This /\ is my biggest complaint with Bioware EA of all. They barely say enough and often flat out refuse to communicate with their customer base (the players) and this behavior has become more extreme in this last year alone. Bioware's refusal to communicate like a normal Game Dev Team is the number one reason why I let my Sub lapse. I had hoped this would change once 4.0 launched but if anything it's actually gotten worse.
From my experience so far with the FTP model, I would not consider subscribing. There are just to many other good FTP mmo's out there which offer so much more, and run so much better.
The majority of the people threatening with unsubbing are not long term players. They joined with 4.0 for the expansion and found themselves in a position where they could have everything outside OP's with 0 effort. And of course they liked it.
A number of them wrote that having to actually play their class and adhere to the mechanics is boring and tedious !!
This doesn't absolve Bioware for the companion fiasco though.
Personally I feel this explosion of anger over the game change could have been easily prevented through simple proper communication with their playerbase. Instead they just dropped the changes in their customers lap, refused to explain them, got caught out on just how big this change was by data miners, and then went into kneejerk damage control mode. Good work Bioware, first you shot off your toe and then in flailing about trying to stem the tide of bad press you managed to shoot off both bollocks as well. If you want to keep making money from your customers its a very bad idea to make them out to be the bad guys when you fuck something up.
And I don't mean just by nerfing companions as I feel a reasonable reduction would have been understandable, and probably embraced by a majority of community had they bothered to act like the feelings of said community mattered fuck all. What I mean is by doing it in the most arse from elbow not knowing kind of way possible that managed to turn a decent portion of their own fanbase against them.
Pretty much. If they had taken a less extreme approach, I also believe most people would've been fine with it. Instead they went overboard with it, and gave their customers some BS along the lines of "Don't worry! We'll still listen to your feedback after we've nerfed everything to oblivion, and then we -might- consider making adjustments" and even that statement was just because of the whole datamined info getting out.
To make things worse, they've been constantly spouting that nonsense about more open communication - which further angered their players, because this completely flew in the face of things. A damn shame too, since they actually appeared to have a good thing going on with 4.0, the vast majority of players (new and old) seemed rather pleased with the expansion. And now they've managed to completely eclipse their accomplishment and drive a lot of those people away again. =/
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.)
Except they lost 2.6million subs and had to go f2p and sell housing furniture to keep the game alive. Other than that and all the broken things and drama and the low pops, the game is doing great.
The majority of the people threatening with unsubbing are not long term players. They joined with 4.0 for the expansion and found themselves in a position where they could have everything outside OP's with 0 effort. And of course they liked it.
A number of them wrote that having to actually play their class and adhere to the mechanics is boring and tedious !!
This doesn't absolve Bioware for the companion fiasco though.
Bolded part is exactly it. People don't want to use CC, or defensive cooldowns, or actually put even the slightest amount of thought into how they're playing. They want to win by repeatedly mashing their palms down on their keyboards, or setting their companion to attack then going to make themselves a hot beverage or sandwich, and coming back to a pile of dead mobs to loot.
I've only run into two H2's I couldn't finish, both on Makeb. The rest were still quite easy, provided I used the abilities of my classes in proper form and didn't play like I was pants-on-head retarded. And no, they did not take noticeably longer to complete either.
Bioware's lack of communication and knee-jerk reaction was pretty stupid though.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
The majority of the people threatening with unsubbing are not long term players. They joined with 4.0 for the expansion and found themselves in a position where they could have everything outside OP's with 0 effort. And of course they liked it.
A number of them wrote that having to actually play their class and adhere to the mechanics is boring and tedious !!
This doesn't absolve Bioware for the companion fiasco though.
Wrong, most of people that unsubbed are founders that havent dropped the sub since launch and found last 2 weeks most fun in 4 years.
Most of them wrote that having to slog through the dailies, that arent more challenging just longer with worthless companions, killed the massive alliance grind.
Some even went to finish SF H2 WITHOUT companion to PROVE how worthless they are in current state. And supposedly (by BWs own post) they should count as 2nd player.
Let face it... we have all been waiting for a Star Wars game. Then some guy came, grabbed a shitty Hero engine and hired an armee of software engineers to make it going anyhow.
Thats the root problem of the game. It has a total crap engine that will never work properly. With that you dont have open worlds, just maps. With that you will never have 200 players in one cup. With that you will never have a powerful core for the game.
The only - ya really the only thing i liked in SWTOR was Huttball.
Let face it... we have all been waiting for a Star Wars game. Then some guy came, grabbed a shitty Hero engine and hired an armee of software engineers to make it going anyhow.
Thats the root problem of the game. It has a total crap engine that will never work properly. With that you dont have open worlds, just maps. With that you will never have 200 players in one cup. With that you will never have a powerful core for the game.
The only - ya really the only thing i liked in SWTOR was Huttball.
A SW MMORPG sounds great. So far we've had 2. Both were fun (At one time or another) But (here's the subjective part) Neither one was really a SW game.
They resembled Star Wars. They had elements from Star Wars, but they really didn't capture the spirit of the IP.
SWTOR is a WoW clone with a Star Wars context, But I never really considered it fully Star Wars. (Jedi did not go out looking for better gear to be better Jedi.)
Let face it... we have all been waiting for a Star Wars game. Then some guy came, grabbed a shitty Hero engine and hired an armee of software engineers to make it going anyhow.
Thats the root problem of the game. It has a total crap engine that will never work properly. With that you dont have open worlds, just maps. With that you will never have 200 players in one cup. With that you will never have a powerful core for the game.
The only - ya really the only thing i liked in SWTOR was Huttball.
A SW MMORPG sounds great. So far we've had 2. Both were fun (At one time or another) But (here's the subjective part) Neither one was really a SW game.
They resembled Star Wars. They had elements from Star Wars, but they really didn't capture the spirit of the IP.
SWTOR is a WoW clone with a Star Wars context, But I never really considered it fully Star Wars. (Jedi did not go out looking for better gear to be better Jedi.)
Actually to many, like myself, SWTOR is better than WOW. You may look at it as just a "re-skin" but I'm 1000% sick of fantasy games. The simple addition of a blaster makes it way better to me. The fact that it has some Star Wars feel to it is a bonus.
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
The main thing that stops me from playing...and I can't even pinpoint why it bothers me...but the game not being an official part off the Star Wars canon, just takes away something from it for me. I know it was never considered that before, but when they said that KoTOR is no longer apart of it, it was like a punch to the stomach for some reason.
I probably would have gotten the expansion if it had been a RotHc or SoR type deal where you got the full expansion with just 1 purchase. I dont subscribe atm. Been quite a while since i last did. To me swtor just feels less and less like the empire v republic game it started out beeing. In RotHc we still were at war with the other faction, but since then we've been allies. It just doesn't work for me.
When all chapters have been released i'll probably sub for a month, or maybe if a couple of new FP's and an OP are launched i'll jump in sooner. This companion thing never was big for me. They seemed overly powerfull in 4.0 and still plenty powerfull in 4.0.2. Maybe healers needed a slight buff *shrugg*
The main problem in 4.0 imo is the severe lack of fresh content other than story. Non repeatable story unless you got alts ofc. Even swtor fans admit the story have low replay value with alts and the allience grind makes the story very alt unfriendly. The overpowered companions made this allience grind less tedious but it did very little to cover the real problem, that it was and is a boring (solo)grind.
This game has always be extremely easy to solo in but now its just gotten excessive ... My Companion utterly slaughters everything in his path. Which companion? Doesn't matter they are all the same now. Im not even using hyperbole here, he kills groups of normal mobs within seconds and can easily fight hero mobs.
The "story" nowadays is 90% running through corridors, 5% watching cutscenes and 5% actual fighting. I can't even put to words how disappointed, or better bored, i am with the game. I actually enjoyed the interplay and tactics companions brought to the game, how you had them tank a strong mob in the group while you killed the weak ones and then took over the strong mob etc.
If i do that now the mob is dead before im done with the weak ones ... i blame the global CD for it taking me so long.
Comments
A number of them wrote that having to actually play their class and adhere to the mechanics is boring and tedious !!
This doesn't absolve Bioware for the companion fiasco though.
To make things worse, they've been constantly spouting that nonsense about more open communication - which further angered their players, because this completely flew in the face of things. A damn shame too, since they actually appeared to have a good thing going on with 4.0, the vast majority of players (new and old) seemed rather pleased with the expansion. And now they've managed to completely eclipse their accomplishment and drive a lot of those people away again. =/
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/
I've only run into two H2's I couldn't finish, both on Makeb. The rest were still quite easy, provided I used the abilities of my classes in proper form and didn't play like I was pants-on-head retarded. And no, they did not take noticeably longer to complete either.
Bioware's lack of communication and knee-jerk reaction was pretty stupid though.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic
Most of them wrote that having to slog through the dailies, that arent more challenging just longer with worthless companions, killed the massive alliance grind.
Some even went to finish SF H2 WITHOUT companion to PROVE how worthless they are in current state. And supposedly (by BWs own post) they should count as 2nd player.
Then some guy came, grabbed a shitty Hero engine and hired an armee of software engineers to make it going anyhow.
Thats the root problem of the game.
It has a total crap engine that will never work properly.
With that you dont have open worlds, just maps.
With that you will never have 200 players in one cup.
With that you will never have a powerful core for the game.
The only - ya really the only thing i liked in SWTOR was Huttball.
They resembled Star Wars. They had elements from Star Wars, but they really didn't capture the spirit of the IP.
SWTOR is a WoW clone with a Star Wars context, But I never really considered it fully Star Wars.
(Jedi did not go out looking for better gear to be better Jedi.)
--> http://www.swtor.com/r/nBndbs <--
Several Unlocks and a few days game time to make the F2P considerably easier
When all chapters have been released i'll probably sub for a month, or maybe if a couple of new FP's and an OP are launched i'll jump in sooner. This companion thing never was big for me. They seemed overly powerfull in 4.0 and still plenty powerfull in 4.0.2. Maybe healers needed a slight buff *shrugg*
The main problem in 4.0 imo is the severe lack of fresh content other than story. Non repeatable story unless you got alts ofc. Even swtor fans admit the story have low replay value with alts and the allience grind makes the story very alt unfriendly. The overpowered companions made this allience grind less tedious but it did very little to cover the real problem, that it was and is a boring (solo)grind.
The "story" nowadays is 90% running through corridors, 5% watching cutscenes and 5% actual fighting. I can't even put to words how disappointed, or better bored, i am with the game. I actually enjoyed the interplay and tactics companions brought to the game, how you had them tank a strong mob in the group while you killed the weak ones and then took over the strong mob etc.
If i do that now the mob is dead before im done with the weak ones ... i blame the global CD for it taking me so long.