BioWare Charts Star Wars: The Old Republic Free-to-Play Restrictions

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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BioWare Charts Star Wars: The Old Republic Free-to-Play Restrictions


The free-to-play version of Star Wars: The Old Republic will feature a number of limitations.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is going free-to-play [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118818-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Goes-Free-to-Play], but that doesn't mean that it's just going to fling open the doors to everyone. It costs money to run a game like this, after all, and EA and BioWare aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. That's why, even though you'll be able to fly the Imperial skies at zero cost, you won't be able to do so with quite the same level of comfort and convenience as though who pay for the privilege.

Players taking the free-to-play route will be able to take their characters to level 50, the same as everyone else, but character creation options will be limited. Warzones, Space Missions and Flashpoint Rewards will be limited to three per week unless weekly passes granting unlimited access are purchased, and Operations will require a weekly pass. There will be no access to Emergency Fleet Passes, quick travel will have a longer cooldown period, "purple items" will require the purchase of a license from the Cartel Market in order to be equipped and of course paying players will be given priority status in the login queue.

There are other restrictions to get mad about, which you can discover via the handy-dandy chart now up on the Star Wars: The Old Republic website. It's a bit bare-bones, but BioWare says that more information about free-to-play access is coming soon. No specific date for the free-to-play changeover has been revealed, but it's currently expected to take place "later this fall."

Source: Star Wars: The Old Republic [http://www.swtor.com/free/features]


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StriderShinryu

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Dec 8, 2009
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I'm sure this will prompt many to try the game that haven't before. I must say, though, that it definitely seems at least at first glance that these restrictions are much harsher than in other F2P/Optional Sub games I've heard about/played. LOTRO, for example, is F2P with an optional sub too, but you can earn credits for the cash store in game easily enough. With some effort and running a couple of characters at a time, you can pay for pretty much everything this way without even opening your wallet once. The optional sub for LOTRO just makes things easier and quicker but it isn't the only way to get a quality game experience which sounds like it may be the case here.
 

Twyce

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Apr 1, 2009
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I don't understand how they can limit character creation even more. I mean, it's pretty bare bones as it is.

That being said, good luck to them I guess. Seems like those restrictions will turn more people off than on to the game.
 

Fr]anc[is

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May 13, 2010
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Meh. I got my sith lightning fix when the free trials opened a few months ago, now I just don't care anymore. I needed those 20 gigs for hardcore porn other games.
 

Gizmo1990

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Oct 19, 2010
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This is all fine for getting new people to try the game but endgame is still boring. After you finish a characters story there is just nothing. Operations were fine the first time I played them but I never had the urge to do them a second time. I managed to finish two character to lv 50 and finish their story but I just could not do a third character as it ment doing the same boring side quests for exp.

EA/Bioware do not seem to have done anything to fix why people have not been playing/stopping their subscription so while I think they will see a surge in supscribers they will be right back where they started in 6 months.
 

fix-the-spade

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Whenever I hear about The Old Republic all I can ever imagine is the image of the Executor spiraling in flames toward the surface of the Death Star.
 

Slycne

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Feb 19, 2006
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Andy Chalk said:
Warzones, Space Missions and Flashpoint Rewards will be limited to three per week unless weekly passes granting unlimited access are purchased, and Operations will require a weekly pass.
Heh, somehow this doesn't strike me as an incentive worth putting behind the pay wall.
 

TeletubbiesGolfGun

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Sep 7, 2012
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meh..it seems a bit harsh on what they are limiting, it just looks like it'll annoy the crap out of me when i'm trying to play, so i'll pass, plenty of other games to play.

maybe someday, if they take off a couple of those restrictions.
 

WMDogma

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Slycne said:
Andy Chalk said:
Warzones, Space Missions and Flashpoint Rewards will be limited to three per week unless weekly passes granting unlimited access are purchased, and Operations will require a weekly pass.
Heh, somehow this doesn't strike me as an incentive worth putting behind the pay wall.

Have they done any updates to the Space Missions at all since we last played, or are they still the on-rails arcade-like shooter minigames?
 

Oro44

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I just played the game for the individual story lines, so this is all fine by me. That being said, it looks like someone at Bioware went a little crazy with the red pen.
 

Slycne

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Feb 19, 2006
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WMDogma said:
Have they done any updates to the Space Missions at all since we last played, or are they still the on-rails arcade-like shooter minigames?
Not that I've heard or seen. Now if space missions suddenly became X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter 2 then they'd have something worth paying for there.
 

TilMorrow

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Jul 7, 2010
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WMDogma said:
Have they done any updates to the Space Missions at all since we last played, or are they still the on-rails arcade-like shooter minigames?
Pretty much still like that.

OT: After reading through the list of stuff that F2P and Paying Accounts can access I have to say some of the things are pretty ridiculous. For example, Cargo and Inventory space used to be bought via credits. Now it's either pay for their ingame currency to unlock it for the F2P accounts or pay for a paying account and pay for cartel coins or use credits like usual. Just seems a bit silly that they don't only do the cartel coins for the cargo space and let everyone unlock their inventory as the normal way. Also purple-stuff needs a license to use? I can imagine level 40 players complaining they can't continue with their quests as the can't use the gear that they just got.
 

Rednog

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Nov 3, 2008
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So basically all the single player, aka the only part of the game that is worth playing, is still free. Yup, awesome decision making skills there guys.
 

Oro44

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Nile McMorrow said:
WMDogma said:
Have they done any updates to the Space Missions at all since we last played, or are they still the on-rails arcade-like shooter minigames?
Pretty much still like that.

OT: After reading through the list of stuff that F2P and Paying Accounts can access I have to say some of the things are pretty ridiculous. For example, Cargo and Inventory space used to be bought via credits. Now it's either pay for their ingame currency to unlock it for the F2P accounts or pay for a paying account and pay for cartel coins or use credits like usual. Just seems a bit silly that they don't only do the cartel coins for the cargo space and let everyone unlock their inventory as the normal way. Also purple-stuff needs a license to use? I can imagine level 40 players complaining they can't continue with their quests as the can't use the gear that they just got.
Maybe if there's enough outrage, Bioware will change it....*snicker
 

Somethingfake

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Oct 22, 2008
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If they had an open galaxy where anything (and I mean anything) goes like EVE Online, then I have a feeling that the MMO would have been more successful.
Look at EVE, a monthly subscription MMO, with a high learning curve and a brutal universe that has no mercy and yet it's doing just fine.

Captcha: fancy pants - Sir, my pants aren't fancy, they are GLORIOUS!
 

FEichinger

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Aug 7, 2011
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So ... They want to cash in on the F2P after their massive failure ... aaand don't get the point of "F2P shouldn't mean Pay2Win" ...
Look, BioWarEA ... There are large MMOs surviving fully fine without ridiculous pricing ... While the ones with ridiculous pricing seem to shatter recently. Is it just that you throw that money in for nice sparkly effects rather than actual solid gameplay, or where do you fail? Because I can only hope the pricing isn't the only correlation when looking at SWtoR and TSW. Edit: Oh, and APB. Almost forgot 'bout that nosedive.
 

cerebus23

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Yea i am sure those people running their 3 flashpoints a week to get phat loots will be overwhelmed that they cannot use their gear unless paying nor that they are going to have to pay to do the "daily" token grind.

how about people that payed 60 for the game already? do they get a upgrade over baseline f2p or does your 60 dollars mean squat?

remember when pirates of the burning seas went f2p, if you had bought the game you got pretty much the full premium account. dunno if they kept to that seeing as it did seem a tad overly generous, but a nice nod to those if us that supported the game at launch.
 

Twyce

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Apr 1, 2009
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cerebus23 said:
Yea i am sure those people running their 3 flashpoints a week to get phat loots will be overwhelmed that they cannot use their gear unless paying nor that they are going to have to pay to do the "daily" token grind.

how about people that payed 60 for the game already? do they get a upgrade over baseline f2p or does your 60 dollars mean squat?

remember when pirates of the burning seas went f2p, if you had bought the game you got pretty much the full premium account. dunno if they kept to that seeing as it did seem a tad overly generous, but a nice nod to those if us that supported the game at launch.
I think people who bought the game got a decent amount of the new currency, Cartel coins. I'd say how many, but can't login atm.
 

DaxStrife

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Nov 29, 2007
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How much to play it without using EA's Origin system?
...Yes, that's still a deal-breaker for me.