Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Can SWTOR be saved?
This discussion has been closed.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
It's easy to say start a toon on another server but the way things are going even that doesn't help much. I left 5 kitted out 50's on my original server to do this. A couple of us moved to Tomb of Freedom Nadd which was the most populated server on the EU side, when we first went there we'd occasionally have to wait in a queue just to get on but now the population there isn't even a third of what it was a month ago. In another month once things get just as bad there what should people do then? Re-roll again? To where... almost all the servers are currently empty and that one was the last bastion.
All the delaying and posturing by Bioware is killing the game, transfers should have been here already and considering 1.3 won't even be on the test server for weeks I dread to think how little people will still be playing once it eventually goes live. Even once they do appear population is still going to continue to drop, it's going to take a lot more than a group finder and some useless legacy perks to change that.
The obvious truth is:
- SWTOR is a dead game and it cannot be saved
- The money is gone, the development staff is gone
- There will be no more content updates
- There will be no more marketing to increase subs
- The game will be left in maintenance mode to decline until it reaches the 1 server per region level like Warhammer, and indeed it is reaching that point much faster than Warhammer did.
It isn't dead it is in decline.
It is salvageable. Problem is knowing this company, their track record, and their lofty expectations for subs doubt they will even try. Shame really...
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.
This. Funcom salvaged AoC, Cryptic atleast tries with STO and Trion arguable does a wonderful job with far less resources than EA has. But looking at EAs track record ... I can't think of a company less likely to save a MMO.
I still dont understand how a game with more than 1 mill of subs and 2.33 mill of copies need to be saved. They have at least 3 more content updates and an expansion by the end of the year, the same people who is quitting now will be back to play the new content. If swtor is dead, what about tera and rift then? games with 1/4 or less of the swtor population, The haters are just amazing.
Simple, we don't believe these numbers. There is just too much indicating that not that many people play the game anymore.
Edit: They fired half their team, just like they did with WHO after the first major content update. We all know how much content they delivered after that.
SOE's watched a fair number of games whither and die on the vine. Another case of reality-denial at the management level, really.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I'll never understand why the hell they handled VG the way they did. Actually saying mishandled would probably be more appropriate. They never gave that game a chance...at all...
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.
I see what you are saying, and your right that it has a lot of subs still. The problem is they still treat upcoming content like the NDA is up, and the trend so far is bad.
Look at it like a big tire with tons of air in it. Sure it's a big tire, but the hole in the tire that's leaking air keeps getting bigger each week.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
If they ever did a graphics update to VG and gave it realistic/cool looking characters I would go back. The models were so bad (holds nose)
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
So at the 6 month mark they have done 1 update with no exact timeline for the next update given and you are saying they are going to do 3 more content updates and an expansion by the end of the year??? That is just not going to happen. 1.3 will be out by the end of the year and if they are very lucky 1 more content update but I doubt it. SWTOR is no longer a priority for BW or EA and the money and the staff is not there to pump out quick updates.
Also we have no reason to expect that there is still over 1M subs. We don't know. Last set of sub numbers released was almost 3 months ago now. At this point in time all BW is saying is that Sub numbers are tricky things to calculate and there are lots of variables and no real info is given(I don't see how many variables there are in how many people have active next to their account status but apparently that is a hard thing to calculate). Anyhow point is to say that SWTOR has any particular sub number is nothing more then total speculation.
The game was so bug ridden it was ridiculous. I mean it was fairly bad all around but at the higher levels. My god...
Never did get my fucking unicorn. Bastards.
I was kind of indifferent to the models. i thought some were really well done and others...yeah...not so much...
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.
I think another decent question to go along with this is: "As gamers, do we even want this game to be saved?". Obviously the people playing the game and enjoying it would like to continue to do so, however would it benificial to the industry as a whole to actually salvage something out of this wreck, or let it fade into eternity?
Contrary to what some think around here I would love it to be salvaged. I'm not a proponent that if it fails we will have companies change their mindset about gameplay or design. I actually believe a failure on this level especially considering the ip and BW's track record with single player games to wash their hands with the mmo market altogether and move on to what their investors think may be more profitable and less risky venues.
...and frankly I have no personal investment in it failing. Seeing people lose their jobs and fans of the game or ip have their game shrivel up does nothing for me and does not benefit me in the slightest.
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.
Good question. And honestly, I don't know the answer.
On one hand, I want to see SWTOR succeed. I watched the developement for years, checking the website at least once a month since 2008. I was beyond excited when I learned that a new Star Wars MMO was being developed, and by Bioware!!! I'm growing tired of the medieval fantasy setting and was very much looking forward to a Sci-Fi setting, plus lightsabers!!! So part of me wants to see Bioware turn it around.
But on the other hand, I want to see it fail. Not because it is a WOW clone, because it is not. If it was a WoW clone I would still be playing it. Instead, they make a single player game, tack on some WoW stuff, and sell it as an AAA MMO. Totally BS. The whole design from the ground up is a failure. Either make it a singleplayer/co-op game or an MMO, don't try to do both (I'm looking at you too TESO). Cut scenes are great in moderation, when every thing has one you end up breaking up the community because everyone is in thier own story mode. If most of your interactions in a game is with NPC and Pets, it is a fail MMO (I know Khem Val, you miss me, but I'm sorry it's not working out).
You dont believe these numbers?, what about this. http://www.vgchartz.com/game/31584/star-wars-the-old-republic/ More than 1 mill of subs looks real. Lots of people is not playing atm but it doesnt mean that they have quit the game, transfers and the 1.3 update will bring back to the game all those players who are not playing at this time. Believe what you want, but all these ¨swtor is doomed¨ and conspiracy theories are just pointless and far away from the reality.
He was referring to paid subbers not games purchased. I doubt anyone is questioning how the game sold. Those numbers are straight forward and specific. It is in relation to subbed players there has been contention because they refuse to get specific about actual paid subbers.
Well...in addition to people's first hand experience in game with the servers they play(ed) on.
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.
- Joined in april - check
- Trash-talks GW2 out of the blue - check
- Praises (/deflects blame away from the developers of) SWTOR - check
Hint - don't stick too closely to the memo, shake it up a little or it's just too obvious what you're doing here
- Revels in SWToR's demise - check
- Developed negative opinion of game months ago - check
- Lurking in forums to this day - check
Hint - don't stick to closely to your memo or you will expose yourself as the other side of the coin
I'm not sure which is sadder. Quoting the wrong numbers to make your point, or following it up with outrageous statements like "one patch will bring back all the players that left."
Actually I started off really enjoying SWTOR,
- then saw the developers make disastrous decisions in the weeks leading up to 1.2
- saw all my friends get banned from the official forums simply for stating their opinions about the decisions in 1.2
- got infracted myself for pointing out that the PTS did not have any PVP testing enabled because of the lack of level 50 premades ahead of 1.2
- got banned for asking why I was getting infracted
Most of all it was the abusive censorship of player opinions that really turned me against the game; that and the stubbornness, arrogance and cluelessness of the devs' decisions on 1.2
I'm really an open book. I welcome scrutiny.
I stand corrected. Your list is a much better checklist for showing you are the other side of the fanboy coin. Personal vendetta and all !
Don't take me too seriously, I lurk here also - and am still perpetually on the fence about this game. There is sooooo much I don't like about it; from the way the world was constructed, to the uninspired storylines to the legacy system which is completely incompatible with Star Wars lore. I'm just not convinced that when the dust settles, it will settle out of 2nd place; or 'fail' in the big picture. It still has more than twice the number of subs than does the 'successful' rift. AoC and Lotro can't beat it even as f2p. Tera has 'awesome' combat, but it still doesn't have SWToR numbers. It still has twice the population of EQ at its peak, arguable one of the most successful and influential mmo's of all time. Of course this may all change, as there is no sign that SWToR's population has stabilized. I'm like you, what they have on the horizon doesn't make me think the game is heading in the direction it needs to to maintain subs.
But unlike you, I don't have a grudge.
As to the question: As gamers do we even want it to be saved?
At this point SWTOR has nothing to offer me personally, so as the game is now, i don't care if it's saved or not. There is the spectre of hope that it could some day be something different, but I have to wonder how realistic I am being in thinking of that as a possibility.
There will be less money, and less enthusiasm for the game as a product. On the other hand the cat will have been out of the bag, and they could take the game in a new direction and not have it be so high stakes.
Right now the secrecy, and hands off attitude of dealing with the community as if it were a poisonous snake has basically turned the community into a poisonous snake.
Modesty, honesty, and trust should have been the approach. Maybe that's an unrealistic ideal when considering a multi-million dollar corporate product, but I think it would have paid off better. Right now it just seems like they are always hiding something while delivering nothing.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
I think it's fairly obvious I have a grudge - just gotta look at my sig xD
But really, the way SWTOR treated its customers, from the arrogant liars heading up development right down to the nazi forum moderators abusing their powers and the stingy short-sighted suits at EA, the whole edifice is just rotten all over.
It would be good for the industry if EA and Bioware get mauled for SWTOR - one can hope the middle staff who did nothing wrong get by unscathed, but it' s more likely the ones most at fault will the ones coming out of this with the fatter wallets and the immediate prospects.