Actually you can right now....

John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts Executive) It has been about a week since the most recent EA Conference Call, a meeting that had mixed controversy. EA’s top executive John Riccitiello made the following statement which caused a little animosity with players in the SW:TOR Community. The Old Republic is in EA’s top 10 franchises in terms of profitability, “but it’s not in our top five”. “So it’s a business contributor, while important, is not as important as Medal of Honor or Battlefield or FIFA or Madden or The Sims or SimCity, but it’s more important than Tiger Woods PGA Golf.” “So while I understand there’s an enormous amount of interest, I don’t know that it warrants as much as what we’re seeing right now. But we love the franchise, we’re going to grow the franchise and just like we want to see Tiger Woods Golf grow or SSX grow, or Madden for that matter, we’re going to drive this one for growth.” You don’t need to take “Business 101” to know that the statement above was not “PR-smart” and to a point, un-professional. The fact that SW:TOR’s publisher came out and told the masses they were prioritizing their games is un-wise, especially after taking the WIN for being voted the “Worst Company In America of 2012“ The Consumerist. I’m sorry, but I still can’t get over how Medal of Honor is above SW:TOR in priority; I can hardly tolerate Battlefield 3…but Medal of Honor? Regardless, there’s over 1 million players paying $15 a month for Star Wars: The Old Republic and to hear that your game isn’t at the top of the priority list and demeaned by games like Medal of Honor is irritating. I don’t mean to beat up on Medal of Honor, but I’m just trying to stress the principle of this whole controversy. EA never should’ve said or inferred that some of their games are more important then others… In that same conference call we also learned that the SW:TOR player base had a large drop from 1.7 million to 1.3 million players. Keep in mind these numbers are “active” player accounts. Active accounts are not only subscribed accounts but also weekend trial accounts; I wonder what that new number would be if BioWare didn’t count those weekend trial accounts to the final roster? The statement shown below was made as an explanation to the 400,000 player decline in Star Wars: The Old Republic. EA’s Frank Gibeua said… “When we launched the product back in December, it was an event launch. We brought in a lot of users, and with a brand like Star Wars, it reaches out much past the hardcore MMO fan base into the broader market. And as the service evolves from here, what we’re seeing is that some of the initial casual customers have gone through a billing cycle and decided not to subscribe to the game.” I agree with this statement to a point. There were a lot of gamers who never touched an MMORPG ever. They went out and purchased SW:TOR because they were fans of Star Wars or other BioWare games. But that’s solely not the reason for this decline and I understand that Mr. Gibeua was trying to put a positive spin on this negative news. But sadly I think this is only the calm before the storm. I am no market analyst, but as a gamer who has experienced so many MMOs and seen competitive trends impact the games I love, I really think the number of subscriptions are going to continue to decline for SW:TOR if BioWare doesn’t make a radical change. Guild Wars II and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria are on the horizon. Tera, or as I like to call it: Tera-ble, just launched and now we have this Elder Scrolls MMO, Titan (Unannounced Blizzard Project), and so much more MMORPG competition coming out. I’m nervous for TOR and it stinks because this game has so much potential! These past two months have been rough on our guild community and server, watching “The Exodus” of players leave the game/guild because of the absent implementation of ranked warzones was devastating. Another blow to the PvP in TOR, strike #2 for some, following strike #1(Ilum). To make matters worse, servers won’t merge, because there is a reluctance to confront PR controversy in the MMO industry. Which in the short-term may seem like the “smart” decision to make, but in the long-term it won’t be. Server transfers are going to become available this summer, but it’s not going to solve the universal population issues in Star Wars: The Old Republic, in fact it may get worse because many guilds want to transfer as a whole. Ilum Failure weeks after launch. Lines of players exploiting and kill-swapping. From what we’ve “seen” **CAUTION MAJOR SPOILERS** the future of SW:TOR is primarily focused on PvE-related content, like more flashpoints and operations. This information cannot be confirmed, but what was “data-mined” can hint to what is coming in the future. As a player who wants SW:TOR to not just succeed, but to also to be “The” MMORPG of choice, I hope BioWare innovates more. Shown below is a few brief ideas on how BioWare can prepare for this storm! Currently Open-World PvP is absent in the game, there’s little to no incentive to do it. Strategic objectives can be placed on many other planets besides Ilum, providing buffs, bonuses, or rewards for PvP dailies. Players who focus mainly on PvP will have a reason to come back to SW:TOR, rather then the W vs.W vs.W. Also when is Ilum set to return? It’s been in limbo for nearly two months. Add more mini-games! Holy smokes, that was huge for SW:TOR. A lot of the players in the community we’re upset with how Space Combat was implemented, but a lof of players we’re relieved to take a break from their questing and earn some awesome looking social items. Swoop racing, Pazaak (Which I believe BioWare has plans for), and so many other unique features can be added to enrich the Star Wars experience and go “against the grain” with the typical MMO experience. World of Warcraft is implementing Pokemon to compete with BioWare’s space combat. They’re two totally different game mechanics, but they are foreign to MMORPG gameplay, which makes them enjoyable to the playerbase. General upgrades on the GTN (Galactic Trade Network) and Guild Systems are needed. The guild interface and GTN options are so basic and arguably under the Triple AAA MMORPG standard that competing MMOs have set. Revise, innovate, and add to these utility gameplay aspects that have an incredible impact on the player communities and game. http://tor-talk.com/storm-preparation/

Actually most of the entire MMO community and the actual single player Elder Scrolls players are showing pretty much a negative stance towards ESO pretty much in unison , the info they have shown so far that it is so far removed from the Elder Scrolls games its not really ES just in name only, which a lot of people have already showed disdain towards...it comes off as (suprise) another WoW clone.

Proof? Once all the free time dries up, and 6 month accounts end , your going to be more lonely with the exception of a handful of servers....

Well look on the bright side we are getting another SWG successor soon its a sci-fi MMO with all the good elements of SWG being brought in http://www.therepopulation.com/ take a look and enjoy!!

One one themepark game has millions of subscribers and its starting to show its age the rest tried to clone and cash in on the sucess of that one game and have all failed including this one. Its becoming more evident in the MMO community that people are growing tired of WoW clone after another their ready for something new and STORY wasn't what they wanted or a single player game masquerading as a MMO (TOR)

Lasted a lot longer than this game will...

Noone is happy with this POS game....

You need a mix of both thempark/sandbox (hybrid) to have a really good mix of features from different styles of MMORPGs not just WoW and it's clones (World Of TORcraft)

Maybe they shouldn't have pulled the plug on Star Wars Galaxies so quickly....

Its not morning all over the world either, and most are at light or standard.

The link below is your wish for a hybrid sci-fi MMO that takes all the good things about SWG into a brand new game. http://www.therepopulation.com/

No, I found the game extremely lacking, boring, felt more like a single player game with multiplayer features tacked on in a hurry, pvp is a giant CC spam fest no tactical feeling what so ever, space was insulting , only time I had fun was leveling my first character after that not so much, too much VO and cutscenes, more dialogue than gameplay itself, this game isn't for me, and I wish it well, I just hope in the next few years when someone else gets the SW license to make a MMO they do it right and make it a hybrid MMO and not a pure themepark or sandbox. Copying WoW works only so many times before people really get tired of it, think original , think creatively, take all the good things from all MMOs even features from SWG would've worked here well, and many more other classic MMO titles that had features that stood out from the pack.

I havent logged on in 3 weeks now my sub doesnt run out till june or july I think , (gave benefit of a doubt) the game just doesnt hold my attention , level a toon nothing to do after that except pvp till Rank 70, only reason I ever even played this game was because they shut down Star Wars Galaxies which I would be still playing if it wasn't closed.......love it or hate it , it did things better in a lot of areas while this game did good in one area ...story...

Only reason millions of loyal to the game cause it hands out everything to you why play another game with more of a challenge when its easymode all the time? All those bad players got to come from somewhere... we def know a lot of those bad players came here and complained about things resulting in patch changes to make things easier and more watered down than they are now. I mean for christ sakes people were making threads at one time that the space was too hard for them