Subs down 25%

[ISTrick]

I think D3 and GW2 will impact player activity more than subscriptions.

 

100% Agree.

 

 

Also, I think server mergers - new content ('Allies' sounds promising - new playable races perhaps?) - and the already promised improvements and content (rated warzones/new ops-flashpoints etc) will make this a stronger community.

 

It might even dip to 1 million or so before the whiners are mostly ejected, and the true player base will be there - with server mergers, it will be like a new game.

 

Plus, I'm buying GW2 on release - the story side seems lacking, but the combat is boss. Not 100% sure I'm getting Diablo at all, might do at some stage when cheaper. Doomsayers keep on spouting your tripe, have fun.

[Kubernetic]

I have to say I still love all the people who are claiming the game is a failure.

 

The attention span of some of these users is unfathomable. What a drive-thru culture we live in.

[Goretzu]

I have to say I still love all the people who are claiming the game is a failure.

 

The attention span of some of these users is unfathomable. What a drive-thru culture we live in.

 

The worry isn't the numbers (1.3m even with free months much still be around 1,000,000 active subs which is still very good numbers) it's the trend.

[Harleyz]

I have to say I still love all the people who are claiming the game is a failure.

 

The attention span of some of these users is unfathomable. What a drive-thru culture we live in.

 

Its the internet.

The internet sent the society on this planet downhill fast.

Double edged sword.

[chaosdefined]

100% Agree.

 

 

Also, I think server mergers - new content ('Allies' sounds promising - new playable races perhaps?) - and the already promised improvements and content (rated warzones/new ops-flashpoints etc) will make this a stronger community.

 

It might even dip to 1 million or so before the whiners are mostly ejected, and the true player base will be there - with server mergers, it will be like a new game.

 

Plus, I'm buying GW2 on release - the story side seems lacking, but the combat is boss. Not 100% sure I'm getting Diablo at all, might do at some stage when cheaper. Doomsayers keep on spouting your tripe, have fun.

 

The problem is, all the major improvements are coming to the game such as server merges and that. But they're not going to be for months, perhaps even towards the end of the year. Everything BW needs to retain players, they're taking far too long to do.

[Celticprince]

The backlash from all the "TOR is dying" folks I think really comes from the let down. This game was supposed to be the major competitor to WoW and it failed, horribly, ignoring the very development points that BW advertised would need to be done to actually compete with WoW.

 

I wonder if this was the SoE crew that came over or someone else. The sooner they can dismiss those employees the better this game will be.

 

I have a full post on this here:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=447469&page=124

 

HAHA, you sure are a funny one. Bioware did exactly what they said they would do. furthermore one of the wow devs has even given Bioware praise for how good of a game Swtor is.

Bioware is competing with wow the same as anyone else, they are not out to kill it, just make a profit which is exactly what they have done and will continue to do for some time to come.

I swear some of you people take to many things completely out of context and let your one dimensional imaginations run completely rampant in an incohessive manner to the point that you actualy believe delusional machinations spawned from taking to much stock and placing to much faith into incomplete incomprehensible data you gleamed from other like minded individuals who also have no clue what thier oratory skills are digressing from.

[LilSaihah]

HAHA, you sure are a funny one. Bioware did exactly what they said they would do. furthermore one of the wow devs has even given Bioware praise for how good of a game Swtor is.

 

I'm actually interested in where this happened. Source?

[Wintor]

Hey, I have a GREAT idea.

 

Lets copy a slowly dying game but not make it quite as good, add voice overs, and pray nobody will notice they're playing an old, outdated, overplayed, boring game.

 

And when we lose almost half a million subs in a quarter, act like all is well. Nobody will notice.

 

Who's on board to invest? Send cash please.

[grasstomouth]

It's no surprise the sub base has dropped, what are we doing as a community to keep ourselves entertained? Instead of us all looking at how the subs have dropped how about we start making suggestions about what we all want to see and adding constructive criticism to what is wrong with this game at it's current state and how we as a community can improve it.

 

I'm passed the bitter stage of complaining about how this isn't SWG 2.0 or how it's not lived up to my expectations. Lets all make it a better game by actually making community events that we can all join in with.

 

Oh, did I get the job? I don't even remember having an interview. I have LOTS of ideas on how to fix this game, I bet a lot of us do. They have people they employ to do that. If they want my ideas they better hire me. Since the people they employ seem to be clueless maybe they should fire them all and hire us.

[Harleyz]

Hey, I have a GREAT idea.

 

Lets copy a slowly dying game but not make it quite as good, add voice overs, and pray nobody will notice they're playing an old, outdated, overplayed, boring game.

 

And when we lose almost half a million subs in a quarter, act like all is well. Nobody will notice.

 

Who's on board to invest? Send cash please.

 

We both sent cash

[Celticprince]

I'm actually interested in where this happened. Source?

 

give me a couple of hours and i will be able to track it down for ya . was during one of the interviews they did recently about MoP.

[Celticprince]

I'm actually interested in where this happened. Source?

 

here you go, Interview with metzen from wow insider.

 

"I'm just gonna cause some shenanigans, so I'll just say that embedded in the past of Warcraft is a lot of really, really fertile ground. I don't see it as going over the same stuff. Like, not necessarily talking about SWTOR here, but just as an example, does it really feel like Star Wars if there aren't any guys in stormtrooper armor running around in one permutation or another? It's totally cool to beat on a stormtrooper, and if you rip all that out, it doesn't feel quite the same. So if you go, "Well, we did that before, it's all used and done," and just write off classic themes -- well, maybe that's a mistake? So Mists is taking Warcraft and pushing it boldly forward, and hopefully over time, a balance between legacy issues and totally new looks at the content can be met, and everything will be perfect.

"

 

this part of the interview is actualy talking about how wow always feels the same with alliance vs horde and the usualy big bad endboss raid content stuff, and Metzen compares it basicly to how SWTOR has somesort of stormtrooper for us to kill cause it would not realy capture the feel of the universe if it did not include that which is actualy praisesing bioware and the game with his comment in the interview.. only reason he said not specificly talking about tor is he could lose his job if he did not .

 

here is the link to said interview.

 

http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-chris-metzen-interview/2

[HAMMERSWIFT]

Don't pull a SOE listen to your players

PLZ

[Celticprince]

Hey, I have a GREAT idea.

 

Lets copy a slowly dying game but not make it quite as good, add voice overs, and pray nobody will notice they're playing an old, outdated, overplayed, boring game.

 

And when we lose almost half a million subs in a quarter, act like all is well. Nobody will notice.

 

Who's on board to invest? Send cash please.

 

last time i checked 25 percent decline was not a 50 percent decline. such simple math how could you screw that one up? nevermind its the same exact decline wow had during it's first year.

[Goretzu]

here you go, Interview with metzen from wow insider.

 

"I'm just gonna cause some shenanigans, so I'll just say that embedded in the past of Warcraft is a lot of really, really fertile ground. I don't see it as going over the same stuff. Like, not necessarily talking about SWTOR here, but just as an example, does it really feel like Star Wars if there aren't any guys in stormtrooper armor running around in one permutation or another? It's totally cool to beat on a stormtrooper, and if you rip all that out, it doesn't feel quite the same. So if you go, "Well, we did that before, it's all used and done," and just write off classic themes -- well, maybe that's a mistake? So Mists is taking Warcraft and pushing it boldly forward, and hopefully over time, a balance between legacy issues and totally new looks at the content can be met, and everything will be perfect.

"

 

this part of the interview is actualy talking about how wow always feels the same with alliance vs horde and the usualy big bad endboss raid content stuff, and Metzen compares it basicly to how SWTOR has somesort of stormtrooper for us to kill cause it would not realy capture the feel of the universe if it did not include that which is actualy praisesing bioware and the game with his comment in the interview.. only reason he said not specificly talking about tor is he could lose his job if he did not .

 

here is the link to said interview.

 

http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-chris-metzen-interview/2

 

I'm not entirely sure that's praising Bioware there.

[Alavastre]

It's only normal for the game to drop off after launch, as it is a new game and will have less features than other established MMO's. The real test will be a year from now, and if subs dropped a lot or stay steady. As new features come into the game, and everything gets ironed out, I think you may see subs increase over time.

 

The rumors of SWOTR's death have been greatly exaggerated.

[Celticprince]

Don't pull a SOE listen to your players

PLZ

 

hatwe to say this but SoE listening to its players is what got us the NGE which killed SWG and MXO aswell as EQ2 and DCU.

[thomasgallant]

Also all the people who say this game will be fine with 250k players are wrong! How much of that 200 million do you think they downscaled after the game went live. I bet it costs more after the launch than prior to.

 

if you actauallylistend to reports when the y went live they said they would be stable with 500k subs..and that their entire expense of creating the game.. was recouped in presales alone..

 

this game isnt doign as badly as you would like to assume.. and you apparently havent been paying attention in the last couple of months.

[Celticprince]

I'm not entirely sure that's praising Bioware there.

 

it is, its the context of the statment. basicly starwars is not starwars with out smtomtroopers lightsabers and the force and its basicly saying bioware delivered on the starwars feel.

[chaosdefined]

hatwe to say this but SoE listening to its players is what got us the NGE which killed SWG and MXO aswell as EQ2 and DCU.

 

It's a double-edged sword.

 

BW listened to players in the Beta who said they didn't want a WoW clone and so not to include an automated Group Finder. This caused many players to get bored and leave the game as they had difficulty finding groups via the current ingame means.

 

BW listened to players complaining about the queue times for servers and so opened up a larger amount of new servers. This resulted in a lack of populace for many servers and so many players left the game because they felt it was dead and didn't want to start all over again on another server.

 

So indeed, listening to the players is part of what caused players to leave.

[ArmchairMagpie]

If you gain subs it's called growth, if you lose subs it's called retention rate.

[Goretzu]

It's a double-edged sword.

 

BW listened to players in the Beta who said they didn't want a WoW clone and so not to include an automated Group Finder. This caused many players to get bored and leave the game as they had difficulty finding groups via the current ingame means.

 

BW listened to players complaining about the queue times for servers and so opened up a larger amount of new servers. This resulted in a lack of populace for many servers and so many players left the game because they felt it was dead and didn't want to start all over again on another server.

 

So indeed, listening to the players is part of what caused players to leave.

 

 

 

 

There is no way they could have continued with up to 6+ hour queues to get on to servers. They'd have ended up losing as many or more people trying to do that.

[chaosdefined]

There is no way they could have continued with up to 6+ hour queues to get on to servers. They'd have ended up losing as many or more people trying to do that.

 

I wasn't there at launch so i can't comment on the queue times. However they did go a bit over the top with how many new servers were opened as a result.

 

Still my point was, BW does listen to players, it's just that at times this has had a negative impact on the game as a result.

[NevesNET]

+ it has a micro transaction model, so if you want to be someone in the game you must purchase items. Thats what killed GW2 for me, I would never play a game that forces me to buy items to progress or be equal to others.

 

This is TRUE but FALSE... you can't buy ANYTHING that benefits you in game or gives you an advantage. If you had actually already BOUGHT and PLAYED GW2 in it's beta(s) you would be better informed.

[Celticprince]

It's a double-edged sword.

 

BW listened to players in the Beta who said they didn't want a WoW clone and so not to include an automated Group Finder. This caused many players to get bored and leave the game as they had difficulty finding groups via the current ingame means.

 

BW listened to players complaining about the queue times for servers and so opened up a larger amount of new servers. This resulted in a lack of populace for many servers and so many players left the game because they felt it was dead and didn't want to start all over again on another server.

 

So indeed, listening to the players is part of what caused players to leave.

 

the group finder not being implmented did not cause them to lose subs, RIFT a supperior game to wow had a group finder and they lost subs, wow did not get subs from implementing thier group finder a couple years ago.

 

Bioware opened up the servers cause they did not have enough to accomodate the sudden influx of players during the first month, it was the right move at the time, they unfortunately opened up far to many servers. wow implemented too many servers a couple of times, but wow gave out free transfers from overpopulated servers to new servers and underpopulated servers. add to the fact the new servers wow implemented you were able to get a one time only mount from opening up the AQ raids as they were completly closed off like in vanilla alot of players flocked to the new servers just for that.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Celticprince