Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Better FTP Option - Play as KOTOR 3
baritone3k
Member Posts: 223
Making SWTOR a Success -
I would propose that Instead of just letting please play free to 60 then unlock things to play more, go ahead and let people play it as an SRPG with limited Coop for group quests and dungeons, then allow that person to unlock that toon for end game play.
Let the player play without the filler, then allow them to buy into the MMO aspect of the game at top level. One of the things that turned me off from playing alts was the bloat. Take that out, and I would play each class for the story. With the bloat, it is not worth my time.
That would mean not having to do the fetch quests and other things that are not related to exploration and story and instead have a streamlined path to end game where theings get more open. Experience the best parts of the game, and once emotionally tied to a toon, take that toon into the main game.
Any thoughts?
Someone please make a good MMO.
Comments
An intresting idea, but it only works because you are looking at the situation with the benefit of hindsight.
In essence, you are proposing that the game be essentially a B2P SRPG 1-50 (not 60), and then become a P2P MMORPG at endgame.
While that seems to overcome many critics of the game's complaints, it both was neither the intent, nor actually much different then what has actually happened.
The goal was to get people to pay a monthly fee on top of the box price. (The WoW golden cash cow recipe for a billion in revenue a year.) Thus Bioware did not want an initial B2P, then switch to P2P at endgame. They wanted customers to buy the box, and then pay month to month for years. Therefore your dual payment model would not have fit Bioware's intent, nor justified the enormous production cost for developing a MMORPG.
Ironically, what yoou suggested is kind of what happened. Basically 2.5 million bought the box, and played it as a SRPG. When they finished, over 2 million stopped playing (and paying). The minority who wish to continue playing with their maxed out charcters continue to pay a monthly P2P fee.
So I'm hedging my answer.
What you propose would not have met the criteria needed to hit Bioware's financial goals for SWTOR.
Ironically, this is pretty much what actually happened, which did not meet Bioware's financial goals for SWTOR, and thus the Freemium, Cash-shop added game you have today with a much smaller minority compared to initial box sales.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Considering KOTOR was single player, you basically get KOTOR3 already for free. KOTOR wouldn't have any dungeons or pvp. It would just be class and planet storybased solo content with a bunch of filler quests to help you level.
I thought the game only made sense as B2P even before release. Based on GW2 sales, I'd say they probably did the right thing going P2P at first. I doubt they would have sold a lot more boxes as B2P and they would have lost a lot of money from subs those first 6 months.
Well it would only work for those who want to play multiple different classes.
One individual class has so less story it's not really able to feel even remotely like KOTOR.
Some planet (class) stories are shorter than 30 minutes total.
I'm not sure that 4 casual hours of pure class story per character is enough to feel remotely "right".
Bypassing the bloat - That is not an option currently.
I turn interested people away from the game, because only 1/12th of your playtime is engaging and the other 11/12ths aren't worth it, because the MMO aspect at the end doesn't reward that sacrifice.
I understand the idea that it isn't enough of a game to be KOTOR3 since there isn't enough of a game for each class. Also, there is no real impact of decisions until the very end and that again is more on the ME3 line of different - flavor and no negative or positive impact on your toon.
As 8 shards of a story, it can work.
Also - There is the option of selling planet passes that give you the average XP from a given planet and autocomplete all the quests for the character. Player gets to focus on story and pay a bit to boost past the bloat.
Someone please make a good MMO.
It would not just be the story elements. But non grindy quests that have interesting lore elements and get the player out to explore an area.
Someone please make a good MMO.