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[Column] Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel Expansion Thoughts
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
We're weighing in on BioWare's surprise announcement of "Rise of the Hutt Cartel", the first digital expansion to Star Wars: The Old Republic, in this week's column.
EA released a trailer during E3 2012 that touted a number of new features coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic ‘this year’ and chief among them was a new planet, Makeb, along with a raise in the level cap to 55 (including new abilities and talents). Most of the features in that trailer have been released on schedule, but Makeb, along with the associated level bump and abilities, has been curiously absent.
Read more of Michael Bitton's Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel Expansion Thoughts.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
Considering this doesn't look to be of comparable size to the considered 'norm' for what makes a paid expansion, it seems rather unfair to charge subscribers for what really just looks like a little extra content.
Free for subbies and 10 bucks for F2P folks. Seems more fair to me.
A paid expansion - for me - contains new content, more levels, bits of fun this and that, and new features that, you know, expand on the game.
I'll vote with my wallet, and that's about as far as the discussion goes for me.
I don’t play SWTOR anymore but looking at the contents I think it's a pretty big stretch to call this an expansion. It's far closer to DLC as the price point also suggests but I guess it's better to market it as an expansion. A genuine expansion is something like what RiFT or WoW has just had and this seems sadly lacking.
We want it now and we want it free. eh. I'm ok with this. Gamers have made the switch to faster content, recent news has made that fairly certain. World of Warcraft, LOTRO, and Rift, have all failed to garner the excitement that expansions used to garner, times have changed.
Gamers don't want to wait 12 to 24 months for new expansions as in the old days. Game companies will need to make smaller cuts of content, quicker, for a fraction of the price. Gamers have spoken and Bioware has listened. So what are people angry about now, facing the reality of their choosing?
I only play for the story at this point so I am dissapointed that the story will not be tailored for the characters but instead will be one for rebpulic and empire. If there is a new planet and new levels, you figured they could add a story for this. Have the characters interact with the Hutts in different ways. My Jedi or Sith might be disgusted by the idea but maybe my smuggler or bounty hunter wouldn't mind making some credits on the side.
I just remember people always throwing the "Daniel Erickson said there was 5 years of voice recorded" around whenever there was a question about the continuation of the story. If that was true, you figured they could have threw us a bone for this.
Well whatever , in the end it was 10 bucks but like I said earlier, going to take a hard look at where they are going and see if it is worth sticking around or keeping the sub.
50+ gameplay. Which brings me back to the point of waiting for ALL the info before I decide.
I shall tell you how I feel, very quickly infact. Disgusted and dissapointed in this company. If you have a F2P model then yes, I understand charging for additional content. I would for example buy DLC for Borderlands to continue my enjoyment of that game.
However if you are a subscribing, paying customer already why would you need to pay anything? It is all about how tghey can flush as much cash out of their players as quickly as posisble. I also don't believe them to be respectful of their fans, or their player base. I believe they will keep making liberties and will only adjust them if it's casting too much of a negative light on the game and company. It seems their approach is all about 'recovery recovery recovery'.
When I first played the beta of the game, and yes I did buy the game and sub too, there were literally HUNDREDS of threads that detailed the short comings of the game INCLUDING a survery/questionnaire at the end of each play-session you filled in. Which I did, as well as about 50 other people I know off giving their honest feedback and short comings of the game. They were pre-warned.
But, it would take more time to implement those changes and they pushed the game out and the people loved and raved all over it. Then came the end game and that was 'the end game' and people left. Then they blamed the community for directing them to build the game like it was. I nearly spit teeth I did.
To answer your question in what would they have to give the answer is simple 'A quality service'. Which means either they do the following.
1) Have F2P and Sub based models, F2P pay for all additional content, subs do not, because their subscription has already paid in advance.
2) Make the content an 'expansion' that is recognised as such in contrast to it's peers.
3) Follow the model that TSW undertook
4) If having a sub allows you have cartel coins as a free monthly gift, then that should be allowed to purchase the additional content.
5) Start putting the customer first in their business practices instead of seeing them as potential 'sales' or 'revenues' to groom and exploit.
Done, dusted. I've had enough of them.
Stoked! Bring it on!
I recently moved servers and although I am looking for a guild, I am really having quite a good time in the game. The server I am on is healthy population-wise and it does make a huge difference.
So anything new coming down the pipeline for this one, I am eagerly awaiting.
It's not a perfect MMORPG by any means but I like it and am having a lot of fun....and that's what counts, right?
This content was intended for the end of 2012, but Spring seems a long way off past that. Even people who like the game have admitted there is nothing to do and "waiting", now they have to pay $90 more in fees before it hits the game. Some will no doubt play the game as still enjoy it, but more will quit, and then pay $20 or $25 (with sub) for it when it finally arrives
If they had done this instead of F2P, I would have gladly preordered it, and be playing it now. Even if it costs $60 with more meaty content. There has not been anything mentioned new coming to SWTOR since June. Even the new super secret space project has been mentioned since about then too.
EA also say there is more to be added with this, why don't they say now? Its just a tease.
What have they been doing these past 6 months? F2P but I would have thought they would have some more things in the pipeline to do / on the drawing board as well as F2P and stuff mentioned since June. It seems that once this "expansion" is in, that will be it, and heading towards sunset, as its 2 years licence (speculation) runs out, and they have just been dragging out the content already done.
Even after all the layoffs, there should be plenty more devs on SWTOR than there was on SWG, yet SOE managed to do tonne of stuff there, and were miracle workers. Maybe devs have just left BW on their own?
As for saying it is like LOTROs Siege of Mirkwood, it is not that big. The expansion also brought skirmishes to LOTRO and numerous gameplay enhancements with many preorder bonuses and extra goodiees with it. This "Expansion" / DLC is more like the free book updates for LOTRO
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
I took the bait and downloaded the game after it went F2P. I played for about an hour when it became unbearable to play any longer under the restrictions they put forth for 'non-subbers' (even though I have the preferred status or whatever they call ex-subbers).
It's pretty obvious this isn't a true F2P game (can't believe I'm actually bitching about a game not being a true F2P game :P ) but a pain in the arse extended demo of a game that really still just wants to be a subscription game.
Sad fact, it wasn't worth subbing then, and it's REALLY not worth subbing now.
This 'content' (won't go as far as to call it an expansion) is just another shameful ploy to get people to subscribe that is doing it wrong yet again. They really should have made it free for subscribers.
Was never much of a BioWare fan, but I always respected them. It's been very sad to witness what they've become this last year.
OP nails it, this should be called a DLC not an expansion.
And really, they should be adding worlds every 3 or 4 months. They could call them DLC and charge for them. The problem is they worked themselves into a corner with the voice acting.
An expansion for this game as I envision it would add a free roam space element, add two or three worlds, expand on space ships as homes with the ability to decorate and customize, and change some of the tagging/ grouping mechanics in favor of a GW2 system.
But if anything these devs have proven themselves to be lazy and uninspired. Either that or they have horrible management. You don't spend hundreds of millions of dollars on development and come up with this game unless something is broken somewhere.
The point is, that this is nowhere near worthy of being called a paid expansion!
Go look back at expansions for EverQuest 2, like Kingdoms of Sky, Echoes of Faydwer, Rise of Kunark or the expansion for Rift a month ago!
Or any of WoW's expansions for that matter.
Now that is what I would call a true expansion! /shrug
If they called and advertise it as a paid DLC... that would be more like it. As that is what it is! Nothing more!
Was the final nail in the coffin for myself and SWTOR.
I have no objection to content, I have no objection to costings. I do have extreme objection to a statement of "Gunnery commando will come into it's own with the additional 5 stat points in the expansion"
Oh cheers its bad enough that the 1 class I really like got overnerfed to hell back in Feb and every other class has been buffed in some manner since creating an even wider divide but we now have to wait until at least March for it to be useful. Another 3 month of being outright refused entry to rated groups as nobody in their right mind would take a commando its like bringing a knife to gun fight.
Was the final straw in a long list of PVP failiures.
Why does it matter what its called? DLC is still an expansion.
"you are like the world revenge on sarcasm, you know that?"
One of those great lines from The Secret World
It DOES matter. As it sets the price!
DLC is priced in the 5 to 15 bucks range. While expansions are priced in the 30 to 50 bucks range.
You can bet that EA tries to charge 40 to 50 bucks for this so called expansion of theirs.
Good luck with being suckered into that. It's what EA does best these days.
They already fooled me once with the CE of SW:TOR. But not anymore. They can shove this up in their *****.
As it stands now, I'm quite upset and annoyed with Bioware. When I pay my sub, I pay not only for the content produced - or that was produced at release, I pay for future content foremost. I've bought the game and I pay so they can develop new content.
Now why, by Odins wrinkly b*lls, should I have to pay for it again? I understand the sentiment of DLC, and I like DLCs. Just with Skyrim I didn't have to pay a sub in addition! And to be frank, I've gotten about as much for free with both Skyrim and TOR!
To be honest, asking subs to pay extra for this is to spit in our face. I think it's incredibly disrespectful - especially to people who are longterm fans. I've paid sub for a year - the content I've received does not match what I've paid beyond the initial price, but I've supported and paid them anyway. And now? Now they basicly tell us that that dedication is worth nothing.
I've been very supportive of Bioware and TOR before - but this is it. My limit is here. More than anything I'm disappointed though - so much potential, both for the game and for getting customers, wasted.
Its £6 for subs and £11.99 for free players I think.
It seems to be priced at 20 dollars. Hadn't seen the price page yet. Still for one zone (which is essentially one questpack) it's still quite a steep price.