at 6:30

 

Reporter: You've announced very new content, new warzone, new raid. Is there a plan in place to launch it before F2P happens?

Hickman: They're not depended on each other. If you're a subscriber, it doesn't matter. As a subscriber, you get all of that stuff.

 

 

I haven't gone all the way through the interview yet but in that quote it sounds pretty cut and dry that subscribers are going to get everything.

 

Edit: lol 2 minutes into the interview after what I posted and now he is talking about maybe selling Makeb.

Edited August 19, 2012 by TheRealCandyMan

[Feztonio]

as a paying subscriber, who will continue to pay to sub even after the FTP, i expect to pay for expansions. as said before if they start to try to nickel and dime every couple weeks for a new this or an improved that above and beyond my subscription then i'll bail. my 180$ some odd dollars a year along with the purchase price for actual expansions i feel is enough to pay for their content.

 

if i have to shell out for tuesday updates or small patches then 'F' that noise

[Tuscad]

"Will subscribers ever have to pay for future content?"

"Still being discussed".

 

That means yes... it always has with this game.

[Blackardin]

Yeah, some "blue gear" (his words specifically) that can also easily be obtained in game. OMG....... game breaking P2W!!! NOT.

 

LoTRO does the same thing for leveling gear, for convenience so that people who cannot find gear on the action house can still progress without delay in leveling.

 

I see good and bad with this. The good is obviously what you have mentioned in the ability to supply your alts with blue level gear and help prevent delays or the frustration caused by under-geared leveling etc. The bad is, once again, the crafting system being dropped one more peg on the scale by having not only mods, but now gear circumventing the process.

 

Now certainly I do understand that there is choice here, but the path of least resistance seems to always point away from crafting and as an avid craftier I not only want to enjoy crafting but to see it as more then just tedium, to have some worth not only for leveling reasons but monetarily as well. Currently it can take far more time to craft the gear then it does to surpass its usefulness.

 

We do not have all the information at this time so I'm not going to speculate further, just that I have a concern regarding this particular matter.

Edited August 19, 2012 by Blackardin