I liked Star Wars: The Old Republic when I originally played
it for a few months earlier in the year, just after release. I feel like this
might be because ever since the early gameplay footage I haven’t thought of it
as a traditional MMO. I’ve been thinking of it mostly as Knights of the Old
Republic with MMO functionality built in. That’s because when you focus on the Massively
Multiplayer portion of it, it’s subpar compared to other titles in the genre,
but as an RPG it was actually fun. The quests were relatively interesting with
the voice acting through all of it, and the character stories were amazingly
well done, or at least the Sith stories I got into were.
The MMO portions felt dated, in the sense that other games
have gotten past similar issues long ago to the point that there’s no excuse
for them. The instances felt poorly designed, with exception to the very first
in each faction. The PvP warzones while fun at points were nothing new and
while I left very early on in Illum I’ve read a lot of horror stories about
their attempts at open world PvP. Similar stories floated out over the ease of
end-game content and having nothing left to do very quickly. The gameplay and
abilities were standard MMO fare.
But, and I cannot stress this enough, the character stories
were amazing. The voice acting, music, settings and ambience too.
The Good, The Bad, And The Free
Let’s take a look at the features comparison list so far; SW:TOR's F2P Features List
Story Content
Full Access for Subscribed and Free
players. This right here is the primary reason for playing the game. Based
solely on this I would recommend people at least giving it a shot. From a
business perspective, I’m not sure why it isn’t limited being the single most attractive
feature of the game. They could have slapped a one-off charge per class to
unlock the story for said class, and I’m positive a great many people would pay
it. But from the point of a consumer, the Full Access Story is a HUGE incentive
to play, so I can only assume that it’s their hook, and they’ll try and
convince people to buy into the other features along the way.
Character Creation Choices
Limited for Free players. Assuming
this means races and customization options only and doesn’t limit class access,
it’s completely inconsequential. The races are very similar with exception to
colouring and Twi’leks. No racial abilities hold any importance.
Warzones
Limited for Free players. Having your weekly PvP
access capped is largely unimportant unless you like SW:TOR PvP a great deal.
You can still do some, so especially if you’re a casual player, this won’t be
an issue at all.
Flashpoints
Limited for Free players. Again, for the casual
player this isn’t an issue. A weekly limit is more than enough to see all of
the content, and constant repetition of Flashpoint instances is completely unnecessary.
Space Missions
Limited for Free players. Another weekly
cap. They were a fun way to kill a little time and get a little experience, but
doing what essentially is a mini-game all of the time will get old fast. Likely
no issue if you’re a casual player unless you love on-rails space battles.
Operations
No access for Free Players. This could be a
sticking point. If you really want to raid and have that end-game content
available you might need to fork out some cash here. If there’s no way to pay
for access week by week with their paid for currency (Cartel Coins) and
Operations are limited purely to subscribers, this could be a small disaster. I
don’t think this will force people to pay the sub. I don’t believe the
Operations were of a high enough quality to warrant forking out a subscription
primarily for access to them. That and unless you have a guild running them or
absolutely love PUGs, you’re paying for something you either can’t do, or
something that will turn out to be a headache nine times out of ten.
Travel Features
Limited for Free players. This could be a
problem, especially if “Travel Features” is not just code for flight points,
but also code for a limit on the availability of mounts. I can’t find any solid
information on it, so it remains to be seen how this will actually affect gameplay
but if you have to run everywhere all of the time this could turn into a giant
time-sink. If it limits one or the other to a small fee, it could work out
well; either limiting all but key flight points to a fee, or limiting mounts or
certain levels of the riding skill to a fee. Super fast mounts for a real money
cost, or slow for free, wouldn’t be so bad at all.
Game Login
Normal access for Free players. Likely not an
issue except potentially in the first couple of weeks of the Free to Play
release. But it’s also entirely fair; paying customers get priority access,
free have to wait a little bit.
Galactic Trade Network
The Auction House, limited for
Free Players. Given the subscribers line states “Can post 50 listings” I’m
going to assume this will be a limit on listings to maybe five or ten,
hopefully not one. But limited access is still access, so it’s not really an
issue.
Cartel Market
The last payment-related function being introduced when Free
to Play rolls around will be the Cartel Market. This is their in-game store, in
which players purchase things with Cartel Coins, which come with a subscription
every month, and I can only assume will be able to be purchased in packs separately,
as most other Free to Play games offer. This could work as well as it does in
everything else, as long as it’s managed well. Aesthetic changes, bank and bag
sizes, random collectible pets and mounts; people LOVE this stuff and it’s
fairly standard as far as Free to Play gaming goes. This could well be where
they make their money if it’s done well and has frequently updated and polished
content.
Overall, working with the information so far Free to Play
will be worth it. This still boils down to one singular reason so far above
everything else it may as well be the only reason; free play through of the
class stories. The biggest issue from a business standpoint is that this large
hook, this massive draw, so far requires absolutely no payment in any form to
complete. Any money they make from people coming into the game solely for the
story will be incidental. It remains to be seen how well this will work out for
them.
But for the players coming into it, the free story is an
amazingly good deal, and I strongly suggest everyone with a passion for RPG
tales take a look at it when Free to Play hits supposedly sometime this US Fall.
- ED
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