SWTOR Free to play

[Zavon]

http://www.swtor.com/free


Well. That didn't take long.

[VKhaun]

At least they're doing it right. Telling people now and including them in the move toward it.

[Draconian]

Is anyone here even still playing this? Silly I recall you jizzing all over the place over this game - still goin strong?

Never took it past beta, refused to pay money for what they were selling. Might install it once its free and play it like a story RPG cause that aspect was pretty nice.

[Valec]

Is anyone here even still playing this? Silly I recall you jizzing all over the place over this game - still goin strong?

Never took it past beta, refused to pay money for what they were selling. Might install it once its free and play it like a story RPG cause that aspect was pretty nice.

Pretty sure the longest anyone stuck with it was two or three months. I had a similar experience to yours. Just wasn't really worth it.

[Sillywilly]

Yeah I'm still playing. Actually my wife is on her 2nd subscription month as well. We've had a blast playing it together. Having a partner roll through it with you makes it twice as fun. We've even tackled a couple of 4 man dungeons together on level using our companions. My wife really loves the voice overs and making the decisions.

To me Star Wars is the most fun MMO left on the market right now. It's subscription based at the moment so I could pretty much choose anything and this has been my choice since it came out.

This free to play move may be a terrible idea for them tough. Honestly I don't do operations or play anything other than a human. I could possibly get interested in operations in the future but right now my wife and I do heroics together only. Pretty much everything the majority of solo players would use is going to be free to play under this model. I always though F2P was to draw extra people in, not convince current subscribers to stop paying. But that's kinda how the model looks to me right now.


[Update: During this afternoon's investor call, EA President Frank Gibeau revealed that SWTOR subs have dipped below one million but are still "well above" half a million. Forty percent of those leaving do so because of subscriptions. The game claimed 1.3 million subs last May and had leveled off at 1.7 million in March, having sold in the range of 2 million copies. Gibeau hopes the new F2P model will win back players lost to churn.]

40 percent left an MMO because of a subscription? Who the hell are the morons that are playing MMOs today? A bunch of fucking socialists?

[Boxy Brown]

I see no reason not to play this game if it's free. I had a lot of fun running through the PvE and the PvP, while terrible, was at least entertaining. I just couldn't justify the 15 bones I was paying for it on top of DAoC and WoW.

[VKhaun]

40 percent left an MMO because of a subscription? Who the hell are the morons that are playing MMOs today? A bunch of fucking socialists?

When they check that box, they most likely mean that its not WORTH paying a sub for?

[Boxy Brown]

When they check that box, they most likely mean that its not WORTH paying a sub for?

This. I thought the game was decent and I had fun playing it but it was NOT worth 15 bo a month.

[Draconian]

Yep. I was lucky and had a closed beta, so I got to not sub and not buy the actual game - if I had not had the opportunity to try it as much as I did, I guarantee I would've bought it on release, played for the first month with all my friends and THEN decide not to sub, which is what he's probably talking about. They did do an open beta "stress test weekend" but they did not have a proper open beta session at all, so access to this game for the general public was not as easy as a lot of other MMOs. Therefore, you get a lot of people willing to give it a shot and disappearing a month later.

[Andile™]

Sounds like a "hey, don't disappear altogether once GW2 comes out".

[Sillywilly]

When they check that box, they most likely mean that its not WORTH paying a sub for?

Yeah it could be that simple but at one point I didn't renew and was given an exist survey and it had a lot of options for why you didn't want to continue playing. With all the options I was given to complain about, the only reason I could see was you just didn't want to have to pay to play A game, rather than SWtOR in particular. In fact when I was done with the survey I had contemplated whether they were thinking about free to play or a free to play version (like single player or something) because of all the talk in the forums about people trying it simply because they played KOTOR on the PC/Xbox.

Sounds like a "hey, don't disappear altogether once GW2 comes out".

Indeed.

[Marou]

This. I thought the game was decent and I had fun playing it but it was NOT worth 15 bo a month.

TOR was worth the sub I paid for 2 months, I don't regret playing it, but the state of it's endgame wasn't worth 15$/month and it's not a game it's fun to "redo" content in, since the gameplay itself is pure WoW derivative with a little extra active added, and voice-overs while initially interesting lose their luster on repetition.

I've played DDO off and on since it came out. If EA is smart (which they probably aren't) they will use the Turbine model. Buy "premium" content piecemeal through cash-shop, or pay $14.99 for access to all content for a month.

IMO Bioware spent their money bad. All that on VO's that people listen to once. Sure, it pulls them into the game, but it doesn't keep them there after they have seen it once. I reiterate what I said back then, that money would have been better spent on gameplay and engine optimization; since their engine performs like a pregnant donkey attempting gymnastics, and gameplay is nothing special/mmo standard.

Then again, it's not like we ALL didn't accurately predict everything that has occurred with TOR. EA should pay catacombs to tell them when they are being retarded. We could have saved them tens of millions of dollars. Next in line for failure? TES:O

[Sillywilly]

TOR was worth the sub I paid for 2 months, I don't regret playing it, but the state of it's endgame wasn't worth 15$/month and it's not a game it's fun to "redo" content in, since the gameplay itself is pure WoW derivative with a little extra active added, and voice-overs while initially interesting lose their luster on repetition.

I've played DDO off and on since it came out. If EA is smart (which they probably aren't) they will use the Turbine model. Buy "premium" content piecemeal through cash-shop, or pay $14.99 for access to all content for a month.

IMO Bioware spent their money bad. All that on VO's that people listen to once. Sure, it pulls them into the game, but it doesn't keep them there after they have seen it once. I reiterate what I said back then, that money would have been better spent on gameplay and engine optimization; since their engine performs like a pregnant donkey attempting gymnastics, and gameplay is nothing special/mmo standard.

Then again, it's not like we ALL didn't accurately predict everything that has occurred with TOR. EA should pay catacombs to tell them when they are being retarded. We could have saved them tens of millions of dollars. Next in line for failure? TES:O

NOOOOOOOOOO!!! Not TES:O!!!! KEEP THE FAITH!

But yeah, the VOs while cool were expensive as hell and I did listen to them the 2nd and sometimes the 3rd time around but lately I space bar that shit.

I'm still enjoying the game play and I've stayed away from PvsP for 2 months now hoping they get a handle on the cheating. I'm going to be trying it out again soon though now that I've merged to Ebon Hawk.

The engine in Star Wars is most definitely shart though. It amazes me how shitty my FPS can go just summoning a speeder. That and the load times for some planets is for freaking atrociously farty. And that one damn loading screen gets on my nerves because I have to see it every time I do something.

All in all though I've been willing to pay a sub fee to play it all this time. I'm still enjoying the class stories that I haven't played through and it's fun to be playing something with the wifey again.

The game is missing a lot of fluff that can make 2nd go rounds more entertaining though. Gear selection is so damn limited, OMG the majority of it looks like ass.

[Zavon]

The problem I have with TESO, is that they basically bastardized the core game. Classes? No real time? Wtf?


The one thing it looks like they are doing *right* is not having instances. All dungeons and raids will be public, which brings back a lot of the joy if eq for me.

[Marou]

Actually, their F2P plan is damn good if they stick to the principles they laid out.

http://www.swtor.com/free/features

[VKhaun]

I don't even watch TSW cutscenes anymore, and most of them I haven't seen before. The main storyline is good, and investigation missions can rely on them, but normal quests having NPC VO before they start was a waste. I guess since they had voice actors and a recording setup for those they just figured they may as well do some more.

[Alex Mars]

I am still playing and having fun, I like the PvP level 1-49 and the PvE. Frankly, after having voice overs and responses for mission conversations, one of the things I didn't like in TSW was just standing there mute while being given instructions. I will probably keep playing it past the end of the year at least, I don't have any level 50s yet but when I get a few to that point I will quit as I have no interest in end game grinding.

[Valec]

Actually, their F2P plan is damn good if they stick to the principles they laid out.

http://www.swtor.com/free/features

Actually, imo, it looks pointless unless you're going to go premium. I won't even bother now, looking at that setup.

[Norska]

Totally called it.

Take that you old republicans.

[Alex Mars]

Does this mean everyone is going back to WoW to play Pandas?

[Boxy Brown]

I'm playing WoW right now. 83 shadow priest securing kills all day in the baddy BGs.