SWTOR: Random Complaint thread. F2P means P2Win

**Ambrosia** · 2012-07-31 15:22

So I guess that Whistle-blower I posted on the previous page was spot on, and probably did work for them.

He stated on the 19th these key comments/upcoming changes:

Game is going F2P.
Adding the cash shop.
New type of coinage to access Quests/Content/etc.
The only thing not verified from him/her is if Danny and Jimmy are gone.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=507623

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07...yoffs-rumored/

I guess they wanted to get this out of the way before the conference call which should start in about 40 minutes.

**The Blackrose** · 2012-07-31 15:24

$15 a month in order to unlock full access? Sheesh. I doubt they're aiming for any new subscriptions with that price point.

**Dantrag** · 2012-07-31 15:34

Wow, those locked down F2P stuff is bad. Just... wow.

**Insanecyclone** · 2012-07-31 15:44

It's freemium, not a real f2p style lol

**Ambrosia** · 2012-07-31 15:56

Originally Posted by The Blackrose

$15 a month in order to unlock full access? Sheesh. I doubt they're aiming for any new subscriptions with that price point.

Yeah I think they went panic mode with this. The sad thing is... the best part of SWTOR... the level 1-49 experience with the story/voice-overs are probably the best parts of the game which is given full access to F2P members. Most of the bad stuff is tied with the P2P model, go figure. I remember Ed Parks stating (from GameBreaker.tv on The Republic) that... and I am paraphrasing here... usually the early adopters:

A. Those that follow your game years before it is released
B. Those that play the alpha/beta/early access builds
C. Those that get the early bird specials or yearly inaugural subscriptions

are usually going to be the ones that will stay with a game for the long haul, or rather have the highest % to stay. Once a game is out, say 6-12 months out, it is much more difficult for new people entering an MMO at that time and stay for the long haul. They might stay for a month or two, but they run a much higher risk of hopping. So yeah, I highly doubt that they will get even a modest influx of new P2P players.

**Cleverness** · 2012-07-31 16:10

Practically everyone has praised SWTOR for its singleplayer and 1-50 experience, so if they somehow make the p2p option look more appealing to people by adding a nice content patch to go with it when this hits they might. And if not, it'll be a good free singleplayer game. Win/win for everyone! Except EA, but fuck them.

**Insanecyclone** · 2012-07-31 16:19

Agreement with Nexon rofl

**Ohemgee** · 2012-07-31 16:23

Wow (no pun intended):

http://www.darthhater.com/articles/s...-earnings-call

Live blog for the 2012 Q1 conference call:

2:14: Giving people choice along side subscriptions should give people plenty of options and drive players to the game. Mentioned break even point was 500,000, SWTOR is well above that but under 1 million total subscribers. Offering two-tiered pricing plan in November. Cancelations: 40% turned off by monthly subscriptions.

**Insanecyclone** · 2012-07-31 16:49

**Ohemgee** · 2012-07-31 17:27

The first thing that came to mind after this call:

**Anoat** · 2012-07-31 17:55

Wait wait so...they are giving us the level 1-50 class story for free but charging you for the operations and endgame stuff that people disliked to begin with? I don't understand, but ok, I'll take it.

**Ambrosia** · 2012-08-01 00:31

Some video commentaries on the switch to the F2P business model and some of the things it offers:

Video I

Video II

http://www.gamebreaker.tv/mmorpg/f2p-swtor/

Video III

**Ambrosia** · 2012-08-01 03:07

Originally Posted by Ohemgee

Wow (no pun intended):

http://www.darthhater.com/articles/s...-earnings-call

Live blog for the 2012 Q1 conference call:

2:14: Giving people choice along side subscriptions should give people plenty of options and drive players to the game. Mentioned break even point was 500,000, SWTOR is well above that but under 1 million total subscribers. Offering two-tiered pricing plan in November. Cancelations: 40% turned off by monthly subscriptions.

We will have to see what comes down the news-wire after what happened today in the conference call. Note this was posted over at MMORPG.com:

"I just listened to their investor conference call; a whole lot of non-answers. The highlight was when Goldman Sachs said E.A.'s number crunching looked dodgy E.A. hung up on them.

They never announced SWTOR's sub numbers other than under one million. They did suggest that the FTP model was an attempt to "claw back" the "churn" of cancelled subscriptions. E.A. also said they expected revenue from subs and micro transactions to be comparable in dollars.

EA also stated that "We don't expect Star Wars free to play revenue to be incremental to the other things we've listed."

In other words, E.A. is distancing itself from SWTOR as much as it can and further lowering it as a priority for EA.

E.A. has also announced they will buy back $500 million in EA stock. If you want to be a uber-hater, you could say that E.A. has to buyback stock because SWTOR 's failure halved their stock value. So if you say that SWTOR cost $500 million in production and marketing, and the stock buyback is an additional $500 million; SWTOR is now a billion dollar mistake."

My response to that is:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9539/ikid.jpg

**Ohemgee** · 2012-08-01 10:22

Oh well.

**Cleverness** · 2012-08-01 11:45

Originally Posted by Ohemgee

Oh well.

http://usversusthem.files.wordpress..../gary_huh1.jpg

**Insanecyclone** · 2012-08-01 11:59

**The Blackrose** · 2012-08-02 00:50

Originally Posted by Insanecyclone

Spoiler: show

And to think, people take THOSE assclowns seriously.

**Lonely** · 2012-08-02 06:15

Honestly who couldn't see the inevitable F2P as soon as you saw it was a complete wow copy paste with post DA2 Bioware in charge.

Didn't the BG gaming section have a subforum for this game too? lol.

**Isiolia** · 2012-08-02 09:16

Originally Posted by The Blackrose

And to think, people take THOSE assclowns seriously.

The articles shown are pretty different though. The first is a developer quote (from the last paragraph of that article), the caption more of a summary of what the guys from Bioware told them. The second is an opinion/discussion piece, from a user, like most anything else posted under Speak Up. Both of them are also from right around launch, not from like a month ago.

Kotaku isn't always a bastion of timely news, but clumping all that together is a bit of a stretch.

**Lucavi** · 2012-08-02 20:46

Originally Posted by Anoat

Wait wait so...they are giving us the level 1-50 class story for free but charging you for the operations and endgame stuff that people disliked to begin with? I don't understand, but ok, I'll take it.

Will be playing now, since the game will be free for the entire 1-50 story, which is what I wanted to see anyway. Really, really glad I put a knife through my hand when I was hovering over the "click to buy" option back in March.

They said that we get a limited number of PVP battlegrounds per week... I wonder how little is "limited"?

Edit: This is an appropriate time for the DBZ Abridged Mr. Popo "Called it!" quote.

Thread: SWTOR: Random Complaint thread. F2P means P2Win

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