14 DAY TRIAL // Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare’s massive online game, is getting ready to debut its free-to-play mode and, in order to help players decide if they want to play for free or with a special subscription, BioWare has highlighted the restrictions imposed on those who don’t spend any money in the game.
Star Wars: The Old Republic was released at the end of last year and was supposed to be the next big MMO and a true contender to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. That didn’t exactly happen, as lots of people declined to pay a monthly subscription, forcing BioWare and EA to confirm that they would turn the title into a free-to-play experience this fall.
Ahead of this change, in order to clear things up concerning the restrictions placed upon free players, the studio has started unveiling more details about the move by highlighting them in a list and in a special preview video.
As you can guess, most of these restrictions make sense, as free players have limited character creation options or can complete only a few Warzones or Flashpoints per week. Many restrictions can easily be removed by purchasing special weekly passes or Cartel Coins, so check them out below, via the game’s website.
Story Content - All players can play their full class stories from Level 1-50 Character Creation Choices - Limited Character Creation options. Operations - A Weekly pass to unlock Operation access is required. Warzones - Three Warzones per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction. Flashpoints - Full rewards from three Flashpoints per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock rewards for all Flashpoints. Space Missions - Three Space Missions per week or purchase a weekly pass to unlock this restriction. Cargo Hold - Gain and expand the Cargo Hold with Cartel Coins. Inventory - Expand inventory slots with Cartel Coins. Crew Skills - One Crew Skill or, purchase additional Crew Skill slots with Cartel Coins. Quick Travel - Longer Quick Travel cooldown period or purchase an authorization to permanently reduce the cooldown for Quick Travel. Emergency Fleet Pass - No access to Emergency Fleet Pass. Purchase an authorization to unlock quick travel to the Fleet. Death - Revive at the nearest Med Center or a total of five (5) times in the field. Unlock additional Field Revive with Cartel Coins. Game Login - No priority status in the Login Queue. Item Equipping - Cannot equip most purple items unless a license is purchased from the Cartel Market.
The first video in a special series called the Star Wars: The Old Republic Free-to-Play Insider Preview has also been released, so check it out below.
