Ok... i am not going to touch this one with a 10 foot pole, no good can come out of it. I am just going to say that this is not any suprise anf in many ways good as EA have showed in the past that they at least understands F2P games, but at the same time the last EA F2P game i played was NFS:W... and that game was about as P2W as they come.
Now this model does look a lot like the grandpa of western F2P games Turbine and it seesm to have worked well for them so who knows this might bring the game up and get it rolling again.
Well for the industry and for us gamers, I'm sad this happened so quickly. But I think they will do well with the F2P hybrid model.
It certainly renewed the LOTRO fanbase and provided the funding necessary to support the game in a great way. Good luck to everyone involved.
I honestly see it as something good for the industry. It is a clear sign that players aren't going to shell out $15 a month for years to play a sub-par WoW clone with a mediocre Bioware story attached to it.
It's a wake-up call that the "WoW+1" method is just not going to work. It hasn't worked for so many games, and now the "golden boy" of the WoW+1 method has failed. I really think this is going to herald the end of WoW clones...at least the end of them as the dominant kind of MMORPG.
I think you are missing the real point here. This isn't a sign that casual friendly themepark MMOs are unsuccessful. It's a sign that the subscription only model just doesn't work as well as Freemium. I mean seriously, name one game that converted from sub only to Freemium and *didn't* make more money. Often they even see an increase in actual subscriptions, despite the fact that you no longer need one for most of the content. The sign isn't that most people won't shell out $15.00 a month for multiple years for a particular style of MMO, it's that they won't do it for *any* MMO.
Side note; quality varies according to class, but at least on the Empire side, the story in TOR is only "mediocre" if you consider BioWare stories in general to be mediocre, it is not of noticeably different quality than most of their single player games.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.
Well, that explains why the PVP hacks have never been fixed.
Sadly going to miss this game. SO MUCH potential, and it still has it. Won't pay F2P, and done.
Sadly, will wait for a private server to start running it somewhere to finish up the Amazing and Great storylines.... but no use paying when the server maint. was nil......
EDIT:
And my I add....
I believe that this is a CHEAP way of getting out for EA. They got rid of programmers, and are replacing them with accountants.
Most of the issues in the game are more than fixable. And would have paid off much more in the long run.
So, you've got 2 options: extended free trial or subscribe.
BioWare cant even fail right.
Yeah, no one wants to subscribe to TOR now but add the option to play through to max level for free under severe limitation will totally bring in millions.
Well, it's the right move. I can't predict the future, but subs are a huge barrier to entry for me. It's not necessarily the cost itself, but the value I'm getting for the cost.
Personally, I think a box + microtxn model is fine as long as it doesn't severely fragment the community or provide a pay to win method of completing the game. That goes for both PvP and PvE raiding.
We'l see, I intend to build a new comp for GW2 ... maybe I'll dabble in a f2p TOR too. I did try the TOR beta and it was a little too thempark for me. the voice acting, but it reminded me of FF10 where you spent moer time watching cut scenes than actually playing, which isn't good.
The game has numerous good and lovable qualities. But overall, I hate Bioware for what they did to Star Wars and for what they did to the vision of a Star Wars MMO, what it could and should have been. After all the chance they had, the tons of employees, tons of money, years of time, years of MMO experience and one Star Wars MMO forerunner to learn from THIS was all?
Sorry. It sure can survive and as F2P will have it's merits. I enjoyed raising two chars to max level and 2 more to mid level, but that was as much fun as there was in, and IMVPO it was mostly like a single player RPG with some online additions.
It is not altogether bad as a game, but as a Star Wars MMO it is an abomination of everything a Massively Multiplayer RPG in a Star Wars MMO SHOULD and COULD have been, and I hate Bioware and EA for dropping this ball so miserably and entirely. If a game is good, I pay a monthly fee because it is WORTH it.
This FAIL is even worse than the NGE. And yes, that's just my opinion, take it or leave it.
Like an old German poet of the 19th century said: "If the snow melts, the shit becomes visible."
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Well said bro... That 200mil could have been used to make 2 knights of the old republic and pay for marketing... But noooo, one greedy empire couldn't stand the other greedy empire (activision) have most of the market share..
Only two?
And what about the other 200 mill or so they've spent on marketing?
Not only could they have closed off the KOTOR series the way it was meant to be closed, spent the extra money to ensure a proper ending was given for ME3 before it was launched, they probably could've designed a new IP as well and actually tried to innovate.
I wonder how it was when the Roman Empire Fell. Wonder if that's how EA/Bioware is now. They were once the golden jewel of gaming, and their fall will eventually become an unnoticed wimper.
Let's me play with new species and such without messing up my current altitis addiction.
You know I would consider to go back with F2P and try out new content and species, but one thing hinders me. They stole my frigging names.
They "merged" my server with another, but not as merge, but we were "free" to decide to go to another server, which was a BS-freedom, because when 90% go, it was a no-decision anyway.
Now I had EXTRA preordered and created my 3 main chars with MY names, and I played 2 of them to max level and the other one to 42, only to find ALL my names were taken by some level 3, 5 and level 10 char. It was the final straw to make me quit. And as long as I don't get my names back SWTOR can rot in hell for all I care. Yes, it is personal. But there are some sorts of player mis-treatment a company who got 214 dollar (150 Euro at the time) plus 6 or 7 months monthly fee from me simply should handle more professional, like giving the older char the priority or the higher level char over players who frigging played the game a few days!
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Can't help myself , after spending money on the CE , feeling the game fall of the cliff after a month or month and half , I've got to visit the official forums now and see the trainwreck I can imagine is happening there.
OMG! I hoped for this since the beta weekend...all the story content; not paying a dime! Let's party! Where u at Skuz? Where u at dubyahite? Where u at ktanner? F2P party!
"I will not play it nor any other MMO until they make it possible to obtain the best gear without forcing people to group up to do so." SwampRob
The game has numerous good and lovable qualities. But overall, I hate Bioware for what they did to Star Wars and for what they did to the vision of a Star Wars MMO, what it could and should have been. After all the chance they had, the tons of employees, tons of money, years of time, years of MMO experience and one Star Wars MMO forerunner to learn from THIS was all?
Sorry. It sure can survive and as F2P will have it's merits. I enjoyed raising two chars to max level and 2 more to mid level, but that was as much fun as there was in, and IMVPO it was mostly like a single player RPG with some online additions.
It is not altogether bad as a game, but as a Star Wars MMO it is an abomination of everything a Massively Multiplayer RPG in a Star Wars MMO SHOULD and COULD have been, and I hate Bioware and EA for dropping this ball so miserably and entirely. If a game is good, I pay a monthly fee because it is WORTH it.
This FAIL is even worse than the NGE. And yes, that's just my opinion, take it or leave it.
Like an old German poet of the 19th century said: "If the snow melts, the shit becomes visible."
Basically this. SWG had legions of problems. But it was still a better game. Imagine back in 2003-2004 if they had some real marketing muscle, even a fracion of the amount EA put in to TOR?
A lot of the hate comes from the fact that they should've been able to do a lot more. People were playing it and saying "well, it's better than RIFT ,LOTORO and DDO" a game with a very modest budget and two F2P games.
You didn't have to make a WoW killer. Star Wars deserves more than a crappy wow clone. But sadly it probably won't happen.
F2P i guess is the model for crap. Real games are subscription :P
You are fast running out of "real games".
LOL seriously. Almost all mmos offer a F2P version, even WoW.
SWTOR has well over 500k subs still and this business move should have happened 4 months ago, if not at launch. This is great for SWTOR.
I think you are confusing F2P with a level limited trial version.
I am glad they are going F2P because I wouldn't have paid to play it, but it is a pretty good time killer when I'm bored. A lot of other people have said it, but I will say it again for clarity. It wasn't the model that killed SWTOR, it was the fact that they released a buggy unfinished game then failed to release fixes and updates in a timely manner. If they would have put out updates faster initially, then chances are a lot more people would have stayed.
This is pretty much the fate of all MMOs from this point out. They will either go F2P within a year or they will start out life as F2P/B2P. There are to just to many free choices with more and more coming down the pipe month after month.
F2P i guess is the model for crap. Real games are subscription :P
You are fast running out of "real games".
LOL seriously. Almost all mmos offer a F2P version, even WoW.
SWTOR has well over 500k subs still and this business move should have happened 4 months ago, if not at launch. This is great for SWTOR.
I think you are confusing F2P with a level limited trial version.
I am glad they are going F2P because I wouldn't have paid to play it, but it is a pretty good time killer when I'm bored. A lot of other people have said it, but I will say it again for clarity. It wasn't the model that killed SWTOR, it was the fact that they released a buggy unfinished game then failed to release fixes and updates in a timely manner. If they would have put out updates faster initially, then chances are a lot more people would have stayed.
Im not confusing anything. what SWTOR is doing is still ultimately a limited trial version as well, they just offer up to level 50.
You must have played a different game because SWTOR is anything but buggy and unfinished. Its the best MMO out there IMO and it just got better.
Comments
Ok... i am not going to touch this one with a 10 foot pole, no good can come out of it. I am just going to say that this is not any suprise anf in many ways good as EA have showed in the past that they at least understands F2P games, but at the same time the last EA F2P game i played was NFS:W... and that game was about as P2W as they come.
Now this model does look a lot like the grandpa of western F2P games Turbine and it seesm to have worked well for them so who knows this might bring the game up and get it rolling again.
This have been a good conversation
I think you are missing the real point here. This isn't a sign that casual friendly themepark MMOs are unsuccessful. It's a sign that the subscription only model just doesn't work as well as Freemium. I mean seriously, name one game that converted from sub only to Freemium and *didn't* make more money. Often they even see an increase in actual subscriptions, despite the fact that you no longer need one for most of the content. The sign isn't that most people won't shell out $15.00 a month for multiple years for a particular style of MMO, it's that they won't do it for *any* MMO.
Side note; quality varies according to class, but at least on the Empire side, the story in TOR is only "mediocre" if you consider BioWare stories in general to be mediocre, it is not of noticeably different quality than most of their single player games.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Well, that explains why the PVP hacks have never been fixed.
Sadly going to miss this game. SO MUCH potential, and it still has it. Won't pay F2P, and done.
Sadly, will wait for a private server to start running it somewhere to finish up the Amazing and Great storylines.... but no use paying when the server maint. was nil......
EDIT:
And my I add....
I believe that this is a CHEAP way of getting out for EA. They got rid of programmers, and are replacing them with accountants.
Most of the issues in the game are more than fixable. And would have paid off much more in the long run.
Now Gold farming spam will rein supreme.
THIS SUCKS!
So glad I didn't get caught up in this failure of a game. I'll continue to support *censored* .... what a great cluster fuck this has been!
So, you've got 2 options: extended free trial or subscribe.
BioWare cant even fail right.
Yeah, no one wants to subscribe to TOR now but add the option to play through to max level for free under severe limitation will totally bring in millions.
The game failed - I called this during beta testing.
Didn't even make a year. Pathetic!
"Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."
I need to take this advice more.
Well, it's the right move. I can't predict the future, but subs are a huge barrier to entry for me. It's not necessarily the cost itself, but the value I'm getting for the cost.
Personally, I think a box + microtxn model is fine as long as it doesn't severely fragment the community or provide a pay to win method of completing the game. That goes for both PvP and PvE raiding.
We'l see, I intend to build a new comp for GW2 ... maybe I'll dabble in a f2p TOR too. I did try the TOR beta and it was a little too thempark for me.
the voice acting, but it reminded me of FF10 where you spent moer time watching cut scenes than actually playing, which isn't good.
If you don't worry about it, it's not a problem.
The game has numerous good and lovable qualities. But overall, I hate Bioware for what they did to Star Wars and for what they did to the vision of a Star Wars MMO, what it could and should have been. After all the chance they had, the tons of employees, tons of money, years of time, years of MMO experience and one Star Wars MMO forerunner to learn from THIS was all?
Sorry. It sure can survive and as F2P will have it's merits. I enjoyed raising two chars to max level and 2 more to mid level, but that was as much fun as there was in, and IMVPO it was mostly like a single player RPG with some online additions.
It is not altogether bad as a game, but as a Star Wars MMO it is an abomination of everything a Massively Multiplayer RPG in a Star Wars MMO SHOULD and COULD have been, and I hate Bioware and EA for dropping this ball so miserably and entirely. If a game is good, I pay a monthly fee because it is WORTH it.
This FAIL is even worse than the NGE. And yes, that's just my opinion, take it or leave it.
Like an old German poet of the 19th century said: "If the snow melts, the shit becomes visible."
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
SWTOR takes up too much space on the HD ftp or not.
There are so many other games I would rather have on my rig and they are all worth paying for.
Epic use of quote. I bow to your superior power of quoting!
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Only two?
And what about the other 200 mill or so they've spent on marketing?
Not only could they have closed off the KOTOR series the way it was meant to be closed, spent the extra money to ensure a proper ending was given for ME3 before it was launched, they probably could've designed a new IP as well and actually tried to innovate.
Also a product of EA. Let's face it, EA is like a random fail generator.
Naw EA just fails at making MMOs.
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
two words: CHARACTER SLOTS.
WOOT!
Let's me play with new species and such without messing up my current altitis addiction.
I wonder how it was when the Roman Empire Fell. Wonder if that's how EA/Bioware is now. They were once the golden jewel of gaming, and their fall will eventually become an unnoticed wimper.
You are fast running out of "real games".
You know I would consider to go back with F2P and try out new content and species, but one thing hinders me. They stole my frigging names.
They "merged" my server with another, but not as merge, but we were "free" to decide to go to another server, which was a BS-freedom, because when 90% go, it was a no-decision anyway.
Now I had EXTRA preordered and created my 3 main chars with MY names, and I played 2 of them to max level and the other one to 42, only to find ALL my names were taken by some level 3, 5 and level 10 char. It was the final straw to make me quit. And as long as I don't get my names back SWTOR can rot in hell for all I care. Yes, it is personal. But there are some sorts of player mis-treatment a company who got 214 dollar (150 Euro at the time) plus 6 or 7 months monthly fee from me simply should handle more professional, like giving the older char the priority or the higher level char over players who frigging played the game a few days!
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Can't help myself , after spending money on the CE , feeling the game fall of the cliff after a month or month and half , I've got to visit the official forums now and see the trainwreck I can imagine is happening there.
/popcorn
LOL seriously. Almost all mmos offer a F2P version, even WoW.
SWTOR has well over 500k subs still and this business move should have happened 4 months ago, if not at launch. This is great for SWTOR.
Yet another themepark in the dust. How many is that? Good lord I have lost count ... srsly.
OMG! I hoped for this since the beta weekend...all the story content; not paying a dime! Let's party! Where u at Skuz? Where u at dubyahite? Where u at ktanner? F2P party!
"I will not play it nor any other MMO until they make it possible to obtain the best gear without forcing people to group up to do so." SwampRob
Basically this. SWG had legions of problems. But it was still a better game. Imagine back in 2003-2004 if they had some real marketing muscle, even a fracion of the amount EA put in to TOR?
A lot of the hate comes from the fact that they should've been able to do a lot more. People were playing it and saying "well, it's better than RIFT ,LOTORO and DDO" a game with a very modest budget and two F2P games.
You didn't have to make a WoW killer. Star Wars deserves more than a crappy wow clone. But sadly it probably won't happen.
I think you are confusing F2P with a level limited trial version.
I am glad they are going F2P because I wouldn't have paid to play it, but it is a pretty good time killer when I'm bored. A lot of other people have said it, but I will say it again for clarity. It wasn't the model that killed SWTOR, it was the fact that they released a buggy unfinished game then failed to release fixes and updates in a timely manner. If they would have put out updates faster initially, then chances are a lot more people would have stayed.
This is pretty much the fate of all MMOs from this point out. They will either go F2P within a year or they will start out life as F2P/B2P. There are to just to many free choices with more and more coming down the pipe month after month.
Im not confusing anything. what SWTOR is doing is still ultimately a limited trial version as well, they just offer up to level 50.
You must have played a different game because SWTOR is anything but buggy and unfinished. Its the best MMO out there IMO and it just got better.