An open letter to Bioware.

[alastairc]

I'm not a games designer. I've been a business analyst for over 10 years, and specialise in IT developments, looking at how processes work and deliver for customers and users.

 

I've played MMOs since 2005, organising Guilds and gaming communities for some of that time, and witnessed games transform as I played them to mixed critical reception. In all, I believe I have a reasonable perspective on what makes an MMO work for its players, coupled with realistic expectations around the lead time involved in designing and delivering platform change. But I'm not a games designer. I'm a player.

 

If SWTOR doesn't adapt, my opinion as a player is that it will spiral to a smaller and smaller player base and then die. Commercially, that may be acceptable to Bioware, but it seems like a missed opportunity to me. SWTOR could relatively easily adapt and maintain an MMO market share, and continue to provide revenue and a fun gaming experience.

 

There are a couple of fundamental mistakes in the game design at present:

1. Endgame content fun is limited to Battleground PvP and Operations.

2. Scaling the PvP Gear has made PvE content redundant.

 

With less dirct impact, but significant because the design has failed to deliver are the rest of my "top ten":

3. World PvP doesn't work at all

4. The Legacy system fails to offer incentives to play, it's just a money sink

5. Queue times for Battleground PvP content are artificially longer than necessary

6. Token based rewards are all itemised gear, lacking in vanity items which retain value beyond item scaling

7. The experiment with a world event in the Rakghoul Plague had no follow up

8. SWTOR lacks community management tools, encouraging players to use external tools and making it easier for them to migrate to other games

9. Change management between reward systems has been poor and demoralised players

10. Gear frequently fails to match the Star Wars tone

 

If the above aren't clearly being addressed, I expect I'll move on to the next MMO... which would be a shame, because SWTOR has several saving graces which make it a game worth saving, if you can. I hear nothing but praise for the quality and pacing of Operations, the quality and balance of the PvP Battlegrounds, the class skills and talent trees, the great visual design of the game worlds, and the excellent story-driven interface and cut-scenes.

 

So, Bioware, can you maintain that high quality whilst finding someone with the game design skills to deal with the problem areas which undermine them?

 

Not liking to present problems without some ideas about a solution, here are some thoughts:

 

1. Endgame content fun is limited to Battleground PvP and Operations: By limiting rewards to scaling gear with itemisation levels, you swiftly make the game content outside that redundant. This includes all the work the teams have done on Crafting Skills, Quests and Daily Quests, Space Battles and Flashpoints. They just don't provide any kind of useful rewards. Furthermore, the design makes them a grind for money and tokens (and possibly Social level), not an enjoyable experience you would choose to do for the fun or challenge or reward. The rewards need urgent review as a short term fix. Future content needs to be made to be fun to play and repeat, and offer an interesting and lasting choice of rewards.

 

2. Releasing the new cash-purchased level 50 PvP Gear was fine for balancing the PvP arena, but immediately rendered Tionese and lower itemisation gear redundant. For 200k you could immediately be Operation-ready and able to take on someone in full Tionese. Why have you not upped the PvE rewards to match the scaling in the PvP gear? Why would anyone now do a Flashpoint more than once, when the rewards are valueless? The PvE rewards need to scale at the same rate.

 

3. World PvP is problematic for every game you see it in. The main issues are a lack of opponents, unbalanced teams or uninspiring rewards. So, offer some decent rewards only available through World PvP for one. Then design the area to make it easy for people to get to from their main (ie: Fleet) location so it's quick to load. Design a big area with multiple objectives, so a small mobile group can still have successes, or give them a stats boost if necessary. Then offer a range of fun Daily Mission Quests which are in the PvP area but not PvP dependent to bring people back to the area actively on a regular basis. A fun PvP scenario and a few in-game graphic effects would be a bonus.

 

4. The Legacy system fails to offer incentives to play, it's just a money sink: This seems to have missed the point in implementation, and really needs a redesign. Legacy level itself should reward players who have kept on playing any and all content, as an incentive to keep playing. Crazy costs just make it painfully unappealing; do you really want to blow 2 million credits on a spurious reward, or keep that banked for Operations costs? As a money sink, it is equally daft; at best a short term fix to a bloated economy amongst a small elite of obsessive players - why make everything a static cost rather than offer recurring items of limited duration? Surely the economy will shrink once, then bloat again in the same way? Legacy should be designed to make it easier to play up alts, and reward people for doing so, encouraging people to enjoy the content without the more restrictive experience of their first levelling. And where are the fun vanity rewards? A few emotes? What about pets, roleplay gear, titles, ship cosmetics, etc? It's a missed opportunity to incentivise players to stay that just needs a strategic rethink about what it's trying to achieve.

 

5. Queue times for Battleground PvP content are artificially longer than necessary: Implement a cross-server queueing system for PvP Battlegrounds and for Flashpoints, to make it a faster experience for the players. This seems like a massive oversight, and is not market competitive with the current same-server only system.

 

6. Token based rewards are all itemised gear, lacking in vanity items which retain value beyond item scaling: More rewards should be fun, interesting, utility items, or pure vanity items (especially items with limited charges to encourage players to purchase again and again). Just offering itemised gear for the tokens you collect in PvE or PvP creates a natural cap on how long they have any value, and is entirely unnecessary.

 

7. The experiment with a world event in the Rakghoul Plague had no follow up: This came and went like a ball of confusion. It was interesting, but over in a flash, leaving in its wake a load of confused players who didn't see any ongoing references to what has happened, and were left holding stacks of tokens/inventory items that they couldn't spend, but presumably need to hang onto? This needed to blend more seamlessly into the ongoing world, ideally leading on into the next event, and leave behind a legacy of fixed vendors/suppliers/quests to allow players to complete/spend their tokens and get closure to their story.

 

8. SWTOR lacks community management tools, encouraging players to use external tools and making it easier for them to migrate to other games: If you don't have an event calendar and other guild management tools easy to use, players are forced to use external options - their own Forums, Facebook, Steam etc. This makes it a lot easier for your SWTOR Guild communities to move away from the game. As an individual player, that may not be a bad thing, but looking at the future of the SWTOR community as a whole, it's not a bright outlook. You should have a development team working on making the Guild and Community experience in SWTOR as easy and supported as possible. It's those communities which will remain loyal during the gaps in content, and will encourage more casual players to return, whilst keeping your servers alive for new players. In many ways, Guild communities act as in-game advisors and moderators, engaging with, managing and supporting less experienced players on Bioware's behalf. You need to be engaging with them and making them happy to be here.

 

9. Change management between reward systems has been poor and demoralised players: A lot of the issues with SWTOR suggest a lack of thorough impact assessment when changes are put into the game. Someone needs to have a clear strategic overview of what the design teams are doing, and be capable of gap analysis - asking the questions like what happens to the PvE content if we implement this new PvP itemised gear? Then (and this is often the hard bit) someone needs to listen to them, and do something about the gaps, preferably before the new content is released. Get a good Change Manager.

 

10. Gear frequently fails to match the Star Wars tone: We don't play Star Wars to look like transformers, nor to have oversized WoW shoulderpads inflicted upon us. Realistic costumes and some normal looking clothes and armours would be better.

 

I appreciate it's possibly arrogant and assuming for me to offer recommendations on how to run your game as someone outside your company. You may well have good reasons for some of the above concerns, and be confident you have others in hand. You may disagree with my perspective, that's fine too. But please listen and consider - I know I am far from being alone in my concerns, and I'd like these issues addressed so that SWTOR can become the success it deserves to be.

 

Regards, Alastair

[KennethHoover]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

[Thekze]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

Whatever makes you feel better about this game

Edited June 5, 2012 by Thekze

[alastairc]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

Privilege, no. Insight, yes.

 

If I take my car to a garage to be fixed, I'd prefer the mechanic to have worked on a few other cars beforehand, to give them some experience and perspective.

 

However, I apologise if I've irritated you. I'm more familiar with writing formal business cases, where establishing credentials is important before presenting a case, than posting on forums. I accept that may well be overly formal or extremely passe.

[Thaltom]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

Or for that matter, their jobs. Like that matters to some random forum Joe who is reading this thread.

[LordRyll]

Or for that matter, their jobs. Like that matters to some random forum Joe who is reading this thread.

 

I believe this post was not so much directed at the "random forum Joe" as it was intended for the developers.

 

I think this post is well written and constructive. Hopefully this can get some of the community's thoughts across in a positive light.

[Dakkide]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

Hmm, it might be because they have played more than World of Warcraft and Xbox. Might be because they have seen what the different MMOs offer, and how some MMOs have had longevity because of what they offer. Might be because some folks have played many different MMOs so have more insight into whats killed the different MMOs over the years, and whats kept some (Everquest ) pertinent for over 10 years. And might be, because that person with a bit more insight into the genre, might just have some good ideas about how to keep a certain game going beyond the one year mark? Just my 2 credits though , and you know what they say opinions, just like A#$%^@# we all have them.

Dakkide

[Methenu]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

I would surmise that it's because actual experience does give insight. The author has been playing MMOs for the last 7 years. That means he has practical experience with the genre. He has seen what works in other games, watched them stumble into pitfalls and would like SWTOR to avoid them if possible.

 

If BioWare had more practical MMO experience and insight perhaps the game would be doing better.

[Pyrocan]

1. Endgame content fun is limited to Battleground PvP and Operations.

- Lots of endgame content is up.PvP Fps Ops Dailies

2. Scaling the PvP Gear has made PvE content redundant.

- Not Really

3. World PvP doesn't work at all

- Who cares!

4. The Legacy system fails to offer incentives to play, it's just a money sink

- Its just beginning lets wait!

5. Queue times for Battleground PvP content are artificially longer than necessary

- Not on my server - Tomb of freedon

7. The experiment with a world event in the Rakghoul Plague had no follow up

-Lets wait ?

[Felli]

I agree wholeheartedly with the Tionese point. I'd rather equip my alts (since I'm nearly full Rakata) with recruit gear than spend my Tionese tokens on them. I'd suggest a slight increase in stats on all token based pve gear (a very slight one) and maybe some additional designs so we have more choices of not looking like everyone else. (And kill whoever designed the sage bananahands please.)

[Gunarson]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

Because they know from experience what's a fun game about duh. Something BW clearly lacks vision in at this point. It's not because you can program and code and went to a game designer school that you're a good game designer.

 

It's not because you have a big budget and 450 IT people working on a project that you're gonna succeed. Minecraft was originally made by one guy but the game's a success. Simply because the bloke knew what's fun because he played tons of games, he kept on playing other games even during the creation of minecraft.

 

Over 400 people at BW and nobody thought that people would not like the designs for the armors in the game, that's just ridiculous.

 

@OP: excellent post, I agree with almost everything

Edited June 5, 2012 by Gunarson

[TheBBP]

An open letter to BioWare. This is new and refreshing.

[PhaseStar]

Some great points, good post and agree with most.

 

My primary disappointment is the fact that they've allowed servers to decline in activity to the point where much of the content is no longer playable unless you are willing to spend hours waiting or organizing a group.

 

The 1.2 update also fell short of what it promised in several areas, but especially customizable gear and the legacy system. Both were very underwhelming compared to what was expected and what the game needed.

 

Missed opportunities and I agree there won't be many more chances to turn things around before too many players leave the game. While priorities may differ and everyone's list differs in some respects, I think that if most of your points were addressed it would definitely improve the game.

Edited June 5, 2012 by PhaseStar

[MangoRice]

Why is everyone arguing over his "insight" or "experience"? You're missing the point of the post.

 

Anyways, very well written post my good sir. There are a few items you have mentioned that I wholeheartedly agree with, and some I didn't realize I agree with until I read this (useless FP rewards).

 

Just one thing to add: The server populations. I know they are implementing server transfers soon, but right now I believe that the biggest problem players are having is a lack of a community on their server. Even if they address all your problems, without a community on their server, the game will continue to bleed subscriptions.

 

But, I do hope the Devs or someone from Bioware gives this topic a look at, even if quite a few of your problems have been mentioned already.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write that all out!

[JaHakk]

I for one am having a blast playing SWTOR. I also understand that this game is in its infancy and will just improve. It is not a simple thing to design a game that has every bit of content and can think of everything people will want at release. That is why you have updates and patches and even upgrades. I believe the Development team works very hard to make the game better but like anything else it takes time. I applaud the Devs. I have been playing since release and have done testing prior to that. This game will do nothing but get better and better. What I hate seeing is people getting on these boards and telling the world they are leaving and why...nobody really cares, just go. And honestly do you really think the Devs have not already considered and are working on everything you have suggested, because you aint the first.

[Rafaman]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

It is false sense of credibility. It's important that they tell us that their insights are based on their experience and therefore they are singularly credible. However, if you look at forum content over time for these other games, you would find it very similar. Everyone has a right to their opinion, but they are the same opinions crafted in new ways over and over again.

 

I'm usually not this cynical but it occurs to me that people think they are adding something new to these conversations but they really aren't. As proof, I give you exhibit A: This wall of text.

Edited June 5, 2012 by Rafaman

[jarjarloves]

Privilege, no. Insight, yes.

 

If I take my car to a garage to be fixed, I'd prefer the mechanic to have worked on a few other cars beforehand, to give them some experience and perspective.

 

However, I apologise if I've irritated you. I'm more familiar with writing formal business cases, where establishing credentials is important before presenting a case, than posting on forums. I accept that may well be overly formal or extremely passe.

 

Ive driven a lot of cars even a ferrari however that doesnt mean I know how to design one

[Pcolapat]

I am not a game designer, but when I was a teenager, i did work at a fast food restaurant. People like hamburgers and french fries Bioware. They like them a lot. You have absolutly no hamburgers or french fries in this game. Just what are you thinking anyway? Peace out. Edited June 5, 2012 by Pcolapat

[Frostvein]

Ive driven a lot of cars even a ferrari however that doesnt mean I know how to design one

 

You don't need to design something to know that it is flawed.

 

For example, having a break pedal on the passenger side without having one on the driver side is a poor design. You don't need to be in the automobile industry to know this.

[Goretzu]

Why do people always feel it's necessary to list the games they played in the past as if that bestows some special sense of privilege or insight into MMOs?

 

If they didn't wouldn't you just then be saying "well what do you know?"?

 

Many people have played a lot more MMORPGs than just WoW (or SWTOR), and frankly there's an awful lot from other MMORPGs that would make SWTOR a much better game.

[Goretzu]

Ive driven a lot of cars even a ferrari however that doesnt mean I know how to design one

 

I've built 3 cars does that mean I know how to build one or drive one?

[Inzuher]

Great to see someone take such a big initiativ, great post.

[Arkerus]

World PvP isn't a thing or an object that "works". While the planets are designed with the bases far apart, world PvP not happening is not the fault of the designer.

 

People in general don't go looking for it. If no one is around they aren't going to camp out a spot for 3 hours just to gank one person.

 

The best thing they did for world PvP was the rahkghoul event.

 

if they merge servers the population might be high enough to support some exciting world PvP. However, there are no direct rewards so there isn't really a point. I am an PvP player and I still don't go looking for world PvP because I don't see a point in it.

 

While I see "open letters" as self righteous and "look at me" type posts, many of the things the OP places out there will be solved simply with a more populated, vibrant server. That is the biggest issue. The other issues, like gear happen in other MMOs as well. The beginner PvP gear is a neccessity and it does not invalidate PvE gear. It has a ton of expertise on it.

 

Yes, the game needs some changes. There needs to be something else at level 50. A side game or another way to develop your character. Other than that, I am willing to wait to see what comes.

Edited June 5, 2012 by Arkerus

[Kthx]

I've built 3 cars does that mean I know how to build one or drive one?

 

I think you meant to say "bought" three cars.

 

If you've built three cars, yes, then you know how to build one.

[Dezzi]

Wow. It didn't take the blinder-wearing fanboys very long to derail this thread, despite the OP being a very well-reasoned and constructive post. So I guess this is just proof that it doesn't matter if your content is constructive or mouth-foaming, the fanboys will shut you down.

 

How unfortunate.

 

OP, great post. Though you bring up a lot of what people have been saying before, I think the more people that say it, the less the developers can afford to ignore it. Thanks for your insights, OP.