Star Wars: The Old Republic F2P, worth it?

[Argroth]

The difference is that in other F2P MMOs you're not reliant on the community to put things into your price range. Yes, the ability to sell items on the GTN CAN be excellent, but it requires a community effort. In the other F2P MMOs, you can obtain store currency in game, but once you obtain enough of said currency, you get to pick what you want without having to hope for the community to not be overcharging dickbags.

This.

Buying things with credits would be an excuse if people could just buy them at stardard affordable rates (set by the game or not allowed to be put over caps.)

Instead the arguement of paying for unlocks with credits is null and void since most are sold by jerks and idiots putting it OVER the credit cap.

As a F2P and even a Preferred account you will likley never be able to buy a lot of the unlocks with credits. There's the odd chance you might get lucky and there are a few things some people intelligently put at a reasonable price but many things like gear authorizations will forever be overpriced in a way that a F2P or Preferred will NEVER get.

[Psychlon]

Without knowing what you're looking for in a mmo, it's hard for us to tell you if you might like it. I'd say SWTOR's F2P status is too restrictive for me to enjoy the game. I find the game way more enjoyable as preferred, and a $5 purchase in cartel coins or getting the security authenticator will get you there. If you think you're going to level more than one character, go preferred. Pure f2p is too gimp an experience to do it more than once imo. BW/EA did not put in this F2P system as a viable alternative to subscription play. SWTOR's "free to play" is more like "free to start", and a good number of the f2p restrictions are put in place to drive the player to sub or spend money in the cash shop (or in game auction house) to unlock things.

This.

Yes, but the unlocks cost so many cartel coins that people list items in the 500k+ credit range for the expensive unlocks (ie, epic equipment unlock account wide). I think they cost 1700 cartel coins.
Its like Bioware set these so expensive that people will sub, buy these, then go Preferred. Makes absolutely no sense.

When I played my first character, I had a constant money sink due to skills and crew skill missions (together with harvesting skills the only viable choice for F2P/ Prefered as recources for crafting are too expensive) so I never hit 200k prior to lvl 50. This said... it's sad to see unlocks being sold for these high prices but they sell = prices will stay that way. If bioware would put a limit on the selling price, no one would sell them anymore however I find it unlikely to find pure F2P/ Prefered unlocks to actually sell for more than 350k.

As to account wide epic equipment unlock... it's a one-timer if I'm correct, which is why it's so expensive compared to other stuff (although I find the average prices too high and in some cases unbelieveable high like that ugly life day speeder.

Just please keep in mind that the RL money = credit transversition works in both ways which is why some unlocks on the GTN are crazy high.

[frigoffrick]

All I wanna do is level some characters with a friend, the actual game to buy is $10. Will f2p be suffice if we just want to level, and then by the time we cap we would decide what to do from there.

[notorious98]

This.

Buying things with credits would be an excuse if people could just buy them at stardard affordable rates (set by the game or not allowed to be put over caps.)

Instead the arguement of paying for unlocks with credits is null and void since most are sold by jerks and idiots putting it OVER the credit cap.

As a F2P and even a Preferred account you will likley never be able to buy a lot of the unlocks with credits. There's the odd chance you might get lucky and there are a few things some people intelligently put at a reasonable price but many things like gear authorizations will forever be overpriced in a way that a F2P or Preferred will NEVER get.

Well, that depends on the people you associate yourself with. If you can find a subscriber that's not going to look down on you for being F2P, offer them an extra 100k to buy one of the more expensive unlocks on the GTN. If you're a Preferred player, you can jump on a couple alts and hand out max credits.

For the pure F2P player though, you're pretty much fucked because you can't send mail and you can't trade with anybody. As a F2P player, unless the sun is shining on your ass when you're stuck in the abyss, you will only ever be able to experience the storylines.

---------- Post added 2013-01-14 at 11:42 AM ----------

All I wanna do is level some characters with a friend, the actual game to buy is $10. Will f2p be suffice if we just want to level, and then by the time we cap we would decide what to do from there.

You don't need to buy the game, you can download it for free. If you DO buy the game, you're going to get a month's subscription and you'll automatically become a Preferred player. The options open up dramatically at Preferred.

[ariakul]

All I wanna do is level some characters with a friend, the actual game to buy is $10. Will f2p be suffice if we just want to level, and then by the time we cap we would decide what to do from there.

Not really.
Download the game for free. I think if you spend $5 or more, you can upgrade to preferred status.

F2P ONLY has access to the story mode. You cannot trade, mail, 200k credit limit. These are not-unlockable.

As preferred, you get to trade, mail (1 item at a time, and no credits), 350k credit limit, 2 crafting professions (1 in F2P), and 6 character slots (2 in F2P).

[Housemdoctor]

Not worth it at all. Its not really F2P, your XP is decreased, u'r unable to use half of things, communicate propertly and technically you play it like trial or demo, just w/o expiration date.

I dl'ed around 20GB cause I love Star Wars, I love KOTOR's... but this game just isnt worth of people's time. There are better MMO's and better F2P's than this abomination.

[frigoffrick]

Well, I've bought the game at launch. Does this automatically put me as a preferred status? My buddy is willing to buy the game for $8 or whatever it is.

[Arlee]

Closing because this far too broad of a question for people to be able to respond with anything other than their own opinions of the game which really doesn't tell the OP if he will enjoy it or not. Try reading through some of the other threads, or just give it a try because it is free after all.