How Does Free Work?

/trumpet fanfare . . . Hikarinoko, Imperial Agent, is now Light Rank V!

The other day, my husband pointed out to me the announcement that SWTOR would be transitioning to a Free-to-Play (F2P) option sometime in the future.

(This is not something we have told our eldest daughter . . . You see, she'll be heading to college in a couple of weeks, and she's got a shiny new laptop . . . The last thing we need her to do her freshman year is jump into SWTOR F2P when it comes out . . . This means, of course, I will not be asking her to read this through before I publish it and tell me if it makes sense.)

Right now, when my daughters play, they use either my or my husband's accounts.  There's no way we can afford accounts for all five of them, especially when we only have two desktops in the family which can run the game, so some of those accounts would be used very little, indeed.  This means, of course, that some of my daughters can't play with me, some can't play with my husband, and some can't play with each other.

But with the proposed F2P format as currently listed, each of the girls could have her own account.  None of them play enough to reach any restriction caps on warzones or flashpoints, and this way, they could play with either parent (or any other sister), without worrying about which accounts they are using at that moment.

As a completely casual player, not running Operations, not running m(any) flashpoints, not on the cutting edge of content, and only running a couple of warzones a day, the F2P option would even work for me.  I'm not so hung up on vanity items that I have to plunk down a bunch of money for points to go get them.  I also don't use the auction house terribly much.  The only really annoying things would be the limited travel capabilities and the constant advertisements, if it is anything like the LoTRO I tried out and which quickly bored me.

(A side note about the auction house restrictions . . . In a way, wouldn't this penalize the subscription players, who are trying to make a few credits, by limiting their potential purchasers?  Just a thought.)

I'll be honest:  I'm not sure what I will do when the game goes F2P.  I figure if I am playing a game often, it is worth supporting, and therefore maintaining my subscription would be the better way to go.  But another part of me recognizes that unless something captures my imagination sufficiently between now and that time, I may not be playing enough to justify the subscription, and perhaps, from Bioware's point of view, having someone play infrequently on a F2P account is better than having them completely quit playing.  (Because, after all, as long as they are in contact with the game, the chance is still there they may pay money for points or resubscribe.)

There is still so little specific information out about it, there is no way to make a decision now.  Time will tell . . .

(Postscript:  I've never mentioned in a blog before now about my minors sharing my account, because I used to worry that game companies would end up banning my account if I did . . . not like any of them ever read my blogs.  But if Bioware is making SWTOR F2P, they have no reason to ban me, at this point.  It wouldn't be a good idea to alienate a wavering subscriber--one who, if it happened, would simply walk away, taking her husband with her--over something so trivial as this, when their subscription numbers are already so low.  It might be the one thing which would make me tolerate WoW pandas . . . /pained expression . . .)