Now that the game has gone F2P some people decided to review their new model by checking out the F2P chart at http://www.swtor.com/free/features and were really disappointed by all the restrictions. Some of the

What I want to point out is that there are several positive aspects of this new model that are not beign advertised by Bioware and is not clearly evident in their F2P chart, which is going to end up hurting them since the first impression people get of their model is that it's pretty bad, which i really think it's not the case.

First off, any former subscriber is automatically promoted to Prefered Status, something that the F2P fails to mention and is pretty significant since Prefered status has significantly less restrictions than F2P players, returning players get to keep their Legacy Unlocks, Inventory Slots, Bank slots and any Artifact Equiment that was previously bound, I had to go digging through the Dev tracker to get that information

Blaine: First off – if you change from being a subscriber to a Free-to-Play player, you will always go to Preferred status and will never become a Free Account, so you’ll have some features unlocked that you otherwise would not. Additionally, you will absolutely retain the Legacy unlocks that you earned/purchased as a subscriber. In almost all cases, if you have been a subscriber, you will find that things you purchased for in-game credits will be retained when you go down to Preferred. Including things like Cargo Hold access and Inventory Slots.

This information might be common knowledge for those of us that come to the forum often and have been checking on the Devs Q&A and interviews, but someone that has been away from the game and is interested in coming back is going to dig through the dev tracker to find out everything about F2P they will simply check out the chart and be immediately turned off.

Another thing that is not mentioned in the F2P model is that there are several ways to get around the restrictions without having to spend real money yourself, similar to they that you don't have to spend cash to unlock new champions in League of Legends, but not as straight forward, because you actually have to buy the Cartel Items from other players.

Nathan Emmott: Allowing players to trade items they buy from the Market, to give gifts, and to sell them on the Galactic Trade Network is core to our plans for the Cartel Market and an experience we only want to improve!

When they mentioned that Cartel Items were going to be tradable I imagined that they only refered to the cosmetic items, when In fact everyone from the cartel market is tradable, The quickbars, the authorization to access section X, the authorization to use artifact or event gear, and not to mention all the cosmetic items, pets, emotes, etc. This is good for everyone but specially for returning players because if you happen to have some credits saved up you can use them to buy Cartel Items, and Bioware keeps getting the money because someone had to buy that Item directly from the Cartel Market previously.

TLRD: So in short, I think the F2P Chart is pretty bad and needs to be reworked, it shows their new model to be too restrictive when in fact is much more flexible than it seems, Bioware is doing a poor job at advertising their product and this new model, people shouldn't have to go investigating the Dev Tracker to find out more about F2P, it's up to Bioware to bring the information to all their potential customers and let them know all the positives aspects and flexibilities of their new model, not just the restrictions.

And yet there are hundreds if not thousands of new players with the majority reaching Alderaan or Taris at the moment. I am not saying that this F2P model is fair for f2players, but then again BioWare said up front that F2Players will be severely limited. I mean.. if they want to enjoy the storylines, they can practically do it with what they get. Flashpoints? They don't need them, but they can still play some. Maybe the gear equip restriction is really bad, but other than that I can accept it. Why, you ask? Because I am a subscriber.

What gives them the right to demand more? They have access to the most important part of the game - storylines. If they want more, why don't they subscribe?

You know, you can get a toon to level 50 in less than two weeks if you play regularly. You won't be broke if you buy one month subscription and enjoy everything to it's fullest. Noone ever said that BioWare wanted to keep their f2p players as contented as Turbine with it's LotRO and DDO now, did they? The F2P is a free trial based on revolving door marketing. Some will play it and finish the desired storyline without paying, and then delete the game and move on. Some will play it, spend a few bucks/euros on crucial Cartel Market content and leave. Few others will decide - just like those two F2P guys I grouped up with for Athiss - that the game is so cool that they want to sub and enjoy all the bonuses available for subscribers.

You do not demand more from people who give you something for free. But it is up to you to decide if you want to accept it or pass by. All in all, this F2P model, as restrictive and imperfect it might seem, is actually pretty well-thought. We will see how successful it will be with time.

F2P = New version of a trial account

It can also be considered a free sample of the main product. You get the taste of it, and if you like the taste you buy the product. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but if $15/month is too much then I'd just start saving up for the 1-time unlocks.

The point is to get people to sub so that they won't have to deal with restrictions.

What gives them the right to demand more? They have access to the most important part of the game - storylines. If they want more, why don't they subscribe?

You didn't read the OP, did you.

He's right, aside from the restrictions the F2P conversion has terrible advertising. I had a friend getting into it who was under the impression that he would never be able to Sprint (he played City of Heroes; CoH Sprint is faster than SWToR speeders). I had to point out that the empty symbol (when moused over) indicated he'd be able to do it at level 15.

There are examples like that all over. For something that's supposed to save the game they're doing a really bad job of marketing it and being clear about what's restricted and what isn't. Did you know F2P players can't get credit boxes from mission rewards? It's not a big deal - BW probably does it to keep away credit farmers with free accounts and Slicing. That's reasonable. But a F2P player doesn't know that until they get into the game and see it, generally at level 4 or 5. One that's seen all the F2P restrictions already sees one more (ostensibly nonsensical) restriction added onto that.

What gives them the right to demand more? They have access to the most important part of the game - storylines. If they want more, why don't they subscribe?

I'm pretty sure you didn't actually read the OP, so I'll let you go back and do that now.

He's quite right; I work at a college, next to the Helpdesk--an area filled with dozens of students at any given moment of the day discussing video games. I have *heard* misinformation, and the negative impact it has had. Folks saying that there's all these horrible restrictions, therefore they decided not to even try the game. Which was the OP's point. Which I am corroborating with real-world witnessing.

He's not saying "lift the restrictions." He's saying "Stop presenting the restrictions out of context and making is sound as though if you try the game for free, you'll be severely handicapped and unable to play."

Heck--I've even heard 2 separate people mention that Tor doesn't sound worth it because they read that there's a level cap... Play till 50 or something... And they don't want to get into it and have to stop. See what a little bit of misunderstanding and de-contextualized bullet pointing can do?

I agree with the OP, he worded it very nicely.

I think one of the issues with the feature chart is also that its very missleading, in the sense that people look at the chart and see ****! F2p dont even get sprint nor access to mounts! for excample, which simply put isnt the case, if you mouse over the check boxes it clearly states they DO get access to mounts, at a later lvl( the original lvls) then subscribers.

The chart isnt (for the lack of better words) idiot proof.

Like mentioned above, people asume you do not get sprint as F2P, if they listed it as :

feature sub - pref - f2p

Sprint : lvl 1 - lvl 1- lvl 15

It would have been alot clearer .

And yet there are hundreds if not thousands of new players with the majority reaching Alderaan or Taris at the moment. I am not saying that this F2P model is fair for f2players, but then again BioWare said up front that F2Players will be severely limited. I mean.. if they want to enjoy the storylines, they can practically do it with what they get. Flashpoints? They don't need them, but they can still play some. Maybe the gear equip restriction is really bad, but other than that I can accept it. Why, you ask? Because I am a subscriber.

 

What gives them the right to demand more? They have access to the most important part of the game - storylines. If they want more, why don't they subscribe?

 

You know, you can get a toon to level 50 in less than two weeks if you play regularly. You won't be broke if you buy one month subscription and enjoy everything to it's fullest. Noone ever said that BioWare wanted to keep their f2p players as contented as Turbine with it's LotRO and DDO now, did they? The F2P is a free trial based on revolving door marketing. Some will play it and finish the desired storyline without paying, and then delete the game and move on. Some will play it, spend a few bucks/euros on crucial Cartel Market content and leave. Few others will decide - just like those two F2P guys I grouped up with for Athiss - that the game is so cool that they want to sub and enjoy all the bonuses available for subscribers.

 

You do not demand more from people who give you something for free. But it is up to you to decide if you want to accept it or pass by. All in all, this F2P model, as restrictive and imperfect it might seem, is actually pretty well-thought. We will see how successful it will be with time.

half of what you said is correct but this 'f2p' hype attempt was EAwares last chance to revive this dying game, they cant aford the luxury of these stupid restrictions.

ok lets say as a f2p player you finally hit 50 and then what, you start again with other class? ok and then what? its not about the price its about the concept, eventually if you want to actually 'PLAY' this game you will have to pay, so then this 'f2p' is not so f2p after all.

do some digging on all major mmo websites and take a look at the global image of this 'well-thought system' that you say.

threads filled with disappointment over restrictions and poor pvp/pve content, new players but also former subscribers.

yea huge success ahead..

do some digging on all major mmo websites and take a look at the global image of this 'well-thought system' that you say.

The system in which, if you play your cards well, you may hardly have to pay a cent in the future. Unlocks are already dropping in price, it'll be a matter of time before you can just purchase the majority of your unlocks by means of ingame credits.

Obviously those with sub room-temperature IQ's will fail to grasp that, and considering as to how many of them make up the communities on a lot of those sites it simply cannot be helped.

threads filled with disappointment over restrictions and poor pvp/pve content, new players but also former subscribers.

Poor PvE/PvP content however, is a matter of taste.

Yes, I absolutely hate hutball. I think it's in the same level of terrible as Arathi Basin or Warschung Gulsch was in WoW.

However, there are plenty of others who like hutball, and there are plenty of people who like AB and WG in WoW.

The same goes for the raiding content. I loved Black Temple when I was younger, and enjoyed my time in ICC. However, as I've grown older I must say I'm much less inclined to repeat those sort of raids but rather stick to something like EC or TFB. Something which if you learn the ropes, may be finished in approx 90 minutes - 2 hours.

In terms of raiding difficulty though, WoW and SWTOR don't differ a lot. They're both relatively easy. If you can learn to dance, you can also learn to do the required steps in such raids.

I did, actually, read what OP wrote. My post was more of a digression about the ones that whine about the f2p. I do agree that BioWare should mention openly that all the restricted things can be bought for in-game money from other players, but then again remember that there's a credit cap on F2P toons. Therefore they are unable to gather enough money to pay for the unlocks unless they're sold for affordable price. Which, in my opinion, would be too low.

But I guess I should've pointed it out more clearly that I agree with OP and understand his post. I just hate the people who whine about the F2P model itself, especially with all the possibilities that OP was talking about and BioWare didn't advertise for some(or no) reason.

The system in which, if you play your cards well, you may hardly have to pay a cent in the future. Unlocks are already dropping in price, it'll be a matter of time before you can just purchase the majority of your unlocks by means of ingame credits.

you really think a clean f2p player with the curent credit cap, will be able to afford buying the serious unlocks, like artifact gear, section x, pvp pass, pve pass etc?

unlocks have dropped in price but think about it, this is only temporarly. how long do you think this 'buy/open cartel packs hype' will last?

when the ppl will get sick of wasting money on the packs, the prices will be back up.

lately on my server theres only 1 page of unlocks and 1 page of authorizations, both HALF empty.

But I guess I should've pointed it out more clearly that I agree with OP and understand his post. I just hate the people who whine about the F2P model itself, especially with all the possibilities that OP was talking about and BioWare didn't advertise for some(or no) reason.

But can you really blame people for complaining? Most of them do it for lack of information and it's really up to Bioware to really highlights the positives of their new model. Look at this

you really think a clean f2p player with the curent credit cap, will be able to afford buying the serious unlocks, like artifact gear, section x, pvp pass, pve pass etc?

You're not looking at the big picture, I am currently subbed but I plan to go Prefered Status soon, so I'm buying all the unlocks that I can get my hands on, I have some F2P friends that just started playing and I might buy some unlocks for them too, I have another friend that just subbed for 6 months, but after that he plans to move to prefered status so I guess he'll want to buy a bunch of unlocks.

Also, it's not only the account unlocks that can be sold, there's all the cosmetic items, pets, speeders, crystals, even the weekly passes.

Bioware mentioned that they might increase the credit cap, or at least I hope they let us buy an unlock to completely lift it, but even if the cap stays at 350k I imagine I'll still be able to trade using a different "currency" such as crafting materials, stimpacks, etc.

Have you tried the Free to Play model in World of Warcraft? It is even more restricted than SWTOR. I was pretty amazed that you can go all the way to level 50 when I read about the Free to Play model in SWTOR, which lead me to try it out and ultimately had me subscribing for a 6 months recurring subscription because I like the game.

I would never had tried to play SWTOR if I have to pay for it, not knowing if it is good or not.

I started playing World of Warcraft the same way too, first tried the free to play model, then decided to subscribe.

Essentially this topic is "Rework the chart to highlight the benefits of f2p and minimize the terribly petty restrictions".

This topic should be "Remove the terribly petty restrictions, rehire your developers and create actual new content for the store".

You might...MIGHT...get a few more people through the door by obfuscating the reality of the restrictions, but you won't get them to stick around. Word of mouth is big and this game (and EA/Bioware) has incredible amounts of bad will saved up with the general public.

If EA/Bioware isn't serious about making this game a success, then you have to wonder what this whole F2P conversion was for...is it really just for gouging loyal subbers for more than the $15 a month with content they already had in the pipeline before EA closes the doors? Was that the goal?

If EA/Bioware isn't serious about making this game a success, then you have to wonder what this whole F2P conversion was for...is it really just for gouging loyal subbers for more than the $15 a month with content they already had in the pipeline before EA closes the doors? Was that the goal?

Your argument is contradictory, if EA starts to make SWTOR more profitable by "gouging loyal subbers for more than the $15 a month" then why would they shut it down when they are starting to make more money? It's like killing your chicken when it began to lay it's first golden eggs. Forum Logic at it's best.

Also, I think the whole "F2P is too restricive" "SWTOR is failing" and the old tired complaints are NOT the topic of this thread, I'm specifically talking about the F2P Chart and how badly Bioware advertises it's own preduct.

Thanks

Your argument is contradictory

Only in your head. It's not my fault you choose to read into my question in the most obtuse and idiotic manner possible. Forumer at his best...

If in fact that is EA's main goal (charging loyal subs for pipelined content), it does nothing to address the downward trajectory of this game nor it's longterm prospects (for either new players or new content). If EA just wants to slash costs and collect what money it can (similar to what, say, Toshiba did with their HD DVD players before officially bowing out) then I guess that's on way to go about it...but even loyal subscribers have their limits.

Cheers!

The servers are loaded up every day at prime time. If they did any more marketing of the game they would all be queued up every day as well. Personally, I think you will see more marketing once the patch/F2P frenzy is over and the server populations settle in again.

While I agree that they need a better comparison chart for Sub/Preferred/Free.... any player that is preferred and is not smart enough to read and understand the forum posts form Bioware about what they get/don't_get I have no sympathy for them.

As for free players, there is no marketing incentive for Bioware to explain to them what preferred is. They dangle a simple carrot saying you get preferred status for buying anything, even 500 coins. That's all they need to do. If a free player lacks the enterprise to go find out what that means.. meh.

As for free players, there is no marketing incentive for Bioware to explain to them what preferred is. They dangle a simple carrot saying you get preferred status for buying anything, even 500 coins. That's all they need to do. If a free player lacks the enterprise to go find out what that means.. meh.

You don't actually know what 'marketing incentive' is, do you...

There's every marketing incentive for BW to do a better job laying out the bennies a Preferred player gets (especially if it doesn't really cost them anything to do so). After all, the difference between Free and Preferred is at least $5 of pure profit in BW's pockets.

When you're a business, you don't get to throw away money just because it comes from people that might be kind of lazy.

Essentially this topic is "Rework the chart to highlight the benefits of f2p and minimize the terribly petty restrictions".

 

This topic should be "Remove the terribly petty restrictions, rehire your developers and create actual new content for the store".

One of them is way easier to fix. It's just as easy to say "make this game better" as "make the chart better," but one takes a lot of time and money and might not work anyway, the other is just one or two guys fiddling with stuff.

One's a lot likelier to happen, and there's nothing wrong with the OP for wanting to pick his battles.

Only in your head. It's not my fault you choose to read into my question in the most obtuse and idiotic manner possible. Forumer at his best...

 

If in fact that is EA's main goal (charging loyal subs for pipelined content), it does nothing to address the downward trajectory of this game nor it's longterm prospects (for either new players or new content). If EA just wants to slash costs and collect what money it can (similar to what, say, Toshiba did with their HD DVD players before officially bowing out) then I guess that's on way to go about it...but even loyal subscribers have their limits.

 

Cheers!

+1 :):)

I think they need to add an "honored" or gold status. That would be for players that have paid for the box game and subscribed for at least 3 months.

Most of the cheap GUI and travel restrictions would be removed, but the weekly passes would remain. They would be afforded more free character slots and a few more races to choose from.

Just my opinion of course.

They really do need more status tiers than just $0 - $5 - Subscriber.

I don't think grandfathering in the people who bought the box as the sole members of the tier between Preferred and Subscriber is sustainable, there should be a way for new players to get at it as well otherwise there's not a lot of reason to bother. The people who bought the box and the people who are jumping into F2P now are a pretty different demographic.

While I agree that they need a better comparison chart for Sub/Preferred/Free.... any player that is preferred and is not smart enough to read and understand the forum posts form Bioware about what they get/don't_get I have no sympathy for them.

I generally agree with what you say, but I think you are looking at this the wrong way. It's not the job of the potential customers to go digging through the Dev Tracker looking for quotes from Blaine Christine to find out more about F2P, It's really up to Bioware to have ALL the information regarding their new Free-to-Play model readily avaiable in One Place, and highlithing the positives.

I generally agree with what you say, but I think you are looking at this the wrong way. It's not the job of the potential customers to go digging through the Dev Tracker looking for quotes from Blaine Christine to find out more about F2P, It's really up to Bioware to have ALL the information regarding their new Free-to-Play model readily avaiable in One Place, and highlithing the positives.

My point is... preferred customers are NOT potential customers. They are in fact customers that have paid money to Bioware, and most of them are subscribers who have lapsed their subscriptions. These people either follow the forums already, or they know how to use the search function (I know I know... but you get my point I think ) or google. Everyone knows how to use google, but if they lack the desire... then that's on them IMO.

Any customer that wants to know something... google will deliver. If they can't google, they probably should not be playing MMOs.

My point is... preferred customers are NOT potential customers. They are in fact customers that have paid money to Bioware, and most of them are subscribers who have lapsed their subscriptions. These people either follow the forums already, or they know how to use the search function (I know I know... but you get my point I think ) or google. Everyone knows how to use google, but if they lack the desire... then that's on them IMO.

 

Any customer that wants to know something... google will deliver. If they can't google, they probably should not be playing MMOs.

Hundreds of thousands of players have unsubsribed from the game, not all of them have kept in touch with the Forums, or have been checking out fansites, many have moved on. For someone that just came back, they will go to the Free-to-Play Chart and be pretty disappointed, how are they supposed to know that there's more information on the Dev Tracker or buried on some old Q&A from weeks ago?

Again, Bioware should be responsible of having all the information in one place if they want attract a lot of new and former players, and saying "but the servers will be full" it's not really an excuse to do a crappy job at advertising. And for the record I'm not saying "do more advertising" I'm just saying that they communicate well the information in their own website at least.