Something I just thought about with the new content patch

[TheNahash]

A couple of ideas I see being thrown around:

 

"I've been supporting this game for a year and this is how Bioware treats me?"

 

Let's make some things clear, shall we?

We bought the game a year ago, we got one month's game time with it and we have been enjoying it since. If, at any point during this past year, we stopped paying, we would've lost access to the game (until F2P came along).

 

Saying that you (or me or anyone else) has been supporting the game is a moot point. Yes we did, but it was not out of the goodness of our heart. We didn't make donations to Bioware, we made payments to continue playing a game we liked. I'm just saying that because I see that whole "I've been paying for a year!" argument being thrown around quite a lot. Yes, dude, you have. You have also been PLAYING what was until recently a subscription-based game for a year. That was the only way to have access to it, so you paid and you played and that was the end of your agreement with EA when we paid them each month (or once every 3/6 months).

 

Also, we're not still subscribers because we love paying Bioware, or EA or anyone else 15$/month. We are still paying (those of us that are), because obviously we consider the subscription model better than the F2P model.

 

 

"Subscribers will pay more for Makeb"

 

No, they won't.

But this is not a new idea, this is the "Subscribers should get Makeb for free" idea disguised as something new. This idea is essentially disregarding everything Subs have unlimited and unrestricted access to. It's as if suddenly having 12 character slots, being able to do unlimited warzones, ops and FPs just doesn't matter because Makeb is not free! You can disagree with Makeb being a paid digital expansion or whatever it is, but really...saying that Subs pay more for the exact same things, is ridiculous.

So instead of saying "why didn't we get it for free?", it becomes "All those things that as a subscriber I have access to (that yes, compared to F2Ps they're a lot more), I won't take them into account. Why am I paying 10 bucks?"

 

Granted, mathematically (subcription)15 + (RotHC)10= 25$ while F2Pers will pay 0 + 20 = 20$, but there is something you are not taking into account.

 

Are they getting access to the same things we have, old and new?

No they're not.

 

They'll become "preferred" and still have no access to OPS, 5wzs per week, restricted access to artifact quality gear, less comms per week, two (or three, if they change that) character slots etc..

 

I personally think that those 5 extra bucks are worth it. Especially for someone who has been playing for a year and might want to have access to all 12 character slots.

Edited December 24, 2012 by TheNahash

[SickTag]

Well it depends. Right now they are making serious bank on the f2p customers who want the weekly unlocks. Though if you plan far enough ahead, and hit 50, you can just bank up those unlocks and do OPs only on your level 50. However, it's a lot of hassle for a couple raids a week only.

[MrSchmo]

Honestly... how many more threads are you gonna make about this?

 

Here is the thing: If you had a full fledged expansion you would probably get 4 planets and pay 40 for it. You get 1/4th of that and 1/4th of the price. Also add to that that the new talents and abilities will expand your gameplay for hundreads and hundreads of hours and the new gear will give you something new to aim for in end-game.

 

Stop beeing cheap. You are not getting robbed for this, its a fair price for what you're getting.

 

Also, you pay a sub to have free acess to the game with no restrictions and free acess to all content patches. RotHC is not a patch, its an expansion pack, therefore we pay for it just like on every other sub based MMO. Why dont you go QQ to WoW because they charge their customers 40 for an expansion even though they already pay a sub. In the month the thing comes out they pay 53 euros for it with the same logic. Seriously... stop trolling.

 

Stop with the logic. It may melt some brains.

[opriv]

I think you are missing the point. It is NOT a sense of entitlement. Yeah, we have paid bioware and supported the game. Yes, we have enjoyed it to a point. This comes down to value and entertainment. This is not a sandbox game by any stretch of the imagination. Bioware runs a theme park. They are responsible for building the rides.

 

I think we can agree that both subscribers and free to play players want to be entertained. For many of us subscribers, especially those who buy 6 months at a time, we were banking on future content. We got free to play instead.

 

While I gladly pay a subscription there is a tolerance value involved. Paying for Makeb goes over that tolerance value. You can try and justify it any way you want, but people are leaving. You can defend bioware and your logic might even have some truth to it, but in the business world if you don't have happy customers, you start to lose money.

 

It's short term thinking to rake your customers over for every dime possible. Last year, I had paid for two accounts to run for 12 months. If we stuck around, they would get another 2 renews of six months. Instead, they are losing me over 10 bucks per account.

 

You can defended it any way you want to but it won't change the exodus.

 

 

 

A couple of ideas I see being thrown around:

 

"I've been supporting this game for a year and this is how Bioware treats me?"

 

Let's make some things clear, shall we?

We bought the game a year ago, we got one month's game time with it and we have been enjoying it since. If, at any point during this past year, we stopped paying, we would've lost access to the game (until F2P came along).

 

Saying that you (or me or anyone else) has been supporting the game is a moot point. Yes we did, but it was not out of the goodness of our heart. We didn't make donations to Bioware, we made payments to continue playing a game we liked. I'm just saying that because I see that whole "I've been paying for a year!" argument being thrown around quite a lot. Yes, dude, you have. You have also been PLAYING what was until recently a subscription-based game for a year. That was the only way to have access to it, so you paid and you played and that was the end of your agreement with EA when we paid them each month (or once every 3/6 months).

 

Also, we're not still subscribers because we love paying Bioware, or EA or anyone else 15$/month. We are still paying (those of us that are), because obviously we consider the subscription model better than the F2P model.

 

 

"Subscribers will pay more for Makeb"

 

No, they won't.

But this is not a new idea, this is the "Subscribers should get Makeb for free" idea disguised as something new. This idea is essentially disregarding everything Subs have unlimited and unrestricted access to. It's as if suddenly having 12 character slots, being able to do unlimited warzones, ops and FPs just doesn't matter because Makeb is not free! You can disagree with Makeb being a paid digital expansion or whatever it is, but really...saying that Subs pay more for the exact same things, is ridiculous.

So instead of saying "why didn't we get it for free?", it becomes "All those things that as a subscriber I have access to (that yes, compared to F2Ps they're a lot more), I won't take them into account. Why am I paying 10 bucks?"

 

Granted, mathematically (subcription)15 + (RotHC)10= 25$ while F2Pers will pay 0 + 20 = 20$, but there is something you are not taking into account.

 

Are they getting access to the same things we have, old and new?

No they're not.

 

They'll become "preferred" and still have no access to OPS, 5wzs per week, restricted access to artifact quality gear, less comms per week, two (or three, if they change that) character slots etc..

 

I personally think that those 5 extra bucks are worth it. Especially for someone who has been playing for a year and might want to have access to all 12 character slots.

[Sanctioned]

This is horrible math. This is the sort of math/statistics abuse that scam artists and crappy journalists use.

 

Subscribers pay a monthly fee. For that fee, they get a large collection of perks over F2Pers. End of story. That cost is spent getting those perks.

 

The expansion costs $10 for subscribers and $20 for F2Pers. This doesn't change the amount of perks given to subscribers. It doesn't add perks to F2Pers. It is, quite clearly, distinct and totally separate from the monthly fee. Yes, you could go F2P for the month that the expansion comes out, and pay less that month than the subscribers...

 

...but you'll be getting less, too.

 

For the $25 that they spend just that month, subscribers get up to 12 characters on a server, unlimited WZs, unlimited FPs, $5 worth of Cartel Coins (thus, immediately offsetting the cost), unlimited med probes, unlimited access to Artifacts, three crew skills, 50 GTN slots....

 

If you don't care about those things, then its fine. Then the subscription isn't for you. But don't claim that subscribers are being hosed. They're getting their money's worth, explicitly, just in monetary value that's handed to them. Then, they have a bunch of perks loaded on top of that.

 

Do the math. No, actually do the math rather than just thinking with your emotions. Subscribers still get more stuff for less money. Whether there's value in that is up to you and how you like to play the game.

 

I agree with you man.

 

You're absolutely right as far as breaking down the value, and there's a lot of people that are disagreeing with you simply because they can't get over the fact SWTOR switched over to an F2P model.

[Kubernetic]

Quite a few people on the forums have to the realization that with the cost of the sub, and buying the "expansion" (read: milked content patch), that you're actually paying $25 dollars total, where freeps are paying $20.

 

That isn't really what's happening though.

 

It is as they say it is. Subscribers are paying $9.99 for what "Free" must pay $19.99.

 

In addition, Subscribers are still paying the $14.99 per month to not be nickel and dimed on every single perk in the game.