Now that Star Wars: The Old Republic has officially adopted a 'free-to-play option', some players are beginning to wonder if BioWare and EA went far enough. Check out what we think in our latest Free Zone column and then leave your ideas in the comments.

Back in August, a short while after this was announced, I presented the initial thoughts and feelings expressed by the representatives of four companies that are active in the F2P sector. Since that time, I've had the opportunity to think further, to discuss the topic with industry members whose opinions I respect, and to read what a number of other writers and many consumers have said. So, it seemed appropriate to devote this iteration of The Free Zone to a few things that have come to mind during the past three months. 

Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The Free Zone: Is SWTOR Moving Toward the Dark Side or the Light?

Unfortunatly EA/BW have created one of the worse F2P models on the market. It limits the premium and former subbers so much that it doesn't really give you any reason to stick with the game for more than a few hours to see what it's like.  

I agree that the boys upstairs missed a lot of chances to make the game more fun and user friendly by implementing so cheapest F2P model buy making some really stupid player restrictions... no sprint (makes you move a little faster), premium/ former subbers only get 2 chracter slots (same as Free players), races are locked and can be unlocked for a expensive price, but they races don't make a difference in play style (ie. not racial benefits), etc.

It's ashame that BW even got in bed with EA as pretty much everyone in the gaming world know that EA kills just about everything they touch.

i wanna see a new poll with which mmo has the worst f2p

last one winner was the lotro

i really wanna see the today results

They need to look at the PS2 F2P model. As much as SOE can screw over the customer, their free to play model for PS2 is actually pretty good. 

Just make progress slower if you are unwilling to pay for the game. Say, cut xp in half unless you pay or something.

Charging for hotbars and sprint? That is going to do nothing but drive people away. Hell, if they changed up the game a bit I might go back, even as a subbed member, but this plan is horrid. It reeks of what it is: fleecing the last dollars out of a failed game.

All that SWTOR's F2P shows is just how clueless and lacking in creativity the Devs have become.

I see nothing in there that would even remotely tempt me to return. F2P for an aggressive cash shop, shallow gameplay, and linear worlds. It is rather like simply setting fire to the junk heap that SWTOR was of old.

I think it will be ok once they sell 'packages' at a discount price (which they've already alluded to).

Quite honestly F2P is basically a free trial to level "untill you run out of hotbar space".

All I got to say is that they fremium they set up is way to retrictive, it will chase away more folks than invite them to play.  As far as gameplay mechanics nothing has change between how it was at launch to how it is now. 

You have to make the game fun, and somewhat accessable.  It is not now.

The are too greedy and I will not be one adding a number to the population increase. 

Originally posted by Gaborik
I think the ones who cry and whine about all these mmos not being "free enough" are the problem. Todays society is leaning more and more to feeling entitled to things for free, now the mmo community is trying to go the sane route. Its no good for a society to be this way and not good for a gaming community. The ones that whine and cry would be whining abd crying no matter what. They HATE TOR but why make a post that caters to theses people who feel they are entitled? Why play into their cheap whining crying games. Some people enjoy the game sorry its not "free enough" for some. That statement alone just shows how sad some people are when it comes to their argument.

F2P like Aion are the best implemented (buff scrolls, dungeon cooldown scrolls, cosmetics). When a game doesn't do well sub wise, F2P can save it. As much as you may hate the "f2p" crowd, it can save a game by providing population. People simply don't like to play MMOs that are empty.  When such a game offers a sub and a good f2p option, I usually sub for the convinience factor, but it's the f2p side that brings in the people so I have someone to group with.

As much as people revile LOTRO for their plan, I don't mind it. If you want to f2p, you can recycle alts until you earn enough turbine points to buy whatever you want in the shop. If you're willing to grind, you can earn anything.

In Atlantica, you can buy almost everything from other players for ingame cash- taking the sting outta the $30 a month most players pay (warrior pack plus blessing).

Interesting, a good column.  I think the f2p design they used will prove the games downfall.  If you have a capped character, attempting to play them as a f2p really takes all the fun out of the game.   Typical EA, give the finger to all the people who spent money on your game.

Oh and there is nothing wrong with paying for a game you like, just that this game still has no end game, so what is the point?