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A EA Exec tells you to save TOR, What do you do?
Kalfer
Member Posts: 779
OK - Let's not forget that there are lots of people who like SWTOR how it is. There is. They are actively playing it, not defending on the forums. We can argue on for how long until the end of time. Instead this thread will be a role playing scenario, for those who feel SWTOR currently has missed the mark. This is a okay-you-don't-like-the-game-so-what-would-you-do-if-you-were-bioware-scenario type thread.
You're a game designer (newly appointed lead designer) on SWTOR. Your task is to make SWTOR the best game possible. You have a meeting with an executive from EA. He does not understand in his crummy business head why the peons (the players) are not playing this game as much as WoW. Your asked to make SWTOR a game with 12 million subscribers.
You receive additional funding, but within reason. You have your live team who can work on a dungeon, a flashpoint, 2-3 new big features, and a ton of balancing and bug fixes every patch(every 3-4th month).
You also have an expansion team for a retail 40-50 USD expansion pack that can expand the game greatly.
How do you proceed? What do you do?
Which content do you focus on? what systems do you change, remove, revive or add? What will you do with the expansion? how do you avoid segregating players if they also have to buy an expansion? can you sell it in a different way? give it for free despite getting heavy losses? what do you do about end games, and fans expectations?
Comments
I would ask if the Lucas Arts license was just for one Star Wars MMO or if we could create a new proper one with people who has a clue about game design.
watch game burn so the MMO world can get a clue
I'd resign and tell him there is no hope.
Fire Gabe Amatangelo!
Focus on the next gen peeps who likes that kind of stuff so more dumbind down and more voice acting and hope for the best.
Let's internet
I would argue with EA that the expansion would be needed to be free update for all players. It would be the largest patch ever made for a MMORPG (and marketing would ride that sthick, trying to create new hype around the game.. even brining it to e3).
It would re-create SWTOR as a Sandbox game, through the introduction of open space flight. Guild Ships in the galaxy. players being able to affect the power balance in the world.
Would scrap the way combat works for something that looks and feels nice, like Jedi Knight... a bit like TERA but in a way that feels good for star wars.
All end-game would be scrapped and abandoned. Raids and Warzones would be left behind for something else and more meaningful.
day/night cycles would be introduced, levelling speed would be increased to make the path to lvl 50 less boring. many of the side quests would have their durations / requirements greatly reduced to make them not monotone but exciting.
all NPCs would undergo massive overhaul. make them lifeful. Make them act like living NPCs who sleep at night, eat, go to work (in the context of were they are in the world). like Skyrim the aim will be to make them fill a meaningful role as the common people of the galaxy while the player is the hero.
Races - non humans would undergo drastic animation changes to seperate them for humans.
character customization and itemization - more variety and choice for all classes with gear. more body types (and some exclusive for certain races that make sense), - full customization control over player race companions. pick any face and hairstyle you want.
- open up the planets focusing on the war. increased planet size, make them alive. give reason to come back.
I would tell him im not teh idiot hes looking for.
Sandbox elements based around area control providing pve, pvp and crafting bonuses, *guild* not faction specific in free for all areas. And / or vastly expand the raiding content, free flight space combat with pvp, positional damage to make the combat a heck of a lot more interesting.
There are plenty things they can do to vastly improve the game, but I fear there simply isn't any will to do so beyond churning out the same old shite and the devs hopping players will continue to lap it up.
1st order of business is to be able to manipulate that guy from EA. You would need to make sure that he is as sympathetic as possible to your problem while also feeding him bullshit. I would carefully deceive him by renaming features according to market buzzwords (perhaps associated with another industry that he likes) and present material that looks like I am working toward that end while focusing on the following plan.
-Poll players in multiple polls to determine priority list. #1 change expressed wouuld have the highest priority superceding list below. In the event of a contradiction, priority goes to the positive named feature of the player base.
-Keep production teams working on existing near term framework, prioritizing as follows:
1) Function of game (bugs, optimization, etc.)
2) Fixing world design where possible: Strip out some mob fields where quests will allow. Set up random mob spawns in those areas. Build new loot tables for those mobs, and also add the ability for random level mobs to spawn in some locations to bring higher levels back to planets. Add Day/Night + ambient sounds. Duplicate all features of the fleet and place in Coruscant/Dromand Kaas. Fixing the worlds will allow the community to experience the game in a different way, and should get mileage out of the burnouts due to unexpected variation.
3) Space must be: 3d, multiplayer, and have unique non-ship part loots.
4) Make all worlds important for PvP: Give multiple objectives in several different areas for players to fight over and control. A scoreboard ui menu will display status of Galactic war. When Space/Guild Ships ready, this will factor in as well.
4) Make Hard Mode versions of some Heroics for endgame content.
5) Create mission terminals that take advantage of #2.
6) Add Features: More hair graphics, body type 2.5, weapon use flexibility, more armor/clothes, cosmetics.
7) Mini Games: pazaak, swoop racing.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
The entire path getting to level 50 - It was all a little prologue. It was just a little character introduction.
Now your 50, and now you know your class. this is were the game begins. Now the real war starts. The game is faction vs faction. this simple concept will be the main stage.
No more feeling like your playing someone elses story. your story will from here on out be about helping your faction. change of pace to how resources are spent on cinematics and voice acting.
servers will be merged, having their server cap increased. the game will opt to give everyone experience for any kill. no more waiting for respawn. everyone gets loot, everyone gets the kill by attacking it. much more fun to quest in the world.
away with the your-quests-did-not-matter-the-world-didnt-change.
at lvl 50 all planets change. the war breaks out full scale. if your republic, you go on a special mission to korriban - if your empire you go to tython - here the game opens up and greatly expands. time passes (1 year) and every planet in the game is now different. phased away from the static levelling of the 1-50 worlds, every planet is now broken by war and destruction. massive in scope, quest npcs are dead, now its the players turn to rebuild, hold the line.
i dont think they even made theirmoney back on TOR yet.. this may not be finactually possible
biut if they did they can keep the story elements jsut make the gameplay fun add in sandbox for planets so you can do both ride the rails and explore.
make exploring fun
make pvp fun
update the graphics cuz it looks bad.
change the game to have fun
fun..
also i would not mind if they made it more actiony rather then the static battles it has
I would create 2-3 new planets that are more open. With no tunnels or rails. That are really big! There would need to be a better and more complex crafting system. Quests on the new planets should be more dynamic and based on exploring.
Space combat needs to be improved. It should feel more like exploring space and not be on rails.
Open dungeons or operations without instances should be added to the game.
I would start by ignoring pretty much anyone on this website since it appears most of them are burnt out FORMER mmo players that can not be happy with a game regardless of what is released.
Then I would continue by adding a voice server functionality to the game so people did not have to get programs like Ventrillo. Improve upon the functionality of Guilds some more. Create a parallel space game that does not replace the current one, but allows for more "space exploration and teaming". Improve environmental things like patrols and creatures that act more "alive". Lastly, for now, I would push for more content throughout the game to be added, including playable areas, not just in end-game.
Keep in mind, I am having a great time playing this game. I do like what it is now, but I also realise that it can be better, just like every other on-line game out there. I also believe that everything I have stated above WILL be done, it is just a matter of when.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
thats it best idea comeing in.
I would create a infinant plane which i will call. PVP
players will wander this plane of time and space of looping desert textures and if they find another humans they will be stuck togehter the loser has to pay 2 times the sub fee to EA and the winner gets to continue on. the winner (who gets out of the plane by fining the ship hiden somwhere in this infiant plane) gets to play a good game which is not this
The best option would be to torch the development & operational assets in Austin, TX. At this point, I'll bet that the insurance payout will be more than the sub revenues by July 2012.
You would fit right in, waste money on a function that people wouldnt use because they prefer programmes like vent, RC, and other dedicated programmes that will always be better than built-in functions that have already been done and have never been as good as the dedicated voice programmes.
You work for Bioware and are on your lunch break sweating like a fat kid in a cake shop.
Buy Repopulation (made with hero) and start a code/design merge team. PVE/PVP themepark with sandbox elements.
Sort of a reverse NGE.
Best idea I have seen proposed even though you know it is never going to happen!
If I worked for Bioware, I'd probably tell EA to stick it where the sun don't shine and go Indie (where all the innovation is happening).
"The problem with quotes from the Internet is that it's almost impossible to validate their authenticity." - Abraham Lincoln
This is all predicated around the game engine and server actually being able to handle these things:
1: Merge servers and increase the cap. I want to see 5000 people online when i do a search, like i did 8 years ago in FFXI. This would allow people to play together instead of a solo rpg co-op. This would require a change in quests so anyone can help and get credit for helping others complete them.
2: Move all the flashpoints and ops to their designated planets. I'd use Fleet as a staging point to form raids to take over planets, which would be treated like capture points in intergalactic PVP. Included in this would be guild ships, personal fighters, and vehicles for when players land.
3: Meaningful crafting that's better than any raiding gear but very difficult and rare to master. Guilds would need to pool and feed their crafters mats in order to manage this.
4: Eliminate the stupid 4 member party size and change it to 6. Whomever thought it was a good idea to have only 2 dps per tank should be shot as he has no idea how MMO's or it's players work.
5: Eliminate the ability for companions to craft/do missions. Allowing them to do this, while saves time, also makes the planets feel empty as there's no one out and about gathering, farming, or mining. This would also force players to be active in diplomacy and generally just be out and about.
6: Make the light/dark choices actually meaningful by having them affect what skills you can acquire and also how NPC's talk to you or even if they talk to you.
7: Allow players to swap roles/specs anywhere while out of combat. Being locked into one spec or class is old mentality. Players should be flexable and should have a system which encourages it.
8: Eliminate PVP gear and valor. Has no one learned yet that this is just dumb? I give Trion credit for realizing this and while not eliminating it, bumping everyone to within tolerable levels of disparity. Nothing like being a fresh 50 and going agaist players with 40% damage reduction while they have none.
9: Eliminate Hutball. Seriously, we're at war and we're playing a freaking ball game? Forms of entertainment are obvioulsy fine such as pod races and such, but jedi and sith should not be participating.
10: 3rd faction based around the Hutt which would also involve a lot more race options. I'm talking like 20+ race options at least.
These are just off the top of my head and I could probably give 100 more little things. This game is missing so many social and community building aspects, it's not even funny. I also stopped short of just converting it into GW2 filled with dynamic events, as that would mean just redoing the entire game, which i'm in favor of.
Fire everyone at bioware and hand the game over to people who still care.
Honestly, I would prolly shoot myself. I can't imagine a worse situation to be in as a lead designer. Situations like these are what tank people's careers. Something's require much more than a bandaid to solve, or even a tourniquet.
I think one of the big problems with a lot of these games is they don't design them from the ground-up. They just take a pre-existing design and pile as many features as they can afford on top, and think it'll be great. However, when the foundation isn't viable anymore, what you need is to stop adding things and start working on a new foundation (a new MMO). It's like hiring a skilled architect to fix the leaning Tower of Pisa. The only really viable solution is to not build it on a poor foundation.
Anyway, that's just what I think. I know there are a lot of people who still enjoy this game. However, even amongst these players quite a few aren't happy with Bioware. Seems mostly a case of 1) The IP keeping the game alive and 2) People were waiting for this game for so long they don't want to abandon it now. I think it's pretty safe to say that if this game wasn't a Star Wars MMO (say it was a dragon age MMO, with the same coding), it wouldn't be anywhere near as popular.
That would be my first step too.
After that I would do the following:
Add in a dungeon Finder ASAP
Rework Ilum to be open ended with objectives gaining buffs to the winning side
Remove the Fleets and put the population in Coroscunt and Domund Kas
remove rewards for Warfronts and add them to Ilum
implement real space combat and remove the rails
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
not possible. EA owns Bioware. bioware cant leave without their permision because bioware is not the devteam anymore its a part of EA and EA owns their name and place of busness along with anything they make.