Star Wars: The Old Republic Goes Free to Play November 15th

Nearly one year after its release, Star Wars: The Old Republic will launch its freemium model and attempt to breathe some life back into the game. The free to play model Bioware has chosen to adopt will allow everyone to experience the game from level 1 to 50 with no restrictions on questing. Free to play players, however, will be limited in character customization, PvP, group content, space missions, inventory space, skills, travel convenience, and even the type of gear that can be equipped (F2P players cannot equip purple quality gear). Each player is given a certain number of Cartel Coins upon starting an account which can be used to purchase "services, items, and content to customize the gameplay experience" or to unlock the restrictions listed above. If you were a previous subscriber or still have a subscription, you will be compensated with a certain number of Cartel Coins on the 16th and continuing your subscription provides you with a certain number of Cartel Coins every month.

What SWToR has, seems like the basic freemium model that games like DDO or LoTRO adopted once Turbine took over those games which did turn them into successes. On the bright side to all of this, any newcomers to the game will be able to expereince the best part (questing) without ever having to pay a dime. This seems like a rather odd move from Bioware/EA since SWToR's main attraction would be its story and they're just handing it out to whomever wants it. This means Bioware/EA are really hoping enough people will buy those cosmetic or convenience items should the player get annoyed enough by the restrictions or just really want that baby Taun Taun to follow them around.

I'll close this article by saying that SWToR is not a bad game by any means despite what the people who jumped on the hate bandwagon will say. It failed with the subscription model because the dev team had no vision for a "story driven MMO" once it was released, and EA's hype train generated expectations that this game could not fulfill. If you enjoy playing MMOs and want to experience what a Bioware game in MMO format is like, I'd definitely recommend a few weeks with the game at least.