Subscription Vs. F2P

[Deleted]

Anybody notice that subscribers still have to pay for equipping certain items, if you hover your mouse over "Item Equipping FULL ACCESS" ? I assume that's an error. Also didn't find the restrictions concerning chat for F2P users. And unless they exist, the trolling, spamming and advertising will be horrible. Overall this sums it up quite nicely:

It is a an error. In the French version it is written :

"Possibilité de s’équiper de tous les objets violets obtenus, à condition qu'ils respectent les condition en jeu (niveau, classe, etc.)."

Which translates in :

"Able to equip all purple gear aquired, as long as they enforce the in-game requirements (level, class, etc.)."

End of that crisis I hope. I was getting worried myself there.

P.S. The German version proves this further.

[Deleted]

At this point who even knows anymore? The wordings are completely different for the two columns. It doesn't mean that it is supposed to say that, but it does increase that it was intentional and definitely wasn't a copy paste error.

Yeah subbers have to purchase an authorisation whereas F2P guys need to purchase a license. Deffo not cut and paste error butI seriously hope for the future of this game that it is an error of some sort.

[Redblade]

If you're not and want more? Buy the unlimited pass for the activity you want (PvP, etc), or fucking sub. It's that easy

Well what's the point with going F2P then? I mean if the restrictions are so harsh that the game becomes unplayable outside of the 1-49 range without subscribing then this whole promotion can be seen as a scam and the effort to convert to F2P a waste of resources.

This is not to mention how the rule set contradict each other, if I buy a week pass for PvP can I wear my epic gear without buying the rights to do so as well? If I need something in my inventory that is locked must I pay to gain access to it (I mean the restriction wasn't there when I last played, how could I have known not to store items in certain places).

[Katsuragisama]

I saw this and also posted on GameFAQs.

Honestly, I feel their very limited traveling will kill the F2P player base. This isnt early 90's or 2000 anymore. People (gamers) do not have the attention span they used to have. I do still enjoy exploring in games, but only to a degree. The limit on field revives, quick travel, emergency pass, sprint, speeders (I believe was said before), will be their demise.

I thought about maybe playing at times if GW2 starts to bore me. It hasnt yet, but even so, I'm not going to pay EAWare because they want to force people to walk slowly around their barren wastelands, it's paying for their failures.

I wont say I'm surprised by EAWare. I'm not, not even in the slightest. But good luck to trying to make players stick around with all of those restrictions. At most people will pay for convienence of getting around until they hit level 50, and then will get tired with the slow content updates, as I doubt they have very much ready to go after they push out what's already in the pipeline.

The hatred of EA will continue to grow with this. Good, hopefully EA will die and they can leave the great gaming developers that we've come to know (like BioWare, DICE, Bullfrog) alone. God I hope EA dies.

[Alvito]

Ganking.

Will now cost new players money.

Yeah thats funny luckily there is only a few areas where world pvp is even possible. Since the class quests take ppl to the same areas and hubs expect some pissed off ppl to sit and gank as many ppl as they can.

---------- Post added 2012-10-16 at 05:48 PM ----------

Anyone else notice that getting ganked will cost you real life money?

So new players will be farmed by 50s on narshadda. I already know several of my friends who still play who are planning on greifing new players.

And essentially expedite the games death

Why? I have no idea. but apparently it will be "fun". I personally have never found ganking lowbies fun.

This is much like me walking down to the bus stop in my neighborhood and kicking the crap out of a bunch of jr and high school kids. I don't know who to feel worse for the poor kid that gets ganked or the sad person that does it out of fun.

[Deleted]

I cannot hide my sheer disgust at EA for this they basically throttle free players for the sub in which most free players will run. /slowclaps

[Razael]

This is borderline ridiculous. A sad day indeed.

[Jalek]

A lot of the things they are restricting are pretty minor and I rarely use in my day to day playing anyway (eg med probes or quick travel), just buy what you want. Or you could stop being a tight ass and just fork out $0.50 a day and play it as much as you want.

[Drakos]

Seems reasonable to me, if you are playing the game enough to run into significant restrictions you should probably support it via sub or coin purchase to unlock things. Companies do need income to provide a service.

[Noobzilla]

I was expecting some restrictions and hindrances for those not being a subscribers but some of these seem pretty over the top. The comments about being able to grief people out of their money is an aspect I hadn't considered and thought it was kind of a dumb restriction even before that. It's sad because there are a lot of games that use this model and do it a lot better. The terrible management of this game somehow never ceases to amaze me, they may get it right at some point but it will just be more of too little too late once again. It's a shame because I genuinely liked the game but the mismanagement of it is a real shame.

[gamz247]

You guys are overreacting to the "Death" section. You can res as many times as you want at the nearest Medcenter; it's only at your current location that you can res 5 times. Whether that's 5 times per day, week or month is yet to be seen.

Yes, some of the F2P restrictions seem a little over the top, but it's possible they could still be changed.

[Capt Froggy]

Limiting warzones access does not seem like a good idea for F2P. If the pay players are not playing matches because not enough people are able to play, seems like it could hurt the game.

[Varyk]

I don't like F2P at all. It's just a cesspit of the worst internet people in the world. At least with a subscription you weed out some of the dumbass 13-14 year old internet tough guys.

I don't like any of those changes, but maybe it will turn away those awful horrible people that typically fill free games (league legends has the worst gaming community ive ever seen in my life, not even close)

Let's stay away from labeling entire groups of people as anything please.

[Kelimbror]

I don't like F2P at all. It's just a cesspit of the worst internet people in the world. At least with a subscription you weed out some of the dumbass 13-14 year old internet tough guys.

I don't like any of those changes, but maybe it will turn away those awful horrible people that typically fill free games (league legends has the worst gaming community ive ever seen in my life, not even close)

That's more an example of the type of game LoL is. It's basically like the Call of Duty equivalent of a MOBA. F2P is not what causes that. There are plenty of F2P MMO's that don't have that demographic hardly at all.

[Edge-]

I don't like F2P at all. It's just a cesspit of the worst internet people in the world. At least with a subscription you weed out some of the dumbass 13-14 year old internet tough guys.

I don't know what games you play, but the monetization scheme of a game has had little affect on the quality of players in the games I play. The content of the game (genre, difficulty, appeal, ease of access ect.) determines who you get. I've played more than my fair share on subscription games that have had TERRIBLE communities filled with the kind of people you talk about. I've also played my fair share of F2P games that have wonderful, friendly, helpful communities with only the odd jerkwad every here and there.

Seriously, monetization scheme is one of the less important factors in how good/bad the community is in my experience.

[Lugor]

I imagine the free to play options can be throttled up and down to meet their internal targets. What will really hurt them will be the comparisons to other games in the free to play realm. The features need to be at least comparable to GW2 to avoid being slaughtered in the realm of public opinion. To me this is basically an enjoyment versus time invested question. If F2P is all loading screens and long runs with limited fast travel options, it won't be able to draw people in. They are giving enough warzones and flashpoints to complete the weekly quests I think, which may scratch the itch and encourage but not require subscribing.

Personally, I wonder what my level current lv 50s will and won't be able to do once the paywall goes up. Does access to all the gear and legacy I earned require my credit card now? If this is handled poorly, they will alienate returning players.

[WoWGoneBad]

Not trying to be Devil's Advocate but in your opinion why do you think EQ and Vanguard use this system? I presume they've been using it for years? If so then surely it's profitable for them. If it's profitable then surely their subscribers (who aren't affected by this system's limits) benefit from the ongoing content updates etc of the games themselves?

I ask because I am truly ignorant of F2P models. I just hope that the model works if older games are using it. It's a hope sandwiched into a question

jamosa loo at it this way. if you have say 4 toons at 50 with some very good pvp gear(prups) and unsubbed. when F2P launches you LOSE all that gear because you DO NOT have the license from the coin shop. or you will need to resub and THEN use coins to AUTHORIZE you to wear it. this is a VERY STUPID ASSFUCKED BRAINFARTED idk what can describe this move they are making but in the end it will DESTROY this game once and for all.

[MagusGothica]

Okay this confuses me. I'm not sure what they mean by "cannot equip most purple gear". On the Features page, if you mouse over the Subscriber part, it says the same thing that the Free part does. So that means that even if you're a subscriber, you still have to purchase the license to be able to equip your purple gear? That's sort of bullshit...

[Deleted]

Okay this confuses me. I'm not sure what they mean by "cannot equip most purple gear". On the Features page, if you mouse over the Subscriber part, it says the same thing that the Free part does. So that means that even if you're a subscriber, you still have to purchase the license to be able to equip your purple gear? That's sort of bullshit...

Confirmed by Bioware to be a mistake:

Greetings All,

This popup is actually incorrect and should say something along the lines of 'It is possible to equip all purple items you obtain depending on character class, level etc'

This will be rectified shortly.

[Deleted]

They have opened up the aspect of the game that most people consider to be the best (leveling and stories) to act as the bait. The hook is the taster allocation of WZs, FPs, etc. that the F2P players will hopefully (for EA/BW) want more of so will either pay for them or open a subscription.
Things like character slots, quick travel, bank slots, field ress are all little irritants put in there to nudge the F2P player towards subscribing but could backfire and make them leave the game, it all depends on how much they enjoy the leveling experience and the few WZ, FPs etc they can play.

In my opinion the F2P restrictions are about right, it's a real balancing act and as usual EA/BW will get it wrong, as far as some people see it anyway.

If they go too tight on the F2P people, as a lot of the above posts seem to think they have, they will not attract and retain the numbers of F2P players they are looking for. If they open up too much of the game to F2P lots of current subscribers will unsub and they could make less money in micro transactions as the F2P players would need to buy less to get their enjoyment.

My fear is that F2P will have a detrimental effect on the community, as has often been stated SWTOR is very 'WoW in space' and I fear that lots of the more immature WoW subscribers could want to give SWTOR a try when it is F2P and we end up with WZ and general chat looking like WoW BG and general chat.....utterly horrific (at certain times of the day anyway).