Very good questions. And I must say I am pleased with the answers....

...especially the armor color change answer

Great interview. Thanks again.

Not thrilled about this. Not that I have any interest in the Cathar race but that it would set the precedence that subscribers have to pay for minor new content items. I'm fine buying an expansion that has a host of new options, but I don't want to be nickle & dimed into buying minor new content as a subscriber. I hope this isn't decided and they rethink this.

Yeah this is absurd!!! What's to stop them from providing all content via store now??? New class --> store... New race --> Store... New gear ---> store.

Basically this is a scheme to get more money even from subscribers. Say what you want but this is NOT OK!!!

Excellent interview Dulfy!

 

I know some are going to probably get worked up about some of the answers.... but from my perspective this is one of the best sets of interview questions I have seen and frankly I think he was as forthright and honest as disclosure limits permited.

 

As always.... Thanks for all that you do for the community!

Perfectly put. Probably the best Q&A I have read from BW and was happy with the responses, there wasn't as much avoiding as there usually is. Felt like BW was more open and honest this time.

Brilliant Dulfy, thank you for doing a superb interview.

Yeah this is absurd!!! What's to stop them from providing all content via store now??? New class --> store... New race --> Store... New gear ---> store.

 

Basically this is a scheme to get more money even from subscribers. Say what you want but this is NOT OK!!!

I'm actually happy to hear about the AC change!

Also the possibility of the Rakghoul event returning...I still have DNA samples in my bank, lol.

the answer about the color dies question was curious.....not sure if he's just blowing smoke or if there really is something cool coming down the pipeline there.

This is not new. MMOs have sold this kind of content in pieces like this but usually as part of an expansion. Some of the old ways were probably more due to the limits of technology at the time and the marketing. Shelf presence is not the sole way for MMOs to gain attention or sell. It is now just a different way of getting subscribers to pay additional money.

No it isnt new but with a market now filled with high quality B2P games that are not locking basic features like UI options and with decent actual non Pay Trap games but REAL F2P that are charging LESS to unlock advanced featuers like races and classes...how many are going to chose this game? 1 in 10? 1 in 20?

Its as if the people in charge of this game actually want to make it fail by targetting such a small portion of what they say is their target market. Over 20 million people play F2P games, not PAY TRAPS...F2P games...why the hell would anyone target the Pay Trap audience when not one of them makes NEAR what F2P games like Atlantica Online or Runes of Magic make? Hell, even DDO, a Pay Trap/F2P hybrid makes a TON more than any full on Pay Trap makes.

Bioware doesnt seem to have a clue about the market they are in.

I'm actually happy to hear about the AC change!

 

Also the possibility of the Rakghoul event returning...I still have DNA samples in my bank, lol.

 

the answer about the color dies question was curious.....not sure if he's just blowing smoke or if there really is something cool coming down the pipeline there.

I would say the latter is likely

Great job as always Dulfy

But really unhappy with some of the answers.

Cathar were annouced long before F2P was talked about publicly - subscribers should not have to pay extra for such content.

Character slots - asking me to pay for something which I already have is just unacceptable. No deal Bioware.

Not thrilled about this. Not that I have any interest in the Cathar race but that it would set the precedence that subscribers have to pay for minor new content items. I'm fine buying an expansion that has a host of new options, but I don't want to be nickle & dimed into buying minor new content as a subscriber. I hope this isn't decided and they rethink this.

I agree.

I don't mind paying for actual content, in other words full blown expansions. However I refuse to buy small DLC's for a game I am already subscribed to. This isn't a single player game (though some could argue that). It's an MMO. Subscribers should get these small things for free.

Sad to say that if this is how they plan to do things, I am taking my money elsewhere.

Excellent interview Dulfy!

 

I know some are going to probably get worked up about some of the answers.... but from my perspective this is one of the best sets of interview questions I have seen and frankly I think he was as forthright and honest as disclosure limits permited.

 

As always.... Thanks for all that you do for the community!

I totally agree with you. Great interview!

Hey everyone, here is the interview I did with Lead Designer Damion Schubert regarding the F2P option and the future content after F2P release. Big thank you to Community Coordinator Eric Musco for arranging this interview and Lead Designer Damion Schubert for taking the time to do the interview on such a busy and historic week for SWTOR! Also, thank you for everyone who sent their questions to me, I think I included most of the questions that were relevant and not already answered!

 

http://dulfy.net/2012/11/16/swtor-f2p-future-content-interview-with-damion-schubert/

 

Not at that time, but server transfers are coming.

 

11. For subscribers with more than 12 characters due to the server consolidation, will they have to purchase character slots to unlock them once the character slot restrictions are put in place?

 

That is the current plan, yes. We don’t think it’s fair to everyone else who wasn’t lucky enough to get this accidental side benefit from server merges. However, those additional characters aren’t lost, and players will easily be able to unlock those characters. The timeline for this is TBD.

Wait...so due to Bioware's incompetency I will have some of my characters locked? They made it so I have more than twelve characters on one server, I didn't put all those players there myself. Now despite being a subscriber, I'm being told that I'll need to pay for ineptitude on their behalf? I'll be punished (again) for them opening way too many servers after launch. Let me guess, when you lock me out of my characters due to being over a limit that you forced on me, I'll have to rename them a third time as well if I can transfer them?

They never said calendar year 2012 as far as I'm aware. They said "coming this year" in June. This could be interpreted as anytime before June 2013. I wouldn't get your hopes up for Makeb before the end of 2012 because I don't see it happening. I think it will be more like mid February if they keep on their 6 week content cycle.

The Guild Summit was the first week in March, not June, and in addition to the ballpark figure then Lead Writer Daniel Erickson qualified his statement by first saying it would come with other new story content, and as we now know that is Makeb. If this were being delayed, I would hope we could have been informed. As we have not been, and as we have not even been told whether or not past statements still hold true (and yes, we have asked), then for me it isn't a matter of whether it will be in the December content patch, but that it had damned well better be.

Finally someone asked them about Lifetime subscription/Annual Pass

Thank you

Nice interview..

but nothing about a Space Sim yet ?

The SSSP or Super Secret Space Project is more then likely an paid expansion and I am betting we will be getting our first bits of information on this near the 1 year anniversary mid to late December.

1. What was the biggest challenge in converting such a massive MMO into a FTP model?

 

It would have to be giving away as much as humanly possible to our free to play players, while still ensuring that our subscribers felt like they were getting a great value. Both populations of players are a key component to Star Wars: The Old Republic’s path forward, so getting this tricky balance correct is crucial.

Speaking as someone who purchased the CE and a 6 month subscription and came back to see the restrictions on free to play before re-subbing, reading "giving away as much as humanly possible to our free play players" is a joke.

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There are more but you get the idea. Is this as much as humanly possible? As a long time MMO player I consider these things basic fluff. So, in my opinion, this is not as much as humanly possible. Maybe as much as inhumanly possible? Because honestly all I'm seeing is a desperate money grab to unlock features basic to most MMOs. I'm surprised there isn't a charge to unlock the mail system.

I'm not sure who I feel more sorry for, EA/BioWare for feeling they had to resort to this or the players who would actually pay for it.

Great job as always Dulfy

 

But really unhappy with some of the answers.

 

Cathar were annouced long before F2P was talked about publicly - subscribers should not have to pay extra for such content.

 

Character slots - asking me to pay for something which I already have is just unacceptable. No deal Bioware.

^ I agree with both of these points. Even if they add the Carther to the legacy for a large credit sum, that would be a better option than not making them available through the game. This bugs me a whole lot less then the character slot answer. I really want to say I'm surprised, but I'm not, I figured they do something like this. What is really sad is they forced all my characters onto one server because they open too many servers to being with and now expect me to pay for it because they gave me no other choice. I hadn’t even hit my 50 character cap. How is this fair? Grandfather them in or give us free transfer to other servers so we can open up some slots on our main server.

Excellent interview Dulfy!

 

I know some are going to probably get worked up about some of the answers.... but from my perspective this is one of the best sets of interview questions I have seen and frankly I think he was as forthright and honest as disclosure limits permited.

 

As always.... Thanks for all that you do for the community!

To start with a positive.... Yes, the questions were excellent. Now with the negative, what he is pretty much saying, as expected.... be prepared for the milking. Their goal is to get subscribers to pay extra. Thats the bottom line.

Thanks for the interview Dulfy, there was some good info in it but I’m disappointed with some of their decisions. Like not allowing people to earn the new races in game, through quest or buying them with large amounts of credits in the legacy. I think some players are really not going to be happy about this.

As for we don’t think it’s fair to everyone else who wasn’t lucky enough to get this accidental side benefit from server merges. Lucky, we weren’t lucky we were forced to move all our characters to one server whether we like it or not. I for one would rather have sent my character form Voork Lamar to a different server or even spread them across multiply servers. That way I wouldn’t have max out my available slots. If you had simple let us choose where to send them, this wouldn’t be an issue.

Yes I understand that some people might see this as unfair but really it not much of a benefit. After all we are still limited to 50 characters account wide and we would have to pay to unlock the next character slot for the new race, other won’t even have do this as there free slot weren’t used up by the character transfer. Making player delete or buy slots because you forced their characters on to one server is not cool.

Thanks for the interview Dulfy, there was some good info in it but I’m disappointed with some of their decisions. Like not allowing people to earn the new races in game, through quest or buying them with large amounts of credits in the legacy. I think some players are really not going to be happy about this.

 

As for we don’t think it’s fair to everyone else who wasn’t lucky enough to get this accidental side benefit from server merges. Lucky, we weren’t lucky we were forced to move all our characters to one server whether we like it or not. I for one would rather have sent my character form Voork Lamar to a different server or even spread them across multiply servers. That way I wouldn’t have max out my available slots. If you had simple let us choose where to send them, this wouldn’t be an issue.

 

Yes I understand that some people might see this as unfair but really it not much of a benefit. After all we are still limited to 50 characters account wide and we would have to pay to unlock the next character slot for the new race, other won’t even have do this as there free slot weren’t used up by the character transfer. Making player delete or buy slots because you forced their characters on to one server is not cool.

I've been leaning towards unsubscribing, locking characters for subscribers isn't helping change my mind.

Speaking as someone who purchased the CE and a 6 month subscription and came back to see the restrictions on free to play before re-subbing, reading "giving away as much as humanly possible to our free play players" is a joke.

 

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There are more but you get the idea. Is this as much as humanly possible? As a long time MMO player I consider these things basic fluff. So, in my opinion, this is not as much as humanly possible. Maybe as much as inhumanly possible? Because honestly all I'm seeing is a desperate money grab to unlock features basic to most MMOs. I'm surprised there isn't a charge to unlock the mail system.

 

I'm not sure who I feel more sorry for, EA/BioWare for feeling they had to resort to this or the players who would actually pay for it.

If you make 2 chars per server you can play 1-50 FOR FREE on each character. That's a ridiculous amount of content for zero cost except for your time. Get over it. There needs to be some barriers or there is no reason to spend money.