...how would you of done it? Keep in mind that the Cartel Market needs to offer things that nearly everyone is going to want to buy. You can't have people just playing the game for free indefinitely or only charging for things that only a select type of player would pay for. If they did that, they'd never make any money and that's the whole point in making the game F2P, to increase profits over the pure P2P model.

I'm asking this, because people keep complaining about the restrictions. What did people expect, a free ride until they got tired of the game? To not spend any money in the near future, possibly for over a month? To only be restricted in ways that people don't mind? If players don't mind the restrictions, then they'd be less likely to pony over the dough.

IMHO, I think people who are complaining don't deserve to be. Anytime you get something for free, you should never complain, then again, I grew up poor, so maybe I was brought up differently. 

If I was Bioware, I would have rationed off the whole draw of the game and made F2P players pay to access it in bits and pieces. The main draw is the single player class stories. If you have to pay money to unlock each Chapter per character, then you'd accomplish two things. Get rid of the F2P players that don't ever intend to pay a dime, because they're only playing to finish off all the class stories. The second is to profit off your best feature. Sort of like unlocking content packs in DDO.

Originally posted by Kabaal
It doesn't matter how it's defended, EA's version of F2P is abysmal when compared to the F2P models in pretty much every other game out there. You say people don't have the right to complain, since when did people lose the right to voice opinions on open forums?

This right here.  SWTOR's F2P model is awful when compared with every other F2P game out there and we can complain as much as we like thank you very much.  I'll lose the right to compain when i die and only then.

I'm not one of the whiners, but there are some things I would have changed.

* Anyone who subscribed even for a month would have the UI unlocks permanently unlocked.
* Character slots would have been something that could be purchased right off the bat.
* Preferred players would have one additional character slot.

It might not have occurred to me to restrict the UI and charge to have bits of it unlocked, though I would keep the cosmetic unlocks, like being able to high the hideous head gear.

I think I would have tried to get as close to the Story part of the game being free, and the Operations, Flashpoints and whatever the other thing is being paid content. There would be lots of cosmetic options available for purchase.

Some future update would include being able to personalize your ship's quarters.

1 space bar press token 5 bucks.

1 esc press token 20 bucks.

Guys cmon, it has the word free somewhere on the website.  That means it's a great deal!

I feel sorry for those poor sods who pay one flat fee for an entire month, like fifteen whole dollars, just to get access to every single piece of content and option the game they play offers.  I would much rather play a game where I can't access everything and am limited by restrictions at every turn unless I pay a small fee to lift them.  I mean if you add up the cost of unlocking every single option, armor, class, race, area, etc in a free to play game, and compare that figure to 15 dollars, well obviously free is the better deal because it has the word free going for it.

No worries. 

With Swtor's F2P system you don't have to worry about F2P players in your game for any longer than a few days.  How are they going to make a profit off F2P?  They won't.  When its that restrictive, its not going to appeal to anyone.  If the idea was to get people to pay a sub fee out of frustration, the plan will fail because if they were going to sub they already would have. 

You locked the action bars?   No bank what so ever?  Reduced xp for leveling?  The list is enormous.  But there is no reason to complain really.  Swtor isn't that good of a game anyways.  Now they have the worst F2P option in the industry on top of it. 

i,m not defending their f2p restrictions but just that it could be put down to work in progress..i,e see what people like ,dislike etc..see what people complain about.those that want to play the game should give it some time for them to change what has been complained about.if you really want to play you will be patient and if not then you will go elsewhere.

lotro's f2p has had changes made to accomodate things the people didnt like or were upset about.dont ask me what,i cant remember,i just know they changed a few things.

if people dont like it they will leave in droves like they did the first time.all i would say is give them time..by all acounts they never expected this gamee to go f2p from what i read..i maybe wrong.

It does sound like EA has restricted the game to non-subscribers. It seems like their true business model is to either (a) drive people to subscribe or (b) drive them away. The "F2P" is just a doorway to either side.

One thing they should be careful not to restrict to heavily is any content that would require grouping with others. In my experience, players will support a game longer if they are building friendships and grouping with people they like.

That's not to say solo players do not support a game as well, but it is to say that restricting players who like to be with others is a surefire way to get them to take the door that drives them away.

Another thing EA Should not have done: removed content from former subscribers, even if they just come back free now. Give them their stuff... but then turn around and develop NEW content that will have a price tag on it for them while they are opting for F2P. Make them WANT to spend money to get something they DIDN'T have before.

We all know EA is trying to make money. But it seems like they went the "greed" route before swaying public opinion (in my opinion). That screams of a company that's going to bleed as much money as possible for the short-term, rather then slowly build up over the long haul.

The best F2P content Market has to be DDO's.

that to me should be the Model.

SWTOR charges for EVERYTHING, and Chages way too much to boot.

enough to make me not play it F2P, And I am one of the few that like the Game.

it goes down as a  Fail for me. Hopefully they will tone it down and I will give it a go then.

I wouldn't have gone F2P right off the bat.

The box price was $60, the monthly sub base rate was $15/month.

The box price was discounted down to $11 recently - a good start. But they never tried anything else before jumping straight to F2P. They had a lot of wiggle room on the price of a sub.

Something like offering the limited client for free (which they effectively were doing with the trial), with a one-time $10 unlock (or box purchase) - with a $9/mo sub - see how that goes for a bit. If you don't want to pay the sub, you can unlock per-class the storyline and non-group gameplay for $10 ala carte - for the people that basically just see it as a single player game anyway. Pay the sub, you get all classes, drop the sub, you get your current characters plus one additional class without having to buy an unlock.

In the mean time, the real root of the problem isn't with the box or sub fee, or even with the cash shop. The root of the problem is with the game itself. So you have some room to maneuver on the price side, but if you DONT FIX THE GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE - it doesn't do you any good. So this is what I would really do differently - work on fixing the problems with the game. Rather than laying off the entire development team, I would have kept them busy pushing new content as fast as I could get them to implement and test it.

Hey I really like this game and really want to play it.  I just don't think spending any kind of money on something I enjoy for hours, days, weeks, or even months that hundreds of people spent years working on is a good idea.  I prefer free to play games for this reason.

Yes I'm sarcastic and yes people do think like that.

Originally posted by nate1980

...how would you of done it? Keep in mind that the Cartel Market needs to offer things that nearly everyone is going to want to buy. You can't have people just playing the game for free indefinitely or only charging for things that only a select type of player would pay for. If they did that, they'd never make any money and that's the whole point in making the game F2P, to increase profits over the pure P2P model.

I'm asking this, because people keep complaining about the restrictions. What did people expect, a free ride until they got tired of the game? To not spend any money in the near future, possibly for over a month? To only be restricted in ways that people don't mind? If players don't mind the restrictions, then they'd be less likely to pony over the dough.

IMHO, I think people who are complaining don't deserve to be. Anytime you get something for free, you should never complain, then again, I grew up poor, so maybe I was brought up differently. 

If I was Bioware, I would have rationed off the whole draw of the game and made F2P players pay to access it in bits and pieces. The main draw is the single player class stories. If you have to pay money to unlock each Chapter per character, then you'd accomplish two things. Get rid of the F2P players that don't ever intend to pay a dime, because they're only playing to finish off all the class stories. The second is to profit off your best feature. Sort of like unlocking content packs in DDO.

First off, I would never have had the game launch with a subscription. It's not financially viable, it detracts players, and it puts this poorly designed in direct competition with World of Warcraft.

That being said, the game should have launched buy to play with additional content being released for a cost. They can add missions, zones, etc. for a cost or offer a subscription fee to access it. 

Furthermore, to assume people won't complain is just ridiculous. The MMORPG market has turned into a saturated market filled with poor games. Games either have a poor launch, ridiculous updates or thin content. This game already a lot going against it. One mistake after another is getting ridiculous.

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Hey I really like this game and really want to play it.  I just don't think spending any kind of money on something I enjoy for hours, days, weeks, or even months that hundreds of people spent years working on is a good idea.  I prefer free to play games for this reason.

 

Yes I'm sarcastic and yes people do think like that.

For you information, I bought the Game on release and with the exception of the Last 2 months, I paid $15 a Month and My reward is..........NOTHING. so I spent my share and don't want to spend 350 cartel points to Hide my head peice, {Just an Example}

Originally posted by Giddian

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Hey I really like this game and really want to play it.  I just don't think spending any kind of money on something I enjoy for hours, days, weeks, or even months that hundreds of people spent years working on is a good idea.  I prefer free to play games for this reason.

 

Yes I'm sarcastic and yes people do think like that.

For you information, I bought the Game on release and with the exception of the Last 2 months, I paid $15 a Month and My reward is..........NOTHING. so I spent my share and don't want to spend 350 cartel points to Hide my head peice, {Just an Example}

Your reward, if you will, was access to a game that people who didn't pay couldn't play.

If you can no longer pay 15 dollars to get everything the game offers or allows, well blame free to play.  It is the people who want to spend nothing that make others have to spend more to get what they would have normally with a subscription.

Originally posted by nate1980

...how would you of done it? K

Easy:

Originally posted by Deewe

Let's start with the obvious:

 

The actual model for TOR F2P system is miss which hits a summit with making people pay for UI elements like quick slot bars.

 

Now here's how the model should have been designed:

• Provide all the tools needed to enjoy the content to the player for free.
• Have first steps of the story element free for all the classes.
• Do not restict players on basic choices (Ex: allow players to create only 2 characters but with any of the species for free).
• Set a very low fee for purchaseable item, consumables.
• Do not restrict some items to the random packs only

 

The main idea driving the system would be hook the players in game with all the bells and whistles and have them pay for convenience items, quests hubs and fluff like pets, new gear skins/meshes. For the PvP, Operations, space missions have them (eventually) unlock them by bracket levels with a one time purchase.

 

Make sure not to set the pricing too high and here's where the real trick kicks in.

Have the pricing model setting the prices so low that players won't even feel like spending money at all.

While the quests hubs could be in the $5 range all the rest should be under $1

Recommending a piece of gear @ $0.90, no more and  consumables $0.10-$0.15

 

You want players to feel spoiled. This way you'll get more money by having hundred of thousands people spending happily a few bucks than trying to milk players with the actual fees. Also think about the word of mouth you would get: free advertizing = more customers

For prices set at  $0.10, $0.90 people will hardly hesitate before buying stuff at all, in the end spending much more than with a more obvious rip-off system.

 

All in all think coke not Ferrari.

 

D.

Originally posted by nate1980

...how would you of done it? Keep in mind that the Cartel Market needs to offer things that nearly everyone is going to want to buy. You can't have people just playing the game for free indefinitely or only charging for things that only a select type of player would pay for. If they did that, they'd never make any money and that's the whole point in making the game F2P, to increase profits over the pure P2P model.

I'm asking this, because people keep complaining about the restrictions. What did people expect, a free ride until they got tired of the game? To not spend any money in the near future, possibly for over a month? To only be restricted in ways that people don't mind? If players don't mind the restrictions, then they'd be less likely to pony over the dough.

IMHO, I think people who are complaining don't deserve to be. Anytime you get something for free, you should never complain, then again, I grew up poor, so maybe I was brought up differently. 

If I was Bioware, I would have rationed off the whole draw of the game and made F2P players pay to access it in bits and pieces. The main draw is the single player class stories. If you have to pay money to unlock each Chapter per character, then you'd accomplish two things. Get rid of the F2P players that don't ever intend to pay a dime, because they're only playing to finish off all the class stories. The second is to profit off your best feature. Sort of like unlocking content packs in DDO.

Getting something for free, doesn't mean we want it at all. Over-restricted shit doesn't get more appealing, just because you get it for "free". If growing up poor should have taught anything, it should be to really consider your options, and the major complaint about SWTOR, is that it's model is the worst one out there.

The main flaw in this post is that you don't understand that Bioware / EA wants us to play, but isn't making their F2P model appealing enough to attract the masses. Other F2P games' cash shops shows that they understand this simple basic truth: unless you have a model that attract players, they won't even play at all, and if they don't play, they sure as hell won't pay.

Bioware can praise themselves lucky that you're not in charge. Getting rid of the F2P players, in a F2P game - really??