Star Wars: The Old Republic is F2P - what a JIP.

[Joshmaul]

So I have had a look at the "free to play" option for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The following things are restricted unless either you are a subscriber, or you're willing to shell out money for "Cartel Coins":

-full experience gain for questing
-full access to gear rewards for questing
-full access to race choices for your classes
-ability to hide your helmet
-ability to display titles
-ability to display legacy names
-ability to unify colors of your outfits
-having more than two characters for your ENTIRE ACCOUNT
-doing more than three Flashpoints (dungeons) a week
-doing more than three Warzones (PvP) a week
-doing Operations (raids), period
-accessing new content (Section X/HK-51, etc.)

The list goes on. Yes, you can play it for free, except one, you still gotta buy it (i.e. Guild Wars), and two...what's the friggin' point? Yes, you can level your character to 1-50 and do the storyline without restrictions (except for the reduced XP gain and gear choices), but what then? People complain that STO is "pay to win", but STO doesn't restrict you to only three STFs a week, and doesn't make you pay to do New Romulus, for instance. Imagine if it did. The outcry would be huge.

My verdict: Honestly, if you're even remotely interested in this game at all, try it free, and if you like it and want an unrestricted gameplay experience, subscribe. Just don't be surprised if it folds like EA's other MMO based in a popular universe - Warhammer Online.

[Shadowknight1]

You don't have to buy it.  You can just download it.  I was GOING to try it, but the game is a freakin HOG when it comes to HD space, needing 25 GIGS.  No thank you.  As much as I prefer lightsabers to phasers, I'll stick with STO, thank you very much.

[FarShot]

As much as I prefer lightsabers to phasers, I'll stick with STO, thank you very much.

 :SWvST:
 

EA is a money grubbing hog, and they're going to kill everything in gaming that isn't about profit.

[Tuskin38]

They made everyone a free player on the Test Server for a week, I wanted to shoot myself.

I'm staying subbed thank you.

I got HK-51 Wednesday morning, I love him. New favourite companion.

Now if they would fix the bug where he doesn't scale with your level then I'd love him even more.

Once you unlock HK-51 through the quest chain on one character in your legacy, you can unlock him on any other character for 350 Cartel Coins or 1mil Credits per character.

Him and his equipment are supposed to scale with your characters level (so yes you can have him at level 1 if you spend the money), but right now its bugged.