Still installing :'( I'm probably going to shell out the token $5 as is customary for f2p games to bump you up to midrange status.

EDIT: I don't know... Something about this game just feels.... off. We'll see if I plonk down the fiver, if not it was only bandwidth, and fortunately, I'm not capped.

Yeah you get boosts a lot as quest rewards, so I use them when heading out on a long string of quests. Works well. I honestly don't even notice the lower XP gain, I still get plenty from doing a planet's quest chain and my class quest chain, both of which I would do anyway.

For people wanting to level fast to the cap for multiplayer stuff it makes sense as a penalty. Most of the restrictions seem to target those people actually. As a "solo the story" guy I barely notice.

Trust me. If you were blitzing through the planets, you'd feel the ache. If you're thorough and go through each planet quest, you'll barely notice the xp penalty until maybe around level 32-ish. Even then, you're just about strong enough to play through the legacy quest which is where I stopped.

Also what helps your experience is that you have (likely) never experienced the game in full without the free to play shackles. I'm sure not knowing what you're missing out influences things a bit.

The immediate problem you'll run into in Free to Play is inventory. I managed to get around it, but I can understand others who have trouble with it. The inventory in your shuttle would help immensely, but they clearly label it as "Preferred Status and up".

Well, the interesting thing about free to play games is that most of them I'm aware of including EverQuest, EverQuest II, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Vanguard, SWOTOR (I'm pretty sure but somebody can correct me if I am wrong), and more I'm forgetting now all offer subscriptions as an alternative to buying into the game in pieces or trying to enjoy what is available free.

So subscriptions haven't really gone away but they are no longer a barrier to entry for most MMOs anymore either. There is still plenty of upsell to subs going on at least with the SOE and Turbine titles. Those ones I've seen first hand. The largest difference is they try to hook players in with whatever is available for free but with the restrictions get them to pay at least for some portions that are locked or better still just subscribe to remove the restrictions altogether. There are some restrictions in LoTRO for example that can only be removed by subscribing.

What is more, in Turbine games and probably others they now upsell ways to beat the grind or gain things not possible even with a subscription and I am not talking just cosmetics but rather things like additional character slots, more bank space that those who like to craft would need, faster progression in crafting and leveling up, permanent elevations to stats not attainable any other way, etc.

I do not doubt for a moment that Turbine has not only plenty of subscribers since going f2p but many of them spend more than 15 a month to purchase all the gameplay enhancements they sell. SOE games I know are similar particularly with potions to boost xp and crafting which help reduce the deliberate grinds in place. It's all a calculated way to deliberately extract more cash, not less from MMO players and it seems to be working nicely.

I mentioned elsewhere not long ago that Turbine's move to f2p put them in a position where Warner Brothers was happy to buy them up. So f2p did not equal concession but rather improved revenues. They are basically milking the faithful more than anything and for the "free" players these games are glorified trial editions in many respects. I can't recall ever hearing of anyone playing them that did not at some point break down and buy something to gain basic "preferred" status, etc., etc., etc.

If you wanna play, you have to pay. That's the bottom line really unless you like a sort of shareware experience in your MMO gaming I guess.

Bought TOR at launch, subscribed for a couple of months after the free month. Got my Jedi Shadow to max level, played a few instances, stopped subscribing. TOR became F2P, went back to discover that original subscribers, heck even the ones that bought the game at launch got nothing but a "Founder" title and Preferred Status. I proceeded to play for another month leveled a Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Knight to mid-levels, got a purple lightsaber for my main character, then stopped playing again. Might go back in future to play the story quests for the classes.

I forgot to mention in the case of Turbine's LoTRO if you buy the entire game in parts, all the content packs, everything so you could then play for "free" from there on in, you still can't. They withheld fast travel forcing you to have to pay a fee in Turbine Points (therefore real money) every single time you travel someplace far. This can really add up to some money over years of playing the game. The only way to fix this is to subscribe. And even then, even as a subscriber you don't get adequate bank space for crafting so you need to buy more and you get a less than ideal number of character slots if you want to try all the classes and keep those toons.

Basically, for LoTRO Complete it costs more than it used to, not less and the faithful who were subscribing to begin with are the ones paying the most of it I'd bet along with those hooked in by the glorified free trial.

On a bright note, I personally consider Turbine's offerings to be good enough to pay for and I might just do that again in the future. I have characters already in both DDO and LoTRO and enjoyed the games when I played them. So I might go back at some point but currently I'm still having fun in WoW and there's only so much time. And that is the biggest reason I haven't tried SWOTOR or Rift. I imagine there is fun to be had in both places, even in the glorified free trials initially perhaps but I just don't have time for them.

The hotbar limitations were more severe when they first went F2P, but as you said the way it is now is pretty good for most people. I played a few months back and really enjoyed the game. I ended up subscribing for a month just to play my Sith Inqusitor to max level. A few of the limitations where starting to bother me as I got higher level. I really enjoyed doing group flashpoints and space missions which are both limited to 3 rewards per week in F2P. And for the enjoyment I was getting I figured 14.99 wasn't too much to get the full experience while I was still having fun with it.

I read it is now 2 bars on free to play which is a very good change as I tolerated the single bar as much as I could.

I did play it as a subscriber the first month. I don't really notice a difference. Again, I think this is because of how I play and what I'm looking for.

And I'm level 42.

So having taken interest in the OPs first post I managed to install the game after what seems an eternity of sluggish EA Download Installer and unusual problems along the way.

And now I'm playing an Afro-American Sith Inquisitor Cyborg with Dreadlocks named: Bubba-Ray,
he is level 9 thus far and considering that this is my very first MMO experience and that Bubba was incapacitated only twice (in HERO zones) this seems to be pretty fun. You just have to blend out the constant "Jedi Mind Tricks" = manipulation and advertisements used by EA to make you pay for the game.
I would write a let's play about my exploits with Bubba but I doubt anyone would be interested in that anyway.

Then our experiences are not very comparable, I think. You're playing as preferred status and I purely played as a free player. It explains why you can't see a very big difference between a subscriber and a preferred player. I know some former subscribers plan their path to preferred status to get the most out of their game, so I think preferred works much better than F2P.

Oh I don't doubt that. And I do have some stuff carried over from my previous sub, like titles and customizations and whatnot. And like I said I bought some other things with in-game money, like turning off helmets.

It's working out good. The XP thing is the only real handicap I feel I have.

Wow I didn't know you could buy unlocks on the auction house. That is pretty cool. I'm re-installing it now cause i feel like playing it again. I forgot how ungodly huge this game is to download...

Yeah there's a special category for them even, "unlocks." I guess if people are buying items with real money to sell for in-game money then EA is happy to take the cash.