SWTOR Free to Play ?

[Ijoemomma]

I don't get why they would do this. They still have over 1 million subscribers. It took Warcraft a year to break a million subscribers.

[Shadylol]

I don't get why they would do this. They still have over 1 million subscribers. It took Warcraft a year to break a million subscribers.

Who told you that?

The game hadn't even been out for an entire year, by the time I bought it, and my box has a sticker on it that says over 5 million subscribers

[Vexies]

My worries with a game, that took so long to develop and has such a rich and powerful story, will just simply cease to exist because there will be no major updates. Is this the case in most F2P games? Are they not being updated as a frequently? Are there no sort of moderators sitting on forums, gving some feedback back to the community and etc etc.

I don't get why they would do this. They still have over 1 million subscribers.

Well.. I hate to say it but I do see the MMO model changing. Perceptions of the audience and expectations of it are changing as well. There are a lot of advantages to the free to play model and the community at large are far less critical of them it seems so long as they are handled correctly and stay away from the play to win scenarios they are generally viewed quite favorably. I can see why they would be looking at this route especially with one of its biggest competitors that just so happens to be free to play coming out soon.

Quite simply the model works, it can be successful, give you content and not be pay to win.

[Bolverker]

I don't get why they would do this. They still have over 1 million subscribers. It took Warcraft a year to break a million subscribers.

Where do you get this information? Have you logged in lately and looked at the server populations? Even three months ago total server pop never even got close to 50k... If that. I would be surprised if they had 100k Subscriptions. Certainly No more than 300k. And if they do have more than 300k they aren't playing that is for sure. If you think I jest do the math. What is the total population a swtor server can hold? 1000 certainly no more than 1500. I have never seen more than 300(thats 50 on the fleet and me being generous for all other locations) people on my server and that was 3 months ago. So the three populated servers that have decent populations are Fatman and 2 others and maybe they have 1500 people on them at a time but that is just three servers. Granted some people have returned with the server merge/transfers(Essentially they are controlled merges). Either way you never see more than 15k people on swtor at one time even during peak times. So how you and others claim there are still 1 million subs is beyond me.

[Fishyface]

I guess that settles it. The game IS dead. If things are bad now, imagine once they go free to play.

The game will get more players and possibly become stable? I dont play swtor anymore but just because you think swtor dies when it goes f2p it doesnt. Very few games fold when they go f2p and im pretty sure the amount of people playing will increase when it does go f2p

[Vexies]

Where do you get this information? Have you logged in lately and looked at the server populations? Even three months ago total server pop never even got close to 50k

Well considering we had almost well over 800 players on fleet last night (three instances of Fleet with 300ish folks on) The game has never been better after these merges. This will go a long, long way to attracting players, encouraging resubs and bringing in new faces. they have done a great job with this. The game has never been so active. I could care less about over all numbers with my server this healthy but I wouldnt just count SWTOR out just yet. This is exactly what they needed to do to show some turn around.

[Profyrion]

Pointless conjecture.

Thanks for yet again over-analyzing a developer comment, MMOC. You're nothing if not consistent.

[Shadylol]

Pointless conjecture.

Thanks for yet again over-analyzing a developer comment, MMOC. You're nothing if not consistent.

It's not really pointless conjecture, or over analyzation

This has been a long time coming, and a lot of us are eager to see how it plays out

[Bolverker]

Well considering we had almost well over 800 players on fleet last night (three instances of Fleet with 300ish folks on) The game has never been better after these merges. This will go a long, long way to attracting players, encouraging resubs and bringing in new faces. they have done a great job with this. The game has never been so active. I could care less about over all numbers with my server this healthy but I wouldnt just count SWTOR out just yet. This is exactly what they needed to do to show some turn around.

I agree this was a correct move, however I fear the biggest downfall of this game was the fact that they had to create so many servers because of the limited population each could hold and that this move has come too late. Well that and the delay of RWZ's. Granted the new server populations are refreshing when the last month its be 5-10 people on at peak times on the fleet, but I think its almost a guarantee that swtor will go f2p. Which necessarily isn't a bad thing. I'd go back to playing if it did.

[RoninaThorstone]

I feel that most subscribers are going to do this when they hear FTP.

[quras]

I guess that settles it. The game IS dead. If things are bad now, imagine once they go free to play.

Except that pretty much all F2P games have seen seen massive increase in numbers. 2 that I know of being DCUO and LOTRO. Not sure about all the others that went F2P but it's not all bad. It's not all good either but it's not all bad.

[Thraim]

I imagine that EA/Bioware will do whatever they can to keep the subscription model for as long as they can. Whether true or not, the general perception of an MMO going from subscription based to f2p is that it is dying/dead. Now, that perception may be starting to change, but you don't want to do that to your game if you don't have to.

That being said, GW2's model seems like it may be the wave of the future. Pay for the box and expansions, and have a cash shop for vanity/cosmetic/time saving/convenience purchases. I imagine with that type of model, SWTOR could be extremely successful. As a subscription based MMO it's not worth my time or money, but if I only had to pay for the box I would definitely give it a shot just for the leveling story lines.

[jvbastel]

I always looked at SWTOR as probably the last big sub fee MMO. I actually hope it goes f2p

[Clymene]

Did anyone actually read the link?

It not even an article. Its a tease with quotes but not what the designer was asked. Also the title of the article is misleading since its a half quote with no context. But please continue your pointless conjecture.

[grandpab]

That being said, GW2's model seems like it may be the wave of the future. Pay for the box and expansions, and have a cash shop for vanity/cosmetic/time saving/convenience purchases. I imagine with that type of model, SWTOR could be extremely successful. As a subscription based MMO it's not worth my time or money, but if I only had to pay for the box I would definitely give it a shot just for the leveling story lines.

I kinda wonder why so many of them go straight to f2p after being p2p, instead of making it b2p and having a cash shop with ideals similar to what's being done with GW2.

[Deleted]

So look at the SWTOR now
I thought the game was supposed to kill WoW?

Don't mind me though,I have nothing agaisn't SWTOR or their players,just agains't the jackasses that liked overhyping the forums during the beta about how this game was going to kill WoW.

Well look at SWTOR now,look at SWTOR now...

[ringthree]

he term 'wow killer' hardly ever gets mentioned by the actual fanbase of a game. want proof? check the gw2 forums, the game is in beta, and will be a direct competitor to wow, so all the fans should go "AMAGAD WOW WILL DIE", right?

Except they don't, and neither did 99% of the swtor fanbase, or the rift fanbase. or AOC's, or aion's, or WAR

Except when you say that something they believe is original actually was something from WoW or another game, and you get shouted down for even mentioning WoW.

There is no need to call something a WoW-killer when everyone you talk to implicitly "understands" the situation, but that attitude quickly turns negative as soon as that "understanding" is questioned in the slightest.

[kenn9530]

the free to play model is only an option on which they may adopt if it becomes more profitable, there is a good chance it wont even go f2p.

for me SWTOR is much more enjoyable than WoW, one of the main things it needed it has currently just happened of which it was server transfers, while im not playing the game atm in a few months im upgrading my comp and may play again if i have some spare time.

While i dont know the exact numbers im sure the game has at the very least broke even around the 6 month mark if not made a reasonable profit.

I dont see why people complain about SWTOR not being a good MMO, the leveling is great and beats the hell out of WoW and the endgame has just as much to do as WoW does although it has a little too much similarity the endgame for me is more enjoyable.

I played WoW for 6 years and when i started proper raiding around ulduar i and most others mainly just logged for raids or half afk in the main cities, the main reason people stick around is to play with freinds not because the game is so good, if you had the same group of freinds you would stick around playing that game with them.

SWTOR didnt start of perfect but it was more than good enough and at 1.3 it wil have pretty much everything it will ever need, i dont see any reason why people still bash the game, its far from dead and i expect subs to slowly rise over the next 6 months.

I think blizz should put out the figures on actual paying subs and it will most likely be no where near the 10 mill mark.

[alturic]

The game will get more players and possibly become stable? I dont play swtor anymore but just because you think swtor dies when it goes f2p it doesnt. Very few games fold when they go f2p and im pretty sure the amount of people playing will increase when it does go f2p

That all depends really. Sure I could have "active" accounts in 10 different F2P games, but I clearly won't be playing all of them equally. Some will just "be there" when I get bored with the other 9 games.

I primarily don't see how a game (Aion for example) gathers a influx of people (past say 30 days) when a game goes F2P because that's basically saying the ONLY thing holding someone back from playing said game was the sub fee. That alone inherently means those are "theoretically" not the target audience of the developer choosing to go F2P considering they wouldn't even pay the $15/mo, let alone micro-transactions.

I was on the fence about going with Rift or Aion when I quit WoW. I was going to go Aion because of the player-base (still over 1 million I believe) and did download it and logged in. I also downloaded Rift and since that was done before Aion I was playing that while Aion was still downloading and once Aion did finish I never really bothered logging into my old Aion account because I was having too much fun in Rift. So just because a game has a larger player-base (and trust me, I don't want to play a game (invest time) for it to just close some day) doesn't mean it's better than another game.

I don't really know what I meant by the paragraph above but in the context of the "F2P model" there's going to have to come a point where the market is just too saturated and it's not "worth it".

---------- Post added 2012-06-15 at 10:24 AM ----------

he term 'wow killer' hardly ever gets mentioned by the actual fanbase of a game. want proof? check the gw2 forums, the game is in beta, and will be a direct competitor to wow, so all the fans should go "AMAGAD WOW WILL DIE", right?

Except they don't, and neither did 99% of the swtor fanbase, or the rift fanbase. or AOC's, or aion's, or WAR

I, uh, fail to see any relation of GW1/2 to WoW. GW isn't a sub-based game. GW doesn't have "dungeons/raids" in the typical aspect (at least in GW1 it was instanced "zones", not actual dungeons/raids), and I don't know if it did/does but when I played GW1 it definitely didn't "feel" like it had the holy trinity roles.

I really fail to see how it is a "direct competitor" to WoW?

Oh yea, also I think it's a lot worse when a developer (slyly) makes their game out to be a WoW-killer.

[Deleted]

So look at the SWTOR now
I thought the game was supposed to kill WoW?

Don't mind me though,I have nothing agaisn't SWTOR or their players,just agains't the jackasses that liked overhyping the forums during the beta about how this game was going to kill WoW.

Well look at SWTOR now,look at SWTOR now...

So you decided to be the guy that comes on and make pointless posts about something that is neither confirmed or denied, and you think you are better than they are ^ ^

OT: ill probably still play if it goes free to play, i hope it doesn't effect the content they realise though.