Poll: old republic free to play is ready. will you be going back?

[00slash00]

so the old republic is finally free to play. i had been waiting for this since i first heard the news, because i never finished the story (had to be out of town with no computer for a few months, shortly after getting the game) and was excited to see where the story went. now, i have trouble getting excited again. im still very wrapped up in guild wars 2 and while gw2 isnt THAT different from the old wow style of mmo, its different enough that im not particularly excited about going back. that on top of the restrictions to free to play. now i know free to play models need to have restrictions to gently encourage players to spend money. but stuff like lower xp rewards and only being able to use 2 hotkey bars does make me a bit more reluctant to jump back in when im still enjoying guild wars 2 so much.

so what do the rest of you think? i know the old republic hasnt gotten the best publicity, but will you start playing again, now that it is officially free to play?

 

[Zhukov]

Well, I never played it to begin with, so technically I can't "go back."

So will I give it a go for the first time now it's free? Eh... maybe. I guess I would if it wasn't for my ever present backlog.

While I like me some Bioware, I'm ambivalent at best about MMOs and I really don't like the Star Wars setting.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

No, probably not.

Don't get me wrong, the game was alright. I just don't see there as being much new to experience if I go back at this point. I already maxed out all of the classes/specs (and their respective story arcs) that I thought looked interesting.

I will say though that my experience with grouping for quests was a lot of fun. I played with two close friends at one point. One of them was a light side goody-two-shoes Jedi Knight, the other was a light side goody-two-shoes Jedi Consular. Me? I played a pure dark side sociopath Gunnery Trooper.

Whenever we got into a conversation where there was a light/dark roll, for whatever reason I almost always won the roll. From a roleplaying perspective, I have no idea why those two Jedi would have been hanging around with my Trooper. I laughed sooo hard during the Esseles at the part where there are a bunch of engineers behind a shield and your options are to vent them out into space (dark) or walk like an extra ten yards and save them all (light), and I won the roll by a lot. Spaced the poor bastards, laughed my ass off, and so began a very long trend of me executing prisoners and slaughtering innocent bystanders while a pair of Jedi stand idly by facepalming and pretending not to know me.

Those were good times.

EDIT:
Also, I was playing a female Trooper so that I could get Jennifer Hale as a voice actress. Asshole Renegade Shepard strikes again!

 

[TheCaptain]

Never really left, but I'll be picking up the pace.

For those who don't like MMO's at all: I'd still recommend getting it and playing the eight class storylines. Shut out the other players and treat it as a classic Bioware single player RPG - it's not KOTOR, but close enough to not pass it up now that there's no monthly fee to pay.

 

[WoW Killer]

I'm not sure that I will now. I was going to, but of all the restrictions it's the two-hotbar limit that really puts me off. Four hotbars used to be restrictive in that game. Two is taking the piss.

 

[Rack]

Nope, they nerfed xp rates that were already way too slow and don't offer any non-subscription way of increasing them back up to par. If they make it fun I will pay a reasonable amount for it. If not I'll just go back and replay Kotor 2 and Mask of the Betrayer until Cyberpunk 2077 and Project Eternity come out.

 

[electric method]

No, I won't be going back. They have not even bothered to look into the framerate problems or engine problems. Seriously, they are using the Hero engine. The problem with that engine is it is good for rendering cut scenes stunningly, but for regular game play? Not so much.

Also, they still have not optimized the game what-so-ever. I mean I have framerate spikes all over the place and I am running a higher end computer with a good gpu. It's things like that coupled with CSR consistantly telling people it's not their game but the users computer that is to blame that have completely turned me off from SW:ToR.

 

[Nimcha]

Well, I tried to, but since I've subscribed I've actually lost access to the game... And I'm not the only one since the customer support has hour-long queues.

Oh well, judging by previous experience I'll get compensated for the lost days so I'm not too worried.

It's quite a fuckup though, as it stands you can only access the game by not paying...

 

[Olikar]

No, I won't be going back. They have not even bothered to look into the framerate problems or engine problems. Seriously, they are using the Hero engine. The problem with that engine is it is good for rendering cut scenes stunningly, but for regular game play? Not so much.

Actually it's not the Hero engine's fault, the reason TORs engine is so bad is because the head developer at Bioware was too impatient and used an unfinished version of it.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

Nope, not going back. The whole game is too samey, just like wow.

 

[hazabaza1]

I actually enjoyed the free trial a while back but now their piece of shit launcher isn't working so I can't get it.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Nope, they nerfed xp rates that were already way too slow and don't offer any non-subscription way of increasing them back up to par.

Well...this is an interesting perspective, to say the least. Way too slow? The xp gain was way too fast. Way, WAY too fast. I remember blowing through areas with quests going grey all around me, and I had to actively avoid PvP, Space Combat AND avoid getting any rest XP if I wanted to not outlevel content before I even got to it. Given they had no real end game in place allowing everyone to blitz through their content was one of the worst things they could have done.

Complaining that TOR's leveling pace was too slow is like complaining that WoW's gear treadmill is too short, or that Dragon Age 2 used too many environments. The rapidity of leveling practically broke the game.

And if the next words out of your mouth are "Well I don't enjoy the combat/leveling so I want it over with as fast as possible", that's the entire game, yo. If you don't enjoy it, leveling faster isn't going to improve the experience, it's just going to let you do more of what you don't enjoy with a higher number beside your name.

OT: No. I feel like I did most of everything I wanted to see/do in TOR, and the FTP model is silly restrictive (even though I would have preferred status due to being an ex-subscriber). 2 hotbars in particular is positively galling. If they ever launch an interesting sounding expansion with new classes/stories I might consider upping for a month to see that content, but I'll never "come back" in any real sense.

 

[DTWolfwood]

the restrictions on F2P are retarded. NO.

 

[Korten12]

Been playing it, not going to be my main MMO (Still GW2) but I enjoy the story, so I play now often to experience the story, but once I play a character or two to max level to see their stories I may or may not play anymore.

 

[Lucyfer86]

Never played it, but started to do storymode now. It seems really good so far, but after story is done, it remains to be seen if theres anything worth staying for.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Well, I never played it to begin with, so technically I can't "go back."
While I like me some Bioware, I'm ambivalent at best about MMOs and I really don't like the Star Wars setting.

This.

If I was going to get back into a free-to-play MMO, it would be D&D Online. I actually quite enjoyed that one.

But yeah, I'd much rather play in Eberron than Star Wars.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

No.

They still have not made it into an MMO yet. The reason why SWTOR even had to go F2P in the first place was due to a lack of MMO focus in the slightest.

Raids are still scarily missing from that game so there is no point to playing the game after you've maxed your character's levels.

 

[disgruntledgamer]

No. It's Single player story was ok but dragged on, in the end it was just another WoW clone. IMP GW 2 is way better.

 

[ecoho]

Nope, they nerfed xp rates that were already way too slow and don't offer any non-subscription way of increasing them back up to par.

Well...this is an interesting perspective, to say the least. Way too slow? The xp gain was way too fast. Way, WAY too fast. I remember blowing through areas with quests going grey all around me, and I had to actively avoid PvP, Space Combat AND avoid getting any rest XP if I wanted to not outlevel content before I even got to it. Given they had no real end game in place allowing everyone to blitz through their content was one of the worst things they could have done.

Complaining that TOR's leveling pace was too slow is like complaining that WoW's gear treadmill is too short, or that Dragon Age 2 used too many environments. The rapidity of leveling practically broke the game.

And if the next words out of your mouth are "Well I don't enjoy the combat/leveling so I want it over with as fast as possible", that's the entire game, yo. If you don't enjoy it, leveling faster isn't going to improve the experience, it's just going to let you do more of what you don't enjoy with a higher number beside your name.

OT: No. I feel like I did most of everything I wanted to see/do in TOR, and the FTP model is silly restrictive (even though I would have preferred status due to being an ex-subscriber). 2 hotbars in particular is positively galling. If they ever launch an interesting sounding expansion with new classes/stories I might consider upping for a month to see that content, but I'll never "come back" in any real sense.

lol you get 4 hot bars man, you just dont get the 5th and 6th(which i dont use)
OT: still playing but im still a sub guy, because its less money in the long run for me(not so for all) due to the way a play.