BREAKING NEWS: STO to be Free-to-Play by year end

Quote by Jonathon_Davis

I know we don't have specifics for a STO F2P model yet, but from other's past MMO going F2P experience, what is the difference in being a lifetime subscriber pre or post F2P? Are there any benefits to me still going forward with getting a lifetime sub prior to F2P?

Lifetimers get the same things as subscribers do, but they don't pay monthly.

FTP means you can choose between paying the monthly fee or buying content packs and limitation removals from the in game store. Subscribers/lifetimers get access to all the content with no new restrictions. Players who don't pay at all get all kinds of restrictions, these could be: limited amount of quests, inaccessible areas, restricted classes, currency cap, limited travel possibilities, no rested-xp, ... These players can grind points to get all those restrictions removed. Non-subscribers can choose to pay for each content pack/restriction removal.

FTP is a good way to try out a game without a time limitation. If you don't play the game a lot it's probably cheaper to buy everything in the in-game store. If you play the game all the time a subscription is cheaper, but the moment you cancel the subscription you loose a lot of access.

Buying a lifetime now will most likely be cheaper than buying everything from the in-game store when the game goes FTP.

Quote by DakonKor

I suspect, in the end, this will work out for Lifers in a big way (free Cryptic Points), so they literally never need to spend another dime on the game, ever.

By the way, if you play LOTRO, Turbine is rolling out significant content updates to LOTRO and DDO in the coming months... at least according to X-Play.

I have a LOTRO lifetime account. I had saved up all my TP (Turbine points) to buy the Rise of Isengard expansion. The pre-order is with real money only. If you want the pre-order goodies you still need to spend real money. There are also all kinds off stuff to make you're game-play less grindy which you can buy in the store, if you want a lot of them you'll need to cough up real money too.

I agree with Brandon, I don't think this will be necessarily a bad thing. City of Heroes was dying before they announced they were going F2P and now I'm seeing more people on the servers than I have in years and it hasn't even gone F2P yet (its this month BTW). I think this is just were most MMO's are going excluding WoW of course. Makes me wonder if I should buy a lifetime sub now.

As somebody with a Lifetime sub to both STO and LoTRO I do not regret either. My main reason for getting a lifetime for LoTRO was it being 50% off and a real bargain at £75 considering all the upcoming F2P perks it was going to give. I do still play it and it is quite nice when I go back there to be able to quickly nip into the store and buy something without feeling guilty in any way about spending money which I need to keep quiet about to my husband.

I bought a Lifetime for STO without even thinking it may go F2P simply because I did not want to buy things in a store which I then had to pay access for (and of course the genre itself) although I was rather hoping for a bit more Elite'esque trading in game. Now it is going to go F2P I am quietly optimistic about the game. Sure things will change, especially in the C-store as I see the price of ships falling but almost certainly it will be the end of account wide unlocks but with a monthly stipend and patience I can cope with that.

Hopefully this move will be good for the game in the short and long term.

I had a feeling this was coming sooner rather than later when Dstahl randomly brought it up after the PW acquisition when he was never asked about it. It felt like he was prepping us for something.

I bought my lifetime sub when the game launched, so I've already run through the number of months required to break even on it. Going to echo the other lifers and say I'm not worried about this. However, I do have requirements if Cryptic wants to stay on my good side. The obvious one is that lifers get the paid membership level for free. Otherwise, it feels like they're invalidating a contract they made with us, and I'll be pissed. Second, given that we gave the game massive support early on, I expect some sort of Cryptic Point stipend. If we don't get this, I'll be annoyed, but not pissed.

Feeling much better about being an LTS... thanks Brandon, and everyone else, for your input.
=/=

what will happen to sto, when it becomes f2p??
restricted spaces, so u must pay to enter the deferi space? or the fleet missions?

i hope the space and missions will be free for all.
and some ships ,too like now.

the lotro f2p system is bad. many things was free before. now u must pay for the stuff like crafting or quests.
thats bad

i hope they make a better f2p system as lotro.

They are going to make a full announcement next week, but, I do know that no playable content or areas are being considered to be restricted, at this time. Expect to see things like less ship options, costumes, character types ETC

Overall, if you are paying now or are lifetime, things are going to get even better!

Quote by stockard

the lotro f2p system is bad. many things was free before. now u must pay for the stuff like crafting or quests.
thats bad
i hope they make a better f2p system as lotro.

Before going FTP you accessing the quests required a subscription and buying the expansions (SoA, MoM, SoM). Since going FTP you can choose between a subscription or buying quest packs. Several of these quest packs are completely free. I do not know how you would pay with TP for crafting.

If this game goes free to play I might give it a whirle to try it out. I know a wee bit about Star Trek so it would be fun to see a bit more and heck your own ship is always a fun thing.

Free to play = Constant rate of content. It's preferable to the current rate we have.

Quote by SBOSlayer

Free to play = Constant rate of content. It's preferable to the current rate we have.

Suddenly I had this vision of orbital billboards around all of the major, inhabited planets. Warp to Vulcan: COLGATE, "GAH!" warp to earth: McDONALDS, NOOOOOOOO!

Though... if they did, I think it should be appropriate. Warping to Andoria should greet you with billboards of "Dentine Ice" and going to vulcan should get you a billboard for "Gatorade" (Cause it's hot and deserty. :3) And, yeah, earth should have a McDonalds billboard. xD

Quote by Angelsilhouette

Suddenly I had this vision of orbital billboards around all of the major, inhabited planets. Warp to Vulcan: COLGATE, "GAH!" warp to earth: McDONALDS, NOOOOOOOO!

In LOTRO the user interface is unfortunately filled with buttons to access the store.

Quote by nniicc

Quote by Angelsilhouette

Suddenly I had this vision of orbital billboards around all of the major, inhabited planets. Warp to Vulcan: COLGATE, "GAH!" warp to earth: McDONALDS, NOOOOOOOO!

In LOTRO the user interface is unfortunately filled with buttons to access the store.

The McDonalds store? >.>

Thinking of it, that would be hi-freaking-larious. I'm imagining the eye of Sauron (?) underneath a pair golden arches. xD

http://computered.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/daniel-stahl-sto-goes-f2p-cryptic-and-perfect-world-and-more/

Dan Stahl talking about F2P and promises more and regular content. Interesting he admitted that PW leaked the news before they were ready for it to be known.

Quote by Angelsilhouette

Thinking of it, that would be hi-freaking-larious. I'm imagining the eye of Sauron (?) underneath a pair golden arches. xD

nothing cool about it: http://images.brighthub.com/20/d/20ddec59a99160f7dd44a5f2b4d4b9083dfca7b1_large.jpg

this one appears in the minimap from time to time tough: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__7gfP4Zk94Q/S5q4T86TLmI/AAAAAAAAAU0/qPOcc8WT7ds/s200/eye-minimap.jpg

I would like nothing more than to pull up to Starbase 24 or one of the asteroids in a mission and try to fly my boat-ass assault cruiser through the drive through at a McDonalds stationed there. Right across from that, a Starbucks of course. And...get this...they take coupons!!! If anyone is up for it, a foundry mission that went over the top like that would get some kind of Stonewall Fleet award. (McStonewalls would be a nice touch).

Free to play should bring a whole different element to the game as well as to the fleet. People who wouldn't want to pay a monthly fee to play may now join which would give our membership a potential boost. My only concern would be any "crazies" who decide to start playing. A deterrent to hecklers and those who cause disruptions is the price to pay. In this new structure I just hope the same moderation abilities apply and people "play nice."

Jamie.

Quote by tuvak

I would like nothing more than to pull up to Starbase 24 or one of the asteroids in a mission and try to fly my boat-ass assault cruiser through the drive through at a McDonalds stationed there. Right across from that, a Starbucks of course. And...get this...they take coupons!!! If anyone is up for it, a foundry mission that went over the top like that would get some kind of Stonewall Fleet award. (McStonewalls would be a nice touch).

Free to play should bring a whole different element to the game as well as to the fleet. People who wouldn't want to pay a monthly fee to play may now join which would give our membership a potential boost. My only concern would be any "crazies" who decide to start playing. A deterrent to hecklers and those who cause disruptions is the price to pay. In this new structure I just hope the same moderation abilities apply and people "play nice."

Jamie.

ATTENTION CREW, due to the exemplary job you all did with the borg encounter, lunch is on me. Helm set course for the nearest Galaxy McStoneWall! :lol:

I'm curious how this will look for me--someone who closed his account paying month-to-month, who will restart it under FTP. I worry that I will lose some of the features currently belonging to my toons that I worked for months to get.

We should be seeing the announcement on Tuesday :) It should include benefits comparison charts, LTS vs Monthly info ETC