Development on the free to play version of Star Wars: the Old Republic appears t be speeding along and Lead Designer Damion Schubert issued a new developer blog which explains exactly what’s going to happen and what features are available in the free version of the MMO.
According to Schubert, there are two main goals the development team has aimed for with the F2P SWTOR, the ability to reach the level cap without spending a penny and no degradation of the gameplay experience for those who are taking out a monthly sub.
The main drawback for F2P players is slower levelling, but with the way things are these days where players try to rush content to level, that may not be a negative for players joining the game for the first time. It does however become an issue if content dries up for your current level.
Players coming back to the game and are not paying the sub will get what Bioware are calling “preferred status”. There will be F2P limitations but some will be “either removed or greatly reduced”, so at least there is some benefit to having already played since the game launched last year.
Will players be tempted back? According to Schubert, if you are in any doubt or have any worries about the F2P model, he says “come mid-November, those concerns should be erased”.
Source: SWTOR.
