From a Goldman Analyst Perspective on SWTOR

[freakuancy]

Why do you think I was asking, the customer service can't be worse. I suppose "most" people are able to log in, but after 1000 posts and then a new thread started from people who can't due to error 9000, 70+ pages of FPS issues on "horrid FPS" thread, 70 plus on other error threads, 40+ on game crash thread etc..that equals a LOT who can't log on.

 

Actually, no it doesn't. Considering the average number of duplicate posters across those threads you're still looking at less than 1% of the current player base.

 

I'm in no way trying to diminish your right to be frustrated over this. However, Bioware has been forthcoming in their acknowledgement of these problems and are being very responsive in terms of patches. We're guarunteed a bugfix patch on a weekly basis and it seems we'll be getting some in-between, as well.

 

I have my own frustrations with the game. Anybody with two open eyes knows that there are some issues that should have been handled pre-launch, but unfortunately this behavior or releasing an unfinished product and fixing it in post-launch patch content is becoming more and more common among publishers.

 

While I don't recommend simply "bending over the table" for EA or any other publisher in regards to this practice, it is not realistic to point the finger squarely at this game and its current state and make any judgement as to its success or failure. What I do recommend is that you take this trend into consideration before deciding that the pasteurs will be greener elsewhere. Especially with NCSoft, a company that has a much worse reputation for failing to deliver on their promises than even EA. They've proven time and time again that they do not understand western markets or plan for western demands.

 

Things are being addressed, and quickly. I am personally disappointed that my own issues have only been partially addressed by the recent patches, but I have to acknowledge that people with issues such as your own must take precedence. We all feel like our bug is the most important, and its rarely true.

 

Be aware, however, that the FPS issue in particular is not squarely in Bioware's hands. We'll be waiting on optimized drivers from both NVidia and ATI. This is not the first nor the last game to include code that performs poorly within some environments (directx is finicky, believe me). RAGE had a similar problem when it launched a few months back, to the point that ID Software founder John Romero publicly called the situation a "cluster ****". The percentage of people suffering from that particular problem far exceeds what Bioware is facing now

[Bodypull]

To respond,

 

Zygna has more a market share than EA, EA has some bloated numbers according to some friends at E&Y and PcW. Sometimes the figures are skewed by accounting techniques (which get very complicated in modeling.)

 

This will need to be revisited Q3.

 

I was objective in my post, and innovation without successful implementation is not really innovation :-)

[Jhonen]

EA has some bloated numbers according to some friends at E&Y and PcW. Sometimes the figures are skewed by accounting techniques (which get very complicated in modeling.)

 

This will need to be revisited Q3.

 

Oh boy, more "he said, she said" instead of actual hard facts.

 

I was objective in my post, and innovation without successful implementation is not really innovation :-)

 

The only real "innovation" TOR offers that I've seen is integrating story into an MMO arena... which they (in my opinion) have done exceedingly well on.

[timtty]

capitalize on there audience

 

Professional advisors have grammar issues like this? Cy@

[Shillen]

That's why they're doing nightly patches instead of weekly patches to smooth out the bugs and try to retain a player base.

 

Also, it's easy to see they're in it for the fast buck, what with all the teased future content.

 

Yep, BioWare is going to release this game any maybe do something with it down the line...

 

Wait, you're impressed by these tiny patches they've released? Pretty much every MMO I've played in the last 7 years has accomplished more in the first 2 weeks of release than BioWare has. It feels to me like they're patting themselves on the back for a job well done and enjoying their holidays and not working tirelessly to fix/improve this game.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Shillen

[Jhonen]

Wait, you're impressed by these tiny patches they've released? Pretty much every MMO I've played in the last 7 years has accomplished more in the first 2 weeks of release than BioWare has. It feels to me like they're patting themselves on the back for a job well done and enjoying their holidays and not working tirelessly to fix/improve this game.

 

Nightly. Patches. As in, every night, there will be a new patch.

 

That and they've announced big plans for PvE and PvP content patches before January is over.

 

Some people are just determined to not be happy I guess.

[Tenceriker]

Wait, you're impressed by these tiny patches they've released? Pretty much every MMO I've played in the last 7 years has accomplished more in the first 2 weeks of release than BioWare has. It feels to me like they're patting themselves on the back for a job well done and enjoying their holidays and not working tirelessly to fix/improve this game.

 

Please show me the patch notes where Rift fixed the pyro mages 2-shotting everyone in the first two weeks, or when Aion fixed the queue drops and server instablity or when WoW didn't have queues so long people made up a dance and then you randomly got disconnected for months. What's that, foot in your mouth? I thought so, now I suggest you put down the rose tinted glasses and step outside to reality. This is an MMO in the first two weeks, give it time or quit. Either way stop complaining on the forums with such ignorance on the genre.

[Shillen]

Nightly. Patches. As in, every night, there will be a new patch.

 

That and they've announced big plans for PvE and PvP content patches before January is over.

 

Some people are just determined to not be happy I guess.

 

I'll be happy when they're actually getting stuff done. Frequency of updates is not a factor if they each have minor nothing changes. The quality and quantity of the updates is what matters.

[jinxsters]

yet not smart enough to realize only a very small percentage of people will actually read this.

[Jhonen]

I'll be happy when they're actually getting stuff done. Frequency of updates is not a factor if they each have minor nothing changes. The quality and quantity of the updates is what matters.

 

You've got quantity, and we can speculate on quality.

[Oneiros_IV]

Translating OP:

 

Hello my name is John and I...

[JefferyClark]

Wait, you're impressed by these tiny patches they've released? Pretty much every MMO I've played in the last 7 years has accomplished more in the first 2 weeks of release than BioWare has. It feels to me like they're patting themselves on the back for a job well done and enjoying their holidays and not working tirelessly to fix/improve this game.

 

Umm, 2 weeks after launch WoW was still crashing on everyone. They fixed some major game-breaking bugs in under a week while other MMOs (like Star Trek) still have them over 2 years later (I still can't finish my "difficulty level" quest on one of my characters and now that everything is fully linear...).

 

There is also the fact that instead of 3-4 months of beta (like the other mmo's) BW did a year-long beta. A lot of your "accomplished more" stuff that you see in the other MMO patch notes are stuff that have been fixed for months here because of the long beta period. There are a lot of changes in the pipeline, and I expect by this time next week we'll be seeing a lot of fixes to the current game on the live servers and also some stuff that made their way off of the internal server and onto the Public Test Server to be tested (like content and pvp changes).

Edited January 6, 2012 by JefferyClark

[Shillen]

Please show me the patch notes where Rift fixed the pyro mages 2-shotting everyone in the first two weeks, or when Aion fixed the queue drops and server instablity or when WoW didn't have queues so long people made up a dance and then you randomly got disconnected for months. What's that, foot in your mouth? I thought so, now I suggest you put down the rose tinted glasses and step outside to reality. This is an MMO in the first two weeks, give it time or quit. Either way stop complaining on the forums with such ignorance on the genre.

 

Are you telling me SWTOR has had all its bugs fixed already? Thanks for the breaking news. Just because Rift didn't fix everything doesn't mean they didn't do far more than BioWare has done in a shorter time period. Rift added content like a machine after release.

 

I never got randomly disconnected from WoW. There was server instability only because they got 10x as many customers as expected. And most servers operated smoothly, only certain servers had queues. The game was a virtual masterpiece at release and that is the reason it is so popular today. There were bugs but very few in comparison to just about any other release, except maybe Rift.

[lordcanth]

Where's the evidence that the game is failing? Given that school and work has restarted for most, coupled with Bioware expanding server capacity, I can def see why there aren't queues, but the count of people in a given zone hasn't gone down by much from launch week when I have looked, which would be peak time for my server's timezone.

 

So where's the evidence?

 

To me, I'd wait for NPD to release numbers before I start saying the game is failing. Its also kinda hard to say that Bioware isn't supporting the game when the thing is getting stuff fixed practically every day.

[Shillen]

Umm, 2 weeks after launch WoW was still crashing on everyone. They fixed some major game-breaking bugs in under a week while other MMOs (like Star Trek) still have them over 2 years later (I still can't finish my "difficulty level" quest on one of my characters and now that everything is fully linear...).

 

There is also the fact that instead of 3-4 months of beta (like the other mmo's) BW did a year-long beta. A lot of your "accomplished more" stuff that you see in the other MMO patch notes are stuff that have been fixed for months here because of the long beta period. There are a lot of changes in the pipeline, and I expect by this time next week we'll be seeing a lot of fixes to the current game on the live servers and also some stuff that made their way off of the internal server and onto the Public Test Server to be tested (like content and pvp changes).

 

Nice try, WoW's beta was 2 years.

[Woopya]

Why do people even bother arguing this crap. If you like the game play it, if not then dont.

 

We dont care if you are leaving the game and we especially dont care to know your reasons why.

 

Its no big deal, the universe doesnt revolve around you. The game will be just fine without you and your leaving doesnt make it a failure so please, just go already and stop posting your grandios "reasons for failure."

[Jhonen]

Nice try, WoW's beta was 2 years.

 

Yeah, it was from Nov. 23 2004 to Jan 16 2007

[Kurenar]

I love when people say this.

 

Especially when the devs only show you videos they want you to see, and play demos at conventions that they want you to play.

 

Haha as opposed to Bioware waiting until 3 weeks before launch to finally lift the NDA and allow people to talk about and post videos of their subpar game?

[Grimmace]

I'd be surprised to learn that the game is shrinking already.

 

I wouldn't, I came into this game with an impartial attitude after seen so many flops in the past and while I did enjoy playing through the operative storyline to 50 there isn't much left to do after that point. The pvp is mediocre at best, the pve is seriously lacking, bioware should of spent less money on voiceover and more money on making a quality product.

 

I'm sure they'll have enough fanboys that will keep playing regardless though since the monthly costs of keeping mmo servers up and running are relatively small, however don't expect anything grand to happen in the next 6-12 months, especially if they keep up with their trend of fixing **** that doesn't matter like "the darth title not displaying for inquisitors" instead of the many many debilitating game bugs. [or illums ****** non existent pvp, and the garbage RNG loot bags].

[xhaiquan]

Thank you OP for this well-thought, balanced post. I think you hit the nail right on the head

[Vanive]

OP is right on a lot more aspects than I would like to admit. Hearing things from some of the folks I work with who are higher level than me and play, the bugs get worse as you gain more levels. I can attest to this and will admit that end game was not tested as extensively as start and middle game. BioWare handed out random high level toons during testing, but for most folks these were hard to grasp since they were unfamiliar with the combat abilities or classes they were given.

 

They should have let folks advance their current characters instead, this would have given them better test results and metrics to debug with. Instead they are now finding themselves playing catch up with things that should have been fixed before launch.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Vanive

[Jhonen]

Haha as opposed to Bioware waiting until 3 weeks before launch to finally lift the NDA and allow people to talk about and post videos of their subpar game?

 

If that's what you think, will GW2 be any better?

 

Or are they the shining paragon of MMO development?

[subliminal]

The game seems to cater to its audience, which is a larger demographic than just the "gamers" ... which was always the itnention.

 

The game has a bigger marketshare than every other competitor out there save one.

 

The long term sustainability depends on Bioware's development team. They have a pretty good track record. As an analyst I'm surprised you're willing to bet against their development team's ability to work long-term and evolve a game.

 

 

 

 

This is strange. Nothing in this game even approaches the types of grinds that World of Warcraft predicated a large portion of its success on.

 

The initial PVP ranking grind, for instance. There were multiple articles and studies done at the time of its height about how much time investment was required and how physically unhealthy it was. Some of the original faction grinds. I'm very surprised to read someone with so much experience with the genre discuss "grind" in this game.

 

 

 

 

As someone who claims to be analyzing this game from a business and financial standpoint, I'm now very leery of your credentials since you're bandying about World of Warcraft's inflated, asian gold-farming market influenced subscriber numbers.

 

That works against everything you've suggested lends your analysis weight and expertise. In one fell swoop you showed us that your analysis really does lack the depth and expertise you claimed you had, because you're touting data that most experienced gamers already know is skewed. Yes World of Warcraft is a wildly successful game. And yes it grew really big in the western market. You really never needed to make that point by using the combined western and eastern sub number. The 3 to 4 million U.S. gamers is such a huge number that you only needed to use that.

 

Overall I find your analysis lacking depth.

 

But at least I read it. Most people will just tldr it.

 

^ this, I can agree with.

[kevlarto]

if you were a investor would you invest in this game?

 

kind of a dead point they already have, EA needs no investors, you really have no clue just how large EA is world wide, and Bioware was a healthy company already with about 3 to 4 million fans in the wings, do a little research, real facts might be amazing in the place of specualtion..

[sadokun]

Im not an investor nor have I made it to end game. But at this point I'm very love/hate with ToR in it's current forms. While my friends, mad star wars fans, are rabid about this game I am finding the bugs harder to deal with, namely this issue with companions and conversations. I know these are things that will be worked out in time, but in this day and age MMO's no longer have that "grace period" older games seem to have gotten. Players have gotten pretty well with speaking with their wallets and I for one am a bit scared they are going to send a very big message to bioware after the the first 30 days are up.