...is insane.
Star Wars: The Old Republic has moved
past being the game for me. Its initial design promised me a lot of
things I was looking for in an MMORPG, more RPG less MMO. That is to
say, a lot of story content and personal choice combined with the
ability to run challenging content with my friends and guild. As the
year has progressed the development process seemed to take a turn
away from the type of game-play I was interested in.
That being said, I can still look
objectively at this model and say, no...that's just nut-burgers.
The primary flaw in the structure of
the F2P model seems to stem from the failure to recognize that the
end game content provided was not keeping subscribers. The idea of
giving away the 1-50 game in an effort to attract players who they
would then block access to grindy end game content unless it was paid
for seemed flawed from the beginning. Full details about their plan
show a complete lack of touch with players and how they will respond.
In this sort of model certain things
are expected. Limited inventory, limited Auction House access,
limited character creation, limited character slots. Limited access
to expanded content. All of these things seem in line. But then
things start to get weird.
You can almost understand limited
access to Chat, no access to Mail, no access to player trades, no
access to the “who” command, as a way to limit tools that “Gold
Farmers” would use to peddle their wares. But this has the negative
effect of separating the free players from the community almost
entirely, they won't become attached if they can't interact.
The limit on Credits is understandable
for the same reason, but the limit set (250,000 for new free players
and 350,000 for returning players) is so low that I don't think you
can even purchase standard NPC sold features, like your final speeder
training. Interacting and becoming part of the Player driven economy
will be even more challenging. Considering certain rare cosmetic
items can be found in random boxes purchased from the real money
store are designed in a way that you can sell them to other players
this is supposed to be a mechanic that allows players with cash to
burn to have a path to extra Credits, but if the free players only
have 250,000 it caps out the market.
The limit on Crew Skills seems
arbitrary. (One for new F2P players, Two for returning players.) What
benefit does limiting crew skills have. The inability to “queue”
your crew seems fair enough. You'd think that you'd want to allow
access to full Crew Skills. They generate materials that take up
inventory space and credits that fill up a limited wallet. These
would seem to logically drive sales.
Then things really get … well stupid.
Limited Travel options. Your quick
travel is on a longer cool down. You can't use the fleet travel
power. Sprint is a paid perk. If you die while questing you can only
use your med droid 5 times before you have no choice but to return to
a med center for your re-spawn.
Increased vendor costs for goods and
services such as GTN use, repairs, and Talent Respecs, I think free
players get less money from a vendor for trash items they want to
sell. Free players also have to wait 3 days before selling an item
they got from the Real Money store...which makes…huh? Someone will
have to explain to me how that make sense or what purpose it serves.
Above level 10 free players earn 50%
less experience points. I would have to play through the entire game
to confirm my suspicion that this will make the 30-50 experience
unplayable. I think you will run out of content And have to run
Flashpoints and Warzones in order to catch up to the story content
when you run out. And since you can only run 5 Warzones a week and 3
flashpoints this could prove difficult.
If with all these restrictions you
still manage to somehow get your hands on a purple item you will not
be able to equip it. You will need to purchase a license for your
character to equip purple gear. A one time purchase at the moment,
but how long until they introduce the next tier of gear as “epic”
instead of “artifact” and then “legendary” or whatever that
you have to keep buying licenses for.
Finally, the most ridiculous
restriction is action bars. Originally limited to 1, recently amended
to 2. This is a game known for its ability bloat. Depending on your
class the 4 default action bars may not be enough for you, two most
certainly will not be enough, you will run out of space by the time
you are half way through the game. I have no idea why you would limit
access to the UI. At this point I would not be surprised to see them
charge for other elements of the game's engine. The UI customization
feature. Maybe Shadows are set to Off for free players, or maybe they
don't have access to the Hide Helmet toggle. Why not at this point!
Free players do not have access to
SW:TOR 1-50, They have access to a shitty nearly unplayable version
of SW:TOR 1-50.
The idea is that if these players see a
game they enjoy they should pay for it. The problem is that they have
this model already and it is hemorrhaging players and has been since
January.
If you gut your game and make it
unplayable the reasonable response from a player is not going to be
“Oh, I should chip in 5 dollars to make this experience not
terrible.” it will be “This game is terrible, I'm going to go
play something else.”
I don't really have any advice for
Bioware on this, They've spent a long time digging this hole, the
only way out is down. My advice for people interested in seeing the
individual class stories in SWTOR would be to check them out quickly,
I do not expect there will be an opportunity to play them in another
year's time.
