How Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) Does Free-to-Play

Since my earlier post on Lessons Learned from Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is the most popular post on the blog, I'd like to follow it up with a sort of "post-mortem" of the game's transition from a solely subscription-based MMORPG to a hybrid model that mixes a Free-to-Play (f2p) service with the existing subscription service. The way that SWTOR does f2p is quite intelligent, and solves its monetization and population challenges in unique and thoughtful ways. As the debate over the validity and ethics of the f2p business model rages in industry discussion forums, we can all benefit from analyzing how BioWare has successfully integrated a f2p scheme that is fair, balanced and anything but "pay-to-win."

I won't go into the specific details of SWTOR's f2p service here -- you can check their official website for the details. Rather, I'll cover the conceptual aspects of the decisions that BioWare made to implement the service, and how these decisions impact the relationship between subscribers and free players, as well as the impressions they give to new players choosing which service to use.

To conceptualize the way that f2p works in SWTOR, start by thinking of the entire game, as a whole, and all of the features that go along with it. Imagine that each feature is like a faucet nozzle, and that all of the nozzles were turned on full blast at launch. What the f2p service does is turn some of the nozzles down to a smaller flow, turn others down to a trickle and leave the rest at full blast. An f2p player can pay small amounts to control the flow through any nozzle, turning this one or that one higher or lower at will, while all of the nozzles remain at full blast for subscribers. The most that an f2p player can do is to purchase enough feature unlocks to be playing the same game as a subscriber, in which case the f2p player will be paying roughly the same amount as a subscriber (theoretically). Therein lies the genius of the scheme -- there is no opportunity for a player to buy his way to greater power than everyone else. The most a player can buy is a set of full-blast feature nozzles that makes the player equal to subscribers.

For example, a f2p player only has access to play two pvp warzones per week, while subscribers have access to an unlimited number. In this instance, the pvp "nozzle" is at full blast for subscribers, and at a trickle for free players. However, free players can purchase a weekly pass to enjoy the same unlimited rights as subscribers for this particular feature. Another example is playable races. Subscribers have access to the entire range of playable races in the game -- a full blast feature nozzle. Free players, on the other hand, only have access to a few. Again, f2p players can spend money to unlock additional playable races, allowing them the same experience as subscribers for a small fee.

Vanity goods are another integral piece of SWTOR's f2p strategy, and in this case the challenge was to avoid unfairness toward subscribers, rather than making things fair for free players. BioWare continues to add interesting vanity goods to their f2p store, including unique mounts, pets, costumes and entertaining consumables (things like fireworks). Since these items are only available in the shop, BioWare doles out a healthy allowance of f2p currency to subscribers each month, essentially allowing them the right to choose whatever vanity goods they would like without having to pay more than their existing subscription fee.

It's refreshing to see a company create a viable and robust f2p service, and impressive to see it done post-launch alongside an existing subscription service. SWTOR continues to be one of my favorite games, and I can't wait for the new expansion to continue my Sith Juggernaut's story.

Lessons from Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR)

** Read my new post for an update on SWTOR's transition to Free-to-Play ** 

Word is out that the highly anticipated MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic is floundering. As Executive Producer Rich Vogel says goodbye to Bioware and subscription numbers dip, rumors are spreading about an upcoming switch to a free-to-play model.

In this blogger's humble opinion, SWTOR is a great game. I've been a huge SWTOR fan from launch, and i still play almost every day. It boggles my mind why this awesome game is doing so poorly, but there is one 800-pound gorilla in the room, which nobody seems to be talking about, that could explain much of the game's troubles.

SWTOR needed about 10 solid servers at launch, but the game launched with about 40 servers (don't quote me on the exact numbers), some with very nasty performance problems. Most players saw their home servers empty out quickly as players flocked en masse to a select few servers. Players who did not investigate the issue and make a server switch probably had the impression that the game was completely dead, and simply left. When you're on a populated server with good performance, this game is truly epic, and doesn't disappoint in a single way.

Imagine subscribing to an MMO that habitually freezes, crashes and glitches, then imagine 90% of your server population disappearing several months after launch, and you will understand what a large number of launch subscribers experienced with SWTOR. This combination can only lead to player attrition with such a large number of attractice multiplayer titles on the market and the horizon.

I think the main lesson to learn from SWTOR is to err on the side of caution when it comes to the number of servers at launch, and to never settle for laggy, glitchy servers for a AAA MMO. Adding servers is easy, but SWTOR proves that reducing the number servers to compensate for poor planning can alienate players and cripple a game.

Bioware has recently locked all but about 10 servers. Any new subscribers should have a completely different experience from those who subscribed between December 2011 and June 2012. So there is a ray of hope that SWTOR can redeem itself. But with so many gamers making decisions based on word-of-mouth referrals, Bioware is going to be hard pressed to convince new players to try the game. Short of coming right out and saying, "We messed up, but now our server architecture is designed to facilitate robust social play," I'm not sure if MMO fans will truly understand how well-designed this game is.

Read more about the current state of SWTOR in this Gamasutra article:

BioWare 'looking at free-to-play' for Star Wars: The Old Republic