Former SWTOR Lead Developer Wants Players To "Feel Good" About Spending
Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't exactly held up in most gaming circles as an example of free-to-play done right, in the same vein as games like League of Legends or Team Fortress 2. It makes you wonder how much the people who implemented its F2P design were aware of exactly what they were doing.
At least one person seems to be. Speaking at the recent Game Developers' Conference, former SWTOR lead developer Damion Schubert had a few interesting things to say about free-to-play design that would seem to be at odds at the direction BioWare went with its MMO. According to Wired, Schubert understands how the market has largely shifted to free-to-play/freemium model, saying that "Not only is free coming, we’re going to see things get more free" and how "absurd" it seems these days that the majority of games used to charge up front for boxes.
But his most telling statements come near the end of the piece, a combination of paraphrasing by the article's writer and a direct quote from Schubert:
...free-to-play evangelists... warn against going down the slippery slope of chasing microtransactions. In his talk, he emphasized the importance of free-to-play designers always having someone in the room to advocate for players’ interests; someone to ensure that conversations don’t shift too far into methods of squeezing players for every penny.
"You want people to feel good about every dollar they give you," Schubert said.
It makes you wonder if there was that kind of "advocate" in the room when SWTOR's F2P system was under discussion, or even whether Schubert took up that role. If he, or someone else did, it seems to have gone largely unheeded.
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Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
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I'm very hopeful for this F2P Madden alternative, but I hate how the early access is monetized already.
Expect some of the usual suspects in the multiplayer categories.
Engage in ground combat and affect the largest player-drive war in Eve’s history.
They aren't very creative about their ways, instead of rewarding people who pay for it, they punish people that don't spend by denying them basic features that are essential in a game to be playable. How can anyone be proud of a system like that?
Not to mention, it's a huge cash grab. The original Buy + sub every 30 days actually costed LESS than it does now to do have everything you need. They charge you for every single imaginable thing that makes any sense in the game :D
Being able to buy that stuff with in-game money did help it but you can still only get the absolutemost important things.
TL;DR It's the worst "free to play" business model on the market currently, and it's creators being proud of it shows extreme ignorance and money hunger from their part. What a joke.
no it doesn't, it is EA games, they only have business people talking about money, gold and diamonds xD
I've never felt like a customer to SWTOR, only a cow ready to be squeezed, and it shows in the model. Weird thing is, since this game came out, and flopped as hard as it did, a lot of other games released that actually did it right. For those games, I am deeply thankful, as it showed me that EA/Bioware didn't manage to sway the industry itself into the shenanigans it put forth.
Honestly, I would play this game again if they'd just get rid of the limits, or put in a pack that would let you remove limits permanently. I agree that subbers need bang for their buck, but not the end game content. Going F2P doesn't help anyone or anything if you keep endgame PvE and PvP locked away from the masses.
That business model is much better as it doesn't require the developers to make restrictions as they would have if they went with the free to play model.
Honestly it would have helped SWTOR a lot if followed the example of the Guild Wars games, a simple one time fee and the whole game is open to you, no restrictions that prevent you from having fun with your friends and just about the only thing you would need to pay for would be the expansion packs.
And in regards of the topic. They can speak as much as they want, but I doubt they will ever understand. If you don't play MMOs all the time yourself, you will NEVER understand or feel what is needed in order to be great. Developers don't think how to make a game great, they think how to get money. That is their job I understand. Yet don't expect a game to be good if you don't make to play and enjoy for yourself.