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SWTOR News
9/28/09 6:09 PM -
BioWare and Microtransactions 
by Dover
, posted September 28th, 2009 at 6:09 PM
Recently Gamasutra posted an interview with Greg Zeschuk, one of the BioWare Doctors. The vast majority of the interview deals specifically with Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, however towards the end we get an interesting quote regarding MMOs.

"For so many years, we just saw this thing as retail, but I think that's finally changing. Now, you see these 10 million person numbers for monthly plays on Facebook games. Your jaw hits the floor. People, in a sense, are doing more in a month of actual plays than World of Warcraft. It's certainly not monetizing anywhere near the same level, but the actual number of people touching that product is enormous.

It's very insightful for us, because I think a lot of the really smart things are low barrier to entry, and games that work on any system. It's kind of permissive, in the sense that if people really want to engage with it, they'll start spending money if you make a really great game. If you make quality stuff, it plays to your strength. There are a lot of neat opportunities there.

Also, obviously, the MMO space continues to get bigger and bigger and more important.I think you're going to be starting to see -- there are already a few now in North America -- full free-to-play MMOs with microtransactions coming down the pipe and stuff. So, lots and lots of exciting stuff there." - Greg Zeschuk

There has been a great deal of conjecture regarding the payment style that BioWare will adopt for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This speculation was spawned by an older quote regarding the developer's willingness to explore multiple business models.

While this certainly isn't a declaration of intent, it does show an acceptance of the free-to-play model that is relatively foreign among western developers. It is still far too early to say one way or another without an official announcement from BioWare, however quotes, like the one above, continue to point towards the possibility that TOR could be, at least partially, micro-transaction based.
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15 Comments
Comment by Could TOR have BioWare Bu made on September 30th, 2009 at 6:16pm
[...] few articles on Darth Hater, both old and new, have focused on the possibility of microtransactions being part of BioWares pricing [...]
 
Comment by Pangscar made on September 30th, 2009 at 11:58am
There was an article early this year, don't have link sorry, but the gist of it was that while they had explored the possibility of MT's, for their first foray into the MMO market TOR would have traditional payment methods.

This article here also doesn't really say to me that they want TOR to have MT, but rather he is speaking to how he sees the market going in the future.
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on September 30th, 2009 at 12:00pm
Yeah we posted it earlier.
 
Comment by eria made on September 30th, 2009 at 1:00am
I know I'm posting again, but I wanted to point out a few things that I found in the game testing agreement (yes I read the whole thing).

H) You acknowledge and agree that all points acquired during the Game Program are non-refundable and have no monetary value.

(I) You acknowledge and agree that all items acquired for points during the Game Program are non-refundable and non-tradable.

(J) You acknowledge and agree that BWA reserves the right to add or remove points to your account at any time and without warning.

(K) You acknowledge and agree that BWA reserves the right to change/add/remove points rewarded in the Game store at any time and without warning.

So, what do you all make of this?
 
DH Team
Comment by sado made on September 30th, 2009 at 12:01pm
I'll make a post about it later today once I get a chance to re-read the agreement.
 
Comment by eria made on September 29th, 2009 at 2:04am
I think people look at it from the wrong way. Anytime a thread pops up about MT, people make blind statements about it. MT doesn't always have to be about buying gold and buying gear, it can mean many different things, and there are many different ways in which you can use it.

He is right though, you are going to start seeing more MMOs going this route. DDO just went F2P with an option of subscribing, along with MT, and the game is doing better than it was before. It gives the players more choices, and when you want to get your game to a large audience, this is what you need to do. Lots of people are turned off by the idea of a subscriptions, and don't want to take the jump into MMOs. Make the game F2P, and they will at least give it a shot, and who knows, maybe they will spend some money.

Personally, I will play the game if it's MT based, but it also depends on how it's done. If people are able to buy levels and gear, or have to buy certain classes or races to unlock them, then that's going too far. But I have no issues at all with buying content. Like I said, it gives you choice. Maybe some new content patch comes out, and you don't really care for it...with a subscription, you are basically paying for it no matter what. But with MT, you can choose what to buy content wise. Maybe you don't have a few bucks to spare atm, so you wait a month to buy it, or maybe you just don't like what you see...the content isn't being forced down your throat, you get to choose what you want to play.

Who knows how they will do things, but don't just assume MT means people will be able to buy gear and levels. WoW is MT based for example...you have to pay for name changes, faction changes, race changes, servers xfers, those are all MTs. Think if WoW was F2P, and they changed 15 bucks per content patch...you as the consumer would be paying less money per year than you currently do.

Times are changing, be it for better or for worse...bottom line is, they are offering a product, and you can either buy it or not. Vote with your dollar...if people really don't like MT, then games that use it will fail, and MT will probably go away.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on September 29th, 2009 at 7:43am
To be fair, DDO wouldn't have did the "Free To Play with microtransactions" thing if DDO had been a big success with millions of players. If the game is successful, they don't have to do things like that to lure people in.

If you make content that you have to pay extra for, it'll soon become required. You join a guild of friends, and they decide everyone needs to buy the new dungeon or item or whatever. Just leave it to the metagame stuff like WoW, not specific items or anything.
 
Comment by Mindfields made on September 28th, 2009 at 7:22pm
I shudder at the thought of MT for payment in TOR. It just.....gah......just don't do it!
 
Comment by quickiller made on September 28th, 2009 at 6:46pm
I wont play a game with micro-transactions, i did it once and i hated it.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on September 28th, 2009 at 6:16pm
Let them accept microtransactions all they want, just don't put it in our TOR. If you're gonna put it in, do it under the hood like WoW's race changes and server transfers, where it's not obvious as Microtransactions in the game itself.
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on September 28th, 2009 at 6:46pm
Dont forget the other pseudo microtransactions from WoW that you could see in the game, the TCG prize rewards. If they do have a card game with this game I hope it is a Pazaak deck and there are no in game prizes you have a chance at winning. Not only do they detract resources away from developing content everyone can get, they are a great way for people to get scammed into buying fake prize codes.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on September 28th, 2009 at 6:57pm
Well I never liked the card game crap, though for another reason entirely. Namely, how every other item was a gadget that would've fit with the Engineering profession in WoW just fine. Engineering was lacking anything cool for a couple years, while the card game got the stuff like "Goblin Weather Machine".

Though I also opposed the card game on the money front too. I still frown at the Mountain Dew Battle-Bots, which were clearly a product placement promotional tie-in, with no attempt in-game to justify or explain where the Battle-bots came from, or where this Mount Dew is located. Hopefully TOR will do neither.

And yeah, I almost forgot about the scams for card codes, especially that Spectral Tiger.
 
Comment by indu made on September 28th, 2009 at 8:42pm
personally i don't care about style based items coming from MT or promo codes but i hope nothing like that exists for things that effects game play in any manner other than appearance.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on September 28th, 2009 at 9:02pm
But even style-based items are valuable to roleplayers, and roleplayers would call it unfair to have such valuable items require you to spend real life money to acquire. Why single out one group for microtransactions? You gotta see what's valuable to every side.
 
DH Team
Comment by Zoidberg made on September 28th, 2009 at 7:08pm
My engineer feels your pain. There was almost no reason to even have that profession other than the wasted resources from dropping it. See how it detracts from regular development.