Bioware/EA still have no clue and their game will still fail because of their idiocy. It's not hard to make F2P work as there are many many MMO's out their that are shining examples of how it should be done and it wouldn't take an idiot to realise this, but not Bioware/EA it seems.
Then when it does crash and burn, they'll be scratching their empty heads wondering why.
These are the same morons that had almost unlimited money and the top sci-fi IP to build their MMO around and they sucked it.
It should not be a surprise that their F2P implementation is not only among the worst around, but on several points, it is just plain stupid.
Some additional info from SWTOR website - from players so I can't guarantee it's totally correct:
Quote
From my understanding previous players coming back will be marked as "preferred status".
The only thing I can see a preferred status grants you is...
*The ability to run faster (Sprint) starting at Level 1. *Cargo Hold access (Bank Slots) and higher login queue priority. *Increased access to Chat and Secure Trading.
Some additional info from SWTOR website - from players so I can't guarantee it's totally correct:
Quote
From my understanding previous players coming back will be marked as "preferred status".
The only thing I can see a preferred status grants you is...
*The ability to run faster (Sprint) starting at Level 1. *Cargo Hold access (Bank Slots) and higher login queue priority. *Increased access to Chat and Secure Trading.
End of quote.
I guess this is nice if someone just wanted more crumbs.
The real screwup is all the stuff that returning players will not get. Everything is now monetized. Want to display a title? few bucks. ugh, lame.
The kicker is that EA is trying to get returning players back, yet telling them that all their previously earned gear can't be used unless the pay some more money to unlock a "purple gear" license .. horrible. There is no motivation to download this game again with all the restrictions in place (those in the OP, and those being revealed as time goes on).
I could possibly live with a dollar or 2 per unlock of specific categories of PVP/PVE/space, but coming back with all the stuff I need will cost easily $100+ .. EA is really screwing the pooch here while trying to push subscriptions. A subscription that many elected not to participate in, because the game was not worth it.
This game would not even have needed to go freemium if it simply had competent people at EA working on fast content and new game features (that people actually wanted).
Some additional info from SWTOR website - from players so I can't guarantee it's totally correct:
Quote
From my understanding previous players coming back will be marked as "preferred status".
The only thing I can see a preferred status grants you is...
*The ability to run faster (Sprint) starting at Level 1. *Cargo Hold access (Bank Slots) and higher login queue priority. *Increased access to Chat and Secure Trading.
End of quote.
I guess this is nice if someone just wanted more crumbs.
The real screwup is all the stuff that returning players will not get. Everything is now monetized. Want to display a title? few bucks. ugh, lame.
The kicker is that EA is trying to get returning players back, yet telling them that all their previously earned gear can't be used unless the pay some more money to unlock a "purple gear" license .. horrible. There is no motivation to download this game again with all the restrictions in place (those in the OP, and those being revealed as time goes on).
I could possibly live with a dollar or 2 per unlock of specific categories of PVP/PVE/space, but coming back with all the stuff I need will cost easily $100+ .. EA is really screwing the pooch here while trying to push subscriptions. A subscription that many elected not to participate in, because the game was not worth it.
This game would not even have needed to go freemium if it simply had competent people at EA working on fast content and new game features (that people actually wanted).
I agree with you on last sentence. They should just get their hands busy instead of getting into panic mode. For that I would actually blame EA
We will see how it's going. I would actually like to see you back in the game one day.
Some additional info from SWTOR website - from players so I can't guarantee it's totally correct:
Quote
From my understanding previous players coming back will be marked as "preferred status".
The only thing I can see a preferred status grants you is...
*The ability to run faster (Sprint) starting at Level 1. *Cargo Hold access (Bank Slots) and higher login queue priority. *Increased access to Chat and Secure Trading.
End of quote.
I guess this is nice if someone just wanted more crumbs.
The real screwup is all the stuff that returning players will not get. Everything is now monetized. Want to display a title? few bucks. ugh, lame.
The kicker is that EA is trying to get returning players back, yet telling them that all their previously earned gear can't be used unless the pay some more money to unlock a "purple gear" license .. horrible. There is no motivation to download this game again with all the restrictions in place (those in the OP, and those being revealed as time goes on).
I could possibly live with a dollar or 2 per unlock of specific categories of PVP/PVE/space, but coming back with all the stuff I need will cost easily $100+ .. EA is really screwing the pooch here while trying to push subscriptions. A subscription that many elected not to participate in, because the game was not worth it.
This game would not even have needed to go freemium if it simply had competent people at EA working on fast content and new game features (that people actually wanted).
I agree with you on last sentence. They should just get their hands busy instead of getting into panic mode. For that I would actually blame EA
We will see how it's going. I would actually like to see you back in the game one day.
Oh, you don't agree then that EA is trying to push subscriptions with their "F2P" model? :-)
It is nice to see you are emotional on this topic, with your wishing that EA was more competent with game making. Kudos?
The restrictions are still awful. The 2 videos you posted help to show this - Everything will be monetized for freemiums. There was an interesting question on the SWTOR official forums, "Will F2P's need to pay for map access?" .. if someone even has to even ask this, then there is something really wrong, regardless of if someone has to pay or not. It's pretty bad.
Life Day was a Wookiee holiday celebrated by the inhabitants of Kashyyyk every three years. It was a celebration of the planet's diverse ecosystem and the many forms of life it encompassed. It also was a time to remember family members who had died, and the young ones who continued to bring new life to a family. Life Day was a sacred holiday, and many Wookiees considered it their duty to return to Kashyyyk in order to celebrate it.
It has been a while since we've heard anything regarding BioWare's stance on holiday events but for those who remember, it's not surprising to see events based on the Star Wars IP. Guess we'll have to see when this stuff rolls out, though if Star Wars Galaxies is any ballpark, it will occur during the Christmas holiday season.
Does TOR going F2P mean that EA can count old cancelled subs as "Active" now since they no longer need to subscribe? Will we see a sudden increase in the number of "Active" accounts in the news even if only a few people actually play the game?
It wouldn't surprise me if EA were to try and spin this. For me the game was a poor effort and being free won't make any difference. I don't play games that I don't enjoy. Doesn't matter if it's free or not. What pisses me off is the thought that EA will probably look at cancelled accounts and use them to buff the numbers and make them look good.
Does TOR going F2P mean that EA can count old cancelled subs as "Active" now since they no longer need to subscribe? Will we see a sudden increase in the number of "Active" accounts in the news even if only a few people actually play the game?
It wouldn't surprise me if EA were to try and spin this. For me the game was a poor effort and being free won't make any difference. I don't play games that I don't enjoy. Doesn't matter if it's free or not. What pisses me off is the thought that EA will probably look at cancelled accounts and use them to buff the numbers and make them look good.
I think it means that they won't have to report anything
Does TOR going F2P mean that EA can count old cancelled subs as "Active" now since they no longer need to subscribe? Will we see a sudden increase in the number of "Active" accounts in the news even if only a few people actually play the game?
It wouldn't surprise me if EA were to try and spin this. For me the game was a poor effort and being free won't make any difference. I don't play games that I don't enjoy. Doesn't matter if it's free or not. What pisses me off is the thought that EA will probably look at cancelled accounts and use them to buff the numbers and make them look good.
They wont report much of anything, as a result, post F2P.
Perfect World has 50+ million accounts. Ragnarok is up there too. With SWTOR, it will be X number of accounts, and Y number of new accounts. The number of accounts DOES NOT EQUAL the people who actually play the game, let alone the people who play it on a regular basis.
With investors all they will hear is the bottom line for the entire company. In this Case EA .. so they will lump their losses with SWTOR with the gains from other games in their marketing portfolio. In effect, nobody will ever know the true losses of SWTOR once F2P hits, unless EA mentions it.
If they mention it then it was a good thing, if they don't then it's suddenly up for speculation. A speculation which EA fans will always see as SWTOR growth.
To other posts, I should add a SW fan is NOT EQUAL to a SWTOR fan :-)
in purple :
Anyone who ever bought SWTOR will count as an account, when account info is given (if it will be). Perfect World still promotes 50+ million accounts, even though only < 1% of them actually played their game in the past month.
So, yup, if you bought the game you still count in their F2P statistics (based on other F2P game practices). I'm in that category, &@#$ !!
Life Day was a Wookiee holiday celebrated by the inhabitants of Kashyyyk every three years. It was a celebration of the planet's diverse ecosystem and the many forms of life it encompassed. It also was a time to remember family members who had died, and the young ones who continued to bring new life to a family. Life Day was a sacred holiday, and many Wookiees considered it their duty to return to Kashyyyk in order to celebrate it.
It has been a while since we've heard anything regarding BioWare's stance on holiday events but for those who remember, it's not surprising to see events based on the Star Wars IP. Guess we'll have to see when this stuff rolls out, though if Star Wars Galaxies is any ballpark, it will occur during the Christmas holiday season.
Life Day was a Wookiee holiday celebrated by the inhabitants of Kashyyyk every three years. It was a celebration of the planet's diverse ecosystem and the many forms of life it encompassed. It also was a time to remember family members who had died, and the young ones who continued to bring new life to a family. Life Day was a sacred holiday, and many Wookiees considered it their duty to return to Kashyyyk in order to celebrate it.
It has been a while since we've heard anything regarding BioWare's stance on holiday events but for those who remember, it's not surprising to see events based on the Star Wars IP. Guess we'll have to see when this stuff rolls out, though if Star Wars Galaxies is any ballpark, it will occur during the Christmas holiday season.
I have to ask, and be honest. Do you work for EA?? It is a simple question.
LMAO
No I do not work for EA:).
I am just in love with the game
Is it really so difficult or impossible to understand that there are people here who really enjoy and love this game? I was always a book mole, so they story based games are my kind of MMOs and SWTOR is the BEST! In my opinion of course.
What I am doing on this forum is to try to balance negative with positive . Jing and yang:)
Some comments from Devs posted on PTS forum - regarding changes coming to F2P in near future.
We've been observing PTS closely over the last few days. In that time, we have generally been very pleased with how well the build has been performing, as well as overall reaction to the build both on the boards and in-game. That being said, based on community and internal feedback here and further deliberation, we will in short order make the following changes to the Free to Play restrictions:
Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar.
Free-to-Play players will now be able to do 5 Warzones per week instead of 3.
The Cartel Coin item lock (i.e. temporary bind) will be reduced to 3 days for Free-to-Play players, and 2 days for subscribers.
We've found some crucial bugs that needed stomping, which is good. These changes will make their way to you probably early next week.
There are a couple of key concepts that should be kept in mind as you review free to play changes. The first is that, to be honest, all of you are looking at a gameplay mode that you will likely never see. Subscribers who choose to cancel their account will typically revert to something that we refer to as preferred status. My fellow designer Nathan Emmott has a post up describing the ins and outs of Preferred Status. Originally, the second quickslot bar was part of preferred status, but this morning based on feedback here and what they were seeing in the community we decided to give it to everyone.
The second is Warzones. Perhaps the most interesting point regarding the Warzones limitation is that some players have concerns that putting limitations on Warzone runs might make Warzone queues less likely to fire. While it is possible that this may happen, we don't think it will -- our subscriber base likely will not shrink much, and for some of our competitors, converting to Free-to-Play has resulted in a subscriber increase! Which means that Warzone queues should likely see improvement from what you experience in game, and at minimum be relatively unchanged in experience.
That being said, one of our golden rules is that the Free-to-Play experience should not cheapen the experience for paying subscribers. If it turns out that the Free-to-Play conversion results in a degraded Warzone experience once we go live for subscribers, you can rest assured that we will quickly make adjustments to the system to ensure that subscribers have an optimal experience.
That being said, it is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic.
Thank you for helping being our guinea pigs through this experience, and please continue to keep posting your feedback on issues here. We're listening!
Worst Freemium model I think I've ever seen. So many limitations. This game has gone from bad to worse with this free model. Isn't it funny? They say the only reason for their failure was the fact that it was subscription-based... yet they've limited it so much that they're pushing all F2P players into subscribing, or they have to play ultra-casual aside from leveling and class stories, should they actually want any reward for their game time.
Originally posted by SuperXero89 If you already have purple gear from a previous subscription, will all your gear pop off like in EverQuest 2, or can you keep that gear as long as you don't unequip it?
You can use your gear with purple mods as long as you won't alter it.
I have this feeling Bioware/EA is quite a bit clueless how to make money with a F2P + cashshop. Which I don't get, because so many MMOs have shown how to manage that OTHER than with absurd ideas like trolling players with "buy more quickbars". Examples:
- sell a re-name service
- sell a race-change service
- sell race unlock for all classes
- sell visual make-over
- create a team that pumps out new COOL looking gear, add an appearance slot, sell always new appearance gear
I think along these lines SWTOR would make easy money without absurd ideas like quickbars or the like.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I was reading on SWTOR forums that sub players will get SIX quickbars? What happened to people saying 2 is more than enough (which it isn't), 4 bars for me was plenty as it had EVERYTHING my character and abilities had available, what's to add to the 2 extra bars?
Comments
These are the same morons that had almost unlimited money and the top sci-fi IP to build their MMO around and they sucked it.
It should not be a surprise that their F2P implementation is not only among the worst around, but on several points, it is just plain stupid.
All you can do is point and laugh.
Some additional info from SWTOR website - from players so I can't guarantee it's totally correct:
Quote
From my understanding previous players coming back will be marked as "preferred status".
The only thing I can see a preferred status grants you is...
*The ability to run faster (Sprint) starting at Level 1.
*Cargo Hold access (Bank Slots) and higher login queue priority.
*Increased access to Chat and Secure Trading.
End of quote.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
The second video of the Cartel market
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5wJ1LfTHgs&feature=g-all-u
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
I guess this is nice if someone just wanted more crumbs.
The real screwup is all the stuff that returning players will not get. Everything is now monetized. Want to display a title? few bucks. ugh, lame.
The kicker is that EA is trying to get returning players back, yet telling them that all their previously earned gear can't be used unless the pay some more money to unlock a "purple gear" license .. horrible. There is no motivation to download this game again with all the restrictions in place (those in the OP, and those being revealed as time goes on).
I could possibly live with a dollar or 2 per unlock of specific categories of PVP/PVE/space, but coming back with all the stuff I need will cost easily $100+ .. EA is really screwing the pooch here while trying to push subscriptions. A subscription that many elected not to participate in, because the game was not worth it.
This game would not even have needed to go freemium if it simply had competent people at EA working on fast content and new game features (that people actually wanted).
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
I agree with you on last sentence. They should just get their hands busy instead of getting into panic mode. For that I would actually blame EA
We will see how it's going. I would actually like to see you back in the game one day.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
Oh, you don't agree then that EA is trying to push subscriptions with their "F2P" model? :-)
It is nice to see you are emotional on this topic, with your wishing that EA was more competent with game making. Kudos?
The restrictions are still awful. The 2 videos you posted help to show this - Everything will be monetized for freemiums. There was an interesting question on the SWTOR official forums, "Will F2P's need to pay for map access?" .. if someone even has to even ask this, then there is something really wrong, regardless of if someone has to pay or not. It's pretty bad.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
Some good news from Darth Hater:
Wookiee Life Day Coming
After updating our DB yesterday with all of the current items included in the PTS patch, we discovered a few items worth covering on their own beyond the Cartel Market. One of these happens to involve a Star Wars-centric holiday event called Wookiee Life Day.
Items
It has been a while since we've heard anything regarding BioWare's stance on holiday events but for those who remember, it's not surprising to see events based on the Star Wars IP. Guess we'll have to see when this stuff rolls out, though if Star Wars Galaxies is any ballpark, it will occur during the Christmas holiday season.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
Does TOR going F2P mean that EA can count old cancelled subs as "Active" now since they no longer need to subscribe? Will we see a sudden increase in the number of "Active" accounts in the news even if only a few people actually play the game?
It wouldn't surprise me if EA were to try and spin this. For me the game was a poor effort and being free won't make any difference. I don't play games that I don't enjoy. Doesn't matter if it's free or not. What pisses me off is the thought that EA will probably look at cancelled accounts and use them to buff the numbers and make them look good.
I think it means that they won't have to report anything
Less trollalalalalala
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
They wont report much of anything, as a result, post F2P.
Perfect World has 50+ million accounts. Ragnarok is up there too. With SWTOR, it will be X number of accounts, and Y number of new accounts. The number of accounts DOES NOT EQUAL the people who actually play the game, let alone the people who play it on a regular basis.
With investors all they will hear is the bottom line for the entire company. In this Case EA .. so they will lump their losses with SWTOR with the gains from other games in their marketing portfolio. In effect, nobody will ever know the true losses of SWTOR once F2P hits, unless EA mentions it.
If they mention it then it was a good thing, if they don't then it's suddenly up for speculation. A speculation which EA fans will always see as SWTOR growth.
To other posts, I should add a SW fan is NOT EQUAL to a SWTOR fan :-)
in purple :
Anyone who ever bought SWTOR will count as an account, when account info is given (if it will be). Perfect World still promotes 50+ million accounts, even though only < 1% of them actually played their game in the past month.
So, yup, if you bought the game you still count in their F2P statistics (based on other F2P game practices). I'm in that category, &@#$ !!
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
I have to ask, and be honest. Do you work for EA?? It is a simple question.
LMAO
No I do not work for EA:).
I am just in love with the game
Is it really so difficult or impossible to understand that there are people here who really enjoy and love this game? I was always a book mole, so they story based games are my kind of MMOs and SWTOR is the BEST! In my opinion of course.
What I am doing on this forum is to try to balance negative with positive
. Jing and yang:)
Did it answer your question?
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
Some comments from Devs posted on PTS forum - regarding changes coming to F2P in near future.
We've been observing PTS closely over the last few days. In that time, we have generally been very pleased with how well the build has been performing, as well as overall reaction to the build both on the boards and in-game. That being said, based on community and internal feedback here and further deliberation, we will in short order make the following changes to the Free to Play restrictions:
- Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar.
- Free-to-Play players will now be able to do 5 Warzones per week instead of 3.
- The Cartel Coin item lock (i.e. temporary bind) will be reduced to 3 days for Free-to-Play players, and 2 days for subscribers.
We've found some crucial bugs that needed stomping, which is good. These changes will make their way to you probably early next week.There are a couple of key concepts that should be kept in mind as you review free to play changes. The first is that, to be honest, all of you are looking at a gameplay mode that you will likely never see. Subscribers who choose to cancel their account will typically revert to something that we refer to as preferred status. My fellow designer Nathan Emmott has a post up describing the ins and outs of Preferred Status. Originally, the second quickslot bar was part of preferred status, but this morning based on feedback here and what they were seeing in the community we decided to give it to everyone.
The second is Warzones. Perhaps the most interesting point regarding the Warzones limitation is that some players have concerns that putting limitations on Warzone runs might make Warzone queues less likely to fire. While it is possible that this may happen, we don't think it will -- our subscriber base likely will not shrink much, and for some of our competitors, converting to Free-to-Play has resulted in a subscriber increase! Which means that Warzone queues should likely see improvement from what you experience in game, and at minimum be relatively unchanged in experience.
That being said, one of our golden rules is that the Free-to-Play experience should not cheapen the experience for paying subscribers. If it turns out that the Free-to-Play conversion results in a degraded Warzone experience once we go live for subscribers, you can rest assured that we will quickly make adjustments to the system to ensure that subscribers have an optimal experience.
That being said, it is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic.
Thank you for helping being our guinea pigs through this experience, and please continue to keep posting your feedback on issues here. We're listening!
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
Worst Freemium model I think I've ever seen. So many limitations. This game has gone from bad to worse with this free model. Isn't it funny? They say the only reason for their failure was the fact that it was subscription-based... yet they've limited it so much that they're pushing all F2P players into subscribing, or they have to play ultra-casual aside from leveling and class stories, should they actually want any reward for their game time.
Somehow this seems hypocritical...
You can use your gear with purple mods as long as you won't alter it.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
I have this feeling Bioware/EA is quite a bit clueless how to make money with a F2P + cashshop. Which I don't get, because so many MMOs have shown how to manage that OTHER than with absurd ideas like trolling players with "buy more quickbars". Examples:
- sell a re-name service
- sell a race-change service
- sell race unlock for all classes
- sell visual make-over
- create a team that pumps out new COOL looking gear, add an appearance slot, sell always new appearance gear
I think along these lines SWTOR would make easy money without absurd ideas like quickbars or the like.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Ever played star wars game as a crippled evocii slave on a wheelchair? Now's your chance!
GJ Electronic Artholes, stupid and greedy as ever.
IZI MODO?! Ha-ha-ha!
I was reading on SWTOR forums that sub players will get SIX quickbars? What happened to people saying 2 is more than enough (which it isn't), 4 bars for me was plenty as it had EVERYTHING my character and abilities had available, what's to add to the 2 extra bars?