SWTOR will be a huge success. I am willing to bet on this. Not just the initial box sales but sub numbers. The MMO genre and been missing out on story based features. Not a single MMO to date has drawn me in with lore or story. Me and millions of othres skip past all that. I believe SWTOR will be the first to finnaly hit the mark with it's story. It will be the first MMO that will draw in just about every player and give them more purpose for actually playing the game and watching the events unfold. Bioware is one of the few companys that actually know how to really make great stories and incorporate them into their games. Take a look at the recently released Mass Effect 2. It's actually one of the first games in awhile that I actually have spent the time to complete 100% if content (excluding DLC). I also just bough Final Fantasy 13. My older brothers rarely play games anymore but theyll still try some of the new AAA titles. My brothers wont even touch FF13 and I don't blame them. Sure the good story may be there, but the characters and their dialouge ruin some of the experience. It sucks. Bioware creates good stories and backs them up with good dialouge and characters worth learning about. And to those that think their arent enough MMO junkies and StarWars junkies to make this as (or more) successful as WoW; then oh boy you guys are terribly wrong. You have no idea.
You're talking single player game experiences compared to how an MMORPG plays. They are two totally different animals and if your suspensions are correct than what a lot of us have been fearing will come true and SW:Tor will be nothing but a single player game with multiplayer capabilites. It will not be a perisitent world where hundreds of players interact in cities like we do in WoW and other games. Instead it'll be central hubs ala Guild Wars and everything else will be instanced.
Uhh and no. Doesn't matter how many fans of SW there are. Seriously...look at some of the other SW games(single player - Force Unleashed was a terrible game) and you'll see that not all of them were great successes - even SWG is on life support.
@ Teala you talking like you beta tested TOR? or what are your credentials for your rant??
Probably none, but being right helps
Maybe I just have the same gaming illness as everyone else, but I do not find it hard to believe that a company could come out with a powerhouse product that rocks the MMO world and gives WOW a real punch in the nose. With the technology available today, I think it’s very possible.
But I will bet it all, that it will never be “a single player game with multiplayer capabilities”. I think the best that game can really hope to do has been shown by LOTR. As others have said, it’s the “social crack” that builds a great game. This is typically in the form of PVP, but I think any dynamic and expansive interaction would do for a game like Star Wars.
A lot of people have said how this game can’t miss as they link it to Star Wars images. You have to remember that this is also a curse, because it’s a lot to live up too. A single player game will never be able to IMO.
If you are going to make a gamble, Bioware is the company to make the gamble on. They are the most consistent, quality driven and producers of games that are fun other than Blizzard, and we know how WoW turned out. SW:TOR is the title a lot of people have been waiting for. Not to replace WoW, but to become a completely new community that *isn't* WoW.
Originally posted by qazyman Probably none, but being right helps
Maybe I just have the same gaming illness as everyone else, but I do not find it hard to believe that a company could come out with a powerhouse product that rocks the MMO world and gives WOW a real punch in the nose. With the technology available today, I think it’s very possible. But I will bet it all, that it will never be “a single player game with multiplayer capabilities”. ...
I agree completely. I'm a huge BioWare fan and it's going to be sad seeing them thought this lesson. MMO players don't want a single player game and they don't want loading and the don't want instances.
Cryptic would be much more successful if most MMO players were okay with heavy instancing, which they are obviously not, and BioWare would know this if they spent more than a day researching MMOs before they started developing one.
I do feel bad for them, but it's there own fault. All the information about what MMO players want in a game is out there. All you have to do is look for it, and ask them. Blizzard asked everquest players what they wanted and that worked out very well for them.
I've read a lot of MMO forums over the years and not once has lack of good voice work been an issue. NOT ONCE. And that is the major focus for BioWare.
The only company that I know of that has quality assurance other than Blizzard is BioWare, so this looks like a classic clash of the titans scenario to me, then again from what I've seen of SW:TOR, the game seems a little.... Just odd. If you look at the gameplay video interviews, some of the game just seems off in a way. Of course, the game being in the state it is, this will hopefully be polished.
But I will bet it all, that it will never be “a single player game with multiplayer capabilities”. ...
I don't agree, at all. The most popular games out today can be played single player. WoW, EVE, LotRO, EQ2, DDO. All can be played single player, but you can group/raid/pvp with others. We will never go back to the days of EQ were you either are grouped, or you're logging out and sooon cancelling because you can't find a group.. Thank goodness.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying this game should be another copy of WoW gameplay. If it is its doomed.
I absolutely belive there is a huge market for a game that has more focus on single player and group play balance than raiding. Is it SW:TOR? I doubt it. Sounds like they are going to have a raiding end game. The question should be how will this game differ from any other game?
I don't much care for this game anyway so meh, no harm here. Good luck folks.
OK? Thanks for coming? Yeesh... what was the point.
Anyway, I seriously think the only scary part of this situation is EA. I really fear for Bioware. Whats going to happen when they disappoint in some way... Exec's fired.. employees layed off.. morale gone.. subs lost.. train wreck. OK thats me just fearing the absolute worst. I am so excited for SWTOR, I am certain its going to be fun enough that I will play it, however its presented (single playereeee, isntanceee. etc.)
All the FUD in the world is not going to make this a bad game, and the fact that it gets this much FUD tells me that someone is scared. This won't be a "WoW competitor". This will be a game that gamers play along with WoW, or until it supersedes it.
So many "trust me" statements in this thread. Anyway, no one has to play the game in order to pull information from what has been disclosed and from using a little common sense.
1. Bioware is a great single player, console-type developer, but mmos are not single player titles. Completely different in many ways. Does it mean that Bioware cant make a mmo that has the same quality as their single player titles? No. Does it mean that they can? Again, no. But if it were not for the Bioware fanbois, I think alot more people would look at this with unbiased eyes and see that in many ways this is a gamble and would at least be skeptical that Bioware can deliver.
2. There has been soooo much attention drawn to SWTOR being the first fully voiced-over mmo. Common sense dictates that if that has been one of your major, if not THE major talking point, the rest of the game is not getting the attention it needs. You know, little things like gameplay, endgame, etc.
3. For those of you watching the videos, remember watching the developer controlled player standing in front of 3 mobs and getting shot about 10 times point blank and their health barely going down? To me, that is not exactly challenging gameplay when you just stand around and let people shoot you because it doesnt matter. That hallmark seems to run throughout every video.
4. Similarly to 3, remember when the sith warrior and bounty hunter were doing the duo mission on the star cruiser? The narrator talks up the encounter and speaks to how challenging and dangerous the upcoming fight with the jedi master will be. Then the Jedi master comes in and well . . . gets his ass kicked? No challenge whatsoever? A jedi master gets force choked by a 30 min old sith warrior? Mkay. Is this what we have to look forward to? Story driven missions with what appears to be two different choices in outcomes that offer little to no challenge? The narrator spoke about team work, but there was no evidence of that in the jedi master encounter. So if its in there, why not show us? If the beef exists, where's the beef?
Im sure alot of you will call me a hater, but I love the Star Wars universe and see amazing possibilies for the old repulic era. But everything Ive seen from SWTOR, whether it be posts, videos. blogs, etc., suggests that this will be way too much like Guild Wars. Everything points to a single player online game where you can join up with others for missions and pvp. For me, that would be a travesty to the mmorpg genre and the IP. We have enough pretender mmorpgs as it is. It would be a crime to waste what may be the last Star Wars mmorpg license on something that wastes such a great opportunity. Yes, it might still be fun, but it would be just as much fun as a single player online title or console title and not eat a precious mmorpg license and spot.
What Wow has/had going for it is that the fantasy genre offers some cross-over appeal to women and other non-gamers in general. Blizzard was able to make the game so as to get a few million non-geeks to try the game.
Star Wars has the baggage associated with Sci Fi and Star Wars. For better or worse, the passion of Star Wars' hard core fan base is more than likely going to be an impediment to expanding the game outside of that base.
Does EA hope to pull customers from existing games, or do they hope to find a new market to draw to it's MMO? I know there will be a core of folks who will be drawn to this game, and EA may very well get quite a few box sales out of the gate. But I wonder what it's long term prospects will be outside of Star Wars fans.
I, like many, am eagerly awaiting something with WoW-level polish and content to set the 800 lb gorilla back a bit. But I don't plan on getting too mixed up with the Star Wars crowd, and I imagine I'm not alone.
Its all about marketing. People consistantly think the US drives WoW money making machine. If they can't get the asian MMO market on board it will "fail". If a MMO is a failure based on the fact that it doesn't kill WoW and that it doesn't make at least as much money in subscriptions. Nowadays thats the comparison for a MMOs failure.
So many "trust me" statements in this thread. Anyway, no one has to play the game in order to pull information from what has been disclosed and from using a little common sense. 1. Bioware is a great single player, console-type developer, but mmos are not single player titles. Completely different in many ways. Does it mean that Bioware cant make a mmo that has the same quality as their single player titles? No. Does it mean that they can? Again, no. But if it were not for the Bioware fanbois, I think alot more people would look at this with unbiased eyes and see that in many ways this is a gamble and would at least be skeptical that Bioware can deliver. 2. There has been soooo much attention drawn to SWTOR being the first fully voiced-over mmo. Common sense dictates that if that has been one of your major, if not THE major talking point, the rest of the game is not getting the attention it needs. You know, little things like gameplay, endgame, etc. 3. For those of you watching the videos, remember watching the developer controlled player standing in front of 3 mobs and getting shot about 10 times point blank and their health barely going down? To me, that is not exactly challenging gameplay when you just stand around and let people shoot you because it doesnt matter. That hallmark seems to run throughout every video. 4. Similarly to 3, remember when the sith warrior and bounty hunter were doing the duo mission on the star cruiser? The narrator talks up the encounter and speaks to how challenging and dangerous the upcoming fight with the jedi master will be. Then the Jedi master comes in and well . . . gets his ass kicked? No challenge whatsoever? A jedi master gets force choked by a 30 min old sith warrior? Mkay. Is this what we have to look forward to? Story driven missions with what appears to be two different choices in outcomes that offer little to no challenge? The narrator spoke about team work, but there was no evidence of that in the jedi master encounter. So if its in there, why not show us? If the beef exists, where's the beef? Im sure alot of you will call me a hater, but I love the Star Wars universe and see amazing possibilies for the old repulic era. But everything Ive seen from SWTOR, whether it be posts, videos. blogs, etc., suggests that this will be way too much like Guild Wars. Everything points to a single player online game where you can join up with others for missions and pvp. For me, that would be a travesty to the mmorpg genre and the IP. We have enough pretender mmorpgs as it is. It would be a crime to waste what may be the last Star Wars mmorpg license on something that wastes such a great opportunity. Yes, it might still be fun, but it would be just as much fun as a single player online title or console title and not eat a precious mmorpg license and spot.
Well said,
However, LA is not banking on this as the only Star Wars MMO. There are no plans to drop SWG beyond Smedley's interview, there is a strong rumor of a Clone Wars MMO being developed over at SOE based on the Free Realms engine, and finally another rumor with no substance based on Dark Times era MMO. Thats 4 different properties. What LA learned was not to bet on one gamble but own the market with multiple demographics if these develope to fruition. This worked in the films, cartoons and future live TV by having different markets and should translates well for the MMO field.
If you really think about it, why limit Star Wars MMOs to the Old Republic? Thats the future of Star Wars MMOs unless it all tanks.
Its all about marketing. People consistantly think the US drives WoW money making machine. If they can't get the asian MMO market on board it will "fail". If a MMO is a failure based on the fact that it doesn't kill WoW and that it doesn't make at least as much money in subscriptions. Nowadays thats the comparison for a MMOs failure.
Honestly, what do you think a WoW sub costs in China? 3 - 5 bucks a month max? Asia is not the driving factor of Western-style MMO success. Until the standard of living increases in China, they just simply can't afford the sub prices that these games command in Europe, Australia and the US. Not to mention Chinese gamers are even bigger gaming tourists than their Western counterparts. It can help it, but I reckon Europe, Australia and America make up the bulk of any Western-based game's actual dollars, not just number of subscriptions.
With that said, I really look forward to the launch of this game. I haven't bought a gamebox since WOTLK. This game will probably break my Blizzard trend, at least for one month.
With a dedicated and awesome Television ad campaign... Box sales could be astronomical. But it won't hold people. It won't hold people because its an Online Single Player Game. WoW holds people because its online social crack. SWTOR won't be that.
I've read about six of your posts today and I am now certain that your talents are wasted posting here amongst us peons, why are you not heading up Bioware or better yet SOE maybe then the company in the best position to be an industry leader can actually lead the genre.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Don't most mmo's take anywhere from 3-5 years to develop? During the course of that time, think about the how the orginal story line must change. How the technology that was in use at the start of the game development must change. No wonder mmo's take so long to develop. And some never make it to retail. Soundsl like a crap shoot, but the rewards could be great if you have a great game.
You're talking single player game experiences compared to how an MMORPG plays. They are two totally different animals and if your suspensions are correct than what a lot of us have been fearing will come true and SW:Tor will be nothing but a single player game with multiplayer capabilites. It will not be a perisitent world where hundreds of players interact in cities like we do in WoW and other games. Instead it'll be central hubs ala Guild Wars and everything else will be instanced.
Tha'ts fine with me if the game is polished and enjoyable.
I will not pay for a single player game that plays online that is stupid. Nock yourelf out though.
And exactly why would you not pay for a single player game that plays online? If given a free month do you not think that you would get enjoyment out of the first month? I guess you just don't play any single player games at all at this time then huh.
It's one thing to say I won't continue to sub to a single player online game, but won't even buy it and try it hmmmm... I'd say in that case then you are an mmoer but certainly not a gamer, and let's say for the sake of argument that the single player elements are so fun and plentiful that you don't get past all of the content in the first month, would you then still not sub to see the rest of the game considering at that point it costs, let's assume fifteen bucks a month.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
You're talking single player game experiences compared to how an MMORPG plays. They are two totally different animals and if your suspensions are correct than what a lot of us have been fearing will come true and SW:Tor will be nothing but a single player game with multiplayer capabilites. It will not be a perisitent world where hundreds of players interact in cities like we do in WoW and other games. Instead it'll be central hubs ala Guild Wars and everything else will be instanced.
Uhh and no. Doesn't matter how many fans of SW there are. Seriously...look at some of the other SW games(single player - Force Unleashed was a terrible game) and you'll see that not all of them were great successes - even SWG is on life support.
How do you know that? To be honest I think you're just spouting lies.
'Daniel Erickson: Well, the sort of the final note on this is that one of the things people kept getting concerned about, and rightly so, is we showed flashpoints and that sort of stuff.
One of the real things we wanted to show at GDC this year is that our worlds are huge, actually. They are giant, you can explore. They are massive. You can just wander off one direction and go forever. There is tons of content there.'
taken from an interview. I have proof of my opinion, where's yours? I've seen no evidence that swtor will be a Guild Wars style hub. They showed a flashpoint in the Pax East demo, which is basically the same as an instance in wow or any other game that has instances.
Most things make it look like a glorified instanced single player game but we shall see.
Yes, I agree. But with the followership Bioware has and the experience in single player RPGs that might still work out well if they manage to keep the content flowing ... Maybe not 100 Mio $ per month, the hardware restrictions make it far less likely they can do that per month I think, but we will see.
I wouldn't want to make any prediction in TOR yet as I haven't seen the game and played a few hours. And so far I've been correct with every MMO prediction I did even if nobody wanted to believe me. Except WoW - I underestimated THAT success. But hey, worse cases of wrong predictions have been seen.
Played: Pretty much any fantasy MMO, some did not even make it to release ... Favorites: UO, EQ2, Vanguard, Wurm Online, Salem, ESO, Creativerse Playing: ESO, Creativerse, Guild Wars 2 Anticipating: (sigh) ... maybe Ashes of Creation
Here that sound..... it's Mythic crying... with the game from probably one of the best fantasy settings in the world (tolkeins was dull i said it, lacked skaven) anyway... and ruined it. With more live events than new content and an engine that looks like it should have retired before it started... WAR is a failure on a gaming standard.
Thing is, EA did push the panic button a little tooo quickly with WAR and started shifting around the team and getting rid of a lot of employees. (In fact some mythic team ended up in UO and some were working with Bioware last i heard because of their knowledge with MMO's)
Now if SWTOR does not need to sell well compared to console games, that's not where they make their long term investment. An MMO isn't a quick fire 7 hour COD4, with a couple of crappy micro transactions (there i said it too and EA loves micro transactions).
They need to grab and maintain subscribers... then it'll be a win, thing is all they really need is 600,000 for it to be a complete success. That number is based on US and EU... although sales i'm guessing will hit well over the million mark. (you'll see).
but with EA who knows what will happen... will Bioware's constant single player model work with an MMO (visit 2 planets, talk, visit 2 more, talk, then planet and twist... 3 more planets then sex... then it's end game).... sorry that's every single player to date (replace planets with whatever the game is). I love Bioware games but they don't EVER offer anything really new, all they seem to do now is take the RPG out of their frigging RPG (Mass Effect 2 prime example, i found it difficult calling it a RPG when it's really a Interactive Drama Action Adventure Game).
Bioware, aren't Black Isle..... remember that.... -munches popcorn- and thank god they are so far away from activision you can't see the control chips in their head flashing (EA prefers brain washing with crappy sports games)
tha last part used to be true (still is with the sports side) but EA have made some fantastic purchases of developers in recent years....
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
Comments
You're talking single player game experiences compared to how an MMORPG plays. They are two totally different animals and if your suspensions are correct than what a lot of us have been fearing will come true and SW:Tor will be nothing but a single player game with multiplayer capabilites. It will not be a perisitent world where hundreds of players interact in cities like we do in WoW and other games. Instead it'll be central hubs ala Guild Wars and everything else will be instanced.
Uhh and no. Doesn't matter how many fans of SW there are. Seriously...look at some of the other SW games(single player - Force Unleashed was a terrible game) and you'll see that not all of them were great successes - even SWG is on life support.
@ Teala you talking like you beta tested TOR? or what are your credentials for your rant??
Probably none, but being right helps
Maybe I just have the same gaming illness as everyone else, but I do not find it hard to believe that a company could come out with a powerhouse product that rocks the MMO world and gives WOW a real punch in the nose. With the technology available today, I think it’s very possible.
But I will bet it all, that it will never be “a single player game with multiplayer capabilities”. I think the best that game can really hope to do has been shown by LOTR. As others have said, it’s the “social crack” that builds a great game. This is typically in the form of PVP, but I think any dynamic and expansive interaction would do for a game like Star Wars.
A lot of people have said how this game can’t miss as they link it to Star Wars images. You have to remember that this is also a curse, because it’s a lot to live up too. A single player game will never be able to IMO.
If you are going to make a gamble, Bioware is the company to make the gamble on. They are the most consistent, quality driven and producers of games that are fun other than Blizzard, and we know how WoW turned out. SW:TOR is the title a lot of people have been waiting for. Not to replace WoW, but to become a completely new community that *isn't* WoW.
I agree completely. I'm a huge BioWare fan and it's going to be sad seeing them thought this lesson. MMO players don't want a single player game and they don't want loading and the don't want instances.
Cryptic would be much more successful if most MMO players were okay with heavy instancing, which they are obviously not, and BioWare would know this if they spent more than a day researching MMOs before they started developing one.
I do feel bad for them, but it's there own fault. All the information about what MMO players want in a game is out there. All you have to do is look for it, and ask them. Blizzard asked everquest players what they wanted and that worked out very well for them.
I've read a lot of MMO forums over the years and not once has lack of good voice work been an issue. NOT ONCE. And that is the major focus for BioWare.
The only company that I know of that has quality assurance other than Blizzard is BioWare, so this looks like a classic clash of the titans scenario to me, then again from what I've seen of SW:TOR, the game seems a little.... Just odd. If you look at the gameplay video interviews, some of the game just seems off in a way. Of course, the game being in the state it is, this will hopefully be polished.
I don't agree, at all. The most popular games out today can be played single player. WoW, EVE, LotRO, EQ2, DDO. All can be played single player, but you can group/raid/pvp with others. We will never go back to the days of EQ were you either are grouped, or you're logging out and sooon cancelling because you can't find a group.. Thank goodness.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying this game should be another copy of WoW gameplay. If it is its doomed.
I absolutely belive there is a huge market for a game that has more focus on single player and group play balance than raiding. Is it SW:TOR? I doubt it. Sounds like they are going to have a raiding end game. The question should be how will this game differ from any other game?
OK? Thanks for coming? Yeesh... what was the point.
Anyway, I seriously think the only scary part of this situation is EA. I really fear for Bioware. Whats going to happen when they disappoint in some way... Exec's fired.. employees layed off.. morale gone.. subs lost.. train wreck. OK thats me just fearing the absolute worst. I am so excited for SWTOR, I am certain its going to be fun enough that I will play it, however its presented (single playereeee, isntanceee. etc.)
All the FUD in the world is not going to make this a bad game, and the fact that it gets this much FUD tells me that someone is scared. This won't be a "WoW competitor". This will be a game that gamers play along with WoW, or until it supersedes it.
So many "trust me" statements in this thread. Anyway, no one has to play the game in order to pull information from what has been disclosed and from using a little common sense.
1. Bioware is a great single player, console-type developer, but mmos are not single player titles. Completely different in many ways. Does it mean that Bioware cant make a mmo that has the same quality as their single player titles? No. Does it mean that they can? Again, no. But if it were not for the Bioware fanbois, I think alot more people would look at this with unbiased eyes and see that in many ways this is a gamble and would at least be skeptical that Bioware can deliver.
2. There has been soooo much attention drawn to SWTOR being the first fully voiced-over mmo. Common sense dictates that if that has been one of your major, if not THE major talking point, the rest of the game is not getting the attention it needs. You know, little things like gameplay, endgame, etc.
3. For those of you watching the videos, remember watching the developer controlled player standing in front of 3 mobs and getting shot about 10 times point blank and their health barely going down? To me, that is not exactly challenging gameplay when you just stand around and let people shoot you because it doesnt matter. That hallmark seems to run throughout every video.
4. Similarly to 3, remember when the sith warrior and bounty hunter were doing the duo mission on the star cruiser? The narrator talks up the encounter and speaks to how challenging and dangerous the upcoming fight with the jedi master will be. Then the Jedi master comes in and well . . . gets his ass kicked? No challenge whatsoever? A jedi master gets force choked by a 30 min old sith warrior? Mkay. Is this what we have to look forward to? Story driven missions with what appears to be two different choices in outcomes that offer little to no challenge? The narrator spoke about team work, but there was no evidence of that in the jedi master encounter. So if its in there, why not show us? If the beef exists, where's the beef?
Im sure alot of you will call me a hater, but I love the Star Wars universe and see amazing possibilies for the old repulic era. But everything Ive seen from SWTOR, whether it be posts, videos. blogs, etc., suggests that this will be way too much like Guild Wars. Everything points to a single player online game where you can join up with others for missions and pvp. For me, that would be a travesty to the mmorpg genre and the IP. We have enough pretender mmorpgs as it is. It would be a crime to waste what may be the last Star Wars mmorpg license on something that wastes such a great opportunity. Yes, it might still be fun, but it would be just as much fun as a single player online title or console title and not eat a precious mmorpg license and spot.
What Wow has/had going for it is that the fantasy genre offers some cross-over appeal to women and other non-gamers in general. Blizzard was able to make the game so as to get a few million non-geeks to try the game.
Star Wars has the baggage associated with Sci Fi and Star Wars. For better or worse, the passion of Star Wars' hard core fan base is more than likely going to be an impediment to expanding the game outside of that base.
Does EA hope to pull customers from existing games, or do they hope to find a new market to draw to it's MMO? I know there will be a core of folks who will be drawn to this game, and EA may very well get quite a few box sales out of the gate. But I wonder what it's long term prospects will be outside of Star Wars fans.
I, like many, am eagerly awaiting something with WoW-level polish and content to set the 800 lb gorilla back a bit. But I don't plan on getting too mixed up with the Star Wars crowd, and I imagine I'm not alone.
Its all about marketing. People consistantly think the US drives WoW money making machine. If they can't get the asian MMO market on board it will "fail". If a MMO is a failure based on the fact that it doesn't kill WoW and that it doesn't make at least as much money in subscriptions. Nowadays thats the comparison for a MMOs failure.
Well said,
However, LA is not banking on this as the only Star Wars MMO. There are no plans to drop SWG beyond Smedley's interview, there is a strong rumor of a Clone Wars MMO being developed over at SOE based on the Free Realms engine, and finally another rumor with no substance based on Dark Times era MMO. Thats 4 different properties. What LA learned was not to bet on one gamble but own the market with multiple demographics if these develope to fruition. This worked in the films, cartoons and future live TV by having different markets and should translates well for the MMO field.
If you really think about it, why limit Star Wars MMOs to the Old Republic? Thats the future of Star Wars MMOs unless it all tanks.
Honestly, what do you think a WoW sub costs in China? 3 - 5 bucks a month max? Asia is not the driving factor of Western-style MMO success. Until the standard of living increases in China, they just simply can't afford the sub prices that these games command in Europe, Australia and the US. Not to mention Chinese gamers are even bigger gaming tourists than their Western counterparts. It can help it, but I reckon Europe, Australia and America make up the bulk of any Western-based game's actual dollars, not just number of subscriptions.
With that said, I really look forward to the launch of this game. I haven't bought a gamebox since WOTLK. This game will probably break my Blizzard trend, at least for one month.
I've read about six of your posts today and I am now certain that your talents are wasted posting here amongst us peons, why are you not heading up Bioware or better yet SOE maybe then the company in the best position to be an industry leader can actually lead the genre.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Don't most mmo's take anywhere from 3-5 years to develop? During the course of that time, think about the how the orginal story line must change. How the technology that was in use at the start of the game development must change. No wonder mmo's take so long to develop. And some never make it to retail. Soundsl like a crap shoot, but the rewards could be great if you have a great game.
Tha'ts fine with me if the game is polished and enjoyable.
I will not pay for a single player game that plays online that is stupid. Nock yourelf out though.
And exactly why would you not pay for a single player game that plays online? If given a free month do you not think that you would get enjoyment out of the first month? I guess you just don't play any single player games at all at this time then huh.
It's one thing to say I won't continue to sub to a single player online game, but won't even buy it and try it hmmmm... I'd say in that case then you are an mmoer but certainly not a gamer, and let's say for the sake of argument that the single player elements are so fun and plentiful that you don't get past all of the content in the first month, would you then still not sub to see the rest of the game considering at that point it costs, let's assume fifteen bucks a month.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
You're talking single player game experiences compared to how an MMORPG plays. They are two totally different animals and if your suspensions are correct than what a lot of us have been fearing will come true and SW:Tor will be nothing but a single player game with multiplayer capabilites. It will not be a perisitent world where hundreds of players interact in cities like we do in WoW and other games. Instead it'll be central hubs ala Guild Wars and everything else will be instanced.
Uhh and no. Doesn't matter how many fans of SW there are. Seriously...look at some of the other SW games(single player - Force Unleashed was a terrible game) and you'll see that not all of them were great successes - even SWG is on life support.
How do you know that? To be honest I think you're just spouting lies.
'Daniel Erickson: Well, the sort of the final note on this is that one of the things people kept getting concerned about, and rightly so, is we showed flashpoints and that sort of stuff.
One of the real things we wanted to show at GDC this year is that our worlds are huge, actually. They are giant, you can explore. They are massive. You can just wander off one direction and go forever. There is tons of content there.'
http://darthhater.com/2010/03/15/interview-story-time-with-daniel-erickson/
taken from an interview. I have proof of my opinion, where's yours? I've seen no evidence that swtor will be a Guild Wars style hub. They showed a flashpoint in the Pax East demo, which is basically the same as an instance in wow or any other game that has instances.
Yes, I agree. But with the followership Bioware has and the experience in single player RPGs that might still work out well if they manage to keep the content flowing ... Maybe not 100 Mio $ per month, the hardware restrictions make it far less likely they can do that per month I think, but we will see.
I wouldn't want to make any prediction in TOR yet as I haven't seen the game and played a few hours. And so far I've been correct with every MMO prediction I did even if nobody wanted to believe me. Except WoW - I underestimated THAT success. But hey, worse cases of wrong predictions have been seen.
Played: Pretty much any fantasy MMO, some did not even make it to release ...
Favorites: UO, EQ2, Vanguard, Wurm Online, Salem, ESO, Creativerse
Playing: ESO, Creativerse, Guild Wars 2
Anticipating: (sigh) ... maybe Ashes of Creation
Here that sound..... it's Mythic crying... with the game from probably one of the best fantasy settings in the world (tolkeins was dull i said it, lacked skaven) anyway... and ruined it. With more live events than new content and an engine that looks like it should have retired before it started... WAR is a failure on a gaming standard.
Thing is, EA did push the panic button a little tooo quickly with WAR and started shifting around the team and getting rid of a lot of employees. (In fact some mythic team ended up in UO and some were working with Bioware last i heard because of their knowledge with MMO's)
Now if SWTOR does not need to sell well compared to console games, that's not where they make their long term investment. An MMO isn't a quick fire 7 hour COD4, with a couple of crappy micro transactions (there i said it too and EA loves micro transactions).
They need to grab and maintain subscribers... then it'll be a win, thing is all they really need is 600,000 for it to be a complete success. That number is based on US and EU... although sales i'm guessing will hit well over the million mark. (you'll see).
but with EA who knows what will happen... will Bioware's constant single player model work with an MMO (visit 2 planets, talk, visit 2 more, talk, then planet and twist... 3 more planets then sex... then it's end game).... sorry that's every single player to date (replace planets with whatever the game is). I love Bioware games but they don't EVER offer anything really new, all they seem to do now is take the RPG out of their frigging RPG (Mass Effect 2 prime example, i found it difficult calling it a RPG when it's really a Interactive Drama Action Adventure Game).
Bioware, aren't Black Isle..... remember that.... -munches popcorn- and thank god they are so far away from activision you can't see the control chips in their head flashing (EA prefers brain washing with crappy sports games)
tha last part used to be true (still is with the sports side) but EA have made some fantastic purchases of developers in recent years....
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week