BioWare looking at making The Old Republic Free to play.

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http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/15/bioware-looking-at-free-to-play-for-the-old-republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic may adopt a free-to-play model, according to lead technical designer Emmanuel Lusinchi.

In an interview with gamestm, Lusinchi admits that Bioware acknowledges the need to adapt in the increasingly overpopulated MMO genre.


The Old Republic has had a tough time of late, with reports of falling subscriber numbers and staff layoffs resulting in many speculating about the game's future. But when IGN interviewed Emmanuel, he revealed that Bioware is still committed to making the game the best it can be, and this seems to be another step in realising this.
Well me, and several others, called it.
 
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Yea F2P is fake though. There is enough cash in it to sustain games.

Aside from that. Im not getting it ^^
 
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Funny.. I said they would do it soon enough and I recall a few people saying it wouldn't happen because Lucas wouldn't allow it. Shame it's only to lvl 15.. can't wait though, first step.
 
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if so, it's not gonna be for a long while. They still have alot of content to add, fix, and fix some more, 'cause apparently they can't get that part done the first time. The game will re-flourish once they start picking off WoW some more. It still needs cross-server queuing, realm/faction changes, and major content upgrades/additions since there's no real end-game to it. The operations (Equivalent to raids) have story to them, but they are their own story and don't contribute to the over-all Old Republic universe, which is a big problem for a game that capitalizes so much on story drive.

I've said it before, great game but the developers aren't at all experienced in the mmo area. I'd still suggest trying it out, if you haven't already and are a star wars fan. It's similar to WoW, but it has just enough to really make it a step up. It just doesn't have the content that Warcraft does.
 
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Only reason I'm going to play is for the story itself. Have WAY to many other games that I play to worry about end game content which has been my issue with just about EVERY mmo. Most have a story that you don't really give a damn about, and it's geared toward end game raids/content which I don't care in the least for. So I play WW2Online, since there is no story, and no end game stuff, just an endless war with thousands of people, simulation style.

It's the reason I enjoy DBO, because while DBO is keeping the mind of end game content (not finished yet but will get there eventually) it still has a story that I'm interested in. So I'm willing to bet I'll be the same way with this, in it till the main story ends, then not able to care less about anything after the fact.
 
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How the heck are you able to gouge DBO's Story? I couldn't make sense of what I was doing, and why, most of the time.
 
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Never got that far. :-/
 

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I can't in good conscience play Knights of the Old Republic. I wanted a Kotor 3, not an MMO. I feel like playing the game would in some small way help it to success and validate the game's existence in EA's eyes. I think that video game companies are starting to understand that developing an MMO is probably a bad idea. The new craze is going to be Free To Play games instead of MMO's, but I think companies will actually make money with F2P games..
 
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I can't in good conscience play Knights of the Old Republic. I wanted a Kotor 3, not an MMO. I feel like playing the game would in some small way help it to success and validate the game's existence in EA's eyes. I think that video game companies are starting to understand that developing an MMO is probably a bad idea. The new craze is going to be Free To Play games instead of MMO's, but I think companies will actually make money with F2P games..
Of course they do, they said some users average nearly 500$ a month in cash shop items in F2P MMO's. You really need to think about that. Way more money, though the games usually aren't long term or well loved.
 

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I really don't like F2P. I know this is off topic, but the entire business model of F2P games is getting you addicted to something and then making you pay for that addiction. Even if it's all cosmetic items, it just doesn't sit well with me. At least with traditional MMO's they charge you up front, it's not a bait and switch.
 
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I really don't like F2P. I know this is off topic, but the entire business model of F2P games is getting you addicted to something and then making you pay for that addiction. Even if it's all cosmetic items, it just doesn't sit well with me. At least with traditional MMO's they charge you up front, it's not a bait and switch.
I was actually expecting this F2P to happen, people who play MMO's appreciate loot, ridiculous gear, pvp combat, pve combat(only if it's interesting), power leveling more than an actual story so yeah of course the game is doing bad. I have to agree with someone that said he would have preferred a Kotor 3 though, because the only single reason I would have bothered with an almost copy-pasted WoW MMO was the innovative way of telling a story. But I would have never in hell have accepted to pay a monthly subscription fee. So if this is true, I will be happy, but if not, well I will most likely be busy with Guild Wars 2 sorry "Ear Ants" no money for you from me on this game.

It's your own fault if you can't resist paying for some stuff or if you get baited into paying for some stuff, not the business models. There are indeed models that are downright awful and cleverly try to force you to pay for their services but most of them aren't like this. You should be able to play just as well without spending a penny, with the condition that you have to work a little harder for things like upgrades. However buying things like cosmetics that don't benefit you in any way and are nothing but just shiny stuff is strictly your fault for wasting money on them.

The pay-to-play model has stopped being valid a long time ago since the tech of servers and games has evolved way beyond the need to be sustained by a constant monthly income. It's now cheaper then it used to be to maintain it, easier too, you don't need a lot of staff if the game is doing average, so to me pay-to-play = milk me for more money, which is why I avoid such a system like the Plague. Also many games have spat in the face of p2p with their f2p which was doing better, also a lot of games gave up p2p like DDO which was doing bad and LOTRO which was doing ok and switched to f2p and now both of them are doing pretty fantastic.

Kudos for guys like the ones behind Guild Wars 2 who only ask me to pay for the game once and then that's it, if I want I can pay for cosmetics, probably character slots etc and it's reasonable because I will not be spending every month a large amount of time playing the damn game to justify a subscription fee anyway, there will be months where I may not have time to play at all so why do I still have to pay 10-15$ for those months? (if I'm not mistaken that is the average sum asked for a game monthly correct me if I'm wrong pls) To me buy-to-play seems like the most reasonable of all the models.
 
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Yes, Guild Wars 2 is...well, was, maybe stuill is, my MMO of choice.

Until my account was stolen and they just completely locked it and said suspicious activity and that was it.

All my Guild Wars + expansions + costumes, and the thousands of hours I put it, filling my Hall of Monuments, I also linked my GW2 pre-order key to it, a few days before it was gone for good. They just completely shut it down. I loved ArenaNet until that...though NCSoft handles that side, I know...it's just like..

The hype I had for GW2 was insane, I filled my HoM, pre-ordered ,waited for the beta...was so excited to get all the cool HoM only items and legacy titles...

Then...just...completely got ****ed by NCSoft over my account and I don't even have the stomach to watch anything GW2 related or news related...

I'm on the fence about it...after what I just lost...I mean...I'd have to buy it again...60$...I wouldn't get any of my character names from the first GW1, as they were reserved...and I wouldn't have my HoM stuff...I mean talk about killing me desire to play.

Guild Wars 2 & Final Fantasy XIV are the only MMO's I am looking forward to...and Guild Wars 2 was at the top of those two...but...ugh...my experience has made me greatly shy away from it...and there is nothing can be done, they stopped replying to my Help Desk reports...as for how I was hacked, I heard NCSoft servers were breached or something and it happened to a lot of people...

I had my CD Keys, my credit card info, screenshots, friends on my friends list, ect...but they said it was no proof that it was my account...and just gone forever...people told me I should make it a legal matter, or start going from game website to game website...but that'd accomplish nothing...they might threaten me, or something...and I don't have money for a lawyer. Just distasteful of the whole thing now.

Final Fantasy XIV is getting better though...2.0 can't be far away and while it had a very, very rough launch, I still have massive amounts of faith in it.

This trailer explains why...it's not your cookie cutter MMO, though that proved somewhat it's downfall as well...but I still really love FFXI and have hopes for "2.0", though the sub fee is back, for 9.99$ though.

http://youtu.be/cW-dfDTruMQ?hd=1
 
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Let me get this straight MK.. They release a horrible game, throw "we're sorry" all over the place, then say "Oh, well we did this and this to change it and make it like it was suppose to be when it launched, but instead of leaving it F2P for that first month after the patch, since it's almost like a new game now and SHOULD be the game you were playing with that first free month you get when you BUY the game.. We're just gonna go ahead and make you take a blind leap of faith and charge you so you can see what we've done differently"? Yeah.. I'll pass on that business model. I don't hate SQUENIX.. just sometimes they make REALLLLLLLY stupid marketing decisions.
 
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Huh?

Final Fantasy XIV had over a year of F2P.

Once they fixed what many people didn't like; they put the fee back in, at a reduced rate.

And it wasn't a horrible game. I loved it. Just most people didn't like it; because it wasn't WoW, and it wasn't very user friendly. They've been working hard as heck to fix all these issues. Just recently they had to be a sub fee back in, as they've been losing money ever since.

They also plan to have a F2P month when 2.0 comes out. Everything you just said was bullshit.

And the game was released as it was meant to be. As the developers, if you watch the behind the scenes, intended it

Just the community didn't like it. So instead of announcing a failure and making it F2P, or just leaving it to rot to die; they replaced the entire team, made it free to play for over a year, and implemented hundreds of changed based on user feedback, and continue to do so.

All people whom purchased the game since before the upcoming 2.0 patch will pay a reduced sub fee as well, on top of some special in-game items.

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/19424-preview-final-fantasy-xiv-20-in-new-pc-screens/

They are working very hard to please old fans and new fans alike...but they can't work for free. You see the graphics? Better than any MMO out there. Massive worlds without any loading, high quality everything...sharp textures. All motion captured animations, for -everything-, state of the art cutscenes, voice acted, and just that awesome Squeenix fashion.

They are trying very hard...people didn't like their game, so they are changing...which is what few MMO's do post release.

Final Fantasy XIV - Release & 2.0 are almost going to be so different, they could have named it another game. They are changing / upgrading the engine, revamping the entire class system, combat system, and several other systems...and adding new content, on top of that.


Now, keep in mind, this is free, obviously, to please people who bought it. THey basically had to remake 70% of the game according to fan-feedback, for no sub fee, for over a year, and no real new purchases. It probably would have been cheaper to just let it flounder.
 
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Yes, Guild Wars 2 is...well, was, maybe stuill is, my MMO of choice.

Until my account was stolen and they just completely locked it and said suspicious activity and that was it.

All my Guild Wars + expansions + costumes, and the thousands of hours I put it, filling my Hall of Monuments, I also linked my GW2 pre-order key to it, a few days before it was gone for good. They just completely shut it down. I loved ArenaNet until that...though NCSoft handles that side, I know...it's just like..

The hype I had for GW2 was insane, I filled my HoM, pre-ordered ,waited for the beta...was so excited to get all the cool HoM only items and legacy titles...

Then...just...completely got ****ed by NCSoft over my account and I don't even have the stomach to watch anything GW2 related or news related...

I'm on the fence about it...after what I just lost...I mean...I'd have to buy it again...60$...I wouldn't get any of my character names from the first GW1, as they were reserved...and I wouldn't have my HoM stuff...I mean talk about killing me desire to play.

Guild Wars 2 & Final Fantasy XIV are the only MMO's I am looking forward to...and Guild Wars 2 was at the top of those two...but...ugh...my experience has made me greatly shy away from it...and there is nothing can be done, they stopped replying to my Help Desk reports...as for how I was hacked, I heard NCSoft servers were breached or something and it happened to a lot of people...

I had my CD Keys, my credit card info, screenshots, friends on my friends list, ect...but they said it was no proof that it was my account...and just gone forever...people told me I should make it a legal matter, or start going from game website to game website...but that'd accomplish nothing...they might threaten me, or something...and I don't have money for a lawyer. Just distasteful of the whole thing now.

Final Fantasy XIV is getting better though...2.0 can't be far away and while it had a very, very rough launch, I still have massive amounts of faith in it.

This trailer explains why...it's not your cookie cutter MMO, though that proved somewhat it's downfall as well...but I still really love FFXI and have hopes for "2.0", though the sub fee is back, for 9.99$ though.

http://youtu.be/cW-dfDTruMQ?hd=1
Did you own a digital copy of GW or a physical one? (you know like DVD's etc.)
 
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Yes, I had physical and digital.

It doesn't matter at this point; they've already said it is permanent and they won't help me with my situation anymore.
 
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Sorry you disagree with my opinion, but it wasn't as good as FFXI at launch and everyone knows it. As for no loading, that's been done before see WW2Online which is a 1/2 scale of western Europe, 30,000km2 will full on simulation ballistics modeling, and it's been doing it since mid 2001 and has (thankfully) seen many recent graphical updates. That isn't to say a game of it's (FFXIV) graphical quality in a world like that isn't impressive, just that if I wanted pretty graphics I would play Crysis or BF3.

The game wasn't released as it was meant to be, otherwise they would have up and said it. Which they didn't, they gave every excuse in the book as to why it wasn't up to the current 'standard', you call it WoW, I call it proper balance in classes/exp gain from quests vs mob hunts and so on.

Moving on to them giving a free month after 2.0, you did not state this, all you said was they were switching back to a P2P system. Had you said something along the lines of 'a month after 2.0 drops, they will be switching back to P2P @ 9.99 /m' I wouldn't have bothered posting at all because that was quite obviously my main concern, that a company would 'fix'(we'll see how accurate that word is when it does drop) their game, then say 'instead of letting you check it out, we're gonna milk a quick $ outta ya for you to see if you like the change or not'.
 
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I honestly can't really blame them for wanting to milk some cash outta people atm even if they brought it on themselves. They lost alot of money doing the years worth of f2p. and the games only 20 bucks now, man. It's still 60 to get ToR and like 80 for all the WoW expansions. can't expect something for nothing, even if that something seems like nothing to you. I DO really wish they had a trial version, though. Shouldn't that be elementary for an mmo?

I honestly just WANT to like final fantasy, man, so I'll probably give them every chance they need to make it a good game. Final fantasy was a game I grew up with and loved for the majority of my sexless adolescence so I just really can't help it.

Back to Swtor:
Whoever said it was a WoW clone...it's really not. Granted, it's very similar but there are alot of differences between the two games. The only difference I care about, however, is the story's you get while leveling a character. Makes the grind go SO much easier than in WoW.

The only problem I have with a f2p model is the lack of effort that will go into gearing up at end game. You CAN put in an honest effort and do the operations and flashpoints. Or you can fork over 10 dollars.
 

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