Bioware Staff weighs in over layoffs

[Altinar]

All this complaining zzzzzzzzzzz.... It get's so old. If you hate the game and BW so much why not go find a new game to complain about?

 

Standard response to valid complaints zzzzzz....

 

In response to the thread, Bioware's staff are obviously fans of Dead or Alive. You spin me right round baby right round like a record baby...

[Mikniff]

not even blizzard kept there full mmo staff after release. it happens to every compny..release game, let go of 60-70% of staff over time

[Pirindolo]

At the apparent pace of these game updates, having plans for the rest of the year amounts to very little.

 

So true!!!! Probably no more than 1 serious content patch in the next 6 months (and it will be full of bugs and performance problems).

[vsalcedo]

Time or money, not both. So far it seems people are starting to lose patience and are going to put Bioware in to a position where they have to choose one of the other.

 

What people the people who whined about too lil servrs...

[Ratior]

BW: You were listening to the players?

Advice: Listen to the RIGHT players, not the whiners.

 

You lost lots of players from unofficial Asian countries. Idiots.

[Wayshuba]

not even blizzard kept there full mmo staff after release. it happens to every compny..release game, let go of 60-70% of staff over time

 

This is actually not true in most of the cases, but is another one of those internet myths that has taken on a life of it's own. If it was true, then MMO companies would, in general, be the worst managed businesses overall on the planet.

 

Companies are well aware in advance of what they plan to have for full time staff after release based on projections versus temporary staff needed to put out a project. No company will take on a plethora of full time staff, with all additional costs and regulations (worker's comp, insurance, unemployment, paid vacations, severance packages, etc.) that they are planning to let go in the very near future. Yes, the MMO industry typically does release people after a title release or major expansion, but these are usually temporary contrators that are let go and therefore not layoffs.

 

Layoffs are common, however, when a title fails to live up to estimates as full time staff is planned around the budgets of projected revenues. When big layoffs come at any MMO company of full time staff, it is a clear indicator that the title is not at all doing what was anticipated. TOR still did well out of the gate, but the layoffs (especially the rumored size of them) came as both a surprise to BioWare employees and indicates that EA was expecting much greater results than where they are at.

[oredith]

There's a plan for the rest of the year? Is it something other than "there will be a patch 1.4 at some point with various things?"

 

That seems like the same vaporware they patented with unannounced secret world events coming soon they can't talk about and their mysterious space projects.

goes well with their secret metrics

[tloops]

4million subs?? With this games system requirements??????

 

To be fair one of the reasons people play WoW is that it will run fine on a £300 dell laptop. You're looking at a £600+ system to run this game at a somewhat decent rate. Not many people have one of those.

 

i have a $300 laptop and i run it just fine, the requirements arent that bad,and they have even implemented several fixes for lower end machines and more to come in 1.3 ....this game should have more subs,and the requirements arent to blame,the game itself is.

[Teefal]

Re: layoffs.

 

From what I understand BioWare Austin was just part of the larger EA layoffs, which means it isn't necessarily tied to SWTOR profits. More likely, all EA studios were asked to trim X% based upon their potentiai impact on profitability.

 

EA is a big, big company, one that finds it more profitable to shed developers, restructure, and re-hire other developers six months later, than to take employees through a restructuring.

 

See this:

 

http://www.benzinga.com/tech/12/05/2560878/ea-layoffs-explained

Edited May 30, 2012 by Teefal

[Zannis]

"I think we did a good job of listening to the players and delivering some of the features they wanted with a quick turnaround."

 

Unfortunately, you ignored all the feedback during beta that focused on end game matters, and only started 'listening' to your customers when they stopped subscribing en masse.

[Gruug]

Re: layoffs.

 

From what I understand BioWare Austin was just part of the larger EA layoffs, which means it isn't necessarily tied to SWTOR profits. More likely, all EA studios were asked to trim X% based upon their potentiai impact on profitability.

 

EA is a big, big company, one that finds it more profitable to shed developers, restructure, and re-hire other developers six months later, than to take employees through a restructuring.

 

See this:

 

http://www.benzinga.com/tech/12/05/2560878/ea-layoffs-explained

 

As someone that has worked for a Fortune 500 (50) Company, I know that all of what is said above is true. Many people posting the "it is SWTOR's" fault have no clue how big businesses work. When profits become losses, the FIRST to get cut are the people because they are the most expensive and the easiest to axe. It doesn't sound fair but it is the only thing that companies can do quickly to stop the bleeding.

 

Now, is SWTOR sick? Only if you look at the lack of decent content to do at max level. I am not saying there is no content or that that content provide is bad. I am saying that there is just not enough INTERESTING content once you max level. I have eight charaters. I enjoy leveling "alts". I do not enjoy doing dailies or pvp or the current space game at max level. I do like running HM OPs and FPs but I can not do those all the time. So, to me, SWTOR is only slightly broken. If and when Bioware addresses those issues, I will change that opinion.

[SvnStrSlm]

We all wanted this game to be great but every once and a while we need a huge failure to make people re-evaluate how they make games. Maybe the next big AAA game will learn and focus on fixing issues, keeping a population model from the now-generation and making content for endgame right out the box that can't be breezed through.

 

AHHHHHSHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!1!1!1!1! So your saying hell is going to freeze over. You let me know when this perfectly balances, bug free, end game loaded games comes out. Just hit me up with a pm. We had a triple AAA failure called vanguard. They had everything you wanted except it was too much and they couldnt fixe everything at once and it eventually got tossed out the door way under developed. So what did that bring??? the watered down theme park crap that gets jammed down our throats because developers know you need to keep the launch simple. The problem is games are no longer about leveling. its all about end game. SWTOR has broke the mold by adding amazing story telling to enhance the lore and leveling experience of the game. Personaly i hope the kill exp game to force people to explore and take their time.

[Athilis]

Nowhere near the bottom. Know what you talk about before you talk about it. Sure, it didn't hit WoW numbers, but noone ever will again, that was just perfect timing for the mmo industry when they launched, that is all. It was the first mmo to step off the beaten path a bit and go their own way.

 

And this game didn't go it's own way. They made WoW with Star Wars skin. Thats all they set out to do and thats all they did. I have not played in a month even though I have game time still. If it were free to play, I still wouldn't. I am a huge Star Wars fan and have been all my life. Thought Kotor was great...This game...it's boring and repetitive. They didn't go their own way at all. I wish this wasn't the case but it is, and the numbers show it. What am I to do now that I hit 50 and ran all the flash points and ops? Do the same missions over and over to get better gear to do the same missions again on a higher difficulty? And pay $15 dollors a month to do it when I wouldn't do it for free? No thanks. I made some one else GM of my guild over a month ago and until today haven't looked back. Why today? Just to see what 1.3 would be...a major over-haul?...nah same old stuff. You can keep this game. I've seen enough.

[Varus_Praetor]

4million subs?? With this games system requirements??????

 

To be fair one of the reasons people play WoW is that it will run fine on a £300 dell laptop. You're looking at a £600+ system to run this game at a somewhat decent rate. Not many people have one of those.

 

And yet the graphics are not even close to the cutting edge.

 

As for needing an epic fail occasionally to wake up the AAA developers...there were PLENTY of epic MMO failures to draw lessons from. SWTOR has no excuse for it's failings other than refusing to draw lessons from it's competitors and some gross incompetence.

 

Having said that and having played several other F2P MMO's (briefly), no, SWTOR is not near the bottom of the pile. It's firmly in the middle though, which is a shame, because the ingredients for a top dog MMO were there. Classic failure to execute.

[Wackit]

Maybe this December we will get what we wanted....After all, we have been paying to play a Beta test since last December. Yet they didnt listen to us same as they didnt listen to the supposed original beta testers.

They needed to clean house...probably more will go considering they are losing hundreds of thousands of subs over the last month.

They have a big hole to dig out of...listen to us and we can help. Oh we have little Tauntauns though...so dont listen to us. Your jobs...so please maybe a little Dewback for 1.3 perhaps? ..YAY! forget the other stuff.

Here is something to consider before you fail with the group finder......add in game chat so everyone will be able to communicate.

That is why it is hard to find groups to complete these instances. If you are not guilded..and dont know what everyone is using for chat (Vent,Mumble,T.S.) the time saved with group finder goes into typing strats...having people download whatever chat most people have..explaining how to get it cponfigured...etc...TIME SINK!

As usual you are counting chickens before they hatch.

Edited June 2, 2012 by Wackit

[DirtyDiggler]

"I think we did a good job of listening to the players and delivering

some of the features they wanted with a quick turnaround,"

 

 

OMG they are mad

[Namesis]

what i would like to see is an honest assessment from a dev about the state of the game. Not pr spin but actual information and compare to what we the players feel and see how much of a disconnect there really is.

 

That is a start to the lines of communication. As far as i can tell this a failed horribly (sub wise)and that the view of the players is that most of decisions made have been asinine.

 

For me they did not such thing in listening to us because if they did there would be no legacy and we would have group finders/transfers and no pop issues.

[MagisterAnimus]

Man does no one but do anything but ***** and moan? Seriously if you hate this game that much then go and play something else.

 

I been playing this game casually since launch even preorder for early access and I still find it the most enjoyable of all the MMOs I have played. WoW was HORRIBLE at launch took almost a year to have classes actually be worth a damm anyone who played at launch can remember just how horrible druids were and had no direction nor any worth.

 

MMOs are a work in progress and always well be, if you do not like that fact then do not play them.

 

At times I really wish companies like Bioware would just keep forums to a min, to limit the wahh wahh I don't like this so you suck and your game is crap bullcrap. Instead of intelligent thoughtful suggestions and criticism.

[Tsillah]

I do sometimes wonder if with all the hype, the developers actually put themselves in a hype bubble, making them impervious to ...well....reality.

 

Ok ok, reality is what we perceive it is, but even though people can argue about whether they like the gameplay or not, like the graphics or not etc etc....there can be no discussion that there are population issues and that these are serious.

 

I like the game itself. I think it looks brilliant and there's a lot of fun to be had...but you do need healthy server populations.

 

Yes there are bugs, but they have fixed a fair number of them, but the population.....

 

My point of view is that every game gets hyped. Some people say this game should have 4 million players in comparison to the hype, well, there's a lot of hype around any game title from a decent size game company. Other than WoW, I don't think any of them have 4 million active accounts.

 

So, it should be the company's expectation that because of the hype, there will always be a hefty percentage of players leaving within a few months. You simply can't meet everyone's expectation.

 

That makes me wonder why they didn't have a plan ready to go fo this inevitable outcome. Say what you will, but the game was lacking features on release and did have more bugs than it should, but for me there was enough to like the game and keep playing.

 

But now, my server has maybe 1 guild that still manages a full guild team for 8-man ops. The rest of us are left to level characters and do some crafting (not that anybody's buying much) until the transfers come. I expect 1.3 to come in July, but geez, another month or two of simply waiting, holding out, till we can hopefully play endgame again on another server with more people.

 

Bioware, in your little hype bubble, can you see beyond it please and realise that there are people who really like this game but are still contemplating quitting because you haven't taken care of the basis of MMOs...population. And even though you have fixed many bugs, you are very late with these transfers.

 

The message that 1.3 is coming to the pts soon, was bad news to me. Simply because it means to me that 1.3 will probably not make it to the real servers in June.

 

I've been leveling a new toon, level 45 sorc. Almost 50. what then? I made the sorc even though I already have one...but it gave me something to do and I figured, I could get a new character to 50 faster than you can bring out dual or multi spec.

 

So please, there are some realities out there, that you are responsible for and I just wish you'd been better prepared to deal with them.

 

TL;DR Bioware should've known populations always drop after a few months and should've had a plan ready for that, instead of still having to make it. I think they believe their own hype too much.

[JohnnyAceEVPTR]

If they up their plan 4 more years they will have 5 year plans.

[CJ_SAX_MAN]

""Quote: Originally Posted by TZHX

I'm curious, where did they promise that?

 

I can't imagine any company seriously saying "we're never going to reduce our number of staff".

They didn't. Welcome to the forums where anything the developers say is twisted into something different.""

 

I dont know, I would have to find it again. And I am randomly posting in this Necroed thread because a CS guy moved my crap here.

 

Some people mentioned it before on the forums, If i can find it i will link it, Some developer talked about "Keeping our original team together" or somesuch.

[Sparklehorse]

I'm not sure they should be so proud about their sub numbers considering many of those subs are just active until the free month runs out. I haven't played more than 10 minutes in almost a month and if transfers don't happen before my free time runs out, I won't be resubbing.

 

I'm sure they are happy to be able to say, "well at least we still have 1.3 million subscribers," unfortunately, they don't admit that only the .3 are actually playing the game.

[Lovia]

That's 22 more than they need. PvE, PvP and RP.

 

US, 2 x time zones, 4 server types (pve, pvp, RPpve, RPpvp) =8 servers

AU,1 x time zone, 4 server types =4 servers

EU,1 x time zone, 3x language packs, 4 server types =12 servers

2 extra for eu/us(2 time zones) pve/pvp servers =6 servers

 

 

grand total of needed servers =30 servers

[Phlem]

Consolidate to 25 Super Servers.

 

With the way subs are dropping there will be 1 moderate server in the not to distant future.

[overunitee]

I think the fact that a Pve focused game were the devs said they had put their money and effort into the levelling and legacy aspect Has produced a game were their PVP is by far the greatest success of all ,lots of people me included hated pvp but love it to bits in this game .

I suggest they build on what they have done right .

I would gladly subscribe to new detailed maps with more in depth pvp mechanics ,less of the jump in and die style and more of the tactical strategy pvp were the focus and rewards are given for teamwork and not how much damage you inflicted or how many players you killed .