SW:TOR F2P releasing soon, and will likely fail.

[thatonedude11]

The thing is, The Old Republic was not designed as a free-to-play game, so they have to adapt. Of course it's not going to be ideal. There have to be restrictions on free players, otherwise no one would pay and EA doesn't get any money.

...."not ideal"?

No bank space is "not ideal"?
Restricted chat functionality is "not ideal"?
Dude, you can't even SPRINT without paying them.

I can't actually think of a game on the internet which restricts such mundane things (things that pretty much every MMO offers) to paid players. There are a lot of good ways to do a F2P model, and EA is not doing any of them.

"Not ideal" indeed, it's a bloody obvious ripoff. And it's going to frustrate people into quitting long before they get "hooked" on the story content. The OP's right. Unless they change this model fast, it's not gonna work. I had originally been thinking of trying the game once it went F2P, but after seeing how little of the game I actually get to enjoy, I decided that GW2 is more deserving of my funds. And I suspect many people will think the same and spend their time and money elsewhere.

Wait, what? No sprint and limited chat access? Okay, that's bull-shit. Bioware might be smart if they changed that.

As for the no bank space, I haven't played TOR, but I remember when I was playing World of Warcraft, I hardly ever used my bank, especially when I was doing solo content. I just kind of assumed it is similar in TOR. I may be wrong.

 

[sanquin]

The conditions aren't crippling at all. The endgame is very meh in swtor. The main story line is where it's at. And that is all free. So play the game through the story, then drop it again is what I plan to do.

 

[Smeatza]

I was going to do one playthrough of this when it went f2p and then never touch it again.

After reading the restrictions, I'm not even going to bother with that now

 

[Comocat]

Can you unlock that stuff though? Lotro is nice in that there are a lot of restrictions but for a reasonable amount of money the game is for the most part entirely playable. Or is this essentially a glorified trial and if you really want to play you need to suscribe?

I think the legacy system is ripe for account unlocks that expand f2p options. It was pretty meh when I played (yeah 1 million credits for a robot on my ship!) but I could see legacy levels unlocking account features that would actually be fairly neat.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

The conditions aren't crippling at all. The endgame is very meh in swtor. The main story line is where it's at. And that is all free. So play the game through the story, then drop it again is what I plan to do.

You still have to get through 50 levels worth of content to experience the main story, which requires a lot of questing and slogging around planets. Doing that with all of the niggling restrictions they've put in place would be the living definition of tedium.

This isn't about "end game" at all. This stuff would be annoying 5 seconds after logging in. Actually before that, since character customization options are blunted as well.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

No entitlement to it. Sure, nobody playing for free is entitled to any of the game. Still a shitty business decision if it means nobody playing for free even enjoys themselves enough to buy it.

 

[Furioso]

And when you say no 'bank' access, do you mean no item storage at all? If so, that'll probably kill it faster than anything, except maybe the lack of the map home/hearthstone/etc ability.

Dude, FTP players don't even get SPRINT. They can't rez in the field. Basic functionality like chat is locked down until you spend at least a little money. Until a day or two ago, they didn't even let you have a second hotbar.

Bank space? That's a flat out luxury in the bold new world of TOR FTP.

Are you serious? No sprint? Even with it walking around felt like a slog, I was thinking about going back but all of this is just ways to punish people for having the audacity to try out their game

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Also, can somebody tell me how the fuck Rift manages to both hold onto its subscription model and churn out endless updates, despite the fact that I haven't seen a single person admit to playing it for almost a year?

Low overhead, I'm guessing. Last I heard they had around 200K subs, but that might have dipped in the last year.

ToR is doomed. There can only ever be two "relevant" MMOs at one time, and one of them will always be WoW. The other is, at the moment, Guild Wars 2.

You're underestimating the genre a tad, and neglecting to remember regional differences. There are quite a few Korean/Asian MMOs that are still quite popular and holding down a significant sub base overseas, like Aion and Lineage. There are plenty of FTP games turning a very healthy profit. EVE is doing extremely well.

Even TOR's sub numbers are actually very impressive by the industry average, they're just completely insufficient for a game with TOR's price tag.

People blame WoW for a lot of things, but the one thing it did that really pisses me off is it completely skewed everyone's expectations for what a successful or "relevant" MMO looks like. There are games turning a profit with <100K subs. MOST MMOs (I'd say all but I can't be 100% certain) are at the very least cash positive, and most have made back their initial investment + profit.

None have matched WoW's breakaway success, but WoW is up there with the Sims as the most successful PC property of all time. If we hold every game to that standard of course we're going to think they're all failures, which is pretty stupid when you think about it. There's a reason people keep making these games. It's not because 98% of them have failed.

Captcha - Vote pancakes. I will!

 

[BodomBeachChild]

Let the game die, and display its body as an example of what not to be.

 

[ThriKreen]

http://www.swtor.com/support/helpcenter/6449
http://www.swtor.com/free/features

Sprint is available, just F2P is gained at L15, while subs at L1.

Not sure what the restriction on inventory and cargo holds are, but it seems you have to unlock it using cartel coins. Subs can use in-game credits OR cartel coins to expand their inventory or cargo.

Chat is just reduced frequency, seems to be once a minute, to stop the gold farmers.

None of this is set in stone after all, once the feature goes live and it doesn't work out, they'll change it and see the results to smooth over the transition.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Sprint is available, just F2P is gained at L15, while subs at L1.

I find this to be a particularly baffling inclusion all the same. What subscribing player is going to look over and see a FTP player running faster than a crawl and think "grrr, I have to pay for that!". It seems needlessly punitive. You're supposed to make the subscription/cash shop tantalizing, not actively take the rod to your FTP players.

 

[ThriKreen]

I find this to be a particularly baffling inclusion all the same. What subscribing player is going to look over and see a FTP player running faster than a crawl and think "grrr, I have to pay for that!". It seems needlessly punitive. You're supposed to make the subscription/cash shop tantalizing, not actively take the rod to your FTP players.

Excuse me? I don't see how it's that bad. It's like a 30% boost over run, and only available out of combat.

The original sprint ability was offered at level 15, you hit L15 about midway on Coruscant or Drumond Kaas, after your starting world. They've since changed it awhile back to offer it right at the start at level 1. And now they're making it so the F2P players get it at the original point. It's pretty quick to get to that stage in the game and hardly a game changer. And superseded once you get your speeder at L25, unless you're indoors.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

And all I ever wanted was KotOR 3...

The combat and quest designs are irritating enough; hope all the new shit doesn't doesn't make my "I'm just gonna play this for the story" plan too annoying to bother with.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Excuse me? I don't see how it's that bad. It's like a 30% boost over run, and only available out of combat.

The original sprint ability was offered at level 15, you hit L15 about midway on Coruscant or Drumond Kaas, after your starting world. They've since changed it awhile back to offer it right at the start at level 1. And now they're making it so the F2P players get it at the original point. It's pretty quick to get to that stage in the game and hardly a game changer. And superseded once you get your speeder at L25, unless you're indoors.

We're going to have to agree to disagree. I did a brief google search on Sprint and found this gem:

Are you serious? The only reason people look forward to getting sprint is because not having sprint is absolute ****. Sprint is not some fun bonus ability. It's not like getting rescue, or guardian leap.

If you make your 30% run speed boost a base level 1 ability, then remove it from the FTP game, you have hit your FTP players with a 30% run speed penalty for 15 levels unless they pay up. This is the kind of little QOL hit that taken in the aggregate can make just playing the game a complete and total pain in the ass. I'm not going to get into the semantics of whether or not 30% is a big deal and "oh hey it's just a video game", we're talking about whether or not this is a sensible way to build a FTP model. I've mentioned elsewhere what I think the right way of structuring a tempting FTP model is, and this isn't it.

 

[ThriKreen]

I've seen games which offered pay-to-own items that gave speed boosts, mind, and I don't have a problem with that....but designing the game to naturally have sprint, and then taking it from the player unless they level to a certain mark or else pay you? That's a dick move, no matter how it's spun.

Is anyone actually understanding what I've wrote? I'm still failing to see what the complaint here is. How is it a dick move when YOU CAN STILL GET THE ABILITY? It's not locked forever unless you pay. You can reach L15 in a day of playing.

It is not a critical ability, quests are laid out to be pretty localized (all the L6-10 ones are in this general area, assuming you've grabbed them all). And again, after the first 2 worlds, you should be L15+ and now have it, so it's a moot issue. Fast travel from a taxi spot is still available, while calling for a taxi out on the field has a slightly longer cooldown for free players. It is superseded later by speeders which offer a 90% speed boost when you hit L25, which is not limited by either pay tier.

Apparently it seems that unlike many posting in this thread complaining about the ability, I've actually played it before the shift from L15 to L1, and it wasn't that big of a game changer. They're just reverting the change for the F2P players. You still have walk, you still have run, but it seems people are thinking you just have to walk and no run, which is not the case.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Apparently it seems that unlike many posting in this thread complaining about the ability, I've actually played it before the shift from L15 to L1, and it wasn't that big of a game changer. They're just reverting the change for the F2P players. You still have walk, you still have run, but it seems people are thinking you just have to walk and no run, which is not the case.

I played the game from beta through release. I actually stopped playing BEFORE the switch from L15 to L1.

 

[Tiger Sora]

I figure the f2p would have some restrictions and some would suck, But that really is crippling. The moment anyone sees this list they would be really turned off to play.