If the game were to go F2P + microtransactions, what will old subs get?

.I've played F2P games for years and I never had even the slightest inclination to spend any money in the game.

All I have to say is this: look at the player numbers in-game. Look at how crowded the ~100 North American servers were in the first few months. And now 10 are left with >= standard population. How can you seriously think that this is not a reason for concern, even from a business standpoint of a developer?

And if we do simple math:
aprox. 200 crowded servers at launch (Europe+North America)
aprox. 20 crowded servers today (Europe+North America)
That means that ~90% of the playerbase left. And there is NO reason for concern? Okay...



Remember that first of all that announcement was made in April.
Second, remember that there are many people (including myself) who are benefiting from the free 30 days offered as a promotion after patch 1.2. These players also count towards the number of total subscribers.



The vast majority of players lose interest in a game after the first few months. Very few have the patience to wait 1 year for a game to become good.
By that time most of them would've moved to a different game already.

Bottom line is if you haven't been able to convince people to stay after the initial launch hype, chances that you will do so after 1 friggin' year are very, very slim?
Let's face it, TOR peaked 4 months ago.

I've been playing this game since the day of release. If this game goes F2P and puts in microtransactions, what will the past subscribers get? Will they have to pay for them too? Or do they get them for free?

I dont want some new player buying all of them and then getting better stuff than me, and is further ahead than me in 2 weeks than all of my stuff put together in 6 months. Would they just leave everyone to buy microtransactions or will old players be rewarded or something? Not that im asking for free items, I am simply asking what people think will happen.

somewhat, i don't think free to play game company would hope to have all or even most their player communities act the same, or they can just go bankrupt right now.

Assuming, for argument sake, 1 millions sub at $15, they need to come up with a model that beat a $15 millions dollars a month.

Free game are good for you, but if it's totally free, how can a company make it a business?

I've been playing this game since the day of release. If this game goes F2P and puts in microtransactions, what will the past subscribers get? Will they have to pay for them too? Or do they get them for free?

I dont want some new player buying all of them and then getting better stuff than me, and is further ahead than me in 2 weeks than all of my stuff put together in 6 months. Would they just leave everyone to buy microtransactions or will old players be rewarded or something? Not that im asking for free items, I am simply asking what people think will happen.

somewhat, i don't think free to play game company would hope to have all or even most their player communities act the same, or they can just go bankrupt right now.

Assuming, for argument sake, 1 millions sub at $15, they need to come up with a model that beat a $15 millions dollars a month.

Free game are good for you, but if it's totally free, how can a company make it a business?

I've been playing this game since the day of release. If this game goes F2P and puts in microtransactions, what will the past subscribers get? Will they have to pay for them too? Or do they get them for free?

I dont want some new player buying all of them and then getting better stuff than me, and is further ahead than me in 2 weeks than all of my stuff put together in 6 months. Would they just leave everyone to buy microtransactions or will old players be rewarded or something? Not that im asking for free items, I am simply asking what people think will happen.

The game fails whether you, me of Johnny McFlamer wants it or not. Most people posting on these forums are doing so because they care. If they didn't they would have just unsubbed and left. So those people want the game to get better, more popular and so on. It is their way to express their ideas. The important thing is that they are sticking around.
Subs clearly didn't work out for TOR. And I don't want to hear about "it is normal for people to leave after the initial launch hype."

Sure, if your game is really THAT good, people will find it worth paying for it and stay for months, but most of them didn't.

With the transfers now open, there are ~10 servers on NA and Europe with >= standard population. Every other server is dead.

Were there too many servers on launch? Gosh, I remember a few months back when every one of those servers had at least standard population. So the server number increase was justified. But after that, more than half of the subscriber base has left. It is made clear by the fact that with the transfers, around 20% of the total number of servers have decent population. Where did the 80% go? Sure a game can lose half of the subscribers after the first hype months, but not more than half !

And you guys saying "if you don't like it, leave", do you really want that to happen? Because the population is thin as it is. With even more people leaving it means more lost money. Every 100 players that leave, take ~1500 $ with them, monthly. And that is just for 100 players.
And you are still encouraging people to leave without this game eventually going f2p in order to survive?

Most people have tried the free weekends and the friend trials. Most of them. The last free weekends barely attracted people (there was no significant increase in server population). What makes you think that adding an unlimited 1-15 "trial" would do any better? Because it is basically the same thing.
Those who were curious about TOR, experienced the trial months ago, during the free weekends. There are very few people left, with an actual interest in this game, who haven't tried it already.

Do you really care what happens to TOR, or would you rather see it dead than go a business model that will attract new players? Because this game won't last long with you and the 100 other people paying for it a few months from now.