Rock Paper Shotgun article on Swtor F2P

[Count Sacula]

Power To The (Solo) Players: SWTOR

Hmmm. Mmmmm. Ehhhhh. Errrrrr. Also harumph. Oh, hello, didn’t see you there. When I enter my Contemplate-O-Sphere, I tend to just lose track of the world around me and emit a series of guttural droning sounds – eyes wide yet unseeing, as though I’m possessed by some kind of brain ghost. I believe many of you call it “having an idea.” Only I’m having many ideas – mostly prompted by Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s fairly alarming approach to free-to-play. In short, if you’re only playing for solo story, you’re in luck. But, if not, well…




First, the good news: all story missions for every class will be completely free. If you’re joining the fray for all the BioWare tales your bio-brain can bio-handle, you’re in luck. Levels 1-50 will be yours, completely unfettered. Unfortunately, nearly everything else has some kind of arbitrary restriction attached, and you can only bypass with a new currency called “Cartel Coins” or a good old-fashioned subscription.


So, what kind of limits are we talking? Well, you can only enter three PVP warzones per week, flashpoints similarly stop giving you rewards after three visits, weekly passes are required to unlock operations and space missions, you can’t equip most purple items, and you can’t revive in the field more than five times – among other things, all of which you can see here. Meanwhile, you’ll need to make at least one purchase to unlock “preferred” status, which gets you sprint (yes, sprint), more bank slots, and expanded access to chat channels.


There will also be a new Cartel Market that offers the usual suite of gear and “convenience features” – although BioWare’s not discussing precisely what that’ll entail just yet. Same goes for the Cartel Coin exchange rate, which remains similarly shrouded in mystery/mystical Force energies.


So then, thoughts: It’s pretty neat that anyone will be able to experience SWTOR’s main claim to fame from front to back, but all the other restrictions make about as much sense for an MMO as an insta-self-destruct exhaust port on a Death Star. I mean, this is pretty much Fragmenting Your Community 101. For instance, as a free player, why should I even give PVP a second thought when it’s so locked down? Same with operations and flashpoints. Before this transition, it seemed like BioWare was really dedicated to giving SWTOR some long-term MMO appeal. Now I’m not even sure if it remembers it’s working on a multiplayer game.


As a general rule, I’m actually pretty OK with F2P. But if you have to compromise many of the core pillars of your own game to make it work, you’re clearly doing something wrong.

[Count Sacula]

Now here is what I think.

I think they are giving away the best and most defining part of the game for free. I think most F2P players are just here to do the giant class storylines and play it just as they did the Kotor games. To me they should have kept it sub based and fixed the damn thing. There was no reason they couldn't get this turned around. Now you will have all kinds of mercenary attitudes from EA even more so than usual. The dev team will now be focused on pushing out tons of crap without much thought into the actual quality.

For once I wish I would be wrong but so far with this game I haven't.

[kgotter]

They don't have time to "fix it" whatever it is.

This game was bleeding subs in a hurry. You want to attribute that all to broken game? Be my guest, although I would at least think half of it was the poor decision to be a sub game in the first place.

Last E3 I'm sure you saw F2P reign supreme. No one want to spend their monthly fee anymore. Fixing in game issues won't change that. This game is not wow so the value for sub is not the same.

Like it or not they are fixing it. One bone head decision at a time.

[Thereal]

They don't have time to "fix it" whatever it is.

This game was bleeding subs in a hurry. You want to attribute that all to broken game? Be my guest, although I would at least think half of it was the poor decision to be a sub game in the first place.

Lol..
Where u saw that ? My server still with good pop, 3 fleets in prime time.
And pop gonna rise when f2p release.

[Count Sacula]

Lol..
Where u saw that ? My server still with good pop, 3 fleets in prime time.
And pop gonna rise when f2p release.

Oh don't get me started on server population....I am stuck on a server that rarely hits 100 in the fleet during prime time.

[SoulBender]

There is NO argument on server population. There was/is a huge decrease in server population. They fixed a lot of those issues with the mega servers we have now, but there are still some servers that are very light. Sac is on one such server. Just because your server is nicely populated doesn't mean they all are.

[dodgerfn]

Thanks for posting this Sac. I'm still subbing until the F2P, and then decide if what they take away from me is worth continuing to sub. I'm on a good server though, prophecy of five. I see pop usually around 250 at least, even in the middle of the day where I live in midwest, and it's a east coast server. I'm still very curious on how they are going to handle credits...as in limited access to your credits if I go F2P. I worked hard for those, and feel I should be able to use them when I want.

[Count Sacula]

Did you guys check out how many cartel coins you will have once F2P launches? Mine is up to 2300 but I have no clue if that is high or low nor do I know how much things will cost.

[Jetsu]

I can't find anything on the site currently that says this, but I thought I remembered part of the "character creation limitation" was access to additional characters. Meaning if you're F2P once you finish leveling your first character you either pay for end game or pay to unlock another character.

If they do charge for alts ultimately people don't get much of the game (1/8 of class quests, most of the planet quests, and no group stuff) without paying SOMETHING. If they don't it's really not a good idea, because how many people are going to be creating alts to hold their items and cash just to get around the limits? However, I'd be insanely surprised if they hadn't thought of this.

[clamus68]

They don't have time to "fix it" whatever it is.

This game was bleeding subs in a hurry. You want to attribute that all to broken game? Be my guest, although I would at least think half of it was the poor decision to be a sub game in the first place.

Last E3 I'm sure you saw F2P reign supreme. No one want to spend their monthly fee anymore. Fixing in game issues won't change that. This game is not wow so the value for sub is not the same.

Like it or not they are fixing it. One bone head decision at a time.

The reason any GOOD game would go subscription model is because it can and does work. In the mmo space, the issue is that you aren't going to be given alot of time. This game was given more than I thought possible in terms of time. If the current version was the initial release version, I can guarantee you it would still have north of 1.5 million subscribers because populations on all the servers that are not RP are very healthy. There is a good amount of content. PvP is still not complete without Ranked PvP but its closer. F2P games SUCK. There is ONE single F2P MMORPG that can claim 1 million subscribers. GW2. And if it does what its predecessor did, it will drop below that within 6 months. League of Legends isn't a MMORPG, its a big ole fight game. F2P is for people that refuse quality. WoW has tipped over 10 million again. It isn't going to go F2P anytime soon. Why? Because of the quality. Want F2P? Expect serious flaws then, GW2 has them by the boatload. Paid games are always better. Paid anything is always better. Free is fun but rarely of decent quality. If I continue to
play SWTOR, it will be a paid account because I want to have a complete experience not one limited by how many actual dollars I want to put into a "free game."

[Jetsu]

If the current version was the initial release version, I can guarantee you it would still have north of 1.5 million subscribers because populations on all the servers that are not RP are very healthy. There is a good amount of content. PvP is still not complete without Ranked PvP but its closer. etc...

This is the reason why I think F2P has potential. It will bring in a bunch of players who will be experiencing this game for the first time as it is now (meaning its effectively "launch" as far as they're concerned) as well as those that left before 1.2 because of QoL issues, less fluid combat, and a number of other issues that have since been resolved. It will also bring back some players who left because the above mentioned left and their server sat with unplayable populations for so long.


Obviously not all of them will spend as much as subscribers and some won't spend a dime, but bringing in a broader player-base does wonders for encouraging further population growth. ESPECIALLY, when you're only asking your friends to invest $15 total to hang out in game. Population growth is needed right now, especially on the RP servers where grouping is hard, but also to gain more positive coverage now that this game has had more time to settle.

The reason any GOOD game would go subscription model is because it can and does work.

Rift is a good example of a successful subscription game. WoW was a timing success that shouldn't be used as evidence of what it takes to be successful in today's market in any regard. If WoW launched, exactly as it is now with all it's expansions available as they are, it wouldn't gather NEARLY the following it has even if the launch went flawlessly. People would complain about the graphics, lack of community, amount of grinding, how much they have to pay to get full access to the content (buying expansions), and a number of other problems people are willing to deal with specifically because its WoW but would pick at endlessly in any new release. It also wouldn't have been tried by as many people up front because so many now already have their "favorite" picked out.

I don't think any major payment model is inherently bad, as there are examples of them all supporting games. I just don't think there's a single one in todays market that would provide more than a couple million subscribers worth of funding regardless of how good a game is and what model is used.

If you're looking forward to the next game with 10 million subscribers worth of funding to make an awesome game you're better off hoping for a crazy Kickstarter success than you are hoping enough people will get behind even a perfect AAA game and stick around long enough to see it realized.

[Lucious]

I think there is a difference between subscribers and account holders. GW2 has account holders. Even if the player stopped playing, they can claim that unused account. Now, they can announce active accounts and that would be more accurate of support for the game. A game like EVE, which is sub-based, boasts well over 400k active subs. You CAN play EVE for free - completely free - though but buying PLEX off the market. These people that do this are still considered subscribers despite not paying real cash.

LOTRO, which began as sub only, claims over 300k subs still, but I cannot find non-paying player account info, I would bet it is equal to twice the size of the sub base. LOTRO continues to put out expansions and patch content ion a regular basis. MOST of the players are devout if not downright obsessed and wouldn't knock it at all. LOTRO still is looked at as a model of the successful Sub-to-F2P or F2P game. It is in NO way a P2W game. You work to get ahead and there's no power-levelling that I can tell.

Saying F2P causes games to be flawed is not true. The games are flawed from the start and most MMO's that pop up are F2P. That's like blaming burnt toast on the bread, not the toaster. it's the toaster that is flawed.

[Count Sacula]

Lucious must be on medication. That is the calmest post I have ever seen him write.

[Lucious]

Ha! you, sir, are correct!

Actually that ^ and I have accepted that dogma cannot be overwritten. Those who believe what the believe (facts-wise) will never accept the truth. There's been some great research done on people's beliefs and the effect that contradictive, factual
information told to these people only BOLSTERED their false beliefs. Call them True Believers, Tea-Baggers, whatever. They are right. If it is raining they would demand that everyone should KNOW it isn't. Despite the wetness.

So, I will refute the falsehoods, but will expect nothing less than denial. This is the milder Lucious. I have accepted stupidity cannot be cured.

[anyaka21]

The reason any GOOD game would go subscription model is because it can and does work. In the mmo space, the issue is that you aren't going to be given alot of time. This game was given more than I thought possible in terms of time. If the current version was the initial release version, I can guarantee you it would still have north of 1.5 million subscribers because populations on all the servers that are not RP are very healthy. There is a good amount of content. PvP is still not complete without Ranked PvP but its closer. F2P games SUCK. There is ONE single F2P MMORPG that can claim 1 million subscribers. GW2. And if it does what its predecessor did, it will drop below that within 6 months. League of Legends isn't a MMORPG, its a big ole fight game. F2P is for people that refuse quality. WoW has tipped over 10 million again. It isn't going to go F2P anytime soon. Why? Because of the quality. Want F2P? Expect serious flaws then, GW2 has them by the boatload. Paid games are always better. Paid anything is always better. Free is fun but rarely of decent quality. If I continue to
play SWTOR, it will be a paid account because I want to have a complete experience not one limited by how many actual dollars I want to put into a "free game."

A couple of things to add here.

1) sure the $15 per month is probably the best and safest way for an mmo to operate, but f2p games have and will continue to be successful.
2) GW2 isn't technically a f2p game in the truest sense. $60 for the game and that's all you pay. ArenaNet probably nets about $50 per box sold unless it's a pure download. And they, if not mistaken, do have a shop where you can buy stuff for actual cash.
3) Don't make the mistake of calling all of WoW's 10mil subs equal. China has over 50% of the population, yet in terms of profitability for Blizzard is only about 6% because of the cost structure that's been worked out with China for the rights to have it able to be played there.
4) to add to that, most mainstream mmo's aren't in China, thus counting China's subs vs the rest of the worlds mmo's just isn't fair.
5) I would also suggest that with just about every mmo on the market there is about a 75% attrition rate from people who try it. Most will leave pretty quickly. Even WoW has stated they've had about 35-40mil people go through their game,

edit: I'm with you on this, just started the game and only level 18 as my highest - as you can probably assume from the 1st post tag. I'll keep an active $15 sub going for a few months because I want no restrictions on how I'm going to play. I will want to try new classes, trees, builds, crew skills, etc... For me, it's all part of the fun of an mmo. Besides, I only paid $10 for the game, I can at least keep it up for a couple of months and truly see if I enjoy the game.

Add that, BioWare and the Star Wars franchise are known for their character driven stories. The biggest challenge I think that will come about from that though. Because once you get to 50 and finish the storyline, questing, etc... what else is there after that. And is it compelling enough to get the player to stick around.