ok sorry, i just couldn't get the "MMORPG OMG" out of my head, so i HAD to write it. Go ahead, say it - same charm as HP7P23D. But i digress.
Ok, so, Old Repulic is NOW free to play. And as you may have heard, Yes, the play IS limited. However, if you're looking for a fun one to poke around online and don't want to pay, this one's pretty damn good. We do live in a world of "you get what you pay for"... and honestly, the trade offs for making free play aren't really unbearable. That being said, they freaking hooked it me and i'm a subscriber. TWO YEARS FREE FROM WoW, and now this. Whhhhyyyy?! well, i actually find it more enjoyable to be honest. and yes, EVEN in the free play. Perhaps that was their plan all along. But seriously, if you're thinking of giving it a try but were discouraged by the word "limited" - i think you should still give it a go. You can STILL play your full class story all the way from Level 1 to Level 50.
Come to think of it, here's a GREAT comparison chart just to give you an idea of what you get/are missing if you only plan to free play. I'd post individually here, but the scroll overs help:
http://www.swtor.com/free/featuresSo, you may be asking now, "But Mistress J... If free to play is worthwhile, why are you a subscriber now??" ...well, that answer is simple, my friend. Because I have a highly addictive personality & am an add on/feature whore! My point in posting this here is to just kinda recommend if you were thinking of giving it a whirl, but were discouraged by the countless "Yeeeeah, but it's extremely limited" people. The limitations don't take away the fun of the game play. In addition, the STORY is beautiful, really good & unique to each class, and i love the interaction you have w/in cut scenes. There's also some "alignment based" phrases (comparative to say, "Fable" for xbox if you're unclear), and the voice acting & personality given to the npc's you interact are great as well.
Now true, you can't be as freely interactive like making your own guild, or sending mail. BUT, you can join a guild, and receive mail. If you think about it though, it's kinda fair reasoning... they don't want spammers making accounts and sending out mass messages through game mail, and frankly, i wouldn't want to be in guild where the leader is a free account -- simply because if you're a paying subscriber you're more apt to be committed to it and not just "quit" out of the blue if that makes any sense? Now the other things here and there are more like features becoming available later than you would get on a normal account & such.
A pretty cool thing is the "preferred" status vs free to play or subscriber. Basically, u can make an in game purchase of 4.99 for whatever feature etc, and you get the preferred status (in the center column) - a little more perks than free to play, but not as much as sub. So, there's that option as well. I do like the fact that if there's something that a free to player wants they can purchase that one specific thing that for instance may come standard when you're a subscriber.
Okay, this is turning more into a review or article, than a forum post. Anywho, as disjointed and digressing all that may have been, hopefully there was some good info in there somewhere. I just wanted to post something here, as when i was excited about the free to play launch, i had a lot of nay-sayers trying to talk me out of it due to it being "limited". To which now makes me think of the attitude, "What? they won't let us have everything for free?! boo..." It honestly can be a great stand alone game for the free play, you just may not be able to do as much as friends you meet in game who are subs... so, i think it's definitely worth a download of the free to check it out.
so, if you can get past the butthurt of "not getting everything for free", and really wanna do just the free play, i say go for it. Even if you were to look at it as a stand alone game WITHOUT any other online human interaction/play, it would still be a solid game if it were that alone. (but yea, u still get lots of social funness, just not EVERYTHING)
--END OF GLEAMING ENDORSEMENT--