Lifetime Memebership For SWTOR/F2P-Preferred status Rant

[Saito_Hiraga]

I would be happy if we could just get a Year non recurring subscription so I can pay for the entire year and stop worring every 2 months if I have enough money to cover my sub.

[Rankyn]

I would be happy if we could just get a Year non recurring subscription so I can pay for the entire year and stop worring every 2 months if I have enough money to cover my sub.

Solution: buy 6 game cards at once.

[Anaesha]

Solution: buy 6 game cards at once.

 

I think it would be cheaper in the long run to just buy the 6 month plan and save some cash each payday for when the 6 months expires. That isn't to say I would be against a 1 year plan, Paying $155.88 and not having to worry about it for a whole 12 months would be nice.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Anaesha

[Elracor]

I think it would be cheaper in the long run to just buy the 6 month plan and save some cash each payday for when the 6 months expires. That isn't to say I would be against a 1 year plan, Paying $155.88 and not having to worry about it for a whole 12 months would be nice.

 

That depends on where you buy the gametime cards. Some online stores sell them for ~19$, so that would be under 120$ for a year.

 

Lastly, if you can get lucky during a Gamestop (or other stores) sale, you can often pick them up for 15$ or even 10$.

Edited March 6, 2015 by MFollin

[TalimRann]

..... Edited March 6, 2015 by TalimRann
quoted wrong post

[TalimRann]

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

 

Your rant might have merit if I were arguing, debating or even calling into question your assertion. To state that I was demanding something in my inquiry is just plain absurd.

 

Instead, I simply asked for a clarification of which type of transaction was being referenced. Then I made a couple musings of my own regarding implications of each type.

 

So no, that did not just sound rude.

[ZambedosNB]

You're telling me that F2P players who have - as of yet - refused to pay even a mere $5 on this game, will somehow decide to pay $200-400? I call BS. Honestly, with the difference in restrictions between F2p and the low $5 buy in anyone who is not preferred is that way for one reason: They insist on playing this game for free. This new pricing option with not solve that. If anything, it will put Bioware in trouble in two years.

[Happy_Puppy]

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.

 

you are so full of it....

 

Perfect World doesn't release numbers for STO like that. The company runs 15 different mmos. As far as player base other then the 1st 6 months of SWTOR did it have massive numbers. I was there just before server mergers/transfers started. On my server there were a total of 16 imperial players total on the server at prime time.

 

There is a difference between active and created accounts.

 

funny that superdata doesn't show SWTOR on the top 3 at all or the top 10

http://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/us-digital-games-market/

 

Last time SWTOR was ranked in the top 10 was pre F2P in 2013 financial year.

http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/12099/20140718/world-of-warcraft-still-top-earning-mmo-in-the-world-according-to-annual-research-report-wow-commands-bigger-market-than-all-others-combined.htm

 

Both EA and Perfectworld do not release break down how many of there accounts are active... other wise STO has a commanding lead given there last account release numbers was that there were 2 million accounts and swtor peaked at 1.3 million.

 

But there is a huge difference between active and created.

 

Also have to take into account NCsoft the parent company of STO also runs GW2 and GW2 with no sub has released more content in one year then SWTOR has in 3 years. So you should be asking what is EA/Bioware doing with the subs money for what you say is the top 3 revenue earning mmo (even though its not). They sure the heck are not investing that back in to SWTOR.

Edited March 7, 2015 by Happy_Puppy

[SirTwist]

I'm going to say that the OP doesn't have a clue as to much of anything. $15 a month is 2 trips to McDonald's, 3 trips to Taco Bell, etc., so on, and so forth. A lifetime subscription will not save this game. What will really save it is numerous. Let me go through here, and name them, or just a few.

1) Update the damn game engine. They can use the same one, just update it to make it an actual engine, not some beta test version.

2) If you have a security key, you should be upgraded to preferred. And all that is, is either buying one from EAware, (through the website here,) or downloading the app for your cell phone.

3) Have even more restrictions on f2p, on some things, and less restrictions on other things. Here is what I mean.

a) F2P should be restricted in chat, period. They can talk in general every 5 minutes. Whispers, etc. every 2 minutes. Things like that. Also, this would include FP's, and operations. Only unrestricted time would be during a PVP match.

b) Able to trade, to a cap, between players. Except for xp boosts, ops passes, etc. which should be virtually unlimited.

c) Able to use moddable, and legacy, gear, to a point.

4) And this one is huge. Get rid of all gold spammers, or a variety of things, one of which I already posted above. Additional to that, faction wide, legacy based, and higher count ignore lists. And an in game moderator that will ip ban them right then and there.

 

I have more, but I am going to stop, and see if anyone agrees, or not, this list.

[Happy_Puppy]

I'm going to say that the OP doesn't have a clue as to much of anything. $15 a month is 2 trips to McDonald's, 3 trips to Taco Bell, etc., so on, and so forth. A lifetime subscription will not save this game. What will really save it is numerous. Let me go through here, and name them, or just a few.

1) Update the damn game engine. They can use the same one, just update it to make it an actual engine, not some beta test version.

2) If you have a security key, you should be upgraded to preferred. And all that is, is either buying one from EAware, (through the website here,) or downloading the app for your cell phone.

3) Have even more restrictions on f2p, on some things, and less restrictions on other things. Here is what I mean.

a) F2P should be restricted in chat, period. They can talk in general every 5 minutes. Whispers, etc. every 2 minutes. Things like that. Also, this would include FP's, and operations. Only unrestricted time would be during a PVP match.

b) Able to trade, to a cap, between players. Except for xp boosts, ops passes, etc. which should be virtually unlimited.

c) Able to use moddable, and legacy, gear, to a point.

4) And this one is huge. Get rid of all gold spammers, or a variety of things, one of which I already posted above. Additional to that, faction wide, legacy based, and higher count ignore lists. And an in game moderator that will ip ban them right then and there.

 

I have more, but I am going to stop, and see if anyone agrees, or not, this list.

 

For one its not about saving the game its about giving another options.

 

Security keys as far as I'm aware you can no longer buy them you have to use a smart phone app or PC app emulator.

 

The game engine is not a beta. The cost of totally sc****** the engine for a new one wont happen. They would be better off closing the game and making a SWTOR2

 

F2P is to restrictive as is.. no way in hell should then be restricting it more. If anything they need to loosen the restrictions such as all basic game functions such as UI and flashpoints should be unrestricted and if they want content above level 50 then they need to buy the expansions for a one time fee to unlock it.

 

Gold farmers are going to be there no mater what. All they would do is make more then one toon and spam from 4 or 5 toons instead of one... its really not that hard to /ignore them.

 

Are you really suggesting a cap on trading? umm.. just no.

 

The gold spamming toons do not last long after a few days you can just remove them from your ignore list fyi.

 

SWTOR needs more involved content. doing 7 or 8 dailies just does not cut it. They need to invest into more long term content.

[Atlusny]

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...

 

Do you really know what grinds my gears? When people from rich country think that all the prices and wages are the same on poor countries.

 

For OP, I agree with you to a certain degree.

Its true that some f2p/pref restrictions are really stupid and annoying, like a very low credit cap, or titles authorization (really, the titles don't bite the subs, why are they forbidden for f2p?). I can agree with 20% xp penalty, artifacts and operations because there need to be something to motivate people to pay for more fun. However, i have an objection about PvP restrictions at 5 Warzones and 5 GSF battles per week because PvP is an important component on every MMO, but to master it you need practice that can not be achieve with only few matches per week. Rising them at 10 (or at least 7) will be better.

 

Also, there is something that really annoy me. Only a subscriber can benefit from in game support. Why? Any official please explain me why? The subscribers aren't the only one that have issues that need to be fixed. Please EA, just for a moment stop listening to monkeys from marketing department and re-think the limitations that can annoy possible future subscribers that will never return to this game.

 

A lifetime subscription could work. I see that it worked for TSW. New DLC will be purchased anyway by lifetime subs and it will support the game.

[Elracor]

funny that superdata doesn't show SWTOR on the top 3 at all or the top 10

http://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/us-digital-games-market/

 

Last time SWTOR was ranked in the top 10 was pre F2P in 2013 financial year.

http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/12099/20140718/world-of-warcraft-still-top-earning-mmo-in-the-world-according-to-annual-research-report-wow-commands-bigger-market-than-all-others-combined.htm

 

Ah yeh, meant to write top4, typo there. Still, STO didn't even make it to that list.

 

How would that be pre-F2P? AFAIK SWTOR went F2P Nov 2012 and the figures from SuperData cover 2013?

 

Both EA and Perfectworld do not release break down how many of there accounts are active... other wise STO has a commanding lead given there last account release numbers was that there were 2 million accounts and swtor peaked at 1.3 million. .

 

Is that so?

http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/14/6001503/star-wars-the-old-republic-2014-players-ea-bioware , and that was even before the release of SoR.

 

STO on the other hand recently accounced 2.5 million accounts created: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1367461

 

As you say, there's a massive difference between active and created, so if SWTOR has over 1 million active accounts (and considering the quote "And the number of subscriptions has stabilized at just under half a million.") and STO have only had 2.5mil accounts created over 5 years, surely SWTOR is the one in "commanding lead".

Edited March 7, 2015 by MFollin

[Happy_Puppy]

Ah yeh, meant to write top4, typo there. Still, STO didn't even make it to that list.

 

How would that be pre-F2P? AFAIK SWTOR went F2P Nov 2012 and the figures from SuperData cover 2013?

 

 

 

Is that so?

http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/14/6001503/star-wars-the-old-republic-2014-players-ea-bioware , and that was even before the release of SoR.

 

STO on the other hand recently accounced 2.5 million accounts created: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1367461

 

As you say, there's a massive difference between active and created, so if SWTOR has over 1 million active accounts (and considering the quote "And the number of subscriptions has stabilized at just under half a million.") and STO have only had 2.5mil accounts created over 5 years, surely SWTOR is the one in "commanding lead".

 

thank your for proving me points...

 

STO is not listed because perfect world does not release single game revenue. It runs 15 different mmos from STO to NWN and such.

 

STO has a bigger player base.. SWTOR is finally able to sustain ok numbers but STO does have a bigger player base. ESD will have 30 to 50 zones active at prime time.. that's about 3000 players just in 1 hub. every day.

 

But again.. why are avoiding my question? If SWTOR as you claim is such a money earner. Why are patch's and balance fix's to few and far between. Every month there is some sort of bug addressed in STO and balance tweeks.

 

So if SWTOR is doing so well.. why is EA/Support so much weaker then STO or GW2 in terms of content? Heck GW2 doesn't even have a monthly sub and puts out bi monthly content.

 

Oh and FYI financial year is not based on the physical year. Such as for EA, First Quarter Fiscal Year 2014 Expectations — Ending June 30, 2013 so the report you linked was pre f2p as financial year starting in 2012

[Elracor]

thank your for proving me points...

 

STO is not listed because perfect world does not release single game revenue. It runs 15 different mmos from STO to NWN and such.

 

And the same goes for EA. In their latest reports SWTOR was put in group with Simcity and other games. SuperData uses their partnership with companies + estimates to make these overviews, so even if PW doesn't release numbers to the public, SuperData probably have access to those data or at least a decent estimate anyway.

 

If you look about halfway down of this page: http://www.superdataresearch.com/about/ , you'll see that Perfect World is listed as one of the companies they work with. Therefore I find it very unlikely SuperData would not have at least some knowledge about how much STO is earning.

 

STO has a bigger player base.. SWTOR is finally able to sustain ok numbers but STO does have a bigger player base.

 

Again, with the numbers supplied from SWTOR and STO, it's highly unlikely STO has the bigger playerbase.

Other, indirect sources:

Raptr: STO has 230k members, SWTOR has 670k members.

Reddit: /sto has 6.6k subscribers, /swtor has 40.6k subscribers

 

I have seen nothing that indicates that STO has the bigger playerbase of the two.

 

ESD will have 30 to 50 zones active at prime time.. that's about 3000 players just in 1 hub. every day.

 

It may be just 1 hub, but it's still the hub of the vast majority of the players.

SWTOR have 17 servers, and at primetime there'll be hundreds of players on Fleet, usually 2 or even 3 Fleet instances of ~50-150 each, on both factions, on each server.

 

But again.. why are avoiding my question? If SWTOR as you claim is such a money earner. Why are patch's and balance fix's to few and far between. Every month there is some sort of bug addressed in STO and balance tweeks.

 

So if SWTOR is doing so well.. why is EA/Support so much weaker then STO or GW2 in terms of content? Heck GW2 doesn't even have a monthly sub and puts out bi monthly content.

 

Because EA are greedy. If their analysts and corporate concludes they earn more money this way, that's how they are going to do it. If employing additional support and/or developers will not increase revenue accordingly, they won't do it.

 

Oh and FYI financial year is not based on the physical year. Such as for EA, First Quarter Fiscal Year 2014 Expectations — Ending June 30, 2013 so the report you linked was pre f2p as financial year starting in 2012

 

So? If Superdata grabs data from the four quarters of 2013 in their analysis, EAs financial year is irrelevant.

Edited March 7, 2015 by MFollin

[Happy_Puppy]

You making up stuff.. EvE if you report it through steam only has 1000 people on at peak when in truth there are more near 50k to 80k on at peak. PW never has released active account information. Just total numbers of accounts. So ya they work with them saying we have 2.5 million accounts. Doesn't take into account avg every day log in numbers. That information has not been released.. so its guessed at.

 

PW has never ever ever released active account numbers.. so its guess work.

The only thing they have released is total accounts... we both know that's irrelevant.

 

fiscal years are reported as I stated differently then physical years. The link stated EA 2013 fiscal report. that means it was the income for the physical 2012 year. That would mean pre f2p.

 

oh and using out side sources like redit means jack.. Im a LTS STO account holder and have a 6 month sub to SWTOR and have no account with redit.... just saying.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Happy_Puppy

[anonnn]

$13 / month if you pay in 6-month blocks which is 70-something dollars twice a year. Saving another $1/month (from the 3-month plan) is still real money saved annually, even if you have to pay $70+ up-front.

 

Just eat cheap $1.50-per-can soups several times a month and there you have it... or for the express track get the $0.17 cup-o-soups together with the cheapest frozen mixed veggies filling the cup almost to the top just before you add the boiling water lol

 

or ... You probably eat at restaurants several times a month! Just skip one fancy meal a month... and call it a sacrifice for your entertainment necessities. . .

 

Any of those things, to avoid switching to F2P-preferred !

 

.

[Anaesha]

6 months is $12.99 per month which is $77.94. This is the plan i usually use, I still wish they had a yearly plan lifetime is extreme considering the game could shut down 6 months from now. Edited March 8, 2015 by Anaesha

[anonnn]

.

Are there even any MMOs out there, that currently offer a lifetime membership plan?

 

If so what game(s) and how much does that plan cost?

 

.

[Anaesha]

.

Are there even any MMOs out there, that currently offer a lifetime membership plan?

 

If so what game(s) and how much does that plan cost?

 

.

 

Only one that I know offered one and still does is STO I don't think any others do but I could be wrong.

[Elracor]

You making up stuff.. EvE if you report it through steam only has 1000 people on at peak when in truth there are more near 50k to 80k on at peak.

 

Obviously not all Eve players are using Steam, just like not all SWTOR/STO players are using Raptr/Reddit. Still, they are indications of how big the player base is, just not proof in themselves.

 

PW never has released active account information. Just total numbers of accounts. So ya they work with them saying we have 2.5 million accounts. Doesn't take into account avg every day log in numbers. That information has not been released.. so its guessed at.

 

PW has never ever ever released active account numbers.. so its guess work.

The only thing they have released is total accounts... we both know that's irrelevant.

 

It doesn't matter if the information is released to the public or not, as long as the information is shared between PW and SuperData. Also, do read the text below:

http://images.gamenguide.com/data/images/full/13365/superdata-mmo-subscriptions.jpg?w=720

 

Worldwide market, revenue distribution and title-level earnings based on the monthly spending of 36.9 million digital gamers, worldwide, collected from developers, publisher and payment service providers

 

With other sources like payment service providers, SuperData can still get a decent estimate on how many are playing certain games even if PW isn't saying anything.

 

I disagree that total accounts are irrelevant. If STO has only managed to get 2.5 million over 5 years, there's really no way they have 1 million active accounts like SWTOR is reporting.

 

fiscal years are reported as I stated differently then physical years. The link stated EA 2013 fiscal report. that means it was the income for the physical 2012 year. That would mean pre f2p.

 

Do please point to where it states EA 2013 fiscal report.

 

oh and using out side sources like redit means jack.. Im a LTS STO account holder and have a 6 month sub to SWTOR and have no account with redit.... just saying.

 

The fact you are not using it doesn't mean anything. There's still a lot more people using SWTOR on Raptr/reddit than STO. That, albeit not proof, is still an indicator that SWTOR is the bigger playerbase.

Edited March 8, 2015 by MFollin

[Kalfear]

Only one that I know offered one and still does is STO I don't think any others do but I could be wrong.

 

I believe Lord of the Rings also has a Lifetime sub option

And Rift might offer one (or did in past) if I remember right (I seem to remember them offering up one when they were really hurting for subs in the first year of release when their sub retention went into the dumpster

badly a few months after launch)

 

But as pointed out by others before this

 

Lifetime subs typically appear when a game is in financial struggles and facing closures.

Its a last ditch effort to grab some revenue.

 

There has been a number of MMORPGs that have done the lifetime sub mechanic but those are all closed down now (normally with in 12 months of Lifetime sub being offered)

 

The latest scam revenue stream for games seems to be this "Pay for beta" scam (ok not officially a scam but anyone that pays for right to beta test a game is a moron imo) you see taking place on Steam and game websites. This concept seems to have over taken the previous fast cash grab of Lifetime subs for most part.

 

If SW:TOR offered up a Lifetime sub, I would take that as their announcement that game was closing and cancel my subscription personally.

[Elracor]

I believe Lord of the Rings also has a Lifetime sub option

 

They only had it at launch and then for a limited time ~3 years after launch. General viewpoint seems to be they will not offer it ever again, the only exception being as a rare prize in e.g. Extra Life events.

 

Lifetime subs typically appear when a game is in financial struggles and facing closures.

Its a last ditch effort to grab some revenue.

 

There has been a number of MMORPGs that have done the lifetime sub mechanic but those are all closed down now (normally with in 12 months of Lifetime sub being offered)

 

Which MMOs have actually done this? I can't remember any MMOs offering lifetime subs and then closing shortly after.

 

 

If SW:TOR offered up a Lifetime sub, I would take that as their announcement that game was closing and cancel my subscription personally.

 

Indeed. As long as Bioware is a part of EA, we can be sure the only time they'd offer lifetime it will be because the game will close or enter maintenance mode before the lifetime price "has paid off".

Edited March 8, 2015 by MFollin

[branmakmuffin]

As you all are aware [...]

Any post that begins with "As you are all aware ..." or "As we all know ..." or "To be honest ..." or "To be frank ..." is sure to be a load of hogwash.

[Kalfear]

Which MMOs have actually done this? I can't remember any MMOs offering lifetime subs and then closing shortly after.

.

 

To be honest they ones I didn't play so not ones in the AAA category

but I'm sure if you looked online you could find the names you looking for

one name that keeps popping into my head is Horizons (but for life of me I cant remember if that was shut down before or after launch as I never played it and really didnt follow it in any great form other then to see occational updates about it in monthly/weekly newsletters I get about genre/industry....but I've forgotten more info about MMORPGs then most players/people will ever know, so it might be scrambled info)

 

As I said, doa search, Im sure you can find your own answer as someone probably has made a list at some time, for some reason.

[Happy_Puppy]

Obviously not all Eve players are using Steam, just like not all SWTOR/STO players are using Raptr/Reddit. Still, they are indications of how big the player base is, just not proof in themselves.

 

 

 

It doesn't matter if the information is released to the public or not, as long as the information is shared between PW and SuperData. Also, do read the text below:

http://images.gamenguide.com/data/images/full/13365/superdata-mmo-subscriptions.jpg?w=720

 

 

 

With other sources like payment service providers, SuperData can still get a decent estimate on how many are playing certain games even if PW isn't saying anything.

 

I disagree that total accounts are irrelevant. If STO has only managed to get 2.5 million over 5 years, there's really no way they have 1 million active accounts like SWTOR is reporting.

 

 

 

Do please point to where it states EA 2013 fiscal report.

 

 

 

The fact you are not using it doesn't mean anything. There's still a lot more people using SWTOR on Raptr/reddit than STO. That, albeit not proof, is still an indicator that SWTOR is the bigger playerbase.

 

Are you really that dense? I mean not be a jerk here.. but read your own bloody link...

 

it says quote "Top Subscription based games 2013" They were linking the revenue of only subscription based games of the fiscal year.. as I already tried to explain to you that means it was in the physical year of 2012.

 

Out side source have no indicator of player base.. if you think that your deluded. That's like arguing that the whining of the forums is a indication of how the bulk of the player base feel about the game when in truth the forums groupies and trolls are a fractions of the player base. Most people who are content with the game do not come to the forums to whine about it.

 

All you can go by is what the company's have released and STO has more accounts then swtor.. we do not know and most likely ever know how many are active, sub, f2p for each game. All we have is total accounts created.

 

Also the only thing we can go on is how much support each game gets as far as patch's and content. Something that SWTOR needs to work on drastically. My only hope is that when episode VII gets closer EA starts to advertise SWTOR more in main stream and that they have content ready pull out in a timely manor for what will be a new influx of players. This happened to LOTOR and they missed a chance to keep new players.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Happy_Puppy