I need numbers.

What *EXACTLY* are the differences between free players and subscribers?

How many character slots, what species, how many bank tabs etc etc.

This super vague announcement is worse than no announcement at all,

because half-information is worse than no information at all.

All this creates is anger, confusion, knee-jerk reactions to a topic

that is already loaded with negative connotations about how other games did it.

 

And who the fork is this Hickman guy, never heard of him before.

This needs answers from people we can trust, not some dude.

Way to screw the Wampa again, Bioware.

 

And I actually like the game and intend to support it further. Geez.

I like the idea of more frequent content patches and exclusive gear/items/perks for being a subber.

 

This!

 

Don't ever get of this path and it will be glorious!

 

/ This is not the datacron you are looking for.. move along.

SWTOR will mirror Aion? B2W?

ROFL, so you will buy a BioWare game as long as somone threatens or beats you? The Sky is Falling The Sky is Falling

 

Come on dude, get a grip. This changes nothing, all it does and get more ppl to comeback or try the game, your sub still gives you the same game and more. Seriously, I cant see how anyone with at least a IQ of 20 cant see this as a positive.

 

Exactly, Its going to get people in, and yes, there will be a lot of casuals in the 1-50 grind, but that's the case already.

What this will do is get people in and enjoying the game, then the people who do enjoy it will go sub and push endgame, It should actually clean up Ops and Rated WZs buy setting aside a more selective few who are really committed...

Does this mean you will allow me to buy a Purple Lightsaber crystal to use during my leveling process? God I hope so.

I was a subscriber to the Lord of the Rings Online, DC Universe Online, and Star Trek Online, and went through each of their transitions to Free-to-Play. Based on my experience in those three other settings, here's my prediction for SWTOR when it goes Free-to-Play:

 

It's doomed. That's right, doomed. No amount of wishful thinking on the part of those who are just hoping against hope that the game will get better, or even just stay the same for them, will make any difference. EA / BioWare's only goal will be to get people to buy things from the Cartel Store. You will no longer be able to immerse yourself in the Star Wars universe and take your character seriously (except when in cutscenes), as you will be surrounded by players wearing/ utilizing Cartel Store items that make noise, shoot fireworks, etc., making a mockery of any amount of story gravitas. Low-level characters will be able to buy and wear clothes and armor ill-befitting their status, and will run around shouting their "leet" status. Think of how Star Wars Galaxies screwed up at the end with its iconic class system where everyone could be a Jedi. Well, anyone here with real-world money will be able to pimp out their character from day one. As for the shenanigans that you will see going on from the F2P players, think naked toons in Goldshire in WoW, and you will only have begun to conceive of the approaching horror.

 

Sorry to be so blunt, but I see no reason to pretend otherwise. My friends, the party, such as it was, is over with the coming Free-to-Play. Back to KotOR, or whatever else fed your Star Wars craving. For me, I shall slip into The Secret World.

to all those reading this.. write an email to every gaming magazine you can think of begging them to rate this idea exceptionally poorly. If enough people convince the media that this is a bad idea then maybe this can be saved. That is the only way the devs will pay attention. They have all but stopped reading the forums. and they certainly don't care at all that no one but them, the greedy corporate suck ups, want to bilk the fans out of every red cent.

 

Remember this is star wars.. and we are the ones who will make or break this.

Hey devs just to get my point across this idea is worse than creation of Jar Jar or having Greedo shooting first. This is that bad.

 

Get a clue and pay attention to the fan base. we will not accept this. and you thought loosing 600K subscribers was bad wait till your out another 800K for this travesty and assault. this will go down in history as the thing that kill a star wars MMO.... you will be laughed at just like Sony when they kill galaxies... you will loose your contract with Lucas and they will find someone else unless you stop this garbage.... this has got to be painfully obvious.

Edited August 1, 2012 by SidneyFault
formatting

They ended swg for this......

well i had planned on subbing for a little longer but seeing how Im getting slapped in the face for not buying a collectors editon you just blew that. Thanks for making my decision for me. But hey reward the people that just spent more when they first got the game not the loyal subscribers you've had since day 1.

I think this will be good for me and others with lvl 50 characters, because:

 

1. F2P people will spend money on stuff that will reward them with an instantaneous experience/piece of kit.

 

2. F2P people will hit 50 and their F2P experience will end

 

3. Money the F2P person has spent will go in to creating more HM FP, Operations and Warzones for JB with his subscribed 50 toon and his fellow subscribers that the F2P will not be able to experience.

 

4. Thanks F2P people

 

Although I do have one request.

 

Can we get the F2P people to have their own colour and filter with the ability to switch off in General Chat?

 

I foresee the F2P community being made up of kids, trolls, haters and whingers. Whilst they exist now, they're a small minority.

 

I just want their money for my lvl 50 toons progression and fun. I don't want to actually hear what they have to say.

They ended swg for this......

 

Exactly...that is my main issue here as well.

 

Nowadays more and more company decides turning their games to F2P hoping that it will bring more players to their games. On one hand they are right and a lot of new players will show up ...for a while at least. Those who only want to try the game and just spend some time with it will leave in a few weeks. Of course, there will be some new players to replace them. The problem here is that they wont pay for anything.

 

In most of the cases when a game is f2p it is a long-long grind and you are forced to buy some tools in the store or otherwise your gaming experience will be down to a mindless grind. that is pathetic.

 

Others spend more money on the game, especially if you can get some imba stuff for your money. That is again something that is not fair because you are forced to buy things or else you will fail at pvp or pve.

 

So, this f2p model only suits the cheap ones.

 

Some people might think how good it is not having to pay a subscription fee for a game and then they realise after a while that they spend more money on the game than they did before. You see something in the store and say, oh, thats good and its only 1 euro or something like that...but when you spend 1 eu or 50c every day on something then it is more expensive than paying the monthly subscription fee. It is so easy to add new stuff for money.

 

Something else: We havent really heard any details yet. F2p until lvl 50. What happens after that? They need a subscription? How many character slots will they have? What content will they not be able to access? What the devs will do to lag? If there are queues, will the subscribers have an advantage or we will be in the same queue? Will there be any moderations, restrictions? I dont want to see 100s of 12 year olds spamming general chat with all kinds of curses or speaking 100s of languages. I am not a native English but I dont really like it when ppl speak other languages in general.

 

So, with this model well see plenty of new players running around without a clue, ruining the others game experience in wzs and in fps as well. As a subscriber I will have to fight for mobs etc in quest zones because theyll be full.

 

I have been around here since head start but I am thinking about leaving this when it goes to f2p.

 

And the saddest thing is that SWG was shut down because of this...

My previous experience withh MMOs was lotro. When they changed to free to play it killed the game, we even nicknamed it pay to win, as you can purchase extra anti stun pots and health pots etc from the store which gave an advantage over other players. Basically the more money you have in real life the more advantage you had over other players. Only recently bioware where quoted in saying they would not be using the free to play model, now less than a year into the game they have changed there minds and have released this announcement. Instead of this why don't they just provide the original support they said the would provide to the game prior to launch. Spend more time fixing the bugs, provide world gm,s release new content faster, you will find that you don't loose players and more people will join. I am so disappointed.

Well i think its a good idea, now lets hope they dont add pay to win items or boosts in the cartel shop.

the only good thing that can come from this free to play with all the nubs we can rise the prices of items on the GTN so nubs can't now ever afford all the high end gear that people craft and if so we can all make a crap load off their fail asses lol

 

A perfect example of the high quality player base SWTOR currently has ,that is threatened by the invading armies of the immature 10 year old people.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Enkenon

Don't think they really had a choice.

It was either f2p or 200k subs by the end of the year.

I see a lot of players who didn't consider SWTOR to be worth paying a sub for,returning ,and the player base expanding.

What is really important though is how they are going to handle future game expansions.

LOL, SWTOR goes f2p just in time for me to go back to FFXIV 2.0. Thanks EA for your narrow minded views on video game development. I'm sure someday your stocks might be worth $14.99 bucks again.

Am i the only bothered by the fact that they use an Inquisitor with a hood and mask picture on the main page of the site to share this news?

 

And we cant get it :

Well i think its a good idea, now lets hope they dont add pay to win items or boosts in the cartel shop.

 

Ha Ha Ha , Oh yes i'm sure that won't happen. Electronic Arts having such a fine and upstanding morale compass and having such a great rapport with their customer base. Oh and also the fact that i'm sure in other ftp conversions cosmetics and fluff are the big sellers not Pay to Win items.

 

Have a look at what sells in other vertically scaling gear grind mmo type models that went free to play and you will have a pretty good idea of what will sell best in SWTOR. Just ask yourself if you wanted to make a lot of money and didn't care much about your existing playerbase what would you choose to sell in the shop?

Looking at the actual proposed model, it's not Free To Play, it's Freemium aka play the game and get gouged any time you want to do anything (or subscribe, you can still subscribe). Personally, I'll take the subscription thanks. Anyone foolish enough to fall for clever marketing tricks designed to con you into thinking you're paying nothing whilst quietly bleeding you through microtransactions deserves everything they get - oh wait, they're already over in games like World of Tanks spending $200 a month (no, really, that much has been spent).

 

As long as ridiculously over-priced items don't turn up, and 'normal' content can be accessed as normal by subscribers, I am not that bothered. The day I can't get normal TOR content as a subscriber because EA decided hey, we'd like a little more money please, will be the day I do stop playing & paying.

 

One worry I have is what happened with LOTRO, that an otherwise mature community of adults disintegrated the moment free access was granted, but then I look at TOR's forums and think 'there is no mature community of adults', so it's less of a problem.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Grammarye

Excellent decision Bioware, I applaud you and look forward to what you provide for the players.

 

I for one will continue to subscribe so that I can enjoy everything the game has to offer and get the perks that come with it. I have been a subscriber since Day 1 of Early Access with the Collector's Edition. I enjoy the game and the content you provide, despite what all the haters and trolls have to say (every day) about how "terrible" the game is.

 

I believe this new model is an acknowledgement of the changing business model of online gaming and reflects the best way to approach the market now.

 

+1, waiting for more info to pass onto friends who left.

Morning all.

 

I spent, (real life money) in purchase:

 

1. Pre order Collectors Edition,

2. 180 days suscription,

3. Razer SWTOR, mouse, mouse pad, keyboard and headset,

4. SWTOR Prime Guide,

4. Not related to the topic, but I bought a new rig, wich cost me like $3,000, only to play SWTOR,

5. Bought a website for my guild www.therevengeofnight.com,

6. Etc.

 

My question is:

 

The people, like us, who spent a lot of money, beliving in your game, who supports your game, who plays your game, will have best gear/content/ops/wz? And I mean, if I paid $15.00 per month, can I have better gear for example? Or just a fanzy outfit, like "used boxers from Darth Vader which glows in the dark".

 

If I paid $15.00 per month, can I have direct acces to the "store" and purchase "special items"? Or anybody CAN purchase the special items, for example the F2P "gamers"?

 

Because if the F2P "gamers" can purchase "special items" from the "special store", which is the point to paid $15.00 per month?

If I can paid for "special items" to have the best gear in game, do I need to do my "daily commendations"?

 

And the spammers... do you have any "strategy" for the spammers, you know, the people who sold in game credits for real money, for example, I'm a F2P "gamer", but anoher gamer, (you know, the people who paid suscription), wants to sold me some "special items", (only availabe for the people who paid a montlhy suscription) as a F2P "gamer" can I have it?

 

You really need to clarify not only THIS QUESTIONS, but every single question made in this topic.

 

Damn Bioware I really trust in you! Why you do something like this? I really enjoy YOUR game, the people like us, who paid you salaries deserve better things!

 

I really hope you answer this.

 

And please, do the War Zones only available for suscribers!!

 

Sorry for my spelling but I'm angry and tired.

 

Kind Regards.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Ushuma-Orbi

 

Although I do have one request.

 

Can we get the F2P people to have their own colour and filter with the ability to switch off in General Chat?

 

I foresee the F2P community being made up of kids, trolls, haters and whingers. Whilst they exist now, they're a small minority.

 

I just want their money for my lvl 50 toons progression and fun. I don't want to actually hear what they have to say.

 

I support this idea.

Well for me the good news is that while we currently pay 3 subscriptions in my house after f2p is launched we wont. The bad news is that I can see many other households doing the same thing which means less investment, less development and a slow decline into a trinket heavy but generally shallow world environment.

 

It's also quite anoying that I just took out another 6 month subscription.

Like any big change.... only time will tell. Content is king in the MMO world. A f2p system isn't at it's core a bad system, it's just a matter of how it's structured. As a founder, I would love to see more people flock to the game. Yes you will have your 12 year old's, and yes you will have your trolls. But on the bright side, if bringing in more folks fuels future content creation for the sub's then it's fine by me. If it gravitates to a ptw system, then that's it... no more swtor. The founders and current subs of the game would bail, and the new subscribers would follow. But if they add that new content quickly enough, and truly reward the subs while still enticing the newcomers with how attractive it is, then they may very well breathe new life into what is now a currently stalled game.

Anyone reacting to this news with the flippant comment of "that's it, I quit!!" is exactly the kind of person I would be more than happy to see go. Your ignorance is expressed in jumping to such a quick and hasty decision. In all likelihood this is the 12 year old or troll that we don't want around anyway. The obviousness of this is shown in how important they think they are to the continuation of the game, and how their self important statement of their leaving is going to spell doom for BW. World events, a new level cap, new war zones and raids will be the deciding factors. The timetable on new content however is extremely critical. I for one would hope there would be a major update coinciding with the release of the f2p option. Something other than just cosmetic changes purchased with tokens. This too would show some dedication on BW's side to the game and how all this is going to play out.

 

So there you have it..... Only time will tell...... Here's to BW not screwing the pooch on this....

Edited August 1, 2012 by Lahandra

The only way ill stick with this game is if they but the F2P players on isolated servers.