Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Lorash]

I've changed my character lineup a little, so I've edited my post to reflect it in the appropriate thread.

[Quakester]

Original article here http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...e-Old-Republic

BioWare Considers Free-to-Play For The Old Republic
ANDY CHALK | 15 JUNE 2012 3:30 PM
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BioWare Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi says The Old Republic studio needs to be "flexible and adapt to what's going on."

Things have been going perhaps not quite as smoothly for BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO as Electronic Arts had hoped. After charging out of the gate with 1.7 million subscribers in just six weeks, which EA claimed made it the fastest-growing subscription-based MMO of all time, the publisher revealed in May that the figure had dropped to 1.3 million. Shortly thereafter, layoffs followed.

BioWare had previously insisted that subscriber numbers weren't falling but with the cat out of the bag, it now appears ready to take drastic action to turn things around, including, possibly, a switch to free-to-play. A number of other big-name MMOs have made the transition and Lusinchi suggested that they, as much as World of Warcraft, are putting the pressure on The Old Republic.

"If it was just free-to-play games and they weren't very good it wouldn't even be a question but there are definitely good games out there and good games coming out, so of course all of this competition impacts your plan with what you want to do," he told GamesTM.

"The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well. Unless people are happy with what they have, they are constantly demanding updates, new modes and situations," he continued. "So we are looking at free-to-play but I can't tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on."

Free-to-play is a perfectly valid and viable approach for MMOs to take, as evidenced by the post-F2P success of games like Dungeons & Dragons Online, Age of Conan and Lord of the Rings Online, not to mention the growing number of games that are built on the free-to-play model from the ground up. Even so, it'd be hard to see a changeover of a marquee game like The Old Republic, especially so soon after launch, as anything but a huge defeat and climbdown for EA.

For some reason, the original interview with Lusinchi has been pulled, but fortunately Joystiq was able to dig up some scans, which can be seen here and here.

[iggy880]

Still barely play and just moved so money is tight and as such at the end of the month I won't be in game. Might move characters when I get back in but otherwise you guys can find me in Diablo 3

[Gold Rush]

Even if one is not subbed into the game, you can go Log into the SWTOR webpage and it will allow you to transfer your characters.

I've transferred a number of them already, except two, The first one is pretty low, but she got infected by the Rakghoul virus so while I could rebuild her one Ebon Hawk, I am wondering if I shouldn't just transfer and see if I can effect people with a new plague... (although, the cure is quite easy to get).

The other, well, his name is taken by someone on the other server. I'll probably have to rename him, but I am thinking of variants to the name. I tried in-game mailing and I am pretty sure it is an unused character or a lapsed sub. I am thinking of either throwing in an alt+del codes (Ç , ò , etc.) or just a dash at the end with something like "-na" to his name; along the lines of Spaghetti Western hero "Sartana" or so. Or something else. Still deciding.

[The Mystic]

Just throw an apostrophe in there. It's the Star Wars way.

[Sebastian Kain]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...-free-to-play/

[Gold Rush]

Originally Posted by Sebastian Kain

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...-free-to-play/

Yeap, pretty big news in the MMO-world. Haters dancing around. Defenders defending and what have you.

No grouped content, like Flashpoints and no Arena PvP for non-subs.

This should go live sometime November.

[iggy880]

I missed playing this so with it free I'll get back into it and maybe start paying to play in groups again after a while

[Graphite]

Free to play will be starting in 3 days.


Nothing can ever replace City of Heroes or the incredible Dev team that created our world. However, as a community I think we have alot to be proud of so I'm working on creating a City of Heroes "support group" based on the amazing community we have all created here in Paragon City for SWTOR. Basically I want to create a guild acting as a safe refuge for any of the transfering player base while we continue fighting the good fight with in the realm of the Old Republic. So far seven people from the Save City of Heroes Facebook page have jumped on with in the last 24 hours. It looks like we will be on Ebon Hawk and are brainstorming names. The list includes Heroes of Paragon, Titans for the Republic, Villians of Granville and Incarnates for the Empire. Just let me know you're intersted and we'll be happy to have you!

Jeffrey Graphite Martinez

[Lorash]

Sounds like fun. I've decided that I will not give up on this game until I've finished all of my stories