SWGoH: The Other Side of the Revan Debate

SWGoH: Revan & KOTOR

The author of this article is a very experienced player who has been with the game almost since launch date, and has seen the best and the worst of what Galaxy of Heroes has to offer. Because of the scale of emotions surrounding the latest event to arrive in GOH, all information that could suggest who he is, or where is he playing will be changed.

I remember that when I saw the push notification that came from one of the Game Changers YouTube channels, announcing that Revan is finally coming to the game – I almost jumped in joy. My favorite character that I remember from my youth is back in my life – and on my phone, in the game that has been my get away hobby for years now.

The theory crafting began. What will be the requirements? What’s the time frame? We received some of our answers a few days later in a post on the official forums. I immediately thought, damnit, I went for the wrong toons – I should have left those Han Solo movie characters alone, and went in with my crystals on the KOTOR ones. This will be pretty damn costly, I thought to myself, and I believed I might not be able to pull it off.

And then, the packs dropped and I was stunned. There’s a faction pack for 700 (699) crystals. I’m checking what the guildies are doing, everyone is talking about those packs. And I mean everyone. Guys that had set their feet in that said they were going to skip getting Revan this time around were even buying them. All these people were posting their drops from the packs. One guy posted a 145 drop of Jolee! Not bad, not bad indeed! So in my situation need basically all 5 toons, since mine are a joke in terms of stars with only Bastila well geared. So I start to buy some packs – I get a 20, a 15, a 12. My hopes just got very high, so I decided that I won’t miss him and I will survive the costs. After 2 vaults I got everything well into 6 stars, and now I can just farm them easy and will make it in time. I thought to myself, they went light on us. Thank God. I’m not a huge whale, just a steady dolphin. I did not buy Bastila for $300 or others when they went marquee. A lot of my guildmates did, but I am not in a position where I could drop that kind of cash on a regular basis. Then I went to read up on the population of gamers on Reddit. I got smashed by the level of hate, fake chivalry and the level of demands to the studio. The “whale” bashing season was in its prime. I checked the forums, here we go again.

And I have something to say about this.

Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes by Capital Games studio is a freemium game.

When we installed it on our devices we were not charged for it. Not even a dime.

Do you remember when was the last time you saw an in game advertisement about something completely not related to the game. Me neither, and that’s because there are no such ads in the game. They make their money on in-game purchases. And GOH has something other games like this do not have. An extremely friendly environment for players who, for their own reasons, do not use cash to get the premium currency. In essence, you don’t have to spend a dime to play GOH, and to reach end game content. All you need is time.

In order to keep the game from being pulled by Electronic Arts, the game needs to be profitable. Meaning a part of the player base needs to support it. And our game, has been excelling at that. It is a very pricy game, only a small percent of us can actually afford to buy toons or gear. And those who do that, deserve some advantages from it. For example, toon exclusivity. Because in the essence of it, when we purchase something in the game, we really get time. Every item in the game is either free or becomes free over time. When we buy, for example characters, we buy the time we would need to get them free by the everyday grind.

Now I can already hear all those who say that I don’t understand, that this about the short window. And that a lot of people would buy in if they had more time, and if it would be a lot cheaper. For example, 30 dollars, or 50 dollars. Just ask yourself what about those who pumped $200, $300 or $1000 early on into the game. We are talking about a Heroes Journey event that requires five seven star toons. Good toons to add to the flavor.

We need to accept the fact that the game has to make money, and those who support it have to have an advantage from it. Without that cash, there would be no other way for the game to stay afloat, and the servers would be just shut down, with all of us not having a game to complain about anymore. That’s the essence of it.

I have a dear friend playing this game. Let’s call him Bob, or Bobby. Now my friend is a very successful software engineer, who also happens to be a full red-blooded Kraken. He’s supporting the game weekly. Buying toons and gear pretty much all the time. He can afford it because of his hard work and success. Now Bob has all of those KOTOR toons well developed and he is eagerly waiting for a time when Revan will grace us with his presence. He has high hopes for him. You see Bob is on a shard with a lot of excellent F2P players. And those guys have the time to stalk the arena to get the best spots at payout leaving him with his investments deep in the woods. Because that’s how good the game is for those of us who do not pay a dime. They build their team, and in time they make it to the top of their shard. Everyone that has played the game for a long time has every basic team in good order and ready for action. Bob was buying toons the whole year, hoping that one of those toons and teams will give him some much needed comfort in his day to day struggles in keeping up with those that have all the time in the world or are very talented. But none of those toons he bought proved to be even arena viable. He can use them in an old raid or in a Territory War, but other than keeping the servers going, he did not get much of a return from his investment.

There’s a lot of things wrong with this Revan event, for example, we just had a rush farm to get the new legendary Rebel Chewbacca. A toon who is pretty mediocre, yet for many heavy on the wallet.

We still have no clue what Revan’s character kit looks like. We have not been told if we will be getting double drops for the event, to push those who are close. And because of that we can’t really plan our expenses in an accurate way, etc. But the fact that Revan will not be a toon that every single player will get with minimum effort is a good thing. Especially for the health of the game and those who support its development.

I understand that many of you will be throwing rocks at me (one reason Bob and me are choosing to stay anonymous), and I get it. It’s not cool to be behind in anything, especially in a game. But that’s how it has to be if we want to keep our game, and all of our trophies still online.

As a final thought, we should be complaining not about Revan or his accessibility. Rather, the big issue is that Capital Games keeps throwing us new toons without new content or refreshing old content. Do you remember when we got a new Territory Battles map? Yeah it was a long time ago. Do you recall a new map for Territory Wars? Yeah me neither. Now how about that ancient rancor that everyone is tripping over right now. There are other things in the game that require our attention. People who get Revan because they paid for him should not be one of those things to complain about. The game needs both F2P and P2P. If we would end up only with F2P we would not have a game, and to have P2P, those players need something to give them an advantage for their investments.

Oh, I forgot. You are all getting Revan. If not now, then in 3 months, 6 months or later.

Cheers!

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