TOR's original intended playerbase was exactly what BioWare/EA got at launch. Look at it, 2.4 million boxes sold, some at 150 each (1 got 2 of them). Incredible hype machine/marketing. In my memory at least, I have no recall of any game launching anywhere near those numbers. BioWare did a great job, pre-launch.
However, the game just didn't live up to the hype/marketing spin. Leveling was done well with little extras such as cut scenes. And those cut scenes were and are just a "little extra" as gameplay is the main reason most any of us play a game, for the long term anyway. I had some inclination that TOR had problems when a BW dev was asked the question of end game and he said "re-roll" before launch. I don't care if it takes 200 hours or 2000 hours to get to end game, eventualy it will be reached and BioWare's plan was to have us re-roll and do it all over again with just a few class quests to make the experience any different from the last one. While I have seen people that are "alt-crazy" most MMO players are not and want to play their "main". Their basic game design gates this part of gameplay for the most part with "dailys" and OPs that go on cool-downs so when your done with these, log off and wait till the next day. That was and is a mistake in design. and their failure to retain subscriptions shows this to no end.
So their "target playerbase" has now CHANGED.
These particuliar lead developers are the old "NGE" devs. When they have a playerbase that doesn't appreciate what they have done or not enough that do, they will re-design the game to appeal to a playerbase they do not have, and even have no idea if it even exists or not. ALL at the cost of the playerbase they do have. Such was the original concept behind SWG's NGE that even "Smed" knows full well was a mistake now, but these guys didn't stick around SOE Austin long enough to figure this one out. They only know what their limited experience with NGE taught them before BioWare hired these guys in early 2006 (NGE was Nov 15, 2005). And that was to arrogantly believe that if players don't like what they've done, they're not worthy of said development and they'll leave it as "marketing's" job to go find this playerbase that loves them. This re-design, for TOR, is now F2P and will impact the existing playerbase to no end. I seen it 1st hand in STO. The people that are invested and like the game will be the ones that the store is targeted at in the end all/be all. You'll end up paying a sub and then spending money, sometimes big money, in addition to your 15 per/month. They all start out with "It will only be fluff, subs will get it all for free, and NO P2W" but when it is shown these F2P players just won't part with their wallets, the other becomes the hard target. These games require money to change hands and if the F2Pers won't part with it, the sub players end up footing the bill as they already open their wallets, "so let's see how far we can push them".
If the ones that like and sub to the game don't pay? I'm sure EA will have no problem pulling the plug. And remember here. EA is talking at least $7,500,000 dollars per month (500K @ 15) for even the break even point so this will not be another STO, or any of the other F2P games that exist on 100K, or less, people (F2P and P2P) in their game.
Originally posted by Ahnog SWTORs intended player base is not hardcore gamers who are looking for innovation in MMOs. These are looking for a new thrill, and are not satisfied with MMOs as they exist today. Furthermore, they have rejected the game and moved on and and are now looking for GW2 and other games to break new ground for them. Good luck guys and gals. SWTOR does appeal to hardcore gamers who are satisfied with incremental innovation in MMOs. I count myself among this number, and I love the game. BW has added its special touch to MMOs by getting rid of text box quest givers and introduced us to a vibrant, interesting set of story lines that involve us in conversations with the non-player character world. They have made innovations in crafting by getting rid of roaming the lands looking for resources, and other small steps. Kudos BW! SWTORs intended player base is Star Wars fans. Most of these have never even heard of a MMO, much less played one. But they, my son among them, love the thing that is Star Wars. They have models, collections, toys, and copies of the movies which they watch over and over again wishing there was more to the story. BW has brought them that story, and almost 2 million of them responded by buying the game. They liked the game, but they werent prepared to pay $15 a month for it and they began slipping away. The decision to go F2P will reach these fans and the game will surpass WOW in population. They will come in droves and learn the basics of MMOs as they explore the Star Wars universe. Wookies, Jedi, especially Jedi, the Republic, space ships, and new storiesthey are all there. The game cant help but be a success now. BW, LucasArts, and EA knew who they were after, but they erred in thinking these fans would come to a subscription based MMO. Theyve seen the error of their ways and they are correcting it. A great future lies ahead for them and for the players. The bottom line is that SWTOR will survive and prosper, and thats all we wanted in the first place.
Any hardcore gamer worth his self proclaimed title would have 8 characters fully decked out in raid gear by now. the raids are painfully faceroll when the bugs don't kill you.
pvp is just miserable .. even still I had 2 characters maxed in pvp and pve before 1.2 and I dont even consider myself very hardcore anymore.
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity. I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
I enjoyed levelling in star wars there was nothing much wrong with that. The problem is there was very little massively in this massively online roleplaying game. By that I mean compelling and good reasons to play with other people which was always halted by the fact you were on a different part of the "story".
There should be no such thing as "rushing" there should be enough content there to satisfy customers not copied features done badly of the most popular mmorpg. The Star Wars could have been so much (in order to prevent rushing), space sand box style exploration, guild held planets for the republic or imperials with ports and check points for security, actual pvp space combat and so forth.
F2P was needed because GW2 is about to nail this game to the ground and Im not being mean to swtor, I have a feeling GW2 is going to give WoW a damn good run for its money and others. Then we have MOP releasing, regardless whether you like either the fall out of these two titans will affect the smaller industry as a whole.
This game has not survived it has crawled to a stop with 100s of people being shed from the EA Bioware offices and big names leaving, RIP Rockjaw please please head up CoX2 community. They simply do not have the resources to plug back into the game and EA have even stated this is something like 5th on their roster for development as its not a priority or bringing in enough money to pay attention to it. Sadly that is why I will never play this again, once a developer gives up there is not much to stay for.
If as you say the intended playerbase was not hit then EA/bioware spent a couple of 100s of millions of dollars of marketing (as is the EA machine) on trying to grab the wrong people. Which is a terrible TERRIBLE case of mismanagement.
GW2 will be announcing millions+ of players and live accounts soon enough, this will drown out any noise swtor will try to make, if they have any marketing budget left.
And then we will have Planetside 2 which is unbelievably free at all points of access including no box price, which still has my jaw on the floor.
I truly find it amazing that people actually think that this game will bring in millions of new subscribers/players once it goes F2P. I honestly have no words for it.
TOR's original intended playerbase was exactly what BioWare/EA got at launch. Look at it, 2.4 million boxes sold, some at 150 each (1 got 2 of them). Incredible hype machine/marketing. In my memory at least, I have no recall of any game launching anywhere near those numbers. BioWare did a great job, pre-launch.
However, the game just didn't live up to the hype/marketing spin. Leveling was done well with little extras such as cut scenes. And those cut scenes were and are just a "little extra" as gameplay is the main reason most any of us play a game, for the long term anyway. I had some inclination that TOR had problems when a BW dev was asked the question of end game and he said "re-roll" before launch. I don't care if it takes 200 hours or 2000 hours to get to end game, eventualy it will be reached and BioWare's plan was to have us re-roll and do it all over again with just a few class quests to make the experience any different from the last one. While I have seen people that are "alt-crazy" most MMO players are not and want to play their "main". Their basic game design gates this part of gameplay for the most part with "dailys" and OPs that go on cool-downs so when your done with these, log off and wait till the next day. That was and is a mistake in design. and their failure to retain subscriptions shows this to no end.
So their "target playerbase" has now CHANGED.
These particuliar lead developers are the old "NGE" devs. When they have a playerbase that doesn't appreciate what they have done or not enough that do, they will re-design the game to appeal to a playerbase they do not have, and even have no idea if it even exists or not. ALL at the cost of the playerbase they do have. Such was the original concept behind SWG's NGE that even "Smed" knows full well was a mistake now, but these guys didn't stick around SOE Austin long enough to figure this one out. They only know what their limited experience with NGE taught them before BioWare hired these guys in early 2006 (NGE was Nov 15, 2005). And that was to arrogantly believe that if players don't like what they've done, they're not worthy of said development and they'll leave it as "marketing's" job to go find this playerbase that loves them. This re-design, for TOR, is now F2P and will impact the existing playerbase to no end. I seen it 1st hand in STO. The people that are invested and like the game will be the ones that the store is targeted at in the end all/be all. You'll end up paying a sub and then spending money, sometimes big money, in addition to your 15 per/month. They all start out with "It will only be fluff, subs will get it all for free, and NO P2W" but when it is shown these F2P players just won't part with their wallets, the other becomes the hard target. These games require money to change hands and if the F2Pers won't part with it, the sub players end up footing the bill as they already open their wallets, "so let's see how far we can push them".
If the ones that like and sub to the game don't pay? I'm sure EA will have no problem pulling the plug. And remember here. EA is talking at least $7,500,000 dollars per month (500K @ 15) for even the break even point so this will not be another STO, or any of the other F2P games that exist on 100K, or less, people (F2P and P2P) in their game.
That's kind of a problem with these forums. It seems there are posters who think that every game that is made and that they are interested in, is meant for them.
It's very clear that the gamut of games, though there are similarties, do speak to different players in different ways.
Exactly. This game was advertised as a story centric game and that is exactly what it is. Obviously it's not a game for people who like to just rush to engame and not give a damn about lore. Those people have already been catered to enough as far I'm concerned . Bioware went a different direction and so did Funcom with TSW. For those that don't like cutscenes and think gameplay is all that matters, you have an entire library of past and future MMOs to play with. Stop being so selfish. Not every game is meant to cater to your special needs.
A story-centric mmorpg.
So the fact that it was marketed and sold to everyone as an mmorpg, and it fails in that respect is ok for you? We're all being selfish are we because we expected a decent game with lots of ways to play with our friends and not just in the few instances? I didn't rush through content, i went through every scene, but I was doing it alone because it is geared towards soloing and single player play. The game doesn't encourage grouped play and doesn't have the correct environment for mmo play.
How dare you. Your post is arrogant and insulting to all of us who payed good money for a game that was falsely advertised. I'm sick and tired of reading such 'you are all to blame with your high expectations' posts on here. Mmorpg players have been catered for enough have we? We haven't had a decent game since EQ!
Ok Hamlet, relax.
I paid good money for the game as well and I enjoyed it, grouped, did lots of stuff that was fun. Just because you weren't able to quite "make it there" doesn't make it our fault.
So relax.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Honestly.. I don't think Bioware knows who and what are their customers.. I just get this feeling from Bioware just threw a handfull of darts at a board to identify their customers.. lil of this, lil of that.. and some of them.. none of those.. BTW, did we tell you about our 4th pillar? lol
Originally posted by Rydeson Honestly.. I don't think Bioware knows who and what are their customers.. I just get this feeling from Bioware just threw a handfull of darts at a board to identify their customers.. lil of this, lil of that.. and some of them.. none of those.. BTW, did we tell you about our 4th pillar? lol
I think they thought they could make any game they wanted and that everyone would eat it up.
And yes, many people like the game. But there is only so much they can do until one reaches cap; then what?
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Originally posted by Rydeson Honestly.. I don't think Bioware knows who and what are their customers.. I just get this feeling from Bioware just threw a handfull of darts at a board to identify their customers.. lil of this, lil of that.. and some of them.. none of those.. BTW, did we tell you about our 4th pillar? lol
I think they thought they could make any game they wanted and that everyone would eat it up.
And yes, many people like the game. But there is only so much they can do until one reaches cap; then what?
That is the whole point that people do not really understand or pretetend not to.
Lots of people like the GAME, but they dislike the MMO
SWTOR is a good game, not a good MMO.
I liked it until I got to level cap, then the boredom took over...........and pretty fast.
Bioware basically made KOTOR 3 (not even the best) and thrown in some ramdom MMO features badly implemented (PvP has to be the worst PvP ever experienced in a MMO)
This is not how you make a MMO.
First you build the MMO basics, then you throw in the Lore and the Story.
Developers (this is not just Bioware) are overlooking the MMO basics which are aimed to build a community of players, that's the only way you keep subscriptions going.
If you don't do that, players will focus on beating the game and then they will move on to the next game.............this looks so obvious to me.
Players are treating those MMOs as single player games (use and discard), because the MMO features are treated as an afterthought by the developers.
I'm really kind of confused about their payment model to be honest. It just doesn't sound all that well thought out. They must be expecting that people will like the game so much that they will want to sub. Which flys directly in the face of what you say in your post - that people left because they don't want to pay a sub.
This! The only thing worth paying for is the story, and that is about the only thing that free players have full access to. I really don't see why anybody would pay anything for a F2P game. It's still the same game people have been quitting faster than any other game.
The free players will sit down to the game, play it, like it for the story or ditch it. When the story is done, they might pay to figure out there really isn't anything worth paying for, but I honestly don't see this bringing in lots of money.
I guess EA just wants 'players' now and has given up on actually making money from this game.
I think they really did make this game for kotor people. not sure were I read that some rumor or whatever. but it felt that way. I think they really wanted to get people who play single player games and those who like star wars. I have the one postive that was fun for me, my first class story was pretty good. of course all those side quest were ok as well. but I spent allot of time skipping so many bonus and heroic quest and just wanted to see whats next for my class story. I tried to repeat that with an alt but crapped out after level 39.
By then I just lost intrerest. No way I wanted to hit all those planets and deal with all those same quest again.it's an ok game. of course even free to play for people wanting to check it out, sure go for it. but I won't go into my endless list of bugs and problems I found with the game.
If you enjoy swtor then avoid forums,and play it.. many of us for various reason will avoid it.
SWTOR’s intended player base is not hardcore gamers who are looking for innovation in MMOs. These are looking for a new thrill, and are not satisfied with MMOs as they exist today. Furthermore, they have rejected the game and moved on and and are now looking for GW2 and other games to break new ground for them. Good luck guys and gals.
SWTOR does appeal to hardcore gamers who are satisfied with incremental innovation in MMOs. I count myself among this number, and I love the game. BW has added its special touch to MMOs by getting rid of text box quest givers and introduced us to a vibrant, interesting set of story lines that involve us in conversations with the non-player character world. They have made innovations in crafting by getting rid of roaming the lands looking for resources, and other small steps. Kudos BW!
SWTOR’s intended player base is Star Wars fans. Most of these have never even heard of a MMO, much less played one. But they, my son among them, love the thing that is Star Wars. They have models, collections, toys, and copies of the movies which they watch over and over again wishing there was more to the story. BW has brought them that story, and almost 2 million of them responded by buying the game. They liked the game, but they weren’t prepared to pay $15 a month for it and they began slipping away.
The decision to go F2P will reach these fans and the game will surpass WOW in population. They will come in droves and learn the basics of MMOs as they explore the Star Wars universe. Wookies, Jedi, especially Jedi, the Republic, space ships, and new stories—they are all there. The game can’t help but be a success now.
BW, LucasArts, and EA knew who they were after, but they erred in thinking these fans would come to a subscription based MMO. They’ve seen the error of their ways and they are correcting it. A great future lies ahead for them and for the players.
The bottom line is that SWTOR will survive and prosper, and that’s all we wanted in the first place.
SWTOR’s intended player base is not hardcore gamers who are looking for innovation in MMOs. These are looking for a new thrill, and are not satisfied with MMOs as they exist today. Furthermore, they have rejected the game and moved on and and are now looking for GW2 and other games to break new ground for them. Good luck guys and gals.
SWTOR does appeal to hardcore gamers who are satisfied with incremental innovation in MMOs. I count myself among this number, and I love the game. BW has added its special touch to MMOs by getting rid of text box quest givers and introduced us to a vibrant, interesting set of story lines that involve us in conversations with the non-player character world. They have made innovations in crafting by getting rid of roaming the lands looking for resources, and other small steps. Kudos BW!
SWTOR’s intended player base is Star Wars fans. Most of these have never even heard of a MMO, much less played one. But they, my son among them, love the thing that is Star Wars. They have models, collections, toys, and copies of the movies which they watch over and over again wishing there was more to the story. BW has brought them that story, and almost 2 million of them responded by buying the game. They liked the game, but they weren’t prepared to pay $15 a month for it and they began slipping away.
The decision to go F2P will reach these fans and the game will surpass WOW in population. They will come in droves and learn the basics of MMOs as they explore the Star Wars universe. Wookies, Jedi, especially Jedi, the Republic, space ships, and new stories—they are all there. The game can’t help but be a success now.
BW, LucasArts, and EA knew who they were after, but they erred in thinking these fans would come to a subscription based MMO. They’ve seen the error of their ways and they are correcting it. A great future lies ahead for them and for the players.
The bottom line is that SWTOR will survive and prosper, and that’s all we wanted in the first place.
1. Personal preferences and wishful thinking are not a rational basis to make truth claims. Which gets me to:
2. Surpass WoW's population? How? By what mechanisms? All the recommendations? All the happy ex-SWTOR players lining up to endorse the game? That it's the 'coolest MMO ever?' Even Turbine only doubled its population in LOTRO with the F2P model, (and lost half of what they gained within in a year) and that is probably one of the most successful P2P-to-F2P conversions ever done. All I really see in your post is wishful thinking and the point that:
3. None of that worked the first time through. It's the same bag of crap with a different pay model. And while I'd have came back to finish up my unfinished stories if there wouldn't have been too many horrible restrictions I find that to be not the case. That I'm getting no unlock/thank you credit seeing as I bought the client they're (soon to be) giving away for free, it seems that won't be counting, so why should I?
I mean, really, I paid for the game and they're gimping the account I paid for? I could see 'buy xpacs and addons,' like Turbine makes you. But to lose what I paid for? Turbine didn't take away my Rune Keeper when I dropped my sub. They didn't take away my inventory space. They didn't take away my clothing tabs. They didn't take away my player housing. They didn't take away my deeds. They didn't take away The Mines of Moria, Siege of Mirkwood or Rise of Isengard stuff either.
In fact, when Turbine went F2P, I got a ton of turbine points because I had bought the game. I had something close to $60 worth of Turbine Points when they converted. And as I subbed, they kept giving me more. I have over 9,000 Turbine points in LOTRO just waiting for me to get interested in playing again...
I am sick of hearing that this game is a single player game. I don't know who and i wont guess what BW's intended target audience is/was but i can guarantee it isn't the space bar through conversation, race to end game crowd. I know this because no game is targeted to players like that. I continue to see posts about how great it was to 50 then nothing to do. Well sad to state the obvious but if you play a new release title like its your job you are going to run out of content. So people race to end game never grouping for heroics or forming raids to take on world bosses and say the game is co-op. I thought my job can be frustrating at times, i wouldn't change places with a game developer to save my life.
Considering they likely spent more money this game that WoW has for it's game and all its expansions... That excuse doesn't fly with me. They blew their budget on gimmicks, not game play.
It's not a bad game .... but it's just that .... a game. I was looking for an MMO and never got that feeling what so ever. If it wasnt set in a Star Wars universe, I doubt it would have even held my attention to end game.
Originally posted by Ahnog SWTORs intended player base is not hardcore gamers who are looking for innovation in MMOs. These are looking for a new thrill, and are not satisfied with MMOs as they exist today. Furthermore, they have rejected the game and moved on and and are now looking for GW2 and other games to break new ground for them. Good luck guys and gals.
SWTOR does appeal to hardcore gamers who are satisfied with incremental innovation in MMOs. I count myself among this number, and I love the game. BW has added its special touch to MMOs by getting rid of text box quest givers and introduced us to a vibrant, interesting set of story lines that involve us in conversations with the non-player character world. They have made innovations in crafting by getting rid of roaming the lands looking for resources, and other small steps. Kudos BW!
The only thing hardcore about SWtor was the amount of spacebar abuse.
Firstoff, there is no clear line to what is casula or hardcore. But you just go ahead and claim x is hardcore because? Yes why? Because you like no innovation, spin halffinished poor implemented core systems as a pillar for your hardcore playerbase definition?
And where did that rumo pop up, people who like story and don't spend much time love broken content, and poor story execution?
My truth is far simpler. 1. They aimed for Players capable of paying 15$ a month. 2. They wanted all the PVP hardcore players in by creating a huge timesink PVP system with Tiered Armor and Valor grind. 3. They wanted all the PVE Hardcore in with all these story lacking instances, hardmode and Nightmare raids. Tiered Armor and DPS Races, gear checks. 4. They wanted all the story "casuals" who just twink and enjoy the story pve. 5. They wanted all the casuals who do a little pvp, pve, raid but not hardcore.
They F* everyone, kneejerked everyone lied and spined numbers.
1. Raid Focused content paches kneejerk to group 2,4,5. 2. PVP Focused content paches kneejerk group 3,4,5. 3. Legacy disaster kneejerked 2,3,4,5. Because it wasn't good at all and is a money sink not a legacy feature. 4. Companion update HK51 kneejerks groups 2,3.
Group 1 includes groups 2,3,4,5. They all got displeased and lack of content in their fields. EAware's new spin: Group 6. Free to pay. They will fix it, they are the focus group now!
In short they failed to please everyone by kneejerking all previous groups because they lacked the capability to produce decent content and bug fixes. And making a bug fix a major release pillar (Armor mods) is as good as it get's here.
My Thruth is so simple, buzzing like a bee. If you want to be WOW you'd better deliver the content like wow and in the same quality. You don't do one OR the other and design fail at basics.
Comments
TOR's original intended playerbase was exactly what BioWare/EA got at launch. Look at it, 2.4 million boxes sold, some at 150 each (1 got 2 of them). Incredible hype machine/marketing. In my memory at least, I have no recall of any game launching anywhere near those numbers. BioWare did a great job, pre-launch.
However, the game just didn't live up to the hype/marketing spin. Leveling was done well with little extras such as cut scenes. And those cut scenes were and are just a "little extra" as gameplay is the main reason most any of us play a game, for the long term anyway. I had some inclination that TOR had problems when a BW dev was asked the question of end game and he said "re-roll" before launch. I don't care if it takes 200 hours or 2000 hours to get to end game, eventualy it will be reached and BioWare's plan was to have us re-roll and do it all over again with just a few class quests to make the experience any different from the last one. While I have seen people that are "alt-crazy" most MMO players are not and want to play their "main". Their basic game design gates this part of gameplay for the most part with "dailys" and OPs that go on cool-downs so when your done with these, log off and wait till the next day. That was and is a mistake in design. and their failure to retain subscriptions shows this to no end.
So their "target playerbase" has now CHANGED.
These particuliar lead developers are the old "NGE" devs. When they have a playerbase that doesn't appreciate what they have done or not enough that do, they will re-design the game to appeal to a playerbase they do not have, and even have no idea if it even exists or not. ALL at the cost of the playerbase they do have. Such was the original concept behind SWG's NGE that even "Smed" knows full well was a mistake now, but these guys didn't stick around SOE Austin long enough to figure this one out. They only know what their limited experience with NGE taught them before BioWare hired these guys in early 2006 (NGE was Nov 15, 2005). And that was to arrogantly believe that if players don't like what they've done, they're not worthy of said development and they'll leave it as "marketing's" job to go find this playerbase that loves them. This re-design, for TOR, is now F2P and will impact the existing playerbase to no end. I seen it 1st hand in STO. The people that are invested and like the game will be the ones that the store is targeted at in the end all/be all. You'll end up paying a sub and then spending money, sometimes big money, in addition to your 15 per/month. They all start out with "It will only be fluff, subs will get it all for free, and NO P2W" but when it is shown these F2P players just won't part with their wallets, the other becomes the hard target. These games require money to change hands and if the F2Pers won't part with it, the sub players end up footing the bill as they already open their wallets, "so let's see how far we can push them".
If the ones that like and sub to the game don't pay? I'm sure EA will have no problem pulling the plug. And remember here. EA is talking at least $7,500,000 dollars per month (500K @ 15) for even the break even point so this will not be another STO, or any of the other F2P games that exist on 100K, or less, people (F2P and P2P) in their game.
Any hardcore gamer worth his self proclaimed title would have 8 characters fully decked out in raid gear by now. the raids are painfully faceroll when the bugs don't kill you.
pvp is just miserable .. even still I had 2 characters maxed in pvp and pve before 1.2 and I dont even consider myself very hardcore anymore.
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
I enjoyed levelling in star wars there was nothing much wrong with that. The problem is there was very little massively in this massively online roleplaying game. By that I mean compelling and good reasons to play with other people which was always halted by the fact you were on a different part of the "story".
There should be no such thing as "rushing" there should be enough content there to satisfy customers not copied features done badly of the most popular mmorpg. The Star Wars could have been so much (in order to prevent rushing), space sand box style exploration, guild held planets for the republic or imperials with ports and check points for security, actual pvp space combat and so forth.
F2P was needed because GW2 is about to nail this game to the ground and Im not being mean to swtor, I have a feeling GW2 is going to give WoW a damn good run for its money and others. Then we have MOP releasing, regardless whether you like either the fall out of these two titans will affect the smaller industry as a whole.
This game has not survived it has crawled to a stop with 100s of people being shed from the EA Bioware offices and big names leaving, RIP Rockjaw please please head up CoX2 community. They simply do not have the resources to plug back into the game and EA have even stated this is something like 5th on their roster for development as its not a priority or bringing in enough money to pay attention to it. Sadly that is why I will never play this again, once a developer gives up there is not much to stay for.
If as you say the intended playerbase was not hit then EA/bioware spent a couple of 100s of millions of dollars of marketing (as is the EA machine) on trying to grab the wrong people. Which is a terrible TERRIBLE case of mismanagement.
GW2 will be announcing millions+ of players and live accounts soon enough, this will drown out any noise swtor will try to make, if they have any marketing budget left.
And then we will have Planetside 2 which is unbelievably free at all points of access including no box price, which still has my jaw on the floor.
Have to QFE this.
Ok Hamlet, relax.
I paid good money for the game as well and I enjoyed it, grouped, did lots of stuff that was fun. Just because you weren't able to quite "make it there" doesn't make it our fault.
So relax.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I think they thought they could make any game they wanted and that everyone would eat it up.
And yes, many people like the game. But there is only so much they can do until one reaches cap; then what?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
That is the whole point that people do not really understand or pretetend not to.
Lots of people like the GAME, but they dislike the MMO
SWTOR is a good game, not a good MMO.
I liked it until I got to level cap, then the boredom took over...........and pretty fast.
Bioware basically made KOTOR 3 (not even the best) and thrown in some ramdom MMO features badly implemented (PvP has to be the worst PvP ever experienced in a MMO)
This is not how you make a MMO.
First you build the MMO basics, then you throw in the Lore and the Story.
Developers (this is not just Bioware) are overlooking the MMO basics which are aimed to build a community of players, that's the only way you keep subscriptions going.
If you don't do that, players will focus on beating the game and then they will move on to the next game.............this looks so obvious to me.
Players are treating those MMOs as single player games (use and discard), because the MMO features are treated as an afterthought by the developers.
That's the sad true of today MMO industry.
This! The only thing worth paying for is the story, and that is about the only thing that free players have full access to. I really don't see why anybody would pay anything for a F2P game. It's still the same game people have been quitting faster than any other game.
The free players will sit down to the game, play it, like it for the story or ditch it. When the story is done, they might pay to figure out there really isn't anything worth paying for, but I honestly don't see this bringing in lots of money.
I guess EA just wants 'players' now and has given up on actually making money from this game.
I think they really did make this game for kotor people. not sure were I read that some rumor or whatever. but it felt that way. I think they really wanted to get people who play single player games and those who like star wars. I have the one postive that was fun for me, my first class story was pretty good. of course all those side quest were ok as well. but I spent allot of time skipping so many bonus and heroic quest and just wanted to see whats next for my class story. I tried to repeat that with an alt but crapped out after level 39.
By then I just lost intrerest. No way I wanted to hit all those planets and deal with all those same quest again.it's an ok game. of course even free to play for people wanting to check it out, sure go for it. but I won't go into my endless list of bugs and problems I found with the game.
If you enjoy swtor then avoid forums,and play it.. many of us for various reason will avoid it.
Huh ?
Did resources get removed since i last played ?
Lolipops !
You can gather resources either by collecting them in outer zones or sending companions on missions.
Running around and collect resources by yourself is not the only way, which I guess some people may have enjoyed but some find it tedious.
1. Personal preferences and wishful thinking are not a rational basis to make truth claims. Which gets me to:
2. Surpass WoW's population? How? By what mechanisms? All the recommendations? All the happy ex-SWTOR players lining up to endorse the game? That it's the 'coolest MMO ever?' Even Turbine only doubled its population in LOTRO with the F2P model, (and lost half of what they gained within in a year) and that is probably one of the most successful P2P-to-F2P conversions ever done. All I really see in your post is wishful thinking and the point that:
3. None of that worked the first time through. It's the same bag of crap with a different pay model. And while I'd have came back to finish up my unfinished stories if there wouldn't have been too many horrible restrictions I find that to be not the case. That I'm getting no unlock/thank you credit seeing as I bought the client they're (soon to be) giving away for free, it seems that won't be counting, so why should I?
I mean, really, I paid for the game and they're gimping the account I paid for? I could see 'buy xpacs and addons,' like Turbine makes you. But to lose what I paid for? Turbine didn't take away my Rune Keeper when I dropped my sub. They didn't take away my inventory space. They didn't take away my clothing tabs. They didn't take away my player housing. They didn't take away my deeds. They didn't take away The Mines of Moria, Siege of Mirkwood or Rise of Isengard stuff either.
In fact, when Turbine went F2P, I got a ton of turbine points because I had bought the game. I had something close to $60 worth of Turbine Points when they converted. And as I subbed, they kept giving me more. I have over 9,000 Turbine points in LOTRO just waiting for me to get interested in playing again...
Considering they likely spent more money this game that WoW has for it's game and all its expansions... That excuse doesn't fly with me. They blew their budget on gimmicks, not game play.
Firstoff, there is no clear line to what is casula or hardcore. But you just go ahead and claim x is hardcore because? Yes why? Because you like no innovation, spin halffinished poor implemented core systems as a pillar for your hardcore playerbase definition?
And where did that rumo pop up, people who like story and don't spend much time love broken content, and poor story execution?
My truth is far simpler.
1. They aimed for Players capable of paying 15$ a month.
2. They wanted all the PVP hardcore players in by creating a huge timesink PVP system with Tiered Armor and Valor grind.
3. They wanted all the PVE Hardcore in with all these story lacking instances, hardmode and Nightmare raids. Tiered Armor and DPS Races, gear checks.
4. They wanted all the story "casuals" who just twink and enjoy the story pve.
5. They wanted all the casuals who do a little pvp, pve, raid but not hardcore.
They F* everyone, kneejerked everyone lied and spined numbers.
1. Raid Focused content paches kneejerk to group 2,4,5.
2. PVP Focused content paches kneejerk group 3,4,5.
3. Legacy disaster kneejerked 2,3,4,5. Because it wasn't good at all and is a money sink not a legacy feature.
4. Companion update HK51 kneejerks groups 2,3.
Group 1 includes groups 2,3,4,5. They all got displeased and lack of content in their fields.
EAware's new spin: Group 6. Free to pay. They will fix it, they are the focus group now!
In short they failed to please everyone by kneejerking all previous groups because they lacked the capability to produce decent content and bug fixes. And making a bug fix a major release pillar (Armor mods) is as good as it get's here.
My Thruth is so simple, buzzing like a bee. If you want to be WOW you'd better deliver the content like wow and in the same quality. You don't do one OR the other and design fail at basics.