[Column] Star Wars: The Old Republic: Reasons to Check Out SWTOR F2P

BillMurphy

Star Wars: The Old Republic goes free-to-play beginning tomorrow and we've got a couple of reasons why we think you should check it out! Read on!

Sure, outside of the free-to-play stuff, Game Update 1.5 isn’t exactly meaty. However, 1.5 is significant in that it adds HK-51, a new companion clearly inspired by HK-47, everyone’s favorite mouthy assassin droid from the Knights of the Old Republic RPG series. HK-51 is acquired as part of the new ‘Section X’ content coming in the update. Section X is a new area on the planet of Belsavis and the quest content found within will continue SWTOR’s overarching storyline centered on the Dread Masters.

Read more of Michael Bitton's Star Wars: The Old Republic: Reasons to Check Out SWTOR F2P.

MMOGamer71

"SWTOR is a Solid Game"

 

What game are you talking about Mike?

Plamgar

Hmm The Cartel lets you trade ? Interesting

JKwervo

This whole article is full of failed optimism. Solid game? Give me a friggin break.

kevjards

i've reinstalled the game so that i can check it out..i,m not sure about the limitations in that i dont understand them all atm..i want to see how this pans out.maybe i'll resub if there is enouggh content..but not before i have checked out the f2p stuff.

saxifr

The estimated 1.5 million who have dropped this piece of trash disagree with the author's opinion that this is a solid game.

 

 

protodoxa

Uhm I read this article expecting to roll my eyes, but I am pleased to learn the Cartel Market is tied to the ingame economy. How does this work exactly? I am not sure I could stomach the game still with all the "story" but I like it when f2p choses this kind of economic implementation of the cash shop currency, so I'll probably check it out if only to see how it works in SWTOR, while skipping as much of the "story" as possible.

FrodoFragins

So.  Can you at least comment on the items they are selling that you think go overboard?

 

What are your opinions of them locking the side action bars, which are pretty much necessary after level 30. 

 

I've never heard of a company gimping the UI for a F2P game.  Can you atleast call them out on that?

MadDemon64

Originally posted by MMOGamer71

"SWTOR is a Solid Game"

 

What game are you talking about Mike?

It's a solid game.  It just fails as an MMO.

Now, if SWTOR had been released as a single player game, I am pretty sure many of the complaints people have about it would disappear.

Ridan477

I am personally looking forward to getting back into SWTOR. To me its not worth paying 15 bucks for simply becuase I am not huge on raiding. However I will sub again if they add some real world pvp content. I am looking forward to finishing my BH story though.

achesoma

If I hear one more time that the "sub-fee" was the problem players had with SWTOR I'm gonna punch a kitten in the face.  Seriously, that is the biggest bunch of BS.  How about starting with something like game performance?  Is that improved?  I seemed to have an awful lot of lag and drop in fps for game that's so heavily instanced. 

fonoi

After them wanting me to sub to get the "free coins", I will never even try the game. What a crock. I guess it wasnt enought I spent $60 to buy the game and another $60 on subs.

BlueLantern

lol, if the sub fee was the problem then why is their freemium designed to force players to sub?

Dahkot72

So solid games lead to multiple head dev staff quitting/laid off , the company distancing themselves from even mentioning it in finacials anymore when once they were saying it would challenge WoW, and the further train wreck that was and is SWTOR?

Solid game indeed. Especially that Iluum 100 vs 100 large scale battles they promoted pre launch , solid as it gets.

 

 

protodoxa

Yeah, I have to agree. Subs were not the problem with SWTOR, at least by themselves; it was what they purchased, and that was very flimsy indeed.

meddyck

The way they've implemented F2P is terrible, but I'm going to try to come back anyway. I did enjoy the game reasonably well for the first few months before ultimately getting tired of doing the same things over and over. Anyway I need a break from grinding gold to buy exotic gear that is soon to be worthless in GW 2, so I'll see if there's any fun to be had in this game again.

saxifr

You know, I have to wonder that if this game is so solid, why isn't the author pushing people to subscribe instead of F2P?

rawfox

A lot people have opinions and expectations.

They hope that devs will listen to them and create the impossible.

I take it as what it is now.

I canceled my account for nearly 3 months due to my favorite hate list of things i really dislike.

I thought, other games do better for my taste, but i missed multible buttonbars, pots, stims, keybinds, äCtion ..

Yeah i know, my hatelist .. remember skilldelay ? ... My lousy dualcore ... omg, now i have 8 cores AMD and penis grafix card, 40+ fps in WZ, but still .. my hate list, the targeting, lagspikes, stunwars, redundant look and feel and i really dont like questing that mutch ..

 

Enuff reasons to cancel again, but its Mary go arround, no button choices in other favorite games, just a few to smash, less tactics in my decisions, you can say what you want, but the PvP in SWTOR is awesome ... if it works like it should ... beside of the "new" resolve, and, and ...

 

Age of Conan combat and PvP is still a little bit better, but SWTOR is SciFi at least and has factions ^^

The F2P model is somewhat too restrictive for me and it may be designed, to make people subscibe but there it is again, my own expectations have been different, so what ... i take it as it is.

Its a good game for me ^^ 7/10

 

vonryan123

Bill Love most of what you write and MMORPGFTW. BUT! after reading that I'm kinda lost on what game your playing.

I will return to Tor to play the story thats it.

With current restrictions for the F2F (free 2 fail) model I can't even see what they were aiming for its not like we are going to get "hooked" and dish out tons of cash.

 

Most not all but a very large group thats going to play this as f2p are returning players some new.

We didnt like what we were paying for so we stoppped making it f2p with a ton of "buy now" crap in it will only make it that much more of a  NOT so solid title. The game itself falls so short of even the lowest standards I can think of.

 

 

Bill for you to even state the game is Solid and worth another look after all the info thats out there or even on this site puts my faith in you as a writer for this site in question. [mod edit]

MMOGamer71

To celebrate F2P EA is having 12 hours of downtime on the F2P release date.

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/scheduled-maintenance-game-update-1.5-november-15th-2012

FrodoFragins

Originally posted by vonryan123

Bill Love most of what you write and MMORPGFTW. BUT! after reading that I'm kinda lost on what game your playing.

 

It's not written by Bill, it's written by Mike.  I have no idea why they make it confusing by never letting the authors post their own articles.

AxiosImmortal

Originally posted by MMOGamer71

To celebrate F2P EA is having 12 hours of downtime on the F2P release date.

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/scheduled-maintenance-game-update-1.5-november-15th-2012

The common thing in every swtor thread is there is a bunch of complaints and humor to make fun of the game. Look at the MMO fanbase .

MikeB

Originally posted by protodoxa
Uhm I read this article expecting to roll my eyes, but I am pleased to learn the Cartel Market is tied to the ingame economy. How does this work exactly? I am not sure I could stomach the game still with all the "story" but I like it when f2p choses this kind of economic implementation of the cash shop currency, so I'll probably check it out if only to see how it works in SWTOR, while skipping as much of the "story" as possible.

When you purchase anything from the in-game store, be it some sort of item or unlock it actually generates an item for you to consume. This item can be traded amongst other players via person-to-person trades or the auction house. There is a short cooldown before you can trade the item, though. This is implemented as a security measure.

 

Yamota

Originally posted by MadDemon64

Originally posted by MMOGamer71

"SWTOR is a Solid Game"

 

What game are you talking about Mike?

It's a solid game.  It just fails as an MMO.

Now, if SWTOR had been released as a single player game, I am pretty sure many of the complaints people have about it would disappear.

Well if it was a single player game and they would have made the companion system better, like it was in Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age Origins, I think it would have been a really good game.

But as you say, it fails as an MMO. Both because of the solo/instanced feel of it but also because they had to cut corner because it was supposed to be an MMO. So basically it's a lose-lose.

That being said I will not play the game when it goes F2P. There are single player games which are better than it and there are MMORPGs which are better aswell, so there is no real reason for me to play it. And although I like the SW setting I wont play a game just because of it. It has to be worth my time as well and SW:TOR is simply not good enough.

MMOGamer71

Originally posted by Jonoku

Originally posted by MMOGamer71

To celebrate F2P EA is having 12 hours of downtime on the F2P release date.

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/scheduled-maintenance-game-update-1.5-november-15th-2012

The common thing in every swtor thread is there is a bunch of complaints and humor to make fun of the game. Look at the MMO fanbase .

The point is that it makes no sense to push F2P when your servers are going to be down on the F2P release date which is clearly zero insight on the developers part. 

Ironically this is why this game is F2P.

Greymantle4

I will check it out on the 16th and pick up my story line again barring the action bar restrictions. My characters are in the 30's and if I can make it work with 2 action bars I will give it a go.  If not I will uninstall and never look back.