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[Column] Star Wars: The Old Republic: How SWTOR Can Own 2013

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  • DoogiehowserDoogiehowser Member Posts: 1,873
    Originally posted by Whiskey_Sam
    It's a little early for an April Fool's column.

    I don't think he is trying to fool anyone. It is Op's opinion and acually quite well written.

    I am 100% sure you didn't even read the colum and replied right after you read the title.

    "The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
    -Jesse Schell

    "Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
    -Luke McKinney

    image

  • SamhaelSamhael Member RarePosts: 1,488

    It took me a few minutes before I "got" it.  The author is simply listing ways that if EA handled properly, then and only then could SWTOR rule 2013.

    We have seen how EA has handled it in the past so there really is no danger of late-blooming success happening now.

  • darkblightdarkblight Member UncommonPosts: 55

    I played SWTOR from it's release, leveled several characters to max, and dominated PVP for a month or so on The Fatman Server ( we ran a guild called DarkSaber)

     

    Here is why all of my friends and I left the game, and these issues will never be addressed.

     

     

    1)  Balancing, the game was utterly imbalanced, and a typical wow system of buffing one class then completly nerfing another one. In the end your only viable option is to level up every character, which was rather easy thanks to space botting, but was not viable for pvp becasue:

     

    2) pvp has a ridiculous gear grind. In order to pvp on a high level you needed to grind, and grind, and grind and grind and grind, to get gear and ranks, only to have the gear replaced with more of a grind. Illum was released for open world, which was horribly imbalanced as well.

     

    All illum ended up being was the more populated side camping the less populated side in their base, and people Afk macroing there all day to get the pvp grind over with.

     

    3) annoying cut scenes. This is the real reason why SWTOR failed and no one will admit it.

     

    NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE CUT SCENES, at first they are ok, and we usually watch the class ones, but EVERY STUPID carry and fetch quest has a cut scene.

     

    This is why the game failed, as instead of putting the resources into raiding/ pvp/ comming up with a Faction based war system or sith council etc... instead of that the time, cash, and development was put into cutscenes that the vast majority of players watch maybe one time, and even more simply start to skip.

     

    How you could easily Fix SWTOR:

     

    Add a third faction, call it Mercenary. Have it so that Rebels/ Imps can do a quest chain to leave their faction, betray it, and become a memeber of the opposite faction, or stay a Mercenary..

     

    Add bases to the world map, make the bases able to taken over by factions, give rewards for taking over/ holding bases , longer you hold the bases better the rewards get.

     

    Add a global meter that shows who is winning the overal faction system, Merc/ Rebel/ IMP.

    Remove points to purchase pvp gear and faction levels from battle grounds, turn battle grounds into rated arenas, post leaders of said arena ratinngs on a board.

     

    Make it so in order to progess in pvp you have to fight in the global, open world conflict. Make it so by simply guarding a base, the longer you hold it, the higher a tick of points you get every 5/ 10 minutes or so. Make it so players can do dailies to upgrade defenses at their bases.

     

    Add player bounties, make it so when killed by a player in pvp outside of a arena, a bounty can be placed on a player, said bounties add up and are posted on a board, bounty hunters take the bounties and if the player is kill blowed by them they collect the money, make part of the new story lines for bounty hunters involve this, make bounty hunters craft items to track players, higher quality yield better results.

     

     

    Add a sith / jedi council. Give players group buffs/ appearance items for the Jedi's at top of said council. Players challenge people who enter into said council system and players duel to keep their spots. TIme and place of said duels are posted in advance in case players wish to participate and watch.

     

     

    I would play that game. That would be the greatest game ever.

     

    Instead, we get crappy cut scenes and runniing the same 5 warzones over, and over, and over. or go AFK in illum.

     

    sigh.

  • mrrshann618mrrshann618 Member UncommonPosts: 279

    Conversely I do not care for PvP in a PvE centered game.

    1 - In order to balance PvP you cannot balance PvE and vice versa. Since SWTOR is about the "epic story" and not about ganking people I personally feel they went the right route.

    2 - MMO's in general are a grind, think otherwise and you are deluding yourself. every mmo since the dawn of mmo's has be centered around the grind. Recently however that grind has been dramatically reduced to not be so grindy. People used to take days just to get a single level. now I can get 50 levels in under a week with average play.

    3 - ANY game is going to have a "nation" imblance unless there are artificial restrictions put into place. This is true in EVERY GAME where people percieve PvP as the end-all-be-all. This is why many games have gone the arena route where you que for a battleground and generally get even sides. Sad thing is no-one wants battlegrounds as they are "to artificial" yet people complain that the spontanious PvP zones are to "one sided" Sorry, can't have both regulated and spontanious.

    4 - The only reason why you need a 3rd side is for PvP, this is Star Wars, there was no 3rd side. unless you count the hutts but even then they were not a real "side". Now we can break things down and have clandestine things, but in general it was one side against the others where each side was filled with greys. By adding in a "merc faction" that can be either you completely invailidate the other two sides, as most people will want to do "everything" instead you will see alot of the population drift to the "neutral" side and you will see an even larger disparity in PvP.

     

    I like the cutscene, why?, because I LIKE story. I'm not the guy who has to rush to the end. I like to take my time, enjoy the cinematics and listen to the story. I can rush through the non-cinematics all I want. Want ot grind? great no cinematics there. SWTOR is about story, just another example of people not understanding what SWTOR was about in the first place. I do admit that they went overboard on every quest needing a drawn out cutscene, however it is a tool to try and immerse the player into the world. skipping the cutscenes is going to the end of a book and reading the ending without understanding the middle. By reading the WHOLE book you find more enjoyment from that same book instead of just finding out what happened at the end.

     

    Lastly the reason why SWTOR failed is because FAR to many people wanted it to be SWG 2. There were bugs and issues, EVERY game has bugs and issues. WOW had bugs and issues for a VERY long time at the launch, yet no-one seems to remember this "golden saviour" of MMOness to have ever had problems.

    Play what you Like. I like SWOTR, Have a referral to get you going!
    -->  http://www.swtor.com/r/nBndbs  <--
    Several Unlocks and a few days game time to make the F2P considerably easier
  • ValadusValadus Member Posts: 12
    I respect the fact that different people are entitled to their different opinions, and while I hope that what you're proposing actually happens I highly doubt it. Their dev team hasn't even been able to deliver on the simple option of showing or hiding hoods on hooded Jedi robes over a year after release although they've kept promising that it will come. The fact that they don't value any of us customers that pre-ordered the game and subscribed for a while and now can't even post on the forums or submit CS tickets as F2P customers. Sorry, but it's hard to see EA/Bioware changing.
  • AeonbladesAeonblades Member Posts: 2,083
    Don't really agree with the "wanted it to be swg2" Never played SWG, but I will say I expected to get an MMO when I paid for it. How can TOR own 2013? Shut down and have a major do over/rerelease with a new graphics engine and actual MMO game mechanics/ content. This is coming from someone currently playing the game as well.

    Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
    Have played: You name it
    If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.

  • darkblightdarkblight Member UncommonPosts: 55
    mrshann enjoy your dead game.
  • daltaniousdaltanious Member UncommonPosts: 2,381
    Originally posted by ignore_me

    They might want to address the horrible frame-rates many users get even on high end systems. I would have given free to play more of a chance if the game could get above 20-25 fps on my rig.  

     

    My computer is old aprox 3 years, is good but not top, ... all maxed out ... enver had any lag. Alwas (ok, from time to time, line problemsr server) have been playing it for months and months completely fluid. Could be however some have client problems because i.e. some conflict with certain graphics cards. I had terrible experience with TSW on my W7 32bit computer, when installed 64bit (as they insisted is only possible solution) on SAME computer and on SAME configuration everything changed like day and night to better.

    Games I never ever had problems (on same computer) with running all maxed out: wow, swtor, gw2, rift, ... close to disaster however war, some time also aoc, ....

  • daltaniousdaltanious Member UncommonPosts: 2,381
    Originally posted by Dihoru
    Guess Bioware/EAturd paid you guys off for some more positive publicity.
     

    Actually I have impression you and some others are paid for flaming. Or just find some twisted pleasure in this.

  • Azaron_NightbladeAzaron_Nightblade Member EpicPosts: 4,829
    Originally posted by Sevenstar61

    Makeb looks really promissing and population is very healthy... will it own 2013? We will see. it all depends how Makeb will do and how many content updates we will get.

    This post brought haters back strong I see... some of you I even did not recognize LOL

    From what I see from list of game to be released in 2013 the only rival is TESO... we shall see

    You forget Defiance is only a few months away from release as well (with its accompanying TV series). Unless you dismissed it and only counted games of a similar genre, since Defiance is more of an MMOFPS.

    That being said, I do love SWTOR as well, and I very much wish them a good 2013 - I'm still subscribed to it, although I'm mostly playing TSW these days - with occasional ventures into SWTOR.

     

    My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)

    https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/

  • Azaron_NightbladeAzaron_Nightblade Member EpicPosts: 4,829
    Originally posted by daltanious
    Originally posted by Dihoru
    Guess Bioware/EAturd paid you guys off for some more positive publicity.
     

    Actually I have impression you and some others are paid for flaming. Or just find some twisted pleasure in this.

     

    Nah, that's just pettiness I'm sure - plenty of that on the internet.

    My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)

    https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/

  • Marcus-Marcus- Member UncommonPosts: 1,010
    Originally posted by mrrshann618

    -snip-

     

    Lastly the reason why SWTOR failed is because FAR to many people wanted it to be SWG 2. There were bugs and issues, EVERY game has bugs and issues. WOW had bugs and issues for a VERY long time at the launch, yet no-one seems to remember this "golden saviour" of MMOness to have ever had problems.

    You're saying this game "failed" because of a game that had a total re-working of its game-play (NGE) as it was just hemorraging subs? Add to that, after the event, it was basically the poster child of what not to do with your game and customers?

     

    I find that very hard to believe.

     

    Were there folks who wanted SWG2?  Of course.

     

    But if ToR was good, it would have floated on its own merit, and not some 10 year old MMO that had subscription woes from the very beggining.

     

  • DaedalEVEDaedalEVE Member Posts: 39
    Originally posted by ignore_me

    They might want to address the horrible frame-rates many users get even on high end systems. I would have given free to play more of a chance if the game could get above 20-25 fps on my rig.  

    [post launch I never had frame-rate issues with this game save on Ilum. They have done something that messed up the performance. I turned off advanced shadows etc., no effect.]

    What are you talking about? I normally run an i7 920 @4Ghz with 12GB of DDR3 @ 1600Mhz, but I've been running underclocked (due to issues with Planetside 2) @ my defaults of 2.67Ghz and 1066Mhz (mind you I use a n HD6990). Point is I still get 60fps (I have Vsync enabled). Oh, I also run my OS from a velociraptor raid-0 array, and the game itself from an SSD. 

    Oh and I run everything maxed (except tree quality I have set at 50%), @1920x1200

    My computer is nearly 4 years old, and aside from the GPU and SSD there have been no upgrades to it since 2009, and yet I can still run just about anything out there at max settings.

    Clearly you have some sort of bottleneck in your system that's preventing it from doing what my ancient, yet decidedly more than adequate system, is more than capable of handling. I'd start looking at that before blaming a game that has been out (and optimized) for well over a year now.

  • superniceguysuperniceguy Member UncommonPosts: 2,278
    Originally posted by BillMurphy
    Originally posted by Revy106
    Why on earth does MMORPG keep trying to put SWKOTOR in a good light all the time?? its a failed mmo that we should just leave and let it die

    I'm not saying it's the greatest thing ever, and Mike clearly likes it more than you do, but there are definitely still fans of the game and BioWare.  They're just probably not on these forums.  ;)  

    Take a minute, think, and realize that no one speaks for everyone.

    It has a niche following, but to say it will own 2013,as in be more popular than TESO and everything else, is completely way off.

    There is no new content even announced since June 2012, and is still putting in content that was scheduled for 2012.

    Sibnce June 2012, STO has had Season 6 and Season 7 put in, adding a new planet New Romulus with content, just like Makeb, Season 8 and Season 9 also slated for 2013.

    For SWTOR to have some kind of chance of owning 2013, they needed to have Makeb in already with X and Y scheduled for the rest of the year. X and Y is currently NOTHING.

    SWG owned 2011 more than SWTOR will own 2013 at this rate. It had GCW 2 space added, populations quadrupled, TCG expansion, Bounty Hunting in space added, Atmospheric space flight added, constant free transfers, Chronicles 2 scheduled but cancelled due to game shutting down. These things if added to SWTOR would make it awesome, but instead just get more content of what is already in game = boring.

    The stuff added to SWTOR and what is being added has never gotten me drooling. Even EQ2 m anaged that last year with Beast Master and Dungeon Maker. Even STOs updates get me excited, and I even bought Rifts expnasion because even that got me drooling, but for a Star Wars MMO to leave me "meh" is not good at all.

  • DaedalEVEDaedalEVE Member Posts: 39

    I still play SWTOR, I still sub. I may not play that often between working 48 hours a week, relationships, family, etc... but it's one of my casual interests. 

     

    Honestly I think one of the worst things to happen to the game was all of the whiny children getting their damn F2P crap that ruined it. 

    It's all you cheap little kids that have destroyed the gaming industry. You all expect everything for free, and complain about anything that cost more than nothing. 

     
     
    OH, and are any of you familiar with the term "self fulfilling prophecy"?

    People who didn't like the game, or didn't even play the game talked crap about it, that influenced others (sheeple who can't think for themselves... which is most people IMO), and then they founf themselves not liking it, and it snowballed from there. That's how stockmarkets collapse, it's how people end up freaking out about "assault weapons" (when they shouldn't). It's pretty much the cause of all unnecessary mass hysteria. 

    That's what caused the negetive press with SWTOR... people talking crap about SWTOR. 

  • AeonbladesAeonblades Member Posts: 2,083
    Originally posted by DaedalEVE

    I still play SWTOR, I still sub. I may not play that often between working 48 hours a week, relationships, family, etc... but it's one of my casual interests. 

     

    Honestly I think one of the worst things to happen to the game was all of the whiny children getting their damn F2P crap that ruined it. 

    It's all you cheap little kids that have destroyed the gaming industry. You all expect everything for free, and complain about anything that cost more than nothing. 

     

    I could not agree more. F2P games have destroyed the already fragile community of most MMO's. It's really disgraceful to think F2P players have a say in development of features in a lot of games. I will say the only MMO I have really seen handle the F2P transition and maintain a decent community is EQ1, but that game has such a core fan base I'm pretty sure most people know everyone on their server by now.

    Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
    Have played: You name it
    If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.

  • KrayusKrayus Member UncommonPosts: 9
    Originally posted by Dihoru
    Guess Bioware/EAturd paid you guys off for some more positive publicity.

    I wholeheartedly concur on this. Game isn't that great, it isn't going to own anything, only own it's massive debt.

  • DaedalEVEDaedalEVE Member Posts: 39
    Originally posted by Aeonblades
    Originally posted by DaedalEVE

    I still play SWTOR, I still sub. I may not play that often between working 48 hours a week, relationships, family, etc... but it's one of my casual interests. 

     

    Honestly I think one of the worst things to happen to the game was all of the whiny children getting their damn F2P crap that ruined it. 

    It's all you cheap little kids that have destroyed the gaming industry. You all expect everything for free, and complain about anything that cost more than nothing. 

     

    I could not agree more. F2P games have destroyed the already fragile community of most MMO's. It's really disgraceful to think F2P players have a say in development of features in a lot of games. I will say the only MMO I have really seen handle the F2P transition and maintain a decent community is EQ1, but that game has such a core fan base I'm pretty sure most people know everyone on their server by now.

     

    I honestly believe if WoW was to launch today, with a subscription model, it would fail. Simply because so many people would complain that it wasn't free. I really do!

  • Joseph_KerrJoseph_Kerr Member RarePosts: 1,113
    Originally posted by Aeonblades
    Originally posted by DaedalEVE

    I still play SWTOR, I still sub. I may not play that often between working 48 hours a week, relationships, family, etc... but it's one of my casual interests. 

     

    Honestly I think one of the worst things to happen to the game was all of the whiny children getting their damn F2P crap that ruined it. 

    It's all you cheap little kids that have destroyed the gaming industry. You all expect everything for free, and complain about anything that cost more than nothing. 

     

    I could not agree more. F2P games have destroyed the already fragile community of most MMO's. It's really disgraceful to think F2P players have a say in development of features in a lot of games. I will say the only MMO I have really seen handle the F2P transition and maintain a decent community is EQ1, but that game has such a core fan base I'm pretty sure most people know everyone on their server by now.

    F2Pers arent a bunch of little kids, like the rest of us in the mmo genre-they are grown men and women with children, bills, and mortgages. Do you think F2P would even be an issue if these companies were putting out quality games? They go F2P because they arent good enough for most people to pay a sub for not to mention the genre is oversaturated and thats the developers faults, not the players.

  • AeonbladesAeonblades Member Posts: 2,083
    Originally posted by Darth-Batman
    Originally posted by Aeonblades
    Originally posted by DaedalEVE

    I still play SWTOR, I still sub. I may not play that often between working 48 hours a week, relationships, family, etc... but it's one of my casual interests. 

     

    Honestly I think one of the worst things to happen to the game was all of the whiny children getting their damn F2P crap that ruined it. 

    It's all you cheap little kids that have destroyed the gaming industry. You all expect everything for free, and complain about anything that cost more than nothing. 

     

    I could not agree more. F2P games have destroyed the already fragile community of most MMO's. It's really disgraceful to think F2P players have a say in development of features in a lot of games. I will say the only MMO I have really seen handle the F2P transition and maintain a decent community is EQ1, but that game has such a core fan base I'm pretty sure most people know everyone on their server by now.

    F2Pers arent a bunch of little kids, like the rest of us in the mmo genre-they are grown men and women with children, bills, and mortgages. Do you think F2P would even be an issue if these companies were putting out quality games? They go F2P because they arent good enough for most people to pay a sub for not to mention the genre is oversaturated and thats the developers faults, not the players.

    I think the only reason F2P is an issue is because they trick the kids into spending 30 dollars a month in their cash shop instead of 14.99. If people weren't dumb enough to over pay for content, F2P wouldn't even exist.

    Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
    Have played: You name it
    If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.

  • Joseph_KerrJoseph_Kerr Member RarePosts: 1,113
    Originally posted by Aeonblades
    Originally posted by Darth-Batman
    Originally posted by Aeonblades
    Originally posted by DaedalEVE

    I still play SWTOR, I still sub. I may not play that often between working 48 hours a week, relationships, family, etc... but it's one of my casual interests. 

     

    Honestly I think one of the worst things to happen to the game was all of the whiny children getting their damn F2P crap that ruined it. 

    It's all you cheap little kids that have destroyed the gaming industry. You all expect everything for free, and complain about anything that cost more than nothing. 

     

    I could not agree more. F2P games have destroyed the already fragile community of most MMO's. It's really disgraceful to think F2P players have a say in development of features in a lot of games. I will say the only MMO I have really seen handle the F2P transition and maintain a decent community is EQ1, but that game has such a core fan base I'm pretty sure most people know everyone on their server by now.

    F2Pers arent a bunch of little kids, like the rest of us in the mmo genre-they are grown men and women with children, bills, and mortgages. Do you think F2P would even be an issue if these companies were putting out quality games? They go F2P because they arent good enough for most people to pay a sub for not to mention the genre is oversaturated and thats the developers faults, not the players.

    I think the only reason F2P is an issue is because they trick the kids into spending 30 dollars a month in their cash shop instead of 14.99. If people weren't dumb enough to over pay for content, F2P wouldn't even exist.

    Well then by that logic F2Pers should have more of a say because they pay twice as much for the game as you do on a regular basis...but once again I dont blame the players, we work with what we get. Its the mmo makers that have saturated the market with junk and when that product fails they go to F2P when they just could have released a quality productto start with. Its not like they dont know what they are releasing is bad, right?

  • AlalalaAlalala Member UncommonPosts: 314
    * speechless *
  • NanfoodleNanfoodle Member LegendaryPosts: 10,606
    Originally posted by BillMurphy
    Originally posted by Revy106
    Why on earth does MMORPG keep trying to put SWKOTOR in a good light all the time?? its a failed mmo that we should just leave and let it die

    I'm not saying it's the greatest thing ever, and Mike clearly likes it more than you do, but there are definitely still fans of the game and BioWare.  They're just probably not on these forums.  ;)  

    Take a minute, think, and realize that no one speaks for everyone.

    Im glad Mike likes the game. But only thing that keeps the game floating is the IP. My hope for SWToR is one thing only. It teaches developers a few things. That we gamers are sick of gear treadmills that recycle every 6-12 months. A great MMO takes more then a great IP. That bloated monthly fees are not needed to make money. That MMOs need to return to their roots, playing for fun. That crafting fans need crafting to matter in the game to every player.

     
  • Joseph_KerrJoseph_Kerr Member RarePosts: 1,113
    Originally posted by Nanfoodle
    Originally posted by BillMurphy
    Originally posted by Revy106
    Why on earth does MMORPG keep trying to put SWKOTOR in a good light all the time?? its a failed mmo that we should just leave and let it die

    I'm not saying it's the greatest thing ever, and Mike clearly likes it more than you do, but there are definitely still fans of the game and BioWare.  They're just probably not on these forums.  ;)  

    Take a minute, think, and realize that no one speaks for everyone.

    Im glad Mike likes the game. But only thing that keeps the game floating is the IP. My hope for SWToR is one thing only. It teaches developers a few things. That we gamers are sick of gear treadmills that recycle every 6-12 months. A great MMO takes more then a great IP. That monthly fee are not needed to make money. That MMOs need to return to their roots, playing for fun. That crafting fans need crafting to matter in the game to every player.

    I agree.

  • emotaemota Member UncommonPosts: 413
    OWN? lol SWTOR
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