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Main reason why SWTOR flopped?

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Comments

  • dkcomputerdkcomputer Member Posts: 3

    On every forum there are trolls who do nothing but bitch about people bitching, never have any topic to discuss, and sit on the forums for hours on end trying to find someone who has bitched about something that they think they shouldn't bitch about.

    SWTOR is not like mortal online where they don't have the manpower to respond to requests, they simply lack the ability to stop clinging to their 'everything has to have a storyline so we can't just add content'.

    They could make the game better, they have the technology.  I'm not going to rehash a million peoples issues, you can google them.  I know some people hate it when people hate on a game, but without the wallets of all these haters feeding the game you're playing, it will die.  Look at hellgate london. Great game, but not enough money to fix a few major issues - haters spread the word, and the purchases came to an abrupt halt.

    Again, supply and demand, and customer is always right  - or you have a 'snowball' effect that kills any business.  It only takes one person to say something they don't like for a thousand other people to read and agree with - they don't post about how they agree, they simply don't purchase the product, thus trolls on forums who bash people who hate games feel like they're not a minority and thus feel justified and all around feel great about themselves.  Theres millions of people who aren't on this forum that outnumber stupid ideas, and untill you grasp the concept of the business model you will never understand what I'm talking about.

    continue on, there are more posts out there dissing games that you need to police!  Without forum warriors like you guys, how would rage exist on forums?  Feed the flames.  It makes for more visits to the website.

  • monarc333monarc333 Member UncommonPosts: 622

    One word: Endgame.

    All there was to do at end were the raids, broken Illum, PvP games, arcade space games, and grindng your companion rep.

    What killed this game for me was the daily quests (WoW burnt me out on this concept), and the fact that there was no dungeon Q finder. Having to park my toon on the fleet for hours looking for a grp was not fun.

  • vkejaivkejai Member UncommonPosts: 99

    Well the crap space combat was a big dissapointment.

     

    Too many dam spells and abilities , need a crap load of keybindings

     

    Other from the above I do quite like the game .

  • Trol1Trol1 Member Posts: 175
    Originally posted by dkcomputer

    On every forum there are trolls who do nothing but bitch about people bitching, never have any topic to discuss, and sit on the forums for hours on end trying to find someone who has bitched about something that they think they shouldn't bitch about.

    SWTOR is not like mortal online where they don't have the manpower to respond to requests, they simply lack the ability to stop clinging to their 'everything has to have a storyline so we can't just add content'.

    They could make the game better, they have the technology.  I'm not going to rehash a million peoples issues, you can google them.  I know some people hate it when people hate on a game, but without the wallets of all these haters feeding the game you're playing, it will die.  Look at hellgate london. Great game, but not enough money to fix a few major issues - haters spread the word, and the purchases came to an abrupt halt.

    Again, supply and demand, and customer is always right  - or you have a 'snowball' effect that kills any business.  It only takes one person to say something they don't like for a thousand other people to read and agree with - they don't post about how they agree, they simply don't purchase the product, thus trolls on forums who bash people who hate games feel like they're not a minority and thus feel justified and all around feel great about themselves.  Theres millions of people who aren't on this forum that outnumber stupid ideas, and untill you grasp the concept of the business model you will never understand what I'm talking about.

    continue on, there are more posts out there dissing games that you need to police!  Without forum warriors like you guys, how would rage exist on forums?  Feed the flames.  It makes for more visits to the website.


    sorry, read thru this (and the prior posts in this "daisy chain") but the only thing I felt like saying was "blah?"

    I'm not really sure what you are trying to achieve with your "call for revolution - the customer is king!"...

    I guess the first thing YOU need to understand is that people actually like SWTOR.

    Not everybody, not 100% of it, but still enough to make it stil one heck of a strong player on the MMO market.

    Does that mean YOU should have to like it? Of course not! Heck, you might be gay and prefer a boy in your life/bed while somebody else rather has fun with some female curves! It's personal choice.

    And that's how it should be!

    Just by being a "I'll give this game some hatin'-troll", nobody is really doing anybody a favor (except the troll stroking his ego and potentially other body parts).

    People need to understand that they shouldn't listen to what is listed here by players as "reviews", it's obviously all twisted because of the poster's perspective of things. The same is true for trying to judge based on youtube or streams: unless you are the tuber's or streamer's twin and you are running the same machine just 5 ft to his/her left/right, your gmeplay make look/feel completely different.

    You need to make up your own mind... and fortunately MMO designer are still handing out keys to betas; and after release there are usually demos and trials.

    Of course they don't cover everything, otherwise what would be the point of selling the game if you can complete/experience everything in the demo?

    But it gives you an idea of what you are getting yourself into.

    And therefore the free wil to buy/play the game or not...

  • VidirVidir Member UncommonPosts: 963
    Originally posted by Clawzon

    I followed this game for almost three years! Finally I got into Beta and..... the *feeling* wasn't there!!  I'm not talking about the visuals or graphics but the feeling when jumping and turning and such....

     

    Anyway, I still bought it! A mmorpg is supposed to be tested for real, for a period of time before judging it. Still I had problems with the *feeling*!

     

    Now, several months later I gave it one last try.....   I do like the graphics, I do like the classes and I do like the entire Star Wars Universe but damn... the *feeling* when you jump and turn and bla bla bla  just isnt there!!

     

    The story part of the game is amazing but for me I felt that it should stick to mainquest and not sidequest all the time.

    The feeling is my problem though, it aint there. Not sure of the word... gameplay? Wierd gameplay that is?

     

    What's your take?

     

    (okej, not failed compared to some other mmo's and It's making money for sure but you do know what I mean)

     They made a game they claimed was casual,but when you finished with the character story there is nothing casual anymore,just raid and group stuff thats why servers are getting empty.

  • BlindchanceBlindchance Member UncommonPosts: 1,112

    Another copy and paste sucky theme park MMO. Voiceovers and cutscenes with subpar plot lines don't make an original fun to play game. It just rises your cost and production time.

  • achesomaachesoma Member RarePosts: 1,726

    Instead of making a game for 2012 they made a game for 2007.  It's simply behind the times.  More of the same Skinner Box gear-grinder model.  The game lacks longevity.  After a few class stories completed not much else to do.  The combat is boring with way too many skills to manage and a poor energy bar system that has to be micromanaged.  Its only saving grace is the VO and story which was totally unnecessary for all the side quests, not to mention, a waste of time, money and resources.  Game certainly not worth the monthly sub.  Of course, all this has been stated time and time again. 

    Preaching Pantheon to People at PAX  PAX East 2018 Day 4 - YouTube
  • Moaky07Moaky07 Member Posts: 2,096
    Originally posted by achesoma

    Instead of making a game for 2012 they made a game for 2007.  It's simply behind the times.  More of the same Skinner Box gear-grinder model.  The game lacks longevity.  After a few class stories completed not much else to do.  The combat is boring with way too many skills to manage and a poor energy bar system that has to be micromanaged.  Its only saving grace is the VO and story which was totally unnecessary for all the side quests, not to mention, a waste of time, money and resources.  Game certainly not worth the monthly sub.  Of course, all this has been stated time and time again. 

    They do need more end content, and by the bunches.

     

    That said, there are those of us having fun, and the numbers are still pretty good sized. Game isnt going anywhere anytime soon. I think the merge is going to be a good thing, and only wish they had limited servers in the first place.

    Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.

  • GreenishBlueGreenishBlue Member Posts: 263

    all the millions spent in v/o could have been used for a CGI movie

    image
  • AxiosImmortalAxiosImmortal Member UncommonPosts: 645

    They used the wrong engine, it messed up open world pvp, the list can go on and on. I feel like I'm playing in a mini tissue box with no oxygen to breathe.(no where near close do the planets feel like actual planets.)

    Looking at: The Repopulation
    Preordering: None
    Playing: Random Games

  • cooper85cooper85 Member Posts: 386

    Ilum.

     

  • udonudon Member UncommonPosts: 1,803

    SWTOR is a pretty fun game 1-49.  50 leaves a lot to be desired.  I think if given a chance in 2-3 years of new content t's going to be a really good game in all levels.

  • Ice-QueenIce-Queen Member UncommonPosts: 2,483
    Originally posted by Moaky07
    Originally posted by achesoma

    Instead of making a game for 2012 they made a game for 2007.  It's simply behind the times.  More of the same Skinner Box gear-grinder model.  The game lacks longevity.  After a few class stories completed not much else to do.  The combat is boring with way too many skills to manage and a poor energy bar system that has to be micromanaged.  Its only saving grace is the VO and story which was totally unnecessary for all the side quests, not to mention, a waste of time, money and resources.  Game certainly not worth the monthly sub.  Of course, all this has been stated time and time again. 

    They do need more end content, and by the bunches.

     

    That said, there are those of us having fun, and the numbers are still pretty good sized. Game isnt going anywhere anytime soon. I think the merge is going to be a good thing, and only wish they had limited servers in the first place.

    The game is not pretty good sized. You don't do merges if you have over 1 million players playing. They've flat out lied about the numbers.

    Mark Jacobs once said about Warhammer before it's release (and it came back to haunt him but thats another story), back in August 2008

    http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/08/29/ea-mythic-activision-world-of-warcraft-estimate-is-overblown/
    "The corollary to that is if you've seen a game consolidate servers, you know it's in deep, deep trouble -- that's not a healthy sign for an MMO," he said,

    “Look at us six months out. Look at us six weeks out. If we’re not adding servers, we’re not doing well.”

     

    This still holds true today with any mmo that comes out. Bioware can spin it anyway they want, but the simple truth is they're not doing good.

    image

    What happens when you log off your characters????.....
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
    Dark Age of Camelot

  • Trol1Trol1 Member Posts: 175
    Originally posted by achesoma

    Instead of making a game for 2012 they made a game for 2007.  It's simply behind the times.  More of the same Skinner Box gear-grinder model.  The game lacks longevity.  After a few class stories completed not much else to do.  The combat is boring with way too many skills to manage and a poor energy bar system that has to be micromanaged.  Its only saving grace is the VO and story which was totally unnecessary for all the side quests, not to mention, a waste of time, money and resources.  Game certainly not worth the monthly sub.  Of course, all this has been stated time and time again. 

    Right... you know what, I'll make a suggestion here and now: I think pretty much most (I won't say all!) ppl here on MMORPG.com think that DAoC was/is a great game.

    The biggest issue for most is the outdated grpahics.

    We start collecting money thru Kickstarter to give DAoC a complete overhaul as far as the graphic engine goes.

    Yes, I'll be honest I have no clue how much that would cost. But hey, we can just play the game.

    Now, I'll leave the choice up to the ppl whether they want - content-wise - vanilla DAoC, expanded DAoC (sans ToA) or even DAoC (new user journey).

    And then let's see how you like them old pre-WoW apples!

    A game isn't bad because it sticks to a more classic setup, it may feel so for those gamers who always crave for something new, for their next fix of "nerverdonethisbeforeness".

    And in case of SWTOR it IS clearly a case of lacking "neverdonethisbeforeness" combined with ADD:

    We are now at the 6 months mark.

    How many of the people who habe been playing have actually done all 8 stories without spacebarring thru any part of the story?

    I bet very few.

    And why should they? Well, because BW made teo mistakes, they didn't include enough class unique quests into the game. While at the same time they did not include big warning stickers that doing all quests with your first character may lead to less unique gaming options later in game.

    Of course, for most gamers it's a foreign concept that a game may be build upon the idea of creating multiple additional  characters once you were done with your first character.

    The come, they play, they hit the "end" of thta character and that's the end of the game for them.

    Of course, for them SWTOR doesn't hold anything past lvl50.

    But here is where the cookie take a dive into the milk: that's the risk with buying a game!

    Nobody here can tell me that they haven't bought some game at some point in time that turned out to be, well, not their thing for whatever reason.

    It happens.

    Other people may like it and are perfectly fine having paid those $60.

    That's how we are, not all of us are machines running on the same chip card.

    And yes, some of us are perfectly fine having 40 different skills available while others in their "consoleness" have issues with more than 10 buttons. That's just how we are.

    And frankly, I'd rather have a choice, a wide choice in what skills I may want to have prepared over just being stuck with a preselected set of 5 skills and that's my choice.

    There are games where you actually have conditional skills that require a certain skill to be executed successfully first. Imagine that!

    And now imagine that your whole daventurer's life is determined by just one base attack and 4 conditional skills that foloow the successful use of either the base attack or one of the follow-up skills. *eeek*

    Not really much fun, right?

    So, as I said: you may not like it, others do, deal with it ;-)

     

  • KanethKaneth Member RarePosts: 2,286
    Originally posted by Tayah
    Originally posted by Moaky07
    Originally posted by achesoma

    Instead of making a game for 2012 they made a game for 2007.  It's simply behind the times.  More of the same Skinner Box gear-grinder model.  The game lacks longevity.  After a few class stories completed not much else to do.  The combat is boring with way too many skills to manage and a poor energy bar system that has to be micromanaged.  Its only saving grace is the VO and story which was totally unnecessary for all the side quests, not to mention, a waste of time, money and resources.  Game certainly not worth the monthly sub.  Of course, all this has been stated time and time again. 

    They do need more end content, and by the bunches.

     

    That said, there are those of us having fun, and the numbers are still pretty good sized. Game isnt going anywhere anytime soon. I think the merge is going to be a good thing, and only wish they had limited servers in the first place.

    The game is not pretty good sized. You don't do merges if you have over 1 million players playing. They've flat out lied about the numbers.

    Mark Jacobs once said about Warhammer before it's release (and it came back to haunt him but thats another story), back in August 2008

    http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/08/29/ea-mythic-activision-world-of-warcraft-estimate-is-overblown/
    "The corollary to that is if you've seen a game consolidate servers, you know it's in deep, deep trouble -- that's not a healthy sign for an MMO," he said,

    “Look at us six months out. Look at us six weeks out. If we’re not adding servers, we’re not doing well.”

     

    This still holds true today with any mmo that comes out. Bioware can spin it anyway they want, but the simple truth is they're not doing good.

    As much of a talking head Mark Jacobs truly is, I do feel there is merit to some of his points, and this is one of them. Merging servers is typically a bad sign that a game is in trouble, for multiple reasons. However, like you said, BIoware/EA can spin it any which way they want, but having to do merges in a game that hasn't been out for a year is nothing but a bad, bad sign.

    Looking back, it's fairly obvious that Bioware/EA thought that they would have a successful game based on the IP alone. Which in terms of box sales, you could call the game successful (for a single player game), but in terms of sub retention the game is a miserable flop. Not only did they fail to hold onto the brunt of their subs, they are also loosing out on future sales as well.

    If the game had been B2P with no sub fee, but had a C-store with optional DLC, the fans of the genre might be a bit more forgiving. Hell, more people might even purchase knowing full well that they would play maybe 100 hours (not like that's a terrible value of entertainment). They might even go back and play if they released some DLC mission packs or something of that nature.

  • Moaky07Moaky07 Member Posts: 2,096
    Originally posted by Tayah
    Originally posted by Moaky07
    Originally posted by achesoma

    Instead of making a game for 2012 they made a game for 2007.  It's simply behind the times.  More of the same Skinner Box gear-grinder model.  The game lacks longevity.  After a few class stories completed not much else to do.  The combat is boring with way too many skills to manage and a poor energy bar system that has to be micromanaged.  Its only saving grace is the VO and story which was totally unnecessary for all the side quests, not to mention, a waste of time, money and resources.  Game certainly not worth the monthly sub.  Of course, all this has been stated time and time again. 

    They do need more end content, and by the bunches.

     

    That said, there are those of us having fun, and the numbers are still pretty good sized. Game isnt going anywhere anytime soon. I think the merge is going to be a good thing, and only wish they had limited servers in the first place.

    The game is not pretty good sized. You don't do merges if you have over 1 million players playing. They've flat out lied about the numbers.

    Mark Jacobs once said about Warhammer before it's release (and it came back to haunt him but thats another story), back in August 2008

    http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/08/29/ea-mythic-activision-world-of-warcraft-estimate-is-overblown/
    "The corollary to that is if you've seen a game consolidate servers, you know it's in deep, deep trouble -- that's not a healthy sign for an MMO," he said,

    “Look at us six months out. Look at us six weeks out. If we’re not adding servers, we’re not doing well.”

     

    This still holds true today with any mmo that comes out. Bioware can spin it anyway they want, but the simple truth is they're not doing good.

    You do if you spread your customer base too far out.

     

    Folks seem to be forgetting that other than prime time, most servers stayed "light" status the entire day. You take 400k subs off 200 servers, and it goes from floating to "WTF were we thinking" status.

     

    The servers should of been tuned to hold the amount they are doing presently.  The fact BW is consolidating the players still around is a good thing, and yes there are still a lot of us. There would of been more if it had been taken care of prior to launch.

     

    No MMO is going to have 100% retention, and that would of been needed to keep all the servers viable. At 2M sales, they pretty much tapped everyone that was going to purchase short term. Wow has maybe 3 or 4M NA/EU subs, and it took them yrs to get there.

     

    TOR would of needed to get there in a 3 month span, and it wasnt happening.

    Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.

  • ZekiahZekiah Member UncommonPosts: 2,483

    This is what happens when you design a game around the 'quick box sales' concept.

    "Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky

  • GylfiGylfi Member UncommonPosts: 708

    as many already pointed out, essentially you can't offer a single player rpg and expect it to do well as a MMO.

    I can't give you an apple to be a good banana

  • qombiqombi Member UncommonPosts: 1,170

    They didn't have a clue what a MMO is and I afraid many games are failing for the same reason. They are making these games solo focused to the point you don't need each other.

  • Trol1Trol1 Member Posts: 175
    Originally posted by Moaky07

    You do if you spread your customer base too far out.

     

    Folks seem to be forgetting that other than prime time, most servers stayed "light" status the entire day. You take 400k subs off 200 servers, and it goes from floating to "WTF were we thinking" status.

     

    The servers should of been tuned to hold the amount they are doing presently.  The fact BW is consolidating the players still around is a good thing, and yes there are still a lot of us. There would of been more if it had been taken care of prior to launch.

     

    No MMO is going to have 100% retention, and that would of been needed to keep all the servers viable. At 2M sales, they pretty much tapped everyone that was going to purchase short term. Wow has maybe 3 or 4M NA/EU subs, and it took them yrs to get there.

     

    TOR would of needed to get there in a 3 month span, and it wasnt happening.

    "Folks seem to be forgetting that other than prime time, most servers stayed "light" status the entire day. "

    Which is the norm these days.

    Because Blizzard managed to tap into the casual gamer segment of the market.

    Who obviously have to play around the normal working hours for most of the working population, which in turn means that yes, only during peak hours we'll see heavier traffic on the server...

    if MMORPGs were still the niche product they used to be early 2000-ish, heck, yeah, the picture used to be different due to both different people playing and those people having a different attitude to the game (Evercrack anyone?)

    Anyhow, "servers  ... tuned to hold the amount they are presently" is probably a concept set for disaster.

    You need to understand the scale of players BW was looking at: with 2 Mio boxes sold that meant potentially up to 2 Mio players at launch or there arounds.

    Don't forget it was just before Xmas so you can probably add a fair chunk of potential late-sales (I bought my box on Dec 24th).

    Now, imagine you have 2 Mio players all trying to get in... and due to the servers being limited to correspond with a potential devellopment of subscription numbers dropping and you leave them sitting there waiting in queue for 3-4 hours until they are maybe in?

    Congrats, you just had a horrible launch!

    And SWTOR is a launch property, it's not a sleeper that will expand over time.

    Why?

    Because the target audience BW was (sort of) aiming for, they won't wake up after 6 months saying "oh, look, they released this SW MMO 6 months ago, maybe we should look into it?"

    You are a gamer and a fan of the SW IP, a SW game is released, you buy it. THEN and THERE!

    Unless you have doubts about the quality of the game and would prefer to await first reviews, streams, videos, etc.

    By which time you may already have lost out on any competitive edge you may have had in the game.

    BW's only chance to keep numbers adding on, would have been to run a cascade system of world releases, much like the separate APAC release. Which did apparent result in approx. 100+K units sold.

    Which in turn would have just brought up the fire of IP locks again and large markets being left out, etc.

    Anyhow, seriously, what makes the whole thing for me so hard to understand is what the actual problem is supposed to be: yeah, okay, so servers feel/are empty... woohoo...

    why? Because BW did something wrong? BW just offered a lot of server, like any good service provider would.

    Go to a shop that offered a top end PC for £1 in their flyer and  then be told that they only had 2 and both are already sold... congrats, you'd be pissed as hell about this "offer" (more like scam) because you'd expect them to have sufficient stock.

    BW did not pick the servers for the players, they picked them themselves.

    And most of the people now whining were quite comfortable there, even despite falling numbers...

    yet, suddenly, all of these empty servers are BW's fault, and BW needs to fix things ASAP...

    I don't know but to me it seems like the way to solve this "problem" is to actually only sell MMOs (and definitely MMORPGs) to people who were successfully confirmed as MMO capable.

    "You want to buy this MMO? Can I see your MMO capability card? Oh, I'm sorry, this game requires a MMOC of 2 or higher, you are only 1, I can't sell it to you." Wouldn't that be fun? ;-)

    It would probably help getting people to organize themselves both went first selecting a server and later when maybe reconsidering and looking for a different server.

    (Side note: you wanna bet how many players now are transfering to The Fatman but will by the end of the months be crying that nobody is reacting to their "LFG" spamming?) 

  • CrunkJuice2CrunkJuice2 Member Posts: 568
    Originally posted by Tayah
    Originally posted by Moaky07
    Originally posted by achesoma

    Instead of making a game for 2012 they made a game for 2007.  It's simply behind the times.  More of the same Skinner Box gear-grinder model.  The game lacks longevity.  After a few class stories completed not much else to do.  The combat is boring with way too many skills to manage and a poor energy bar system that has to be micromanaged.  Its only saving grace is the VO and story which was totally unnecessary for all the side quests, not to mention, a waste of time, money and resources.  Game certainly not worth the monthly sub.  Of course, all this has been stated time and time again. 

    They do need more end content, and by the bunches.

     

    That said, there are those of us having fun, and the numbers are still pretty good sized. Game isnt going anywhere anytime soon. I think the merge is going to be a good thing, and only wish they had limited servers in the first place.

    The game is not pretty good sized. You don't do merges if you have over 1 million players playing. They've flat out lied about the numbers.

    Mark Jacobs once said about Warhammer before it's release (and it came back to haunt him but thats another story), back in August 2008

    http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/08/29/ea-mythic-activision-world-of-warcraft-estimate-is-overblown/
    "The corollary to that is if you've seen a game consolidate servers, you know it's in deep, deep trouble -- that's not a healthy sign for an MMO," he said,

    “Look at us six months out. Look at us six weeks out. If we’re not adding servers, we’re not doing well.”

     

    This still holds true today with any mmo that comes out. Bioware can spin it anyway they want, but the simple truth is they're not doing good.

    i guess not very many people relize that swtor shipped with to many servers anyway.im not exactly calling swtor dead just because they merged alot of them recently.there just late to whole merging servers thing that should of been done 6 months ago

     

  • nyxiumnyxium Member UncommonPosts: 1,345

    Retrospectively:

     

    Released too early, probably under pressure from EA management, this happened with Warhammer.

    Patches weren't patches, but more bugs in an app. i.e. Ilum

    Single player space combat. MMO needs MMO space combat and nothing but this. Consumers were not going to pay a sub for single player space combat when they signed up for a MMO.

    Expensive game box's and preorders.

    Many servers meant costs weren't been recovered only incremently accrued.

    Subs might put people off if the game got trolled, or honestly constructively criticized dependent on view point.

    Hype, too too too much hype. Hype puts them off after time.

    SWG shutdown already cast a gloomy atmosphere before launch.

    Tried to be WoW in space.

    No night.

     

    Mainly this.

  • Trol1Trol1 Member Posts: 175
    Originally posted by Kaneth

    As much of a talking head Mark Jacobs truly is, I do feel there is merit to some of his points, and this is one of them. Merging servers is typically a bad sign that a game is in trouble, for multiple reasons. However, like you said, BIoware/EA can spin it any which way they want, but having to do merges in a game that hasn't been out for a year is nothing but a bad, bad sign.

    Looking back, it's fairly obvious that Bioware/EA thought that they would have a successful game based on the IP alone. Which in terms of box sales, you could call the game successful (for a single player game), but in terms of sub retention the game is a miserable flop. Not only did they fail to hold onto the brunt of their subs, they are also loosing out on future sales as well.

    If the game had been B2P with no sub fee, but had a C-store with optional DLC, the fans of the genre might be a bit more forgiving. Hell, more people might even purchase knowing full well that they would play maybe 100 hours (not like that's a terrible value of entertainment). They might even go back and play if they released some DLC mission packs or something of that nature.

    Sorry, I don't agree (just for the sake of it, you know ;-))

    The box sales were exceptionally successful for a RPG, single player or MMO. I don't think we need to discuss that.

    Retention... now that is where people just love to make up "ideas" without actually current data being available.

    First, the cornerstones:

    BW said they had 1.7 Mio subscription at time of launch/shortly after.

    At the beginning of May they gave a number of 1.3 Mio subscribers.

    Now, the things to remember:

    a) these numbers were probably pre-APAC, so there's problably a fair bit of potential hidden.

    b) BW never confirmed (as far as I know) a loss of 400K subscriptions. You need to remember that we could easily be looking at SWTOR having gained 500K subscriptions since launch value and then over the time from Feb to Apr have lost 900K subscriptions.

    The lost 400K subscriptions is the best possible assumption.

    c) all of these numbers are from May. We are now in June.

    d) additional sources like Xfire provide no subscription information only (very limited) information on active players.

    e) there is a difference between subscriptions and active subscriptions! While subscriptions include players in trial phases or in the initial time of the game, active subscribers are those that are past the initial 30 days and are still p(l)aying.

     Last I read the confirmed number of active subscribers was 1 Mio. (May data)

    Which meant that 300K of the subscribers were not yet considered active subscriber i.e. into their first actual billing cycle.

    Which in turn could mean that by now these 300K could have gone off into the sunset or dug in and are p(l)aying SWTOR. Obviously, these are the extremes and the numbers can be split.

    But staying with the extremes, it could mean that SWTOR has lost 700K out of 1.7 Mio subscribers... or 400K out of 1.7 Mio.  (and that is not mentioning the possibility of there actually having been even more subscribers than the 1.7-1.3 Mio data suggests! Remember that aspects like free weekend and buddy trials may also be factored into the subscriber numbers potentially...

    Now, there is obviously a huge difference between losing about 25% of your (not active) subscribers and almost 50%.

    The simple fact is: we don't know what's true!

    Unless either BW or EA releases clear, hard numbers again, we are all just farting into the wind...

    But what I'm really finding scary is how people always pull a B2P/F2P with item shop as the ultimate savior...

    I don't know about you folks but me, yeah, if I like the game I'd prefer to have it all. At least as far as maps, quests, races, classes, etc. goes.

    So, if I had to buy DLC worth $100 per year just to have it all (except of course certain luxary items for which I'd have to spend another $50, and booster packs, another $60, and who knows what) but don't have the - what I feel - guarantee that the game designer will actually try to make my overall game experience as positive as possible (by looking after the servers, by bug blasting old and new content, by adding new content outside any DLC packs, well, I'd rather pay my $15 each month and get it all.

     

     

  • Trol1Trol1 Member Posts: 175
    Originally posted by CrunkJuice2
    Originally posted by Tayah
    Originally posted by Moaky07
    Originally posted by achesoma

    Instead of making a game for 2012 they made a game for 2007.  It's simply behind the times.  More of the same Skinner Box gear-grinder model.  The game lacks longevity.  After a few class stories completed not much else to do.  The combat is boring with way too many skills to manage and a poor energy bar system that has to be micromanaged.  Its only saving grace is the VO and story which was totally unnecessary for all the side quests, not to mention, a waste of time, money and resources.  Game certainly not worth the monthly sub.  Of course, all this has been stated time and time again. 

    They do need more end content, and by the bunches.

     

    That said, there are those of us having fun, and the numbers are still pretty good sized. Game isnt going anywhere anytime soon. I think the merge is going to be a good thing, and only wish they had limited servers in the first place.

    The game is not pretty good sized. You don't do merges if you have over 1 million players playing. They've flat out lied about the numbers.

    Mark Jacobs once said about Warhammer before it's release (and it came back to haunt him but thats another story), back in August 2008

    http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/08/29/ea-mythic-activision-world-of-warcraft-estimate-is-overblown/
    "The corollary to that is if you've seen a game consolidate servers, you know it's in deep, deep trouble -- that's not a healthy sign for an MMO," he said,

    “Look at us six months out. Look at us six weeks out. If we’re not adding servers, we’re not doing well.”

     

    This still holds true today with any mmo that comes out. Bioware can spin it anyway they want, but the simple truth is they're not doing good.

    i guess not very many people relize that swtor shipped with to many servers anyway.im not exactly calling swtor dead just because they merged alot of them recently.there just late to whole merging servers thing that should of been done 6 months ago

     

    No servers have been merged! Please get your facts straight!

  • jdlamson75jdlamson75 Member UncommonPosts: 1,010

    My reason for the game flopping:

     

    It stopped being fun.  Simple enough reason, eh?

This discussion has been closed.