SWTOR free to play is coming

[Disparia]

SWTOR is going to get Apparel Droids!

LOTRO has been F2P for over a year now and overall it's been good IMO. The one major blemish though are those damn Apparel Dummies that were recently implemented. Click on them and you're taken to the Store where the entire cosmetic outfit can be purchased.

 

[1Kurgan1]

I knew this was going to happen. it's only a matter of time before EVE and WoW go F2P

I don't see either of those going F2P until they aren't on the top anymore. Like I said before, people are fine with paying for one MMO sub, but usually not fine with multiples. WoW and EVE don't really go for the same customer base and both are on top of their respective side. So anyone in their wake is going to be better off F2P.

 

[ShiBDiB]

I knew this was going to happen. it's only a matter of time before EVE and WoW go F2P

I never see eve goin f2p. It has a great playerbase of more mature mmo gamers who are well entrenched in the game

 

[techtard]

I wish they would have made a SP sequel to the first 2 games.

I agree, a single player RPG would have been awesome because it would have been more focused and delivered a better gaming experience.

I liked this ...



So why are other games that use the subscription only model doing well? Hmmm ....

The problem wasn't that there was a subscription barrier keeping people out. It was that SWTOR isn't worth paying a monthly sub.

They failed to deliver on many of their promises, the game (until recently) was very poorly optimized which shut out many potential players.

Their servers can't cope with having a high population - you get lag in flashpoints, pvp/warzones and in operations. They try to blame individual players and their internet connections, yet the problem is server wide.
This problem will only get worse unless they upgrade their server hardware and bandwidth. And that likely won't happen because EA is aggressively cutting costs.

They ignored beta testers and paying customers who brought legitimate concerns to them for months at a time. This is 2 MMOs in a row where EA completely ignored their users until the SHTF.

They sat by idly as server populations died, and didn't offer transfers for months. By the time they did, it was too little, too late. They lost hundreds of thousands of players because they didn't want to lose face by offering transfers so early in the game's lifecycle.

The voice acting and class story lines are pretty much the only things that make SWTOR worth playing, and they will be giving those away free with the conversion to F2P.

Otherwise, it's just another last-gen clone MMO. It's basically a single player RPG with multiplayer bolted on and a subscription. And old, tired MMO game mechanics.

EA killed another MMO. It's like they have the reverse Midas touch.

 

[WhiteNoise]

SWTOR is a good game. Not great or anything but its good. I had fun playing it but at the time I couldn't justify the monthly cost since I didn't have time to play it. Not to mention the server I was on was dead most of the time. Who likes playing a MMO without others to play with? Not I.

Now that it will be going f2p I will for sure play more. I'll just load it up and play once in awhile. It is a fun game if not at all original.

 

[Kreij]

I never see eve goin f2p. It has a great playerbase of more mature mmo gamers who are well entrenched in the game

EvE is also one of the reasons when I see devs/pubs touting the F2P model I become leary about the game in question.

People are quite willing to pony up a subscription fee for a game they really like.
EvE is subscription based and all the expansions have been free (17 as of today with the release of Inferno).
WoW is subscription based and you have to pay for expansions, and people are still happy to pay.

IMO, there is no barrier to people using the subscription model.
You give people a free trial period (that required no personal or CC information) and let them try it.
If the game is awesome, they will pay to play it.
If the game is mediocre (or outright sucks), or lacks content, they won't be back ... but that's not the fault of the subscription model.
If a game does not appeal to a large enough audience, to keep enough people playing and paying, that too is not a fault of the subscription model.

EvE is a nitch market (MP 4X space sim), but over it's life they have strived to make it awesome for it's player base.
WoW has removed a lot of the frustration out of the MMO (compared to prior MMOs at the time) and made it widely appealing.

This is what a lot of MMO developers are missing. Not all IPs will make for a good MMO, but they jump on the "we can make millions with an MMO" bandwagon, produce a half assed game (or one with no staying power) and then wonder why it was epic fail. Obviously because it wasn't F2P !!

Okay, I'll quit rambling.

 

[Darkleoco]

SWTOR was meant to be an MMO that started out incredibly strong and got better along the way instead it started out strong and it was all downhill from there, it simply does not have enough interest/appeal to justify a $15 subscription per month in the same way that WoW does. Even simplistic(ish) games can justify a moderate subscription fee if there is enough interest, you don't need millions of paying subscribers to maintain a decent MMO as long as you give people enough to strive for and keep them interested beyond just a few bosses or milestones to reach. I blame the E3 trailers for SWTOR for making it seem much better than it was going to be.

 

[ShiBDiB]

SWTOR was meant to be an MMO that started out incredibly strong and got better along the way instead it started out strong and it was all downhill from there, it simply does not have enough interest/appeal to justify a $15 subscription per month in the same way that WoW does. Even simplistic(ish) games can justify a moderate subscription fee if there is enough interest, you don't need millions of paying subscribers to maintain a decent MMO as long as you give people enough to strive for and keep them interested beyond just a few bosses or milestones to reach. I blame the E3 trailers for SWTOR for making it seem much better than it was going to be.

swtor pvp has such great promise, but they did the endgame pvp so horribly thats what ruined it for me