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EA-Bioware's epic failure may have damaged the MMORPG market, but is it for the good?
Fadedbomb
Member Posts: 2,081
I ask this because recently EA essentially side-stepped any blame for SWTOR by saying that the subscription model is the reason SWTOR flopped so hard. Obviously this is nothing but media spin, but idiotic ignorant analysts that shouldn't have their jobs to begin with will eat this up like butter on brown sugar covered donuts.
My concern is that other larger, and small, companies are looking towards EA's failure with SWTOR in the wrong light. They aren't seeing what the rest of us saw. The industry is only seeing "Wow, a SECOND StarWars IP with hundreds of millions invested flopped so hard they're going F2P in under a year. It must be that the P2P model is dead!" instead what everyone else is seeing which is "Wow, SWTOR was a pile of themepark garbage that we've all played over and over and over with no plans for end-game or replayability. SWTOR just wasn't WORTH a P2P fee + Box price!".
However, my rejoice is that I believed the MMORPG market had been inflated anyways beyond the point of retention ever since WoW boomed past 5million customers. All of these money grubbers came out of the woodworks trying to copy WoW's formula without realizing that WoW customers are a specific PIECE of the MMO market as a whole. Meaning, there are still millions more that don't play WoW but are spread amongst literally almost a hundred other MMOs or stopped entirely (like myself) until a quality MMO of their liking came out.
This means that with SWTOR bursting the proverbial "MMO Bubble" we might actually start seeing quality MMOs again after the horrible themepark clones that are in development currently come out and flop even harder (TESO, NeverWinter Online by CRYPTIC [StarTrek Online anyone?], etc etc).
I'm thinking 2015 will be an awesome year for MMOs if we live past 2012 (lol) 
!
This is probably the only time in my life, save for TESO's almost ordained coming failure, that I'm happy a company failed as hard as they did. Sad that the underlings are getting the boot because of ignorant CEO's, but happy that said CEO's now have red paint on their professional records.
ps: I forgot to mention how horrible Warhammer 40k: Online looked a year ago. I'm hoping they cancelled it or decided to go in a 180degree direction. Otherwise their WoW-clone (self-proclaimed by the Lead Dev, btw) will flop so hard it literally won't be funny. 
Anyone else wish EA would get more heat for SWTOR, and the "Oh it isn't our fault, it was the failure of P2P!" excuse they're using?
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
Comments
I wouldn't call SWTOR a full failure, and I wouldn't blame the failure on the model per se (the economy in general has hurt it thought). Take eve, it's getting more players and it has a monthly sub. There are still 5+million people in WoW.
Why SWTOR failed:
1. Some people like me just don't want to buy anything EA or have origin loaded onto their systems.
2. The gameplay itself is nothing new. Not a bad thing, but with games like TERA, GW2, etc. 7 year old gameplay design just doesn't cut it so much in an MMO anymore.
3. People wanted a proper KOTOR 3 and not an online game.
4. Once you get through the story, there's not much to do unless you want to roll another char. That plays the same. The only difference is he's on the other side.
5. It's a themepark but since its new, there isn't enough content or things to do at end game. I think this is the real deal breaker for most. You max out, get bored, move on.
Also, the good guys don't get a female twiliek side kick. Who wants to play if you can't have a sexy twiliek following you around.
Thus I Spoke
Oh it's definitely their fault. However, it's two things and one of them IS the sub only model unfortunately. And they would have known this had they ACTUALLY done research. We've spoken about their lack of research on this project before on other topics and it's rearing it's ugly head again in the economics department.
You see, as many of us mentioned before had they done a single tiny bit of research on this project it wouldn't have been such a combination of all the fail 2004 game designs they used after making this thing for so many years. They would have known people were tired of quest hubs and gear treadmills and they would have changed their direction.
The same i suspect goes for their economic research department. They didn't do a single shred of research concerning how well ANY of the other games were doing obviously in this same model using the same style gaming and only focused on WoW. They didn't even do one based on Rift post launch because even THAT would have told them to be more cautious in how they handled their game.
They are portraying this as an excuse (no doubt from the same spinsters of the famous 1.7 figure) but it is essentially true but it's only half the truth.
Nope..
Publish a quality product and people will pay.
What's EA going to say when no one plays SWTOR for free either?
I believe that the hardest part for any developer these days is to release a game that will have enough content to satisfy the masses. The established games have released plenty of new content and expansions and are generally working on future projects. Any new sub based game falls under major scrutiny for lack of content.
SWTOR was certainly a game worthy of such scrutiny especially when one considers how much money was invested in it. A B2P game is open to future content buy we are not compelled to keep playing or keep paying while waiting for the next expansion. This frees up our money and time for other things but often keeps us loyal to the brand. We don't feel ripped off or resentment towards the developer when the fun starts to diminish and moreover when new content is announced we are much less jaded upon return to the game.
I think SWTOR is going to be a hot topic for developers for a really long time. Every decision they make is going to be put to the SWTOR litmus test. It should have a positive influence on the industry standard from a consumer point of view but that is going to be something we will see more clearly only a year or two down the road. Nothing released this year is going to be heavily influenced by SWTOR, they were too far into development to make any drastic changes.
TSW and GW2 were on very different development paths already and I would say that SWTOR had very little to do with either project in terms of design choices.
For the sake of the discussion, the founders of bioware (at least one of them anyways) are stepping down from their position. If EA has caused them to leave, perhaps because they felt they were getting too far away from their roots, that could be the biggest failure of all. Relatively speaking. I mean when Will Wright decided to jump ship from maxis, you know nothing good could come from that company. Sometimes failure is more than just money. Driving key talent from your studio is a form of failure.
Of course the ME3 ending fallout might have something to do with the guy's leaving too, but the point is the numbers aren't as great as they should be or could be, the game isn't that great, and you've just had two games that failed to meet expectations and EA's business decisions are probalby behind it.
I don't see any good in that.
Thus I Spoke
SWTOR is still a good game if you stick with it. It has just as much to do at end game as wow ever did (but not really any thing more, crafting is certainly a lot better though), except without being overly-easy or dumbed down. But EA has already decided to sack most of Bioware's staff even before seeing how up and coming MMOs performed.
TSW seems to be fading in to obscurity already, people don't even talk about it any more. GW2's launch has been quite a disaster with server stability, so not exactly a great start. Also GW2 isn't really bringing anyting new to the table either.
Really, the only MMO (well, MMOFPS) to watch at the moment is Planetside 2. SOE has really turned things around since the failures that were SWG and the original planetside. Even the head of the company is getting involved with the community and if you have played the beta you will know how amazing the game is.