In YOUR opinion: Will subscription rates drastically go down?

[Ahhmyface]

People who don't even play this game or care about it were reading a day ago about the ridiculous things happening to it. The Ilum thing along with the cancellation issues were plastered over every game news site i visited.

 

If you truly don't think bad news spreads like fire over the net, and eventually reaches the ears of analysts, you're very naive.

 

I'm not saying one way or the other if these issues did anything to EA's stock, but to think analysts don't get a feel for atleast some of the playerbase is just silly.

 

I'm an owner of EA stock, and I know how to invest, and you don't, apparently. You're silly for even thinking that this is a factor. Stock is down because a recent industry report indicated game sales for 2011 were down 21%, an insanely more important thing than a few bad reviews from fickle tantrum throwers that weren't going to stay long anyway.

 

For the record, EA went up today while GOOG fell 8.3% percent. I suppose you saw the butterfly flap its wings for that one too. Guessing without evidence is pointless.

[PulseXXX]

Inorite, how ridiculous and absurd that the consumer reacted to the product, chose to cancel subscription, and that performance was reflected in the stock price of a company that provides said product.

 

Like I said, you could always email the analysts directly, and demand an explanation.

 

Or I could look at market trends, knowing full well that EAs stock is way down from what it was before SWTOR was even released, and that there have been no major swings in the stock price, despite the amount of press the game has received.

 

Different analysis predict different things. Check this article out, 3 different analysts give 3 different projections. http://localizedusa.com/2012/01/20/electronic-arts-eas-outperform-rating-reaffirmed-by-wedbush-analysts/

 

TBH, I don't know why I'm posting this. If you think that SWTOR will affect EA's stock in any significant way you are delusional. EA is a 6 billion dollar company and SWTOR is a 200 million dollar investment that has already shown returns exceeding expectations.

[BobHope]

Oh...well...thank you for the nice and thoughtful response

 

I ultimately don't want this game to fail, and I don't want to cancel my sub. But I don't want to give Bioware/EA free money either.

 

I just want them to fix the problems. I don't even want them to fix them TODAY. I'd be happy with them acknowledging the issues (especially my issue of not being able to play PvP AT ALL) and tell us that they're working on solutions and to stay tuned.

 

Ditto. And that's the attitude we should all have, I think. The ability delay post by the devs today really encouraged me. As much as I love pvp, and the idea of Illum, the delay is numero uno for both pvp and pve.

 

What gets me is the way it seems like the great ideas for pvp from Warhammer are being tempered by WoW conventions, which is leading to a pvp system with an identity crisis.... But I guess that's a discussion for another thread.

[-Zajo-]

Regardless of what anyone say, the server status page clearly shows the status of the game. You may read it and say, hey it's going great or you may read it and call it tortanic. I say follow that page and see what it tells you and disregard what everyone else say.

[Scoobings]

Oh...well...thank you for the nice and thoughtful response

 

I ultimately don't want this game to fail, and I don't want to cancel my sub. But I don't want to give Bioware/EA free money either.

 

I just want them to fix the problems. I don't even want them to fix them TODAY. I'd be happy with them acknowledging the issues (especially my issue of not being able to play PvP AT ALL) and tell us that they're working on solutions and to stay tuned.

 

Just because I'm curious, what server are you on?

 

I've always felt that this game is probably going to need cross server ques eventually (even though everyone seems to be so against that for some reason). The good news is that they have the back end coding ready (if we are to believe what they say, which I do) and can impliment it whenever certain servers get hit hard.

[Mitsch]

Got 20 ppl on my friendslist, on average 8-10 online at later hours (10pm+).

After 1.1 (the time where people who entered their key on 20th there) were 1-3 online at rush hour.

Don't know if they quit, but I know that I canceled the sub and will be waiting until the game gets the 4-6 months of "bugfixing" that are missing and show that the game was prematurely released.

 

After all I waited over 2 years for the game to come - I can wait a few more months for it to be good (if it's going to survive).

[TipsyDrow]

Are you talking about the ability to enjoy with game with a 1 FPS or the lag you get when casting an ability?

 

Either way, they both suck.

 

You kids have no patience. Let me help yall out a little since you can't seem to find the info on your own and you'd rather whine like a bunch spoiled 12 year old girls.

 

Quoted from the community thread about PVP issues.

 

After Game Update 1.1 went live, we discovered that the Open World PvP area on Ilum was not working as our PvP design team intended. As many of you know, large groups of players began capturing the Ilum control points, then 'camping' at the enemy's base. This led to a very frustrating experience for a number of players who were unable to leave their base and fight back against their attackers. It was not a fair gameplay experience. In addition, some players on the attacking side gained more Valor points than designed for the time they spent in PvP.

 

The amount of Valor granted from these activities was significantly more than intended and we are now carefully investigating players who were on Ilum during this period, and present at some of these 'camping' events. I can reassure you that those who were involved and who gained an unfair advantage over other players inappropriately will be carefully reviewed and action will be taken to restore game balance. This could include Valor adjustments or account actions in accordance with the severity of the issue.

 

We have made the decision not to enact a mass 'rollback' of Valor points for all players in the game, or even on Ilum. This would unfairly penalize some players who may not have been present during this event. Rest assured though, anyone and everyone who is found to have exploited the situation to an unreasonable degree will be investigated and actions taken as needed. Our in-game metrics are able to give us precise details on where players were, what they were doing and what rewards they gained.

 

We take any sort of situation where one group of players gains an unexpected or unintended advantage over other players very seriously and will act to ensure that all players can have a fair and fun game experience.

 

Thanks for your patience while we worked to resolve this issue. Our team worked diligently to get a patch ready to address this and other issues, and we're already seeing the results in improved battles on Ilum. As always we welcome your feedback and will continue to improve moving forward!

 

Jeff Hickman,

Executive Producer – Live Services

 

Quoted from the community thread about ability delay.

 

Hi everyone; I wanted to give you all an update on the ability delay situation.

 

Thanks to constructive feedback from the community, including some great videos, we were able to identify an issue that could cause abilities on global cooldown to appear available to the player, resulting in unresponsive/ignored player input. A fix for the issue is currently scheduled to go to the public test server with our next update.

 

Additionally, we have located an issue that would cause player input for certain instant abilities to fail in frantic combat situations, resulting in unpredictable and frustrating gameplay issues for the affected player. A fix for the issue is currently scheduled to go to the public test server with our next update.

 

Finally, our engineers have identified an issue introducing a significant delay between player input and ability execution in certain game situations, most notably (but not limited to) fast paced PvP. The magnitude of the delay varies with a number of factors, including processor hardware, but can, especially on dual core CPUs, result in a very perceivable reduction in game responsiveness. We are in the later stages of testing a fix for the problem and hope to be able to roll it out to the servers very soon.

 

We're still investigating a number of additional issues, along with some usability and quality of life improvements for responsiveness regarding player input, but the above mentioned developments should provide a very measurable improvement in combat responsiveness.

 

Thanks again for your patience and support and we hope to see you on the public test server to help us validate these improvements before pushing them to the live servers.

 

Georg Zoeller

Principal Lead Combat Designer

 

They are and have been dilligently working on the game. You folks and your immediate gratification attitudes need to take a chill pill.

[Vant]

No one will post anything useful in this thread. "Haters" will say they will based on a general impressiona, "fanboys" say they won't because QQkids lie and PvP population is insignificant.

 

If you're looking for real info you'd do us all good by doing some actual data hunting.

 

If you're looking for baseless opinions (including my own) feel free to peruse any 20+ page topic, as they're all about the same thing and have the same responses.

 

I consider myself part of the PvP population, the real ones, not the ones that rush to 50 because they wanna be the first for shinies. The ones who PvP'd all the way up and enjoy every aspect of it.

 

I will be staying.

[SiskoEP]

Just because I'm curious, what server are you on?

 

I've always felt that this game is probably going to need cross server ques eventually (even though everyone seems to be so against that for some reason). The good news is that they have the back end coding ready (if we are to believe what they say, which I do) and can impliment it whenever certain servers get hit hard.

 

Empress Teta

[jackhallin]

No one will post anything useful in this thread. "Haters" will say they will based on a general impressiona, "fanboys" say they won't because QQkids lie and PvP population is insignificant.

 

If you're looking for real info you'd do us all good by doing some actual data hunting.

 

If you're looking for baseless opinions (including my own) feel free to peruse any 20+ page topic, as they're all about the same thing and have the same responses.

 

This guy.

 

Edit:

 

They are and have been dilligently working on the game. You folks and your immediate gratification attitudes need to take a chill pill.

And this guy.

Edited January 20, 2012 by jackhallin

[BobaFurz]

Look at skyrim! Its only got one person playing in its world and its got more bugs and broken **** than landfill. I just dont get it

 

yeah and a world which actually breaths and smokes the boring one from swtor... You know, once I was a Fighter in the swtor world but got an arrow in my knee.

Edited January 20, 2012 by BobaFurz

[DubyooC]

I was a Fighter in the swtor world but got an arrow in my knee.

 

 

SWTOR was sortta fun before 1.1 then it took a Force in Balance to the face and things haven't been the same since. I cannot play the game for more than an hour now without logging off in dissapointment at what it has become.

 

WZ's are full of sorcs/sages and operatives/imperial agents. Ilum is a joke....and pve well thats not my cup of tea. I paid for 1 month beyond the 30 days i don't know why, but ill give it the month and see where we are at.

 

My prediction is its going to suck even more being Republic as the empire who have an easy mode way to farm up to Battlemaster alot faster than we do, will eventually be outgearing the Republic making things even worse.

[Shockfrosted]

I got screwed over by the patch.

Not so much due to exploiting (Didn't go on where I play), or by republic quitting (Did go on, sadly), but by the queue.

 

Is that worth quitting over? Hell no!

They're trying to fix the situation. Okay so the fix wasn't perfect... I don't see a whole lot of perfect fixes in any context, much less a newly released game.

 

The story's still amazing, the environments are still lovingly designed, all the content is still there, they just need some time to iron things out.

Was the release a tad early? Probably. But I quite know how these things go, anyone who's watched Extra Credits on publishers likely does.

 

Give it time, the sky is not falling.

[Dekadez]

No, there will not be a significant reduction in subscriptions for the following reasons:

 

1. The number of people who are actually upset by this is a small minority of the total population of players.

 

2. Most of those people will not actually cancel their accounts, they are just saying they will as a form of hyperbolic protest.

 

3. The issues that they are complaining about will get fixed to some extent in the near future.

 

4. The game is new and as such it is still adding subscriptions at a brisk pace that will easily counter any cancellations.

 

I know you guys are upset, and I feel for you. But you aren't as important as you like to think you are. Your issues will get resolved but your temper tantrums aren't helping.

 

This guy. Especially number 2. I've been through plenty MMOs to see the same recurring community behavior in the growing phase of the new product. It always boils down to forum tantrums resulting in a threat of cancelling the account, followed by telling anyone who does, and more likely doesn't, want to hear, how they quit, while in reality they just signed into a 6 month plan because of the cost-efficiency of these programs.

 

It's almost a given rule that not even 10% of anyone in this thread will quit. You care too much: If you didn't, you didn't, you wouldn't be here. You are the vocal minority expressing negativity while continuing to pay, and play.

 

The game won't lose any amount of subscribers soon. Bioware is too apt at using social media as a specific marketing vehicle. They have planned SWTOR with the movie rerelease, with cinema being the most selective medium imaginable, having high effect after one exposure. They have planned TV ads, cooperations with fast-food chains, etc. The Star Wars brand is too powerful, it appeals to too many people on a transformational level. Bioware knows this and they will leverage it, creating awareness continuously and stimulating trial. Despite the ranting about them not listening to their community: I'm afraid they are. They employ a full-time Community Manager (we'll see a lot more of these in the future, next 5 years), they have an active blog, react on customer forums, create video updates to keep people informed.

 

Bioware is communicating on a high level, reaching many people thanks to the internet. As long as they continue to spend, continue to invest in communication, subs won't drop. On the contrary. Despite obvious flaws.

 

Personally I'ce seen plenty of MMOs to know to give it time to develop. I'll happily pay for months and months to come.

[GothicSaint]

I know one thing I am no longer recommending this game to anyone.

 

And here.. More than any other theory crafting is what will keep this game from ever making it as a success.

 

The gamers who played this game and didn't like it will pass it on to the MMO community and the word will spread that .. Swtor sucks.

 

I canceled also but not for the polarized reasons many here keep repeating.

 

I see a game with very fundamental flaws that Bio can't overcome.

 

1. Its by all real accounts a single player game.

 

2. As a single player game can you really see yourself playing it over and over with alternate characters for more than 6 months or a year ?

 

3. (personal Peeve) In PvP you have predominately ranged classes but decided your 2 pivotal hero classes Jedi/Sith will be mostly ineffective against the ranged classes through constant CC's and lack of options for closing gaps

 

The things that can be fixed but are giving people a real poor impression of this game include.

 

1.Technical issues. Long load times, crashing, memory leaks, kicked to load screen on a regular basis, poor Fps issues,Ability lag, animation lag, miss firing of abilities and a boat load of bugs ( some left over from beta) still plague the game and seem unaddresed for to long.

 

2. And this is the REAL reason I left this game. Bioware seems unresponsive to or just out right indifferent to the people who bought and play their game. I get an overall sense from these forums that while they are heavily monitored the only concern seems to be that we don't swear or are to overly abusive to bio or other forum posters.

 

The hands off approach of any MMO company to the vocal community is always a bad Idea. When misinformation/repeated concerns start to circulate you would think that someone with credentials would get on here and try to state what action is being taken to help alleviate the problem.

 

No the CM's here just remove controversial threads or delete them out right to avoid confronting it.

 

What it comes down to is I think Bio has shot itself in one foot already and is reloading again to try NOT to hit the other .

 

But !!

 

They have a track record ALREADY of, to little, way to late and compounding some problems.

 

If Bio can't respond faster and more vocally with what is concerning players and acknowledging ( you know validating or disproving concerns with information) then they will hit that good foot with the next shot.

 

This brings us all the way back to points 1 through 3. Can you see this company really putting out enough content ,technical fixes and balancing it all in a timely fashion and EVEN if that tall order gets filled,would it be enough to keep ALOT of people playing this game because I sure can't.

 

I think we are seeing that money ( no matter how much is spent) can't save a bad idea, with poor execution riding shotgun.

 

This game wont close its servers but it will struggle until it gets in the rhythm of quick fixes,quick new content and speaking to its fan base on a frequent basis.

 

Which ( I think ) means ,Swtor will have a very hard long haul ahead of it until then.

Edited January 22, 2012 by GothicSaint

[Ragetoker]

go play a different game if u dont like u all sound like you need more sex to ease your geek rage. i anit going to stop playing a game that i have waited years for .they will sort the problems bioware are one of the best game compaines around and ea one of the richest they will fix everything just take a few more months.(i would rather play an unfinshed swtor than none at all at least they can have advice to improve the game) and if you lots of 50 charters then you really need to go out more .,

[Chiricahua]

They will never go down, but one day they might disappear into f2p. Someone posted that the Bioware people said the game could be switched to f2p with little effort. Edited January 24, 2012 by Chiricahua

[Bluetickone]

I believe yes, especially in the coming weeks.

 

I think right now its most if not all Republic players. But once the weeks go by without any real PvP Empire will get bored of making alts and playing Huttball and start to leave the game too.

 

Sad day.

 

the market agrees. EA stock has fallen significantly (15 percent last I checked) since SWTOR release. churn rates were overestimated -- no one expected all the pve glitches and the pvp system just gets worse.

 

guess which company's stock has actually gone up since the release of SWTOR....

[Panzerbase]

I hit them where it hurts and hopefully where they may listen, EA stock boards and the like, it's only way you will see meaningful change, as Bioware seems not to care.

[Ziegler]

They will never go down, but one day they might disappear into f2p. Someone posted that the Bioware people said the game could be switched to f2p with little effort.

 

One of the main people for BW gave a speech at the GDC (game developers convention) about minitransactions and how appealing they were and how he would like to see all games going in that direction. (was several iterations of the thread discussing this pre-launch, meaning it reached 1k posts and had to be restarted.)

 

 

If bioware dips below enough subs to make a considerable profit, expect to see this go MT/F2P quickly.

 

Which is why I am month to month on subs right now, I expect it within the first 6 months TBH.

[maradigamer]

Guild Wars 2 will take a big chunk of gamers from SWTOR but an even bigger chunk from WoW because it's fantasy, so it's direct competition. Before anyone says it, I don't believe most people will sub to another game if they're having fun in a buy to play because most people have limited play time and dislike spending money on something they're not using.

 

The Secret World will siphon off quite a few players from this game, too.

 

Archeage is going to take a chunk of its pvpers.

 

None of these will kill SWTOR. All of these together won't kill it, either. I think this game is going to be around awhile and will improve. But with a bunch of new power house games out this year, older games like Rift and the free to play crowd are going to get smacked around hard.

 

Here endith my predictioniths. We'll know by the end of 2012 if I get my fortune teller title or not.

[Bamboodel]

I was having fun with this game until I reached level 50.

When I saw what the PvP was like and after 30 bags and 2 drops (boots twice) I just cancelled.

 

edit : typo

Edited January 24, 2012 by Bamboodel

[iLLaDeLpHLife]

What is your opinion of drastic? 5%? 15%? 50%?

 

I would say a very small base of players might leave.. but nothing that will affect the game for the rest of us.

[GDiesel]

Republic players are leaving because of Ilum, and Imperials are leaving because they get stuck playing huttball 24/7. If Bioware added faction transfers I think this would help even things out quite a bit.

[Ragetoker]

and i dnt ever really get too bad fps so dnt knw whats that about normally 90-100fps it will drop to like 65 in warzone but human eye can only see at 60fps anyway if i had that problem i might be more pissed off cuz hate any sort of lag