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SWG going FTP-- Any chance?
erickdefores
Member Posts: 161
Is there any talk of Star Wars Galaxies going free to play Like EQ2 Extended? If so would you play it?
Comments
I read about a rumor on this site in an article that claimed a major MMORPG title was going to use a form of F2P.
I bet there is a discussion about going to a buy 2 play model with DLC like content, which EA I think has more faith in than Bioware (just based on numbers involved with Dragon Age).
If testers are finding the game to be a stand-alone single player experience more so than a MMO I could see a 59.99 tag on this with an item shop or maybe even just content packs. The most successful MMO release recently finacially I would bet was the Star Wars Clone Wars game by Sony, and I bet that turned some heads.
I know we'll be paying for a box on this one. I'm just not sure if a monthly fee will be the only revenue generating move decided by the companies involved.
No more preorders for me though so I will pick this up possibly a good amount of time after launch. I doubt anyone would steal my name so there's no need to be on there day 1 anyway.
To the first responder this is about the first Star Wars mmorpg not The Old Republic and to the op I don't think that Sony has any interest in breathing any life into SWG so I would be really surprised if they did.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Theartist, i think you are talking about Star wars the old republic, not star wars galaxies. The OP is referring to galaxies the one being run by sony.
He/she is wondering if the Galaxies version is going FTP.
As for the topic? it might if they lose much more of their population. They might try this shortly after the release of the old republic to get in on the hype that will follow the release.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Since EQ2, I have also wondered if SWG would go F2P. There is speculation about this in the SWG community as well, though no hard facts to support it, to my knowledge.
However, as I think of SWG as F2P I wonder how well that would work. SWG is such an open-world sandbox game that trying to do micro transaction for contect and items sounds hard to do in such a setting. I guess time will tell.
Above all else... never ever piss off the penguin.
Oh right. Deh' I should've paid attention.
On topic; SoE isn't having quite the success Turbine is, and that's based only on what I've seen in both games and looking about at discussion sites like this. I bet we see it soon tho', why not try with a bigger IP?
Yes I feel the same. But My experiance with the NGE is limited to the first month after switching so I dont know how the game would transfer to a money making FTP.
But then I didnt see how EQ2 would transfer... I cant speek for how well EQ 2 is doing for revinue but for a couple months it was packed full of new people.
I would give Star Wars Galaxies a month or 2 if it went FTP.
A bigger IP? There's not many out there bigger than Star Wars
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
With the game in its present pitiful raped condition, you could not PAY ME to play it.
I would have to say no. Although I have been wrong before. Games like EQ2 and LOTR, the F2p model works. Just cant see F2P model working for SWG.
There's one MEGA hurdle facing SWG though...what would they sell?
Unlike EQ2 or LOTRO or nearly any other game, there's nothing for SWG to sell. SWG hasn't had anything more than a tweak for the past 3 years. There are no expansion zones to buy, no "quest packs" to be interested in.
The closest they could get is maybe selling TCG loot, but that removes the whole "luck" thing from the TCG, which is paramount to its success. If players could simply flat out "buy" whatever it is, it would destroy the economy they've created for the TCG. They add in 15 crap items, 3 "nice" items. It's that fight for the RARE that has kept the TCG going.
And face it guys...with 2-3 Devs only, SWG is lucky to be running. There's simply not enough, nor will there ever be enough, developer resources to make it even almost possible. SoE missed their chance with this one.
Well stated as usual and an opinon about SWG I would listen to if I would gauge by the posts I've read from you before. The bottom line is the amount of work it would take to make this game a viable f2p game would probably be best served with them simply making an SWG2 so I doubt we would ever see this particular game go f2p.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Very true.
Knowing SoE, they'd probably take a few classes away in f2p, overpower them, and put them up for sale. Jedi, certainly.
They could sell off some of the planets, maybe Tattoine and Correlia. Probably JtL. All the expansions. That's about all I can think of, offhand. Multiplayer and special ships. "Mounts"...
That's exactly what I'm saying.
Their pirate game was a B effort at best and we all know after 2003 EverQuest just didn't have the same glamore it once held with the community. To top Turbine's MMOs adding a F2P option to their other play options; throwing the name Star Wars out into the market would be the biggest Free 2 Play Hybrid change made to date.
I think Sony has to work with EA, but that sort of move could dampen the winds billowing in TOR's sails at the moment.
SWG will never go F2P. The only reason its still afloat now is because so many people run multiple accounts. I know several who in the 10 to 15 active account range. If they went F2P they would take a huge loss. That and they make a ton off those same multi-account holder types through their trading card game(lottery).
The match made in he!!, for the customer that is. With respect.
F2P?
Free is not in SOE'S vocabulary
I think you're spot on. It's the multiple MULTIPLE account holders keeping the game alive these days. TCG isn't making money right now - they need to finish DCUO, so they're willing to forgo the bonus bucks from TCG to focus on finally releasing DCUO. TCG is at least 6month behind where it should have been. (link)
Well, it looks like the seventh TCG expansion, 'The Price of Victory', is about to release. The new loot cards even include a Cloud City house structure which is sure to pry open the players' wallets.
Here is the link to the official announcment -
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/tradingcardgame/cardsets.vm?set=tpov
Ya know...I saw that and just shook my head. WTF were the odds that it would be released the DAY I point out how f'n behind it is?! Doesn't change what I posted, but I found it amazingly odd.
Now...about them lottery numbers...
They'd be smart to, but it doesn't sound like a very SOE thing to do...
Its easy.
Offer half the classes & races for free charge for the rest, offer XP potions, Social crap, "mounts", offer the spaceship flight portion of the game as a buyable unlock, Limit currency, crafting and chat, limit use of that quest designer jammy and maybe certain planets.
Shit man I could go on and on. they totally could make this game Ftp. my only question is who would actually play it?
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
So are you thinking a new server like with EQ2?
That ruins the whole concept of F2P IMO, but it would open some demand for the stuff you mention.
I just still don't see a F2P SWG being a draw or much of a success. Games like LOTRO and even EQ2 are ADDING content, SWG hasn't had an expansion since before the NGE. Anyone who might have been interested in SWG has likely TRIED it and seen what it offers...there's nothing most fans haven't already 'explored'.
In the next 6 months I would wager SWG will go f2p or die off. Actually, I am surprised it hasn't gone f2p already. Then again SOE may be cooking up some general f2p model to apply to their failing franchises like SWG and Vanguard.
I'm just surprised SOE didn't make this title go F2P long ago. Smed was totally in love with microtransactions years ago.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Making SWG free to play would require a lot of work. Not only from the viewpoint of coding all the changes, but also changes in the games design to make it compatible with a free to play system.
The current devs struggle to do things as simple as holiday events without major bugs or problems. Most of the recent game content is released bugged, broken or disfunctional and left that way. SWG has never been an easy game for soe to develop, because it was rushed to release and redesigned so many times that it just doesn't fit well together.
I highly doubt swg will ever go free to play.
First it would require lucas arts to sign off and I seriously doubt they would want to risk reviving all the negative press that SWG is when they are about to release a new mmo. They just layed off staff, so I doubt they want to risk SWTOR on the off chance that soe somehow makes SWG f2p something that will be successful.
Second it would require soe to actually do it right. They already failed with EQ2X. They struggle with the simplest of additions to swg currently.
Third the game servers could not handle it. Free to play would just crush the servers, because they can't handle normal mmo loads like other games do.
I say the chances of swg going free to play are slim and if it does it will be a complete mess.