Holy shit that character creation restriction.
This whole "limitedf2p" thing will go away eventually. Bioware/Lucas are just trying to scrounge as much money out of the subscription model as possible. Once enough of the f2P players stop playing the F2P version and don't buy the P2P version, and just stop playing the game altogether, they'll remove the F2P restrictions and the game'll be almost entirely F2P.
Mmmm, I don't know about that. Very, very few games that have gone f2p and still have a p2p option don't have severe restrictions on the f2p side of things. Look at LOTRO, for example, where you can't even access all of the story unless you pay.
They won't remove the f2p restrictions unless they drop the paid model entirely, most likely. They must keep some incentive for people to pay, after all.
Free to Play Player Restrictions.
'One quickbar only with 12 abilities.' Hahahaha hopy shit!
Gog damn, dem restrictions. Thats pretty much unplayable. Whats even the point anymore, I doubt they'll get a ton of new or returning customers with those kinds of restrictions.
Maybe it's because I'm used to that sort of thing, but didn't they already have that sort of skill setup? Or maybe I'm confusing it with Diablo III...
I dunno, I don't really see a setup that actually requires players to think a bit as opposed to having every skill available all the time as really being a bad thing.
Originally posted by Peach
Maybe it's because I'm used to that sort of thing, but didn't they already have that sort of skill setup? Or maybe I'm confusing it with Diablo III...I dunno, I don't really see a setup that actually requires players to think a bit as opposed to having every skill available all the time as really being a bad thing.
It's not a question of skill, but as Ush pointed out its how the game is designed. Its just not possible to play as well without at least 2 quickbars. Most of the abilities you get have cooldowns, so you need to be able to set up a rotation using the quickbars. This restriction pretty much gimps a FTP player. I can't even imagine that I'd be able to get through the higher level story missions with this restriction.
And the other restrictions are lulzy. 3 loot rolls a week? 1 goddamn crew skill? No titles or legacy names?
Now I'm no MMO expert, but this seems all wrong. You want to reward subscribers, not punish FTP customers.
Fair's fair- they are reacting to feedback.
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/10/29/star-wars-the-old-republic-f2p-restrictions-lessened
FTP players now get two skillbars and more warzones.
Nonetheless, the principle of restricting skillbars is still there and that's poor.
I don't mind restrictions on endgame stuff (Seriously, who does PVP or raids before hitting the level cap?), but bar restrictions is just dumb..
As others said, their thinking on this is skewed. Instead of thinking "how can we cripple the game enough to force them to pay up", they should be thinking "how can we make this a good enough experience to grow our user base and keep them from leaving, and entice players to pony up cash for an even better experience?"
They're using demo logic, and that doesn't work in the current ftp models..
Originally posted by Ushgarak
Fair's fair- they are reacting to feedback.http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/10/29/star-wars-the-old-republic-f2p-restrictions-lessened
FTP players now get two skillbars and more warzones.
Nonetheless, the principle of restricting skillbars is still there and that's poor.
That's excellent. 2 skillbars are pretty much enough for storyline, or anything else really.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/08/01/five-lessons-learned-as-swtor-surrenders/
Overlooking every other point on this list, SWTOR could have been a big success if it simply cost less to make. We may never get any official figures from EA/Bioware, but production cost estimates for the game are between $200 and $300 million, with marketing at least another $100M past that. It’s very likely to be the most expensive game ever made.
Jesus ****ing christ. facepalm
I'm willing to vote TOR as worst game ever made just on that notion.
I'd stick closer to the 200 than the 300- high numbers were flying around during development that Bioware denied.
Nonetheless, it's bloody expensive and this is why they needed a 500K subscriber base just to avoid a loss (and a one million + base to make a worthwhile return on investment), which is why they switched to Free-to-Play as numbers started heading south of half a million.
As to where the money went- aside from copious amount of voice acting that people just skip and cgi trailers that did much for hype but not much for the game, it's not really clear. The game itself doesn't reflect the investment- that's not a quality judgement but a simple observation that it does not offer a hundred million more dollars' worth of content, graphic or sound quality than other comparable games.