Star Wars: The Old Republic update rewards level 50 players

Star Wars: The Old Republic has released the "Legacy" update, with some perks that seem aimed at attracting new players, bringing back old ones, and rewarding the most loyal with free game time.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic seems to have faded from the collective gamer consciousness a bit. Not coincidentally, BioWare has announced various perks coming alongside the new Legacy 1.2 update, which seem squarely aimed at attracting new players and bringing old ones back into the fold.

A post on the Legacy update details the perks. For one thing, players who reached level 50 by the time the Legacy update launched are receiving 30 days of free game time. Plus, former subscribers can come back to play for free between now and April 19. This is far from switching to fully free-to-play, but these moves could be the first salvos in that direction -- especially since BioWare hasn't ever ruled out a F2P model.

If you're not a lapsed player or a level 50, you still get a bonus from the Legacy update. Any active subscribers or new purchasers before April 21 at 12 PM CDT will get a tauntaun pet. Lapsed players can also get the pet for re-upping their subscription. Warning: we're told that tauntauns smell bad on the outside.

The update adds family trees to the mix, letting you unlock bonus items and abilities for linking your characters through lineage, along with a new Flashpoint, Warzone and Operation: Explosive Conflict in Denova, UI customizations, end-game crafting, guild banks, and combat logs.

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  • reply
    April 13, 2012 9:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Star Wars: The Old Republic update rewards level 50 players.

    Star Wars: The Old Republic has released the "Legacy" update, with some perks that seem aimed at attracting new players, bringing back old ones, and rewarding the most loyal with free game time.

    • reply
      April 13, 2012 9:40 AM

      There were 9 people on Alderaan the other day on a "medium" server.

      Can we officially say this game just doesn't have the draw of WoW?

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      April 13, 2012 9:49 AM

      wow...30 days free for lvl 50s...thats just plain bullshit. How about 30days free for the people who have supported this game from its release date? wait no...that would make too much sense.

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        April 13, 2012 9:51 AM

        I assume people are complaining about end game being empty so by offering it to ever level 50 you hopefully get more people enjoying the end game. That said I'm just too busy this month to give it a try again.

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        April 13, 2012 9:57 AM

        I'd guess the biggest group of people leaving the game have level 50's who are bored with it. There's a decent shot _a lot_ of people had stopped playing and were waiting out the final week or two of their sub, meaning Bioware gave them another month in the hopes 1.2 causes them to resub later down the line.

        The company's not going to throw away millions of dollars just for shits and giggles -- it's because the game's hurting.

        Talking about activity -- fleet pop for my server was in the high-40's on Tuesday, then high-20's/mid-30's every other day of the week. This was during primetime, too, and no -- ops, flashpoints, and warzones were basically empty (maybe 1-2 fp groups, and 1-2 wz's w/ no ops). Yesterday there were 110 people on when I logged in, and it stayed over 70 throughout the night. Ops, flashpoints, and wz's were all active.

        People aren't going to pay money for a game they aren't playing.

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        April 13, 2012 11:56 AM

        [deleted]

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          April 13, 2012 12:59 PM

          no what you say makes sense in a business way on paper but it still feels like screwing over everyone who pays monthly but doesn't play as much - they are trying to get back their hardcore gamers and fucking with the casuals in the process. This might hurt them more than it helps.

          of course they didn't have to do anything but they are showing that they value one group more than the other (of course they value all the moneys equal but it can look that way)

          I feel like they handled this a bit clumsy.

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            April 13, 2012 2:34 PM

            The "hardcore" had a level 50 after the first week and probably unsubbed a month or two ago.

            Having a level 50 right now is not a feat of the hardcore, or even uncommon. You don't have to play every day to have a level 50 at this point -- playing 4-5 hours a week is probably enough to do it. People who don't have a 50 either don't play the game much at all, or have a downright laughable number of alts.

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        April 13, 2012 12:47 PM

        What really sucks is those of us who don't have the time to play everyday and we are being screwed. I've been supporting this game since launch and pay every month like the level 50 guys and now BioWare is kicking people like me in the nuts what about giving us a month free too!

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          April 13, 2012 1:22 PM

          I'm in the same boat. Level 46 is my max, subbed the entire time. I get nothing.

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        April 13, 2012 1:25 PM

        yeah I bought it off origin :( no love. don't reward a percentage. encourage EVERYONE to continue playing. a month for anyone would be a really good idea.

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      April 13, 2012 10:29 AM

      They should sign on Lucas to add some new effects to spruce up that old gameplay.

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      April 13, 2012 11:49 AM

      got to 50, could play again, but the magic is gone. I loved it for when I played it but.....man I dunno just dont want to play it anymore, maybe in a year or something I'll check out that Jedi Knight story.

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