It would be VERY unlikely that SWG would go F2P. EQ2 was able to do so because SOE has complete control over the game and the IP. I'm pretty sure that LA would also have to give it the blessing to do so. Luca$Art$ has two $$ in it. $ub$cription also has two $$. F2P has the word 'free' attached to it. F2P doesn't fit the scheme.
It would be VERY unlikely that SWG would go F2P. EQ2 was able to do so because SOE has complete control over the game and the IP. I'm pretty sure that LA would also have to give it the blessing to do so. Luca$Art$ has two $$ in it. $ub$cription also has two $$. F2P has the word 'free' attached to it. F2P doesn't fit the scheme.
who are you kidding man? LOL
SWG will be the next SOE game to go f2p. Next year they are gonna have no choice but to go f2p if they expect to get enough money out of that game.
Also Smed has already said no Cash Shop for Galaxies, I'm guessing that has a lot to do with the TCG...I don't know...But from what has come out so far it does not look like SOE is interested in a F2P option for SWG...
I would not put to much trust in what Smed said will not happen. He has made the same exact promise to EQ/EQ2 and look what happened there.
those of us that actually played SWG know NEVER TO TRUST WHAT SMED SAYS. nuff said.
Of course I wouldn't trust him. No cash shop... well gee wiliker, what the hell is the TCG? It is a cash shop in sheeps clothing. Actually it is worse than a cash shop because you have to spend 100 of dollars to maybe get one item or if you are lucky 2 items. Most of the time the crap you didn't even want.
SWG already has a cash shop people, wake up and smell the coffee, their cash shop is far worse than regular cash shops because it is a lottery style cash shop. Same thing, but an ingenius method to milk the players of more money.
if SOE would swallow thier pride and roll the game back, take out the NGE, they would make that game come alive. The current state of the game is unplayable, you think they would have gotten the picture when they lost thousands of subs the tuesday morning and following next few days as people logged in and yelled WTF.
and if they made this move they would piss off their current players and lose them and not gain nowhere near the half of them back that they thought they might.
They have 10k people subbed right now, if they did that it wouldn't fix any problems. They would have to shut down. OF course you have people saying bring it back, but if they did how many would actually go back to that game?
It would be VERY unlikely that SWG would go F2P. EQ2 was able to do so because SOE has complete control over the game and the IP. I'm pretty sure that LA would also have to give it the blessing to do so. Luca$Art$ has two $$ in it. $ub$cription also has two $$. F2P has the word 'free' attached to it. F2P doesn't fit the scheme.
who are you kidding man? LOL
SWG will be the next SOE game to go f2p. Next year they are gonna have no choice but to go f2p if they expect to get enough money out of that game.
I'd assume that they'll just limp it along with new TCG plunderings, then sunset it since SOE already has another game with a SW IP now.
I'm well aware of Smed...He's on record saying no cash shop for SWG...That much is fact...If he goes back on his word that's his problem...I don't trust him much either but at this point all we have to go on is his statement...
We also have history to go on and there are plenty of examples of smed saying something will never happen and then watch as it becomes reality. Not only has he/soe broken their word on many occasions, but often they make these types of promises when they are secretly working on those changes.
They said they wouldn't shut any servers down once.
I'm well aware of Smed...He's on record saying no cash shop for SWG...That much is fact...If he goes back on his word that's his problem...I don't trust him much either but at this point all we have to go on is his statement...
We also have history to go on and there are plenty of examples of smed saying something will never happen and then watch as it becomes reality. Not only has he/soe broken their word on many occasions, but often they make these types of promises when they are secretly working on those changes.
They said they wouldn't shut any servers down once.
And...
The Starter Kit boxes being pre-sold by Amazon were fake
Resources could never transfer
They had NO intentions of closing any servers during the FCTS+Vet trial
SWG wont launch until its ready
There were two separate teams working on JTL and the CURB
The CU is here to stay
The Double Socket bug would be taken care of
I maintain my belief that a F2P SWG would be a money maker in the face of looming closure. It would be silly not to go for the "F2P" folk and try to get squeeze the last bit of $ from the player base via the TCG.
if swg went f2p, i would play it again. i think alot of people that are unhappy with the TOR space on rails announcement would come back to swg if it went f2p. swg isn't a terrible game, its just not worth the monthly fee they are currently charging for it.
If they want to go to F2P, they first have to change some things.
At the moment they use the amount of lots in every account as excuse not to add characterslots, because it would have too much impact on the world. Accounts simply going F2P would make this a lot worse of course.
They either have introduce two account types, or change the way lots on accounts are counted.
For example they could introduce normal P2P accounts with everything like it used to be and a F2P account without lots. Then lots can be bought in a cashshop or something. Then being expensive enough to make the P2P account more attractive, just like cashshops usually do.
Its just an example, but they need to change something. SWG accounts have more impact on the game then accounts from other MMO's in respectivily their game.
Then they need additional products for their cashshop. Most obvious are lootcards from TCG, but this will only be done if SOE thinks that the current way of selling boosters isnt profitable enough anymore.
I'm well aware of Smed...He's on record saying no cash shop for SWG...That much is fact...If he goes back on his word that's his problem...I don't trust him much either but at this point all we have to go on is his statement...
We also have history to go on and there are plenty of examples of smed saying something will never happen and then watch as it becomes reality. Not only has he/soe broken their word on many occasions, but often they make these types of promises when they are secretly working on those changes.
They said they wouldn't shut any servers down once.
And...
The Starter Kit boxes being pre-sold by Amazon were fake
Resources could never transfer
They had NO intentions of closing any servers during the FCTS+Vet trial
SWG wont launch until its ready
There were two separate teams working on JTL and the CURB
The CU is here to stay
The Double Socket bug would be taken care of
I maintain my belief that a F2P SWG would be a money maker in the face of looming closure. It would be silly not to go for the "F2P" folk and try to get squeeze the last bit of $ from the player base via the TCG.
Totally agree...If they did it right they'll at least get something. If they stay the course they'll soon get nothing at all...
I honestly hope this game does go f2p... It's not really worth my 15 dollars since everytime I logged into my server there was hardly anyone around. But if it went f2p I would install it again and I could log in for the occassional pvp and bounty taking fun that I had with this game sometimes.
Unfortunately those people are stubborn as a mule. I think they may go f2p next year since they already have a cash shop tbh. Their cash shop (TCG) probably rakes in more money than most other games regular and up front NON lottery cash shops.
Too sad they have one of the slimiest cash shops of any game and to top it off STILL charge 15 dollars a month, and STILL charge 50 dollar character transfer.
Bottom line, if they went f2p that games population would get a huge boost and people will start enjoying the game again.
I would return if it went FTP. There's still a lot I miss about SWG (mostly the atmosphere) and as long as I could put up and decorate a house and do a bit of RP then I would be content.
My main point here is that it makes much sense to both former and potential players for SWG to go F2P, but that's its biggest flaw. SOE has a long history with SWG of being completely defiant to what the playerbase wants, regardless of how much business sense it makes or how it would help keep the game alive. I just think that they would see F2P as requiring too much additional development cost to see past the 'Free' part of F2P. I would be happy to see it happen, but the doubt is strong with this one. My instinct tells me that they will leave it practically as-is until it no longer can sustain its own cost. Aside from that, Smed's MMO gaming development attention seems to be just short of completely focused on games that solely target his kids' ages and interests, because it seems like without their influence he is completely out of touch regarding gaming - particularly MMOs.
if swg went f2p, i would play it again. i think alot of people that are unhappy with the TOR space on rails announcement would come back to swg if it went f2p. swg isn't a terrible game, its just not worth the monthly fee they are currently charging for it.
Well considering how they screwed us old addicts over. F2P would be like paying back a little wouldnt it? ^^
if swg went f2p, i would play it again. i think alot of people that are unhappy with the TOR space on rails announcement would come back to swg if it went f2p. swg isn't a terrible game, its just not worth the monthly fee they are currently charging for it.
Well considering how they screwed us old addicts over. F2P would be like paying back a little wouldnt it? ^^
SOE Paying back it's customers? lololol They paid those of us back who bought Trials Of Obiwan, thats good enough in their books.
With EQ2 going F2P very soon here in August, I was thinking that SWG might be next. I would certainly play SWG again, if it had a free to play option. Plus I think it will be the only way for SWG to survive against the titan that will be Star Wars: The Old Republic. So what do you guys think? Will SWG be SOE's next pay to play game to switch to free to play, because if it works for one of their games it will work for all. Look at Turbine with D&D Online and not Lord of the Rings Online. Their only two games and both will be free to play. Of course D&D is f2p already, but LOTRO will be this fall. I think we might see more options like this in the near future with older AAA titles as they start to age. Here hoping SWG goes that way soon.
SOE owns the EQ franchise. Lucas Arts owns the Star Wars franchise. (ya, I know, thanks for the news flash, Shannia) Point is, the only way I see SWG going F2P is if SOE has great success cash wise from their newly released SW:Clone Adventures MMORPG which is F2P. Lucas Arts likes money and if SOE can prove to them via the new F2P game that they'll get more money from SWG going F2P, you can bet Lucas Arts will bite. Saying that, if what was reported recently on gamasutra.com that less than 10 percent of all F2P subscribers ever spend a dime on a F2P game, I do believe two SWG that are F2P will be a tough sell for SOE.
Besides, SWG has always been one character per server (unless you got your jedi slot). That would require massive changes to the entire game backend. EQ2's F2P you can have multiple toons on a server even with F2P option. If SWG increased how many characters you get per server since the NGE, then my assuption is wrong and disregard. I wouldn't know, deleted my characters and cancelled my account the day NGE went live.
Just my 2 cents on the subject.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
I bet it's being worked on now. Devs have been too quiet, TCG is being revamped and it seems to be en vogue to make your game F2P (EQ2X, DDO, LOTRO, PotBS)...SoE isn't a leader in anything in this industry, they're followers - as such, I expect them to follow the trend of so many other games.
I bet it's being worked on now. Devs have been too quiet, TCG is being revamped and it seems to be en vogue to make your game F2P (EQ2X, DDO, LOTRO, PotBS)...SoE isn't a leader in anything in this industry, they're followers - as such, I expect them to follow the trend of so many other games.
I doubt it, the game hasnt been supported by either SOE or LA since 2007, the last three years have been life support development. I really dont see SOE diverting Devs to do this, LA is betting on SWTOR not SWG, they really dont care what happens to SWG anymore. And the flip side is why would SOE change focus from EQ2x at the moment, EQ2 is a flaggship game and will always come first with SOE.
Comments
It would be VERY unlikely that SWG would go F2P. EQ2 was able to do so because SOE has complete control over the game and the IP. I'm pretty sure that LA would also have to give it the blessing to do so. Luca$Art$ has two $$ in it. $ub$cription also has two $$. F2P has the word 'free' attached to it. F2P doesn't fit the scheme.
who are you kidding man? LOL
SWG will be the next SOE game to go f2p. Next year they are gonna have no choice but to go f2p if they expect to get enough money out of that game.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
Of course I wouldn't trust him. No cash shop... well gee wiliker, what the hell is the TCG? It is a cash shop in sheeps clothing. Actually it is worse than a cash shop because you have to spend 100 of dollars to maybe get one item or if you are lucky 2 items. Most of the time the crap you didn't even want.
SWG already has a cash shop people, wake up and smell the coffee, their cash shop is far worse than regular cash shops because it is a lottery style cash shop. Same thing, but an ingenius method to milk the players of more money.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
and if they made this move they would piss off their current players and lose them and not gain nowhere near the half of them back that they thought they might.
They have 10k people subbed right now, if they did that it wouldn't fix any problems. They would have to shut down. OF course you have people saying bring it back, but if they did how many would actually go back to that game?
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
I'd assume that they'll just limp it along with new TCG plunderings, then sunset it since SOE already has another game with a SW IP now.
I was surprised to hear that Bloodfin is dead, it was the 3rd most populated server back in the day. Maybe they should try F2P model there lol.
They said they wouldn't shut any servers down once.
And...
The Starter Kit boxes being pre-sold by Amazon were fake
Resources could never transfer
They had NO intentions of closing any servers during the FCTS+Vet trial
SWG wont launch until its ready
There were two separate teams working on JTL and the CURB
The CU is here to stay
The Double Socket bug would be taken care of
I maintain my belief that a F2P SWG would be a money maker in the face of looming closure. It would be silly not to go for the "F2P" folk and try to get squeeze the last bit of $ from the player base via the TCG.
if swg went f2p, i would play it again. i think alot of people that are unhappy with the TOR space on rails announcement would come back to swg if it went f2p. swg isn't a terrible game, its just not worth the monthly fee they are currently charging for it.
http://hardballgaming.blogspot.com/
If they want to go to F2P, they first have to change some things.
At the moment they use the amount of lots in every account as excuse not to add characterslots, because it would have too much impact on the world. Accounts simply going F2P would make this a lot worse of course.
They either have introduce two account types, or change the way lots on accounts are counted.
For example they could introduce normal P2P accounts with everything like it used to be and a F2P account without lots. Then lots can be bought in a cashshop or something. Then being expensive enough to make the P2P account more attractive, just like cashshops usually do.
Its just an example, but they need to change something. SWG accounts have more impact on the game then accounts from other MMO's in respectivily their game.
Then they need additional products for their cashshop. Most obvious are lootcards from TCG, but this will only be done if SOE thinks that the current way of selling boosters isnt profitable enough anymore.
Knowing SOE, they would propably charge station cash to keep houses, harvestors and factories updated. Problem solved!
Totally agree...If they did it right they'll at least get something. If they stay the course they'll soon get nothing at all...
I honestly hope this game does go f2p... It's not really worth my 15 dollars since everytime I logged into my server there was hardly anyone around. But if it went f2p I would install it again and I could log in for the occassional pvp and bounty taking fun that I had with this game sometimes.
Unfortunately those people are stubborn as a mule. I think they may go f2p next year since they already have a cash shop tbh. Their cash shop (TCG) probably rakes in more money than most other games regular and up front NON lottery cash shops.
Too sad they have one of the slimiest cash shops of any game and to top it off STILL charge 15 dollars a month, and STILL charge 50 dollar character transfer.
Bottom line, if they went f2p that games population would get a huge boost and people will start enjoying the game again.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
I would return if it went FTP. There's still a lot I miss about SWG (mostly the atmosphere) and as long as I could put up and decorate a house and do a bit of RP then I would be content.
My main point here is that it makes much sense to both former and potential players for SWG to go F2P, but that's its biggest flaw. SOE has a long history with SWG of being completely defiant to what the playerbase wants, regardless of how much business sense it makes or how it would help keep the game alive. I just think that they would see F2P as requiring too much additional development cost to see past the 'Free' part of F2P. I would be happy to see it happen, but the doubt is strong with this one. My instinct tells me that they will leave it practically as-is until it no longer can sustain its own cost. Aside from that, Smed's MMO gaming development attention seems to be just short of completely focused on games that solely target his kids' ages and interests, because it seems like without their influence he is completely out of touch regarding gaming - particularly MMOs.
Well considering how they screwed us old addicts over. F2P would be like paying back a little wouldnt it? ^^
Wumi - SWG - Bloodfin - Cancelled
Wumi - WoW - Eu-Kazzak - Cancelled
Bulldozer - Aion - Eu-Kahrun - Cancelled
Wumi - Rift - EU-Riptalon - Cancelled
SOE Paying back it's customers? lololol They paid those of us back who bought Trials Of Obiwan, thats good enough in their books.
SOE owns the EQ franchise. Lucas Arts owns the Star Wars franchise. (ya, I know, thanks for the news flash, Shannia) Point is, the only way I see SWG going F2P is if SOE has great success cash wise from their newly released SW:Clone Adventures MMORPG which is F2P. Lucas Arts likes money and if SOE can prove to them via the new F2P game that they'll get more money from SWG going F2P, you can bet Lucas Arts will bite. Saying that, if what was reported recently on gamasutra.com that less than 10 percent of all F2P subscribers ever spend a dime on a F2P game, I do believe two SWG that are F2P will be a tough sell for SOE.
Besides, SWG has always been one character per server (unless you got your jedi slot). That would require massive changes to the entire game backend. EQ2's F2P you can have multiple toons on a server even with F2P option. If SWG increased how many characters you get per server since the NGE, then my assuption is wrong and disregard. I wouldn't know, deleted my characters and cancelled my account the day NGE went live.
Just my 2 cents on the subject.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
I bet it's being worked on now. Devs have been too quiet, TCG is being revamped and it seems to be en vogue to make your game F2P (EQ2X, DDO, LOTRO, PotBS)...SoE isn't a leader in anything in this industry, they're followers - as such, I expect them to follow the trend of so many other games.
I doubt it, the game hasnt been supported by either SOE or LA since 2007, the last three years have been life support development. I really dont see SOE diverting Devs to do this, LA is betting on SWTOR not SWG, they really dont care what happens to SWG anymore. And the flip side is why would SOE change focus from EQ2x at the moment, EQ2 is a flaggship game and will always come first with SOE.