Remove credit cap for f2p players / make a cartel item to remove credit cap

[Guancyto]

I don't think they should remove it.

 

They should, however, sell a series of unlocks to increase it substantially.

 

People think this will help credit farmers? Are you kidding? Have you seen the prices that the credit farmers are pushing? It's like thirty dollars for a million credits.

 

You can get a good five to ten times the credits for your real money just by selling cartel items on the GTN, and that's all above board and carries no risk whatsoever of getting banned. That's now, when free and preferred players are shut out of most of it. Imagine what it would be like if the guy selling an account-level cargo bay unlock for 3.5 million credits could actually move his goods!

 

Gold farmers are advertising heavily because F2P means getting banned for gold spamming doesn't cost them anything any more. But their prices are not even remotely competitive with what's been implemented into the game.

 

Free/preferred players buying unlocks with credits doesn't hurt Bioware's profits. If a free player grinds credits like crazy and grabs a ton of epic materials and buys/trades for all the unlocks he could ever want, guess what?

 

Someone still spent real money on those unlocks. Bioware still made exactly as much money as they would have if he had bought them himself. That's the big, big, big advantage of the Cartel Market as it is now, and it's one of the things Bioware did exactly right in their F2P model.

 

Selling a credit cap increase unlock is win/win for basically everyone (except gold farmers).

Edited December 4, 2012 by Guancyto

[Athena-Nike]

People just need to stop trying to sell F2P unlocks for more then their credit cap...

[Guancyto]

People just need to stop trying to sell F2P unlocks for more then their credit cap...

 

In a lot of ways that's not practical. If I can buy 3 lottery packs for around the price of one purple equipment authorization, but I can only sell the purple auth for 350K, there's no incentive for me to buy it and put it on GTN other than being a nice guy.

[lollie]

Remove that then loads of the remaining subscribers at L50 would immediately drop sub and coast on f2p. The credit cap is one of the few incentives to keep those people subscribing.

 

They'd be stupid to remove the cap.

[Vlacke]

No.

Credit restriction for f2p is good.

[MiraniSedai]

No.

Credit restriction for f2p is good.

 

I actually agree leave F2P restriction right where it is.

 

I think Preferred should be increased slightly to 500k to make it more viable and provide more incentive to F2P to spend something on the game. The small difference between F2P and Preferred as it is now really isn't an incentive.

 

I also think many people do not choose to make a distinction between F2P and Preferred at all. They see them both as freeloaders which is not true.

[ChazDoit]

Saying that a credit cap prevents gold farmers is the most asenine, ridiculous thing I've read in these forums, and I've seem some of the most ignorant comments here already, but this one beats them all.

 

How geniuses, did you forget that there were already credit farmers when the game was pay2play? having to pay a subscription is not a deterrent for them at all, paying $15 is just pocket change because they are a BUSINESS!

 

"duh, you should subscribe if you dont want a credit cap"

 

***** OFF! I don't pay a subscription because I don't care about raids, and trying to turn SWTOR into a raiding game ruined it, I'm not putting another dollar towards the development of content I don't like and don't play, I'm only gonna be paying for Story Content and PVP content.

[JimG]

This will never, ever happen because of credit sellers.....and no games that switch to F2P allow free players to have unlimited credits.

[MiraniSedai]

This will never, ever happen because of credit sellers.....and no games that switch to F2P allow free players to have unlimited credits.

 

Wrong. In LOTRO you can earn Turbine points in game and buy a gold cap limit unlock with those Turbine Points. So yeah there is a game that allows a F2P person a way to unlimited currency without spending a dime on the game.

 

That said I am not for removing the cap on true F2P. I do think it could be eased a bit on preferred to 500k

[FooBard]

Be creative... there are "items" in which you can aquire that are worth, say, 200k apiece. And desirable to a lot of people.

 

Aquire a bunch of those types of items and use those to barter with, instead of credits...

 

>> WTB [item you want] - will trade for [link high value item] x 99 (a stack maybe)?

 

You're NOT going to get the credit cap unlocked, unless you sub. So no need to even ask it again. Just, get creative.

[Guancyto]

People who think the answer to everything is "subscribe" should really go find a game with no freemium play.

 

That's right, go back to WoW, kiddies!

 

Seriously though, selling credit cap increases the way they already sell GTN slots? There's basically no downside if (and this is the biggie) they have the technology to implement it. Especially if it's on the level of the GTN slots, by the time a freeper is to a reasonable level of credit cap, Bioware has made its money pretty well.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Guancyto

[DarthWoad]

Nah. Keep the credit cap. I dont want a free player having more money than me (a subscribed player)

[ryathal]

Credit cap does nothing to stop gold farmers.com those advertising aren,t using the same accounts they are banking money on. They only need a handful of accounts which they probably already had from before f2p. All that changed is advertising volume because that became free.

 

A reasonable cap would be nice, hitting one million is pretty easy just leveling to 50.

[MiraniSedai]

Be creative... there are "items" in which you can aquire that are worth, say, 200k apiece. And desirable to a lot of people.

 

Aquire a bunch of those types of items and use those to barter with, instead of credits...

 

>> WTB [item you want] - will trade for [link high value item] x 99 (a stack maybe)?

 

You're NOT going to get the credit cap unlocked, unless you sub. So no need to even ask it again. Just, get creative.

 

short of a convoluted AH trade F2P cannot trade

[Atrimentus]

What would be the point of being a subscriber then? If you can have unlimited money there's no more incentive to be a subscriber since you can get everything (or just about everything) from the Cartel Market with credits via the GTN - you could buy unlocks, legacy perks, etc. Even paying for respecs wouldn't be a problem since you can make as much credits as you want to cover those type of costs. Reduced prices and free respecs wouldn't be enough to encourage people to subscribe. Edited December 4, 2012 by Atrimentus

[MiraniSedai]

What would be the point of being a subscriber then? If you can have unlimited money there's no more incentive to be a subscriber since you can get everything (or just about everything) from the Cartel Market with credits via the GTN - you could buy unlocks, legacy perks, etc. Even paying for respecs wouldn't be a problem since you can make as much credits as you want to cover those type of costs. Reduced prices and free respecs wouldn't be enough to encourage people to subscribe.

 

THAT is exactly WHY the companys behind many F2P games really don't give a darn about subscribers. Their only concern is how many $ do we get from people per month. In Several games with F2P/Preferred options the Preferred people actually pay MORE than the subscription cost and better yet it is front loaded. They will drop a TON of cash to unlock everything (sometimes hundreds of dollars) then quit playing in 2 months. Game company made MORE from them than they did a subscriber for that 2 months.

 

From corporate perspective there is precious little reason to care if someone is F2P or Subbed

[Alavastre]

What would be the point of being a subscriber then? If you can have unlimited money there's no more incentive to be a subscriber since you can get everything (or just about everything) from the Cartel Market with credits via the GTN - you could buy unlocks, legacy perks, etc. Even paying for respecs wouldn't be a problem since you can make as much credits as you want to cover those type of costs. Reduced prices and free respecs wouldn't be enough to encourage people to subscribe.

 

That's not totally true. As F2P you don't have access to all the warzones, all the flashpoints ect that you want. Of course there should be a limit on F2P players, a cap of course, but just make it higher. I guess my big reason to up the cap is to make it better for the subscribers. That would mean that the cartel packs could be priced for a F2P player, which increases demand, which makes anyone who want to just buy cartel packs for money happy.

 

Content will be added later, only for subscribers. A big one would be new space ships. F2P players could have one and get around, but the subscribers might have the option to buy a new one. That's just one thought off the top of my head. But you need incentives for all players, and it seems like the cap is just a bit too low at the moment.

[skiibyrd]

You guys need to remove the credit cap for f2p players or make a cartel item to remove credit cap. You are missing out on a lot of money if you do not.

 

Most F2p players will never buy cash store items, but will spend hours on end to grinding huge amounts of credits to buy cash store items from other players; all that limiting the amount of credits f2p players can have does is limit the amount of items that paying customers can sell to f2p customers.

 

With a max of 250k credits none of the f2p players will be able to afford the high dollar value items.

 

If people havent realized yet, F2P is more or less a trial of the game...

[Guancyto]

What would be the point of being a subscriber then? If you can have unlimited money there's no more incentive to be a subscriber since you can get everything (or just about everything) from the Cartel Market with credits via the GTN - you could buy unlocks, legacy perks, etc. Even paying for respecs wouldn't be a problem since you can make as much credits as you want to cover those type of costs. Reduced prices and free respecs wouldn't be enough to encourage people to subscribe.

 

If you buy an operations pass with credits every week, someone still spent $10 that month on letting you raid.

If you buy a warzone pass with credits every week, someone still spent $10 that month on giving you unlimited PvP.

 

If you buy both to let you get on the endgame-running level of a subscriber for a month, 1-8 people put $20 that month into Bioware's coffers, and the fact that it wasn't you means bupkis.

 

The only way this could be a bad thing is if subscribers aren't getting their money's worth.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Guancyto

[Alavastre]

Oh, no wonder it died, moved to the suggestion box.

[Unchosen]

Keep the cap where it is. Raising it just opens up loopholes for people to get what they are not willing to pay for.

[MiraniSedai]

Keep the cap where it is. Raising it just opens up loopholes for people to get what they are not willing to pay for.

 

Agreed on true F2P.

 

I don't see why Preferred should not be raised to 500k. Since they DO pay and 500k is still a pretty severe limit. 500k on Preferred would provide incentive to F2P to convert to at least Preferred status. As it is now 200k (F2P) vs 350k(Preferred) is not much incentive at all.

[Cirinia]

I'm against it. F2P is meant to be limited. Don't forget You can always pay for 2 months, unlock what u want and then revert to F2P status again (instead of having account frozen like in other games).

[MiraniSedai]

I'm against it. F2P is meant to be limited. Don't forget You can always pay for 2 months, unlock what u want and then revert to F2P status again (instead of having account frozen like in other games).

 

You do not revert to F2P status you revert to Preferred status. Not the same thing.

 

F2P needs to be painful I agree. Preferred folks though are a huge potential cash cow via microtransactions. It is in the interest of the game to make Preferred attractive.

 

EDIT: Let me elaborate a bit.

 

THere are a couple of serious sticking points that will immediately provide incentive for a F2P to convert to preferred or subscriber.

 

Credits limit is one. Storage space is another. Action bars is another. Character slots is yet another. Which one is THE trigger to get someone to upgrade their account is going to vary from one person to another. So it isn't a bad idea to address them all.

 

for preferred action bars, storage and slots have all been taken care of. I contend however that the shift from 200k limit to 350k is not great enough incentive. Make the limit for Preferred 500k and it is much more attractive.

Edited December 4, 2012 by MiraniSedai

[ChazDoit]

If you buy an operations pass with credits every week, someone still spent $10 that month on letting you raid.

If you buy a warzone pass with credits every week, someone still spent $10 that month on giving you unlimited PvP.

 

If you buy both to let you get on the endgame-running level of a subscriber for a month, 1-8 people put $20 that month into Bioware's coffers, and the fact that it wasn't you means bupkis.

 

The only way this could be a bad thing is if subscribers aren't getting their money's worth.

 

This is one of the best features of the F2P Model, the Cartel Market is integrated into the game economy and players can obtain those Cartel Items without having to spend real money, however, Bioware still gets money because somebody bought those items from the Cartel Market at some point.

 

I think that a Prefered Status Player should be able to remove all the restrictions IF HE PUTS ENOUGH MONEY INTO GAME, The same way you can buy more quickbars, weekly passes and get pretty much the same experience as a subscriber, they should allow Prefered Status Players to unlock the credit cap by paying real money, it would be an additional source of revenue for Bioware and it would strenghten the economy.

Edited December 4, 2012 by ChazDoit