Chad Awkerman writes: "As I’m sure by now you are all aware, probably one of the biggest MMORPG titles since World of Warcraft, EA and BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, is going to a free-to-play (or, more specifically, a “freemium”) model this fall. The news, announced officially yesterday, has inevitably brought a mixed reaction from the game’s current subscriber base..."
EA is nearing an agreement to move the ongoing development and operation of MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare to third-party studio Broadsword Online Games, IGN has learned. The move is intended to allow BioWare to focus on Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
A new update for Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming out on PC and the patch notes provide us with an in-depth look at all the new changes.
I loved this game and have played since launch but don't let this article fool you, this game is a step above life support. While they are still technically updating the game, the updates are few and far between and there is a significant lack of quality control, so many little bugs that have been present for years.
SWTOR players, get ready for a new month of exciting in-game events! Here's what's coming up in January 2023.
The problem with F2P games is that 90% of the time the people willing to pay for in-game items are always at an advantage. It's almost guaranteed that the game isn't balanced well. Only if there is a crafting ability like TF2 so even if you don't find, or pay for the item you can still craft it.
I see the biggest issue with free to play is the balance issue in the sense that those that spent money on the dlc content will have an advantage over those that don´t buy dlc content. The other issue is if the game ends up as a grind or farming in the sense you better off spending real money on say items as opposed grind and grind on hours on end to end up getting your ass kick along the way till you get say precious item or kick-ass weapon when someone else just bought it in say five minutes. Its up to gamers and say developers to solve these issues. I do want to point out this is great news personally for me now that I will finally play Star Wars the Old Republic now free of charge and only having to buy the DLC that I want. The biggest issue for having to pay for say MMO was the simple fact that once say game developers move on to the next big thing or mmo the old mmo´s servers will shut down and not able to play the game no more meaning well all that money went down the drain. So free to play is a model that should strongly be supported by gamers is not perfect but which model is.
f2p can be a good thing but with EA running things, they'll try and squeeze as much money out of you as they possibly can. To quote from EA's CEO John Riccitiello
"When you are six hours into playing Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your clip, and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you're really not very price sensitive at that point in time...We're not gouging, but we're charging."
If the head guy is saying stuff like that, can anyone actually remain optimistic about how f2p model specifically for SWTOR?
idk about f2p. It splits up the community, thats for sure.