SWTOR 1 year later, how is it?

[Argroth]

Actually you can.

They are called exp boosts.
They go for about 1-5k on the GTN

Which is not expensive.

edit: Not to mention, you can just run instances as a healer / tank as ftp all day. (pure dps class? you own fault)

What friggin server/faction are you on?

Even the most minor ones cost at least 20,000 credits, which, with the F2P ridiculous restrictions is not easy to get.

---------- Post added 2012-12-06 at 07:58 PM ----------

Real f2pers shoot themselves after reaching a high enough level to suddenly NOT HAVE ANY MORE ROOM on their measly 2 quick bars.

Or their shitty amount of inventory space both in the field and Bank

[RoninaThorstone]

What friggin server/faction are you on?

Even the most minor ones cost at least 20,000 credits, which, with the F2P ridiculous restrictions is not easy to get.

Pot5.

I haven't log on since last week when I got about 8 unlocks for a total of 500k.

Pretty much, if it isn't on the GTN its because I bought it :P

[Argroth]

You mean 4.

Also, f2pers who choose to not buying action bars of the GTN are shooting themselves in the foot.

Except for the first whole month where Bioware proved they are retarded then finally noticed one of their many way too over the top restrictions.

[staticflare]

The game is SHIT.

I wasted 60$ and it goes free to play.. DA FUK. This and now guild wars 2.. why does the mmorpg world hate me!?

[Argroth]

The game is SHIT.

I wasted 60$ and it goes free to play.. DA FUK. This and now guild wars 2.. why does the mmorpg world hate me!?

Agreed I bought their game at a full price in good faith and they turned it to shit in less then a year. They also went and dropped the price more then has ever been seen before in a game that is only a year old.

I'm not sure whats more sickening, that they did that to the game, or that fanboys will back them up on things like the ridiculous price drop and resorting to a cheap cash shop to peddle for money instead of just putting effort into improving the game.

[RoninaThorstone]

The game didn't "turn to shit in less than a year". It started out poorly and was slow to improve.
They were losing too many subscribers to "put effort into improving the game". The switch to f2p, the firing of a lot of their staff, the "moving on" of their bigger players, are all a way to stop loss and re-transition to fixing the whole launching the game half a year too soon thing.
Also, I agree that you deserve more than a 5 dollar preferred status for your 60 dollar box price. (check my history, its somewhat recent.)
They should have launched as f2p. When they started talking about subscription it was like total face palm. Even MMO Report, back when casey was a fanboi, was like "uhoh".

---------- Post added 2012-12-06 at 08:30 PM ----------

This and now guild wars 2..

The bot trains really killed my desire to log into that game. I never thought it would bother me THAT much. But damn.

[Redgoon23]

I still like it more than any other MMO that I've tried. The PVP is very fun, and the class stories are very entertaining. By the time I get each class to level 50, hopefully there will be an expansion or our the Makb planet at least. Raiding is fun, but it's not as good as WoW raiding was when I played in BC/WOTLK.

[anyaka21]

Lost about 70% of their initial subscriber base and had to switch to a f2p model, and you don't think that's failure?

haven't we driven this part of the story into the ground? Please please please read a little bit. You'd realize that WoW has just as high, if not more, retention rate than all of the mmo's. They've had 40,000,000 subscribers, They've lost 30,000,000+.

Thus by your standard, they are a colossal failure. You should unsub now or demand they go f2p as well.


Actually, though sort of related, I think you can now go semi-f2p on WoW and level from 1-90 for free and try out the game. The question is, if this point is true, are all of those people who are "trying out the game" counted as subscribers?

[Deleted]

haven't we driven this part of the story into the ground? Please please please read a little bit. You'd realize that WoW has just as high, if not more, retention rate than all of the mmo's. They've had 40,000,000 subscribers, They've lost 30,000,000+.

Thus by your standard, they are a colossal failure. You should unsub now or demand they go f2p as well.


Actually, though sort of related, I think you can now go semi-f2p on WoW and level from 1-90 for free and try out the game. The question is, if this point is true, are all of those people who are "trying out the game" counted as subscribers?

You can think you can go "semi-F2P", you would be wrong. They also during their 8 years of running have had more people replace those that left and grow. SWTOR on the other hand lost 80% of theirs within 6 months and that's not people coming and going, that's just people going and no one coming. You can pretend it's actually remotely similar in your attempt to put spin on SWTORs failure. But no one remotely reasonable would think much of your thoughts on that matter. And FYI, WoW unlike SWTOR has never counted people on free month as subscribers, they only count paying users.

Please please please THINK a little bit more than you are now, which is not much.

[anyaka21]

You can think you can go "semi-F2P", you would be wrong. They also during their 8 years of running have had more people replace those that left and grow. SWTOR on the other hand lost 80% of theirs within 6 months and that's not people coming and going, that's just people going and no one coming. You can pretend it's actually remotely similar in your attempt to put spin on SWTORs failure. But no one remotely reasonable would think much of your thoughts on that matter. And FYI, WoW unlike SWTOR has never counted people on free month as subscribers, they only count paying users.

Please please please THINK a little bit more than you are now, which is not much.

source?

and as to my first point, it still bears true in every mmo on the market. There is a 75-80% loss rate of subscribers from pretty much every single mmo on the market regardless of sub model or a f2p model. Though I'd venture it's higher on a f2p model because there is no monetary committment at the beginning to stay. And no, I'm not trying to spin it, I'm just stating facts.

Personally, I do think that was a massive fail on the part of EA/BW in the beginning because for anyone who has actually looked into it, the retention rate isn't a new thing. IMO, they should have launched with less servers, and they should have waited 6 months. But then some of these things are not necessarily an EA/BW fault, it's the investors of the game wanting to get their money back and putting deadlines on things that there should not be deadlines on. And those deadlines are coming from people who really don't understand programming or game making. It's just people/companies that are in it for the short term who want to make their money back and a quick profit at the expense of the gamer and the long term profitability of a game/franchise.

[Deleted]

I refuse to play it if they are charging me to pay for the hide helm slot and action bars. That's just stupid in my opinion. But the game has changed a lot, for the better perhaps.

[Edge-]

The investors didn't set the release date, EA did. They wanted to have the game out in time for holiday sales, as that's one of the highest grossing times of the year.

[anyaka21]

The investors didn't set the release date, EA did. They wanted to have the game out in time for holiday sales, as that's one of the highest grossing times of the year.

because the investors didn't put any pressure on EA to release....

Face it, and unfortunately it's the way the game is played these days. You get investor backing and they see the money they put into it not going any where, and Christmas time rolls around and now they see the return on their investment and they push the company to release early. It's basically what's happened to all high profile mmo's released lately. And it is at the expense of the gamer, and ultimately it affects the outcome of the game in the long term as well.

[Cooper]

source?

and as to my first point, it still bears true in every mmo on the market. There is a 75-80% loss rate of subscribers from pretty much every single mmo on the market regardless of sub model or a f2p model. Though I'd venture it's higher on a f2p model because there is no monetary committment at the beginning to stay. And no, I'm not trying to spin it, I'm just stating facts.

First of all, no, you cannot play WoW 1-90 for free. The trial goes to 20.

Second of all, yes, you are trying to spin it. Subscribers are not continuous; they come and go from every game. WoW has not gone from 40,000,000 subscribers to 10,000,000 subscribers. The forty million number is the number of people who have ever subscribed to the game at some point in time. Ten million is the number that are subscribed right now. And guess what? That doesn't mean it's exactly the same ten million. Some come, some go, but the number of active subs is relatively steady at ten million or whatever it is. Yes, they have had a loss since Cataclysm, but overall the game has grown since launch in 2004.

Meanwhile, the number of active subscriptions in TOR has done nothing but shrink since launch. That is people leaving with nobody replacing them.

The two situations are not even remotely synonymous.

[BenBos]

Question: SWTOR 1 year later, how is it?

Free to play and still losing players ...

http://www.xfire.com/games/swtor/Sta..._Old_Republic/

The player numbers doubled after going free to play and in 2 weeks time it dropped with 50% already...

What does that mean: ... subscription based or free to p(l)ay: the game is simply not so good...

[anyaka21]

First of all, no, you cannot play WoW 1-90 for free. The trial goes to 20.

Second of all, yes, you are trying to spin it. Subscribers are not continuous; they come and go from every game. WoW has not gone from 40,000,000 subscribers to 10,000,000 subscribers. The forty million number is the number of people who have ever subscribed to the game at some point in time. Ten million is the number that are subscribed right now. And guess what? That doesn't mean it's exactly the same ten million. Some come, some go, but the number of active subs is relatively steady at ten million or whatever it is. Yes, they have had a loss since Cataclysm, but overall the game has grown since launch in 2004.

Meanwhile, the number of active subscriptions in TOR has done nothing but shrink since launch. That is people leaving with nobody replacing them.

The two situations are not even remotely synonymous.

Yes, I get the point, however, I still think the numbers are fairly synonymous across the board. There is, overall, about a 75-80% retention loss regardless of game. And companies planning on making or releasing a major mmo need to understand this and be prepared for it.

I actually thought there was a change in Cata where they scratched the 1-20 thing and the allowed a toon to get full leveling before they made them sub.

[Kelimbror]

Question: SWTOR 1 year later, how is it?

Free to play and still losing players ...

http://www.xfire.com/games/swtor/Sta..._Old_Republic/

Haha, you had me at linking xfire. Then I noticed who you were. All credibility gone.

[BenBos]

Haha, you had me at linking xfire. Then I noticed who you were. All credibility gone.

I don't think Xfire stats can be neglected. They show when a patch is launched, when a game goes free to play and when that game has a loss of activity again.

I guess you don't like that tool.

Although it is used even by Forbes to predict stock market trends for game companies. And Xfire is very clear on SW TOR: it lost activiy in a big way after going free to play again.

Credibility expressed in graphs.

[RoninaThorstone]

I don't think Xfire stats can be neglected. They show when a patch is launched, when a game goes free to play and when that game has a loss of activity again.

I guess you don't like that tool.

Although it is used even by Forbes to predict stock market trends for game companies.

Both forbes and Xfire aren't exactly paragons of accuracy in regards to the video game industry, or tech/media industry for that matter.

[Kelimbror]

Credibility expressed in graphs.

I can make graphs with crayons with my eyes closed. Does that make them credible?

BRB, solving the fiscal cliff crisis with credible, crayon graphs.