SWTOR Switches Allegiance, Goes F2P Next Week
I remember it like it was yesterday, the loud beating of nerd chests everywhere as people pranced around, declaring the upcoming super MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic would be the saving grace of the Pay-to-Play world. An MMO to finally take away a sizeable pie chunk of World of Warcraft subscribers. I'll admit, I bought it.
SWTOR showed us though, that even with hundreds of millions of dollars, voice acting galor, and an IP whose fans are about as loyal as they are rabid for the series, doesn't mean anything when it comes to shouldering a P2P MMO in an inevitably dying payment model.
So, with just under a year of P2P time under its belt, the Sci-Fi, almost monumental in size MMO will be making the inevitable F2P switch on November 15th. Something we have known about for a while. This is EA though, and you can bet a switch to F2P without would not be complete without a few annoying restrictions.
Some of the restrictions, are of course, limited to cosmetic items only available in the new Cartel Store (cash shop). I did find it funny that you can purchase cosmetic axes to replace your lightsabers; didn't I want to wield a lightsaber? Is this now a fantasy MMO?
The deal breaker for some though, will be the fact that a F2P user cannot participate in raids, and only has access to a limited amount of PvP Warzones and instance loot per week. EA recently altered the system to allow for 2 more Warzones per week. But when that brings the total to just 5 and you figure an average Warzone only takes 15 minutes, that is not a huge increase.
SWTOR is not a bad game, it has great voice acting, cool classes and a well-crafted story. But when gaps like this are created between the F2P users and the P2P users, and it is made to appear as if the P2P user is sitting on a luxury island filled with all the things the F2P user could only wish for, that doesn't help your case for F2P transition. Check out the official F2P preview above for more info on the upcoming SWTOR changes.
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About the Author
Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play MMO title since 2009.
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if you dont like it then dont go premium.. if you enjoy it then support the game so there be more patches by paying monthly for the game so you can PvP and Raid as much as you want
alot of people havent tried the game before so atleast people are given the option to try the game and levle up all the way to level 50 and even try a bit of PvP
I played it from the start for 4 or 5 months, and it is a great game, I had to leave due to personal problems irl, else i would of stayed.
I have a level 50 jedi knight, wich i can be playing again.
Raids in this game aren't even that fun to do to begin with, so you won't miss a thing.
For the roleplayers among us, This is all you need.
This game will satisfy your roleplaying need ( if you like the star wars lore ofcourse )
But yea, be glad it goes f2p, if you can't even bother to buy the game, and pay the monthly fee for it, wich isn't even that much compared to WoW, you have no ground to stand on. Stop bitching and play it, else stfu and leave it alone.
(>^-^)> Now have a hug, to chill yer rage.
Don't get me wrong though, it would be even better if it was entirely f2p, but with the amount of money they poured into developing this game, I really couldn't expect anymore than what they've given us.
It's like going into Sahara with the glass of water and when someone asks for it you pull out the bottle of Coca Cola and ask for $10. I mean, what's the point of having the glass of water when you are actually selling Coca Cola?! "You can have it, but you actually can't".
When will some company buy that atrocious EA and end up its pathetic existence I wonder....
i am glad to see the gaming community is finally waking up .it is rather obvious that games get so much hype and backing from gaming sites at launch .. they sponge up alot of money and then go f2p.. yes it is a business and they are in it to make money but at the same time many of us are tired of getting a dutch reach around .. just release it f2p and lets move on.
i for one will not be throwing money out anymore for games.. only to watch them sit idle for a few months and then go free to play with retarded restrictions. it is just another game that i will be throwing into the back of the closet along with my old EQ2 game case...
a variety of features bring players... restrictions just scare them away..