Sorry to burst your bubble...

[HavenAE]

But SWTOR will still be successful.

 

The idiocy in expecting this game to go crash landing into F2P land astounds me.

 

First of all EA won't allow this game to go into F2P mode. It still hasn't sent WAR there and has no plans to. SWTOR is by far a superior game to WAR, so good luck on that one.

 

Second, I think you're all under the impression that this game, or any other MMo for that matter NEEDS millions of subscribers to turn a profit. Most don't, and SWTOR isn't any different really. Perhaps it cost a little more on average to make, but obviously it wasn't the 300 or even 150 million people were toting six months ago.

 

EA stated in an earnings call that 500k subscribers will make this game turn a profit. As it stands SWTOR has what? 1.5 million people playing? SWTOR could drop 2/3rds of it's current playerbase and still turn a profit. How long that was intended for is up to debate but anyone with any brains knows that MMOs are not intended to have immediate returns on investments, success for a MMO is measured by subs over time not how many people play it after the first month.

 

500k is not an unrealistic number, hell FFXI had that at its peak and still had 350k mid 2010 and it's a relic as MMOs go. Many other MMOs still have numbers much higher than you might expect and depending on the MMO and it's budget may or may not be successful in their own right. Just because YOu may not like a game or because it didn't kill WoW doesn't mean it has failed and is doomed for F2P.

 

Aside from that most MMOs never really die. Rare exceptions occur of course like SWG, Tabula Rasa, Earth and Beyond most readily come to mind but are generally anomalies in the genre. Even some of the most wasted potentials are still up and running, Age of Conan, Darkfall, and Vanguard all also come to mind. Models might change a game might go free to play or semi-free to play but it's really a change in terms of preference than necessity to survive.

 

This is all ignoring the fact that SWTOR is in fact a different type of game. It isn't fantasy it's scifantasy,. It's a cross over genre embarking into a MMO genre that has a very small share of the MMO market. It will appeal to different types of gamers.

 

 

That said SWTOR does quite a few things no other MMO can right now.

 

It can offer story to people who like that. I enjoy it but forsee it becoming stale (at least for me) without future content updates, but even then that's about a couple months down the line for me playing multiple classes, because I don't/can't spend all of my time on an MMO and rush to 50 ASAP, and wouldn't want to in the first place. (I actually like to PLAY my games and enjoy them. SWTOR give you a reason to reroll a character and still be entertained.)

 

It will offer people who were uprooted by SWG's closing a new place to live their star wars fantasy, people who no other MMO might likely never get.

 

It offers some of the best of what the most popular MMO in history does by loosely following it's model in terms of endgame content.

 

It offers people who have never played an MMO before but wanted to enjoy Star Wars a doorway into the genre, much like how WoW did for many of you.

 

Along with that it allows people who want to play an interactive long term highly immersive single player game when they want to while offering standard multiplayer gameplay whenever they so choose. Essentially it will become the best of both worlds. (yes sorry but multiplayer exists here, just because YOU CHOOSE not to be social or group doesn't make it any less of an MMO than any other MMO, it has the exact same functionality as any other in those terms.)

 

Finally, some of you should really stop and look around you. Usually when people can't stand to play a game they simply up and leave, they don't stick around and finish it for sake of their "first free month" I know I wouldn't and I know many others who wouldn't either.

 

Sitting and counting just NA servers alone about two evenings ago I counted some 54 servers nearly all of which were very heavy loads, or full with queues. That doesn't scream to me of a game that will have masses upon masses of people leaving in less than a month. It tells me there are a lot of people playing the game and still enjoying the experience enough to continue to log on. this isn't even considering the masses of people on the EU servers. Now maybe some of those people won't keep their sub, but I'm willing to bet you in less than a month many if not most of them will.

 

Patches are going now, problems are getting fixed and many new features are slated for implementation in the first month alone, just like many of the supposed "mindless fanboys" have been telling you.

 

Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was WoW, Everquest or the plethora of other MMOs many of us have played. Quasi-Omnipotent Space goblin in the clouds only knwos why you all expect every other MMO launched these day to be. But on thing is certain...

 

This game can only get better from here and bioware has a lot still left up their sleeve to show us in this game. Some of you won't get to see that, and I'm okay with that.

 

But..

 

Seriously if the heart of the MMO industry beat by the drum of a few forum trolls most of you wouldn't even know what the hell a WoW was because you would have never been drawn to the MMO genre.

 

tl;dr: I don't do them. You're on a forum that's made of text. If you didn't want to read you shouldn't have come here.

 

Note: I know I know, I'm just another blind defender of this game thinking it'll get me special cookie points from my corporate masters at Bioware and EA. Well what you don't know only makes you more ignorant I guess.

 

Try a new line this time, surprise me.

Edited January 5, 2012 by HavenAE

[Jstnillusion]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/electronic-arts-reports-q3-fy12-financial-results-2012-02-01

[WarTornPanda]

Blah blah blah. This game will continue to lose subscriptions. Given that this game blew up so quickly, I'll bet it will also set records for the amount of lost subscriptions over the next three months. What a useless thread. Why don't you come back in a few months when the dust settles and then make this kind of post. Everything right now is conjecture, except for the fact that this game has done nothing but lose subscriptions so far.

[Liquidacid]

Blah blah blah. This game will continue to lose subscriptions. Given that this game blew up so quickly, I'll bet it will also set records for the amount of lost subscriptions over the next three months. What a useless thread. Why don't you come back in a few months when the dust settles and then make this kind of post. Everything right now is conjecture, except for the fact that this game has done nothing but lose subscriptions so far.

 

lol your post is biased conjecture and incorrect statements then you tell the OP she/he/it is jumping the gun...

 

 

oh the irony and hypocrisy is so thick i'm chocking on it

[Katharis]

My bubble! You big meanie!

[KipMalice]

Just because a game turns a profit doesn't mean it will be a success. If EA launched with 2 million sales, and dropped to 500k subs it would be turning a profit but would also be considered one of the worst MMO disasters in the industry.

 

That retention rate is pretty damn important.

Edited February 5, 2012 by KipMalice

[WarTornPanda]

lol your post is biased conjecture and incorrect statements then you tell the OP she/he/it is jumping the gun...

 

oh the irony and hypocrisy is so thick i'm chocking on it

 

1. Never said anyone was jumping the gun.

2. I stated that everything is conjecture, except the numbers. Does that somehow invalidate my own conjecture?

3. What is incorrect about my post?

[wrmrstacrdwower]

Ya ya we know. SWTOR is so great that only a certain small percentage of the player or user base can see how awesome it is while the rest of the MMO and gaming community including the MLG are wrong and so horribly small minded to think that an MMO should actually be up to date and managed to have fixed things prevalent in the betas that extend from a year ago.

 

Our bad. Poor class mechanics, buggy content GPU leaks, systems lag, and any number of the erroneous and plague like problems that SWTOR has is no ones fault but the persons who is experiencing them.

 

I mean really, it's not like you can find prior beta footage that shows things like combat logs, better UIs and only marginally lower res textures then whats current'y in the game. And it's not like those beta videos are going to be, you multiple years old or anything.

[Explosive_Lasers]

Blah blah blah. This game will continue to lose subscriptions. Given that this game blew up so quickly, I'll bet it will also set records for the amount of lost subscriptions over the next three months. What a useless thread. Why don't you come back in a few months when the dust settles and then make this kind of post. Everything right now is conjecture, except for the fact that this game has done nothing but lose subscriptions so far.

 

The game has the highest retention rate of any MMO after release in the history of MMOs.

 

Try harder, next time.

[Jimer_Lins]

Ya ya we know. SWTOR is so great that only a certain small percentage of the player or user base can see how awesome it is

 

85% of the people who bought the game have an active subscription.

[Liquidacid]

1. Never said anyone was jumping the gun.

2. I stated that everything is conjecture, except the numbers. Does that somehow invalidate my own conjecture?

3. What is incorrect about my post?

 

do you not understand what the phrase "jumped the gun" means? you also seem to be struggling with understanding the meaning of biased, conjecture and hypocrisy...

 

may I suggest http://www.merriam-webster.com/ ... once you actually understand the meanings of said words you might better comprehend my post

Edited February 5, 2012 by Liquidacid

[Bazeleel]

O.o

 

 

Wall of text Crts you for 4000!

[Laylla]

Speaking from experience, I can honestly say it is ENTIRELY too early to casting any sort of judgement on this game. It's been out just a tiny bit over a month and aside from small hotfixes, no major patches or changes have been made to the game to date.

 

I'm still here, which truly does speak volumes as I'm quite picky on what subscriptions I attach to my credit card. But this isn't saying that the game is faultless.

 

There are more faults here than Los Angeles with the San Andreas.

 

I could list them but there are many, and that's not what this post is about. Besides, most people already know what they are. I'm sure EA and Bioware do too.

 

So lets do this: Let the gods that be figure out where the wrinkles are and allow them to iron them out before we start handing out Blue Ribbons or Pink Slips.

 

I thinks that's a fair deal.

[wrmrstacrdwower]

85% of the people who bought the game have an active subscription.

 

85% of the people who bought the game are playing within the first free month at the end of the third quarter.

 

That's pretty normal for any new product.

 

Although I am sure there are a couple hundred companies that posted similar numbers that are more then willing to take your money you should go invest in them.

Edited February 5, 2012 by wrmrstacrdwower

[Explosive_Lasers]

85% of the people who bought the game are playing within the first free month at the end of the third quarter.

 

That's pretty normal for any new product.

 

The info saying that there was 85% retention rate was after January 20th, I believe. That means almost every player's first month was up.

 

That retention rate is significantly better than any other MMO.

[wrmrstacrdwower]

The info saying that there was 85% retention rate was after January 20th, I believe. That means almost every player's first month was up.

 

That retention rate is significantly better than any other MMO.

 

The time caption is until the December 31 which is when the first quarter ends. Posting it a month later means nothing.

 

Electronic Arts Inc. EA -1.66% today announced preliminary financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011

 

Again. there ate hundreds of companies that are more then willing to take your money.

Edited February 5, 2012 by wrmrstacrdwower

[Talahar]

Yeah, had a long post, read it once, and again, deleted it, because in the end:

about as much substance as the original post, which is none.

No one who likes the game cares about the "this sucks, f2p in six months!" posts,

and no one who is butthurt about the game due to wrong expectations is going to accept

anyone's viewpoint on the other end of the spectrum. (why, yes! I AM biased. Here, have a cookie, and keep quiet)

So, can the haters please quit already, and the likers please go on to topics of merit?

future content, for example?

 

Or is it still too soon in the lifespan of SWTOR for this?

 

(or am i utterly naive, and this is what this forum is going to be from now on?

An endless ocean of "y u no f2p!!?!?!" and "huge success! deal with it." threads?

If that's the case, at least I've got gin tonic. And a great game to play.)

[flyersfan]

I don't think you're sorry to burst their bubble at all. I'm quite convinced that you rather enjoy bursting their bubble and I'm glad to see it burst.

[Ultrazen]

/shrug. I haven't been wrong yet, I could work at a carnival and predict MMO subs, someone should hire me.

 

This game will continue to get people trying it, and playing for a few months, because the single player content is worth that. As far as the long term health of it as an MMO goes, it does just about every single thing wrong MMO wise.

 

They could possibly whip it into shape within a few years time with updates and changes, who knows. At is stands right now the games biggest problem is that it's boring and repetitive, those are tough issues to cure.

 

Sorry to burst your bubble. Not everyone that is disappointed in this game is a troll or a hater. I followed this game for a very long time before it came out, and have been a big Bioware supporter for a very long time. I truly wish this was a great and engaging game, unfortunately for me, it's not. If it is for you, that's great.

 

Posting about how this game won't fail, is about as pointless as posting that it will. Neither of them will amount to anything. SW will sink or swim on it's own merits. I know how I feel about the game, and that usually transfers pretty well on a longer term basis, time will tell.

[KipMalice]

The info saying that there was 85% retention rate was after January 20th, I believe. That means almost every player's first month was up.

 

That retention rate is significantly better than any other MMO.

 

It does not have an 85% retention rate. It also currently has ~500k users in the first month. An active subscription also doesn't count those people that have hit the cancel button but are still on that second paid month. A lot of people give a game a month.

 

It is entirely too early to tell, but we can all agree this game has some problems they need to flesh out quickly.

[Liquidacid]

It does not have an 85% retention rate. It also currently has ~500k users in the first month.

 

it's great you can make that statement despite the fact it directly contradicts all known valid released information

[Runeshard]

The time caption is until the December 31 which is when the first quarter ends. Posting it a month later means nothing.

 

Electronic Arts Inc. EA -1.66% today announced preliminary financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011

 

Again. there ate hundreds of companies that are more then willing to take your money.

 

Sorry but you're wrong, just read:

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/1670728299x0x539144/d895626f-e715-4f00-bd50-31bf095027fd/Q3_Script_-_20_2112_1251pm.pdf

Particularly page 6:

"To date, we have sold through more than 2 million units. Our sell through success to date is not as apparent to the public because nearly 40% of the December sell through went through Origin, which is not recorded by third party data services. This was achieved with a level of Q3 marketing well below that of a AAA holiday quarter launch."

 

--Eric Brown

 

... and pages 10-11:

"Let me offer some metrics on purchase and subscription that will help you understand this business. As John stated, we have sold through two million units of the game since December. We currently have a little over 1.7 million active subscribers. The rest have either not started playing yet or have opted out.

 

This is an outstanding start for an MMO and the metrics on engagement suggests players are loving this game: unique log-ins are averaging about one million per day and their average play time is approximately four hours per day.

 

I want to take a second to correct the reports which speculated that a lack of congestion was a sign of slow participation. Shortly after launch, we doubled the efficiency of each server, allowing us to handle twice as many players and remove the waiting lines. The lack of congestion is a function of great engineering.

 

In summary: we nailed the launch. Adoption and daily usage among core MMO users are trending very favorably."

 

--Frank Gibeau

 

Furthermore read the this from darth hater and also this as well.

Of particular interest is:

Q: Are these 1.7 subscribers paying?

A: Active subscribers means anyone paying or in their trial period. Most of those 1.7m are paying at this point.

 

If those figures were from the 31st of Dec no one would be out of their trial period yet and thus would not be paying.

[Atomicfb]

What I find interesting is that people keep thinking a game fails if it goes F2P. I am not sure but I bet many are not aware of the fact that EA was one of the ones promoting the F2P model as it saw the benefits in Asia.

 

The only difference between a sub model and a f2p model is just that the business model and the business will choose which one it thinks it can make the most money on. So right out of the gate, saying a game going f2p= fail is ridiculous.

 

Next, if you look back at the history of MMO's very few actually "fail". One of the fastest "failures" in MMO history was APB and even it was resurrected. SWG was considered a failed MMO after the NGE but even it was around till SWTOR came out.

 

Regardless of if as a player you think a game fails or not there are certain things that go along with all MMOS and this one is no different. There are bugs, performance issues, glitches, exploits etc and there will always be, what it ultimately comes down to is personal choice. The choice to play or not to play. On an individual can make that choice based on what they can live with and what they can't. Just because someone makes one choice or the other does not mean that the game is fail or not. Only time will tell that.

[ExBrillig]

What I find interesting is that people keep thinking a game fails if it goes F2P. I am not sure but I bet many are not aware of the fact that EA was one of the ones promoting the F2P model as it saw the benefits in Asia.

 

Well, the reason for that is probably because pretty much every sub -> f2p conversion has been done because of a lack of paying subscribers. The only one where this might not be true is LOTRO.

 

It's also viewed as a failure because it leads directly to the pay-to-win model, which may be a financial success for the company, but is generally viewed negatively by the gamers.

 

GW can be argued as a success for f2p, but it's important to remember that it started out that way, it wasn't a conversion.

[Fiachsidhe]

O.o

 

 

Wall of text Crts you for 4000!

 

This post tells me three things:

 

1. You don't know what "wall of text means"

2. Reading is hard for you, when each paragraph isn't divided by headers.

3. You think declaring those things with played out sarcasm is a good idea.

 

I'd love to see your school papers.

Grade: F

Reason: Your book report of Hucklberry Finn read "TL;DR".