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New rumor on F2P

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Comments

  • mikahrmikahr Member Posts: 1,066
    Originally posted by solarine
    Originally posted by Creslin321
    Originally posted by DeaconX

    "but it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow."

    That line annoyed me... either a huge majority of beta testers were saying the exact opposite things that I was saying, or the above is just bs...

    Yeah I have no idea what "fans' were telling them to make the game like KOTOR.  And really, since the VO part of the game is essentially what makes it like KOTOR, and VO is far and above the most major part of this game...I don't think it would even be possible for "fan feedback" to have changed the direction of the game.  It clearly meant to be more KOTOR-like from the start.

     

    From what I recall, yes, the majority of fans were telling them to make it more like KOTOR than WOW...

    Only, they didn't exactly listen.

    The progression and combat systems are a lot more like your standard MMO (yeah, like WOW) than they're like KOTOR. Granted, the game being story-focused within the TOR world of course brings in that KOTOR feel, but to me, that's not enough. The dark/light alignment is pretty much meaningless. The only "roles" you perform here turn out to be the MMO roles. Also, MMO tropes like "battlezones" in a Star Wars world like this makes no sense at all. It cheapens the experience. 

    They should have just built up on their progression and combat systems in KOTOR, rather than sticking to "what's been proven to work in the MMO genre" and putting Star Wars names onto that, in my opinion. 

     

    Also, on the OP: I'm not buying that.

    This, Thier first concept (by their own words back in 2008) was to actually make it KOTOR 3-x, leveling mostly on class story, no quest hubs and optional MP content (heroci quests+instances) Then, somewher along the road it started turning more and more into WoW, and what we did get was WoW with few class quests sprinkeled along the way.

    I would have paid sub for KOTOR 3-x, i would even support it with a sub even when i didnt play. But SWTOR as it is now...generic, medicore game. Nope. I can raid for gear for free, and it dosnt really feel like SW anyway, so no loss there either.

  • jagd1jagd1 Member Posts: 281
    Originally posted by Sebber
    Originally posted by cinos

    Anyone know when the next investor conferance is due? 1.3 million is getting a little long in the tooth.

    I believe it's either July 31 or August 2

    26 july annual stockholders meeting / 31 july earnings conference 

     

    http://investor.ea.com/

  • knighthammerknighthammer Member Posts: 22

    Its not going free to play, i overheard a phone call, full transcript..... not in anyway trying to avoid the sub issue is bad

     

     

    [Erickson answers the phone after comandeering a work desk]


    Erickson: [sounding official] Uh, everything's under control. Situation normal.

    Voice: What happened?

    Erickson: [getting nervous] Uh, we had a slight sub malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?

    Voice: We're sending a squad up.

    Erickson: Uh, uh... negative, negative. We have a mad ex employee here now. Give us a few minutes to lock him down. Large bloke, very dangerous.

    Voice: Who is this? What's your operating number?

    Erickson: Uh...
    [Erickson shoots the phone]
    Erickson: [muttering] Boring conversation anyway,  still at 1.3mil subs.........

     

     

     

    Star Wars Galaxies relaunch by December 2012

  • JYCowboyJYCowboy Member UncommonPosts: 652
    Originally posted by knighthammer

    Its not going free to play, i overheard a phone call, full transcript

     

     

    [Erickson answers the phone after comandeering a work desk]


    Erickson: [sounding official] Uh, everything's under control. Situation normal.

    Voice: What happened?

    Erickson: [getting nervous] Uh, we had a slight sub malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?

    Voice: We're sending a squad up.

    Erickson: Uh, uh... negative, negative. We have a mad ex employee here now. Give us a few minutes to lock him down. Large bloke, very dangerous.

    Voice: Who is this? What's your operating number?

    Erickson: Uh...
    [Erickson shoots the phone]
    Erickson: [muttering] Boring conversation, anyway.

    Don't try to make Erickson out as a hero.  Han might have shot him ... in the old days.

     

  • davestr1zldavestr1zl Member Posts: 218
    Originally posted by Deewe

    Enjoy ;)

     

     

    Old Today , 06:03 PM | #1
    http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07...yoffs-rumored/

    "auto34058432
    I know many won't believe me. but, I work at Bioware. best part for me is coming here to read fans replies. I won't tell you much and I don't care if you believe me. So here is "what's" going on were I work.

    If you havent noticed the interviews we had given sometime back had been removed. mainly, the interviews that gave it "away" that we are looking at adding F2P model. we are indeed adding free to play to the game. now the best part for me is anonymity I have that allows me to be open.
    We will have mainly have a "fluff" shop for the new direction with F2P. but much of the legacy system will have the option to purchase those "perk's" (the main reason credit cost are high to slow progression until we patch F2P) as well many parts of the game will have new content that requires you purchase are type of "coinage" from the cash shop so you can buy the access to "special" content/quest. now new companions will also be in the shop. but due to us getting down sized and the staff changes a small team is working on these F2P changes.
    I don't want anyone to be upset by this. but many of these changes had been in the "planning stages" for many months since the sharp drop in subscribers. many parts of the game will cost money to access. for example you can unlock the new "cathar" race in your legacy. but buying the unlock, it will cost 10$ US

    So we are all pretty upset here. we know Daniel and Jimmy many more are next round of layoffs. EA blames us and to some extent they're right to. but it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow. Also from what I have heard in the halls, Starwars Galaxies was shut down due to the fact are talks with LA,EA suits ecouraged the new guy at LA to increase the licensing fee at renewal time. it was a move to remove any direct competiton to TOR.

    Sorry guys gotta go but be good to each other."
     

    Umm... no. I enjoyed my time in SWTOR, i really did. But that is just flat out lying, bullshit or trolling. There's absolutely no way thats legit.

  • hikaru77hikaru77 Member UncommonPosts: 1,123
    Originally posted by Aethaeryn

    isn't the grammar too bad?  It reminds me of those. . Ur account is froz. . log in to save it or kittenz die.  At least I don't think he was in any inner circle.

     

    So we are all pretty upset here. we know Daniel and Jimmy many more are next round of layoffs.

    We will have mainly have a "fluff" shop

    Yes, it looks like google translator tbh, but we should believe in a guy who dont even know how to write.  And like someone say, Warhammer and Daoc are still P2P, swtor F2P wont happen.     

  • TheBigDRCTheBigDRC Member Posts: 162

    Doubt it's real. . . but then again it could be true. I've seen plenty of devs blame the fans for the troubles.

    We wanted a Star Wars MMO, not KoTOR 3 and not WoW. To blame fans just flat-out says "We are inept." Indeed they are.

    No one wanted the space combat to suck as bad as it does, we were hoping for something awesome. Not a pathetic Star Fox clone, hell the source is better to play.

    Ilum, we wanted them to fix it and make it worth playing on. Not abandon it.

    So many things we said needed fixing. From beta to now we warned them, instead they ingored and go "Look, we have more raids and stuff for you to do." Oh goodie, more things that are broken. If they were listening to fan feedback, it wasn't from those they should listen to.

    Ugh, I don't understand the way they think. Sorry for the rant, just tired of getting pissed on time and time again. image

    And when I say we, I know I don't mean everyone, so please don't tear me up. image

    You know what's fun about chaos? I do, but I won't tell.

  • OmaliOmali MMO Business CorrespondentMember UncommonPosts: 1,177
    Originally posted by stragen001

    Yeah..... I work at Arenanet and they are planning to introduce a sub 2 months after launch.....

    <<>>

    What kind of sub? I might start playing Guild Wars 2 if it's something like steak and cheese or sweet onion chickent teriyaki. 

    image

  • DrakxiiDrakxii Member Posts: 594
    Originally posted by Deewe

    Enjoy ;)

     

     

    Old Today , 06:03 PM | #1
    http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07...yoffs-rumored/

    "auto34058432
    I know many won't believe me. but, I work at Bioware. best part for me is coming here to read fans replies. I won't tell you much and I don't care if you believe me. So here is "what's" going on were I work.

    If you havent noticed the interviews we had given sometime back had been removed. mainly, the interviews that gave it "away" that we are looking at adding F2P model. we are indeed adding free to play to the game. now the best part for me is anonymity I have that allows me to be open.
    We will have mainly have a "fluff" shop for the new direction with F2P. but much of the legacy system will have the option to purchase those "perk's" (the main reason credit cost are high to slow progression until we patch F2P) as well many parts of the game will have new content that requires you purchase are type of "coinage" from the cash shop so you can buy the access to "special" content/quest. now new companions will also be in the shop. but due to us getting down sized and the staff changes a small team is working on these F2P changes.
    I don't want anyone to be upset by this. but many of these changes had been in the "planning stages" for many months since the sharp drop in subscribers. many parts of the game will cost money to access. for example you can unlock the new "cathar" race in your legacy. but buying the unlock, it will cost 10$ US

    So we are all pretty upset here. we know Daniel and Jimmy many more are next round of layoffs. EA blames us and to some extent they're right to. but it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow. Also from what I have heard in the halls, Starwars Galaxies was shut down due to the fact are talks with LA,EA suits ecouraged the new guy at LA to increase the licensing fee at renewal time. it was a move to remove any direct competiton to TOR.

    Sorry guys gotta go but be good to each other."
     

    LOL.   Even if you ingore the fact the SWTOR forum mods have deleted 1000s of thread of poeple saying they wish this or that was different, or the game sucked.  There were still 100s of thread complaining about how bioware was making the long long before the game lanuched. 

     

    Also given BioEA arrgoance a post like this doesn't suprize me. 

    I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.

  • uohaloranuohaloran Member Posts: 811

    My fondest memory of something like this happening is about a week before the NGE hit SWG (which was absolutely and literally a bomb on the userbase -- no inclination or hints at what it was) a guy came to the forums spelling out exactly what the new patch with Trials of Obi-wan would be and everyone laughed at him and told him how stupid he was.  His post was even locked.

    I still smile at the thought of how he was graciously warning us a week ahead of time what would really happen in very convincing detail.  Makes you wonder who it really was, too.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    but it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow

    What? More like WoW? How could they have made the game more like WoW?

    If this person does work at Bioware, the disconnect between what they're saying and what SWToR was might explain why it was only half a game.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • kellian1kellian1 Member UncommonPosts: 237
    Originally posted by Creslin321
    Originally posted by DeaconX

    "but it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow."

    That line annoyed me... either a huge majority of beta testers were saying the exact opposite things that I was saying, or the above is just bs...

    Yeah I have no idea what "fans' were telling them to make the game like KOTOR.  And really, since the VO part of the game is essentially what makes it like KOTOR, and VO is far and above the most major part of this game...I don't think it would even be possible for "fan feedback" to have changed the direction of the game.  It clearly meant to be more KOTOR-like from the start.

    As a person who was part the beta test from pretty early on I can tell you they DID NOT listen to our feedback at all. We told them, multiple times, the problems the game had.

     

    One small example I vividly remember was the space combat. You could maybe find 1 post in 20 that liked the space combat in the game and the "rails" aspect of it. But it always felt like they had a release date to meet and couldn't make any real changes other than some small ones here and there. Many of us even told them don't release it with the space combat get it right and release the space combat part later. That's just one example, so any big issues that were raised died on the vine so to speak.

     

    Now if they listened to the forums and designed a game a certain way, then had no way to change some things that were clearly not working, for whatever reason, that's on them.

  • AirtaeeAirtaee Member UncommonPosts: 84
    Originally posted by kellian1

    As a person who was part the beta test from pretty early on I can tell you they DID NOT listen to our feedback at all. We told them, multiple times, the problems the game had.

     

    One small example I vividly remember was the space combat. You could maybe find 1 post in 20 that liked the space combat in the game and the "rails" aspect of it. But it always felt like they had a release date to meet and couldn't make any real changes other than some small ones here and there. Many of us even told them don't release it with the space combat get it right and release the space combat part later. That's just one example, so any big issues that were raised died on the vine so to speak.

     

    Now if they listened to the forums and designed a game a certain way, then had no way to change some things that were clearly not working, for whatever reason, that's on them.

    Is really sad.

    i must admit i'm a true hater. i really enjoy reading how the boat is sinking so fast. 

    And i'm a hater and  not just  a "leaver" because I dont have any game to come back, as my main game SWG was closed in favour of this garbage.

    But the only thing I enjoyed of SWTOR was the space...was so dumb, so... how can you call it?, lame...that was even cute. If EA/BW would introduced more stupid games like that (a pod racer minigame, the galactic mahong, some kind of dejaric battles, even a TCG) i will be more entertained than with the game itself. 

    The point of what I'm saying is the game and the quests are so boring that space is actually fun just for not to be looking at those lifeless worlds and endless loading screens.

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,897

    This person has a horrible grasp of the english language.  My BS meter is going crazy, even though my hope is that the game does go F2P.

  • nachofootnachofoot Member UncommonPosts: 122

    You're right...I don't believe him.  You know how many pretenders post seemingly accurate information only to get debunked later?  The percentage is really high...I think in the 90 percentile.

     

     

    People get a kick out of being "famous" by pretending to be someone important.  The real truth is that no one knows except top brass and they don't play games or visit forums.  Think about it...

  • ktanner3ktanner3 Member UncommonPosts: 4,063
    Originally posted by uohaloran

    My fondest memory of something like this happening is about a week before the NGE hit SWG (which was absolutely and literally a bomb on the userbase -- no inclination or hints at what it was) a guy came to the forums spelling out exactly what the new patch with Trials of Obi-wan would be and everyone laughed at him and told him how stupid he was.  His post was even locked.

    I still smile at the thought of how he was graciously warning us a week ahead of time what would really happen in very convincing detail.  Makes you wonder who it really was, too.

    I remember that. I believe it was two weeks before the bombshell announcement. No one believed him because the CU wasn't that long before and it didn't seem possible that SOE would change the game a second time in just six months. 

    Currently Playing: World of Warcraft

  • BardusBardus Member Posts: 460
    Originally posted by nachofoot

    You're right...I don't believe him.  You know how many pretenders post seemingly accurate information only to get debunked later?  The percentage is really high...I think in the 90 percentile.

     

     

    People get a kick out of being "famous" by pretending to be someone important.  The real truth is that no one knows except top brass and they don't play games or visit forums.  Think about it...

    EALouse shown all of us that crow taste like crow, not chicken. He embarrassed everyone that doubted him which pretty much was everyone at the time. I don't know for any fact if this new insider is genuine or not but I do know from past experience that making my own assumptions without facts only gets me caught with my pants down. Think I'll take the time will tell approach on this guy before making an ass of myself.

    image

  • ElsaboltsElsabolts Member RarePosts: 3,476

    Some times the truth stares you right in the face, " All you have to do is Open your Eyes "

    image

                  " Charlie Mike "

    " Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Those Who  Would Threaten It "
                                            MAGA
  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by Bardus
    Originally posted by nachofoot You're right...I don't believe him.  You know how many pretenders post seemingly accurate information only to get debunked later?  The percentage is really high...I think in the 90 percentile.     People get a kick out of being "famous" by pretending to be someone important.  The real truth is that no one knows except top brass and they don't play games or visit forums.  Think about it...
    EALouse shown all of us that crow taste like crow, not chicken. He embarrassed everyone that doubted him which pretty much was everyone at the time. I don't know for any fact if this new insider is genuine or not but I do know from past experience that making my own assumptions without facts only gets me caught with my pants down. Think I'll take the time will tell approach on this guy before making an ass of myself.


    Just because they get the F2P thing right doesn't mean they didn't lie about being part of the EA team. The same could be said of EA Louise. For all we know, they could be employed at EA, but they are part of the cleaning staff and they're poking through papers laying around on desks.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • AirtaeeAirtaee Member UncommonPosts: 84
    Originally posted by lizardbones

     

    Just because they get the F2P thing right doesn't mean they didn't lie about being part of the EA team. The same could be said of EA Louise. For all we know, they could be employed at EA, but they are part of the cleaning staff and they're poking through papers laying around on desks.

     

    EAlouse nailed everyword he said. And still there is people saying he was a fake.

    I don't know if this guy is a real employee of Bioware/EA or not, but as others says we can't not close our minds at the fact he could be saying the truth.

    The game is not in it's bests, and the talks about Free to play are over the desk.

    the thing there is : Will be the pay for everything (STO model) or cosmetic + content payments (DCUo model) the model chosen by BW/EA? This guy saids pay for everything and i belive it too.

  • theAsnatheAsna Member UncommonPosts: 324
       
    http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07...yoffs-rumored/
     
    ... So we are all pretty upset here. we know Daniel and Jimmy many more are next round of layoffs. EA blames us and to some extent they're right to. but it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow. ...
     


    What does Kotor bring to the table?

    • You can build your character according to a D20 ruleset (a mix of levels and skills, but the bioware version had some limited options). To those that don't know D20. It has some similarities to D&D 3.5 edition rules. DDO and NWN show how much character customization is posssible with such rulesets.

     

    • In Kotor you couldn't have only conversations with quest givers but also with lots of other NPCs (e.g. merchants).

     

    • Kotor offered more than just 3 dialog options on conversations.

     

    • Kotor allowed you to train your party members ("companions") as well. If that was too cumbersome for you the system could handle that for you.

     

    • The hacking profession offered more interesting options (e.g. using surveillance cameras to look beyond closed doors, activate a facility's defenses on successful hacks, etc.).

     

    • Despite the limited crafting options Kotor's crafting felt like it involved the player more (at least Kotor2 had more options than Kotor1). Go to a workbench, dissassemble some stuff, reassamble some stuff, etc.). In SWTOR you just send your companions on a mission and that's it.

     

    • You had more combat options with a party of 3 (yourself and two "companions") in regards to strategy and tactics. In SWTOR you just have to hope that your only companion doesn't mess up too much.


    That's only a few things that come to mind. If Bioware would some day release a Kotor3 I might still be tempted to buy it.
     

  • red_cruiserred_cruiser Member UncommonPosts: 486

    I like how... however it ended up happening... the players "asking for more KOTOR and less MMORPG" somehow resulted in a final product that was both a watered down version of the KOTOR single player game and a watered down MMORPG.  And really, what makes a good single player RPG and what makes a good MMORPG are almost on opposite sides of the spectrum from each other.  Nobody on the development team could recognize that they were headed for a train wreck?  "We've got a $500 million dollar budget and the Star Wars IP.  We can pull this off easy!  We're BIOWARE, damn it!"

  • RockhideRockhide Member Posts: 155

    I actually think it would be fascinating to see how they arrived at some of the decisions they did.  Taking out for a second the misrepresentation, arrogant attitude, and interaction with fans, here you have experienced game makers who by all rights should know what works and what doesn't arriving at a place where both the MMO and SRPG features were underdeveloped.  And they were cool with it.

     

    It is true BTW that there was a massive anti-WoW element during the game's development that took the position "If WoW has it, we don't want it."  Except, instead of being about all the core elements of WoW, they were saying this about all the elements WoW added over the years to add life to the setting, facilitate raiding and PvP, and improve the general quality of life (dual spec, for example).  In that sense I can sort of understand where a comment that they tried to make it less like WoW had come from.

     

    Even so, the gameplay and character progression systems are still based off of WoW (or whatever WoW was based off of if you're one of those type of folk), not the KotOR games.  It doesn't take a genius to figure that out.  That's all on EA and/or Bioware, not on the fans.

  • DeeweDeewe Member UncommonPosts: 1,980
    Originally posted by kellian1
    Originally posted by Creslin321
    Originally posted by DeaconX

    "but it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it is and that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow."

    That line annoyed me... either a huge majority of beta testers were saying the exact opposite things that I was saying, or the above is just bs...

    Yeah I have no idea what "fans' were telling them to make the game like KOTOR.  And really, since the VO part of the game is essentially what makes it like KOTOR, and VO is far and above the most major part of this game...I don't think it would even be possible for "fan feedback" to have changed the direction of the game.  It clearly meant to be more KOTOR-like from the start.

    As a person who was part the beta test from pretty early on I can tell you they DID NOT listen to our feedback at all. We told them, multiple times, the problems the game had.

     

    One small example I vividly remember was the space combat. You could maybe find 1 post in 20 that liked the space combat in the game and the "rails" aspect of it. But it always felt like they had a release date to meet and couldn't make any real changes other than some small ones here and there. Many of us even told them don't release it with the space combat get it right and release the space combat part later. That's just one example, so any big issues that were raised died on the vine so to speak.

     

    Now if they listened to the forums and designed a game a certain way, then had no way to change some things that were clearly not working, for whatever reason, that's on them.

    Working with the mindset of not implementing/testing something that's not finished lead the game to its actual state. Some devs were really listening although the leads, for very specific reasons, avoided most of the needed changes.

     

    There was even a dev post that stated they weren't looking for player feedback, only bug reporting. It caused some trouble on the forums. So they used the beta forums not for game play feedback but for bugs/exploits data.

  • ZylaxxZylaxx Member Posts: 2,574
    “EA blames us and to some extent they’re right to. But it was fan feedback from the day we opened the forums that encouraged us to design it for the fans the way it isand that included making it more like Kotor then an MMO like Wow,” he stated mentioning that gamers actually wanted SWTOR to be more like Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), a single player role playing game by Bioware before it was acquired by EA, rather than World of Warcraft (WoW).

    ROFLMAO

     

    These guys can't be serious.  With a quote like that it leads me to WISH this game fails even harder.  Seriously when I read this I had a Derp moment.

     

    Do they not realize how much negative reaction this game got for being a WoW clone?  Everyoen and their mother knows SWTOR was a WoW clone with story tacked on.  They thought the IP would carry the day but were sorely mistaken.  I wish this company nothing but the worst from here on with stupid half witted comments like that.

     

    One look at any forum,  INLCUDING thier own would of shown countless posts claiming things werent right, from the game engine used to its disregard to any innovation whatsoever.  To top it off Biofail releases a half finished pile of steam sh*t with half of the features an MMO released back in 1999 had.  Literally the whole game was level via boring cutscene quests, run dungeons and/or PvP to get better gear.  Like a crappy F2P Asian game releases with that amount of content in 6 months of development.  Biofail is a joke!

    Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online

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