Free to play

SWTOR reducing some of the limitations for Free-to-Play and Preferred players

SWTOR reducing some of the limitations for Free-to-Play and Preferred players

Next month BioWare will be reducing some of the limitations for Free-to-Play and Preferred players in Star Wars: The old republic. Read all about it here: Upcoming Free-to-Play and Preferred Changes In Star Wars: The Old Republic there are three different ways players are able to enjoy the game – as a Subscriber, Free-to-Play, or Preferred. Free-to-Play– Players that have not spent any money and have access to the original storyline of the game. Preferred – Players that either used to be Subscribers or have spent money on the Cartel Market. Subscription – Players that pay a monthly amount to access all gameplay content of SWTOR. While the team is hard at work revising some systems for the ‘Onslaught’ Expansion, we also wanted to show some love to the Free-to-Play and Preferred players. Most notably these changes will be to the credit cap, Quickbar, Medical Probe, and Quick Travel limitations. Let’s take a…

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5 Reasons You Should Be a SWTOR Subscriber

If you’re still holding back on the decision to become a SWTOR subscriber, it might be a good time to go ahead and take the plunge. When you look at all the benefits that come with a sub, you just might ask yourself why you didn’t do it earlier. Honestly, if you’re really into the game and play on a regular basis, it just makes sense to subscribe. Here are five reasons you should be a SWTOR subscriber: Subscriber Benefits in the Cartel Market: Another reason you should be a subscriber is for the Cartel Market benefits. You get access to all 6 quick bars, a minimum of 500 Cartel Coins per month to spend, 10 additional character slots per server, unlimited access to all warzones, flashpoints, space combat and operations, earlier access to sprint and speeder piloting, ability to queue your crafting items and much more. You Get 50%…

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Free-to-Play Preview Episode 3

In a new video from BioWare, Cory Butler delivers an overview of Star Wars: The old republic’s free to play preferred status program.  In the video he explains details regarding “Preferred” status, and highlights several options available for players a the Cartel Market. At the end of the video he briefly speaks about the limited time Life Day items available. We’re always listening to player feedback and we’ve already made some substantial changes,” Butler says before going on to mention an increase in the number of available hotbars and character slots. View the vid below:

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The Inquisitr Talks “Saving SWTOR”- Will F2P Revive the MMO?

It’s been nearly one year since the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic and we never could have predicted last year that we would be sitting where we are today. The game has changed a lot and key developers have moved on to new projects but BioWare is still working on their project, which some say is a struggling game. “When Star Wars The Old Republic made its much ballyhooed debut in December of 2011, many gamers were promoting it as the next WoW killer”, says Inquisitr. BioWare had high hopes for their game, as did the fans but not everything worked according to plan. SWTOR reportedly cost over $200 million to develop and had 800 developers on four different continents involved in the creation. Some might argue that their first mistake was trying to do too much. KISS (keep it simple, stupid). The entire project took over six years to complete and…

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The Importance of Player Feedback with the New Free-to-Play Option

Jeff Hickman posted a news update yesterday regarding Free to Play restrictions. Looking at the Feedback BioWare got from the community with the New Free-to-Play Option, BioWare are making changes  starting yesterday: Starting today, Preferred Status Players will see an increase to their default Quickbars from two (2) to four (4). If you’ve already purchased additional Quickbars, don’t worry: we will be refunding your Cartel Coins for any Quickbar-related purchase. Additionally, in an upcoming patch (no exact date yet, but players won’t have to wait long), Preferred Status Players will be given four (4) additional character slots, which means that they will have a total of six character slots. As always, Free-to-Play Players can reach Preferred Status simply by purchasing anything from our online store or purchasing a physical copy of the game. Last but not least, I wanted to share the news that the 50 character limit on Global Active Characters for Subscribers will be…

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BioWare do listen – 4 quickbars for Preferred Status Players

Yesterday, Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez revealed that due to feedback ( huge an ongoing QQ’ing), Preferred Status Players will receive two extra  Quickbars to use when playing   Star Wars: The Old Republic. I honestly think they could have given only one extra bar and it would have made 90% of the people happy. The extra bar is just icing (yes, some will argue they never should have been restricted at all). I’m all for constructive criticism when it’s needed, but I hope people will stop and give credit when it’s due. They obviously are trying to appease the fans, while still maintaining a successful business model. As you know, we take player feedback very seriously and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for being a part of our Free-to-Play transition. When Game Update 1.5 was on PTS, we heard your feedback and increased Quickbars for Free-to-Play Players,…

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Free to Play Tips and Tricks

Since many new players are joining the game with the free to play launch, they’re going to be looking for answers on how to play and enjoy the game. Seasoned vets of SWTOR know their way around things but what they may not know is how things have changed since the free to play model launched. Sometimes we also forget that the things that seem common to us may be confusing or unknown to a new player. We all were new once and it pays to take the time to help someone out. You never know who you might meet in one act of kindness and besides, we just think it’s good gaming karma. F2p players get only 5 self-revives total and once you run out, you will need to buy more from the store or rez at a med center. This is a good reason for f2p gamers to…

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SWTOR F2P & Future content interview with Damion Schubert

Dulfy had the opportunity to interview Lead Designer Damion Schubert regarding the F2P option launching yesterday. Dulfy was good enough to take questions from the readers of her blog. reading through the interview I found some of the most interesting key points to be: Armor dyes seems to be in the pipeline No new items to the VIP/Collectors Edition vendors Cathar race will be by purchase only Returning events (i.e. sell your rakghoul items now before the word gets out) Check out the full interview over at dulfu.net or read our small snippet below: What was the biggest challenge in converting such a massive MMO into a FTP model? It would have to be giving away as much as humanly possible to our free to play players, while still ensuring that our subscribers felt like they were getting a great value. Both populations of players are a key component to Star Wars: The Old Republic’s path forward,…

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SWTOR Free-to-Play: 6 Reasons You Should Try It

SWTOR free-to-play is coming in just two more days on November 15th. If you have always wanted to play the game, now is the perfect time. If you played in the beta or even tried it when it first came out and quit, there are some very compelling reasons why you should consider trying it again now that it’s free to play. Let’s take a look at 6 reasons you should try SWTOR: It’s Free- What better reason is there than “free”? There is nothing to risk in a free game. How can you be sure you get more than you pay for? Play a free game, of course. There will be subscription options for those who want to upgrade and getting something more from the game. Great value for a free game- Okay, free is cool but let’s face it; we all know that you get what you pay…

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Cartel Coin Reward Program Extended

BioWare announced  that former subscribers coming back to Star Wars: The old republic to try thee Free To Play version of the game, have until December 20th to re subscribe and still obtain their Cartel Coin rewards! Check out the full announcement below: Today we are excited to announce that the global launch date of the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Free-to-Play option will be November 15, 2012. This release will be simultaneous across all of the territories and countries The Old Republic™ is available. If you’re a paying Subscriber at the launch of the Free-to-Play option on November 15th, you will be granted all of the Complimentary Cartel Coins currently listed on your Cartel Coin Ledger page, plus a one-time grant of 250 Complimentary Cartel Coins! Additionally, we are extending the Rewards Program! All former subscribers who reactivate their subscription by the new date of December 20, 2012 at…

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Blaine Christine answers questions regarding Free To Play

Senior Producer Blaine Christine took on the forums today, to answer questions regarding the upcoming Free to Play system, implemented into Star Wars: The old republic. BioWare have neem coellecting questions from the community the last week and now we get some more answers.  The full Q&A can be found at the official forums, or as a copy/ past below: Hi folks! Now that the Cartel Market has hit the Public Test Server, we wanted to open up this thread to give you the opportunity to ask any lingering Free-to-Play questions that you may have. After we’ve collected your questions, Sr. Producer Blaine Christine will try to answer as many as he can. Please be sure to be respectful and courteous and also remember to report any Cartel Market issues on the PTS thread. Thanks! Update: As promised, Sr. Producer Blaine Christine has taken time out of his crazy schedule to answer some of your Free-to-Play questions!…

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F2P vs Sub: The ‘Real’ Price Players Will Have To Pay

Deirdre Hollis, world renowned TORWARS pod-caster wrote an awesome article, that I wish I could of written myself. I’m so jealous! Deirdre basically predicts with the coming of SWTOR’s F2P (Free to Play) option this fall, a divide that is already surfacing between subscribers (the haves) and f2p gamers (the have nots), akin to class warfare in ancient Rome, will arise.  She puts it all together much more “diplomatically” than I would have. She kept the correlations of the US government to these politically divisive affairs as insinuations. She takes it a step further and predicts that EA will see the profits of SWTOR/F2P and eventually even make subscribers try to pay for extra features like the F2P gamers. She also reminds us how the Bioware we all remember and love is long gone, and that EA is more directly in charge of the path SWTOR will take in the…

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SWTOR- What Does F2P Mean?

Everyone is talking about SWTOR going free to play. It seems everyone has a theory and an opinion on the topic and whether or not it’s a good thing for BioWare/EA. The big question seems to be whether or not the F2P model is chosen because SWTOR flopped on release or just because it makes more sense and is better for the current economic market in the world today. MMORPG.com had a few words from Richard Aihoshi on the topic. In addition to this, they did a poll with some other experts in the field: Hendrik Klindworth is the Founder and Managing Director of InnoGames (Forge of Empires, Grepolis et al) Jay Choi is the Chief Operations Officer at Gravity Interactive(Ragnarok Online, Dragon Saga et al) Jungsoo Lee is the Vice President of Live Development atSG Interactive (formerly Ntreev; Pangya Golf, Trickster Online et al) Flaviio Daneil Caracasis the Chief Marketing Officer at Rock Hippo Productions (Brawl Busters, MicroVolts) Here…

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