Its an Alert! Stop the presses!
In what seems like a completely unnecessary gesture to get you to keep playing SWTOR, BioWare is offering players who stay after the first month a “Founders” title and in-game medal. Now normally I would’ve thought this was pretty cool. I got a badge for my Team Fortress 2 characters that says I played in the beta way back in the day, considering how large the game has gotten its actually kind of a rare and neat thing to have. But this award feels little weird, I’ll explain after the jump.
You should probably first read BioWare’s terms to getting the badge and title first:
To receive the Founder’s Medal…
- Purchase Star Wars: The Old Republic and redeem your official Game Product Registration Code at the Code Redemption Center.
- Complete one of the following transactions by March 19th, 2012 (12:01AM EST; Pacific: March 18th, 9:01PM PST; European: 4:01AM GMT, 5:01AM CET):
- Billed at least once for an active Star Wars: The Old Republic subscription
- Redeemed a Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Time Code
- Once you become eligible for the title and have surpassed your 30 days of game time included with your official Game Product Registration Code, you will be notified by email.
- Check your in-game mail for a message from “Star Wars: The Old Republic”. Your Founder’s Medal will be attached to this message.
- Place your Founder’s Medal in your Inventory and right-click the medal to unlock your “Founder” title. (TIP: You can choose to show the Founder’s title or any other title you’ve earned in-game by opening your character sheet and selecting a title from the character name drop down. Once applied, the title will show next to your character name on your nameplate.)
- This title is permanently bound to your account and will carry over to any character you make in the future.
Did you spot it? The odd part is the need to actually become a recurring member before you get the medal. To confirm that you are actually going to keep the game. Its bizarre to me because so many people will have purchased this game up front and there are likely more than a few turned-off by recent exploits, glitches and bugs. Does BioWare really think that little trinkets tied to subscribing for the second month are really going to keep them?
The game should stand on its own merits, on how good or bad they really are. Sadly I think that this little stunt may actually sway certain people. Personally I’m still on my way to leveling to the top and I’m still enjoying it, so I don’t see a reason to cancel, shower upon me as many virtual tokens as you like BioWare!