Lifetime Memebership For SWTOR/F2P-Preferred status Rant

[Kakashianbu]

As you all are aware, The current Subscriber model is ok at best but I have something to solve everyones problems in general. I also going to be refrencing heavily on another game which is currently F2P but also has a subscriber option.

 

Now, Subscription per month, while good and all has some flaws to it:

 

1) Not many people have that type of income to maintain the subscription.

 

2)Some people don't want to play because of the system in place currently

 

3) F2p/Preferred status users have a lot of restrictions in there own right which turns people off to the game in general

 

I have a bunch more to point out but these are some of my views on how SWTOR is going right now.

 

Star trek Online

 

Excellent story, brilliant writing and great game overall and the F2P options are not limited to F2P users in general.

 

One major thing though to point out here and going into my point of this posting, is the fact they have lifetime membership. Which basically means that you have all the subscriber benefits and also its a one time payment option to work with.

 

SWTOR and EA would benefit from this option because:

 

1) A lot more people will buy there product

 

2) It gives incentive for people to play

 

3) Lastly, the subscription is a one time payment only

 

Now how much you may ask for this Lifetime membership

 

Average pricing In comparison to Star trek online is roughly $200-$400 Bare in mind that its almost the same as buying a two year subscription. That you only have to pay once.

 

Now, that would great for EA to do this and make the game more accessible to everyone who has followed the game as long as I have.

 

Like I stated before the F2P system in Star trek online is fantastic with no restrictions. However, SWTOR's restrictions are abundantly clear that F2P isn't all is what its cracked up to be.

 

Granted that SWTOR when it went F2P everyone was excited about it but with level restriction. Now that the Level restriction is gone now excluding the expansions. F2P-Prefered status is basically a joke at this point, I mean would you play a F2P game it restricted you to 2 character slots in the game? I mean 2 Character slots Really?!? Now, Preferred Status users get a leg up in that department but not by much I mean you buy something in the cartel market you get that Status but it still doesn't change the fact that F2P players have to suffer.

 

My solutions for this are as follows:

 

1) Make the F2P player as Preferred Status because then people will want to play your game and want to buy all the stuff. Not restrict them from playing the game its a nightmare for most F2P player.

 

2)Take the Restrictions off of the titles, Unify Colors, and hide head slot. They are built right into the game for a reason to show off and to encourage people to shoot for that title or something like that (which some of them to be fair are easy or hard as hell to get.)

 

3) Take the 20% of experience penalty for F2P users, its extremely frustrating to just grind for hours and hours to just get one level at the higher end. A 20% penalty if your not a subscriber that just doesn't seem fair to those who play that are F2P/Preferred status users like myself. Hell even my brother, did the math on this is where Subscribers can be able to get to level 10 on the origin world just doing the story missions. Where as F2p/Preferred are penalized for that by 20% experience gain!! That doesn't make any sense. Not to mention the fact that your Penalized even further once you hit level 20 and go from there.

 

F2P/Preferred status players need some love for playing the game. Don't put pay walls up for certain things just because we want to play the game.

 

People I know $200-$400 is a steep asking price for the lifetime member but honestly do you really want to support your game that you play? I mean really want to support it?

 

Lifetime membership would help the game out so much. I am not going to talk about the cartel market and how there pricing for it is unfair because when you compare other games F2P options for in game items for Real world cash there fair enough and the unlocks can be obtained in game so what is there to complain about?

 

EA if your reading this please take sometime and help out the players supporting your game moving forward. I hope with this it will give a little headway for what you guys do.

 

I wanna hear what you guys think post a response to this below. Should SWTOR have a Lifetime Membership option for the subscriber or no? Let me know what you think.

 

Cya

[JWagner]

1) Not many people have that type of income to maintain the subscription.

Uh. What? That's less than the cost of one movie night. That's 1/10 of the cost of my TV package that I cut out. That's about 5 cups of starbucks a month. If the $15 is hard to come by, gaming should probably be the last thing on your list...

 

2)Some people don't want to play because of the system in place currently

What system is that? Paying a sub, like most MMOs do..?

 

3) F2p/Preferred status users have a lot of restrictions in there own right which turns people off to the game in general

I won't deny its restrictive. But on that note, EA has to pay the bills, and they are basically giving you free / cheap access to their game, their intellectual property, and their servers. That's money they now need to get from other sources. The F2P/Preferred is meant to be a free demo / story + extended demo. It's not meant to supplement the entire game.

 

 

 

As far as lifetime membership...

That's basically accepting that when the game fails, you are going to shut it down, whether your ahead or not. I tried Star Trek Online, and it was so complex to get into, I gave up. I can't imagine paying for a lifetime membership for it. As for SWTOR, I wouldn't want lifetime either. Reason? If it dies an early death, I'm screwed. If it does live, then the only money they'll get from me is CC purchases. It's a nice idea, but I can only buy so much with CC coins, and I want to support a game I enjoy playing. << Most people probably disagree with me there

 

That's my 2c on that. I wouldn't want to see Lifetime Membership personally, but that's me.

[Anaesha]

I don't see how this would help the game. A fair amount of this games profits comes from CC purchases. However, The sub fee is also a source of income and removing that for a "lifetime membership" would most likely hurt the game more then help it. The current sub fee set up allows for members without large budgets to play by buying 60, 90, or 180 day subs which allows them to budget their funds. The way you want to do it would require them to spend 200 to 400 dollars in one go something not everyone can do or would want to do.

[JeremyShelton]

Lord of the Rings Online did lifetime memberships at the start. They went f2p later on with their own marketplace. They retained monthly, etc subscription plans too. Definitely not as many people playing it as in the first 2 yrs, but as a lifetime member I still go back and play it from time to time. Get free coins for the market every month and only ever have to pay for expansions when they come out. It is a good model, but I think this really has to start from the beginning for most. It was $200 almost 7 yrs ago now and many people don't have the ability to drop that much plus the $50 (or more for the game) right at one time.

[Kalfear]

As you all are aware, The current Subscriber model is ok at best but I have something to solve everyones problems in general. I also going to be refrencing heavily on another game which is currently F2P but also has a subscriber option.

 

Now, Subscription per month, while good and all has some flaws to it:

 

1) Not many people have that type of income to maintain the subscription.

 

BS, complete BS

if someone can not afford $15.00

Then affording a computer game is the least of their worries and they need to step away and get life in order

 

And Id love to see where you get this "not many people"

 

Your #1 is complete and utter BS making assumptions not reasonable or realistic

 

 

2)Some people don't want to play because of the system in place currently

 

And that is their right as consumers to not play

Good on them

They should find games better suited to their desires

But them not wanting to play this system is NOT remotely reason enough to change system for them.

 

 

3) F2p/Preferred status users have a lot of restrictions in there own right which turns people off to the game in general

 

Again you have no evidence or stats to back your assumptions

Here is a FACT

This game, as a subscriber game only, blew away everyones expectations at launch with the number of subscribers they had

The problem them (and now) was not the subscription but the content in game

The only thing giving more away to F2P and Prefered does is give them more excuses to never sub or financially support game

 

I have a bunch more to point out but these are some of my views on how SWTOR is going right now.

 

And as shown about your veiws are easily disproven

 

 

Star trek Online

 

Excellent story, brilliant writing and great game overall and the F2P options are not limited to F2P users in general.

 

One major thing though to point out here and going into my point of this posting, is the fact they have lifetime membership. Which basically means that you have all the subscriber benefits and also its a one time payment option to work with.

 

SWTOR and EA would benefit from this option because:

 

1) A lot more people will buy there product

 

2) It gives incentive for people to play

 

3) Lastly, the subscription is a one time payment only

 

Now how much you may ask for this Lifetime membership

 

Average pricing In comparison to Star trek online is roughly $200-$400 Bare in mind that its almost the same as buying a two year subscription. That you only have to pay once.

 

Now, that would great for EA to do this and make the game more accessible to everyone who has followed the game as long as I have.

 

Really, so how do you explain that SW:TOR, with out all these freebies you want (cause thats what your post is ultimately about) is currently now, and has been through out its life span, MORE SUCCESSFULL THEN STAR TREK ONLINE.

 

You are trying to argue that EA change their policies and pricing to that of a lesser game because you like the lesser games policies more.

 

Explain to me how that is even remotely half arse intelligent bussiness on EAs behalf

 

Give more away so you can do less sales and meet the reduced market expectations of a MMORPG currently not even in the top 20 list of MMORPGs (of the most recent listing of financial success of MMORPGs, of which SW:TOR was #4.)

 

Please Im all ears how reducing profits and income makes SWTOR a better over all product.

 

Floor is all yours.

 

and Im not even going to address the rest of your gimme gimme gimme for free post because thats all it is.

 

No facts

No evidence

No business intelligence

gimme gimme gimme post

 

There is a reason that the current generation of the MMORPG genre is wildly considered the most bleak and void of creativity in the markets history. F2P has a ton to do with that because developers managed to get a portion of the MMORPG community to STOP looking at content quality and get them to focus on the very incorrectly titled F2P system. Its NEVER free. But todays MMORPGs are lesser games then what the genre once supported and promoted.

 

$15.00/month is NOTHING. Less then a coffee a day. Hell 3 Starbucks less a month pays for it.

The Price is NOT obstructive or the reason the genre is falling downwards

And if you can not afford less then $0.50/day for a entertainment you will play for hours and hours and hours a day, then you have greater issues in your life then if SWTOR affordable to you.

 

Lifetime memberships in this genre are a early indicator that the game is already in financial trouble and has limited long term potential. Star Trek Online is NOT considered a good MMORPG or even a successful MMORPG. So if you want to compare SWTOR to successful MMORPGs, how about you take the top rated ones above SWTOR in financial ranking. You don't because ALL OF THEM are subscription based MMORPGs.

 

What SWTOR needs to do is NOT add more to F2P and other cheap players not interested in supporting the title they play endlessly. They need to focus more on content and subscribers and make game more appealing so its a no brainier that you subscribe to experience it.

 

STOP trying to speed SWTOR to its death bed already and start suggesting things that actually help the game and genre improve over all.

 

Thats my rant!

[XiamaraSimi]

In regards to lifetime subs, let me point you over to a game called "Hellgate: London". It too offered a LTS right out the gate, and folded faster then a poker player who knows he cant bluff and realizes he has the worlds crappiest hand...

 

As others have stated, if you cant afford $15 a month then you might want to look at your priorities... (plus obviously you have a computer that can play swtor and a internet connection that will connect)

 

Even kids can mow lawns and deliver newspapers for extra cash, and every single gas station and grocery store i go to sells pre-paid Mastercards that can be used to pay sub fees.

Edited March 4, 2015 by XiamaraSimi

[CKNORTH]

Wholly Molly walls of text Batman! This game has free lightsabers what more could you possibly want??

[Soul_of_Flames]

#1 is completely irrelevant.

 

Free players usually tend to pay more money than subscribers. Microtransactions add up and people don't realize. The differences can be $10, $20 even $30 WEEKLY as opposed to a Sub's $15/month.

 

Also, if you can't afford your sub for a month... so what? Let it laps. You drop into free to play until you can afford to up the sub again.

 

 

Now, I do agree that there are an incredibly stupid amount of restrictions on free players. Many of which impact the game's virtual society, which impacts ALL players, not just the ones who don't pay a sub. Me, as a subscriber, feel sort of shoehorned when I'm unable to do things in a game I'm paying a subscription for because the other players who are involved DON'T pay a subscription.

 

-Sell items on the GTN? Limited market over the 350,000 credit mark.

-Play war zones? The queue seems to take longer because free players can only do a couple per week without a pass.

-Try to run an ops? Oh wait, we have to wait because one player needs to buy an ops pass. An ops pass we couldn't trade them because they don't have trading features.

-Want to gear up a guildy? Not with a looting restriction you don't.

-Trying to level with your friends? ***, why am I leveling twice as fast as they are?

 

And there are other things as well. Basically, any restriction that impacts the game's virtual society should be removed because it's impacting the players who are paying to have full access. You're denial of features to free players is, by extension, a denial of features to paying players... IE false advertising. Fix it.

[Happy_Puppy]

To many people here jumping all over the OP when they do not know jack when it comes to STO F2P model.

 

Life Time Sub's were at the start of STO and had nothing to do with game failing.

 

The game has the ability to sell Zen there version of cartel points from other players this allows players to buy what they want when they want. They also have large sinks in game that promote Zen trading.

 

The game does not restrict content. This means anyone can do there version of flashpoints. This by far is my biggest gripe with SWTOR. Hiding flashpoints and pvp and such behind pay wall is stupid at least for basic game. If anything they should just charge for the expansions so f2p get everything the basic game has for free and then charge a one time charge to unlock the next tier of content.

 

If STO is failing then why do they get a steady stream of new ships, content and patch's for bugs. SWTOR patch's are few and far between and very slow to react to game breaking bugs.

 

The OP is correct that for some a monthly 15 can become a issue.. things happen. Where lets say forking out three to five hundred at one time as a one time investment could be more viable for some people. But a LTS does not mean a game is failing.

 

Most mmo's are f2p hardly any are sub based anymore.. if you think other wise your deluding your self.

 

SWTOR's F2P model is pretty bad. Hiding content behind pay wall the way they did is not the way to sustain players. They would be better off with how GW2 and STO do there f2p model. At least those game seem to be able to get balance and bug fixs out in a timely mater and new content.

[Sepiolida]

1) Not many people have that type of income to maintain the subscription.

 

I see this posted on so many games, but let me correct it to be accurate:

 

1) some people would rather spend their money on movies, ****, cell phone data, beer and cigarettes than pay a game subscription, and they'll never be happy at any price.

 

I'm not being facetious.

 

The most expensive subscription price is demonstrably less than a night out doing... basically anything that costs money. So by sayign "not many people ..." you are suggesting that there are not many people who can afford to be social or have any kind of life beyond being a shut-in, living on handouts from benefactors. I'm sorry, but that's just incorrect.

 

The most expensive subscription price is $15 / mo. That's the cost of 1 cinema ticket, not counting gas to drive there and <deity> forbid you eat something there... 2 hours of entertainment vs 1 month of SWTOR.

 

$15 is also less than:

 

- 2 packs of smokes (where I am)

- a 6 pack of beer (where I am)

- a modest restaurant meal that isn't fast food

- 4 gallons of gasoline

- 6 bus trips (or 3 round-trips)

 

So really, "not many people can afford..." is simply untrue. Maybe some people don't WANT to afford it, but in terms of "cost per hour of entertainment", the sub price is pretty good actually.

[Kalfear]

 

Free players usually tend to pay more money than subscribers. Microtransactions add up and people don't realize. The differences can be $10, $20 even $30 WEEKLY as opposed to a Sub's $15/month.

 

 

EA themselves have said the massive majority of cartel sales are to subscribers, not F2P/Prefered status players

 

So EA themselves would argue with the quoted claim above

[TalimRann]

EA themselves have said the massive majority of cartel sales are to subscribers, not F2P/Prefered status players

 

So EA themselves would argue with the quoted claim above

 

By "majority of cartel sales" do you mean the majority of Cartel Market sales or the majority of Cartel Coin sales?

 

The first would be indicative that subscribers buy more things off the market - which given the 500-600/month CC stipend is somewhat understandable.

 

The second implies that subscribers spend more money - over and above their subscription payment - on CC than F2P/Preferred players do.

 

I honestly don't know and am curious which is the proper statistic to go with your statement. I'd also be curious to see, of the CM purchases by subscribers, how many are unlocks that then go to the GTN and are purchased via credits by F2P/Preferred. In this case, the F2P/Preferred players are still the catalyst for the added revenue to EA/BW, even if it's not coming directly out of their pockets.

[Kalfear]

spin spin spin

 

spin it how ever you want

 

EA has said it multiple times and has gone into detail on it regarding SW:TOR

Multiple times in numerous different sources and articles

Perhaps you should look it up

get some actual information before spinning and arguing

 

Sorry if that sounds rude but I'm so sick to death of people arguing and debating and demanding things here with NO CLUE on whats already been said and written and happened regarding this game (or the MMORPG genre in general)

 

EA has answered your question months and months and months and months ago

You just need to look it up and understand the issue before speaking on it

I will not quote it for you

[Elracor]

Lord of the Rings Online did lifetime memberships at the start. They went f2p later on with their own marketplace. They retained monthly, etc subscription plans too. Definitely not as many people playing it as in the first 2 yrs, but as a lifetime member I still go back and play it from time to time. Get free coins for the market every month and only ever have to pay for expansions when they come out. It is a good model, but I think this really has to start from the beginning for most. It was $200 almost 7 yrs ago now and many people don't have the ability to drop that much plus the $50 (or more for the game) right at one time.

 

True, but for LotrO there's usually 2 viewpoints on it in terms of managing a business:

1. Turbine simply made a mistake. The price of lifetime offers was so low it'd be "free playing" after 18 months.

2. Turbine were filling their coffers in preparation for a sale of the company. Turbine was later sold for $160 million.

 

My money is on 2..

 

For EA/Bioware, they are way too smart/greedy to make a mistake like that, and considering the longterm plans stated at SWTOR release, there is not really any reason to fill their coffers on a short term.

[Happy_Puppy]

True, but for LotrO there's usually 2 viewpoints on it in terms of managing a business:

1. Turbine simply made a mistake. The price of lifetime offers was so low it'd be "free playing" after 18 months.

2. Turbine were filling their coffers in preparation for a sale of the company. Turbine was later sold for $160 million.

 

My money is on 2..

 

For EA/Bioware, they are way too smart/greedy to make a mistake like that, and considering the longterm plans stated at SWTOR release, there is not really any reason to fill their coffers on a short term.

 

STO has life time subs from the start, they still offer it, every year offer it the LTS on sale.

STO is doing fine, its not being sold and still releasing content.

 

life time subs have nothing to do with if the game is doing well or not.

[Heat-Wave]

Uh. What? That's less than the cost of one movie night. That's 1/10 of the cost of my TV package that I cut out. That's about 5 cups of starbucks a month. If the $15 is hard to come by, gaming should probably be the last thing on your list...

 

^ This, over and over, this...

 

5 cups at Starbucks? I should move to your town, around here, a decent Caffè Mocha from Starbucks is closer to $5. 3 of them gets you a sub here.

 

Frankly the cost of the sub is probably too cheap, if it were double what it is, maybe we'd get some @#&* content!

[JeremyShelton]

True, but for LotrO there's usually 2 viewpoints on it in terms of managing a business:

1. Turbine simply made a mistake. The price of lifetime offers was so low it'd be "free playing" after 18 months.

2. Turbine were filling their coffers in preparation for a sale of the company. Turbine was later sold for $160 million.

 

My money is on 2..

 

For EA/Bioware, they are way too smart/greedy to make a mistake like that, and considering the longterm plans stated at SWTOR release, there is not really any reason to fill their coffers on a short term.

 

Probably #2, but also, think about how many people probably bought the lifetime sub played 1-3 months and quit the game. In those instances Turbine made out. In instances like me they lost a lot of money. Yeah, front loading the cash influx wasn't a bad idea to boost sellability.

[Karaiblis]

If "most people can't even afford 15$ for a subscription", where the heck do you think are they going to get 400$ for a lifetime sub? Edited March 5, 2015 by Karaiblis

[Rankyn]

Games offer Lifetime Subscriptions in advance of launch for a quick cash influx.

They set the price based on what they think an average subscriber will spend on the game over the course of time they spend playing it.

That's why most lifetime subs for games cost the equivalent of 18-24 months of subscription fees.

 

Sure, you'll have hardcore players that keep playing forever, but you'll also have those that abandon the game much sooner than that so it tends to balance itself out.

This is also why it's rare to see lifetime subs offered after a game launches... they're earning money on a regular basis now and don't need the lump sum of cash anymore since it doing so would probably subtract from the bottom line.

 

I would have bought a lifetime sub to this game at launch, but several years into it, I wouldn't.

[CKNORTH]

If "most people can't even afford 15$ for a subscription", where the heck do you think are they going to get 400$ for a lifetime sub?

 

^ this...

[Anaesha]

Honestly if someone can't afford $15 each month I want to know how they manage to afford their monthly internet bill, electric/gas bills, grocery bills, or even their rent.

[Happy_Puppy]

Honestly if someone can't afford $15 each month I want to know how they manage to afford their monthly internet bill, electric/gas bills, grocery bills, or even their rent.

 

For one that's not the point.. seconded Tax returns, saved up money of a summer job, you know what some kids do..

 

the questions is why the hell do you care if there is a LTS? No one is putting a gun to your head and saying you must buy it. If your content to spend 15 a month then so be it. It shouldn't matter to you if a person wants to drop three or four hundred dollars and never have to worry about the monthly fee again.

[Elracor]

STO has life time subs from the start, they still offer it, every year offer it the LTS on sale.

STO is doing fine, its not being sold and still releasing content.

 

life time subs have nothing to do with if the game is doing well or not.

 

I didnt say lifetime subs have anything to do with doing well or not, but EA wont make lifetime unless they know it will make more money than what they earn already.

Also, SWTOR have way more accounts than STO, and SuperData reports had SWTOR in top3 of MMO revenue with STO outside top10. I highly doubt EA would be satisfied if SWTOR performed like STO.

[CKNORTH]

I didnt say lifetime subs have anything to do with doing well or not, but EA wont make lifetime unless they know it will make more money than what they earn already.

Also, SWTOR have way more accounts than STO, and SuperData reports had SWTOR in top3 of MMO revenue with STO outside top10. I highly doubt EA would be satisfied if SWTOR performed like STO.

 

Question: if this game is heading to consoles, how will subs work then? PSN?? Xjunk Live?

[therandyman]

Question: if this game is heading to consoles, how will subs work then? PSN?? Xjunk Live?

Answer - it's not heading to consoles.