SWTOR's Ohlen: F2P 'not super easy to do'

[noahjam326]

I really wouldn't care one way or the other, because I already play F2P games, some that started that way, and some that went from subscription to F2P. I personally like DCUO's model of F2P. You can buy things from the cash shop and DLC as you wish, or you can pay a subscription and just get access to all of the content. The choice is up to you and I haven't seen production decline at all. They update the game at the same pace as they did before, including free patches as well. Whatever decision they decide to make will not affect my enjoyment of the game. As long as they offer the same kind of options as others in the market.

I also play Vindictus which is a F2P game. It doesn't have any subscription model and relies completely on a cash shop. They have free content updates every few months, and a new class and class overhaul is coming in the next month or 2 from what I understand. So I've had nothing but positive experience with F2P games.

[Korgoth]

F2P is stupid. They have content worth paying for, just not monthly. They failed to make their clone of the WoW endgame attractive enough, time to fallback on what worked, and that was the leveling story content, so sell new story content every 6 months, and get rid of the monthly fee.

[Argroth]

This is the truth. A VERY SMALL GROUP OF People drop INSANE amounts of cash in League of Legends for simple cosmetic changes.

Fixed that for you. Also those people have a few screws loose and I would not want to associate with people who are so foolish to trivially throw their money around so recklessly.

If the only way to look different than say a standard bounty hunter in swtor was to spend cash, the store would be guaranteed to do well.

That may sound good for a greedy company but it kicks it's customers in the ***. How a consumer would support that greediness is beyond me. I just expect a company to work for me when I pay, to consider me and my wants, not just be a vacuum in my pocket taking whatever they can when they can.
As of right now (and especially when 1.3 comes out) I get near limitless ways for my character to look plus a hell of a lot more things for a low flat rate. Even if every option I had right now for my character cost 10 cents to buy it would likely add up to more then $13 I'm currently paying and we all know a cash shop would most definitly sell all it's garbage for way more then 10 cents a piece.

Your idea is not a good one for the customer. Being a customer I'm inclined to hate it rather then support a company getting a few more bucks which they will not likely put back into the game any more then they do right now. Even if they did just add more to the game with their money it would just be more things they charge for, again helping no one but themselves.

Oh god not this again.... Yes. Keeping hardware up 99% continues to cost money. Paying people to monitor and fix this hardware costs money. Paying developers to write new content costs money. Fixing the game after new content breaks it costs money. Why is this so hard for people to understand? Consider this, a Systems Engineer can make upwards of 60k to 100k a year. Thats just one person, thats not a dev, thats not CS, thats just one guy managing a few servers.


Bullshit! Updates to the cash shop do not count as content updates. Games like LoTRO release purchasable content and most of the time its not even worth the money. Its an illusion.

Disagree on the first point. No matter how many costs they do have They make a MASSIVE profit as they do right now.

Agree on the 2nd point. Cash Shop does not count as content updates because the players are not getting anything but more things they yet again have to pay for. It's not a bonus when you just have to pay again.

[Dezerte]

If they do go F2P I hope having CE or/and paid sub. for x months gives you some perks.

[noahjam326]

If they do go F2P I hope having CE or/and paid sub. for x months gives you some perks.

At least in DCUO I actually have a permanent subscription discount because of a deal that took place about a month after the game released, I was also given some station cash. Recently subscribers are also getting access to the new DLC early, before it gets added to the store.

[Profyrion]

Nice to see Bioware backing off/clarifying their position. The short statement that started all this nonsense was blown way out of proportion.

[Fencers]

It's not that hard to turn TOR F2P. Bioware/EA are just terrible at making an MMO is all. Their POV on these matters is, to me, laughable.

[notorious98]

Nice to see Bioware backing off/clarifying their position. The short statement that started all this nonsense was blown way out of proportion.

Blizzard said something along the same lines a couple years ago. Yeah, it's something they would consider, but it's not like they'll ever actually do it.

---------- Post added 2012-06-19 at 06:12 PM ----------

F2P is stupid. They have content worth paying for, just not monthly. They failed to make their clone of the WoW endgame attractive enough, time to fallback on what worked, and that was the leveling story content, so sell new story content every 6 months, and get rid of the monthly fee.

Good job at contradicting yourself. F2P means there's no monthly sub cost.

---------- Post added 2012-06-19 at 06:14 PM ----------

Oh god not this again.... Yes. Keeping hardware up 99% continues to cost money. Paying people to monitor and fix this hardware costs money. Paying developers to write new content costs money. Fixing the game after new content breaks it costs money. Why is this so hard for people to understand? Consider this, a Systems Engineer can make upwards of 60k to 100k a year. Thats just one person, thats not a dev, thats not CS, thats just one guy managing a few servers.

In Activision/Blizzard's quarterly, they reported the cost of maintaining their subscription services was $59 million for 3 months. That includes your Systems Engineer, server maintenance, CS reps, etc. For a game that has 10 million subs, $20 million/month is not that expensive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns-II...layer_embedded

[Hellfury]

I know what he means now

Technically its super easy to do no doubt

Convincing EA and probably Lucasarts aswell maybe another diferent story all together, and thats probably what he ment becuase there was rumors that Bioware as already inhouse, studing the option

[Leonard McCoy]

I know what he means now

Technically its super easy to do no doubt

Convincing EA and probably Lucasarts aswell maybe another diferent story all together, and thats probably what he ment becuase there was rumors that Bioware as already inhouse, studing the option

I'd be curious to know where those rumours came from?

[Erela]

So why does a game HAVE to be 15 bucks a month... Why can't they just lower the subscription instead of completely abandoning it? I really can't think of a game that has ever tried that, its like no one has ever thought of it. There are A LOT of games I would still play if they were only say 5 or 7 bucks a month.

[Leonard McCoy]

So why does a game HAVE to be 15 bucks a month... Why can't they just lower the subscription instead of completely abandoning it? I really can't think of a game that has ever tried that, its like no one has ever thought of it. There are A LOT of games I would still play if they were only say 5 or 7 bucks a month.

I always wondered about that. Why has no game really tried to change the fee instead of simply abandoning the model?

[trink202]

So why does a game HAVE to be 15 bucks a month... Why can't they just lower the subscription instead of completely abandoning it? I really can't think of a game that has ever tried that, its like no one has ever thought of it. There are A LOT of games I would still play if they were only say 5 or 7 bucks a month.

Didn't LOTRO lower its sub fee to $9.95 when it went freemium, or was that a special offer?

[noahjam326]

So why does a game HAVE to be 15 bucks a month... Why can't they just lower the subscription instead of completely abandoning it? I really can't think of a game that has ever tried that, its like no one has ever thought of it. There are A LOT of games I would still play if they were only say 5 or 7 bucks a month.

I think Runescape premium is $10.00/month.

[Erela]

I think Runescape premium is $10.00/month.

Ahh, well that is a game I would NOT pay for

[Odegon]

Good job at contradicting yourself. F2P means there's no monthly sub cost.

Please use the correct acronyms, Here I give them for you:

F2P : Free to play (example:LOTRO)
P2P: Pay to play (example:WOW)
B2P: Buy to play (example:Guild Wars)
P2PBSEMPFYTP: Pay to play but someone else may pay for you to play(examle:Eve Online)
F2PBSEMPFYTAEC: Free to play but someone else may pay for you to access extended content(examle:AION)
B2PPFC: Buy to play, pay for cheat ( example: Diablo 3)

[notorious98]

Please use the correct acronyms, Here I give them for you:

F2P : Free to play (example:LOTRO)
P2P: Pay to play (example:WOW)
B2P: Buy to play (example:Guild Wars)
P2PBSEMPFYTP: Pay to play but someone else may pay for you to play(examle:Eve Online)
F2PBSEMPFYTAEC: Free to play but someone else may pay for you to access extended content(examle:AION)
B2PPFC: Buy to play, pay for cheat ( example: Diablo 3)

I'm hoping this is a joke. If it is, it's humorous. If it's not....I still find it humorous, but in a different way.

[RoninaThorstone]

Please use the correct acronyms, Here I give them for you:

F2P : Free to play (example:LOTRO)
P2P: Pay to play (example:WOW)
B2P: Buy to play (example:Guild Wars)
P2PBSEMPFYTP: Pay to play but someone else may pay for you to play(examle:Eve Online)
F2PBSEMPFYTAEC: Free to play but someone else may pay for you to access extended content(examle:AION)
B2PPFC: Buy to play, pay for cheat ( example: Diablo 3)

Dude. Stop sharing my diablo 2 cd key. Its not funny.

[woodydave44]

I always love posting this.


It seems relevant at the moment. F2P is a good thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns-IIn-DG-c

[RoninaThorstone]

I always love posting this.


It seems relevant at the moment. F2P is a good thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns-IIn-DG-c

The only problem is the dark side of the F2P.

http://mega64.com/2012/02/17/dlc-the-game/