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What is SWToR Doing Right?
TheLizardbones
Member CommonPosts: 10,910
Ok, there are lots of discussions on what SWToR does wrong. There is even a column and associated forum thread revisiting SWToR's F2P options explaining in pretty good detail how it compared to other F2P implementations. However, SWToR's Cartel shop, outside of their non-digital subscriptions has made $139M last year. It's been a year or so since they went F2P and they seem to be going pretty strong. There are unconfirmed reports from community managers and developers for EA that SWToR has a million players a month logging in to play the game and that 500k of those players are subscribers.
So what gives? What is SWToR doing right to attract all those people? We know what they're doing wrong. Good grief you can't throw a stone lately for hitting a SWToR thread talking about how horrible the game is. But they must be doing something right. A million people would not be playing a bad game. So what is it? What is pulling in all those people?
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1) Star Wars includes game play not regularly found in other MMORPGs. The space combat is fairly unique to SWToR and also the companions with their quests and crafting are unique to SWToR.
2) SWToR has a progression based system that isn't unique, but it's well made and consistent.
3) SWToR is a good "Star Wars" game. It has the IP, but many games since Star Wars first released have been based on the Star Wars IP and many of them have completely bombed. The IP alone isn't enough. SWToR is a much better than average at providing a Star Wars experience.
4) The class based story lines are probably key in providing that Star Wars experience, and in the MMORPG space are unique to Star Wars. The is carried through with the character's relationship with their companions.
5) Actual dialog options. Like the Light Side/Dark Side choices, these do not have a dramatic impact on the outcomes of the game, but they are entertaining.
6) This post by SevenStar seems to highlight a lot of the things done right, and people seem to agree with it.
7) Running around with a light saber is a lot more fun than it should be.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Comments
Pulling them in? My guess would be the class stories. Keeping them around? No idea. I love the class stories, but those are over. Hell, I am still subbed because I pay six months at a time, and I want to show my support for more focus on narrative in MMOs, but it's been quite a while since I actually logged in and played for any substantial amount of time.
Once ESO and Wildstar are both out, I have a suspicion my TOR sub will lapsing, at least temporarily.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Well, somebody has to know. Somebody on this website must play the game, and have a reason for playing it.
I do agree that the class stories are good. They are, I think, one of the best parts of the game. I did not find that there was enough content concentrated within the class story lines though. There was a lot of content outside the story lines and even with the voice overs just didn't feel all that compelling to me.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
1. It's Star Wars.
2. It's a WOW copy/paste. Level. End game (grind via raiding). PVP.
3. EA is good at milking the cows. Cash shop and Subbing.
4. The best story line in an mmo focused around your character.
SWToR has a lot of things that I like. Of course, I enjoy the class stories a lot. I can skip side quests and do ship battles / pvp if I want to. The ship battles are unique and I actually enjoy both GSF and the Star Fox style as well. Although, I want Joystick support added.
PvPing especially at World events can be a blast. SWToR also has regular Warzones and ranked Warzones as well. Raiding is so much better than Zerg events with a good guild. I really hate Zerg events. Finally, a good guild is a must and swtor has a great community.
Can there be improvements? Of course, I would like a lot of things to improve but I can enjoy the game as it stands.
1. The class stories
2. The flashpoints. I really enjoyed running through most of the flashpoints the first few times
3. Its Star Wars
4. There is a pretty good chat filter so I can play with together with my 10 year old.
5. Lots of different char looks. Its not like most games where you can tell what a person is just by looking at them. You can start fighting a chick in a bikini and later realize she is a tank.
6. Good music/sound effects with most coming straight from the movies
3 things make people come and play the game :
1. the name Star Wars
2. Star Wars
3. star wars
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
This ^...because if it was not a Star Wars game, it would have been shut down a long time ago.
Stories and cut-scenes are done well and interesting, a lot of the crafting is actually useful (not to mention actually profitable too) but the main thing for me is all the time-sinks.
There are just so many different things to do if you get bored of doing one thing; questing, crafting, pvp, achievements, collecting items, mounts, gear sets.
And playing alts as the different classes have such different abilities.
Back in the day WoW use to have lots of time-sinks which is what kept me playing, but the simplified version now is just too boring. GW2 and Secret World are both great games but they are too much like single player games as when you max level you get bored REALLY fast and no matter how many alts you make in those, they all feel like you're playing the same character with minor differences.
- Group quests
- Companions
- Combat
- chests
Yes, this
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
If this logic was accurate, SWG would still be running. BioWare is at least as important a part of the equation as Star Wars, if not more important.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Star wars is a major reason, but beyond that,
1. many planets
2. good class story for up to lvl 50
3. follows expectations with instanced pvp, and raids to a certain criteria... but would not call it tripple A quality, but only that the shell of the game carries the short comings of the end game. (Short comings in the end game of buggy ops at release, to limited A.I./NPC interaction, raids are the same and not dynamic with change, gear grindish with FPs /HM FPS and rinse and repeat, pvp: small instances, no open world systems in place to satisfy possible big scale scenarios, no mounted comabt etc etc)
4. Combat is iconic and fun.
5. Some decent music, but at the same time there is a lot of average music which is unfortunate
6. Art style is good. Stylized without feeling too cartoony which suits the serious tone of the game... (serious tone can be seen as a negative or positive)
7. U.I. and even combat is similar to WoW, and other features making it a wow clone and even crafting is similar to WoW that its more of a crutch to help with money sinks rather than anything too useful.
8. Companions
9. Huttball
10. GSF for those that enjoy it
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For someone new to the game it has a lot to offer especially as f2p... but it has not really grown much in terms of end game variety. Which is the core of the problem of swtor and open world pvp will always be an after thought... which would not be so bad if for example other things made up for it with possibly more iconic quests with epic rewards rather than monotonous side quests similar to how class quests feel or even world arcs. Introducing dynamic events, and stream lining content to feel that the world is changing but at a good pace... but does feel very static as well even though the art is good NPCs just stand there, and ofc being a WoW clone, quests do not change anything, which things like open world pvp can offer as a good subsitute... or mini games similar to hut ball as a sport, but bounty hunting, pazaak, mounted comabt, swoop racing, player created content, collecting lore and rewarding players better with allowing for in house decoration... there is a lot they can do for replay value and end game... but they just add more of the same... which hurts their retention... but since its a good enough game it will continue to bring enough players... becuase there are a lot players out there that will give it a try... which is a shame for players looking for a reason to continue.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
You're missing out. Given that the flavor of the given class stories varies substantially depending on whether you lean toward light choices or dark choices, you can judge every story on both it's dark version and light version. As far as Light Side stories go, the Sith Warrior gets arguably the most heroic and compelling one in the entire game.
And speaking strictly in terms of writing quality and freshness in the context of a Star Wars game, the Imperial Agent provides the best base narrative of any class in the game. Bounty Hunter is the weakest on the Imperial side, by a fair margin. It's still better than the narrative in pretty much all other released MMOs, but I would argue not good enough to justify repeating the shared Imperial content a fourth time just to get to it, unless repetition just doesn't bother you.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
I think this is the core of the matter. Take away the Star Wars IP and put it in another MMO and I can't help but think a chunk of the playerbase follows.
My wife still plays it
2 reasons:
1) She's a huge Star Wars nut. If the game were anything other than Star Wars, I doubt she would still be bothering with it
2) She levels up one character through the story, and once it's done with the story, she starts the next class - there's no end game for her, she's totally just about leveling up and seeing the storylines. She's got 5 of them done so far, once she finishes them all I doubt she'll keep playing.
At this point, I doubt it. At launch there were plenty of people who showed up just for the fact that Star Wars was slapped on the box, but at this point the people playing are people who actually like the game for what it is, not who are just hanging out waiting for another Star Wars game.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
A lot of people are STILL shitting on the game, but tbh it's still a fairly good MMO.
I returned to it for a bit some time ago with mates who also got a bit tired of AoW (they pulled me back to it). Although the game's F2P model is total bullshit and it should be regarded as a P2P game nonetheless, it was really good to return to it.
Seriously, I enjoyed the heck out of doing the story stuff over voicechat with others, the combat has always been fairly smooth, the warzones are well made (+ they finally heeded my advice from the early days and bolster the level cap tier now so newbies aren't destroyed as easily).
Also, unlike many MMO's these days, the worlds all have their group based challenges which are all fairly rewarding as well.
Heck, I even found the new space minigame enjoyable.
In other words, though I might have burned myself out completely with being a raidleader + being one of the first battlemasters on my server after launch, SW:TOR is a GREAT MMO to play casually. As long as you are willing to pay your sub that is.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Chests?
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
just because you don't like the game. doesn't mean other people don't.