My main issue with F2P is not microtransactions themselves. It can be done well. My problem is with the mindset of the one in charge. It does not impress.

This x100. Its not F2P or micros were worried about... the thing to worry over is that its EA in charge of it.

Well, that bodes well!

Just kidding.

Yep, I can see it.

 

You get to that final door before the last boss in the raid. Everyone clicks on the door and gets a $ over their head. The game opens up a dialog asking you for $1 to continue the raid...

 

Definitely possible in this game's future.

Rofl, I can picture that as well. Awesome, and so utterly utterly sad, sigh.

It absolutely boggles my mind that you can have audio of the CEO in charge of the game we're playing and discussing (if you can call majority of what happens on these forums "discussion"), and you can claim it has no relevance to the situation and laugh it off.

 

I'm not positive where all this will end up, but to act as if there's no valid reason for concern is astounding.

 

"Honey, HONEY WAKE UP! There's a man outside our bedroom window with a hockey mask an a knife!"

 

"Go back to bed woman, there's no evidence he's going to come in here..."

LOL...Your response totally WTFPwnd Andryah.

+1000 internetz for you

We are doomed. It was hard enough justifying playing during lull times between operation content expansions. They have literally pushed me into only subbing when new OPERATION content is added, since they include all fluff content as "content updates" that will come more frequently. Make no bones about it, the operation content will not increase in frequency. Especially not with the new slimmer staffed bioware going forward.

Guess ill go knock out Heroic Deathwing and then buy GW2 when it launches. *sigh*

GG bioware GG

Well wanna thank EA for solving a doubt I had for some months now......when they announced they'll be re-launching their NBA Live brand, I thougth for a moment "which one do I get? EA's NBA or 2k13?

After yesterday is pretty much an obvious choice...

I remember in battlefield bad company, originally the only way to unlock the best guns in a class was by playing the class for a while and getting so many kills with each rifle or whatever weapon you used. I played sniper and it took me forever to unlock the Barrett rifle. Lo and behold they eventually let players just pay to unlock everything, a couple dollars instead of actually spending the time to do it yourself. It annoyed me a little that I apparently needlessly spent all that time, but not gonna lie I did pay to unlock the guns for the other classes.

If paying to immediately unlock something you could unlock yourself via hours and hours of grinding is their model I wouldn't be surprised because they've already done that.

I remember in battlefield bad company, originally the only way to unlock the best guns in a class was by playing the class for a while and getting so many kills with each rifle or whatever weapon you used. I played sniper and it took me forever to unlock the Barrett rifle. Lo and behold they eventually let players just pay to unlock everything, a couple dollars instead of actually spending the time to do it yourself. It annoyed me a little that I apparently needlessly spent all that time, but not gonna lie I did pay to unlock the guns for the other classes.

 

If paying to immediately unlock something you could unlock yourself via hours and hours of grinding is their model I wouldn't be surprised because they've already done that.

That's pretty much how all the F2P developers justify Pay To Win. "Look, you don't have to buy it, we're just giving you the option to buy it! You could also obtain it in game, if you like. Just kill twelve world bosses on the winter solstice, and open the hidden chest. It's a 1% drop rate."

That's pretty much how all the F2P developers justify Pay To Win. "Look, you don't have to buy it, we're just giving you the option to buy it! You could also obtain it in game, if you like. Just kill twelve world bosses on the winter solstice, and open the hidden chest. It's a 1% drop rate."

lmao.

I snorted a bit reading this. Embarrassing.

I think this is some of the things people for f2p are failing to take into consideration.. this is EA doing free to play. If their original ideas don't produce the desired revenue, this game will turn into a pay to win game guaranteed.

Which is why I rebuttal with a comment like...

there is no way to know for sure how this will work out till months after its release. People play MMO's depending on content above all else. The PvP has to be fun, the PvE has to be challenging but balanced and fun as well. Quests and new zones have to bring fresh ideas to the board along with fresh graphics, both gear and environment wise.

In the end the f2p system will have nothing to do with this game failing. f2p systems that have failed, only fail because of the lack of content or failure at bringing new ideas into the new content, they see their revenue not increasing, or decreasing so they usually add gimmick items in the stores.

Even then though, the idea of adding the gimmick items is solely on the devs, not the f2p system itself. It's the devs and upper management who say "We'd rather not try hard, we'd rather make it easy to get money"

Stop fearmongering - thats not the F2P model they are using.

this is EA we are talking about, their track record speaks for itself, can i save this so i can come back with a big i told you so when the first pay2win items hit the store?

I think this is some of the things people for f2p are failing to take into consideration.. this is EA doing free to play. If their original ideas don't produce the desired revenue, this game will turn into a pay to win game guaranteed.

I think the thing that the anti-f2p crowd are ignoring is that examples like this are of games that only offer the f2p model after purchase. SWTOR is not following this model.

This isn't baseless fear mongering though, many people are talking from both experience with other MMOs and just general knowledge of what EA are like. If you don't like people being worried about where this game's future lays, I suggest you stop reading the forums.

Actually, yes it is baseless fear mongering.

Compare actual Freemium MMOs, and then I will consider listening to you.

this is EA we are talking about, their track record speaks for itself, can i save this so i can come back with a big i told you so when the first pay2win items hit the store?

Since this will be their first Freemium MMO effort, you are wrong. There is no EA datapoint, but there are Freemium MMO data points in the market.

Freemium (as in true dual access models, not monetized F2Ps).

It is much more probable that they follow along the lines of successful Freemium MMOs such as Turbine produces. (NOT the silly Asian and Russian monetized F2Ps you are trying to use as a metric)

I think the thing that the anti-f2p crowd are ignoring is that examples like this are of games that only offer the f2p model after purchase. SWTOR is not following this model.

Exactly.

well i cant be arsed to argue with the f2p rainbows and sunshine crowd, im sorry that you havent seen EA continually DROP SUPPORT OF THEIR PRODUCTS less than a year after release, if you think they are out to "Save this game" and give you magical waterfalls of weekly content you are in for a very rude awakening.

i dont trust anything out of the mouth of ANY of these guys for the simple fact that THEY ARE SELLING ME SOMETHING , im sorry that you live in lalalala land and cant realize this game is already a financial failure and they are only looking to recoup the money invested in it during development, i can promise you that 3 months after free 2 play we will start seeing stuff that subbers will have to buy or grind for months on end , keep drinking the kool aid buddy

Just for folks wondering what's potentially in store for TOR's F2P model, I thought I'd offer EA CEO John Riccitiello's musings on microtransactions:

 

 

The highlight for me?

 

 

 

Something to think about.

so if that interview is over a year old how come they haven't added anything like that in ANY of their games with cash shops?? It's not in any of the Battlefields, it's not in Mass Effect 3, it's not in Warhammer Wrath of Heros, that example has never showed up in a single game.

so what makes you think it will show up in SWTOR?

• If this weren't EA, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt.
  
• If we hadn't seen Cryptic and PWE slip into Pay2Win, I'd give EA the benefit of the doubt.
  
• If I hadn't seen All Points Bulletin die and get reborn as the Pay2Win All Points Bulletin: Reloaded, I'd give EA the benefit of the doubt.
  
• If Riccitiello didn't
  about how charging for advantages rakes in the dough, I'd give EA the benefit of the doubt.
  
• If Ben Cousins didn't excuse and justify allowing players to buy advantages in PvP and PvE environments through his Paying to Win slideshow released last year, I'd give EA the benefit of the doubt.
  

• If this weren't EA, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt.
  
• If we hadn't seen Cryptic and PWE slip into Pay2Win, I'd give EA the benefit of the doubt.
  
• If I hadn't seen All Points Bulletin die and get reborn as the Pay2Win All Points Bulletin: Reloaded, I'd give EA the benefit of the doubt.
  
• If Riccitiello didn't
  about how charging for advantages rakes in the dough, I'd give EA the benefit of the doubt.
  
• If Ben Cousins didn't excuse and justify allowing players to buy advantages in PvP and PvE environments through his Paying to Win slideshow released last year, I'd give EA the benefit of the doubt.
  

ummm EA has absolutely NOTHING to do with APB.

EA was the distrubitor not the publisher. It is K2 network that bought APB and made it Pay to Win.

When you are six hours into playing Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your clip, and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you're really not very price sensitive at that point in time...We're not gouging, but we're charging.

I die lol and get full ammo after I respawn

ummm EA has absolutely NOTHING to do with APB.

 

EA was the distrubitor not the publisher. It is K2 network that bought APB and made it Pay to Win.

You don't think I know that? It's still an example of a game that shifted from a retail/subscription model to a Free-to-Play model that's been drilled down into a Pay2Win PvP contest. (I've been with APB and APB:R since Realtime Worlds set up their second CBT stage. I know full well what happened.)

You don't think I know that? It's still an example of a game that shifted from a retail/subscription model to a Free-to-Play model that's been drilled down into a Pay2Win PvP contest. (I've been with APB and APB:R since Realtime Worlds set up their second CBT stage. I know full well what happened.)

so you don't rust EA because a company that has nothing to do with ea went Pay to win???

yeah i don't think you do understand