Star Wars: The Old Republic Developer Blog Update

The latest Star Wars: The Old Republic developer update deals with the oft-discussed introduction of a free-to-play option to the MMO, and is written by the project’s lead designer Damion Schubert. Here’s a snippet:

As the Lead Designer of the team that has been working on the new Free-to-Play option, our goal is to bring to you the best possible experience. We started this process several months ago, and since then we have been led by two core philosophies that are crucial to how we view and think about such a large design shift.

The first core rule is that we want to be sure that players can reach level 50 without paying a cent, if so desired. The final design meets this requirement: Free-to-Play players can play levels 1 through 50 and enjoy the vast majority of the classic storyline and side quests during their journey. A member of our Marketing team once observed that Star Wars: The Old Republic is roughly 24 times the size of the original Star Warsâ„¢: Knights of the Old Republicâ„¢ game. Well, now BioWare is letting players have all that story content for free! That’s not to say there won’t be restrictions Free-to-Play players will earn experience more slowly, for example, and several aspects of the gameplay experience are limited. If you have friends who love Star Warsâ„¢ and the BioWare-style storytelling, but were uneasy about the monthly subscription, or paying $60 up front for the box well, come mid-November, those concerns should be erased.

The second core rule is that subscribers should not experience any degradation of their gameplay experience. Those of you who are still paying a monthly fee should still get the same gameplay experience and you won’t find anything taken away from you and the gameplay that you currently enjoy. Furthermore, we really wanted to be sure that in no way would subscribers feel they needed to make purchases from the Cartel Market in order to be competitive in the game.

We not only met these goals, in my opinion, but exceeded expectations subscribers will enjoy new benefits from the update, including two more quick slot bars, a new purchasable Cargo Hold tab, and a monthly grant of Complimentary Cartel Coins to spend however they like in the Cartel Market. Subscribers can also buy the same experience boosts available in the Cartel Market as Free-to-Play players, which allow characters to advance at a rapid pace.

We highly value all of our players and it is important for us to ensure that our players recognize the value offered in both the subscription and Free-to-Play option.