there have been plenty of games that i feel have warranted, or do warrant, 12-15 bucks a month.

SWTOR as it stood at launch was not one of them.  and bear in mind i enjoyed the 3 months i played it.   it was a very good SW rpg, then i was done with it.

Eve, WoW, EQ1 in its day, FF11, Tera, and to me the turbine freemium game LOTRO, all these games to me offer the kind of experience that i'd pay a monthly fee for.  they all feel expansive and multiplayer.  SWTOR feels small and not-quite-massively multiplayer.

     What EA/BW needs to do with this game is simply embrace the "single-player game with a multiplayer option" label that SWTOR has received from many gamers.  Simply from a business perspective, going further to cater to single-player gamers would attract and retain far more players than TOR has in its current state, thereby generating more revenue under any system.  These changes in design would be a strong start: 

   Flahpoint difficulty scale to the size of the group, including for a single player

   Adding an enjoyable open-world PvP experience that players can join in whenever they like

   Using Operations and PvP instances as group-oriented content

       If these changes were to be implemented, along with revising the combat system and making planets A LOT more open-world, debating whether SWTOR should be F2P, B2P, or subscription will be much more relevant, because as it stands now, it will make little difference.

And yes, I do play SWTOR, though for how much longer remains to be seen. 

Originally posted by KyBo

     What EA/BW needs to do with this game is simply embrace the "single-player game with a multiplayer option" label that SWTOR has received from many gamers.  Simply from a business perspective, going further to cater to single-player gamers would attract and retain far more players than TOR has in its current state, thereby generating more revenue under any system.  These changes in design would be a strong start: 

   Flahpoint difficulty scale to the size of the group, including for a single player

   Adding an enjoyable open-world PvP experience that players can join in whenever they like

   Using Operations and PvP instances as group-oriented content

       If these changes were to be implemented, along with revising the combat system and making planets A LOT more open-world, debating whether SWTOR should be F2P, B2P, or subscription will be much more relevant, because as it stands now, it will make little difference.

And yes, I do play SWTOR, though for how much longer remains to be seen. 

thisx1000000

I dont like the F2P business model. So I would certainly never play the game if it was F2P. From my POV it would make it worse.

It would probably make sense from a business POV. If a game is losing subscribers and it appears they cant reverse that trend going F2P might save it. But I am not part of the new target audience that might start playing.

So I would have yo say no anyway. Im not a stock holder and Im not working for EA/Bioware.

How many starting zones in WoW when it came out? And how many classes

Seem alot of content was available in WoW when it came out

SWTOR has 4 starting Zones; 4 Classes, Jedi/Sith in one starting zone  and non force users in their starting zone

Commando/BH is the same...ect ect

smuggler/imperial agent, same

And the advanced classes share 1 of the 3 trees

Originally posted by Griffihn

something tells me that even if it will go f2p, the number of players will still drop or at least fluctuate. yes, it should go f2p since as many have stated before, it's simply an RPG with the online option, nothing more. it doesn't even warrant a b2p. i've played in the betas, i've played after release and seriously, i fail to see the point to paying for it. it has nothing special except that it has the "star wars" in its title. it's been said since the first beta tests that it should be an f2p with cash shop or a b2p, like the previous old republic titles.

 

And what have all this to do with F2P model? I would sub and pay monthly fee without any problem for i.e. Mass Effect. If this would mean adding constantly new content, improving it, .... I do not play wow, rift, swtor, ... or for that matter have played war, aoc, .... for other PLAYERS. I play and pay for MYSELF. Only factor that counts for me is FUN.

In case of swtor which is for me now best and most fun game of all times, I'm still not at end game as I'm altholic and leveling 12 alts (8 republic, 4 empire). So I can not comment for end game or pvp (to which I care as much as for last year snow). But for all the rest is awesome. Being sw fan since first movie helps, but it is not only reason. Game is fast paced, every spell have its use (no just blind button mashing), bugs are at very minimum, they respond to complains from players impressively fast, ... And what I have hard time now to return for short to try my old mmos, movement of characters (running, fighting, ... all) is so realistic, that all the rest now look close to crap.

So, F2P .... be gone.

Originally posted by xion12121
          Honestly not to bore anyone to death with what's been repeated 1000 tmes whats wrong with the game , yes SWTOR should be free 2 play the game is worse and boring than any f2p game out there! 

This.

SWTOR should of been a one off payment with paid DLC like other SPRPG BioCrap games .

Bitchers bitch, whiners whine and haters hate - it´s their function in life.

I would say that those who whine the hardest are those who came to SWTOR seeking a pure gaming experience, spaced through all content to get to lvl 50 and found that it was not WoW at all. And as do all who have an oppinion believes that theirs are the only one valid, they brand SWTOR as Failed - and in their world it probably is.

Then we have the others, Star Wars fans who relish in walking around on location just for the sake of walking around, taking in the sounds, wielding lightsabers or blasters when needed, getting immersed in the gameworld. For those, SWTOR is nothing less that total Win, and 15 bucks a month is a basement bargain for such a rare treat.

Then we have the casuals, the vast majority of the paying customers, who perhaps have an hour or two after work or school to play, and this is where the game truly shines. You can put in a short time and still have a feeling that you have accomplished something. When limited gametime applies, every moment playing counts. If one only manages to get into a couple of Warzones a day, they will be memorable, if one can only run a couple of quests, they will stay in memory longer, if one just hangs in the cantina with a couple of buddies, that has more meaning than much else that day. The rare opportunity to partake in an Operation will feel truly epic.

So, you see, there are so many ways to enjoy a game. You who wait for GW2, SWTOR was obviously not really for you and you should have known that from the beginning and never have visited to begin with. If you now long for pandas, I bid thee farewell. Servermerges will come, character transfers will come, bugs will be squashed - and all that will be left in SWTOR will be those who actually play the game because they like it and not merely uses it as a steppingstone for that elusive "better game" that always seems to wait around the corner.

I couldn't even finish my 1 'free' month the game was so disappoining.

IF BW gives me Light Sabers that amputate, decapitate and devastate with molten, smoking damage....

IF BW gives me an active combat system with combo keyes or mouse clicks instead of same ol same ol huge number of useless, almost the same attacks on skill and global timers...

IF BW gives me open world, sandbox PvP capturable and destroyable towns and planets instead of pointless content on rails with meaningless convo 'decisions'...

IF BW stops paying actors to blah, blah, blah for every mindless 'go kill X critters and bring back X gubbens'...

IF BW gives me a SW physics Space Exploration and Combat Sim seamlessly integrated in SW style into the game (complete with full em-debarkation, TOaL, Collision, Crew and/or Droids to delegate actions to, Customisable ships from T-16s to Guild Crewed and Run Capital Ships, Coordinated PvP and PvE Fleet Actions)....

AND a choice of many sidekicks I can hire and fire from the canteenas....

I would pay a sub.

BUT as it stands, even with the sorry updates they have now and have planned, even F2P isn't enough to persuade me to come back or that this isn't the stupidest $50 I ever spent. 

Really I don't know why BW put in mouse and keyboard support. They could have just made it a 40 hour B-Grade lo-rez movie.

Simple thought.

If we assume that there are 1.7M subscribers generating 25.5M USD revenue each month and then we assume that only 20% of F2P player base are generating any revenue, they would need 8.5M players just to get equal, not counting increased costs with higher customer base, F2P conversion does not sound as very reasonable proposal...

Originally posted by daltanious

*snip*

In case of swtor which is for me now best and most fun game of all times, I'm still not at end game as I'm altholic and leveling 12 alts (8 republic, 4 empire). So I can not comment for end game or pvp (to which I care as much as for last year snow). But for all the rest is awesome. Being sw fan since first movie helps, but it is not only reason. Game is fast paced, every spell have its use (no just blind button mashing), bugs are at very minimum, they respond to complains from players impressively fast, ... And what I have hard time now to return for short to try my old mmos, movement of characters (running, fighting, ... all) is so realistic, that all the rest now look close to crap.

 I really disagree that being a SW fan since the first movie helps. Everything from the movies goes against what this game stands for. Basically 2 factions, Empire and Republic, regardless of being Dark Side or Light Side go head to head. That's blasphemy to a real SW fan and enough reason to not play the game, even if it went F2P.

I don' t know how EA would monetize this game. I can't imagine by doing so, they would make  it any better. I would be interested to read more about how they could do it.

Also, it seems EA would be afraid of the PR associated with going F2P. I say this because they really should have merged servers a long time ago. I cannot understand why they have not done this by now. Can it only be because they are afraid of the PR  fallout?  

I know a lot of dedicated SWTOR players say the pop is fine, but when I played last month, it was not. I rolled 3 toons up into the 30s on a server and finally gave up because it was a ghost town. I then re-rolled on the Swiftsure and it made a huge difference to see other players about. But that's just wrong. People shouldn't have to re-roll to be on a populated server. 

If Rift can do free and easy server transfers, I don't see why SWTOR couldn't. It could only help keep players as well. So what seems to make sense to some (going F2P, merging servers, etc.) really seems to have nothing to do with the actual business decisions of EA.  It would be interesting to know what's really going on the business side of SWTOR.

Originally posted by TROLL_HARD

I don' t know how EA would monetize this game. I can't imagine by doing so, they would make  it any better. I would be interested to read more about how they could do it.

 

Also, it seems EA would be afraid of the PR associated with going F2P. I say this because they really should have merged servers a long time ago. I cannot understand why they have not done this by now. Can it only be because they are afraid of the PR  fallout?  

 

I know a lot of dedicated SWTOR players say the pop is fine, but when I played last month, it was not. I rolled 3 toons up into the 30s on a server and finally gave up because it was a ghost town. I then re-rolled on the Swiftsure and it made a huge difference to see other players about. But that's just wrong. People shouldn't have to re-roll to be on a populated server. 

 

If Rift can do free and easy server transfers, I don't see why SWTOR couldn't. It could only help keep players as well. So what seems to make sense to some (going F2P, merging servers, etc.) really seems to have nothing to do with the actual business decisions of EA.  It would be interesting to know what's really going on the business side of SWTOR.

Because sever merges are not "heroic" which according to BW that is the essence of SWTOR.  BW needs to get off their high horse and admitt they fucked up.