Originally posted by mrrshann618

So, what you are saying observer, is that SWTOR gives you a whole basic storyline whithout the need to buy anything. You can go anywhere and do anything, but with "minor" restrictions. While WOW only gives you 20 levels, no way to unlock unless you purchase the WHOLE game as compared to unlocking things as you go, or can afford. This includes ANY higher level dungeons. SWTOR Dungeons are limited to number of times a week, but you can go in all of them!

 

I think I'll take a whole storyline/arc with the option to unlock the parts I like, AND still be able to effectivly play/trade with my friends (for the most part). Sounds like SWTOR wins in my book

You're missing the point.  Swtor offers free storylines, which is fine, but the way they present everything else to potential subscribers isn't working.  At least with WoW, you aren't restricted with pvp or exploration; only by levels.  You can even make the new races, such as worgen, pandas, draenei, or blood elves; which were all expansion races.  In swtor?  You cannot do this even with the races from launch (i'm not talking about faction restrictions either).  In WoW, you can use titles.  In swtor, you cannot.  The list goes on..  Keep in mind, i'm just comparing WoW here, and not other MMOs that went F2P, such as Tera, Rift, TSW, etc.

Originally posted by Gaborik

Originally posted by Ryowulf

Its not working.  Most people are not subbers, that is to say that needed 500k or whatever and they don't have that.

People to the storylines and maybe an alt then leave. 

This is a money grab.  Ea will get as much cash as they can now, probably because they have some sort of deal with LA to not shut the game down for X amount of time  or they are trying to sell it and want good numbers or are still trying to fool investors.

I would not count on the game being here a year from now.

I will take that bet in a second. I take it you were one of those who said the game would not make it a year, or the game would never raise level cap, or the game would never have an expansion, or the game would never continue the story? Most of those who claimed all of the above have stayed away from these SWTOR post cause most call them out for how, well there is no nice way to say what they were.

I doubt even Pyrrhus could claim SWTOR as a victory.

Originally posted by observer

Originally posted by mrrshann618

So, what you are saying observer, is that SWTOR gives you a whole basic storyline whithout the need to buy anything. You can go anywhere and do anything, but with "minor" restrictions. While WOW only gives you 20 levels, no way to unlock unless you purchase the WHOLE game as compared to unlocking things as you go, or can afford. This includes ANY higher level dungeons. SWTOR Dungeons are limited to number of times a week, but you can go in all of them!

 

I think I'll take a whole storyline/arc with the option to unlock the parts I like, AND still be able to effectivly play/trade with my friends (for the most part). Sounds like SWTOR wins in my book

You're missing the point.  Swtor offers free storylines, which is fine, but the way they present everything else to potential subscribers isn't working.  At least with WoW, you aren't restricted with pvp or exploration; only by levels.  You can even make the new races, such as worgen, pandas, draenei, or blood elves; which were all expansion races.  In swtor?  You cannot do this even with the races from launch (i'm not talking about faction restrictions either).  In WoW, you can use titles.  In swtor, you cannot.  The list goes on..  Keep in mind, i'm just comparing WoW here, and not other MMOs that went F2P, such as Tera, Rift, TSW, etc.

Your post is filled with false information.

First of all SWTOR's hybrid system is just fine, the game still has plenty of subscribers and they should obviously get more than those who aren't willing to pay, and even those get plenty of content for free.

As preferred player things improve, it should also be said that free players can buy most of the unlocks and authorizations from GTN for in game credits.

Secondly you don't have restriction regarding race selection, restrictions are faction based and all the races can be unlocked in various ways, also it has to be mentioned that all the races which were present at lauch are all we have available now as well, Cathar is not yet here.

Last but not least, you cannot compare WoW's 20 level TRIAL to the amount of content you get here for free, Rift hasn't gone f2p and as for Tera....Tera with it's tedious grind and terrible questing system is a mediocre game at best when compared to SWTOR.

Originally posted by Vlacke

Originally posted by observer

Originally posted by mrrshann618

So, what you are saying observer, is that SWTOR gives you a whole basic storyline whithout the need to buy anything. You can go anywhere and do anything, but with "minor" restrictions. While WOW only gives you 20 levels, no way to unlock unless you purchase the WHOLE game as compared to unlocking things as you go, or can afford. This includes ANY higher level dungeons. SWTOR Dungeons are limited to number of times a week, but you can go in all of them!

 

I think I'll take a whole storyline/arc with the option to unlock the parts I like, AND still be able to effectivly play/trade with my friends (for the most part). Sounds like SWTOR wins in my book

You're missing the point.  Swtor offers free storylines, which is fine, but the way they present everything else to potential subscribers isn't working.  At least with WoW, you aren't restricted with pvp or exploration; only by levels.  You can even make the new races, such as worgen, pandas, draenei, or blood elves; which were all expansion races.  In swtor?  You cannot do this even with the races from launch (i'm not talking about faction restrictions either).  In WoW, you can use titles.  In swtor, you cannot.  The list goes on..  Keep in mind, i'm just comparing WoW here, and not other MMOs that went F2P, such as Tera, Rift, TSW, etc.

Your post is filled with false information.

First of all SWTOR's hybrid system is just fine, the game still has plenty of subscribers and they should obviously get more than those who aren't willing to pay, and even those get plenty of content for free.

As preferred player things improve, it should also be said that free players can buy most of the unlocks and authorizations from GTN for in game credits.

Secondly you don't have restriction regarding race selection, restrictions are faction based and all the races can be unlocked in various ways, also it has to be mentioned that all the races which were present at lauch are all we have available now as well, Cathar is not yet here.

Last but not least, you cannot compare WoW's 20 level TRIAL to the amount of content you get here for free, Rift hasn't gone f2p and as for Tera....Tera with it's tedious grind and terrible questing system is a mediocre game at best when compared to SWTOR.

Agree. Also, SWTOR is NOT F2P game. It is P2P game with F2P option, not like TERA which is completely F2P with option for some additional fluff if you pay monthly. It is a BIG difference.

What does the word "working" even mean?  Are they winning over the SWG Grognards?  No.  Are They changing the game focus of the game to be less of a themepark?  No.  Are they giving away the game to everybody as a tax write off?  No.

Are they gaining players?  Yes.  Are players subscribing? Yes.  Are there people who spend their whole pay check on SWTOR?  Yes.

Is the game turning a profit?  Well, here we go opening up a whole other can of worms.  They spent $600 Billion, (or was it Trillion?) on voice over work, according to "some analysts", so at that rate, they will never profit from anything ever again.  Poor SWTOR.  /sarcasm off

If it wasn't making a profit, it would not be expanding.  EA is evil, not stupid.

"people spending their whole paycheck"

that is the group, swtor is living off

the cartel market is proof of that

and even that was in decline, so they come up with the new reputation system

if youre so certain of swtor success,,buy EA stocks now,,theyre cheap, and according to you, a sure

way to make a fortune

put your money, where your mouth is,,i dare you

Originally posted by Souldrainer

What does the word "working" even mean?  Are they winning over the SWG Grognards?  No.  Are They changing the game focus of the game to be less of a themepark?  No.  Are they giving away the game to everybody as a tax write off?  No.

 

Are they gaining players?  Yes.  Are players subscribing? Yes.  Are there people who spend their whole pay check on SWTOR?  Yes.

 

Is the game turning a profit?  Well, here we go opening up a whole other can of worms.  They spent $600 Billion, (or was it Trillion?) on voice over work, according to "some analysts", so at that rate, they will never profit from anything ever again.  Poor SWTOR.  /sarcasm off

 

If it wasn't making a profit, it would not be expanding.  EA is evil, not stupid.

Gaining players? I don't know, but player actitivty is dropping and has been since the week after F2P launch more or less. Gaining subscribers? No idea, but if they had I bet it would have been mentioned in their quarterly report, so ye unlikely.

I still dont think the game has really expanded either. They are mostly releasing content that was in the works before the game even launched, Makeb including.

No idea if they are making any profit. They have cut down a huge amount of personnel costs at least. But I think they still are working on paying off the development cost.

The continuation of pushing more and more unpopular things on Cartel Market shows a desperation to me. Might even be a last cash grab before the end to come.

i dont say it deserves a sub, but if you want to play swtor play it as a sub player. f2p model of this game sucks big time.

so imo either you pay a sub and play swtor or take on something else, like TERA for example. TERA has a real, or at least one of the best, f2p model out there.

About the only thing F2P has done is make sure the first few planets stay pretty full all the time.  Aside from that, subscribers really don't gain much benefit from the non-subscribers (even the ones buying account unlocks and stuff) due to some fairly punative restrictions like limited instances/ops/warzones.

It's all horribly setup, from the perspective of wanting convert people to a subscription.  It works OK from the typical EA perspective of wanting to mlik a few bucks from people before they move on.

Hello,

i am new here so kinda hello for everyone ;D

anyway lets stay to the topic, so the F2P is more like a trial, it rips off almost everything mmo has to offer for you, except for leveling and quests, we with friend are playing it only for story, we both are imperial agents, so we will try to reach end of story and drop it, because there is no point in playing after that without paying, we are both first year students so no income for us to pay for game per month(we can only afford buy 2 play) and in any time we can play any free to play mmo which is not that restrictive. I don't even know why did they even called it free 2 play, it's more like free 2 look at game, but not actually play it...

Originally posted by Vlacke

Originally posted by observer

Originally posted by mrrshann618

So, what you are saying observer, is that SWTOR gives you a whole basic storyline whithout the need to buy anything. You can go anywhere and do anything, but with "minor" restrictions. While WOW only gives you 20 levels, no way to unlock unless you purchase the WHOLE game as compared to unlocking things as you go, or can afford. This includes ANY higher level dungeons. SWTOR Dungeons are limited to number of times a week, but you can go in all of them!

 

I think I'll take a whole storyline/arc with the option to unlock the parts I like, AND still be able to effectivly play/trade with my friends (for the most part). Sounds like SWTOR wins in my book

You're missing the point.  Swtor offers free storylines, which is fine, but the way they present everything else to potential subscribers isn't working.  At least with WoW, you aren't restricted with pvp or exploration; only by levels.  You can even make the new races, such as worgen, pandas, draenei, or blood elves; which were all expansion races.  In swtor?  You cannot do this even with the races from launch (i'm not talking about faction restrictions either).  In WoW, you can use titles.  In swtor, you cannot.  The list goes on..  Keep in mind, i'm just comparing WoW here, and not other MMOs that went F2P, such as Tera, Rift, TSW, etc.

Your post is filled with false information.

First of all SWTOR's hybrid system is just fine, the game still has plenty of subscribers and they should obviously get more than those who aren't willing to pay, and even those get plenty of content for free.

As preferred player things improve, it should also be said that free players can buy most of the unlocks and authorizations from GTN for in game credits.

Secondly you don't have restriction regarding race selection, restrictions are faction based and all the races can be unlocked in various ways, also it has to be mentioned that all the races which were present at lauch are all we have available now as well, Cathar is not yet here.

Last but not least, you cannot compare WoW's 20 level TRIAL to the amount of content you get here for free, Rift hasn't gone f2p and as for Tera....Tera with it's tedious grind and terrible questing system is a mediocre game at best when compared to SWTOR.

This is FALSE.  You are restricted to certain races with a F2P account.  I just created one several days ago on a Preferred Status Account.  You can unlock them with Legacy, but even Legacy is restricted for F2P.

It's absolutely possible to compare other F2P models with Swtor's... why shouldn't it be?  Just because you and others want to label it a "hybrid" model?  Sorry, but when you open access to closed content, then it's also open to compare it to other various models.

https://rift.trionworlds.com/account/reg/account-registration-short-flow.action?experience=lite&request_locale=en

Rift Lite is F2P, using WoW's model.  Free to play for 20 levels with no time limit.  Swtor is free to play to 50 with no time limit.  It doesn't matter how bad you think Tera is, so stick with the subject of comparing the f2p models.

Originally posted by Wellus

Hello,

i am new here so kinda hello for everyone ;D

anyway lets stay to the topic, so the F2P is more like a trial, it rips off almost everything mmo has to offer for you, except for leveling and quests, we with friend are playing it only for story, we both are imperial agents, so we will try to reach end of story and drop it, because there is no point in playing after that without paying, we are both first year students so no income for us to pay for game per month(we can only afford buy 2 play) and in any time we can play any free to play mmo which is not that restrictive. I don't even know why did they even called it free 2 play, it's more like free 2 look at game, but not actually play it...

 very true

A key issue - for any game - is how much content is provided by way of the F2P content. At the end of the day the goal is to get people to spend money after all and for that you need people to stick around.

Pre-launch the amount of content that SWTOR would offer was a concern. And so it transpired. Lots of people were hitting cap in 2 weeks (power levelers doing so in 2 days!). And without the "planned" regular content drops this is all EA had to offer.

If EA could have limited F2P to 15 (or 20 levels) I am sure they would have done - they tried after all. First a series of time limited weekends etc. to level 15 and then a perpetual trial to level 15. Clearly level 15 wasn't working and so they introduced the level 50 F2P coupled with an attempt to slow down leveling.

And compared to WoW? Sure WoW's trial stops at level 20 but level 20 isn't that quick - especially for a new player starting from scratch.  Throw in the fact that you can level lots of characters to 20 (40?) and have the best part of 10 years worth of quests to go at ..... easy to argue that WoW's trial surpasses SWTOR F2P offering.

At the end of the day the fact that Makeb has taken so long speaks volumes - despite the fact that work on an xpac started before the game launched (according to James Olsen). If the game was making lots of money via subs and/or the cash shop content would be faster. As it stands it looks a lot like WAR which got just one set of three $5 "mini-xpacs" and then a case of so long and thanks for the fish.

Originally posted by altair4

Originally posted by Souldrainer

What does the word "working" even mean?  Are they winning over the SWG Grognards?  No.  Are They changing the game focus of the game to be less of a themepark?  No.  Are they giving away the game to everybody as a tax write off?  No.

 

Are they gaining players?  Yes.  Are players subscribing? Yes.  Are there people who spend their whole pay check on SWTOR?  Yes.

 

Is the game turning a profit?  Well, here we go opening up a whole other can of worms.  They spent $600 Billion, (or was it Trillion?) on voice over work, according to "some analysts", so at that rate, they will never profit from anything ever again.  Poor SWTOR.  /sarcasm off

 

If it wasn't making a profit, it would not be expanding.  EA is evil, not stupid.

Gaining players? I don't know, but player actitivty is dropping and has been since the week after F2P launch more or less. Gaining subscribers? No idea, but if they had I bet it would have been mentioned in their quarterly report, so ye unlikely.

I still dont think the game has really expanded either. They are mostly releasing content that was in the works before the game even launched, Makeb including.

No idea if they are making any profit. They have cut down a huge amount of personnel costs at least. But I think they still are working on paying off the development cost.

The continuation of pushing more and more unpopular things on Cartel Market shows a desperation to me. Might even be a last cash grab before the end to come.

Player activity is not a goal that F2P game companies really care about.  If you only login once a month, but you spend $200 a month, do you really think they care how active you are?  And let's step aside from a moment.  Who says player activity is dropping?

You say the game hasn't really expanded, but they have added Warzones, Flashpoints, and Operations since launch, multiples in each case.  And yes, a lot of it was in the works for a while.  Why does that matter? It wasn't in the game at launch, and now it is.  And I was referring to an expansion pack.  Makeb aside, they are expanding the level cap and adding more content to the game.

Yeah, you are one of those people who think the game cost them $600 million +++ to make, and they will never pay it off.  Like I said, EA would have shut the game down a long time ago if this were the case.  They care about money and money alone.

The Cartel Market push is out of greed.  And I don't know about you, but when I log in I see a lot of people decked out in Cartel items and Cartel mounts.

Personally, I've spent a little bit on SWTOR...  maybe the equivalent of 2 extra shifts at work.  I spend a lot more on Steam.  For example though... one guy in my SWTOR guild has spent well over $2000... and he is happy about it.  Some have spent hundreds, and the only compaints I ever hear are from people who buy massive amounts of boxes and lose the RNG lottery.  No matter how you cut it, losing the RNG lottery really sucks, which is why they are in the process of removing that aspect from play.

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

 

Agree. Also, SWTOR is NOT F2P game. It is P2P game with F2P option, not like TERA which is completely F2P with option for some additional fluff if you pay monthly. It is a BIG difference.

This.