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[Column] Star Wars: The Old Republic: Chatting SWTOR F2P with Blaine Christine

2

Comments

  • XerenixXerenix Member UncommonPosts: 237
    Originally posted by Freezzo
    Originally posted by remyburke

    A few friends, my wife and I all started playing SWTOR after quickly growing bored of GW2 and looking for more to do in way of raids, and I must say we are having a great time enjoying the game for what it is, and not what we wish it was.

     

    They did make a couple of boneheaded moves with the Cartel Market. The thing that companies have to realize is that perception is everything. The extra UI bars is a key example. They are completely unneeded, but people see this and just see them getting nickel and dimed. The game gives you 4 12-slot bars, which is more than you should ever need.

     

    Here's a tip, just creak open that dusty wallet and fork over the $15 a month for a game if you want to play it and not worry about it. F2P is, and always will be, a horrible way to play a game. Nothing sucks you out of a game world like having to spend real money periodically. Just IMO of course.

    Actually the game just gives 2 bars for free/preferred players... Also the whole idea of f2p is not having to fork over those monies ^^

    To be fair, it's 2 Bars at the same time as there is 5 more pages of quickbars that replaces the first one. Shift + Scroll up/down changes the page easily.

  • rdrakkenrdrakken Member Posts: 426

    Keep your garbage FREEMIUM offer, the game wasnt good enough for a subscription, it sure as hell isnt good enough to pay money to unlock the BASICS in the game...seriously, fire the person that thought it was a good idea to carve up a suck game as if a lot of people are going to pay to unlock parts of the SUCK that it is.

    You should have gone ACTUAL free 2 play. Offer the entire game that was released for free and create a shope with NEW items. Buffs, mounts, costumes via the MICRO transactions route.

    As is, the giant EA will still be outdone by average bland game making companies like Frogstar that is making a TON of money off of their bland FREE game...hell, maybe one day EA will be bought out by the giant of the F2P market Nexon that is netting over 1.1 BILLION a year.

    just another in a long line of DERP moves and ideas...this game could have had a 5+ year lifespan if there was someone in charge that had a clue about the market.

     
  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by Xerenix

    To be fair, it's 2 Bars at the same time as there is 5 more pages of quickbars that replaces the first one. Shift + Scroll up/down changes the page easily.

    To be fair I'm pretty sure you're still a subscriber, if you have "5 more pages of quickbars" to change easily. :)

    Btw that's why it was a very cynical move to remove the bars - or not cynical just standard EA - since they gave subscribers +2, acknowledging that even 4 bars can be tight in some classes. So at the same time saying 2 bars are enough for playing through class quest, well that's the EA way...

  • XerenixXerenix Member UncommonPosts: 237
    Originally posted by Po_gg
    Originally posted by Xerenix

    To be fair, it's 2 Bars at the same time as there is 5 more pages of quickbars that replaces the first one. Shift + Scroll up/down changes the page easily.

    To be fair I'm pretty sure you're still a subscriber, if you have "5 more pages of quickbars" to change easily. :).

    Yeah, i'm a subscriber but the pages are still there for F2P/Preferred Players.

  • Sevenstar61Sevenstar61 Member UncommonPosts: 1,686
    Originally posted by Xerenix
    Originally posted by Po_gg
    Originally posted by Xerenix

    To be fair, it's 2 Bars at the same time as there is 5 more pages of quickbars that replaces the first one. Shift + Scroll up/down changes the page easily.

    To be fair I'm pretty sure you're still a subscriber, if you have "5 more pages of quickbars" to change easily. :).

    Yeah, i'm a subscriber but the pages are still there for F2P/Preferred Players.

    Some kind of work around? LOL


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  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by Xerenix
    Originally posted by Po_gg
    Originally posted by Xerenix

    To be fair, it's 2 Bars at the same time as there is 5 more pages of quickbars that replaces the first one. Shift + Scroll up/down changes the page easily.

    To be fair I'm pretty sure you're still a subscriber, if you have "5 more pages of quickbars" to change easily. :).

    Yeah, i'm a subscriber but the pages are still there for F2P/Preferred Players.

    And as I said I'm playing on an f2p acc. atm, so nope. F2p/preferred only has 2 bars.

  • monothmonoth Member Posts: 551

    The future of MMO's is to have the players buy everything you use in game just like you do in real life... I got enough bills in real life without adding virtual bills...

     

    Want that new piece of virtual clothing (Charged to your credit card)

    Want that virtual food / drink buff (Charged to your credit card)

    Want that new virtual mount (Charged to your credit card)

    Want to have your own virtual house (Monthly Mortgage fee charged to your credit card)

    Want that shiny new virtual weapon (Charged to your credit card)

     

    So where does it end? 

     

     
  • XerenixXerenix Member UncommonPosts: 237
    Originally posted by Po_gg
    Originally posted by Xerenix
    Originally posted by Po_gg
    Originally posted by Xerenix

    To be fair, it's 2 Bars at the same time as there is 5 more pages of quickbars that replaces the first one. Shift + Scroll up/down changes the page easily.

    To be fair I'm pretty sure you're still a subscriber, if you have "5 more pages of quickbars" to change easily. :).

    Yeah, i'm a subscriber but the pages are still there for F2P/Preferred Players.

    And as I said I'm playing on an f2p acc. atm, so nope. F2p/preferred only has 2 bars.

    hm. Made a F2p acc to try it out and you're right. Asked a f2p before and he said he could but i guess he was lying.

    Thats pretty low of BW/EA. I can understand limiting the amount of quickbars at the same time but removing the pages aswell :/

  • MikeBMikeB Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
    Originally posted by eddieg50
    The one think I do not like is that preferred and free players get less experience, that will throw off the balance of the game and make people have to grind more defeating the purpose of a story driven mmo

    Are you kidding? I wish I could nerf my experience gain. It's so ridiculously easy to outlevel the game's content. I've played alongside a Preferred player and his XP gain was fine.

  • ThumbtackJThumbtackJ Member UncommonPosts: 669
    Originally posted by MikeB
    Originally posted by eddieg50
    The one think I do not like is that preferred and free players get less experience, that will throw off the balance of the game and make people have to grind more defeating the purpose of a story driven mmo

    Are you kidding? I wish I could nerf my experience gain. It's so ridiculously easy to outlevel the game's content. I've played alongside a Preferred player and his XP gain was fine.

    I feel the same way. Plus I've gotten 2 or 3 1hr 25% boosts from quests so far (level 13) if I do feel like the EXP isn't enough.  That's not to say I don't find anything wrong with the F2P model, because I certainly do, but the reduced EXP rate isn't one of them.

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by MikeB
    Originally posted by eddieg50
    The one think I do not like is that preferred and free players get less experience, that will throw off the balance of the game and make people have to grind more defeating the purpose of a story driven mmo

    Are you kidding? I wish I could nerf my experience gain. It's so ridiculously easy to outlevel the game's content. I've played alongside a Preferred player and his XP gain was fine.

    I'd agree with you in case of a few other games, like in LotRO the players asking for an xp-disabler since years (and it seems Turbine finally delivers it - for money...) but in TOR I played the story, never went out farming, killed only the minimum what was needed for the quests, etc. so I was pretty much on level (or level +1) most of the times. Compared to that, this restricted xp gain is really noticeable, as eddieg wrote it 'breaks' the story when you have to go out grinding for the next level for the quest...

  • TrikkeTrikke Member Posts: 90
    In my experience "Free to Play" gamers are the worst people to game with. Please Bioware give up the IP so we can have an MMO worthy of the Star Wars Brand.
  • DeeweDeewe Member UncommonPosts: 1,980
    Originally posted by MikeB
    Originally posted by eddieg50
    The one think I do not like is that preferred and free players get less experience, that will throw off the balance of the game and make people have to grind more defeating the purpose of a story driven mmo

    Are you kidding? I wish I could nerf my experience gain. It's so ridiculously easy to outlevel the game's content. I've played alongside a Preferred player and his XP gain was fine.

    Mike is right many of us would even pay to get a slider to lower the XP expericence as, as soon as you're doing side content (PvP, Space, Heroics, Flashpoints) along the class quests you're outleveling the game.

     

    Now few things about the interview:

    First let's be honest here, BioWare/EA can say whatever they want, the players left not because of the business model (montlhy fees) but because the game wasn't worth $15 monthly.

     

    Then about the F2P option, let's say as a player you're just interested in a specific part of the game being either Flashpoints or Operations, or PvP, or Space content or only one at a time and switch between them each week.

     

    According to the pricing form here it's going to cost a player from $7,63 and $11,50 monthly depending whether you get your CC with the smallest or biggest packages.

     

    Now add to that that compared to the $14.99 subscription price you're not getting the 500 "free" CC. Ie a value of $3.63 to $5.54

    Then top it with the fact you are very limited in every aspect of the game vs a VIP player.

     

    While it makes sense to give less to non subscribed players, at this point you're more or less paying more than them for getting less.

     

    In short the real choice is: sub or leave.

     

     

     

     

  • rdrakkenrdrakken Member Posts: 426
    Originally posted by Trikke
    In my experience "Free to Play" gamers are the worst people to game with. Please Bioware give up the IP so we can have an MMO worthy of the Star Wars Brand.

     Funny cause I have never heard of a F2P games gamers referred to like WoW kiddies are spoken about...

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by Deewe

    Mike is right many of us would even pay to get a slider to lower the XP expericence as, as soon as you're doing side content (PvP, Space, Heroics, Flashpoints) along the class quests you're outleveling the game.

    Agreed. I ment the same, that's why I pointed out I played only the class story.

    as soon as you're doing side content ... along the class quests you're outleveling the game.

    And since f2p's most likely also going to do only the class line (especially because the others require a store unlock), they won't outlevel the game either...

     

    LotRO for example is different, in there without any side content, only by doing quests - and not every one of them, ~70% is enough - you will always be 2-3 levels above the actual area... That's why the xp-disabler is an option heavily sought after. Actually I level once an alt with the goal to make every quest, he was constantly 5-6 level forward, reaching Moria at 55. :I  And this was only questing, no instances / skirmishes / raids, nothing. I guess this is outlevelling, not TOR...

  • Impulse47Impulse47 Member UncommonPosts: 159
    This game is so P2UI.
  • DeeweDeewe Member UncommonPosts: 1,980
    Originally posted by Impulse47
    This game is so P2UI.

    Lol, made my day.

     

    Please someone make a comic out of this.

  • tommytktommytk Member Posts: 3
    I pre orderd SWTOR and played till 1.2 I had done enought in the game but decided that I would wait untill they came up with more content. and they slowly did but then SWTOR was no longer the only game I wanted to play. SO we come to today and now with free to play all I get is a prefered status and a promise of coins if I ante up the money for the subscription. I may do this but in the end i decided that the game was not worth 15 a month, I dont knwo if it is now worth it or not, but as I former subscriber I feel shortchanged. for 5 dollars basic players can be where i am at where I have invested almost 150 into the game, and the only thing I can get for that are some cartel coins (that might not even be worth 20 dollars) when ther isnt enything good on the cartell market.
  • tommytktommytk Member Posts: 3
    --doubble post
  • TheOctagonTheOctagon Member UncommonPosts: 411

    I'm on a preferred account right now and something that wasn't addressed and really needs to be for those of us interested in PvP aspect of the game is, are they going to increase the amount of WZs and Space Battles? 3 per week drove people off just as fast as the quickbar issue.

    That's as crazy as the post cap on the forums. People had, and are still having problems, and are unable to get help. The SWTOR Facebook page is filled with people posting their problems with no acknowledgement their even being heard, and to make it even worse, their being trolled by subscription holders making fun of the 'Freebies'.

    Horrible customer service. Horrible F2P model.

     
  • ThumbtackJThumbtackJ Member UncommonPosts: 669
    Originally posted by TheOctagon

    I'm on a preferred account right now and something that wasn't adressed and really needs to be for those of us interested in PvP aspect of the game is, are they going to increase the amount of WZs and Space Battles? 3 per week drove people off just as fast as the quickbar issue.

    I wonder what the alternative could be? 3 or 5 per day? Or perhaps unlimited but you get PvP credits (or whatever they are) at 50% of normal? All sound better than 3 per week to me.

  • WarlyxWarlyx Member EpicPosts: 3,360

    look at the Aion Model , the game is really free to play and still Ncsoft gets more money than Eaware will never get , why? because players are happy playing and dont mind buying things to have even more fun!

     

     

     

  • CalerxesCalerxes Member UncommonPosts: 1,641
    Originally posted by remyburke

    A few friends, my wife and I all started playing SWTOR after quickly growing bored of GW2 and looking for more to do in way of raids, and I must say we are having a great time enjoying the game for what it is, and not what we wish it was.

     

    They did make a couple of boneheaded moves with the Cartel Market. The thing that companies have to realize is that perception is everything. The extra UI bars is a key example. They are completely unneeded, but people see this and just see them getting nickel and dimed. The game gives you 4 12-slot bars, which is more than you should ever need.

     

    Here's a tip, just creak open that dusty wallet and fork over the $15 a month for a game if you want to play it and not worry about it. F2P is, and always will be, a horrible way to play a game. Nothing sucks you out of a game world like having to spend real money periodically. Just IMO of course.

     

    Free players get 1 hotbar preffered players get 2 and at level 45 I have 35+ skills/utilties to use you need the bars EA/BW know this, thus the restriction, when the game was p2p players complained 4 bars wasn't enough. To play SW:TOR to 50 free is nigh on impossible you also have a restriction on field heals, slower xp, restricted inventory and credits to 350k you'll make that by level 25, there are others as well. This "F2P" model is incredibly restrictive. And to cap it all I have 1550 cartels coins given to me for being a loyal customer and cannot use them unless I sub, incredible, how abourt some good will EA/BW? I was given 1000 TP's in LotRO when it went f2p as a good will gesture.

     

    This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up™ the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by Calerxes

    I was given 1000 TP's in LotRO when it went f2p as a good will gesture.

    And don't forget to mention you could keep anything intact on every character of yours... no money cap, no inventory or vault space revoked, kept your traits, etc. etc. They locked your alts above 3, but after a character slot purchase you get those back as vip ones too.

    That's how you make a successful f2p conversion. I admit I was with those who said f2p's received too much and it's a bad idea to give away that many things for free. Seems we were wrong, and Turbine knew right. Actually I switched down to premium myself a year later :)

  • ByntBynt Member Posts: 35

    In regards to making changes based on customer feedback, remember they already changed how many warzones a week a free to play customer would get, it was increased from 3 to 5.  So they are listening and they are making adjustments, but only the future will see what else gets adjusted. 

    Good news to hear about the focus on more content, hopefully with the F2P work behind them they will have more focus on new content. Also, I really hope they keep working on fixing bugs as there are certainly several bugs to still work out of particular note is the Ilum revamp tentatively scheduled for January, really hoping that is a big improvement.

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