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BioWare responds to Star Wars: The Old Republic F2P complaints
by Alice O'Connor, Dec 05, 2012 6:45am PSTWhen a subscription-based MMORPG turns free-to-play, as they almost inevitably do, it's very important to strike a balance between what's free and what players must pay for. Star Wars: The Old Republic kind of cocked that up. Responding to complaints, BioWare is still trying to find that balance, and yesterday rolled out a few more changes kind to players.
"We want you to know that this is an ongoing dialogue," BioWare said in a blog post. "Your feedback is critical to the success of TOR, and of special interest to us."
Quickbars are one aspect that BioWare over-restricted. Players typically need several to hold all the skills they'll collect as they level, but free-to-play players were by default limited to only one When The Old Republic first switched models.
BioWare wisely doubled this to 2, and has now raised the limit again for Preferred Status Players (PSPs), those who've either bought an actual copy of the game or bought something from the Cartel Coin store, which uses a virtual currency paid for with real money. PSPs now have 4, and will receive refunds for any more they've bought.
PSPs will receive extra character slots in a future patch, with their previous limit of 2 upped to 6. People who choose to still pay the optional subscription fee will have no limit at all.
Star Wars: The Old Republic went-free-to-play last month, only 11 months after it launched.
Comments
When a subscription-based MMORPG turns free-to-play, as they almost inevitably do, it's very important to strike a balance between what's free and what players must pay for. Star Wars: The Old Republic kind of cocked that up. Responding to complaints, BioWare is still trying to find that balance, and yesterday rolled out a few more changes kind to players.
When a subscription-based MMORPG turns free-to-play, as they almost inevitably do, it's very important to strike a balance between what's free and what players must pay for. Star Wars: The Old Republic kind of cocked that up. Responding to complaints, BioWare is still trying to find that balance, and yesterday rolled out a few more changes kind to players. : Shacknews
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If you make things too pleasant for free players they won't convert.
But you can't make it too bad or they would just quit.
There was a presentation by the Battlefield Heroes developers posted a while back talking about this stuff. It was utterly disgusting listening to it, but every single thing that was mentioned made economic sense and they made a lot of money doing it. So well done F2P is here to stay, though "well done" means what makes money and not good games unfortunately.
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