Have they taken F2P restrictions a little too far?

[Preliatus]

Check out this post from the Official Forums
http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...555690&page=36

That post is actually well said and stated for the whole new F2P system.

At the core of the argument the F2P restrictions just scream "SUB NOWTO ENJOY THE GAME!". While I don't want to look at the cash shop and enjoy the game the game just reeks of F2P and get pwnd, or P2P and pwn everyone. Which is not the type of marketable MMO you should make. Ever.

Paying for Power usually sets off people from trying out a game. This goes back to the shall-not-be-mentioned-player-ran-servers for most MMOs that thrive off of donations, and other games where the cash shop is full of BiS items (Take APB Reloaded for example). While this will attract a market I still feel that this type of F2P has stuck all the nails in the coffin and has finally sunk the once great unsinkable ship that was Tortanic.

[Deleted]

The way you just analyzed everything was exaggerated for SWTOR while you were straight to the point with WoW, clearly showing which game you favor most.

Its an extended trial to level 50 with limited end game experience. Saying that is more restrictive than WoW is a bit over the top. Pretty sure when I had a free trial in WoW, I couldn't PvP. I couldn't message someone unless they message me. I couldn't talk in any chats. I couldn't join guilds. Etc. I was forced to play alone. So from 1-20, I was basically playing by myself.

Well perhaps he likes WoW more than SWTOR. You seem to like SWTOR more than Warcraft because you went straight to the point of where WoW trial fails in your opinion. But the difference is that Warcraft is not a Free to play game, it still has a subscription and SWTOR doesnt because it lost the subscribers.

Once we could compare SWTOR and WoW half a year ago, but now those games are apart like pluto and the sun or like some prefer to call it apples and oranges (hope Apple does not sue me for this).

The restriction for F2P players in SWTOR are hillarious, the restrictions for returning players are annoying. EA forgot that it is still the same game , for many deemed not worthy the subscription. Their F2P model for me, is not worth the HDD space, it is still the same game I stopped playing half a year ago but now less of everything.

[ati87]

Also it might be better if Bioware allowed people to use purple gear and do some operations. Not the best gear or the most recent operations but maybe from 2 or 3 tiers behind everybody else.

Right now the biggest problem I see with the f2p model is how long will the current activity last and what are the intensives for people to switch over to a sub. because the biggest issue of SWTOR still remains, majority of the people don't do endgame and thus don't stick after they reach the lvl cap.

[Xcitement]

I find it funny people are saying it's not F2P but an Extended Trial and while it may of been executed as such it was marketed as a F2P option which in reality is not. So people who came looking for what you would find in other F2P or F2P/Sub Hybrid games will take a look at SW:TOR and go "WTF!?!?"

Some people will refuse to pay a cent and that's just how they play. They prefer to do the extra grind in game to earn the points to get the unlocks. The majority will pony up cash for what they WANT not need. Look at successful F2P titles and what sells the most in them. Stuff like mounts, costumes and other types of cosmetics, extra character slots in some cases and DLCs. I haven't heard of an option to buy more character slots in SW:TOR, some people don't want the hassle of a subscription be it the amount of cash or the regular payment hassle so them buying weekly unlocks for FP/WZ and stuff kinda counter acts that.

I can't believe I'm still seeing people post on the official forums pay a sub or get out. Isn't this what got them in this situation in the first place. Telling F2P players to get out will counter anything hoped to achieved by going F2P.

BTW: Have they changed the fact that F2P players can't form parties or is that piece of stupidity still in there?

[Karazee]

the problem with the swtor model is that the game isnt good. if it was good, this would never even have been an issue.

I disagree - sort of. The game was actually pretty good. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't perfect by any means, but the game itself was definitely entertaining and has its appeal and its moments. The problem that made SWTOR fail for me was that the developers didn't really have a good vision of where to go with the game. Everything was too grindy, there wasn't much polish after you reached 50 and too many features that should have been in the game at launch weren't. So what they did was take a game that was a lot of fun and by their poor decisions, made it less fun.

I stopped playing but am considering trying the F2P just to get all the class stories done and then stop. Then I remember how boring leveling was the third time I did it and don't want to do it again.

[Deleted]

The restriction for F2P players in SWTOR are hillarious, the restrictions for returning players are annoying. EA forgot that it is still the same game , for many deemed not worthy the subscription.

Exactely, you're not gonna go far when your F2P plan seems to be centered around making life so miserable for a free player so he'll sub in order to get rid of the crappy restrictions. Especially not when there's better service to be had in other games for fee and the game proved unable to hold subscribers even when they hadn't fired over half the team.

So either you have insane restrictions that makes other games look like they're paying you to play their game.

OR

Pay a monthly sub for a game which the vast majority of player deemed too bad to justify a subscription fee even when the game had more resources dedicated to it.

Yeah it doesn't look good, the F2P introduction was a desperate move to begin with and they just made an already horrible situation worse.

[Deleted]

well theres some good news form the Q and A, in additon to the quickbar change theyre letting Free players have 6 characters instead of 2

[Edge-]

well theres some good news form the Q and A, in additon to the quickbar change theyre letting Free players have 6 characters instead of 2

Again, another "yay!".

But at the same time, they've already done so much damage with the initial implementation of this, that I wonder how much of an affect these kinds of changes will have in smoothing over relations with those that were turned off.

The more changes like this I see though, the more happy I am and more inclined I am to drop some cash in the cash shop though : )

[Kelimbror]

well theres some good news form the Q and A, in additon to the quickbar change theyre letting Free players have 6 characters instead of 2

Ok...this actually has me stopping to say...

This is starting to turn into a completely viable option. I will make sure to buy every account unlock imaginable now, since it will be worth the money. This is very positive news.

[Edge-]

Ok...this actually has me stopping to say...

This is starting to turn into a completely viable option. I will make sure to buy every account unlock imaginable now, since it will be worth the money. This is very positive news.

It's for premium players, so as long as you spend some money you have it : )

[Kelimbror]

It's for premium players, so as long as you spend some money you have it : )

Yeah I'm pretty much totally on board with this now. The ideology of the restrictions is utter shit, but as long as they are attainable by credits or a small amount of money then the reward for going preferred is now to honestly get a lot of the game for free.

No more farting around BS 2 characters, you get 6 stories. I approve.

[ranku]

well theres some good news form the Q and A, in additon to the quickbar change theyre letting Free players have 6 characters instead of 2

can you please link this, i want to see if anything new pops up.

[Deleted]

well theres some good news form the Q and A, in additon to the quickbar change theyre letting Free players have 6 characters instead of 2

Another positive change to the restriction, I see. I wonder which restriction is next they will change. Hopefully the one that restricts you from choosing the lockbox as reward from a mission completion. I still find it to this day the most ridiculous restriction that is in-game and how they manage to come up with such an idea. I understand with a Freemium model there are outta be restrictions in-game, but that one is mind-blowing. Those are the moments when I am thinking I should just stop supporting the company behind it. And the only way to do that is not give them a penny but at the same time I like the game so much, so what to do... Maybe next restriction they are going to soft up will be credits cap, on my server the artifact authorization initially was 5 million credits, now it's 4 million and there is only one seller and I don't see anyone selling unify colour, show title, hide helmet unlocks. :< It's not really making ppl to sell their stuff from the Cartel Market on the GTN it seems if you look at what's on the GTN on my server.

I still think they should just change their model completely and go with a Freemium model to allow players to buy purchasable content free of their choice instead of these weekly passes. I don't know about the rest of you, but I would prefer to see my money going to the department that is responsible for developing the content that I play. And of course part of the money goes to what holds the game together, guild features, GTN, UI, character animation, etc. I'm looking at you WoW, stupid Pokemon, don't want part of my money go to that... even it's only 0.10 euros!

[Forsedar]

Over the course of the F2P going live, I'm sure we can expect changes to be made. This is just the start so just give it time for the developers to hear the community and act on it (within reason of course). Giving more characters and changing the amount of quickbars limited is a great start!

---------- Post added 2012-11-30 at 12:07 AM ----------

can you please link this, i want to see if anything new pops up.

Check this forum section. I made a thread with a full transcript of the QA panel.

[Repefe]

Hm, with the character unlocks playing TOR as leveling MMO becomes much more appealing. Now all is left is to offer long term b2p option instead of the weekly passes for wz, operations and space missions. I actually think that 6 slots is too generous ... they could have made it unlockable feature past 3-4. But it's looking better and better.

[Cooper]

Outside of the ludicrous limitations on quickbars (which is apparently going away for preferred, but still), artifact gear, hide helmet/unify colors, companion customization, and the like...

...non-subbers not only don't get all the quest rewards and have a credit cap, but they have to pay 25% more at vendors, including commendation vendors. Oh yeah, and non-subbers have their commendations capped.

But I digress. Seeing "This item costs more for non-subscribers" (or whatever the message is) every time I'm buying something from a vendor really makes me feel like BioWare is spitting on me for not subbing.

And that doesn't make me any more inclined to give them money.

Oh, and for the argument that one can buy unlocks from the GTN - that only works if people actually sell the unlocks. The Cartel Shop Items listed on my server is three pages of Cargo Bays put up by one guy (for 400,000 credits, no less).

[Deleted]

Outside of the ludicrous limitations on quickbars (which is apparently going away for preferred, but still), artifact gear, hide helmet/unify colors, companion customization, and the like...
[SNIP]
Oh, and for the argument that one can buy unlocks from the GTN - that only works if people actually sell the unlocks. The Cartel Shop Items listed on my server is three pages of Cargo Bays put up by one guy (for 400,000 credits, no less).

Yep, I thought that feeling of positivity was starting to spread a bit too infectiously and needed to be snuffed out, it took longer than expeected tbh.

[Deleted]

Treat it as a discount for subscribers.

[Deleted]

Yep, I thought that feeling of positivity was starting to spread a bit too infectiously and needed to be snuffed out, it took longer than expeected tbh.

Yup a one post warrior moaning about not having enough free stuff apparantly.

[Xcitement]

Treat it as a discount for subscribers.

His point is they don't have to rub it in your face every time you buy something.