I have mixed feelings about F2P, as any reasonable player might have. I like the idea that since I have been with the game since the beginning (not to mention beta), that I get unique rewards. I think it tarnishes the game and companies reputation but at the same time will add more players, more content and a broader horizon for the game itself. I, myself, am going to play both SWTOR and GW2 frequently. I have learned that you CAN balance between games.

 

SWTOR is fun. But the few that still found it fun, weren't bring Bioware enough revenue to continue to make it fun. They said it themselves, they plan to stay in the game for a decade and I myself sincerely hope they do. I just hope this game doesn't turn into a Buy to Win scenario. Please Bioware, follow in GW2's footsteps and limit what the cash shop does in the game world and what ramifications it will have against people who don't frequently use it. I pray for this game to finally go in the right direction.

I am all for this F2P system and despite what others think and say and are freaking out about, I personally believe it will be good for business AND Game Experience. I Have a lot of friends who play other games and/or are just starting to get into the MMO feild, and I would love for them to come and play with me but they don't see the point when the f2p is only up to level 15 and they just aren't ready to deal out money for a game they aren't to knowledgable about! My only concern on the business end part of this is Benefits of being a sub vs. f2p member.

If I were to make my own suggestions I would say;

 

-Only Subscribers should be able to create a Legacy (Because lets face it, Legacy is ****** and i'm sure people will buy the game to get access to it and all of it's benefit)

-Make the Bonus items truly ****** (I know that they all have not been revealed yet by far lol, I'm just saying make them EPIC!!!! one I would love to see is the rainbow saber crystal and yes it is canon look it up)

-Don't allow F2P members to complete their last chapter, sure they can get to level 50 but I say they have to pay the sub to complete their story

-Limit the F2P to 2 servers. (Why 2 and not 1? have to give people to option of playing on both pvp and pve servers at the same time)

- No new titles for F2P (i.e they only get the first; Apprentice, Padawan, Agent, etc.

 

I think if you impliment restrictions such as these this will greatly Improve the communities mood, Improve the rate at which these F2P players switch to Paying Subscribers

 

P.S. one more idea that is for the Cartel Coin deal, First I would like to say I AM EXTREMELY EXCITED For this wonderful addition to the game experience, and I CANNOT WAIT For my Nihilus Mask lol! Brilliant Idea and whoever thought of it should get a definite raise haha X3 anyway, I have no idea what items cost and I am purly speculating this suggestion off of guesses but I think there should be diffent MONTHLY benefits for different teirs of subscribers because we all love to feel like our extra level of support is also getting acknowledged and rewarded. Now I could have read it wrong but to me I read that all subscribers would recieve 200 Cartel Coins a month, even new and those who Switch from F2p to Payed Account. While this is awesome, and don't get me wrong I know you don't have to do ANYTHING Like this for us in the first place, but I think I speak for all of your loyal supporters who have been with this amazing game since launch when I ask, "Could we recieve a little more than the new and Switchers from F2P subscribers?" Not much lol maybe like 250-225 instead of 200? I know you are giving us like that extra 250 and even 1k for CE owners but it will probably go pretty fast with all the awesome things in store I'm sure there will be, I think a continuous reward would be much more satisfying instead of just one large sum, whether replace or add that on. and if you do end up replacing the initial 250+ coins with a larger monthly gain could I suggest you also impliment this for different game version owners? Like DDE owners get an extra 25-50 on top of that, and CE get an extra 50-75 or something. these are just suggestions that come to mind that might make the community a bit happier <3

 

This is by far My Favorite MMO and Despite all of the hate and rable on these forums, and even though this game got off to a rocky start, I only see this game getting better and better and even with features better than any mmo I have played. I am Trully excited for all the new content that has been promised and is to come and I am not going anywhere soon, I really want to see this game prosper and become the Shining Star in the Gaming world it so deserves to be.

Edited August 3, 2012 by Syntherus

2 of my raiders already cancelled because of F2P and I can't help to fear more will do.

Who can even blame them

What makes me saddest about all this is that they shut down star wars galaxies for this game. They wanted to "steal" all the players from there to boost swtor. Makes sense if you have no sense though. THey are two DIFFERENT games. One much better for single player hence swtor and the other a TRUE star wars experience, hence swg. I played swg from day one until the end. I even put up with the combat update which was absolutely horible. But that game WAS star wars. Real space battles. Real player markets. COMPLETELY open worlds. And when I mean open I mean that an entire world map was accessable from corner to corner. You could go EVERYWHERE. This games limits you like a single player first person shooter. You are forced to only travel the paths and you can cross on foot entire planets after a few minutes. SWG would take you an hour plus. As you can see I MISS swg more than any game I have ever played. I am a paying subscriber now with swtor, however, I have never done operations or even flashpoints and only have grouped about a dozen times for the 2+, or 4 group missions. I love the single player swtor has. It really is to me a SWKOTOR 3. That is why I will continue to pay UNTIL I do all the stories for all the classes. Then guess what? Free to play!

Having seen what F2P did for Lord Of The Rings Online (very successful F2P model), I can only think this is a positive move from EA/BioWare. I guess it just depends how greedy they get with the micro-transaction system they use for it.

 

Turbine (LotRO) were very generous with F2P content unlocking and at the same time had a great selection of micro-transaction stuff to compliment it. It worked well. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it elevated their MMO success to record profits and players, compared to their subscription based model, breathing life back into a dying game.

I don't really like this F2P change, but I am still staying subscribed. I plan to keep it that way until very first P2W item appears in the shop. And to say it very clear, in next minute I will leave and never ever come back to this game.

So it is 3am, I had to take a moment to allow this news to sink in and not reply with an emotional response.

 

However, I am very upset. I was in the beta. I have played since the early start days. I had such high hopes that this was a MMO that I could play for years. Sadly, I see a game that has a smaller staff to fix a huge list of bugs. I see a game that will release new content before all the bugs are fixed to keep what few paying players happy and try to bring in new ones. I see a game that is on course to die a slow death.

 

Programmers will be hired and fired, Producers will rotate out as better projects come along and in the end there will be a last note stating that it has been a great experience and Star Wars fans/players are the best. The words will be hollow... as the game died long before they were typed.

 

My heart is broke.

Bummer - oh well.

I really dont think this is the best idea I highly doubt they will listen to us....But I just dont want the 10 or 15 years olds causing trouble on the servers I've played all over the gaming community and kids dont know how to behave...

Maybe there will be an option to not see chat from F2P players. I will stay subed so i can complete all the stories i want and with the F2P option, allot more options for grouping even at the times i play.

Milk whatever it left eh? There's nothing wrong with that, dark-side that you are, lol... This tell me you guys have giving up and decided this game is a bust. Should of hire me, a true gamer that knows what the fan and gamer really wants. lol...

Milk whatever it left eh? There's nothing wrong with that, dark-side that you are, lol... This tell me you guys have giving up and decided this game is a bust. Should of hire me, a true gamer that knows what the fan and gamer really wants. lol...

 

they should have listen to us (the players) in the first place.... then this game would be what it should be: the greatest game ever.

ahhhhh this huge ammount of communication from EA/BW with their community is amazing.... kinda renews my faith in other companies....

NCsoft, come back, I forgive you....

So let me sum up 80 some odd pages:

 

Good job on going F2P.

F2P sucks me and my friends quit.

 

Edited August 3, 2012 by RoboRope

This should never of happened. You have no one else to blame but yourselves for releasing the game way before it was ready, and for your cheap shortcuts trying to save money. Your poor decision making as well as lack of proper testing of the game has led to this point. Pissing off the player base is never a good business model and you have done it many, many times. It is an ultimate failure of management, who are probably more then happy to drive the game into the ground with there bad idea's then move on. Here is a working business model for next time, listen to your customers, do not Nerf players/characters, do not release a product before its ready and polished, don't be so cheap on tech and staff, fire some of the useless management/board to pay for it all.

Sarcasm Font: Bioware is just greedy. I can't believe that they want more money! They think that they can do whatever they want with the game they made, but I have HAD it. I will no longer be subscribing... to a game that I no longer need to subscribe to in order to play. Edited August 3, 2012 by Esro-Falak

This should never of happened. You have no one else to blame but yourselves for releasing the game way before it was ready, and for your cheap shortcuts trying to save money. Your poor decision making as well as lack of proper testing of the game has led to this point. Pissing off the player base is never a good business model and you have done it many, many times. It is an ultimate failure of management, who are probably more then happy to drive the game into the ground with there bad idea's then move on. Here is a working business model for next time, listen to your customers, do not Nerf players/characters, do not release a product before its ready and polished, don't be so cheap on tech and staff, fire some of the useless management/board to pay for it all.

Couldn't agree more..

 

Anyways, if that's the case, why not making the game BUY to play instead of FREE? Free games get loads and loads and LOADS of "freeloaders" who simply want to kill some time with a free game, "grief" the actual players for the fun of it, or even try to sabotage the community.. You want more people? Ditch the subscription, and make the game buy to play.. It's just that simple, and it works.. If a game is good enough, people wouldn't mind paying for a major expansion pack (new planets, classes, stories - No i do not support level cap raises, i support more content), and everyone is happy about it..

 

Do you honestly think that you have enough and active GMs to address all the problems a F2P game brings with it? As when a freeloader "Troll" comes in and eventually gets banned for harassing people, it will only make a new account, and go back into the game, and repeat it's trolling.. I could point some fingers towards some good games who went F2P and ended up a troll's den, nut that would be name and shame..

 

Don't get me wrong, there are good players amongst those who prefer a free to play model, but sadly they are too damn few for this model to work properly.. Trust me on this..

 

[sarcasm]

That's all happening to make a KOTOR 3!

[/sarcasm]

Brillaint article here-

 

A log of interviews showing Bioware dead against F2P for TOR (not against it as a whole but for their game format). They also go on about constant promise of monthly updates and towards the end the whole tide is turned.

F2P is good for them and the monthly content updates as promised for a monthly fee is now unatainable and can not be done basicly...... what a joke.

 

http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/bioware-mmo-project/1225612p1.html

 

BioWare's founding doctors came out not in favor of Pay-For-Better-Progression (aka F2P). Here it is happening anyway. Maybe it will finally sink in with people that the founders don't get to make the big decisions anymore.

 

Those really pulling the strings of direction with EA's BioWare Division don't have the title of Vice-President.

Show me one game that has gone under since it has gone Free to Play or has less payers then before it was Free to Play, you cant, can you? Because none exist. Free to Play is the new industry standard, if you dont like it, go play checkers because in 2 years you wont fine a single MMO that is still 100% sub based.

 

Shadowbane, 2003-2009.

 

R.I.P

Sadly you could see this coming since before launch. They were going on a late 1990's WOW model. Why do gaming companies do that? Yes WOW is the king. But WOW stumbled into success. It wasn't because of their model. Think back. Sony got full of themselves and alienated a large portion of it's community. Trying to force people to leave EQ and go to EQ II or Galaxies. The only other choices were Ultima Online. WOW launched ugly, no one would put up with it's problems these days. But no one had any place to go. So they toughed it out. WOW used that time to make itself better and the rest is history. WOW also benefited from a huge reduction in the cost of buying new computers at the time. And a big expansion of faster internet. And they also benefited hugely from "chinese farmers" who payed to play as a job. Selling in game money and items for real money. They literally stumbled into a once in a life time chance. So trying to copy their model is a recipe for disaster IMO.

 

All these games launching today are in an extremely over saturated market. The world wide economy is also down. If you don't launch with your AAA game, most give you 3 months. After that, your done. As players move on to the next big promised game coming out. F2P is the model most failed games use to survive. To make enough money to try to make their next MMO.

 

I guess it's not all bad news. Maybe this F2P move will wake up EA and Bioware to the fact, they didn't do everything right. Just because yes men tell you your great, doesn't mean your great. Awards from fellow companies do not equate to success. Sure the game has great aspects. But the truth is, it just doesn't have anything to keep you playing. What do you do after you hit 50? Most guilds easily beat the raid content, probably in weeks. In truth you can only pvp, for the gear, farm legacy. And then farm credits for the next hoped expansion.

 

This shows banking on the games replay value was a huge mistake. If you want to play with the big boys you gotta bring something to the table. Story is nice, but it's no substitute for having something to do.

 

It still boggles my mind. How did EA, which owns Warhammer. Not use it's RVR system to give this game at least a decent pvp system? SWTOR lent itself to a 3 faction RVR system, which would of fixed the flaws in Warhammer's RVR. A 3 way RVR would of kept PVP types busy for about a year. A 3rd faction would of also allowed for a truly neutral faction. Backing neutral choice rewards. Making all aspects of choice valid. The lessons from Warhammer should of also shown them you need to fully support both PVE and PVP. Fully supporting PVE meant launching with a fully supported raid and guild perks system. Raiding and guild perks should of kept most guilds busy for the first year.

 

Then you own Bioware and are having them make this. Why? So they could give it that KOTOR/Mass Effect feel. You gave us story. But you forgot, to give us choices that really matter. No neutral rewards takes away that feel. But much worse than that, you didn't give us KOTOR/Mass Effect mini games. Again this would of helped keep us busy for the first year.

 

Also WOW wasn't super easy to level when it first launched. It wasn't as much of a grind as EQ. But it took a strong gamer like 6 months to reach cap. Average players a year or more. Guilds seemed to take like 3 years to get to the end of content.

 

So the simple lesson is put stuff in that will keep players busy. Busy but happy with their favorite game aspects. Legacy and alt leveling, because you have nothing else to do. Is annoying. It is not keeping PVE people happy. It is not keeping PVP people happy. It does not keep guild people happy. It doesn't help the game's economy. Instead of concentrating on meaningless fluff. why not show us the beef? Give us stuff to do that makes each gamer group happy.

 

Hopefully EA/Bioware can now stop licking their wounds and nursing their pride. And stand up like adults, roll up their sleeves and at least try to save the game. Everything you did early on, has not led to your imagined success. Now it's time to re evaluate. And fix stuff. This game currently has no meat. To put it plainly, my suggestions to save this game are...

 

1. Real end game content. Maybe 40 man raids. Maybe farm resist gear before you can start. Maybe lower drop rates, and get rid of "coins" and make guilds earn raid gear the old fashion way. By farming the raid.

 

2. 3 faction RVR. Maybe make BH and S neutral, bring in Gray Jedi for a neutral faction. Make neutral choices worth something. Have the 3 factions fight over neutral planets. None Empire, Republic, Hutt Cartel controled.

 

3. Bring in Bioware mini games. Make this game feel like KOTOR. Maybe speeder racing, pvp and pve arena fights. PVE and PVP bounties like in KOTOR. Pazaak. Betting on all of these things.

 

4. Guild perk/level system. Obviously have crafting, pve, and pvp areas a guild can specialize in.

 

5. Higher levels, more planets and maybe more races.

 

 

The key point is, what does the new content your adding do to make all aspects of the gaming community happily busy enjoying your game. I believe all of my suggestions are more then doable and cheap enough to implement. IMO it would certainly go further to keep or regaining subs. Than cosmetic fluffy changes. Like adding to the legacy system.

F2P till level 50?.

 

Congrats you've just killed swtor.

 

Actually, the only successful non-F2P MMO atm is World of Warcraft. And THAT can only get away with it because it already has millions of subscribers, it IS the industry standard, and because those who play it are hopelessly addicted. In fact, one of the most successful MMO series apart from WoW is the Guild Wars series, and that has NEVER had subscription. It's still wildly successful, and the sequel looks fantastic. SWTOR may be going F2P, but I can honestly tell you that it will be the single best F2P MMO out there once it does.

 

For the record, one of the most recent MMOs killed by it's refusal to go F2P? SWG. Lots of fans, but they couldn't do the monthly fee and so it couldn't sustain itself.

Couldn't agree more..

 

Anyways, if that's the case, why not making the game BUY to play instead of FREE? Free games get loads and loads and LOADS of "freeloaders" who simply want to kill some time with a free game, "grief" the actual players for the fun of it, or even try to sabotage the community.. You want more people? Ditch the subscription, and make the game buy to play.. It's just that simple, and it works.. If a game is good enough, people wouldn't mind paying for a major expansion pack (new planets, classes, stories - No i do not support level cap raises, i support more content), and everyone is happy about it..

 

Do you honestly think that you have enough and active GMs to address all the problems a F2P game brings with it? As when a freeloader "Troll" comes in and eventually gets banned for harassing people, it will only make a new account, and go back into the game, and repeat it's trolling.. I could point some fingers towards some good games who went F2P and ended up a troll's den, nut that would be name and shame..

 

Don't get me wrong, there are good players amongst those who prefer a free to play model, but sadly they are too damn few for this model to work properly.. Trust me on this..

 

[sarcasm]

That's all happening to make a KOTOR 3!

[/sarcasm]

 

Works for Guild Wars. 'Tis still a fairly successful game with expansions, and the sequel looks like it will do just as well if not better.

So let me sum up 80 some odd pages:

 

Good job on going F2P.

F2P sucks me and my friends quit.

 

 

Thank you, you have saved us all an immeasurable amount of time. I shall now go back to playing the game we're all kvetching about, since I honestly don't care if it's F2P or not.

Get it through your thick heads, BioWare and EA!

 

If you stopped worrying about numbers and started caring about...

- Quality content to do at maximum level

- Smoother game engine

- Responding better and more regularly to customer feedback

- Better environments to explore

 

...you'd recieve better press about SWTOR and the subscribers would have flocked to you!

 

Instead, you crave subscriber numbers, Legacy "perks" and a myriad of other things that don't develop the game at all! You relied too much on the Star Wars title and didn't develop an immersive, enjoyable game. THAT'S why people are leaving. NOT because it cost them money, but because the game's content wasn't WORTH paying for!

the CE owners get 1000 more and items while DDE owners are the @@ for ya, nice unfairness

1 of the reasons that this game goes f2p so soon

give the half coins and some of those items to DDE owners

Edited August 3, 2012 by Kissakias