If it makes you feel any better, the Broadsword website copyright notice hasn’t been updated in 10 years (still says 2014, which was the year they picked up Dark Age of Camelot). Not very important, but kind of funny, or unprofessional depending on who you ask.

Yeah I f***ing love this game. And idk much about game development because I don’t develop games. But I smell so much stuff that was not the Bioware of old. So to anyone who takes control of this game from here on and actually wants to push it to the max potential: please do it. There will never be another game like this. You’ll probably fail because it’s probably already too late, but you will do so much for the people who love this

I, too, feel more optimistic the more I look into Broadsword. For instance, their website looks like it hasn’t been updated in 20 years, which must mean they don’t bother with such nonsense and instead spend all their time working on the two, historic titles within their purview. This makes sense because everyone knows that when it comes to MMORPGS that are more than 10 years old, Dark Age of Camelot remains the premier choice above all others.

Whoa, whoa, whoa yourself! Do you think we’re stupid? I mean we are, but we’re not THAT stupid. Clearly, it is a new beginning, but the beginning of what? If it was the beginning of something truly great I’m sure there would have been a much better things to say in your post (made after the news broke elsewhere) other than something like “yeah the news reports are true, this game is getting passed off to a studio that you haven’t heard of doing anything significant in the past decade, and maybe they’ll do some stuff.”

Well it’s still a great game, I will continue to seek enjoyment from the new system.

Lol ok dude

Again, I don’t think it’s a zero sum game. There are many ways they could have implemented the new system and accomplished greater PVP outreach, without alienating those who respond to skill-based incentives. For example, they could have kept ranked in addition to the new PVP seasons. But even if they didn’t want to keep ranked because it was too much of a resource drain, there are many simple ways to have skill-based rewards within an unranked system like those discussed earlier. But there’s nothing in their messaging that indicates they intend to implement skill-based rewards and incentives within the current system. If they intended to do it, they should have said so before most of the competitive community dipped out. And like I’ve said elsewhere, you can bring in casuals, but once they see everything there is to be seen, and that there is only more grind and no next level of play, they will move on to something else.

Yeah I mean fair point about ranked alienating people. I just don’t get why they went so far in the other direction. I’d even be cool with something as simple as just tying cool rewards to the individual achievements the game used to have that were more difficult to achieve but never awarded anything meaningful. Stuff like 10 solo kills in a warzone, 20 killing blows in a warzone, scoring the huttball all 6 times in a match, etc. There could be a bunch of stuff there that could give people reason to try harder on their own and cool stuff to show off, yet it’s not like anyone would abuse you for not having them. Right now, besides the season grind rewards, and valor grind titles, there’s just the Arena Legend and War Machine titles, which are yet just more grind rewards (win 800 arenas or WZs).

No the exact opposite. My point is that there are a ton of other games with simpler core mechanics and much lower barriers to entry that still have skill-based rewards and leaderboards that encourage people to keep playing and get better. Rocket League is a super high skill game at the highest level. But even at the lowest level you can jump in and compete and be rewarded in ways that matter…and you don’t need to do a bunch of gearing, leveling, and mapping of a ton of abilities to do it. And when you do work hard and get really good at it, the rewards reflect it. SWTOR PVP on the other hand requires a ton of investment into leveling, gearing, abilities, and learning now for what? To get the same stuff as someone who afks their way through a season? There’s just no point to playing at a high level in this game anymore. For lot of people, getting better at a game and getting better rewards is a big part of the fun.

I mean someone can learn the basics of Rocket League in an hour and start having fun going just trying to climb through the lower brackets. Almost every cookie-cutter cash-grab mobile multiplayer game I play while taking a poop has some sort of skill-based tier mode I can explore if I want. What’s the point of learning SWTOR complex systems now if the only reward is just a slightly shorter grind?

It really blows my mind that they completely did away with any and all skill-based PvP goals for a game that requires some significant time and skill to PvP effectively. At some point, newer people who play games for PvP will play all the maps a bunch of times, grind through a season or two, and then realize there is no point to continue playing and getting better. Then you got hugely popular f2p games like World of Tanks, which is much simpler at its core. It still has a ranked mode. Outside of ranked, it has a Marks of Excellence system as well as skill-based medals and achievements that can be attained in unranked play, yet you can’t just grind to achieve them. There is absolutely nothing left to attain in SWTOR PVP that is a matter of skill. The only thing left is the fun of the game itself. But there are a lot of other fun games out there that also reward the time and effort it takes to become skilled, which is always more meaningful and satisfying than time and effort spent on pure grind.

Matchmaking is about as fine as it can be. Every and now and then you’ll get a lopsided match either due to roles, premade, or skill level—and while those are easier to remember since they are annoying—most matches are pretty normal. Not that it really matters now anyway. Win some or lose more, collect the same prize.

I don’t think they’re terrible. However, I suspect there’s a lot of groupthink, punching in and punching out, and an overall lack of passion and understanding for the games potential at work at multiple levels

The thing about casuals is they often find something else to be casual at relatively quickly once they feel they’ve seen everything to be seen. Ranked play was at least another level to aspire towards. I’m sure many casuals would at least have some fantasy in the back of their mind about one day getting top 3 in the leaderboards. There is no next level now. Just 25 levels rinse and repeat, season in season out. Doesn’t matter what you do or how well you play, just how long you can grind.

I’ve taken to signing on, staring at my PvP season page for a bit as I contemplate the grind and trinket rewards, asking myself why I’m even doing this, then signing off