Category: Star Wars The Old Republic

Bioware is tweaking Star Wars The Old Republic’s Free-to-Play restrictions after listening to consumer feedback. I reinstalled the game and played it for a few days when it went F2P but the limitations and irritation of not being able to do a whole lot other than the quests prompted me to uninstall the game again. Things like not getting Sprint until level 15, limited action bars, and more were seemingly too restrictive and it seems like Bioware has heard the complaints and is taking strides to balance it. In an upcoming patch they’re increasing the number of action bars a preferred status player (someone who owns a physical copy of the game or who has purchased an item in-game) can have to four and increasing the number of characters a player can have.

It seems a bit late for Bioware to start listening to feedback. Where was the “our community team has their ear to the ground” during the year long beta or when the game’s subscription numbers were crumbling just before going F2P? Free to players can’t even post in the SWTOR forums so I’m not sure their voices are even being heard. If the game’s no fun to play solo, must-less with friends, then they’re not going to float.

SWTOR’s site was updated with a bit more detail on what exactly the free-to-play side would receive. The main limitations are 3 Flashpoints weekly and 3 Warzones weekly. You can buy weekly passes to give you a weeks worth of access to the full version of the game and you’ll have to pick one up if you’re wanting to do Operations at all. Another big drawback is that you’ll have to have a license from the Cartel to actually equip most purple items. Overall it’s not a bad deal considering with low subscription numbers the main draw to the game will be it’s engrossing story line – all of which is completely available for free-to-play players.

One thing to note is that there’s still no date other than “coming this fall.” It’s middle of October – I’m kind of ready to reinstall this game, hurry up Bioware!