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EA Blames Casuals For Declining Subs
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Member Posts: 1,948
Frank Gibeau, the label boss of EA's games, has just got a degree in Advanced Propagandizing.
"When we launched the product back in December, it was an event launch," he said. "We brought in a lot of users, and with a brand like Star Wars, it reaches out much past the hardcore MMO fan base into the broader market.
"And as the service evolves from here, what we're seeing is that some of the initial casual customers have gone through a billing cycle and decided not to subscribe to the game."
I didn't know SW:TOR appealed to the hardcore MMO fan base in any way, shape or form. But now that I know, I feel enlightened.
"We are cognizant of competitors coming, but none of them quite fit in the same competitive category as Star Wars," he said. "They're just different fantasies. They're not the Star Wars fantasy. It's not the big expansive universe that appeals to so many people worldwide. And as you know with MMOs, every day you're in operation to get better and better and better. You continually perfect the experience. You continually improve the acquisition component.
I was also unaware of EA's intent of improving the products that have been published so far, again, I feel enlightened.
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Way to go casuals. Way to fucking go. Better get your act together. Better recognize.
Yeah...well...they kind of have to go with something here. I mean it is bullshit but raelly...heh...not a lot he has to work with. Would imagine saying we kind of fucked things up with the game and took some things for granted while underestimating others wouldn't go over real well with those that probably already aren't real pleased about the way things are playing out.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
They made a game that appealed to casuals. Now they blame them for the game's declining subs. Makes sense. Thumbs up, EA!
More excuses for making a horrible mmo.
Grim Dawn, the next great action rpg!
http://www.grimdawn.com/
My thoughts exactly - you wanted to compete with WoW. Did you expect differently?
It probably is true. The casual audience that would eventually like MMORPGs after trying them has probably been exhausted with WoW; and so the people who tried TOR because of the Star Wars name and aren't gamers probably didn't like the MMO aspect of the game, and the subscription model.
Ultimately, these I think these big budget companies thought they could bring many more new casual players into the genre with their franchises and common "WoW clone" gameplay. However, maybe that pool of "casuals-who-haven't-played-an-MMO-yet" is starting to shrink.
This would hopefully make them reconsider their target audience, and recognize that the hardcore MMO community is actually a better target to design their games for.
wow he's an idiot.
if anything ti's the casuals who are going to stay, enjoy the game at their own pace. It's the hardcore players or those players who went into the game for the wrong reasons (i.e. seeing open pvp world and thinking it was a pvp game) that are going to leave.
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Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I think the use of "casual" was used and heard in the wrong context. What I think he meant to say was "new to MMO players", but even that term could be misunderstood. The terms "hardcore" and "casual" are so over used that I don't think anyone here even really understands how they are applied nor the real definitions. Start a thread and ask what the definition of each would be and you will almost get as many answers as you get posts.
Let's party like it is 1863!
It's very simple....If you build it, they will come.
Also, casual is as casual does. This is the risk / danger of creating a several year long & 100+ million dollar project game, based around selling your product to casual gamers that tend to gravitate to short play cycle gaming experiences, and are typically not loyal to any one particular game or genere (yes...even if your IP is Star Wars).
Point being, don't complain about fickle casual gamers blowing your game off....IF you build the game to cater to the casual MMO audience.
That's a very good point and given the context you are probably right.
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Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
The dialogues and story stuff was cool, but the rest of the game felt like I'd done it before.
So they just not realized that casaul MMOs are never successfull and there has never been a successfull casual MMO to launch. I thought every MMO gamer already knew this. Someone send EA a Memo stating to make a successful MMO you have to have good gameplay, immersive world, perssistant worlds, challenging combat, never take the game away from the player and good worlking PvP.
This is my favorite thing you quoted because he is so wrong... lol
has he even played this game?.... Big Expansive Universe... you mean the one with the loading scenes between every planet and when you do finally load into the planet after 3 minutes of loading... the zones are so restricting and linear you might as well be playing gauntlet legends.
I also like their improvement plan... release the game in beta stage and release the updates in several patches so people feel like the game is making huge improvements when its actually just playing catch up to the other titles already on the market.
All that's left in the game is "casuals" considering the game doesn't have enough content to support "hardcore" players. Of course casuals are leaving when subs decline when all of your subs are casuals. Keep on spinning yo!
But wait! EA said last week there subs were not declining. EA has lost so much credibility over the last few years with trying to pass the buck with things. Its time for developers to stay away from this train wreck of a publisher.
I can't wait till EA go out of business.
Pretty much this. The "hardcore" raiding people cleared all the content months ago. After sitting at endgame for a while with no new raids to do they start to leave. The casuals and some of the more casual friendly raiders that are taking their time are the ones still playing.
My theme song.
Hate company that spins garbage like this. EA is implying swtor is a great game with the hardcore real gamers playing. Those leaving are just casuals that come and go in every game.
screw you ea. hope this game dies.
Gilbeau is stupid, this is what he meant:
I'm insulted, I left SWTOR, so ergo he's calling me a casual player.
My wife thinks I have a MMORPG addiction so there's a difference of opinion here.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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Have bought this game, did wait for the price to come down though (£22 on amazon) when i got it, think its now at around £18. However i have not installed the game yet as i still have a couple of months paid subscription time on another game.
Reports cycling through now and seeing this is making me start to wonder if purchasing the game was actually a good move, will give it a go though (after all i have bought the thing).
Would like to see an online game finally come out thats actually decent.
So what? Why do you need to spend so much time over something like this?
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Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
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LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Paraphrased:
"We thought when we put the Star Wars label on it and people would hand us money hand over fist"
They've lost 400,000 of 1,700,000 people. They are still well above the profit line for the game. They're also doing much better than most games six months out from launch.
I get the dislike or even hatred of the game...I don't get the idea that they've somehow failed. They are probably rolling in more money that any of us will even see in our lifetimes, much less get to spend. They didn't just win, they bought the arena and painted it in their colors.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Well they made a game that 90% of it is solo, the other 10% is multi player. You can do almost anything except heroic-4's and ops by your self. Heck there are even some of the heroic-4's that I solo with certain classes.
It is not just the casual player who is leaving the game, the hard core ones are as well. The reason is simple a lot of the operation are buggy, Eternity vault anybody with all the different things that can go wrong in there.
All I see is a corporate hat that's blaming a certain demographic when he should be blaming the dev team for making swg-nge v.1.2. They just don't get it.
I think they though he well put a star wars label on it folks will go nuts. That will be why a some folks stay because it is star wars, rack up yet another game that fails to live up to the brand. I wonder what lucasarts thinks about all this, but then there have been so many failures over the years.
This is not the fault of the players.