Defense? mis direction? you confuse me for some SWTOR fanboy i think. But since i know how you try to spin every news about SWTOR into some 'game is dying, devs are desperate, cash grab and so on..' do i even need to go in depth to understand what youa re trying to say here?
And my comment was in general about the cash shop related stuff and not just the items which one could obtain through refer a friend programe.
God forbid they giving some stuff away as a promotion.... it has to be because game is dying.
Only because i see through your personal agenda doesn't mean i am defending SWTOR. (now that is what i call mis direction).
Exactly. This site puts a smile on my face. It never stops to amaze me how much flack a company can get to try and promote their game. For most mmorpg users it all ends up to:
1. Omg! They dont have a refer friend program, why dont they add such a program the game is dying!1!
2. Omg! They have added a refer friend program, the game is dying!1!
I think it is about time they made such a thing! Now beign in game, I cant see where all the the game is dying comes from I see thousands of players playing on all levels. Could the game have done better ? Yeah absolutely! Does the game suck ? Nope.
The promotion is probably due to falling revenue (subs + cash shop). What strikes me about this promotion however is that the emphasis is indeed on subscribers more so than cash shop items. A change in direction maybe - after being told last year by the (ex-)CFO that F2P was the way ahead, sub based games were dead etc. etc.
If SWTOR was being run as an independent company - with no debts because all development and infrastructure costs had been paid off - said company would probably be laughing all the way to the bank for 1 year, 2 years, 5 years ... however long the core rump of subscribers carry on playing. A Mythic / DAoC sized beast. Bringing in money - although not enough money to pay for a successor.
As part of a large company however titles are expected to make 60-70% gross profit. At the end of the day something has to fund future games; there is an accounting at the end of the d-EA!
SWTOR is clearly not going to be generating anything like 60-70% gross profit. However it seems to have a core rump of subscribers. After EA bought Mythic they valued DAoC's next 3 years worth of subs at $5M. Who knows what revenue resulted. Someone however will have made the same type of calculation for SWTOR. My gut feel based on the fact that subs have only dropped 25% since the game went F2P is that it is subs - and not cash shop revenue - that is currently underpinning the long term future of the game.
Perhaps the favoring of an aggressive cash shop over game world and content finally succeeded in pissing off the player base? I wish I had never pre-ordered and wasted money on this game but I and my guild quit about 6 months after release and have never gone back.
Of course this is a cash grab for money, this is EA were talking about here and a business to boot. Weather the game is in its death throes or not, remains to be seen. But I believe there are enough dissatisfied players who have jumped overboard to warrant it.
This game hasnt even been out for two years and yet its gone from subscription based, to cash shop to recruit a friend. Not a good sign when you look at the very short history of this game.
by the way, if they truly were desperate for more people to play their game, their F2P model would be less restrictive.
Getting more people playing for free by lessening the F2P restrictions doesn't necessarily mean making more money. SWTOR's punitive F2P model is meant to push players to subscribe so Bioware can effectively double dip. I am sure the F2P gamers occasionally pony up some cash to ease the brutal restrictions - if they continue playing.
This refer-a-friend program is meant to beef up the subscriber numbers, and it is common to give away "shinies" to encourage this. What I am wondering is how many players will make alt accounts and pony up a month's sub fee to get the shinies?
On the - increasingly quiet - official forums there is a thread about the planned change to Warzones - they will no longer be a "subscriber perk".
Whether this is EA opening up the F2P model or "helping subscribers" or simply reacting to falling player numbers it will be one less reason for people to pay a subscription.
With a growing galaxy of exciting multiplayer adventures, there’s never been a better time to invite your friends to join or rejoin Star Wars™: The Old Republic™!
Our newly enhanced Friends of SWTOR program now offers more rewards and benefits for you and your friends:
All active Subscribers can refer new friends or invite back previous Subscribers by using a simple referral link.
Referred friends who join receive new exclusive benefits:
New Players receive the Jumpstart Bundle for faster leveling.
Previous Subscribers receive 7 days of subscription access, one Complimentary Character Transfer for the lifetime of the account, and the Preferred Friends Bundle with special convenience and customization unlocks.
Referrers earn Cartel Coins, the Kurtob Alliance Speeder, and adventurous Battle Droid pets when their referred friends become Subscribers within 14 days of joining.
Traditionally in WoW, Blizzard would give away a free month + a perk (like a mount) for those who refer a friend.
EA seems to be getting rather desperate if they are giving away not only free time, a mount, a pet, and Cartel Coins to spend, but also a transfer + Cartel Market convenience / customization unlocks. Unless I'm not reading this correctly.
Since the emphasis is still on getting people to subscribe, I wonder if the cashshop is losing some of it's gas. 1/4 of a month free, compared to WoW's 1 full month places that emphasis on a paid subscription, with just barely enough free time so the official forum dwellers can say "you get free game time, don't be a whiner".
I wonder if this subscription push is because a subscription constitutes a dedicated stream of revenue, whereas the cashshop content is not guaranteed (and it's a safer bet to use a model that generates the highest cash return - no longer the cashshop).
It seems like this is a desperate cry for more players, since EA put so much stress in past earnings calls about how successful the cashshop is. If the cashshop is so successful why give so much away for free, just so someone can sub a month @ $15?
Alternatively, EA could be relying on existing accounts to create a 2nd fake account in order to get the mount and pet? But 1 free lifetime transfer? sheesh...better to transfer by referring yourself? Perhaps they are foreseeing a closure of more servers to make transfers eventually obsolete, or they realize that most people who wanted to transfer have already done so (and likely will not do so again)? Or it just looks nice to investors to have 1 account open a new account everytime they want to do a transfer .. or a new account for each character they have, such that each toon can receive the rewards?
So it's either (1) a cashgrab against existing players, or (2) evidence that the cashshop isn't generating as much money as monthly sub's, or (3) a cry for help .. or () = ?
So SWTOR has a far superior recruitment program to all of the other games you mentioned, gives far more away in terms of shiny's to incentivise the recruitment program....and you bash them for it?
The game exceeds the bar set by others in this regard and you STILL spin that as a negative and call it desperate?
So when they limit stuff they are money grabbing and when they dole stuff out for free they are desperate?
Good game....no wonder this forum has the trashy rep that it does....
Developers are going to have to start making decent MMOs to make a living now.
Competition means producers are fighting for the same dollars? No wai!
And 6th grade economics.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Of course these rewards are there to increase sub numbers. However, i have a feeling that people want the rewards more than their friends playing, and that 1 week window might convince some completionists to buy a sub with a new account withsonething recommended as a friend to themselves.
Since i know sw is well known, and people know about f2p, and if they haven't tried the game already then they are not the mmo crowd or online video game crowd etc that swtor appeals to. Which means a subscribed customer will have a difficult time convincing ppl to buy a product that they do not wait to sub to try. They have most likely already heard about it, and made up their mind. So it's more for a completionist to create a 2nd account which encourages multiboxing as well. Since a real counter to the argument is any time a recommended froend subs those rewards are activated.
There is a bit too much of a time constraint, which is of course encouraging people to spend as friends or completionists. However, i doubt a friend can do much to hype up a well known game that has a lot of negative feedback in terms of pvp and static worlds.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
Of course these rewards are there to increase sub numbers. However, i have a feeling that people want the rewards more than their friends playing, and that 1 week window might convince some completionists to buy a sub with a new account withsonething recommended as a friend to themselves.
Since i know sw is well known, and people know about f2p, and if they haven't tried the game already then they are not the mmo crowd or online video game crowd etc that swtor appeals to. Which means a subscribed customer will have a difficult time convincing ppl to buy a product that they do not wait to sub to try. They have most likely already heard about it, and made up their mind. So it's more for a completionist to create a 2nd account which encourages multiboxing as well. Since a real counter to the argument is any time a recommended froend subs those rewards are activated.
There is a bit too much of a time constraint, which is of course encouraging people to spend as friends or completionists. However, i doubt a friend can do much to hype up a well known game that has a lot of negative feedback in terms of pvp and static worlds.
I agree with this.
If you haven't tried SWTOR by now, you probably aren't going to in the near future.
Of course EAWARE is desperate for players. Their F2P conversion make people vomit the soul. NA servers are all standard and EU's are light. The only way they will get both players and profit back is by fixing that abysmal model. Subscribers get shit content that isnt enough for a sub price, Preferred players have to pay for everything, not only they are full of content and progression limitations, also they have to pay for emotes, to show titles, to hide helmets, can only loot final boss in dungeon 3 times without paying real money, cant wear competitive gear even if they pay a million dollars and not subscribe, and a lot more vomit inducing things like this. And the F2P players, well.... they are freebies, if the Preferred players are miserable you can imagine the free guys.
They made a good game, took a risky subscription only model failed to make it work. Now as F2P they seem to feel miserable and want to share their misery with everyone.
For the last few weeks EA have being doing some pro-consumer stuff. Clearly trying to clean their name a bit. The best pro-consumer thing they could ever do is to start fixing SWTORs abysmal model.
swtor isnt a good game..or ar least , it isnt good enough for the majority
if it WAS good, then they could have kept the sub only model
quality will sell, look at wow and EVE
a fancy name on the box will only sell, until the customers get wise
and marketing wont change that, with all the pre launch hype, i think even the penguins know,
that swtor is available now
Thats pure conjecture on your part.
How many NEW MMORPGs are now releasing as either B2P or F2P or hybrid? hmmmmm.......
All mainstream games, even AAA titles released at the same time or after SWTOR are providing F2P models as the entire market moves toward it.
Your bad logic would indicate that any MMORPG without a sub has failed?
Driz
Most MMO's would rather release as P2P/Sub, but the problem is that there is a stigma attached to releasing P2P and then going to F2P. Not only do you piss off your customers, but its seen as an indication that your game isn't healthy enough - which is true to an extent.
Just because games are being released as Hybrid or F2P, this doesn't mean that developers necessarily want to do that.
F2P/Hybrid is the safe move. You can't glean anything else from it outside of that.
Comments
Exactly. This site puts a smile on my face. It never stops to amaze me how much flack a company can get to try and promote their game. For most mmorpg users it all ends up to:
1. Omg! They dont have a refer friend program, why dont they add such a program the game is dying!1!
2. Omg! They have added a refer friend program, the game is dying!1!
I think it is about time they made such a thing! Now beign in game, I cant see where all the the game is dying comes from I see thousands of players playing on all levels. Could the game have done better ? Yeah absolutely! Does the game suck ? Nope.
The promotion is probably due to falling revenue (subs + cash shop). What strikes me about this promotion however is that the emphasis is indeed on subscribers more so than cash shop items. A change in direction maybe - after being told last year by the (ex-)CFO that F2P was the way ahead, sub based games were dead etc. etc.
If SWTOR was being run as an independent company - with no debts because all development and infrastructure costs had been paid off - said company would probably be laughing all the way to the bank for 1 year, 2 years, 5 years ... however long the core rump of subscribers carry on playing. A Mythic / DAoC sized beast. Bringing in money - although not enough money to pay for a successor.
As part of a large company however titles are expected to make 60-70% gross profit. At the end of the day something has to fund future games; there is an accounting at the end of the d-EA!
SWTOR is clearly not going to be generating anything like 60-70% gross profit. However it seems to have a core rump of subscribers. After EA bought Mythic they valued DAoC's next 3 years worth of subs at $5M. Who knows what revenue resulted. Someone however will have made the same type of calculation for SWTOR. My gut feel based on the fact that subs have only dropped 25% since the game went F2P is that it is subs - and not cash shop revenue - that is currently underpinning the long term future of the game.
Perhaps the favoring of an aggressive cash shop over game world and content finally succeeded in pissing off the player base? I wish I had never pre-ordered and wasted money on this game but I and my guild quit about 6 months after release and have never gone back.
Of course this is a cash grab for money, this is EA were talking about here and a business to boot. Weather the game is in its death throes or not, remains to be seen. But I believe there are enough dissatisfied players who have jumped overboard to warrant it.
This game hasnt even been out for two years and yet its gone from subscription based, to cash shop to recruit a friend. Not a good sign when you look at the very short history of this game.
desperate to find new things to bash a game for, that's the only desperation i see here.
you mean they are trying to make more money???? how dare them!!!!
by the way, if they truly were desperate for more people to play their game, their F2P model would be less restrictive.
Getting more people playing for free by lessening the F2P restrictions doesn't necessarily mean making more money. SWTOR's punitive F2P model is meant to push players to subscribe so Bioware can effectively double dip. I am sure the F2P gamers occasionally pony up some cash to ease the brutal restrictions - if they continue playing.
This refer-a-friend program is meant to beef up the subscriber numbers, and it is common to give away "shinies" to encourage this. What I am wondering is how many players will make alt accounts and pony up a month's sub fee to get the shinies?
On the - increasingly quiet - official forums there is a thread about the planned change to Warzones - they will no longer be a "subscriber perk".
Whether this is EA opening up the F2P model or "helping subscribers" or simply reacting to falling player numbers it will be one less reason for people to pay a subscription.
So SWTOR has a far superior recruitment program to all of the other games you mentioned, gives far more away in terms of shiny's to incentivise the recruitment program....and you bash them for it?
The game exceeds the bar set by others in this regard and you STILL spin that as a negative and call it desperate?
So when they limit stuff they are money grabbing and when they dole stuff out for free they are desperate?
Good game....no wonder this forum has the trashy rep that it does....
Driz
If SWTOR wants me back, all they have to do is allow me to take multiple companions with me so I am never FORCED to group to enjoy content.
Why the game wasn't designed this way from the start is beyond me.
Now that option may even draw me back to this game...
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. ~ Italian proverb
LOL,
I just posted this in ESO
"Reality is setting in. F2P =/= free money
Developers are going to have to start making decent MMOs to make a living now.
Players are going to have to start realizing that decent game cost money to play."
In this topic: Doom Prophets and Schadenfreude.
Pretty much the same as every other topic.
Competition means producers are fighting for the same dollars? No wai!
And 6th grade economics.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
perhaps, you should ask the fired BW employees about this
im sure, they have changed their opinions ,,but only AFTER they crashed
only if they make whaling and double dipping illegal
until then,,its the wild west
Of course these rewards are there to increase sub numbers. However, i have a feeling that people want the rewards more than their friends playing, and that 1 week window might convince some completionists to buy a sub with a new account withsonething recommended as a friend to themselves.
Since i know sw is well known, and people know about f2p, and if they haven't tried the game already then they are not the mmo crowd or online video game crowd etc that swtor appeals to. Which means a subscribed customer will have a difficult time convincing ppl to buy a product that they do not wait to sub to try. They have most likely already heard about it, and made up their mind. So it's more for a completionist to create a 2nd account which encourages multiboxing as well. Since a real counter to the argument is any time a recommended froend subs those rewards are activated.
There is a bit too much of a time constraint, which is of course encouraging people to spend as friends or completionists. However, i doubt a friend can do much to hype up a well known game that has a lot of negative feedback in terms of pvp and static worlds.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
I agree with this.
If you haven't tried SWTOR by now, you probably aren't going to in the near future.
Of course EAWARE is desperate for players. Their F2P conversion make people vomit the soul. NA servers are all standard and EU's are light. The only way they will get both players and profit back is by fixing that abysmal model. Subscribers get shit content that isnt enough for a sub price, Preferred players have to pay for everything, not only they are full of content and progression limitations, also they have to pay for emotes, to show titles, to hide helmets, can only loot final boss in dungeon 3 times without paying real money, cant wear competitive gear even if they pay a million dollars and not subscribe, and a lot more vomit inducing things like this. And the F2P players, well.... they are freebies, if the Preferred players are miserable you can imagine the free guys.
They made a good game, took a risky subscription only model failed to make it work. Now as F2P they seem to feel miserable and want to share their misery with everyone.
For the last few weeks EA have being doing some pro-consumer stuff. Clearly trying to clean their name a bit. The best pro-consumer thing they could ever do is to start fixing SWTORs abysmal model.
swtor isnt a good game..or ar least , it isnt good enough for the majority
if it WAS good, then they could have kept the sub only model
quality will sell, look at wow and EVE
a fancy name on the box will only sell, until the customers get wise
and marketing wont change that, with all the pre launch hype, i think even the penguins know,
that swtor is available now
Thats pure conjecture on your part.
How many NEW MMORPGs are now releasing as either B2P or F2P or hybrid? hmmmmm.......
All mainstream games, even AAA titles released at the same time or after SWTOR are providing F2P models as the entire market moves toward it.
Your bad logic would indicate that any MMORPG without a sub has failed?
Driz
Most MMO's would rather release as P2P/Sub, but the problem is that there is a stigma attached to releasing P2P and then going to F2P. Not only do you piss off your customers, but its seen as an indication that your game isn't healthy enough - which is true to an extent.
Just because games are being released as Hybrid or F2P, this doesn't mean that developers necessarily want to do that.
F2P/Hybrid is the safe move. You can't glean anything else from it outside of that.
exactly,,the moment, that WOW and EVE hits a certain minimum revenue, they will go F2P
but as long , as they can get more Money by subs, they will continue with that