Originally posted by Nikopol

So... you can playy all the class stories for free? Without buying the box or paying a dime?

How on earth are they going to earn any money from this deal?

I'll just go in and complete another couple of class stories myself. I care nothing about their raids, warzones, space missions, crew skills or other "purple purples". And judging by how their sub numbers plummetted after people completing their class stories, I suspect most people don't.

Could be part of the strategy is to get people drawn into the story and then sell future chapters for cartel coins or subs.

I liken this to when Vanguard came out with the First F2P model. It looked terrible on paper, it was really bad. No gear over green and other stuff that was an instant turn off. By the time it opened up, they had changed some stuff and it wasn't too bad. It wasn't great bad it wasn't as horrible as the inital plans made it seem.

I will take the same approach with SWTOR. Poke my head in and see what is doing. They are going to use the F2P conversion and the awarded Coins of course to try and get people back. The passes for PvP and Operations might be 50 cent to 1.00 a week or something not so terrible. Guess it's at least worth a look. 

For story buffs 1-50 in greens, blues and oranges for free doesn't sound bad at all. Just if you like anything else that it starts to get annoying. I see it as you can box yourself in for a bit and get all the story modes done and then decide whether to keep going or stop and wait to see what the next expansion brings.

This structure seems pretty bad.

All in all, (even taking into account that the purple gear restriction for subbers is a typo), it appears that EA isn't serious about FTP players in either a FTP or Freemium way. The FTP aspect is just an extended trial. The vast majority of cash shop purchases will be from the subscribers. Of note in this regard, the cash shop will be selling to subscribers a bypass to the Fleet Pass cool down; cash shop will be selling additional cargo hold space to subscribers; the cash shop will be selling additional inventory space to subscribers; and of course, vanity pets, gear, speeders, and lock-boxes.

The FTP accounts will not be participating in SWTOR's endgame in any meaningful way. All the FTP unlocks are rentals, a week at a time. Unless the price of those rentals is absurrdly low, it seems unlikely that many will purchase a week pass to Warzones, Operatons, or Flashpoints. Who is going to group with these new unguilded, undergeared players to run instances? Whom among the FTP players is going to buy a weekly pass to get facerolled in Warzones? Even if they pay for the weekly pass, will FTPers have to pay additional fees for any decent gear looted?

In regard to FTPers it is all stick and no carrot. There is little incentive to pay for anything once the class story is complete.

If you think that this will drive them to subscibe, well that would be defeating the whole exercise of converting to a Freemium system.

EA said the problem was that people didn't want to pay a sub in the first place.  So EA's solution is to create a FTP tier that drives players to either subscibe or quit?

And to those thinking that the game wil attract many new subscribers from the FTP extended trial, over 2 million of the game's target audience tried it and moved on. Since then, the game hasn't changed in any meaningful way, why expect a higher retention rate among any new players with the FTP relaunch? This system isn't creating a new way for players who don't want to pay a monthly fee to play the game on their own terms. In fact, this system is a bit of a farce.

Most everyone knows why the game went FTP. EA could have at least put more effort into making their efforts to hide SWTOR's subscription numbers more like a geniune belief that FTP is the new "exciting monetization model of the future".

Originally posted by Karteli

EA has updated their list of "F2P" Freemium restrictions on their main website.

http://www.swtor.com/free/features

 

Some features were known, others are clarified further.  The list was updated on the official website on Oct 16, 2012. 

Mouse-over items in the columns to get a popup window to list the following (ripped from their website:)

 

Subscription:

All players can play their full class stories from Level 1-50.

Full access to all Character Creation choices.

Unlimited access to Operations.

Unlimited access to Warzones.

Unlimited access to Flashpoints.

Unlimited access to Space Missions.

Purchase more cargo space with either in-game Credits or Cartel Coins.

Purchase addional inventory space with either in-game Credits or Cartel Coins.

Up to three (3) crew skills.

Unlimites access to the Quick Travel ability with a reduced cooldown.

Unlimited access to the Emergency Fleet Pass.  Bypass the cooldown by purchasing a consumable item with Cartel Coins.

Revive at the nearest Med Center or in the field with a cooldown.

Priority status in the Login Queue.

Cannot equip most purple items unless an authorization is purchased from the Cartel Market.

 

Freemium:

All players can play their full class stories from Level 1-50.

Limited Character Creation options.

A Weekly pass to unlock Operation access is required.

Three Warzones per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction.

Full rewards from three Flashpoints per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock rewards for all Flashpoints.

Three Space Missions per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction.

Gain and expand the Cargo Hold with Cartel Coins.

Expand inventory slots with Cartel Coins.

One Crew Skill or, purchase additional Crew Skill slots with Cartel Coins.

Longer Quick Travel cooldown period or purchase an authorization to permanently reduce the cooldown for Quick Travel.

No access to Emergency Fleet Pass.  Purchase an authorization to unlock quick travel to the Fleet.

Revive at the nearest Med Center or a total of five (5) times in the field.  Unlock additional Field Revive with Cartel Coins.

No priority status in the Login Queue.

Cannot equip most purple items unless a license is purchased from the Cartel Market.

 

------------------

Stuff in orange is just informative, to clarify previous speculations.

But some stuff in red raises some flags:

-- I guess you get 5 free deaths, where you can easily resurrect.  After that .. umm back to the fleet to res?

-- Freemiums have to buy purple equipment training (license) eh with real money?  Subscribers have to buy authorization to use purple gear from the cash shop?  Is this referring to "paying" to unlock gear?  P2W, or just for Makeb gear .. Is does say "MOST PURPLE ITEMS" for both subscribers and freemiums though.

 

I find the whole system far too restrictive.  Wouldn't it just have been better to give the entire game 1-50 away for free without restrictions, then restrict level 51+ for Makeb and beyond?  As it is, I forsee many aggrevated free players, who will end up never getting to level 50, having rage quit long before then.

 

What do you all think?

I think EA/Biowaste is clueless on F2P and will continue the SWTOR flop.

I also think EA Louse was right.

Originally posted by MMOGamer71

Originally posted by Karteli

EA has updated their list of "F2P" Freemium restrictions on their main website.

http://www.swtor.com/free/features

 

Some features were known, others are clarified further.  The list was updated on the official website on Oct 16, 2012. 

Mouse-over items in the columns to get a popup window to list the following (ripped from their website:)

 

Subscription:

All players can play their full class stories from Level 1-50.

Full access to all Character Creation choices.

Unlimited access to Operations.

Unlimited access to Warzones.

Unlimited access to Flashpoints.

Unlimited access to Space Missions.

Purchase more cargo space with either in-game Credits or Cartel Coins.

Purchase addional inventory space with either in-game Credits or Cartel Coins.

Up to three (3) crew skills.

Unlimites access to the Quick Travel ability with a reduced cooldown.

Unlimited access to the Emergency Fleet Pass.  Bypass the cooldown by purchasing a consumable item with Cartel Coins.

Revive at the nearest Med Center or in the field with a cooldown.

Priority status in the Login Queue.

Cannot equip most purple items unless an authorization is purchased from the Cartel Market.

 

Freemium:

All players can play their full class stories from Level 1-50.

Limited Character Creation options.

A Weekly pass to unlock Operation access is required.

Three Warzones per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction.

Full rewards from three Flashpoints per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock rewards for all Flashpoints.

Three Space Missions per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction.

Gain and expand the Cargo Hold with Cartel Coins.

Expand inventory slots with Cartel Coins.

One Crew Skill or, purchase additional Crew Skill slots with Cartel Coins.

Longer Quick Travel cooldown period or purchase an authorization to permanently reduce the cooldown for Quick Travel.

No access to Emergency Fleet Pass.  Purchase an authorization to unlock quick travel to the Fleet.

Revive at the nearest Med Center or a total of five (5) times in the field.  Unlock additional Field Revive with Cartel Coins.

No priority status in the Login Queue.

Cannot equip most purple items unless a license is purchased from the Cartel Market.

 

------------------

Stuff in orange is just informative, to clarify previous speculations.

But some stuff in red raises some flags:

-- I guess you get 5 free deaths, where you can easily resurrect.  After that .. umm back to the fleet to res?

-- Freemiums have to buy purple equipment training (license) eh with real money?  Subscribers have to buy authorization to use purple gear from the cash shop?  Is this referring to "paying" to unlock gear?  P2W, or just for Makeb gear .. Is does say "MOST PURPLE ITEMS" for both subscribers and freemiums though.

 

I find the whole system far too restrictive.  Wouldn't it just have been better to give the entire game 1-50 away for free without restrictions, then restrict level 51+ for Makeb and beyond?  As it is, I forsee many aggrevated free players, who will end up never getting to level 50, having rage quit long before then.

 

What do you all think?

I think EA/Biowaste is clueless on F2P and will continue the SWTOR flop.

 

I also think EA Louse was right.

 

 

Yet nobody believed him, sad really.

Originally posted by Karteli

Revive at the nearest Med Center or a total of five (5) times in the field.  Unlock additional Field Revive with Cartel Coins.

I feel like this part is unclear to many people. I believe what it is trying to say is that free players can only revive 5 times in the field (right next to their body) and then after that they have to revive at the nearest med center and run back. It seems like many people are taking it to mean that you can only revive 5 times in-zone total, but I don't think that is the case.

I don't really see this freemium thing working too well for them. When I first heard the game was going F2P I thought about trying it out again but now I have lost quite a bit of interest. I understand them wanting to give subscribers a reason to stay subscribed but it seems like they don't really want free players to play the game. 

Originally posted by Istavaan

Yet nobody believed him, sad really.

I still don't believe him. If you keep throwing shit at the wall sooner or later some of it is going to stick. That is how predictions work in terms of MMOS.

However, doesn't change the fact that this freemium model sucks. I will stick to monthly sub if i ever want to go back again.

This game is NOT free to play, its a freemium model in the same vein as Vanguard. Why oh why do these companies think freemium models work I have no idea. I guess people sign up for this but man, can you imagine the loads of people who would come if it was a FTP model?

Cash shops work. A FTP model with a cash shop will bring in loads of money without having to limit content. I was going to try this out but the restrictions are so RESTRICTIVE!

-lvl 80 MERC BH

Ooops..

Was just considering resubbing to see how hings have developed and then I read about restrictions on subscribed accounts. There goes THAT idea!

Originally posted by warchant

Ooops..

Was just considering resubbing to see how hings have developed and then I read about restrictions on subscribed accounts. There goes THAT idea!

The image itself said subscribers are unrestricted in gear, it's just the tooltip that said otherwise which is a copy/paste from the freemium one. It's updated now, confirmed subscribers have no restrictions for gear outside the usual game-related ones.

Not sure if they're reading the death penalty limit wrong or not either. You have 5 times to revive in the field (which is limited already for subs but in a time based fashion) before your forced to revive at the nearest med center on the planet. Your not returning to fleet as OP speculated.

Oh I don't know.....instead of working on "Fremium" they instead fix Ilum (how long has Ilum been shut down?), balance the classes (you know, the ones everyone asks for when making a ranked PvP WZ group) and a few other major complaints people had about the game.  It would probably get more people back to paying subs rather than figuring out how to play the game for free.  Or, it could just be beyond the capability of the developers to fix the actual game so they have to go this route.

Oh well.  Bioware fails on it's first MMO.  The stories were good, the rest of the game was meh.

First mistake was that they made the game subscription based instead of b2p.

Now they make it free to play aka pay sub to play or there's no need to play because of so many restrictions,wich is even worse than before.

What i got say is fail once is ok.Fail twice and you are burned.

Good job ea/bioware failing again see ya after 10 years when you realise that games are not about making money only.

ps:who is going to play fre to play with so many restrictions?lol are they out of their minds or they just looking for stupid victims.

Good luck failing again ea/bioware

did anyone beat me to it? oesn't look like it...

SWTOR dies to the sound of applauds

yeeeeah.

Seriously though why do I read 'cash shop to equip earned gear' in the subscription column? I shouldn't be reading that...

It clearly says:

Subscriber

Item Equipping: FULL ACCESS - Equip ALL purple items they acquire, assuming they meet the in-game requirements (Class, level etc)

OP, please update your original post to reflect the correct information.

Originally posted by Psychow

It clearly says:

 

Subscriber

Item Equipping: FULL ACCESS - Equip ALL purple items they acquire, assuming they meet the in-game requirements (Class, level etc)

 

OP, please update your original post to reflect the correct information.

EA's website for SWTOR was updated, again, to reflect their correction on subscribers gear usage.  Given that EA has a bit of a history for firing their employees, I suppose the person who mistyped this into the main website adversisement is going to get hell for this Public Relations blunder (which also caused an uproar on the official forums).

It is updated on the OP.  Subscribers can wear all purples, at will, given they can use the item type and meet the level restrictions, etc.

Freemium players still must purchase purple gear training from the cash shop in order to use "most" purples (likely all the good ones), which is really dumb if they are trying to attract returning players to get those lv 50's back into the game and refamiliarize themselves with their characters.  New players are going to be less than entrusiastic, as well.  That part stands.

The whole thing is just an elaborate scam on the people who are already paying for subs as there is no way the game will bring in more subs in the long run.

This is not FTP! the game is still based on PTP.. If the cash shop wasn't going to be geared at milking the sub players then why not just have a 30 day unlimited trial as i could see that working really well for them.

The freemium model is just garbage and really FTP has a bad name as it is, Bioware and others who do this freemium garbage just give it an even crapier image. Seriously just do what AION did and the game will take off as I think TOR is way better than AION. Even the BTP option would be better, but like i said they might as well leave game alone and give an unlimited 30 day trial since all they really claim to want is more subs, but i think some of us can see though the BS of milking the few hundred thousands to replace what should be millions of players.

Originally posted by FrodoFragins

It's definitely more restrictive than I think it should be.  The Med Center penalty sounds absurd to me.  Maybe you always rez at the start of the zone?  I can't imagine rezzing at the fleet after the first 5 deaths.

 

I don't understand the limitation on purple gear for subscribers.

 

I don't agree with you that you should have unlimited access to EVERYTHING up to level 50.  The incentive would be too huge to just make twinks, assuming you can turn off EXP in the game.  If not, then they'd still be giving away too much stuff.

 

As long as you can level to 50 as easily as it was done on launch, I don't see many issues other than storage space.

 

My concerns as a player revolve around what things are permanently unlockable on all characters with a single purchase and which require subs.

 

I won't judge it until it goes F2P and I get to try out leveling alts.

It comes down to the argument of whether it's OK to give free stuff away to people who would have never tried a product anyways.  Players who are very interested in SWTOR have, for the most part, already tried it, with 2 million unsubscribing.

Does the music industry really suffer when someone who never heard a song before and had no intention of buying an album gets to download a song for free?  Through a bunch of BS music labels claimed it hurt them, but surely word-of-mouth facilitates popularity more than anything else, and many people want an original album for music they like.  Free material does promote accessibility more rapidly.  For instance VEVO operates on YouTube to give away free music & their videos, with revenue obtained via advertising now.  This was a very successful solution to make both sides of the issue happy, and VEVO expanded to "music on demand" software.  I don't think the business model would have worked out so well for them if they gave the music away for free with a lower sound quality, for instance, which would be EA's model. [advertising isn't the only way to inconvenience customers btw, don't read it as such]

Giving full access to alts wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, as gamers would eventually tire of this and look to continuing their adventures lv 51+, as a paying customer.  Giving everything away without restrictions may only offer immediate short term financial gains for EA, but in the long run, it would pay off far better than limiting game features & driving freemiums away, while, at the same time, trying to show off how great SWTOR is.  If EA keeps to releasing content quickly, there would be an abundance of new content to tempt someone into subscribing after playing some characters up to 50 (and getting bored of old world content).

I guess I don't get the whole idea of wanting "F2P" to revive SWTOR, and then insisting that free players need to get nickled and dimed from the starting gate.  People disassociated themselves from SWTOR because it was not worth the subscription (or their time).  Coercing them back into a subscription while gimping main game features will not be very fun.

I agree with the above posters suggestion (JobeArthur) that EA should have used NCSofts Aion model, which includes an unrestricted game, with paying players getting faster leveling and fluffy items (special house furniture, costumes, illusions, etc).  EA could have very well done this in conjunction with 1-time DLC for new content, as a hybrid.  I prefer 1-time fees because it helps force developers to actually want to release new content on an accelerated schedule.  No new content?  No new revenue.