TOR to sell Stated Gear In FTP cash shop here is our new content after 6 monthes of n

As a subscriber, you would get unrestricted access to all of the existing game, and free Cartel Points each month. As long as you don't blow your Cartel Points on random crap, you should have more than enough to "purchase" new content updates like Makeb as they come, and it wouldn't cost you anything extra.

Then why don't i just unsubscribe and buy cartel points for a much cheaper price?

Can someone explain to me how this is "Pay To Win"? As far as I'm seeming to understand it, is this:
1) If you're a subscriber, then nothing will change, negatively. The only change is that, for each month you've subscribed you will get X amount of Cartel Coins which can be used to purchase extra things that are typically vanity items.

2) If you decide to go Free to Play and no longer want to subscribe, you will lose out on certain things. HOWEVER, you can spend some money to get access to specific things (unlimited PvP, or use of Operations, or use of multiple lvl 50 characters, etc.) You can also buy Cartel Coins.

Basically, the subscriber is getting access to everything at the buffet. The Free to Play player is paying for certain parts of the buffet they like going to. This is to retain customers who, say, were only PvP'ers and didn't like spending $15/month to have access to operations when they never set foot in them, and also to entice the more casual gamer to stick around and perhaps pay for vanity items.

So, can someone explain how a subscriber is going to have to Pay To Win? Cuz I don't see it in anything stated by a BW rep.

Rest assured, if I have to pay a cent past my subscriber fee to get something that I could not get access to otherwise (especially if it's a BiS item) I will be cancelling my account. This does not include the standard purchase of XPAC's (but I expect XPAC's to include many features and not me paying X amount of dollars to open up a new world - it better include level cap increases, new skills, new story, etc.).

If I have to watch my Cartel Coins and decide between fluff and content, I'll probably unsub. I shouldn't have to miss out on new content because I don't have the coins yet and then either wait a month for new coins or buy them. As a subscriber I should have access to all content in the game the moment it comes out (this does not include the argument that I should be able to do operations solo or with bad gear so please don't go there...).

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! Already.

Geez.

At least let it happen before you start crying. Does anyone seriously think the stuff on the store is going to be any better than the stuff a paid subscriber can "earn"? I doubt it will be as good, or there would be no incentive to subscribe, and BW still want people to suscribe.

Besides all that, you people will cry about anything, seriously. If this brings more players to the game and keeps it up for a while I'm fine with it. I enjoy the game for the most part and I hope it stays open. Heck, I might even keep paying, depending one what content I can and can't get to if I don't pay. Either way, your jealousy is boring, get over yourselves.

This game is a business venture, and BW/EA are going to do whatever they think they have to to make money off of it. So accept it and adapt, or just quit and shut up already. Thank you.

Except you're discribing somethign like LOTRO.

But LOTRO doesn't have subscribers, it has VIP players in a F2P model, which is a very different thing (you basically get more tokens for paying a regular fee week in, week out).

What Bioware EA have said so far isn't like LOTRO. It was subscription with F2P.

If they are going the LOTRO way then they shouldn't be reducing accounts that go from subs > F2P because as in LOTRO that content is already BOUGHT.

Depending on how you play the game, and how they structure the points and feature costs, that may be a good decision.

Remember that free players will have things like restricted back space, character slots, Flashpoints, and Warzones. I don't think any Operations will be available to them. This means that, as a free player, you'll need to unlock those features through cash shop purchases.

If, for example, you only do PvP, then it may be a much better deal for you to be a free player and simply buy the Warzones, rather than pay a sub for content that you don't care about (operations and flashpoints).

Under the LOTRO model as a prior subscriber you should have access to ALL that content as you have already bought it.

LotRO has subscribers. I'm currently one, in fact, on two accounts. My main account is a life-time sub from back in the day, and my daughter's is a monthly recurring. Their "VIP" term is just what they call subscribers; it's nothing more. They have a middle status called "premium" which has fewer restrictions than free players, but not completely unrestricted like VIP players. Generally, VIPs who stop their sub become premium players.

Everything I've read about Bioware's plan for the cash shop and F2P model is more or less in line with that basic idea. If they release detailed information that's drastically different, then I will stand corrected. In the mean time, Turbine's F2P conversion of DDO and LotRO are the two best cases of the hybrid sub/F2P model that Bioware has stated they are going to be using.

Free to play is a misnomer. If you think EA isn't a business out to make as much money as possible you are in for a surprise. The key thing really is can you play the game as much as you have been normally for the same amount of money you pay today? If you play a lot now and pay 15 bucks a month to do so will you be able to play the same in the future for the same amount of money?

If you continue to pay a sub will you be nickel and dimed to death in addition to the subscription cost? Fastest way to kill the game IMO, I doubt you will see it. If the game was really THAT GOOD it wouldn't be facing the problems it is now. If I were them i would offer a limited time lifetime vip membership to players. Expensive, like 200 bucks which will offer in game cash monthly for the life of the game and offer all vip benefits going forward.

I have a lifetime membership to lotro and although I dont play that game as much as I once did it is always there for me and I have a ton of in game cash since I get more each month even when not playing.

Just remember this, games don't go FTP to make less money they do it to make more. The cash shop will have some pretty compelling products you can be sure of that.

Quote: Originally Posted by discosoc

LotRO has subscribers. I'm currently one, in fact, on two accounts. My main account is a life-time sub from back in the day, and my daughter's is a monthly recurring. Their "VIP" term is just what they call subscribers; it's nothing more. They have a middle status called "premium" which has fewer restrictions than free players, but not completely unrestricted like VIP players. Generally, VIPs who stop their sub become premium players.

Everything I've read about Bioware's plan for the cash shop and F2P model is more or less in line with that basic idea. If they release detailed information that's drastically different, then I will stand corrected. In the mean time, Turbine's F2P conversion of DDO and LotRO are the two best cases of the hybrid sub/F2P model that Bioware has stated they are going to be using.

So just to be clear if you're VIP in LOTRO and you stop you then lose access to content you've already bought and paid for?



For example if you have 5 character slots and you stop being a VIP you only then get access to 3 character slots until you either buy them again or become a VIP again?

And you lose access to zone you previously had access to as a VIP customer that had bought them (unless you buy them again?)?