Originally posted by Emeraq
It damn near seems to me that players expectly only aesthetic/appearance restrictions in a F2P game.

You'd be surprised how much money could be made selling really cool looking cosmetic things. Mounts, cosmetic gear, mini-pets, "toys", boosts, etc. etc. etc. Hell, WoW is a P2P game, and Blizzard still manages to make a shitload off of mounts and pets. I can't help but feel that players would be more inclined to spend money without a monthly fee and restrictions (at least in the case of SWTOR, considering what little the game has to offer).

See, instead of spending my money on a bunch of cool cosmetic stuff, I'd need to spend money on unlocks for the UI, medical droids, EXP, etc. instead, and that's a major turn off. I suppose I could just subscribe, but I don't feel the game is worth the $15/month fee (that's not to say that it's a BAD game, just not good enough to justify the monthly price).

Originally posted by Sovrath

That's the problem right there, I suppose. Free-to-play is about convenience, and instead of monetizing convenience, SWTOR monetizes the removal of inconveniences they've purposely added to drive otherwise rational-thinking folk insane.

I had to laugh at that paragraph because it was a bit of what I was thinking when I finally logged in last night.

Came back from Thanksgiving with the g'friend and noticed my SWToR download was FINALLY finished.

"ok, now to jump in and see where i left off!"

I log in and see my character wearing some god awful helmet. Hmmm, don't remember ever having that, let's see if I can turn it off.

As a point of note, I'm generally all for "not" having to turn off a helmet and if one doesn't want one then they just do without. But since aesthetics are important to me and since SWToR has a feature where I can turn off their horrible outfit design for the head; I must have taken advantage of that feature early on as I never remembered my character with headgear.

And then it started my search to turn this thing off. "I remember being able to do this? I must have been able to do this as I don't ever remember wearing head gear".

It turns out that I must spend coins (or whatever their currency is) in order to hide my head gear. To remove the inconvenience of looking atrocious.

I dont' recall anyone from star wars wearing a helmet other than Darth Vader and Boba Fett so I'm pretty adamant about not having it. "Can I do without the helmet or do I really need one as it will be the make or break piece of gear for insured success?"

It's a very silly point and really minor in the scheme of things and I'm probably the only person who is bothered by this but I really hate that head gear.

I can't wait to experience the frustration of adding a hot bar!!!!

And the stormtroopers... and the imperial gunners (those guys with the huge goofy looking helmets that were around the Death Star)... and the TIE pilots (wore stormtrooper looking helmets but black)... and severla bounty hunters (and by extension Leia and Lando when they disguised themselves as bounty hunters in RotJ... but yeah, I do agree with your point of it being lame to have to pay for the option to hide helmets.. :)

Originally posted by Suraknar
What a sad story this game has been from the begining...

 

On the contrary, it's been massively entertaining. A wonderful blend of drama and farce, loyalty and betrayal, love and hate. I laughed so hard when I read about the F2P helmet restrictions that I snorted tea up my nostril. Bioware are simply peerless. They are so good at storytelling that they've made the story of the game as compelling as the stories in the game.  And best of all, you don't even have to download the client to enjoy it. 

HI all, i read all this and figure i give it my 2 cents.

I am a working dad and sole provider for my small but never the less needy family. I LOVE playing games. Before i got married i played wow and payd for it and now when i calculate the money i throw at blizz i feel bad, couse i could use it to sweeaten my kids and wifes life a bit. I dont earn much, but its enouf for us, tho 15$ translated into Euro's is kinda sticking me in the eye. I chose to play f2p games since i play casual, spend more time with my son and am not a hc raider/pvper anymore. I played SWTOR from my friends account while he was abroad for a few months, didnt cost me a nothing but time and i enjoyed the game. I couldnt wait for this f2p to come out. 

I didnt mind 20 gb download at a limited speed for a free account (it was not over 200kbps tho my net is 20Mbit) 

I didnt mind only 2 char slots, only 2 action bars, the fact that half of my q rewards were locked away, the fact that i cant customise my companion and sooo much more crap that is locked away under sub.

It didnt mind couse i just have enouff time to play not to be bothered with it.

WHen swtor came out first i read that everyone complained that they outgrew the zones in lvl so fast that final quests that yeald the best items were too low lvl.

Now that wont happen as f2p gains xp slower and i like that.

The limit for fast traver is 2 hours, where is the rush... i can do a lot of quests in 2 hours and my companion can sell crap for me, i wont lvl that  fast that i have to run for skills every 30 mins.

and i can if i want get every 2 -3 monts if i want to play that long a few cartel crap.

tbh it is just a marketing move but there are players that really pay no attention to it.

I just see a chance to play a star wars game i like for free, maybe i wont get to end game so fast and on a shiny mount as paying players, but ill get there at my pace and ill enjoy every step of it, if not i can delete it and care even less couse i didnt pay for it.

just my thoughts on free games. Keep playing guys

---

Originally posted by blackravenuk I havent read any of the above comment's and i don't need to.   all i want to say is i've subbed for this game since pre-launch an the f2p version is the biggest load of B.S ive seen in a while. i quote from the F2P video " now players can experiance the game from lvls 1-50 " yeah a guild member of mine said to me he doesnt get near as much xp as a sub-player would no resting xp you have to unlock everything i mean everything bank access artifact unlock for ( purple gear ) limited use to operations an flashpoints how is this promoting the game ??? theres some choice words i will leave out but i will say this i'm disapointed with BW on this one it blows, so get off your @sses asn figure out the problem & if the penny doesnt drop then look at the advise of the players after all you used to listen you dont seem to wanna know now we get it you got this obviously * not!!! *

---

the restrictions will be good if cartel coins can be purchased via ingame content, with triple+ time maybe but to be possible

gain them only with real money is crap (so far i didnt see any CC via in-game mechanics)

and then is the issue of the huge class unbalance...

Originally posted by Sovrath

That's the problem right there, I suppose. Free-to-play is about convenience, and instead of monetizing convenience, SWTOR monetizes the removal of inconveniences they've purposely added to drive otherwise rational-thinking folk insane.

I had to laugh at that paragraph because it was a bit of what I was thinking when I finally logged in last night.

Came back from Thanksgiving with the g'friend and noticed my SWToR download was FINALLY finished.

"ok, now to jump in and see where i left off!"

I log in and see my character wearing some god awful helmet. Hmmm, don't remember ever having that, let's see if I can turn it off.

As a point of note, I'm generally all for "not" having to turn off a helmet and if one doesn't want one then they just do without. But since aesthetics are important to me and since SWToR has a feature where I can turn off their horrible outfit design for the head; I must have taken advantage of that feature early on as I never remembered my character with headgear.

And then it started my search to turn this thing off. "I remember being able to do this? I must have been able to do this as I don't ever remember wearing head gear".

It turns out that I must spend coins (or whatever their currency is) in order to hide my head gear. To remove the inconvenience of looking atrocious.

I dont' recall anyone from star wars wearing a helmet other than Darth Vader and Boba Fett so I'm pretty adamant about not having it. "Can I do without the helmet or do I really need one as it will be the make or break piece of gear for insured success?"

It's a very silly point and really minor in the scheme of things and I'm probably the only person who is bothered by this but I really hate that head gear.

I can't wait to experience the frustration of adding a hot bar!!!!

Its not a silly point at all Sovrath it just highlights within 30 seconds of playing the game how much this is not Free2play. My personal peeve was the hotbar & cartel coins, I logged in and thought I'd play my level 45 Jedi Knight and then saw my two hotbars full up and I still had another 10+ skills that I would be using so I thought I could use my free cartel coins and thats when I found out I had to sub to get the bloody things, steam came out of my ears and my hair flipped up in disgust, so I said goodbye to my guild and logged out. And I thought SOE missed the point of F2P, lol.

I think Victor said it about 38 separate times in his article but it states all that needs to said about SWTOR and what has been true since the release of the game nearly a year ago:

you have failed consumers.

Originally posted by Elevenb4

I have never in my life seen so much hate towards a game. People don't just talk bad about it once or twice, but keep beating the dead horse. Why? Not only do they talk bad about the game, but flame and troll, to no end, the people that actually enjoy it. Other than the official forums, I mention SWTOR anywhere, and the thread usually fills up with flame after flame. Surpasses what I would define as online bullying.

Blows my mind. Leave the game alone and let people enjoy it ffs.

 

Because the game represents everything that is wrong with the genre and its direction.

Originally posted by mnwild1998

Originally posted by Thillian
Because the game represents everything that is wrong with the genre and its direction.

 

[mod edit]

They think they are entitled to play the entire game for free, because the model is called free to play. Their feeling of being pissed of having so many heavy restrictions is thefeore, fairly natural. 

Let me understand this: you sometimes have to subscribe to get the rewards from a quest you completed?

If that's true... I don't even know how to express my disbelief.

I don't hope that SWTOR fails because I dislike the game.

I hope it fails so other companies do not copy the ridiculous ideas that EA/Bioware is putting forward in their "F2P" model.

Yeesh. I thought limiting the action bar was bad. What next... players will have to buy the login GUI? They should slap a price tag on the uninstall executable.

Originally posted by mnwild1998

Originally posted by Thillian
Because the game represents everything that is wrong with the genre and its direction.

[mod edit]

Wrong.

Explain if you bought the game what you get?

Originally posted by mnwild1998

Originally posted by MMOGamer71

Originally posted by mnwild1998

Originally posted by Thillian
Because the game represents everything that is wrong with the genre and its direction.

 

[mod edit]

Wrong.

 

Explain if you bought the game what you get?

 

[mod edit]

Why does everyone of your responses involve "entitlement" "troll" or age reference?

And you completely ignore the fact the those that bought the game received nothing.

I'm very glad to see this point of view.  MMORPG.com needs to stand up for the consumers a heck of a lot more than they do.

Locked hotbars AND quest rewards is a freaking joke.  Nothing more to say.

Originally posted by mnwild1998

Originally posted by FrodoFragins

I'm very glad to see this point of view.  MMORPG.com needs to stand up for the consumers a heck of a lot more than they do.

 

Locked hotbars AND quest rewards is a freaking joke.  Nothing more to say.

 

[mod edit]

How much do you want to bet he has  a purple or pink lightsaber?

On to the important stuff. As a year long subscriber, I was hoping that F2P would rejuvenate SWTOR and bring in new players,  get more population on the servers and generally increase the value of a game that has been steadily declining over the last year.

It has not. I cannot believe that people are still defending a game that has failed to meet every expectation it touted from its very beginning. It looks great, plays pretty decently. The quests are fun the first time through and the WZ was interesting for a month or so. Space battles, well, space battles are like a roller coaster ride. Fun, but you know its only following the tracks. So now I ask a simple two word question...

What now?

All those items in the shop are mostly items that were promised when the game launched. How many people remember the posts about the different types of armor we would have, then were withheld because EA/Bioware wanted to 'Trickle them out like a faucet'? I don't see no water flowing and suddenly the things we were supposed to get, we have to pay even more money for over the cost of our subs. Anyone notice how the coins we get per month are just short of the really good things to get?

Subscribers need to get their heads out of their speeders and stop denying their game is doing well. F2P was always part of their game design, it was just implemented earlier because of the subscription fallout due to lack of content. Electronic Arts runs the show, and if their bottom line isn't being met, they'll pull the plug without hesitation...

The sheer arrogance of this company is lunacy.  They think their game is AWESOME and that people want to play it?  Locked quest rewards?  The hotbar thing is rediculous as well, but not nearly as bad as the locked rewards.  The game wasn't worth paying a sub for (for most of us) and if they think that this unbelievable free to play model is better, then they have lost all touch with reality.  

The stories, i loved.  The gameplay was stale but that is because we have seen this gameplay repeatdely and THAT is what needs changing.  They made their static, tired, and downright inferior product open to everyone with more restriction than i have ever seen.  The thought occurred to me that i would be better served by subbing than going with the free model, and if i didn't already want to sub to the game, why in the hell would i then try the free model, based on that thought?

Unbelievable.