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Tired of the Nickle&Dime
neonaka
Member UncommonPosts: 779
I decided I am going to post my thoughts on SWTOR's pay model ect. here because, well, I have been a member here for a long time and because of this... LOL?
So that would be issue number 1. So let me set the stage for this rant/frustration.
I was a supporter of SWTOR years before it was even released.
We are now going to start a tally to my best estimates of how much money I have given this company for this game.
I pre-ordered and purchased the collectors edition of this game when it released back in 2011 for $149.99 without tax.
I subbed for the first 3 months of release at $14.99 and also from sometime in 2012 off and on throughout and up to 2015.
I have also spent money on cartel coin packs as well. Some of the evidence can be seen below.
So based solely off the box purchases and the subs you can see and the 3 months I subbed after release, adding in my revan pre-order,
and like 25 bucks in cartel coins i purchased for fluff, we come to about $344.88, now I am not saying that is a lot of money, obviously I have
disposable income to drop 300+ dollars on a pc game but that isn't what this thread is about.
What it is really about is the F2P vs the Preferred vs the Subscriber model.
As you can see I let my sub expire back on 3/10/2015, this was due to me and few friends finishing up the revan story and raids and well
at that point it was same ol same ol as usual (though I will say I was tempted to stay for the housing aspect of the game which I thought was fun)
So I get an email saying they are coming out with a new content patch, so I think to myself cool, I will download it again and check it out.
That is when I see this, now keep in mind I have never been anything but a subscriber to this game.
What this shows is that my poor treek can't equip any of his gear that he had because it was artifact level equipment and that is only allowed to paying subscribers. It gives me a nice little warning in the upper left hand corner stating that I can't wear any of MY artifact level armor or anything I have already PAID for through cartel coins or raiding gathering myself. That status box at the bottom under treek is showing gear I have on that I no longer gain any benefit for because I don't sub, effectively making my character useless unless I go out and farm some green crap naked to equip myself.
Now I am not going to resub simply off the sheer fact that I feel I have given LucasArts/Bioware a fair chunk of money to play their game and the second I don't give them another 14.99 I am reduced to scrub status and have everything I worked for over the years and everything I already spent money on reduced to ash.
So anyway, I just thought people should be able to see with their own eyes what a preferred status vs a subscriber status will get you, despite throwing money down the bottomless pit that is MMO gaming.
Cheers!
So that would be issue number 1. So let me set the stage for this rant/frustration.
I was a supporter of SWTOR years before it was even released.
We are now going to start a tally to my best estimates of how much money I have given this company for this game.
I pre-ordered and purchased the collectors edition of this game when it released back in 2011 for $149.99 without tax.
I subbed for the first 3 months of release at $14.99 and also from sometime in 2012 off and on throughout and up to 2015.
I have also spent money on cartel coin packs as well. Some of the evidence can be seen below.
So based solely off the box purchases and the subs you can see and the 3 months I subbed after release, adding in my revan pre-order,
and like 25 bucks in cartel coins i purchased for fluff, we come to about $344.88, now I am not saying that is a lot of money, obviously I have
disposable income to drop 300+ dollars on a pc game but that isn't what this thread is about.
What it is really about is the F2P vs the Preferred vs the Subscriber model.
As you can see I let my sub expire back on 3/10/2015, this was due to me and few friends finishing up the revan story and raids and well
at that point it was same ol same ol as usual (though I will say I was tempted to stay for the housing aspect of the game which I thought was fun)
So I get an email saying they are coming out with a new content patch, so I think to myself cool, I will download it again and check it out.
That is when I see this, now keep in mind I have never been anything but a subscriber to this game.
What this shows is that my poor treek can't equip any of his gear that he had because it was artifact level equipment and that is only allowed to paying subscribers. It gives me a nice little warning in the upper left hand corner stating that I can't wear any of MY artifact level armor or anything I have already PAID for through cartel coins or raiding gathering myself. That status box at the bottom under treek is showing gear I have on that I no longer gain any benefit for because I don't sub, effectively making my character useless unless I go out and farm some green crap naked to equip myself.
Now I am not going to resub simply off the sheer fact that I feel I have given LucasArts/Bioware a fair chunk of money to play their game and the second I don't give them another 14.99 I am reduced to scrub status and have everything I worked for over the years and everything I already spent money on reduced to ash.
So anyway, I just thought people should be able to see with their own eyes what a preferred status vs a subscriber status will get you, despite throwing money down the bottomless pit that is MMO gaming.
Cheers!
Comments
problem is swtor recent so called expansion is only 5-6 hours of story and nothing more.the so called alliance
system will force you to grind 4 years old content which veteran players particularly done several times before.
so yes lack of content and cash grab trick and traps.
some body should rescue STAR WARS IP from EA and give to decent company to make decent game..at the moment that game is just cash grab.
That's one of the reason why I don't enjoy them anymore, you don't really know how much you are going to spend on it and what do you get for your money.
Also the P2W cash shops on top of the subscription has to go.
Devs needs to chose one of the 2, they can't have both.
I think we spoiled them too much.
There are 2 choices, either keep paying out for weekly unlocks, which is the main focus of F2P items, or pay a sub, which doesn't just give you full access to everything, it also gives you a monthly allowance of cartel coins, which with an authenticator, bumps it up to 600 cartel coins a month, about the only thing i used them for, was to unlock character slots above the initial 8 or so, currently have 22 or 23 per server, as its an account wide unlock.
Whatever the complaints about the game, and there are more than a few good reasons to complain at the moment, the P2P/F2P hybrid method is clearly working.
2. any artifact gear you acquire and equip when subbed is still equippable by your characters when your sub expires, it is new artifact level gear that is restricted.
3. Treek is female.
Few years back it was normal situation that when your sub expire you can't login. If you wanted to play any MMO game you had to pay a sub. It was nice if they let you patch, but sometimes even that was limited to subscribers (yes, you had to pay and then spend a day of your sub just to download and patch the game).
Now, without spending a single cent, you can:
- patch you game
- login
- talk to your guild mates
- look around if you like the state of the game
- even play some basic content
So what is a problem here?
Do you want to say that there should be a limit of what a player should pay? Something like "live-time subscription"?
And in hard mode FP all the drops are level 61 so you cant use it, and the gear that drops in tactical FP's is less than the 190 itemlevel green mods, armorings and enhancements you can get for crystals, so there's realy very little point in running FP's exept for the daily if you want the conquest points and maybe the crystals to buy gifts for your allready OP companions.
I'm not loving the fact that i get thrown into groups with level 65 players for my endgame, it doesn't seem fair to them that i cant get better geared. Imo max level should be the same for all players.
I know, it's nothing 1 months sub wont fix, but when i unsubbed i wrote that i might resub when a couple of new FP's or a new OP was added. I dont think this new story is enough to sub for and tbh story is all kotfe has to offer imo. Maybe when all chapters are released i'll sub, i guess the complete story is worth a months sub, even with the low replay value and the allience grind.
This isn't new. Stop playing a bad game and don't give them more money.
Think of it this way. I have a PS4 or XboxOne whatever your preference, which cost what nowadays 350-400 dollars. I say hey I will give you one of these for half price all you have to do is pay me 14.99 every month to use it and the controller and power cable. You agree and say not only will I give you the 14.99 but here I will give you 4 times what its actually worth up front! You then hand me 1400.00 and 14.99, and all is well for a while.
6 months down the road you get a little bored and you still like to turn it on from time to time but can't really justify the 14.99 anymore.. I say alright no problem, you can keep the power cable but give me the controllers back.
That is about how I feel when I install SWTOR without a sub. You might as well not even install it, despite giving them 4-5 times what the game box was worth on release.
What you give these people does not justify what you get in return.
I would throw Blizzard and WoW into this mix as well but for like 8-9 years I did play wow, I have I given that company my soul in monthly fees and box sales, I never minded forking over the 14.99, because when I did, I knew I was getting everything blizzard designed from the get go without restrictions.
I really miss the days of subscription based games without the nickle dime cash shops and missing features until you give them another quarter in the open slot.
I don't understand why people are so hyped for a game like B&S, one example out of many, NCSoft already has over a dozen of look a alike titles under their belt, but it's funny how only Lineage stands out the most. Blizzard still only has WoW and they keep working on it year after year. And it's funny how WoW has more Subs than all of NCSoft's player base combined. Devs and Pubs need to stop working on 20 mediocre titles and create ONE FLAGSHIP title that will stand out from the crowd, but that will only happen if 99.9% of the MMO community stops falling for false hype. Like SE did with FF11 and FF14, both games STAND OUT. Nexon has the right idea but poor execution since all their titles are P2W, if they'd wake up and make their titles P2P instead, they'd triple the fan base they currently have in under a year.
Every serious gamer, be it casual or hardcore, will P2P for quality games, and after 11 years of service, WoW proves the point with over 5 million strong subs. 90% of MMOs released wish they'd have just 5% of WoW's number logged in on a daily basis. Stop with the F2P bull and the excuses of "You can't afford 10-15$ a month" B.S. Most of you put over 200$ on console games a year, let alone Steam games, so you're kidding yourselves and making yourselves look stupid when you say you can't afford 10$-15$ a month on a quality MMO. Devs and especially Pubs, need to stop listening to the F2P crowd, they bring nothing good to a MMO.
So my point after all this, OP, if you really like SW:ToR then pay the sub and play it, otherwise uninstall it and move on. I've invested well over 1000$ on subs for EVE-Online and enjoyed every month of it and I moved on from it in 2012 and never looked back, I don't regret any of it since I left before the game started going down hill and I only got good memories of it with 27 friends I now keep in touch with on a weekly basis, in which 3 of them live barely 10 minutes away from me. 27 friends for a 1000$ investment, I would of gladly paid 10 times that amount. You like that, pay sub. You don't like that, uninstall and move on. It's that simple.
I was upset when Turbine took LotRO F2P, I was upset when EA took SWTOR F2P... but I am even more upset with losing what I had before now that EA is swinging back to Subscription model. I feel like we got ripped off and I didn't feel that when the pendulum swung to F2P.
EA as far as I am concerned can go sit on Papa Sith's Lightsaber. Their decisions show me how much they valued me as a customer, and I now value them as an Entertainment Provider in like fashion. All EA products and Services are off my shopping list.
It's not JUST how a MMO Provider treats it's Subscribers that matters... it's also how they treat their F2P customers ... If a Host treats their Guests poorly it's only a matter of time before they start treating their House Mates poorly as well.
Here let me sell you a table and 6 chairs, I will be back in 30 days to saw all the legs off of them and chop them in half. Yeah I know you paid for them but I built them so I can do whatever I want to them after the fact, you know cause you will let me and it will be fine.
A good chunk of the complaints in your post seem to be because you simply didn't read the patch notes, and not because they are trying to "nickle and dime you". I am a subscriber, and if post a screenshot of my treek, it will look exactly the same as yours.
And quite frankly, I am surprised that only like 1 other person has pointed this out. It really goes to show the blind dislike many have for something without even actually researching it.
Regardless of all the spin EA tries to put out about SWTOR being F2P, its indeed a subscription MMO. For the first year of F2P, they wern't even hiding it.
Here is the link that was on IGN for a good 1.5 years after going F2P:
If you want to experience the game in full without being nickle and dimed, subscribe.
I have chosen to speak with my wallet, and refuse to play or pay for bad games or give greedy corporations any more $$$
YAY!
And as a couple of people have pointed out - you only have to pay to unlock new purple (artifact) level equipment. If you logged in and were restricted from your current equipment - it was a BUG.
How do I know this? Because I logged in as a preferred and had the same issue. I didn't melt down, however. I played for a bit and then logged off. When I logged on a couple of days later everything was fine and my equipment was working.
I generally don't like 'F2P' games, but it does allow you to log on and see if I want to resub and if my friends/guildmates are still playing.
You do know that if you subscribe that you get access to all content and playability features right? The reason I ask is your statement:
You do not seem to mind that you spent $1,439.04 (pre-tax) for a subscription to WoW (8 years at $14.99 /month) not counting the cost of expansions. What can you do in WoW without a sub? (serious question - I have no idea how WoWs pricing works).
To your dumb example if your table is from Rent-a-Center and you stop paying they take your table. They do not care you paid 10 out of 12 months. Try whining to them about being unfair.
Will this stop me from playing? No.
Will this encourage me to subscribe? No.
Will I fork out money for a 60 day time card? Maybe.
I'm currently playing again to see the new KOTFE content and to finish up a few class stories I missed. Rather than be subjected to the god aweful F2P nightmare I simply re-subbed. Did I mention I had bought the game at release? Well I did, one of the main reasons I hate the F2P model as it takes away things I paid for when I bought the boxed game, but I digress.
Given that the new content is under 10 hours and I get the x12 xp boost for class and epic story missions it's probably worth it to just sub for a month, possibly two and get it all done, then I can go back to ignoring SWTOR and I don't go into a rage because I'm stuck wearing a stupid looking hat and have to pay to unlock the Hide Headgear feature.
You know how Cersei Lannister was forced to walk naked through the streets while being beaten and abused? Same thing needs to be done to the creators of this F2P clusterfuck.
In War - Victory.
In Peace - Vigilance.
In Death - Sacrifice.