Agree they should be worried. But it's not players fault, it's EA's for not adding substantially new content or breaking the mold (or even listening to SW fans). They can't fix the engine becuase they already fubared it and are no longer supported by Hero. Graphics/Game engine = foundation for a game, IMO.
I didnt count the continues bleeding that have been going on since a week after launch since you cant blame GW2 on that. But OK, I have to admit that I thought that ended a month ago or so (my still TOR playing friend are insisting so).
But if anything is dropping TOR subs right now it is EAs F2P announcement a little while back.
No. People on swtor.com forums is talking about ¨the fail of GW2 launch¨, the population drop on the servers, is not really there. Most of the people playing GW2 atm, talking about the swtor.com playerbase, still have their swtor subs. In the long term, and in the case of GW2 is 1 month or less, people will get bored and come back to their old MMOs.
Of course TORs servers didnt dropped, that happened already months ago and only the real fans are left.
As for GW2 players returning to TOR that sounds like wishful thinking. I know plenty of ex TOR players that play GW2 but they were already done with the game long before GW2s launch.
I do think that half of the GW2 players will move back to their old games after a while because the hype did pull in plenty of people who raid but I also think it will pull in that many players from other games.
If TOR want to survive they need to add more social content and generally make the game more MMOish. TOR fans shouldnt be worried about GW2, they should be worried that EA might close down the game instead of fixing it up just like they did to Sims online.
To be truthful, Tor's servers are being hit by GW2 pretty hard. All the usual places support this. (xfire, tor-staus).
As for the forums. They are close to dead, very, very slow. Of those who post there, the die-hard fans are in the majority seemingly.
There are more threads and posts bemoanng haters and complainers then there are complainers by a wide margin.
As for any counter moves by Bioware in regard to GW2, their strategy seems to remain silent, weather the storm, and hope for the best.
In retrospect, that was their plan all along .. just ride the waves and try to keep everyone happy with what they were given..
It's kind of funny actually, because when they don't talk, fans go nuts and start chattering away .. then when EA Bioware does say something vague, fans ponder then go back to chattering with grand speculations. Delivered material is critized, then tucked under the rug for a new round of astroturfers to talk about the "next" thing. Geez if you take a step back, this game offered very little in the past 8 months - but the hype amongst fans is over 9000 ... unless you consider that that people promoting the game are shills. It's not just some rumor:
EA Viral Marketing Exposed, Big Buyout On The Horizon?
Anyway, BW has said something about new content. I guess that could be viewed as a response to GW2.
They will have a new tier gear operation called Terror from Beyond in Patch realese 1.4.
They don't specify when Patch 1.4 will be coming out though.
I guess when if it hits the PTS it would be a week or two after that.
It would be a nice gesture to their subscribers to release something before FTP.
One would think a 1.4 Patch wouldn't be monetized for subscribers and since FTP players can't do operations, it wouldn't be removing potential revenue streams from their soon to be cash shop.
We shall see.
Seeing how they've been teasing this new Operation since June 4th, release it already while you still have some subscribers.
I should point out that Makeb was teased at the same time in June, but I suspect that will be released after FTP, and will be sold as a mini-expansion to both FTP players and subscribers.
Remember all you SWTOR fans who have been saying that FTP is good for the game. This content dribbiling out (and some being repackaged and sold to you) has been in the works for a long time and has been intentionally withheld from the game after EA decided to turn the game FTP in April.
Ask yourself if you think things would be better with a larger staff putting out content in regular intervals, or laying off staff, meting out niblet sized content every 5 months is better for the game?
Of course you could take a view that the question is moot if you believe that Tor's fiscal underperformance necessitated the conversion to FTP.
It's probably moot. SWTOR's big chance to thrive was when the game launched, and it suffered multiple months of bug fixes to get the game working for players, but by then the players were gone.
Stuff kept breaking as they went along .. for instance I had the CE and after a few weeks, the music droid broke and wouldn't play music anymore .. then weeks later the holodancer broke and wouldn't dance (she just followed you around instead). Of course these were minor things compared to the raid bugs and other disconnects / crashes people experienced , all thanks to bug fixes.
I'll continue my interest to see how this game goes, but I'm kind of believing the rumors that the people that knew all about the modified Hero engine and SWTOR gameplay code either quit long ago (to save their careers) or were fired, as a result of an underwhelming game (which wasn't a good idea either if they were the go-to people).
They're not concerned. They've written it off already. They're not trying to get old players back. They're trying to get new players in and get what they can from them. They're just taking their time for a F2P launch. Better to do this right than to fail at that too.
The players they have left are SW fans, not gaming or MMO fans.
SW fans don't see the world like rest of us do, they just want the SW theme no matter how bad it's made. I base this on a phrase some random guy said me ingame: " It has it's flaws but it's the best there is".
And they don't care if the playerbase is 20k or 200k as long as they have the game to support their imagination of SW-world.
GW2 on the other hand is by quick estimation (bought it yesterday) the best PvP MMO there is atm. And this is from a former WAR fan (me).
EA on the other hand knows quite well what's up, at lasts now, after it tanked.
that's why there were 2 waves of firings.
f2p is a last desperate attempt. once it fails, and it will, they'll do a CoX and shut the money sink down.
or they avoid the PR desaster and just stop any funding, support and fire the rest of the staff, with the game quasi shut down, but just drawing power from the plug on the wall, nothing more
But God help me I like the setting. I've played several Star Wars games, read numerous Star Wars books, and have a small action figure collection.
Since TOR, I have lost interest. These last six months are the longest I've gone in probably my entire life not immersing myself in anything Star Wars (except for this forum), and I don't feel any great urge to change that.
There might not be many like me, but I'm guessing I'm not alone.
With respect to the OP's point, despite all the spin being put on what's happened, I don't think Bioware had any detailed plans in place for this particular scenario. Eight months in they should have been rolling out new content, but between the sharp drop in subs and activity through the srping, their difficulty in addressing essential gameplay issues in a timely manner (admitted by the guy now running the show), and EA's shreadding of the development team, I think they've been winging it for the last several months, which is not conducive to coming up with answers for major "shocks" to the market like GW2 or MoP.
I rarely agree totally on the poster here, but you summoned up mine and probably others peoples feelings very well.
After TOR, i just feel...done with Star Wars...and its downright sad.
Feel the same way here. You can only abuse a franchise so much before the fans turn away in disgust. Although I haven't completely written it off (unlike Mass Effect, which is DEAD to me) SW no longer excites me as it once did.
The most damnable misery of the whole thing is if Bioware had developed the game as a KOTOR sequel with online co-op as opposed to an MMO, it would've been fantastic.
Well, as pointed out before, the only real response SWTOR side were some GW2 bashing threads on their forums. (They basically were calling the pre-launch a failure because the log-in servers were overwhelmed for a few hours Satursay morning.)
Oh behave...and wipe the rabid fanboy froth from your chin long enough to at lesst tell the truth. The reason people were calling the GW2 launch a failure on the SWTOR boards were as follows:
Security breaches almost immediately once the service went live
Lack of server capacity causing huges queues
Grouping broken so nobody could actually play with their friends
Overflow servers not allowing players to group at all
Trade post forcibly taken down for days due to game breaking bugs
Email down for days meaning nobody can trade properly
3,000 perma bans in the first week due to game breaking exploits
Lack of overall content with players hittig cap after 2 days
Broken species design with thousands of players choosing certain species as its size made it almost impossible to hit in PvP.
Guild functionality completely broken with players reports as offline when they are online, guild leaders unable to even see their roster or even use basic functions like invite or kick
As above, several of the most core and basic features completely broken...it was not a good launch
Add to that within days thread are springing up on the GW2 board like "Is this launch turning in to a disaster?" "Would you actually pay money for this game if it was a sub?" "Worst PvP ever" "I'm done already" "Anyone else bored" "Criminal to release in this state with such a lack of content" etc etc
One thread I personally read stated if you take Warhammer Online and imagine the ONLY way to level your character is PvP or Public Quests.....thats GW2??? Face it, GW2 is a good game...thats it. It will remain niche just like GW, it had a mediocre launch and people are getting bored with it already. It is not the game the fanboys or Anet hyped it as
Well, as pointed out before, the only real response SWTOR side were some GW2 bashing threads on their forums. (They basically were calling the pre-launch a failure because the log-in servers were overwhelmed for a few hours Satursay morning.)
Oh behave...and wipe the rabid fanboy froth from your chin long enough to at lesst tell the truth. The reason people were calling the GW2 launch a failure on the SWTOR boards were as follows:
Security breaches almost immediately once the service went live
Lack of server capacity causing huges queues
Grouping broken so nobody could actually play with their friends
Overflow servers not allowing players to group at all
Trade post focibly taken down for days due to game breaking bugs
Email down for days meaning nobody can trade properly
3,000 perma bans in the first week due to game breaking exploits
Lack of overall content with players hittig cap after 2 days
Broken species design with thousands of players choosing certain species as its size made it almost impossible to hit in PvP.
Guild functionality completely broken with players reports as offline when they are online, guild leaders unable to even see their roster or even use basic functions like invite or kick
As above, several of the most core and basic features completely broken...it was not a good launch
Add to that within days thread are springing up on the GW2 board like "Is this launch turning in to a disaster?" "Would you actually pay money for this game if it was a sub?" "Worst PvP ever" "I'm done already" "Anyone else bored" "Criminal to release in this state with such a lack of content" etc etc
One thread I personally read stated if you take Warhammer Online and imagine the ONLY way to level your character is PvP or Public Quests.....thats GW2??? Face it, GW2 is a good game...thats it. It will remain niche just like GW, it had a mediocre launch and people are getting bored with it already. It is not the game the fanboys or Anet hyped it as
Driz
Good luck finding me fanboying for GW2.
But thanks for your timely unbiased recap of the GW2 launch from 12 days ago.
Well, as pointed out before, the only real response SWTOR side were some GW2 bashing threads on their forums. (They basically were calling the pre-launch a failure because the log-in servers were overwhelmed for a few hours Satursay morning.)
Oh behave...and wipe the rabid fanboy froth from your chin long enough to at lesst tell the truth. The reason people were calling the GW2 launch a failure on the SWTOR boards were as follows:
Security breaches almost immediately once the service went live
Lack of server capacity causing huges queues
Grouping broken so nobody could actually play with their friends
Overflow servers not allowing players to group at all
Trade post focibly taken down for days due to game breaking bugs
Email down for days meaning nobody can trade properly
3,000 perma bans in the first week due to game breaking exploits
Lack of overall content with players hittig cap after 2 days
Broken species design with thousands of players choosing certain species as its size made it almost impossible to hit in PvP.
Guild functionality completely broken with players reports as offline when they are online, guild leaders unable to even see their roster or even use basic functions like invite or kick
As above, several of the most core and basic features completely broken...it was not a good launch
Add to that within days thread are springing up on the GW2 board like "Is this launch turning in to a disaster?" "Would you actually pay money for this game if it was a sub?" "Worst PvP ever" "I'm done already" "Anyone else bored" "Criminal to release in this state with such a lack of content" etc etc
One thread I personally read stated if you take Warhammer Online and imagine the ONLY way to level your character is PvP or Public Quests.....thats GW2??? Face it, GW2 is a good game...thats it. It will remain niche just like GW, it had a mediocre launch and people are getting bored with it already. It is not the game the fanboys or Anet hyped it as
Driz
Good luck finding me fanboying for GW2.
But thanks for your timely unbiased recap of the GW2 launch from 12 days ago.
Sometimes a pot shouldn't call a kettle black.
Not even sure what you mean...SWTOR had a superlative launch by comparison with the only issue I am aware of being some server queues caused by a knee jer reaction from BW when they pandered to the whine fest and opened up far too many servers.
Even with the problems it currently has, the LAUNCH of SWTOR made GW2's look decidedly amateurish imo.
Oh and I am not biased, I am on the verge of cancelling my SWTOR sub...but I am objective and I am at least honest about the problems in BOTH games...whereas you tried to bash posters on the SWTOR boards for claiming a "fail launch" due to one issue that everyone expects on launch week. Nice try.
Your own bias compelled you to "forget" all of the issues I listed in order to try and paint SWTOR posters as bitter haters when in reality the poor launch of GW2 gave them all the ammunition they needed if they wanted to bash the game.
Well, as pointed out before, the only real response SWTOR side were some GW2 bashing threads on their forums. (They basically were calling the pre-launch a failure because the log-in servers were overwhelmed for a few hours Satursay morning.)
Oh behave...and wipe the rabid fanboy froth from your chin long enough to at lesst tell the truth. The reason people were calling the GW2 launch a failure on the SWTOR boards were as follows:
Security breaches almost immediately once the service went live
Lack of server capacity causing huges queues
Grouping broken so nobody could actually play with their friends
Overflow servers not allowing players to group at all
Trade post focibly taken down for days due to game breaking bugs
Email down for days meaning nobody can trade properly
3,000 perma bans in the first week due to game breaking exploits
Lack of overall content with players hittig cap after 2 days
Broken species design with thousands of players choosing certain species as its size made it almost impossible to hit in PvP.
Guild functionality completely broken with players reports as offline when they are online, guild leaders unable to even see their roster or even use basic functions like invite or kick
As above, several of the most core and basic features completely broken...it was not a good launch
Add to that within days thread are springing up on the GW2 board like "Is this launch turning in to a disaster?" "Would you actually pay money for this game if it was a sub?" "Worst PvP ever" "I'm done already" "Anyone else bored" "Criminal to release in this state with such a lack of content" etc etc
One thread I personally read stated if you take Warhammer Online and imagine the ONLY way to level your character is PvP or Public Quests.....thats GW2??? Face it, GW2 is a good game...thats it. It will remain niche just like GW, it had a mediocre launch and people are getting bored with it already. It is not the game the fanboys or Anet hyped it as
Driz
Good luck finding me fanboying for GW2.
But thanks for your timely unbiased recap of the GW2 launch from 12 days ago.
Sometimes a pot shouldn't call a kettle black.
Not even sure what you mean...SWTOR had a superlative launch by comparison with the only issue I am aware of being some server queues caused by a knee jer reaction from BW when they pandered to the whine fest and opened up far too many servers.
Even with the problems it currently has, the LAUNCH of SWTOR made GW2's look decidedly amateurish imo.
Oh and I am not biased, I am on the verge of cancelling my SWTOR sub...but I am objective and I am at least honest about the problems in BOTH games...whereas you tried to bash posters on the SWTOR boards for claiming a "fail launch" due to one issue that everyone expects on launch week. Nice try.
Your own bias compelled you to "forget" all of the issues I listed in order to try and paint SWTOR posters as bitter haters when in reality the poor launch of GW2 gave them all the ammunition they needed if they wanted to bash the game.
Driz
I really have no idea what you are talking about. I never compared the SWTOR launch with the GW2 launch. Furthermore I never said the SWTOR launch was a failure.
I merely responded to the question posed in the thread, "IS BW/EA worried about GW2 at all?" and said there wasn't much of a response other then some bashing of GW2's launch on the SWTOR forums.
You have now come in defending the SWTOR launch, derididing the GW@ launch and called me a GW2 fanboy to boot.
Well, as pointed out before, the only real response SWTOR side were some GW2 bashing threads on their forums. (They basically were calling the pre-launch a failure because the log-in servers were overwhelmed for a few hours Satursay morning.)
Oh behave...and wipe the rabid fanboy froth from your chin long enough to at lesst tell the truth. The reason people were calling the GW2 launch a failure on the SWTOR boards were as follows:
Security breaches almost immediately once the service went live
Lack of server capacity causing huges queues
Grouping broken so nobody could actually play with their friends
Overflow servers not allowing players to group at all
Trade post focibly taken down for days due to game breaking bugs
Email down for days meaning nobody can trade properly
3,000 perma bans in the first week due to game breaking exploits
Lack of overall content with players hittig cap after 2 days
Broken species design with thousands of players choosing certain species as its size made it almost impossible to hit in PvP.
Guild functionality completely broken with players reports as offline when they are online, guild leaders unable to even see their roster or even use basic functions like invite or kick
As above, several of the most core and basic features completely broken...it was not a good launch
Add to that within days thread are springing up on the GW2 board like "Is this launch turning in to a disaster?" "Would you actually pay money for this game if it was a sub?" "Worst PvP ever" "I'm done already" "Anyone else bored" "Criminal to release in this state with such a lack of content" etc etc
One thread I personally read stated if you take Warhammer Online and imagine the ONLY way to level your character is PvP or Public Quests.....thats GW2??? Face it, GW2 is a good game...thats it. It will remain niche just like GW, it had a mediocre launch and people are getting bored with it already. It is not the game the fanboys or Anet hyped it as
Driz
Good luck finding me fanboying for GW2.
But thanks for your timely unbiased recap of the GW2 launch from 12 days ago.
Sometimes a pot shouldn't call a kettle black.
Not even sure what you mean...SWTOR had a superlative launch by comparison with the only issue I am aware of being some server queues caused by a knee jer reaction from BW when they pandered to the whine fest and opened up far too many servers.
Even with the problems it currently has, the LAUNCH of SWTOR made GW2's look decidedly amateurish imo.
Oh and I am not biased, I am on the verge of cancelling my SWTOR sub...but I am objective and I am at least honest about the problems in BOTH games...whereas you tried to bash posters on the SWTOR boards for claiming a "fail launch" due to one issue that everyone expects on launch week. Nice try.
Your own bias compelled you to "forget" all of the issues I listed in order to try and paint SWTOR posters as bitter haters when in reality the poor launch of GW2 gave them all the ammunition they needed if they wanted to bash the game.
Driz
I really have no idea what you are talking about. I never compared the SWTOR launch with the GW2 launch. Furthermore I never said the SWTOR launch was a failure.
I merely responded on the question posed in the thread, "IS BW/EA worried about GW2 at all?" and said there wasn't much of a response other then some bashing of GW2's launch on the SWTOR forums.
You have now come in defending the SWTOR launch, derididing the GW@ launch and called me a GW2 fanboy to boot.
Why? I don't know.
*edited a typo*
No...what you said was
"Well, as pointed out before, the only real response SWTOR side were some GW2 bashing threads on their forums. (They basically were calling the pre-launch a failure because the log-in servers were overwhelmed for a few hours Satursay morning.)"
When in reality, they were bashing the launch for the myriad of game breaking issues and core mechanics that were broken when it went live and NOT because the server were down for a few hours. There is a huge difference between that and the what you implied and I was simply pointing out that you were spreading mis information...
"Well, as pointed out before, the only real response SWTOR side were some GW2 bashing threads on their forums. (They basically were calling the pre-launch a failure because the log-in servers were overwhelmed for a few hours Satursay morning.)"
When in reality, they were bashing the launch for the myriad of game breaking issues and core mechanics that were broken when it went live and NOT because the server were down for a few hours. There is a huge difference between that and the what you implied and I was simply pointing out that you were spreading mis information...
Driz
OK. Sorry.
The GW2 launch was a huge failure as pointed out on the SWTOR forums. That was the only direct response seen by SWTOR to the GW2 launch.
"Well, as pointed out before, the only real response SWTOR side were some GW2 bashing threads on their forums. (They basically were calling the pre-launch a failure because the log-in servers were overwhelmed for a few hours Satursay morning.)"
When in reality, they were bashing the launch for the myriad of game breaking issues and core mechanics that were broken when it went live and NOT because the server were down for a few hours. There is a huge difference between that and the what you implied and I was simply pointing out that you were spreading mis information...
Driz
OK. Sorry.
The GW2 launch was a huge failure as pointed out on the SWTOR forums. That was the only direct response seen by SWTOR to the GW2 launch.
Feel better?
Seems like massive sensationalism is teh norm on these boards....so yeah ok
Being rational and objective I would describe it as a mediocre/luke warm launch, not a "massive failure". I would reserve that sort of hyperbole for a scenario where maybe the entire platform caved in and nobody could log on at all. With GW2 (usual launch week server issues aside) most people could at least log in and play, just lots of core stuff was broken and many people were playing solo as they were unable to group with their friends.
SWTOR has many problems as have been well documented but in terms of its launch I would say it was much more robust and more professional than GW2.
SWTOR, at launch, was a subscription based game and - for better of for worse - EA Bioware adopted a phased approach at launch inviting (usually) two waves of people a day for the first week. So on average 130k a day in 65k batches. There were complaints but all things considered it worked.
GW2 is a B2P game. Once the game was open everyone was able to log in, create a character and start. Launch may not have been perfect but it wasn't at all bad.
Not even sure what you mean...SWTOR had a superlative launch by comparison with the only issue I am aware of being some server queues caused by a knee jer reaction from BW when they pandered to the whine fest and opened up far too many servers.
Even with the problems it currently has, the LAUNCH of SWTOR made GW2's look decidedly amateurish imo.
Oh and I am not biased, I am on the verge of cancelling my SWTOR sub...but I am objective and I am at least honest about the problems in BOTH games...whereas you tried to bash posters on the SWTOR boards for claiming a "fail launch" due to one issue that everyone expects on launch week. Nice try.
Your own bias compelled you to "forget" all of the issues I listed in order to try and paint SWTOR posters as bitter haters when in reality the poor launch of GW2 gave them all the ammunition they needed if they wanted to bash the game.
Driz
You don't come off as very objective as you claim, if you are going around calling the SWTOR launch "superlative". Really the only feather in SWTOR's cap is that the server's were stable. That's it. Long queues kept them stable, keeping each servers individual population low (no overflow).
Heres some crap that went down during SWTOR's launch:
-A major launcher bug between the beta and launch version caused many SWTOR players to be unable to play on the first day of SWTOR's launch, even though Bioware had stated numerous times there would be no need to redownload for those who played in the stress tests. Then on launch, after being jerked around by customer service reps in the help forum, changing and tweaking various setup and ini files, it was found out that the way to fix the problems was to redownload the complete game again. On launch day. The X-fer datarate was horrible for the download.
-Characters got stuck everywhere (actually they still do, but not quite as bad). Some /unstuck areas trapped players in normally off-limit areas, like between objects/trees/mountains, where the character could move again, but could not leave the 3 by 3 foot deadzone.
-Dying in unusual spots in newbie zones would resurrect players onto the fleet, killing their story, since they were still very low level and were not introduced to the fleet yet.
-Other untested / unfixed circumstances would cause class quests to get broken, stopping a characters progression completely, until EA Bioware would fix the issue at their leisure, some time later. They could not be reset or correctly by the player alone.
-Dying on the fleet would resurrect players out in space, not connected to any of the ships.
-Quests could not be dropped, so evertually players would have so many low quests that there wasn't enough room to pick up all the quests in a single hub.
-Cinematics were screwed up. Angles were wrong. I would often times find myself watching a scene with the camera too high, seeing just the top of peoples heads (I have no idea what they look like, but nice hair!). Sometimes NPC's in cinematics were not there (just showed an empty room), but they still talked. Companions in conversation were flakey too, and sometimes the wrong companion would show up, sometimes only wearing their underwear (the horror).
-Ilum was broken. Instead of going the route of ArenaNet by shutting down the potential for exploits, EA left Ilum in so everyone could get in on the exploit and jack their PVP rank up way faster than intended.
-Flashpoint dungeon bosses would bug out and just stand there while they got tanked down. Sometimes they would also get stuck in boxes and walls. Mobs would fall through the world and reappear in the ceiling, where they would be invincible and just keep attacking until the whole party was dead.
-I hear the raid fights are still fubar .. helluva way to showcase the game, eh?
-Numerous bugs EVERYWHERE, which would take EA Bioware anywhere from 2 weeks to never to fix.
Many other graphical glitches just killed the immersion. Maybe some funny ones you remember too, like making the jump to light speed and still seeing the planet you were just at still stationary and visible in your ships windows, while stars zoomed by you (lightspeed travel). For a SW single player game, this is not good.
It was clear the game was not ready for launch, so calling the launch superlative is sheer comedy - it launched with game breaking features. It just shows that you were not as objective as you claimed you were. Like I said, they had stable servers, but that is the extent to any form of amazing launch for SWTOR. I'll fill in some objectiveness for you though, neither game had a good launch... even WoW at the other end of the room had numerous issues at first.
ps: any form of comparison would be subjective anyways. I joined GW2 after the early access period, so I missed out on all the joy. It was intentional actually, as I expected problems ... every game has them. I suspect SWTOR will be the last time I participate in a prelaunch / early access period. It's overrated :-)
Comments
I didnt count the continues bleeding that have been going on since a week after launch since you cant blame GW2 on that. But OK, I have to admit that I thought that ended a month ago or so (my still TOR playing friend are insisting so).
But if anything is dropping TOR subs right now it is EAs F2P announcement a little while back.
In retrospect, that was their plan all along .. just ride the waves and try to keep everyone happy with what they were given..
It's kind of funny actually, because when they don't talk, fans go nuts and start chattering away .. then when EA Bioware does say something vague, fans ponder then go back to chattering with grand speculations. Delivered material is critized, then tucked under the rug for a new round of astroturfers to talk about the "next" thing. Geez if you take a step back, this game offered very little in the past 8 months - but the hype amongst fans is over 9000 ... unless you consider that that people promoting the game are shills. It's not just some rumor:
EA Viral Marketing Exposed, Big Buyout On The Horizon?
published: 2012-03-27 21:15:06
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Viral-Marketing-Exposed-Big-Buyout-Horizon-40885.html
BTW TF25, thanks for the astroturfer info on Andryah, I still am enjoying reading her daily posts. :-)
disclaimer:
(Andryah is either a shill for EA or a really good troll)
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
I'm glad you get a kick out of her K.
Anyway, BW has said something about new content. I guess that could be viewed as a response to GW2.
They will have a new tier gear operation called Terror from Beyond in Patch realese 1.4.
They don't specify when Patch 1.4 will be coming out though.
I guess when if it hits the PTS it would be a week or two after that.
It would be a nice gesture to their subscribers to release something before FTP.
One would think a 1.4 Patch wouldn't be monetized for subscribers and since FTP players can't do operations, it wouldn't be removing potential revenue streams from their soon to be cash shop.
We shall see.
Seeing how they've been teasing this new Operation since June 4th, release it already while you still have some subscribers.
I should point out that Makeb was teased at the same time in June, but I suspect that will be released after FTP, and will be sold as a mini-expansion to both FTP players and subscribers.
Remember all you SWTOR fans who have been saying that FTP is good for the game. This content dribbiling out (and some being repackaged and sold to you) has been in the works for a long time and has been intentionally withheld from the game after EA decided to turn the game FTP in April.
Ask yourself if you think things would be better with a larger staff putting out content in regular intervals, or laying off staff, meting out niblet sized content every 5 months is better for the game?
Of course you could take a view that the question is moot if you believe that Tor's fiscal underperformance necessitated the conversion to FTP.
It's probably moot. SWTOR's big chance to thrive was when the game launched, and it suffered multiple months of bug fixes to get the game working for players, but by then the players were gone.
Stuff kept breaking as they went along .. for instance I had the CE and after a few weeks, the music droid broke and wouldn't play music anymore .. then weeks later the holodancer broke and wouldn't dance (she just followed you around instead). Of course these were minor things compared to the raid bugs and other disconnects / crashes people experienced , all thanks to bug fixes.
I'll continue my interest to see how this game goes, but I'm kind of believing the rumors that the people that knew all about the modified Hero engine and SWTOR gameplay code either quit long ago (to save their careers) or were fired, as a result of an underwhelming game (which wasn't a good idea either if they were the go-to people).
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
I don't think they're worried.
The players they have left are SW fans, not gaming or MMO fans.
SW fans don't see the world like rest of us do, they just want the SW theme no matter how bad it's made. I base this on a phrase some random guy said me ingame: " It has it's flaws but it's the best there is".
And they don't care if the playerbase is 20k or 200k as long as they have the game to support their imagination of SW-world.
GW2 on the other hand is by quick estimation (bought it yesterday) the best PvP MMO there is atm. And this is from a former WAR fan (me).
Bioware itself is delusional.
EA on the other hand knows quite well what's up, at lasts now, after it tanked.
that's why there were 2 waves of firings.
f2p is a last desperate attempt. once it fails, and it will, they'll do a CoX and shut the money sink down.
or they avoid the PR desaster and just stop any funding, support and fire the rest of the staff, with the game quasi shut down, but just drawing power from the plug on the wall, nothing more
Well, after mysteriously disappearing from August 2nd to September 3rd, prolific Swtor forum poster Jett-Rinn is back.
You may enjoy his work as well.
Feel the same way here. You can only abuse a franchise so much before the fans turn away in disgust. Although I haven't completely written it off (unlike Mass Effect, which is DEAD to me) SW no longer excites me as it once did.
The most damnable misery of the whole thing is if Bioware had developed the game as a KOTOR sequel with online co-op as opposed to an MMO, it would've been fantastic.
Oh behave...and wipe the rabid fanboy froth from your chin long enough to at lesst tell the truth. The reason people were calling the GW2 launch a failure on the SWTOR boards were as follows:
Security breaches almost immediately once the service went live
Lack of server capacity causing huges queues
Grouping broken so nobody could actually play with their friends
Overflow servers not allowing players to group at all
Trade post forcibly taken down for days due to game breaking bugs
Email down for days meaning nobody can trade properly
3,000 perma bans in the first week due to game breaking exploits
Lack of overall content with players hittig cap after 2 days
Broken species design with thousands of players choosing certain species as its size made it almost impossible to hit in PvP.
Guild functionality completely broken with players reports as offline when they are online, guild leaders unable to even see their roster or even use basic functions like invite or kick
As above, several of the most core and basic features completely broken...it was not a good launch
Add to that within days thread are springing up on the GW2 board like "Is this launch turning in to a disaster?" "Would you actually pay money for this game if it was a sub?" "Worst PvP ever" "I'm done already" "Anyone else bored" "Criminal to release in this state with such a lack of content" etc etc
One thread I personally read stated if you take Warhammer Online and imagine the ONLY way to level your character is PvP or Public Quests.....thats GW2??? Face it, GW2 is a good game...thats it. It will remain niche just like GW, it had a mediocre launch and people are getting bored with it already. It is not the game the fanboys or Anet hyped it as
Driz
Good luck finding me fanboying for GW2.
But thanks for your timely unbiased recap of the GW2 launch from 12 days ago.
Sometimes a pot shouldn't call a kettle black.
Not even sure what you mean...SWTOR had a superlative launch by comparison with the only issue I am aware of being some server queues caused by a knee jer reaction from BW when they pandered to the whine fest and opened up far too many servers.
Even with the problems it currently has, the LAUNCH of SWTOR made GW2's look decidedly amateurish imo.
Oh and I am not biased, I am on the verge of cancelling my SWTOR sub...but I am objective and I am at least honest about the problems in BOTH games...whereas you tried to bash posters on the SWTOR boards for claiming a "fail launch" due to one issue that everyone expects on launch week. Nice try.
Your own bias compelled you to "forget" all of the issues I listed in order to try and paint SWTOR posters as bitter haters when in reality the poor launch of GW2 gave them all the ammunition they needed if they wanted to bash the game.
Driz
I really have no idea what you are talking about. I never compared the SWTOR launch with the GW2 launch. Furthermore I never said the SWTOR launch was a failure.
I merely responded to the question posed in the thread, "IS BW/EA worried about GW2 at all?" and said there wasn't much of a response other then some bashing of GW2's launch on the SWTOR forums.
You have now come in defending the SWTOR launch, derididing the GW@ launch and called me a GW2 fanboy to boot.
Why? I don't know.
*edited a typo*
No...what you said was
"Well, as pointed out before, the only real response SWTOR side were some GW2 bashing threads on their forums. (They basically were calling the pre-launch a failure because the log-in servers were overwhelmed for a few hours Satursay morning.)"
When in reality, they were bashing the launch for the myriad of game breaking issues and core mechanics that were broken when it went live and NOT because the server were down for a few hours. There is a huge difference between that and the what you implied and I was simply pointing out that you were spreading mis information...
Driz
OK. Sorry.
The GW2 launch was a huge failure as pointed out on the SWTOR forums. That was the only direct response seen by SWTOR to the GW2 launch.
Feel better?
Seems like massive sensationalism is teh norm on these boards....so yeah ok
Being rational and objective I would describe it as a mediocre/luke warm launch, not a "massive failure". I would reserve that sort of hyperbole for a scenario where maybe the entire platform caved in and nobody could log on at all. With GW2 (usual launch week server issues aside) most people could at least log in and play, just lots of core stuff was broken and many people were playing solo as they were unable to group with their friends.
SWTOR has many problems as have been well documented but in terms of its launch I would say it was much more robust and more professional than GW2.
Driz
SWTOR, at launch, was a subscription based game and - for better of for worse - EA Bioware adopted a phased approach at launch inviting (usually) two waves of people a day for the first week. So on average 130k a day in 65k batches. There were complaints but all things considered it worked.
GW2 is a B2P game. Once the game was open everyone was able to log in, create a character and start. Launch may not have been perfect but it wasn't at all bad.
You don't come off as very objective as you claim, if you are going around calling the SWTOR launch "superlative". Really the only feather in SWTOR's cap is that the server's were stable. That's it. Long queues kept them stable, keeping each servers individual population low (no overflow).
Heres some crap that went down during SWTOR's launch:
-A major launcher bug between the beta and launch version caused many SWTOR players to be unable to play on the first day of SWTOR's launch, even though Bioware had stated numerous times there would be no need to redownload for those who played in the stress tests. Then on launch, after being jerked around by customer service reps in the help forum, changing and tweaking various setup and ini files, it was found out that the way to fix the problems was to redownload the complete game again. On launch day. The X-fer datarate was horrible for the download.
-Characters got stuck everywhere (actually they still do, but not quite as bad). Some /unstuck areas trapped players in normally off-limit areas, like between objects/trees/mountains, where the character could move again, but could not leave the 3 by 3 foot deadzone.
-Dying in unusual spots in newbie zones would resurrect players onto the fleet, killing their story, since they were still very low level and were not introduced to the fleet yet.
-Other untested / unfixed circumstances would cause class quests to get broken, stopping a characters progression completely, until EA Bioware would fix the issue at their leisure, some time later. They could not be reset or correctly by the player alone.
-Dying on the fleet would resurrect players out in space, not connected to any of the ships.
-Quests could not be dropped, so evertually players would have so many low quests that there wasn't enough room to pick up all the quests in a single hub.
-Cinematics were screwed up. Angles were wrong. I would often times find myself watching a scene with the camera too high, seeing just the top of peoples heads (I have no idea what they look like, but nice hair!). Sometimes NPC's in cinematics were not there (just showed an empty room), but they still talked. Companions in conversation were flakey too, and sometimes the wrong companion would show up, sometimes only wearing their underwear (the horror).
-Ilum was broken. Instead of going the route of ArenaNet by shutting down the potential for exploits, EA left Ilum in so everyone could get in on the exploit and jack their PVP rank up way faster than intended.
-Flashpoint dungeon bosses would bug out and just stand there while they got tanked down. Sometimes they would also get stuck in boxes and walls. Mobs would fall through the world and reappear in the ceiling, where they would be invincible and just keep attacking until the whole party was dead.
-I hear the raid fights are still fubar .. helluva way to showcase the game, eh?
-Numerous bugs EVERYWHERE, which would take EA Bioware anywhere from 2 weeks to never to fix.
Many other graphical glitches just killed the immersion. Maybe some funny ones you remember too, like making the jump to light speed and still seeing the planet you were just at still stationary and visible in your ships windows, while stars zoomed by you (lightspeed travel). For a SW single player game, this is not good.
It was clear the game was not ready for launch, so calling the launch superlative is sheer comedy - it launched with game breaking features. It just shows that you were not as objective as you claimed you were. Like I said, they had stable servers, but that is the extent to any form of amazing launch for SWTOR. I'll fill in some objectiveness for you though, neither game had a good launch... even WoW at the other end of the room had numerous issues at first.
ps: any form of comparison would be subjective anyways. I joined GW2 after the early access period, so I missed out on all the joy. It was intentional actually, as I expected problems ... every game has them. I suspect SWTOR will be the last time I participate in a prelaunch / early access period. It's overrated :-)
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.