Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Is SWG the next SOE game to go Free to Play?
purewitz
Member UncommonPosts: 489
With EQ2 going F2P very soon here in August, I was thinking that SWG might be next. I would certainly play SWG again, if it had a free to play option. Plus I think it will be the only way for SWG to survive against the titan that will be Star Wars: The Old Republic. So what do you guys think? Will SWG be SOE's next pay to play game to switch to free to play, because if it works for one of their games it will work for all. Look at Turbine with D&D Online and not Lord of the Rings Online. Their only two games and both will be free to play. Of course D&D is f2p already, but LOTRO will be this fall. I think we might see more options like this in the near future with older AAA titles as they start to age. Here hoping SWG goes that way soon.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
Comments
Eh i wouldnt put it past them to do it. If they did though it would be like how they are going to do EQ2. Only thing I wouldnt be able to figure out is that with how SWG is.... pretty much completely sandbox minus the instances they have now.... you can really make it F2P and pull a profit IMO. They would have to change the way items are made and such seeing how you dont have to even do the instances to get the items from them since they drop schems. I dunno... SoE might be waiting to see how SW:TOR actually does before they make any changes let alone kill the game. I have heard from some old friends that if TOR sucks they are either going to give SWG a try again or just give up on Star Wars in general.
Quite frankly with all the time I have put into SWG over the years and all the stuff I currently have i would just sub so I can play my characters I already have.... leveling in the game sucks ass now and im not doing it again >.< If anything I would just make an Ent and stay in the cantina and make a butt load of money if it goes F2P and the population goes up >.>
Truthfully, I do not. But I do hope it is.
I'm troubled that even the TCG has stopped being developed for SWG. Any new set should have debuted 2 months ago and as of now still hasn't. Possibly something will be announced at Fan Faire, but looking at the schedule, the only SoE game getting less attention than SWG is Matrix Online.
Only time will tell.
Just speculating here but as we've already witnessed SoE believes the future is in microtransactions. If SWG doesn't go FTP then I'd say there is the strong potential that there is no future for SWG. And as Tux has already pointed out there hasn't been a TCG update in quite some time.
I think they're waiting simply to see how EQ2 does in the next few weeks before determining a direction for SWG.
SOE would have to use a lot of care in making SWG F2P since the game has stand-alone crafting professions. It could be done I suppose, but I am not sure $OE could restrain itself from the lure of easy cash. If done poorly, the cash shop will undoubtedly offer more desirable and/or game effecting items than crafters or quests could possbly make or reward.
it maybe worth a shot since the game is on life support . There are already enough empty servers to try this business model on.
[Mod Edit]
That's kind of how I see it...What would they have to lose at this point?
The main thing SWG suffers from right now is lack of Players...Anything they can do to get more folks back playing is going to be a plus at this point...I played that Game a long, long, long time...It's my understanding that Flurry is known to be the 2nd most populated Server nowadays...well...When I went back for the Vet Month in Feb I can honestly say the last time I saw Flurry that dead it was November-December of 05...Maybe I just picked bad times to log on...But I doubt it...Really, the difference between Flurry and Starsider was like night and day...If it's that bad on the 2nd most populated Server than...
What do they have to lose?
I went over to the SWG Offical forums and they are talking about this too. I couldn't add to the discuss, due to the fact I haven't been paying for SWG since 2008. Basically their saying the same stuff we are. Who knows if EQ2 F2P works, maybe SWG F2P will be next.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
I read SOE is letting ppl go. Just hope that SW:TOR destroys some (or ALL) of those greedy little F2P's.
Underlined part is a funny contradiction.
Not really a contradiction, SOE has managed to come up with the most confusing, money grubbing, greedy, ill conceived implementation of the "f2p" model I have ever seen for EQ2.
In fact f2p is pretty much misnomer all together. It's more like a crippled trial with pay to unlock content.
SWG doesn't have enough developers to pull off a change this large. Nor is the game engine reliable enough to handle a change of that magnitude.
Not to mention it would be extremely difficult to change the base game into a free to play model and even if that did happen, the servers could never support it.
Still, I wouldn't put it paste soe to try.
My comment was just about the FREE to play. Not about possible negative assumptions of disgruntled SWG vets.
Besides, as long as its possible to play for free because buying something from the cashshop is a choice, its not a misnomer. Not that many ppl would call the free part a fun game though
Sweet mercy, I could not go back to SWG if they paid me to play...I used to love that game so.
Ive thought about this and there could be a point at where the F2P option gets viable. Thats when they think that the TCG in current form stops bringing in enough profit. At that point they will stop the development for TCG. They then could decide to put the lootcards in a cash shop for direct sale.
Combined with F2P, SOE would lose the revenue of monthly subs, but it would attract more players. All potential buyers of TCG items from the shop. But this choice will only happen the moment they think they cant keep enough subs and TCG boosterpack sales is too low.
One drawback though. F2P means that a lot more players would create multiple accounts. SWG is one of the few games where accounts have a lot of impact on the game because of the structures. So I wonder if that wont be a problem and it could be the reason for SOE to decide against F2P. So its also possible that the lootcard cashshop happens without SWG going F2P.
I've been thinking about it. If SWG goes the same way as LotRO, it could work.
I think SWG F2P might go something like this: 9I guess I'm more hoping it goes like this, lol.)
What would be free?
Content from An Empire Divided and Jump to Lightspeed and all the free content updates from over the years
The originall races (Humans, Wookiees, etc.)
All combat classes (Smuggler, Jedi, etc.)
Levels 1 through 80
One free starter deck for the trading card game
2 free Character Slots
What you would pay for in a cash/item shop?
The Ithorian and Sullustan races
All Trader classes (Yes you would have to pay to craft.)
Content from Rage of the Wookiees and Trials of Obi-wan
All booster decks for the trading card game
Any future expansion pack that are like Rage of the Wookiees or Trials of Obi-wan.
Special in-game apperance items for your characters that would not effect gamplay.
Additional character slots
What perks would there for people who have subbed before or still do?
Special one-time offer of exclusive Vet in-game items. (Not old Vet items, but ones for already having Rage of the Wookiees and Trials of Obi-wan)
A free amount of Station Cash
Of course immediate use of Kashyyyk and Mustafar.
Special title
Your choice of a NGE, CU, or pre-CU server. (Just joking about this one, Like it would ever happen. LOL!)
And other perks maybe.
What do you guys thing?
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
if SOE would swallow thier pride and roll the game back, take out the NGE, they would make that game come alive. The current state of the game is unplayable, you think they would have gotten the picture when they lost thousands of subs the tuesday morning and following next few days as people logged in and yelled WTF.
They would have to limit the amount of lots to free Accounts, probably to 2, then allow F2P Players to purchase more lots up to 10 per Account...
Also Smed has already said no Cash Shop for Galaxies, I'm guessing that has a lot to do with the TCG...I don't know...But from what has come out so far it does not look like SOE is interested in a F2P option for SWG...
QFT, but if SWG went Free tp play i would at least log back in my old character and annoy people with my house placement
I would not put to much trust in what Smed said will not happen. He has made the same exact promise to EQ/EQ2 and look what happened there.
those of us that actually played SWG know NEVER TO TRUST WHAT SMED SAYS. nuff said.
SWG is dead it doesn't matter what they do to it or what financial model they use.
For those if us who remember the game fondly, this is one of those "you can never go home" things.
I don't play any SOE games anymore but if i'm not mistaken isn't EQ2 adopting a F2P hybrid model similar to what Turbine has done? In that respect I'm not really inclined to see the point. While I know some people still play the game I relented once and went back and it is really not fun especially if the only free stuff you can do is run around and kill trash mobs. If it isn't total access for free there is no point in paying for that game in my opinion.
They obviously have some kind of population I don't care if it's five thousand or twenty five thousand those people are playing but I don't see the population for the game increasing markedly for letting people in for free.
I'm not a current player so I don't know how they do on any welcome back weekends they do but I can say since quitting right after the cu and just before nge I have only took them up on the offer once and I'm not all emotional about what they did to the game, just spoiled by offline pc and console games that are feature complete and felt like a tool paying fifteen bucks a month for a game that worked as bad as that does.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
What does that mean? "those of us that actually played SWG." You think I'm in here for My health?...Why would anyone be posting in the SWG Forum if they did not Play the Game?
I Subbed from 2003 to 2009...I think I "actually played" plenty...4 Level Capped Combat Toons...3 Accounts...I'm well aware of Smed...He's on record saying no cash shop for SWG...That much is fact...If he goes back on his word that's his problem...I don't trust him much either but at this point all we have to go on is his statement...
We also have history to go on and there are plenty of examples of smed saying something will never happen and then watch as it becomes reality. Not only has he/soe broken their word on many occasions, but often they make these types of promises when they are secretly working on those changes.
Agreed...I was mostly reacting to the "those of us who played the Game" comment...That pretty much set me off I guess...lol...I not only played that game...I bled it...