With so many players joining the game, over the weekend I came across a poor level 17 soul who was still his original class and had no idea that he needed to visit the fleet to select his advance class.

He couldnt post on the forum because he was free to play. And once I rolled another toon, its not very clear where to go when you leave your starting planet. During the game, if you need to complete a quest or speak to someone, they all have a GREEN flash triangle instead of an empty yellow - which they have on the fleet. This needs to be changed.

Finally and importantly, without the free to play people, this game probably would have been over. So, they need to see for themselves that signing up to a sub or purchasing some things from the Cartel Market can help them on their journey and remain a customer.

We need to encourage more folk to sign up, so I believe that we need a free to play forum for those wanting to post questions and ask for help and of course look for a guild. Common Community Team, dont miss out on this opportunity to grow your subs base with a simple, small adjustment.

The voice says: Pay for the game id you want to have a voice in it.

No seriously, why should F2P have a voice as loud has those that commit to the game with their money?

Unless I am wrong, F2P accounts can still VIEW the forums.

They can go to the class forums and look for advice, they can read the general forums (if they are brave)...

The only restriction they have, is that they can't POST........... In a game that already doesn't provide enough incentive to be an actual subscriber over a Free or Premium account, why take away yet another thing?

Unless I am wrong, F2P accounts can still VIEW the forums.

 

They can go to the class forums and look for advice, they can read the general forums (if they are brave)...

 

The only restriction they have, is that they can't POST........... In a game that already doesn't provide enough incentive to be an actual subscriber over a Free or Premium account, why take away let another thing?

This. You want a voice, you put down your commitment to the game. Its just fair.

Let them unlock posting on the forums with Cartel Coins.

I suspect we would then have thirty "HODOR" threads a minute. (Is that too harsh?)

He can still view the forums right?

They can still view, yes but they cant get involved. They may have more questions before subbing. And as I mentioned above, without free to play, there would be no SWTOR and this is about retention. Once they start to feel part of the community, it will increase their chances of subbing.

Its that simple.

OK, I follow now.

Your comment doesn't really have much to do with the fact that he/she didn't know to go to advanced trainer, because that problem is solved by just viewing the forums. And even so, if he/she didn't know they even had a problem then he/she would have never looked at the forums for a solution anyway.

The real issue is that he/she doesn't have a voice if he wanted to have one (without paying of course). In this case I believe the stance BWEA takes is that keeping the non-subbing bad eggs out is more important than letting the non-subbing good eggs in.

Unless I am wrong, F2P accounts can still VIEW the forums.

Everyone with access to the web can view them. But you knew that.

... without free to play, there would be no SWTOR...

You are likely correct... it's the Free to Play MODEL that "saved" the game. However, it's all about money. EA/Bioware isn't doing this for the fun of it, or to be really nice and give all of us something fun to do. They are in business to make MONEY. And changing to a free-to-play model took a failing game, and gave it an influx of CASH.

So, yes.... Free-to-Play saved the game. But it's not the F2P PLAYERS that did so.... It's the Preferred players, and even moreso the Subscribers, who open their wallets and spend EXTRA money on the market every month.

F2P players, who won't open their wallets to:

1- Buy a retail game before it goes free;

2- Be willing to pay for at least ONE month of a sub

are NOT the type of players who will become worthwhile and contributing members of the forums community (which is already sketchy enough as it is...)

If a F2P player REALLY wants to be able to post on the forums, they need to pony up the cash for a sub. Plain and simple. Don't rob the subscribers of one of the few remaining perks they have as a subscriber, to allow people to even further clutter up the forums with garbage. (How many posts in the first DAY do you think we would see, that would be links to how to buy in-game credits from farmers????? How much do you really hate the forum moderators?)

The voice says: Pay for the game id you want to have a voice in it.

 

No seriously, why should F2P have a voice as loud has those that commit to the game with their money?

A uniquely capitalist point of view. This is akin to saying "why should people have as much influence in how our government is run, they don't pay as much into it as I do?"

See the phalacy?

Should we allow Free-to-Play users on the forums? This is a question we also discussed internally during the transition. The problem isn't so much in the subscriber or free player's value in using the forums, but in the accessibility.

 

If a F2P player can just sign up for an account and begin posting, then anyone in theory could post on the forums fairly easily. The problem this creates is one of moderation. It would be very easy for someone to make an account and begin spamming the forums. If we ban that account, they just make another one immediately.

 

In theory allowing F2P players to post would even allow subscribing forum users who have been banned to create new accounts and continue to break forum rules without any real worry of consequences. We have definitely considered just opening a F2P forum, but it would be a little wild west in there and is unlikely something we would do. Again, that is due to moderation challenges.

 

Hopefully that makes sense. We realize it can be a little tricky for F2P players to get questions answered, but they still have the ability to do so in-game, on social media, and on our fan sites pages.

 

-eric

I suggest adding a voice-over in-game to go with some of the text pop ups. A lot of new players see these as spam and don't read them. If there was a non-optional, one-sentence voice telling you at level 10 "You should visit your fleet to choose your advanced class!" every level until they did so, it would help a lot.

Should we allow Free-to-Play users on the forums? This is a question we also discussed internally during the transition. The problem isn't so much in the subscriber or free player's value in using the forums, but in the accessibility.

 

If a F2P player can just sign up for an account and begin posting, then anyone in theory could post on the forums fairly easily. The problem this creates is one of moderation. It would be very easy for someone to make an account and begin spamming the forums. If we ban that account, they just make another one immediately.

 

In theory allowing F2P players to post would even allow subscribing forum users who have been banned to create new accounts and continue to break forum rules without any real worry of consequences. We have definitely considered just opening a F2P forum, but it would be a little wild west in there and is unlikely something we would do. Again, that is due to moderation challenges.

 

Hopefully that makes sense. We realize it can be a little tricky for F2P players to get questions answered, but they still have the ability to do so in-game, on social media, and on our fan sites pages.

 

-eric

Is there any way you could restrict F2P posting? Maybe 1 thread started per day, up to 5 replies? Would that be possible? It doesn't eliminate the ability to spam, but it certainly minimizes it.

Is there any way you could restrict F2P posting? Maybe 1 thread started per day, up to 5 replies? Would that be possible? It doesn't eliminate the ability to spam, but it certainly minimizes it.

They could still make multiple free forum accounts, and post/spam as much as they wanted. Even if it was IP-limited, they could still use proxy workarounds.

They could still make multiple free forum accounts, and post/spam as much as they wanted. Even if it was IP-limited, they could still use proxy workarounds.

The effort required to do so would be beyond most "spammers" desires.

Should we allow Free-to-Play users on the forums? This is a question we also discussed internally during the transition. The problem isn't so much in the subscriber or free player's value in using the forums, but in the accessibility.

 

If a F2P player can just sign up for an account and begin posting, then anyone in theory could post on the forums fairly easily. The problem this creates is one of moderation. It would be very easy for someone to make an account and begin spamming the forums. If we ban that account, they just make another one immediately.

 

In theory allowing F2P players to post would even allow subscribing forum users who have been banned to create new accounts and continue to break forum rules without any real worry of consequences. We have definitely considered just opening a F2P forum, but it would be a little wild west in there and is unlikely something we would do. Again, that is due to moderation challenges.

 

Hopefully that makes sense. We realize it can be a little tricky for F2P players to get questions answered, but they still have the ability to do so in-game, on social media, and on our fan sites pages.

 

-eric

How about opening the Support forums only? I think that is very important. Your Preferred players are also paying customers, and the support forums are the only viable option anyone has to get some support, sadly.

A uniquely capitalist point of view. This is akin to saying "why should people have as much influence in how our government is run, they don't pay as much into it as I do?"

 

See the phalacy?

No. But since your car is mine too, lemme borrow it.

Re; allowing F2P to post to these forums, I vote "NO!". They are mostly a cesspool of negativism already. Allowing F2P players to post would only serve to reduce the signal to noise ratio further.

With that said, something does need to be done about the 'HOW DO I GET MY ADVANCED CLASS"? problem, form a tutorial perspective.

Anyone who has spent any amount of time watching Fleet general chat knows that this is a problem. New players asking questions about 'Where do I get my 2nd lightsaber?", "How do I become Sentinel/Marauder?", etc...

It's been a while since I faced this question (I haven't leveled a new alt in quite a long time), but it's apparent to me that something needs to be done to smooth this over (i.e. make it easier) for the first time player.

Allowing F2P to post in the forums is NOT the solution.

Improving the in game starter player tutorial, especially at the Advanced Class transition point, IS the solution.

Considering how difficult it is getting to keep bots out of websites, I'm not sure simple thread start and post limitations are good enough to solve the problem. And spambots take almost 0 effort.

I'm sure there *is* some happy middle-ground somewhere, that would allow F2P to post but keep our forums spam-free. But, the real question is whether or not it is worth BWEA putting the time and effort into putting a system like that into place.

With the exception of support and new-player questions (which can be handled on reddit fairly well, and twitter, without the need of a subscription) -- I don't see a reason to have F2Pers in the forums. If they aren't willing to pay the subscription, do they really have the games best interests at heart?

While everyone on the forums disagrees at some point -- and there can be very heated discussions and anger -- I think it is safe to say the majority of subscribers WANT to enjoy the game, and make it great. We just all have different ideas. I'm not sure F2Pers should be given the same benefit of the doubt, when they may not value the product enough to pay for it.

If a F2P player can just sign up for an account and begin posting, then anyone in theory could post on the forums fairly easily.

I feel you already answered your own question.

Seriously though, no, don't allow f2p people to post.

If anything create a new section for them to only post on there.

My sugjestion to the orignal post is to have a F2P only subforum where F2P players can post about things, that way the spammers and the like can only flood one area of the forums, and if the forum gets too out of hand then the devs can easily shut it down.

An other sugjestion is to only allow prefered players to post on the forums, meaning that the person has to have invested at least some money into their account to post so spambotters would end up having to pay a lot more money in order to spam on it.

Merely viewing the foums may not be enough. Some of you guys are saying "just view the class forum." Half of those sub-forums are nothing but whinning over how weak/OP a class is, and the other half is endless debate on why tree x is super/crap.

I was trying to look up specs on a few classes and to sift through endless pages of the above.