Maybe free to play is a good thing

In my mind, LOTRO's "hybrid" free-to-play model is the only possible F2P model that could work.

Personally, for me it is about hassle when it comes to subscriptions. I want to pay my money each month and know that I have access to everything in the game. I don't want to be constantly nagged in to buying more bits of the game that I don't have access to. Its frustrating and breaks any immersion I have. It can also get out of control if you aren't careful.

On this front, LOTRO did well. Even after F2P, I kept paying my monthly subscription. I never ever paid any additional money for content outside of expansions.

Where LOTRO failed in my eyes was the additional change in direction of the game post-F2P. Instead of continuing to develop endgame content and expand PvP, they shifted their focus to fluff items (sold in the store) and to smoothing the leveling curve and low level areas (usually the first areas new players encounter, thus encouraging them to stay). LOTRO probably had a good business case for doing this as their existing development model wasn't attracting/retaining enough players, but as an endgame focused player this is what eventually made me quit LOTRO.


That is what worries me about SW:TOR ever going free to play.

Games that go free to play make the assumption that their payment model is the reason that they arent making enough money, whereas in reality it is the quality of their game that is the issue. In addition to changing the payment model, they also tend to change their content focus to suit the new intended playerbase. This drives away their previously loyal customer base as the game changes too much.

On that basis, i will likely quit if they go F2P

In my mind, LOTRO's "hybrid" free-to-play model is the only possible F2P model that could work.

Personally, for me it is about hassle when it comes to subscriptions. I want to pay my money each month and know that I have access to everything in the game. I don't want to be constantly nagged in to buying more bits of the game that I don't have access to. Its frustrating and breaks any immersion I have. It can also get out of control if you aren't careful.

On this front, LOTRO did well. Even after F2P, I kept paying my monthly subscription. I never ever paid any additional money for content outside of expansions.

Where LOTRO failed in my eyes was the additional change in direction of the game post-F2P. Instead of continuing to develop endgame content and expand PvP, they shifted their focus to fluff items (sold in the store) and to smoothing the leveling curve and low level areas (usually the first areas new players encounter, thus encouraging them to stay). LOTRO probably had a good business case for doing this as their existing development model wasn't attracting/retaining enough players, but as an endgame focused player this is what eventually made me quit LOTRO.


That is what worries me about SW:TOR ever going free to play.

Games that go free to play make the assumption that their payment model is the reason that they arent making enough money, whereas in reality it is the quality of their game that is the issue. In addition to changing the payment model, they also tend to change their content focus to suit the new intended playerbase. This drives away their previously loyal customer base as the game changes too much.

On that basis, i will likely quit if they go F2P

I love all the people complaining about lack of content released. Let's compare it to your favorite mmo.


Swtor: December 20, 2011 to July 20, 2012
Operations- 3 (1 Added since)
Flash Points: 8 Hard Mode | 14 Total (2 Added Since)
Pvp Maps - 4 (1 Added since)
World Events - 1 (Rhakghoul)


Wow: November 23, 2004 to June 20, 2005
Launch:
Raids: 2 (At launch Ony and Molten core, who were both being tested still. Ony 1 boss raid.)
Dungeons: ***
Pvp Maps: 0
Pvp reward System: None
World Events: 0
+ December 18th, 2005 ( New dungeon)
+ March 7th, 2005 (New Dungeon)
+ March 7th, 2005 (Out Door Raid Boss)
+ Honor System was not introduced until Patch 1.4 (May 5, 2005)
+ June 7th, 2005 Battlegrounds 2 made their way into the game
+ June 7th, 2005 Blizzard still fixing major bugs with their only 2 raids.
Duration of time being looked at
Raids: 2 (No new content released for endgame)
Dungeons: ****
Pvp Maps: 2
Pvp System: Now in place took until 1.4
World Event: 1 (Children's Week.)

In total there were 29 Dungeons with a faction imbalance, In fps I only counted the number that a player had access to. As well looking up the active dungeons by the time for wow is honestly too much time lol. As well as 0 heroic dungeons.

So you're saying it's acceptable for SWToR to be released in 2011 with features and content that are barely capable of competing with a game that released in 2004? A game that pioneered a lot of the things after release that SWToR had the benefit of essentially copy/pasting before it even launched?

It doesn't seem to me like you're doing this game any favors. ToR is competing against WoW now, not WoW 8 years ago.

So you're saying it's acceptable for SWToR to be released in 2011 with features and content that are barely capable of competing with a game that released in 2004? A game that pioneered a lot of the things after release that SWToR had the benefit of essentially copy/pasting before it even launched?

It doesn't seem to me like you're doing this game any favors. ToR is competing against WoW now, not WoW 8 years ago.

So you're saying it's acceptable for SWToR to be released in 2011 with features and content that are barely capable of competing with a game that released in 2004? A game that pioneered a lot of the things after release that SWToR had the benefit of essentially copy/pasting before it even launched?

It doesn't seem to me like you're doing this game any favors. ToR is competing against WoW now, not WoW 8 years ago.