The Old Republic Offers Free Weekend

Marshall Honorof

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The Old Republic Offers Free Weekend


All would-be Jedi Knights and Sith Lords will have three days to see if it's worth their money to travel to a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars: The Old Republic may be one of the most successful MMOs on the market [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115658-The-Old-Republic-Becomes-the-Fastest-Growing-MMO-Ever], but that's no reason for it to rest on its laurels. Like the relentless Galactic Empire engulfing everything in its path, EA and BioWare want more players to see what all the lightsaber-swinging, laser-shooting, dialogue-choosing fuss is about and hopefully subscribe to the game in the process. With that in mind, BioWare is offering prospective players a chance to play The Old Republic - with a few restrictions - for free from March 15 through March 19.

The opportunity to play The Old Republic without giving up your hard-earned credits comes with a few caveats. The weekend trial lasts only from midnight CST on March 15 to 2 AM CST on March 19 (which is still roughly three days - a pretty generous weekend). Trial characters may only advance to level 15, and access a limited number of worlds (and other interstellar locations). They will also be subject to limited functionality for chat, mail, trade, and party member skills. However, there do not appear to be restrictions on choosing a server type or creating more than one character, nor does BioWare have any plans to delete characters after March 19. Players who enjoy their time enough to commit to a subscription will find their trial characters ready and waiting for them.

Dropping $60 plus a monthly subscription fee on a game sight unseen can be a tough proposition, but The Old Republic's trial weekend may alleviate some of that uncertainty. Granted, downloading a multi-gigabyte game via crowded servers will take significant time and bandwidth, but if you have those to spare, this could be your best chance to check out The Old Republic until the next weekend pass comes around. Interested parties should take it out on the younglings [http://www.swtor.com/weekendpass].

Source: Star Wars: The Old Republic Official Site [http://www.swtor.com/weekendpass]

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MrBrightside919

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I kinda wish all MMOs would just pull a Guild Wars and charge for the game itself and not subscriptions...

That is a future that I look forward to...

I doubt i'll try TOR. By the time it finishes downloading, the free weekend will be over...
 

80Maxwell08

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So does this game have endgame content that people will go back to yet? Every person I've heard who beat their character's story quit then because they said they had nothing to do. Though that was always going to be a flaw since it was supposed to be story based and stories are supposed to end while MMOs are supposed to go on for as long as possible. Guild Wars got around this from it's instanced form by having hard mode versions of areas and missions along with being designed around pvp. Can't comment on WoW since I quit way before I got to the endgame.

Brad Shepard said:
It starts, Im calling it now, It will go F2P within a year.
I would bet that as well but that's only if EA realizes they messed up here rather than being incompetent like usually.
 

mattttherman3

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Yeah, you know there really is no point to doing multiple characters, pretty much 1 republic and 1 empire, doing more than 1 is hard because it gets very boring doing the same quests over again. But then again I did not particularly care very much for the game, which I bought this laptop I'm on for, sigh...
 

mattttherman3

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80Maxwell08 said:
So does this game have endgame content that people will go back to yet? Every person I've heard who beat their character's story quit then because they said they had nothing to do. Though that was always going to be a flaw since it was supposed to be story based and stories are supposed to end while MMOs are supposed to go on for as long as possible. Guild Wars got around this from it's instanced form by having hard mode versions of areas and missions along with being designed around pvp. Can't comment on WoW since I quit way before I got to the endgame.

Brad Shepard said:
It starts, Im calling it now, It will go F2P within a year.
I would bet that as well but that's only if EA realizes they messed up here rather than being incompetent like usually.
And in guild wars, you get to kill a god :)
 

viranimus

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Nov 20, 2009
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Couple of caveats. This is a massive mistake if this occurs before the 1.2 release because basically everything in the 1.2 release is what should have been present in the final build of the game such as custom UI, Color customization, filling in lagging content spots like warzones, etc.

To give a free weekend before that is present is going to give potential new players the wrong ideas about the game being incomplete and smacking unnecessarily of desperation.

A free weekend is sort of a mistake too really, considering that if your determined enough, you can go from 1-50 and in essence see the bulk of the core content of the game in a weekend. Granted you would have to be logged in from the second the free access is available and play nonstop until its over, but with a friend guiding you it can be done. Its certainly not easy but I know I have speed ran a toon from 1-50 in 3 full days time. so it CAN be done.

Also, being this close to release it gives the false impression that the game is in trouble, much as has already been illustrated in this thread with calls of F2P incoming

It is a shame really because the story elements have set a new bar of expectation for MMOs which is good, however by mimicking WoW so much on gameplay mechanics the game has contracted a lot of the same problems WoW has like being incredibly friggen boring outside of the story mechanics.

However I get why they are doing it, they are worried about the up and down decline of server population that is caused directly from the instant gratification and overly accessible gameplay style lifted from WoW. The game is too easy and because of it players have blown through the content and there is no logical reason to hang around once youve seen/done what you wanted to do. That is another thing that should have been put into place before a free weekend, actual long term challenges to keep players interested. Without it, any attempt to woo new players will fall flat as they go through a revolving door model of player retention. If that is not addressed then the game long term WILL fail.
 

Vrach

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MrBrightside919 said:
I kinda wish all MMOs would just pull a Guild Wars and charge for the game itself and not subscriptions...

That is a future that I look forward to...

I doubt i'll try TOR. By the time it finishes downloading, the free weekend will be over...
It's a 4 day pass, so that's not really an argument if you're happy with a weekend. You can also get a 7 day trial if you know someone who plays it.

And honestly, I'm fine with a subscription model, but it needs to offer something worth the subscription - namely, (really) regularly updated, worthwhile content.

On the topic of TOR, it's a good game, worth most people's 60$ and a month or few's subscription. Leveling's great, especially with a friend, there's a bit of fun at endgame too. My issue with it is that it's linear as fuck and really cordoned off, which coupled with the fact the game's split into 17 planets to begin with (several of which aren't available to you, depending on what side you're on) makes for a horribly cramped experience, especially at the end game where there is no reason to ever step off the Republic/Imperial Fleet unless you're going to Illum for PvP/dailies or Belsavis for dailies.

I'm sad to not be able to just go fiddling around the world, exploring it due to how linear of an experience it is thanks to world designers utilizing everything from steep terrain, across mountains, "fall to your death if you step off the railways" Coruscant streets and in some cases, blatant "turn back or your health starts degrading until you die" invisible walls set between two areas on the same planet (you need to take a taxi, despite there being nothing to really stop you from moving there on your own other than the exhaustion/fatigue)

Biggest "holy shit" moment for me yet was after leveling an Inquisitor to 50 and starting a Jedi Knight, reaching Taris and realising "wait a minute, this is the EXACT SAME PLANET, except it's different for the Sith". They took the same planet, rearranged/changed the mobs and stuck two sides on two "different" planets of the same name.
 

MrBrightside919

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Vrach said:
MrBrightside919 said:
I kinda wish all MMOs would just pull a Guild Wars and charge for the game itself and not subscriptions...

That is a future that I look forward to...

I doubt i'll try TOR. By the time it finishes downloading, the free weekend will be over...
It's a 4 day pass, so that's not really an argument if you're happy with a weekend. You can also get a 7 day trial if you know someone who plays it.

And honestly, I'm fine with a subscription model, but it needs to offer something worth the subscription - namely, (really) regularly updated, worthwhile content.

On the topic of TOR, it's a good game, worth most people's 60$ and a month or few's subscription. Leveling's great, especially with a friend, there's a bit of fun at endgame too. My issue with it is that it's linear as fuck and really cordoned off, which coupled with the fact the game's split into 17 planets to begin with (several of which aren't available to you, depending on what side you're on) makes for a horribly cramped experience, especially at the end game where there is no reason to ever step off the Republic/Imperial Fleet unless you're going to Illum for PvP/dailies or Belsavis for dailies.

I'm sad to not be able to just go fiddling around the world, exploring it due to how linear of an experience it is thanks to world designers utilizing everything from steep terrain, across mountains, "fall to your death if you step off the railways" Coruscant streets and in some cases, blatant "turn back or your health starts degrading until you die" invisible walls set between two areas on the same planet (you need to take a taxi, despite there being nothing to really stop you from moving there on your own other than the exhaustion/fatigue)

Biggest "holy shit" moment for me yet was after leveling an Inquisitor to 50 and starting a Jedi Knight, reaching Taris and realising "wait a minute, this is the EXACT SAME PLANET, except it's different for the Sith". They took the same planet, rearranged/changed the mobs and stuck two sides on two "different" planets of the same name.
My Old Republic is a little fuzzy, but didn't Taris get blown up in KOTOR?
 

Kyrinn

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MrBrightside919 said:
My Old Republic is a little fuzzy, but didn't Taris get blown up in KOTOR?
The planet itself is still there. You land in a resettlement zone.
 

80Maxwell08

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Kyrinn said:
MrBrightside919 said:
My Old Republic is a little fuzzy, but didn't Taris get blown up in KOTOR?
The planet itself is still there. You land in a resettlement zone.
Um Makek ordered his entire fleet to wipe the planet from the universe didn't he? They seriously didn't stick to the canon that THEY wrote?
 

Rad Party God

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Feb 23, 2010
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So... EA will be giving away a free trial for 3 days... you know?, I don't have this game and I don't plan to play it, but still, I feel like I'm being ripped off.

WoW and Rift both offer "unlimited trials" up to level 20 and with as many characters as you can concieve in every single server. And EA's giving it away for 3 days to reach level 15. Nice move.
 

Bat Vader

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80Maxwell08 said:
Kyrinn said:
MrBrightside919 said:
My Old Republic is a little fuzzy, but didn't Taris get blown up in KOTOR?
The planet itself is still there. You land in a resettlement zone.
Um Makek ordered his entire fleet to wipe the planet from the universe didn't he? They seriously didn't stick to the canon that THEY wrote?
Taris is still a wreck. The Republic is starting to rebuild Taris. It is still in the early stages though.
 

Beautiful End

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Eh, I got a free copy of the game at work. But I haven't downloaded/installed it yet because I don't feel like paying a monthly subscription for a game I've only been mildly interested on. Plus, my netbook would probably explode.

But...this seems like a good opportunity to see what the bug fuss is all about. I wonder if I'm able to re-download it onto another computer once I buy a desktop...
 

Parnage

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It's an okay game and I do actually encourage folks to try it out if you enjoy Star Wars at all. For what flaws the games have in late game(and I assure you the flaws it has are many, numerous and fairly unforgivable in some cases) the early game/leveling is a fun time and good time.

The universe feel's right, it all sounds right and the 1-15 is generally enough to get Yer starting planet/capital planet completed. So if nothing else you can see how they did places like Hutta, Ord Mantell, Imperial Center(errr Coruscant) and the like.

If you got the bandwidth and the time try it out. Hell if you like it, go ahead get a month and enjoy yourself leveling up. Maybe by then they'll have things worked out.

Do realize however that only Ord Mantell is mostly voiced by Winnie the Pooh and not all planets are like that.
 

baconsarnie

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This will be like the beta test weekend i was on it. Had to sleep for 24 straight hours after going on a binge of the game and trying to have a normal weekend.
*looks on the website*
Hold everything
"There is a limit of one free trial per account. Weekend Pass Free Trial accounts cannot participate in any other free trial program."
"The trial is open to new accounts only."
That's ridiculous, and i won't do it. Sorry.
 

shintakie10

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The_root_of_all_evil said:
For free? Perhaps. But I even smell Origin and I'm outa there.
Based off the faq, it looks like you still need origin to play. So that is a pass for me.
 

Cowabungaa

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The_root_of_all_evil said:
For free? Perhaps. But I even smell Origin and I'm outa there.
I don't have to use Origin to play SW:TOR.

And no captcha, that's not a 'fairy tale'.
 

lancar

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Oh, the game IS in trouble for sure.
Saying that it's one of the fastest growing MMOs of all time is all well and good, but I have a feeling that sentiment is based on the number of copies sold.

True, there has been a buttload of copies sold, as the servers were filled to the brim for the first month since launch.
Now, however, the server statistics paint an entirely different picture.
Basically, every planet apart from Ilum and the Fleet (not really a planet, but meh) is a ghost town. From what I can see on the uptime page, all the european servers rarely go beyond "light" population load anymore. Hopefully 1.2 will bring some people back, but from where I'm standing it's going to take much more than that to save this sinking ship.