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SWTOR Will Never End?
ForTheCity
Member Posts: 307
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/39194/BioWares_Zeschuk_Star_Wars_The_Old_Republic_Will_Never_End.php
As part of a new Gamasutra feature, the co-founder of Star Wars: The Old Republic developer BioWare promises that continuous development will continue on the title as its creative director assures it's his only priority.
"Unlike a lot of other game companies that, once they launch a game, downsize their teams radically, our plan is to keep the team together and continue to focus on building content," says James Ohlen, creative director on Star Wars: The Old Republic, which launches this week.
"There's no secret project currently being done in the Austin studio," reveals Ohlen. "We're very much focused on Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars for the foreseeable future."
BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk agrees with Ohlen. "It's hard to say right now what we may or may not do as far as future projects. We're really busy working on future SWTOR content as well as continuing to improve the service. This will never end."
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For all the people that love this game, this will be a good thing. For all those haters....not so good. If you pay by month this game is $180 a year. If this game last for another 20 years thats going to be $3600....damn. But 20 years isn't FOREVER! Anyone want them to continue working on new content for the next 15 or so years, or would you rather have them work on it for 5 years or so and then work on developing a new game? Or work on both simultaneously?
Comments
SWTOR fans should be happy to hear this. It's a good way to justify that sub cost.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
Problem is, if you're having fun, that's justification enough.
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.
However it's the new content that will ensure that you continue to have fun in the future
I really hope they live up to this. Now that the developement costs have pretty much been taken care of with box sales, they can focus on improving and expanding. What we see from BioWare in the next 6 months will give us a great indication as to the long term future of the game.
Rift opened smooth but with a disgusting lack of content, but you have to give Trion credit for sticking with it and really stepping up. Hopefully BioWare will do the same.
PR speak. I am surprised people take it at face value. Of course it will end, the question is merely when. I'd say TOR will reach is peak within three years and be a ghost town within 6. Then another 2 years before shutdown.
The big layoffs and transferring most of the team to other projects usually doesn't happen on launch day. Rather, they wait a few months for the mess that is launch day to get cleaned up, and then gut the team. So that they haven't done that yet doesn't mean much.
Now, they might not. If the game is successful enough, they'll probably see plenty of money in having the whole team continue to work on expansions. But if the game flops, there won't be nearly so many employees still working on SWTOR a year from now.
BioWare has just delivered EXACTLY what they have been promising for the last several years, giving credibility to their PR speak.
Depends on whether or not you think your fun is worth $60+ for the box, then $15 per month. The longer you play, the better that box cost looks. If I buy the game and then play for three months, that's $120. $60+15+15. That's $40 per month. Kind of pricey if I only enjoy the game for three months. I can get more enjoyment for much less with a Netflix sub.
Now, if I enjoy the game for a year, that's a lot less per month. 11x15=165+60=225. 225 divided by 12 is 18.75. Still costs more than Netflix, so I would hope to enjoy the game for more hours per week than I enjoy streaming movies and TV shows.
The more new content there is, the more likely I am to enjoy the game for more hours per week and also for more months, therefore, the better the cost looks to me.
Right now, frankly, it's not worth the cost. I know I'd be bored in less than three months. But then again, it's just not my type of game, and I doubt it ever will be, because I don't think Bioware is going to start adding sandbox elements anytime soon. But for those who do enjoy the game now, Bioware's announcement should be good news.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
it just launched what do you expect?
oh and there is room for 2 star wars mmos on the market.
I hope you get bi-weekly or at least monthly expansions as fast as I hear you can level. I also heard alts are a drag because of repetitive content.
Life IS Feudal
I think statements like these are simply to quell the conerns that folks might have about future developemnt. Everybody knows they spent a ton to make it and there are concers about future content. Again, this was said to quell those concerns. Time will tell if they are justified or not.
That's a pretty easy statement to make and fulfill. EQ is still being developed on but it has a staff of 3-4 developers who barely have money to add content and the content is super expensive as a result. I don't wish that upon any game.
It is not the same thing. Promising to implement this or that feature is not the same thing as promising that a game will be supported for 15 or even ten years. Think. No company can make such promises, wether it's computer games, cars or fridges that is their business.
Impressive RP? Can't even sit in a chair. No chat bubbles.
Obviously you are easily impressed.
Yeah! It is scientifically proven that RP is impossible without chairs you can sit in and chat bubbles. This is fact and has been verified by extensive studies at accredited universities worldwide.
/sarcasm
Don't forget, you have to be able to climb a tree and swim for RP to actually happen.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Oh no, you can RP without chat bubbles, after all that's how they did it in those old MUD's.
It's just that ever since good ol' Ultima, having to look at a fast scrolling chat window and figuring who said what while your characters just stand there like zombies doesn't exactly do it when it comes to immersion.
This game is so badly designed, the one thing that will never end is trying to plug all the design holes to make it enjoyable past the first few weeks of playtime.
For a MMO, that's a godawful disaster. But hey, just keep watching. I predict massive sub hemmorhage in the coming months unless they fix a lot of stuff real fast. Before launch I thought the game will go steady for at least a year before subs start dropping, but the latest, last-minute batch of Terrible Developer Decisions (TM) killed that optimism.
Bioware are very proud of their new baby, and right now they'll promise the moon and the stars to anyone who'll listen. And they themselves probably believe those promises.
But as far as I know, what Bioware does (and when) is dictated by EA, not Bioware.
How much of their team they can keep depends entirely on the relation between what the team costs every month and how much money TOR earns every month on subs.
Since the other thread was closed regarding f2p, I wanted to add that I don't believe SWTOR will go f2p. What is more likely to happen is the Star Trek Online model: Subscription PLUS item shop.
The takeaway from this statement is that they are keeping the staff intact post launch. They have a huge staff, this bodes well for future content updates.
Shadow's Hand Guild
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http://www.shadowshand.com
You just don't understand Star Wars fans do you? SWG lasted for 8 years and that's even after SOE screwed it with the NGE. That said - if Bioware lives up to it's end (and reputation) SWTOR will be around for a long time. Wow is still here and doing well enough and if that game can last this long SWTOR will have NO problem.
Currently playing SWTOR and it's MUCH better than it was at launch.
If I got out in soho ( London ) I can easily blow 200 quid in a night, if I get enough fun out of playing this game for 3 month for 120 that is pretty cheap entertainment, pretty much every other form of entertainment costs more per hour than SWTOR does. Its not just SWTOR MMOs in general are quite a cheap form of entertainment.
And yes I agree it needs more content still ofc. Just saying MMO entertainment is cheap.
Oh, I understand them quite well being one and having played SWG for seven years. WoW is an anomaly no other game will come close ever. As far as SWG goes it lived on life support for years although it had a population large enough to justify its existence. SWG was sandbox though and while generally having a much smaller population they tend to form close knit communities of diehards. TOR is fast food for the masses, Star Wars or not, and the masses are fickle. Many will walk away as soon as something shinier comes along. TOR will not die or become deserted by any means but to suggest that in ten years TOR will still have the full support staff... Well I don't buy it.
We'll see how large their team will be in 6 months when most of the players have stopped playing the subs...
Looking at EA and Lucas they both have a nice history of closing down MMO projects that are not doing well...
You are right WoW is an anomoly and I would wager that we will NEVER EVER see an MMO that has that many ppl playing it, the reason I say this is cause games like SWTOR will tap onto the player base, so will GW2, these games are no anomolies but they are good quality with the features and the same sort of vibe as WoW that got ppl into MMO's.
So it is very likely that those 10mil ppl or whatever will become diluted in this new wave of games, since the MMO crowd doesnt change very often ( like it did change with WoW ). Does that mean SWTOR needs to have 10mil subs?Not at all, but if it captures a couple of mil it will be very successful and make Bioware a lot of money.
I remember my friends calling me crazy that I was paying monthly or a game and now they have played WoW, for many ppl this was the end all platform and they werent really aware of other mmos until now.
Like I said - all depends on how much, how often and what kind of content gets added. If Bioware keeps it's entire staff as it's said - this should be fairly often and plenty enough to keep players happy.
I also played SWG for about 6 years and I can see myself playing this for the foreseeable future. Now - if Bioware sits on their asses and doesn't produce this will change, but I seriously doubt that's going to happen.
Currently playing SWTOR and it's MUCH better than it was at launch.