Well, SW:TOR has a F2P model now so I thought I'd check it out.
Let me start by explaining my position and why I generally dislike most MMOs.
I started online RPGing with MUDs. They were text based games that generally didn't have any kind of quests and inherently had no story lines. They were just a bunch of rooms with descriptions. The stories were made by the players, for all the players to experience. When the world changed it changed for everyone. It was a true communal gaming experience where everyone could experience everything at the same time,
together.
Enter MMOs and my judgment scales.
The two flavors of quests:
1. Repeatable: Wolves breed so logically you can continually have quests to kill them and logs burn so you can continually collect more firewood. Repetition. That's life. It's boring but realistic and consistent. And you typically don't have to suspend disbelief too far for it to work.
2. One-time: You kill someone specific. Of course lore might allow for the notion of resurrection so the same person really can be killed many times, but you get the point.
So consider those two things the end points on a Scale A.
World availability:
1. Open: You can go anywhere, anytime. You might get your ass slapped halfway across the world if you wonder into a high level area, but you can go there if you want.
2. Unlocked: Areas become available only as you level or complete story line missions.
Opposite points on Scale B.
And finally story/mission focus:
1. Everyone: Story progression is experienced by everyone at once.
2. Individual: Story progression is experienced individually as the player progresses.
Opposite points on Scale C.
Theory:
The 1's: These lend themselves to a single-player experience where the player is guided along a pre-determined path and have limited mobility outside of it. Mass Effect and Dragon Age would be on this side of the scales, though to their credit they both give some flexibility in secondary/optional missions.
The 2's: These lend themselves to open world sandbox play. Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3/NV would be examples of this taken far in the single-player games, EVE Online would be an example in the MMO realm.
Setting the comparison point: World of Warcraft(lower rating = leaning towards the "1" side of the scale)
(higher rating = leaning towards the "2" side of the scale)
WoW started out with a pretty balanced approach.
A Scale Rating: 6. A few "kill this" and "collect that" quests, but the key story quests are almost all one-time objectives.
B Scale Rating: 2. With the exception of dungeon instances, the world is almost completely open from the get-go.
C Scale Rating: 8. With the notable exception of the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj and Cataclysm, story progression has been almost exclusively individualized.
Ultimately WoW balances out at about a 5 on an aggregate scale.
It's changed a little bit since Wrath of the Lich King when they began introducing phasing. That bumps both B and C up a little bit.
Benchmarking EVE OnlineA Scale Rating: 1. In my time playing it I experienced only repeatable-type missions.
B Scale Rating: 1. You can fly anywhere you want, right away. Good luck not getting slaughtered, though.
C Scale Rating: 2. You can choose to be handed off to different handlers as you become more capable. Otherwise the story line progresses through expansions for everyone at once.
Rounded off that's a 1 aggregate rating--the truest modern example of MUD principles put into an MMO.
(the above is based on about 8 months of casually playing, so might not be that accurate)
Finally, Star Wars: The Old RepublicA Scale Rating: 8. A few logically repeatable missions but effectively everything is one-time.
B Scale Rating: 8. Some areas are class-only. You can't leave the starting area until you finish your story line there. The world supposedly opens up once you get your own ship. All in all, your access to the universe is very limited by other factors.
C Scale Rating: 10. Everything is individualized. You have to progress through your story line even to unlock secondary missions.
That's a rounded aggregate rating of 9.
What does that mean? Well. It's not a bad game by any means. The story lines are engaging and fun, but...
It's a horrible, horrible MMO. There's practically no reason for it to be an MMO. It's a few single-player games smashed together into a common world that yields almost no benefit of having other players around save for killing a handful of world bosses, an auction house, and the artificial "social points" system they seemed to introduce just to give people a reason to group together. And of course a crude chat room that's barely usable unless you give EA money.
To get into some examples... (spoiled alert)
Story Missions. There are a handful of these in each zone I've seen. They're instances you go into seamlessly but by default you can only go into them alone. If you're in a group, others will either go into their own solo version or not at all if there's a class restriction. Through preferences you can allow others to come into your Story Mission instances with you, but only you will get credit for completing the objectives. If other people in your group need to accomplish the same thing, you need to do it all over again for them. Very, very individualized which can be great for your story, but that's what single-player games are for.
You're the Hero! Who doesn't like being the hero? The exception to the rules? The story line for every Jedi has them unusually strong in the Force. One class walks away from the starting zone with a unique, ancient weapon hilt. The Trooper walks away wronged but now in charge of an elite squad. Great individualized story lines but continuity breaks down a bit when they all sit down in a cantina and compare stories.
Companions. As you progress through your story line you get companions, based on your class. They're established already with names, personalities, likes, and dislikes. Some can be romanced and even married. You can have one following you around at any given time. This is nothing new from a RPG perspective but... in an MMO? I know Guild Wars had them, too, but AFAIK other people wouldn't see them. Games like STO have companions but they're completely customizable. Go to Coruscant and every sub-level-15 Jedi Knight is going around with the very same R2 unit. World consistency and continuity be damned.
And marrying your companions? Why? This is an MMO. It's multiplayer. If you want your toon to get hitched, work it out with another player and have your toon marry theirs. Or just write it into your backstory if you want to tell other people.
Okay, okay... but is the single-player at least worth the cost?If you can deal with the horrific limits imposed on F2P players, yes. If you spend $5 on your account you at least get Preferred status which lets you do a bit more, but generally not having a subscription is pretty painful.
As for a subscription, my advice is this:
Consider this 2-3 single player games smashed into one. True, there are 8 classes with individualized stories, but the stories are told across the same worlds with many of the same enemies and same secondary missions. For example, the two Jedi classes start on the same world, and the Smuggler and Trooper start on the same world. After that they all end up on Coruscant. What happens after that I'm not yet sure, but there's clearly a limited number of areas per faction. Even WoW had 3 starter areas per faction at release and then you weren't necessarily glued to them; a Night Elf could travel to an Azeroth starting area if they wanted--a flexibility TOR doesn't have.
I have a subscription. I wanted more than 2 toons on the server and I didn't want to deal with multiple accounts (which has other drawbacks besides inconvenience). So I got a subscription in order to have 12 toons per server. I've given myself the hard limit of 10 months playing. That's $150-about what I'd pay for 3 single-player games. The goal is to experience all the classes in that time, then call it quits or go back to a F2P account for more casual gaming.
Because this game is NOT an MMO. And in no way, shape, or form, will I reward EA with money for sticking a single-player game into an MMO format just to extort MMO-like fees.
P.S. I don't expect many people to read this but meh... been wanting to write it for a week now.