Not sure if anybody has talked about this, but....

[notorious98]

I've come back to play the game after another stint away from it and I have to say that the game definitely seems slightly different. Not in the way it plays, the same issues I had in the past still exist. I'm talking about the way the F2P/Preferred part is being handled. I know that Riccitiello was fired/resigned about a year ago, but it seems like the designers are making things that are less focused on the dollars and more focused on the players. I haven't played Oricon yet, but it feels like something that they would have charged for in the past. Same with GSF and the new player housing. The same goes for escrows. He leaves the company and a couple months later, the game is introducing a way to access all the extra credits that were locked away unless you subscribed.

Maybe it's just me and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it feels like a slightly different company. Like I said in the topic, I don't know if it has been talked about, but does anyone else feel like the experience from a F2P/Preferred standpoint is a little less suffocating?

[Razael]

I've come back to play the game after another stint away from it and I have to say that the game definitely seems slightly different. Not in the way it plays, the same issues I had in the past still exist. I'm talking about the way the F2P/Preferred part is being handled. I know that Riccitiello was fired/resigned about a year ago, but it seems like the designers are making things that are less focused on the dollars and more focused on the players. I haven't played Oricon yet, but it feels like something that they would have charged for in the past. Same with GSF and the new player housing. The same goes for escrows. He leaves the company and a couple months later, the game is introducing a way to access all the extra credits that were locked away unless you subscribed.

Maybe it's just me and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it feels like a slightly different company. Like I said in the topic, I don't know if it has been talked about, but does anyone else feel like the experience from a F2P/Preferred standpoint is a little less suffocating?

Its a little better, but its still one of the worst models out there. If you take it face value. If i , as a new player went to swtor.com, read the restrictions on the chart, i'd not play this unless subbed.
When you think you can get over almost all restrictions by paying Credits (which are easy as hell to be made with the Dailies) the model is actually decent for the most part. I just find it odd they never mention anywhere you can purchase unlocks for the restrictions in the GTN. They still focus alot on the Cartel Market, but its good to see most of the cash shop is dissasociated from the game content being introduced as of late.