I tried F2P with LoTRO, and finally left. I logged on one day a month after I started SW:TOR. THE STORE dominates the game, and you cannot ignore its presence; it's on every screen.

 

I was a loyal subscriber to Everquest for years, to LoTRO for years.

 

I'll cancel my subscription and quit playing / logging on -ever- when this becomes active. I'm not going to play another game with THE STORE like LoTRO. My gaming experience there deteriorated until the experience of the Lore and the Environment was overwhelmed by the micro-transaction.

 

Subscribers in LoTRO got Less and Less and Less with every update of the game, while THE STORE dominated more and more. Yeah, you could still subscribe and get all the basic content free if you liked sinking money monthly into a game where all the new cool stuff was primarily for sale in the store - including most of the good "fluff". No more, oh basic subscriber, could you obtain these items in-game. Promises by Turbine otherwise were a constant stream of lies reminiscent of the treaties the US government made with the Native American Indian Tribes.

 

I'm so sorry to see this game be utterly ruined by this happening. If this is going to be the way of all MMOs in the future, then I'll go play something else.

Ugh, EA...

 

You know, maybe people would have resubscribed if you had invested a little more in improving the game. That would haven taken too long though, right? Too slow? I'll be polite and not type the rest of my thought here.

 

And, this is coming from someone who loves the game.

So I dont get it the game goes F2P and still improving and people is complaning why? Some just dont like it and some is becaus they are geting dinied the things they hade when they used to pay. well wake up u payed befor u can pay again from time to time. And for the people who just dont like it I dont know what u like or how u think!

 

Wake up and be greatfull for once. complains, complains, complains what is it with u dont u like to be treated well?

Directly from the desk of EA:

 

1. Official announcement - see Page 1:

"STAR WARS®: The Old Republic™ will move to a more accessible two-tiered pricing

model in November. Players can chose between a $14.99 premium monthly

subscription and a free-to-play model with some restrictions on content and advanced

features. Players will be able to purchase upgrades with in-game currency."

 

rest text off:

 

and yet again it all boils down to EA being greedy buggers, when I first heard EA was involved I thought how long before micro transactions or a very expensive sub appears. It's been like 8 months already give the game a friggin chance before you put it down, every MMO struggles on the first year (launches...bugs etc).

 

Won't be long before The secret World goes f2p then as they with that too, between EA and activision they are destroying the gaming world with greed.

Edited August 1, 2012 by solo-nite

Free Realms.

 

Club Penquin

Club Penquin

 

hello kitty online adventures.

My only experience with subscription to F2P conversion was with Cryptic and Star Trek: Online, which was a severely negative experience that led to my abandoning the game and I still have hard feelings against them and will never play anything else made by them.

 

#1 Don't screw over people who have played a year (by that time) by doing what Cryptic did - convert to a new currency and only give you 2/3rd the value of the currency vs what doing the exact same thing gets you after F2P conversion, and don't hike prices by 30% to 200%.

 

#2 Don't make another Cryptic mistake of introducing lockboxes or other elements of gambling.

 

#3 Don't make another Cryptic mistake of sliding into pay to win, starting with cosmetic items and ending with buying new powers you can't compete against as a free player.

 

#4 Don't make another Cryptic mistake of distracting developers with the constant focus on lame gimmicks to bring in cash. I'm ok with offering legacy benefits for cash alternative to game currency ($1 per 100k credits would be fair to me) so long as it doesn't result in enormous price hikes.

 

#5 Don't make another Cryptic mistake of selling individual items that cost as much as or even four times as much as a month's subscription previously did.

 

That said, I would have been all for nixing the box cost and introducing cash options for legacy stuff to make up the difference, but given how severely I was burned by Cryptic's F2P move I am leery of what is coming. Regarding their Cartel coins, I hope they have something worth spending on given how completely lackluster the game enhancements for buying the Digital and Collectors editions were - the speeder was really the only benefit. When Legacy came out I was really hoping that Dexlue and Collectors edition owners would get discounted rates for paying extra real money, but that didn't happen.

 

Depending on what "some restrictions" there will be on F2P, I can easily see myself still subscribing to the game and even purchasing a lifetime subscription if offered.

 

What they are doing in August with a box cost of $15 w/1mo free time is what I think ALL MMO's should do, there shouldn't be a large box cost that provides barrier of entry. Paying for additional content levels I can certainly see, For example you get Act 1 for free, Act 2 for $10, Act 3 for $10, etc. with acts 2 & 3 being enhanced to have the same density of story progression/interaction that Act 1 has.

 

P.S. Something I would ABSOLUTELY pay for is decorating my ship interior. This is something I REALLY loved about the game "Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance". Another great thing would be the guild capital ships that were discussed pre-launch and make them customizable. Star Trek Online just introduced Fleet Starbases which are esssentially the same thing and since then I've been logging in daily to help my old guild construct their Starbase, which is the only part of the game I participate in, because that was such a major goal of our guild prior to F2P when I was still playing.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Jobeleca

So I dont get it the game goes F2P and still improving and people is complaning why? Some just dont like it and some is becaus they are geting dinied the things they hade when they used to pay. well wake up u payed befor u can pay again from time to time. And for the people who just dont like it I dont know what u like or how u think!

 

Wake up and be greatfull for once. complains, complains, complains what is it with u dont u like to be treated well?

 

 

Well for one we paid 60-150 bucks for a game people are about to get the improved version of for 15. Not to mention another 120 for 8 months of subs. Only to be denied cool things in a new store that our 200 coins won't cover because they are 2000.

 

We will have to put up with much greater chat spam, general idiotic behavior/hacker abuse from FTP players that will become rampant due to the fact that they won't care if their 12th free account gets banned.

F2P, while a potentially good hook to reel in new subscribers, is undermined by making too much of the game available to F2P. I'm not sure who's ultimately behind the decision, but you should limit F2P to the first Act of each story. Get potential subscribers hooked on the story, and they might be willing to subscribe to see more of it. But by giving them virtually everything a subscriber has, only with some minor limitations, doesn't do much to encourage their subscription, and does a disservice to your current subscribers no matter what "perks" you offer them.

 

Your problem, despite how you might spin it in your announcement, is how to maintain a viable subscriber base to keep the game profitable and healthy. Bringing the TOR experience to more players for free isn't going to pay your developers to create new content for the ones who are paying. F2P also invites other problems and bad elements into the game that I'm not sure you've even considered, such as players who feel free to "misbehave", which negatively impacts the game experience for other (paying) players, because they simply have no vested interest in the game - they aren't paying for it because it's free. Anyone who's played in a F2P game can attest to this.

 

My personal prediction is that this decision will hurt the game more than help it.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Mournblood

So... all the people that purchased the collector edition, get extra items and so on. ...but what about the people who purchased the the digital deluxe edition? are they being put into the same category as those who purchased the standard version of the game?

 

I want to know about this as well. At least give us the option to purchase an upgrade to the same level as the CE. I also agree with those saying that 14.99$ will be too much when this launches. 10.00$ would be fine. But 14.99$ for such limited bonus is not cool. Not happy about this really but it was inevitable with all the screw ups by EA/Bioware to date.

 

Also, F2P people should never, NEVER, have access to the legacy system. Period.

Edited August 1, 2012 by sinjinhawkes

I wondered the same thing. I have been a subscribing member since Early Access, too. I would hate to hear that only those who purchased the Collectors edition get the xtra benefits.

For 2x the purchase price of the DDE and 3x the purchase price of the standard edition I can see CE owners finally getting more love. Edited August 1, 2012 by GalacticKegger

For someone that's upset with this change, my question is: What was the alternative? If the two options are

 

a) Go F2P, gain additional revenue for the game to drive further development, support the servers and staff and just keep the game alive

 

b) Stick with Subscription model and let the game die a slow death; shut down all servers within another year

 

Which would you prefer? For me, I'd like Bioware to try the F2P model and see if it works. It's better than shutting the game down. Then again, I've never played a F2P game. For myself, I only plan to finish leveling my characters to 50 anyway. I have no interest in Flashpoints, Operations or Warzones. So we'll see.

I officially unsubscribed and uninstalled today go take your free to play *** **** and shove it up your *** you should have fixed the *********** problems with the game instead of being moranic *********** ******* QQing about what new **** you want to put in the game. maybe then this retarded *** hybrid f2p model wouldnt exist and you wouldnt lose the rest of your subscribers congrats you *********** mental ******* thank you for killing any god damn hope i had of a star wars mmo

 

may the force be with you as you all burn in *********** hell

People seem confused about what's free and what isn't.

 

You get free CLASS stories until 50. If you want to actually level to 50 you'll have to buy the side quest packs most likely.

 

It is highly unlikely you will be able to level to 50 for free.

Great way to ruin the game. One of the best parts of the game was the mature players and lack of annoying, rude & stupid kids you have to put up with on f2p games. I you're going to do this at least put the f2p players on the servers about to be abandoned woth low numbers so they can't ruin the game for suscribers.

People don't understand the marketing concept of "free to play", that's for sure.

 

F2P is PaytoPlay - each and every time you want something new. Free to Play is nothing but a marketing (i.e. lying) term used to deceive people.

 

Yeah, sure you can *technically* play F2P. But they make their money on people who want to pay for "convenience", who want to pay "to save time"; who want to pay "for that nice graphics speeder they just released in the store" (and which you'll never get playing the game in the game, btw); who want to pay for medpacs (potions) on different cooldown timers than the ones you get in normal play; who want to play for....well it goes on and on and on and on.

 

And if you are a subscriber who is hoping that *this game company* won't go too far or will "learn from the mistakes" of companies of other games who care about the $ to the exclusion of putting out a quality game product, then you are naive and fooling yourself. And there will come a day when you regret giving them more money in the meantime.

 

The first time you ever, and I mean *EVER* use a credit card to add gamebucks so you can buy ingame purchases you lose. And the quality of the game and the experience of the game loses - forever.

 

You can buy the game - or you can play the game. If you want to purchase a instant satisfaction using RL money go ahead - buy the F2P game or the Donuts or the Jewelry. If you want to enjoy Playing A Game, however, you'll be better off with Skyrim or some nice 1st person shooter you enjoy.

I can understand giving Collector's edition 1000 coins, what about deluxe digital buyers? I'm sure they deserve some show of loyalty too!

between EA and activision they are destroying the gaming world with greed.

 

I don't like coporate company attitude or greed, I treat them like bugs if they are going to act the way they act because clearly its to the point where 100 percent money caring, 0 percent caring of how the game ends up and what people want. I dare companies to go 100 percent money caring and not care about anything else, I'm willing to bet the whole game industry will die if companies follow the greed formula.

 

Free to play option is not bad but it looks dam good that EA wants cash and is completely careless of what the playerbase wants. I was looking at the buy to play formula and have the 1.4 update be an expansion instead and make a fee which is completely reasonable. And make the game's cash shop only for sexy cosmetic items.

What happened to adding things like pazaak, swoop racing, gambling, and mini games?

 

They could have also introduced a way to make it so that their mini games allow for player made content.

 

They could have easily added varieties of Huttball maps.

 

A couple of more warzones with a choice.

 

They could have slightly modified the map with open world objectives for pvp, or quests in certain areas which can have a small impact like building favor in certain areas, and these areas getting stronger with their support and the stronger they are the longer people share those benefits... or add it to a new planet in the future having quests that interact with the environment more.

 

Or 3d space combat.

 

Player housing? The game allods is introducing that and they are free to play with a small budget.

 

I am not agianst F2P, but what assurances are we going to get that development will get to these things without focusing more on making the F2P profitable first prolonging the development of key features.

 

The swtor devs had a enough time after release to have another segment of their story expanded on to bring back the same customers and more... but with other key features.... just the mini games with player made content would have been huge.

 

BW, I just want to know that these key features are coming soon enough... and the best of luck to you with this transition, and really hope you consider the importance of

/open world pvp

/mini games/

/3d space combat

/player housing

/player ship decoration (trophies)

/more dynamic worlds

 

among other things like duel arenas and large BGs etc etc

Edited August 1, 2012 by VegaPhone

I don't see the issue.

I love this game, and the current revenue system isn't working. It seems a lot of you don't realize...its go F2P, or no one gets to play at all. I want this game to keep going. As a subber, I get to keep everything I have and more. That's fine with me.

 

If you can't accept the changes, then clearly, you already aren't enjoying the game. Just leave, we won't need you here spreading your negativity.

 

Long as I get to play this great game, I'm happy. Bravo BioWare!

Great way to ruin the game. One of the best parts of the game was the mature players and lack of annoying, rude & stupid kids you have to put up with on f2p games. I you're going to do this at least put the f2p players on the servers about to be abandoned woth low numbers so they can't ruin the game for suscribers.

 

Sadly TOR was full of these people from the start.

 

I can understand giving Collector's edition 1000 coins, what about deluxe digital buyers? I'm sure they deserve some show of loyalty too!

 

Wait..CE owners will be getting 1000 Cartel Coins?

 

My only experience with subscription to F2P conversion was with Cryptic and Star Trek: Online, which was a severely negative experience that led to my abandoning the game and I still have hard feelings against them and will never play anything else made by them.

 

#1 Don't screw over people who have played a year (by that time) by doing what Cryptic did - convert to a new currency and only give you 2/3rd the value of the currency vs what doing the exact same thing gets you after F2P conversion, and don't hike prices by 30% to 200%.

 

#2 Don't make another Cryptic mistake of introducing lockboxes or other elements of gambling.

 

#3 Don't make another Cryptic mistake of sliding into pay to win, starting with cosmetic items and ending with buying new powers you can't compete against as a free player.

 

#4 Don't make another Cryptic mistake of distracting developers with the constant focus on lame gimmicks to bring in cash. I'm ok with offering legacy benefits for cash alternative to game currency ($1 per 100k credits would be fair to me) so long as it doesn't result in enormous price hikes.

 

#5 Don't make another Cryptic mistake of selling individual items that cost as much as or even four times as much as a month's subscription previously did.

 

That said, I would have been all for nixing the box cost and introducing cash options for legacy stuff to make up the difference, but given how severely I was burned by Cryptic's F2P move I am leery of what is coming. Regarding their Cartel coins, I hope they have something worth spending on given how completely lackluster the game enhancements for buying the Digital and Collectors editions were - the speeder was really the only benefit. When Legacy came out I was really hoping that Dexlue and Collectors edition owners would get discounted rates for paying extra real money, but that didn't happen.

 

Depending on what "some restrictions" there will be on F2P, I can easily see myself still subscribing to the game and even purchasing a lifetime subscription if offered.

 

What they are doing in August with a box cost of $15 w/1mo free time is what I think ALL MMO's should do, there shouldn't be a large box cost that provides barrier of entry. Paying for additional content levels I can certainly see, For example you get Act 1 for free, Act 2 for $10, Act 3 for $10, etc. with acts 2 & 3 being enhanced to have the same density of story progression/interaction that Act 1 has.

 

P.S. Something I would ABSOLUTELY pay for is decorating my ship interior. This is something I REALLY loved about the game "Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance". Another great thing would be the guild capital ships that were discussed pre-launch and make them customizable. Star Trek Online just introduced Fleet Starbases which are esssentially the same thing and since then I've been logging in daily to help my old guild construct their Starbase, which is the only part of the game I participate in, because that was such a major goal of our guild prior to F2P when I was still playing.

 

Amen to that. I know the pain of C-Store Online ..their latest item of $7 EV suit per character...so if one wants to give the EV suit (which has lower stats than in-game items that are normal loot) they're beat.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Eillack

Not surprised with this. I play the game and subscribe, but it gets old and boring real fast after 50. All there is to do is repeat repeat and repeat dailies to earn higher gear. And, the way the game drops items is ridiculous sometimes. 75% of the time is garbage you have no use for and just sell it. The other problem is that once you get to about lvl 24 the game gets really tedious about missions and quests to the point where you just want it to end already. Not to mention the Bonus's for the quests going on and on and on. They need to make it more fun and entertaining, like it is more on the first two or three planets. Most of the high end gear looks like utter CRAP. Horrible outfits that don't fit Star Wars at all. Seriously, most of the Colimni and Rakata gear is just horrible looking, whoever designed them should be fired. Some of the PVP is not too bad, but they need to implement some of the actual Star Wars outfits in to the game. Like Maul, Vader, Talon, etc. Those are outfits that a Sith should be wearing. not jutting out shoulder pads and coned top hats. Maybe the possibility to earn outfits like the ones I mentioned, at least similar to them.

I welcome that change... as long as the cost for the stuff in the item shop will be kept reasonable and it becomes no pay to win, so BioWare don't screw that up! Looking forward to play with my friends again in SWTOR.

Well for one we paid 60-150 bucks for a game people are about to get the improved version of for 15. Not to mention another 120 for 8 months of subs. Only to be denied cool things in a new store that our 200 coins won't cover because they are 2000.

 

We will have to put up with much greater chat spam, general idiotic behavior/hacker abuse from FTP players that will become rampant due to the fact that they won't care if their 12th free account gets banned.

 

So just continue to pay whats stoping you. If this game was F2P already from start then u wouldent have sayed anything right. Lots of people is playing Rs and its working exactly like this when they pay they get the acess to everything they own when they are not they get denied the things that is not alowed as F2P intill you pay again.

 

And who would put his power on lvl 8 characters to 50 all over again in 12 accounts who would even put time in doing 12 accounts. Dont we need more people in every server I see DPS complain about that there are not many healer and Tanks to find in the groupfinder well then here thing just got easyer. If someone is spaming btw just put him in ignor list not that hard is it?

Not surprised with this. I play the game and subscribe, but it gets old and boring real fast after 50. All there is to do is repeat repeat and repeat dailies to earn higher gear. And, the way the game drops items is ridiculous sometimes. 75% of the time is garbage you have no use for and just sell it. The other problem is that once you get to about lvl 24 the game gets really tedious about missions and quests to the point where you just want it to end already. Not to mention the Bonus's for the quests going on and on and on. They need to make it more fun and entertaining, like it is more on the first two or three planets. Most of the high end gear looks like utter CRAP. Horrible outfits that don't fit Star Wars at all. Seriously, most of the Colimni and Rakata gear is just horrible looking, whoever designed them should be fired. Some of the PVP is not too bad, but they need to implement some of the actual Star Wars outfits in to the game. Like Maul, Vader, Talon, etc. Those are outfits that a Sith should be wearing. not jutting out shoulder pads and coned top hats. Maybe the possibility to earn outfits like the ones I mentioned, at least similar to them.

 

I actuall like having a ton of missions to do when I leveled up ...am I wierd?

 

But yeah...endgame gear *looks at BH and BM / WH* looks like WoW barf.