Will 1.3 And Transfers Save SWTOR?

[jofos]

First of all I think that SWTOR will be around for years to come. How much will 1.3 and transfers help not as much as some might think. Transfers will give the appearance of a good population even if SWTOR keeps losing subs.

In all honesty SWTOR feels much like SWG did during the summer before its third expansion and second of the year. It seem like people were in pannick mod but not really doing anything then BAM SWG got NGEd and over night they player base was all but gone. When you hear things about new planets and new level caps, someone is worried. Hopefully Bioware doesn't do something real drastic but the real ones to worry about are the people at LA. If you start hearing anything about Julio Torres I would suggest finding something else to do with your time.

[pureeffinmetal]

lets just get these threads out of the way shall we?

 

"will 1.4 save swtor?"

 

"will 1.5 save swtor?"

 

"will 1.6 save swtor?"

 

"will the expansion save swtor?!?"

 

"will 2.1 save swtor?"

 

"will 2.2 save swtor?"

 

"will 2.3 save swtor?"

 

"will 2.4 save swtor?"

 

"will 2.5 save swtor?"

 

that should cover us for the next couple of years. Can we please stop making these threads now?

 

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[DarthZaul]

Yup. After playing the PTS I upgraded TOR from mediocre to good. The few people who actually managed to get the content done before 1.3 will probably unsub soon but for the rest who it is basically new content for it will be good for a few months till they unsub and wait for 1.4, but that is normal for an MMO.

They just need to sort out a few things like the legacy costs, encouraging people to play tanks and healers, changing the sharding in the black hole, and IMO allowing addons cos I want power auras and the GTN interface still sucks ***. PVP still needs A LOT of work though.

[jofos]

Yup. After playing the PTS I upgraded TOR from mediocre to good. The few people who actually managed to get the content done before 1.3 will probably unsub soon but for the rest who it is basically new content for it will be good for a few months till they unsub and wait for 1.4, but that is normal for an MMO.

They just need to sort out a few things like the legacy costs, encouraging people to play tanks and healers, changing the sharding in the black hole, and IMO allowing addons cos I want power auras and the GTN interface still sucks ***. PVP still needs A LOT of work though.

 

But aren't they nerfing damage for guardians and juggernauts in 1.3? Thats what I keep hearing so that discourages all of those tanks from playing.

[EATtheDEAD]

The Group Finder will please a lot of people who can not possibly find a group for a fp to save their life.

 

The legacy perks/costs will piss a whole bunch of people off.

 

Pvp is still the same nerftastic cycle

[-Samhain-]

This assumes that SWTOR needs saving. Certainly it's not the powerhouse title that many thought it would be, but now that transfers have gone live we're experiencing a new revitalization. Hopefully this continues. There were simply too many servers at launch. Those of us still playing still enjoy the game though, so it's not as if the populations are filled with people one inch from quitting no matter how much the forums may sound like that. Many of us that are still playing found extremely tight groups on our own servers, people that were in this game to stay and wouldn't be leaving even when the fleet never broke 30 people. So now many of us have transferred and our fleet now needs multiple instances because there's 600 folks in the fleet at the same time. We can pug stuff and enjoy the game again (with the side effect of being a little bit more laggy), and on top of that we came here with friends we know won't be leaving any time soon. This game doesn't need to be saved, it's simply a niche market. If you don't like it then go play Diablo 3 or WoW or get in on that GW2 beta weekend and stop posting here.

[Insomnio]

Youre wrong, it needs to be saved. The too soon server transfers are indicative that the population is just not as high as it projected, by a long measure.

 

Bioware opened up a good amount of servers after launch, because there was interest in the game- and that interest dwindled for a huge number of players, and the sub numbers dropped off exponentially leaving a very large portion of those servers "empty". Players became discouraged and left the game.

 

Now that the server merges are underway, it still will take a lot of effort to keep players interested. There is now a "population" on servers, but people still do not seem to want to interact. Read the general chat in game on fleet "LFG, LFG, LFG, LFG,LFG" and no response.

 

Are players in shock that other people are now in game, or maybe they have become too jaded to bother trying to join up for FPs after the extended period of very low pop? The game needs saving, its still on a downward trend. Im hoping it gets better, though they lost upward momentum with all the delays in server transfer and the slow to release group finder.

[-Samhain-]

Youre wrong, it needs to be saved. The too soon server transfers are indicative that the population is just not as high as it projected, by a long measure.

 

Bioware opened up a good amount of servers after launch, because there was interest in the game- and that interest dwindled for a huge number of players, and the sub numbers dropped off exponentially leaving a very large portion of those servers "empty". Players became discouraged and left the game.

 

Now that the server merges are underway, it still will take a lot of effort to keep players interested. There is now a "population" on servers, but people still do not seem to want to interact. Read the general chat in game on fleet "LFG, LFG, LFG, LFG,LFG" and no response.

 

Are players in shock that other people are now in game, or maybe they have become too jaded to bother trying to join up for FPs after the extended period of very low pop? The game needs saving, its still on a downward trend. Im hoping it gets better, though they lost upward momentum with all the delays in server transfer and the slow to release group finder.

 

Yes, I already said that they had too many servers at the start. So what? The point is that there's still people playing. Transfers have placed those people together where they would rather be. If they shut down dead servers, so what? Get everyone still playing on the same servers and maintain those. There are still plenty of people that are perfectly willing to pay their subscription to play this game. Transfers have only made this better for those people. The idea that the game needs to be miraculously "saved" by something is silly. People said the same thing about 1.2, that the game needed to be "saved," yet here we are, still playing. Yes, there's not as many subscribers as Bioware would have liked, but personally I like the way this is better. It's like playing a game like DAOC or Everquest where you know you're playing a game with dedicated players.

[-kobie-]

i have recently returned, to find my server is a ghost town and that this problem is wide spread and without a general population this game wont be able to carry on,

 

my question is will 1.3 be enough to keep old players busy and enough to bring back old subs and encourage new players to join, because this seems like its heading F2P or closure.

 

Anyone who thinks SWTOR is heading toward closure is delusional.

[Jadenfango]

That was from over ONE MONTH ago. From March to May they lost 400k...I'm sure they didn't gain ANY of those back.

 

I hope you have a source for that and you arent just pulling it out of your butt like most of the stuff here is...

[Khayleth]

My only complaint about the transfers is that I am lagging to an insane degree on the new server despite them both best West, I've never lagged this bad in an MMO or on my old server.

[Angorak]

Rofl. Everyone knows it's dying. I guess you didn't get the news about all these merges happening. Oh wait, they just did for the fun of it, and not because of DYING server populations.

 

Dying?...not a chance.

They opened too many servers in response to all the QQ'ing about queues. All now all the forum queens can do is claim that because of the servers transfers it is clear evidence that the game is dying....bleh. Why don't you peeps go start lurking of the GW2 forums..I'm sure you'll all find something to QQ about.

[Insomnio]

Of course there are still people here playing the game, its Star Wars- the game could be a big steaming pile of poo and there would still be people here playing it because Star Wars is in the title.

 

As someone who wants this game to keep growing and releasing content frequently, I have to say the number of players in game is just not making the cut. More players = more $ for the developers to release content = more players because the developers are releasing more content!

 

The problem is that the game is headed in the other direction. Less players because of game issues (which are being resolved slowly ie population, bug, optimization etc) , less devs due to significant lay offs, sub numbers dropping. Server merges took place not only because of population, but because the game is downsizing and cutting server numbers is a way of cutting expenses- just like cutting loose employees.

 

So the cycle becomes less Devs = Less content = less players = less content because less players = less income. Its not the right direction to be headed at all.

 

The best thing that could happen is an expansion that completely revamps the game and adds something new entirely to the game. Space content is the most obvious addtion. That is the only way to get a massive upswing in new players at this point. (and an upswing of new players = more $ for the devs= more content= more players!)

[Rednereven]

It might, but they're still taking too long to add group finder.

[Angorak]

Of course there are still people here playing the game, its Star Wars- the game could be a big steaming pile of poo and there would still be people here playing it because Star Wars is in the title.

 

As someone who wants this game to keep growing and releasing content frequently, I have to say the number of players in game is just not making the cut. More players = more $ for the developers to release content = more players because the developers are releasing more content!

 

The problem is that the game is headed in the other direction. Less players because of game issues (which are being resolved slowly ie population, bug, optimization etc) , less devs due to significant lay offs, sub numbers dropping. Server merges took place not only because of population, but because the game is downsizing and cutting server numbers is a way of cutting expenses- just like cutting loose employees.

 

So the cycle becomes less Devs = Less content = less players = less content because less players = less income. Its not the right direction to be headed at all.

 

The best thing that could happen is an expansion that completely revamps the game and adds something new entirely to the game. Space content is the most obvious addtion. That is the only way to get a massive upswing in new players at this point. (and an upswing of new players = more $ for the devs= more content= more players!)

 

Your formula just doesn't hold up...Just look at LoTR...F2P and has been for a long time..yet in Sept they are relasing the biggest content expansion yet..Riders of Rohan. I play on occasion and most areas are still just barely above ghosttown status.

[Insomnio]

I personally have not played LOTRO, but the formula applies to that or any franchise game.

 

Its LOTR, even if it was another steaming pile of poo, people would be playing it because of the LOTR name.

 

I looked at their webpage, they have a cashshop, and so they earn money off of silly items that should be free to earn in game, and they should have a subscription based model- eh semantics.

 

Point is they may have a big content coming, but they could have had a lot more if they had more population. More players = more $.

[AislingKerrigan]

Doubtful. I don't know anyone who is playing past their 6 month sub (or current sub.. mine runs out in a few days thanks to the free month Bioware gave me). TOR will probably be under 300k subs by mid Summer and F2P by November. I expect a F2P re-release in November to try to draw new players.

 

I also think this is probably Bioware's last online game and possibly even one of their last RPGs for a long time.

Edited June 16, 2012 by AislingKerrigan

[EATtheDEAD]

Doubtful. I don't know anyone who is playing past their 6 month sub (or current sub.. mine runs out in a few days thanks to the free month Bioware gave me). TOR will probably be under 300k subs by mid Summer and F2P by November. I expect a F2P re-release in November to try to draw new players.

 

I also think this is probably Bioware's last online game and possibly even one of their last RPGs for a long time.

 

honestly I hope you are right lmao. Bioware has burned me for the last time!

[Shpedoinkle]

The server transfer combined with Patch 1.3 is probably what will cause me to leave.

 

1.3 really doesn't offer me anything useful but it will nerf my Sith Assassin.

 

Server Transfers haven't helped me in the slightest because of the stupid RP -> RP and non-RP -> non-RP only rules. I only started on multiple servers because after a day or so most servers had queues to log in because of poor planning/testing on BW part. If there was not queuing issue on my initial server I'd have made all my characters in one place. But now these server transfers don't help because the servers I'm on either aren't included or are different types (after the RP servers seemed to be so busy at launch I started playing on non-RP servers).

It seems like if all you characters were on 1 server to start with than this has probably worked out fine. If you want to consolidate all characters on to one server you're out of luck (depending on your servers).

Poorly executed character transfer system means I wont get to play with my friends, so I may as well play something else that wont charge me a monthly fee to not play with my friends.

[AislingKerrigan]

honestly I hope you are right lmao. Bioware has burned me for the last time!

 

EA was expecting TOR to be the next big thing and bring in an insane amount of revenue like WoW does for Activision/Blizzard. They've even relegated Bioware's other divisions to re-packaging Warhammer as some crap PvP game and a new Command & Conquer game. And Dragon Age 3? They pulled developers from that to come focus on TOR... which isn't going to pay off.

[TonyIommi]

Doubtful. I don't know anyone who is playing past their 6 month sub (or current sub.. mine runs out in a few days thanks to the free month Bioware gave me). TOR will probably be under 300k subs by mid Summer and F2P by November. I expect a F2P re-release in November to try to draw new players.

 

I also think this is probably Bioware's last online game and possibly even one of their last RPGs for a long time.

 

HAH no.

 

http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/18569/bioware-senior-writer-hints-at-dragon-age-3-now-clear-of-pre-production

 

The game is also slated to have a multiplayer component with it. Please if your gonna talk **** at least inform yourself.

[-Samhain-]

Of course there are still people here playing the game, its Star Wars- the game could be a big steaming pile of poo and there would still be people here playing it because Star Wars is in the title.

 

Ya, but the game isn't a big steaming pile of poo. It's actually quite good and 1.3 isn't going to make it super better and increase subscriptions by 1000%, so get that idea out of your head now.

 

As someone who wants this game to keep growing and releasing content frequently, I have to say the number of players in game is just not making the cut. More players = more $ for the developers to release content = more players because the developers are releasing more content!

 

This game already has a lot of players. and the people that left the game aren't likely to come back to it at this point. It's a bit early to know whether or not this particular product has reached its peak, but it seems unlikely. The game is still relatively new and they are still working issues out. Yet the game still has more subscribers than most MMOs ever had anyway. Most MMOs never even broke 1 million players, yet SWTOR has at least that if not more. A lot of content is already planned out for SWTOR and the voice acting is done at the very least. We will continue to see new content roll out because most of it is already paid for.

 

The problem is that the game is headed in the other direction. Less players because of game issues (which are being resolved slowly ie population, bug, optimization etc) , less devs due to significant lay offs, sub numbers dropping. Server merges took place not only because of population, but because the game is downsizing and cutting server numbers is a way of cutting expenses- just like cutting loose employees.

 

Except they didn't do any "merging." Those servers still exist and there are no plans from Bioware or EA to shut them down or even merge them entirely at any point in the future. It's a nitpick, but the idea that they're merging servers to cut costs is absurd. The ONLY reason they have done the transfers is because players have been clamoring for them for months and the longer they spent not addressing the issue the less people wanted to play because no one wants to play on dead servers. Essentially the problem was "too many servers" not "omg game is going to die, WE NEED TO SAVE IT!"

 

So the cycle becomes less Devs = Less content = less players = less content because less players = less income. Its not the right direction to be headed at all.

 

Eh, not really. As far as MMOs go, SWTOR is still one of the most subscribed to MMO in existence. The only games that beat it right now are WoW, possibly Aion (but they've been on a steady decline since 2009) and MAYBE Lineage I & II. All this doomsaying is complete garbage and doesn't actually take into consideration that this is still one of the most popular MMOs of all time. Ok, so it's not competing with WoW, but WoW's a juggernaut that NO ONE is competing with. On top of this, the idea that content will suddenly vanish and won't be released is absurd. Plenty of games are free to play yet they still release regular content. Plenty of other games have extremely low populations in comparison to SWTOR yet they produce content at similar rates. Everquest is old and crusty and only has about 100k subscribers and just recently went free to play yet even they can release 2 expansions a year. There is no danger of SWTOR suddenly stopping the release of content.

 

The best thing that could happen is an expansion that completely revamps the game and adds something new entirely to the game. Space content is the most obvious addtion. That is the only way to get a massive upswing in new players at this point. (and an upswing of new players = more $ for the devs= more content= more players!)

 

The idea that the game needs that is silly though. When subscriptions drop below 500k come back and talk. Until then SWTOR is doing just fine, except for the fiasco of making way too many servers at the start.

[TonyIommi]

EA was expecting TOR to be the next big thing and bring in an insane amount of revenue like WoW does for Activision/Blizzard. They've even relegated Bioware's other divisions to re-packaging Warhammer as some crap PvP game and a new Command & Conquer game. And Dragon Age 3? They pulled developers from that to come focus on TOR... which isn't going to pay off.

 

No that's not right either. Even before the game was released Riticello was talking only in terms of hundreds of thousands and millions, not anywhere near wows numbers.

 

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/02/02/the-big-bet-ea-aims-at-a-half-million-subscribers-to-make-swt/

 

Not even close to wow numbers. Educate and inform yourselves before you post here. I'm tired of tearing down your nonsense.

Edited June 16, 2012 by TonyIommi

[Varus_Praetor]

1.3 won't save my sub. Canceled yesterday. I've just lost all faith in BW as a developer.

 

1. The server population issue...poor decision making.

2. The lack of standard MMO features (LFG tool)...poor decision making.

3. Mass server merges without adding in some kind of identifier to allow preservation of names...poor decision making (although this one I forgive because they screwed around until the game was about to collapse and had to rush out a fix).

4. Releasing the new LFG tool as same server, thus neutering its effectiveness....poor decision making / laziness.

 

And finally, I'm sorry but if you can't release classes with abilities balanced to within 50% of the power, you fail as a developer. I left WoW because I got tired of the balance treadmill where everyone waited for their turn to be king of the hill and taste the sweet OPness before the crushing nerf bat swatted you back to the shadows. Everyone keeps saying that the nerf/buff cycle is a required part of the MMO genre. It's a cop-out for incompetence. Shoot for a distribution and leave it alone.

 

And these are just my SWTOR issues. Hopefully the real BW can escape from whatever basement the body-snatching pods running the show have stashed them in.

[siriusblaque]

Having been a big fan of BW games since the late 90's I can say that TOR stands out as decidedly unlike BW. I smell that hand of EA in the background trying to $$$. This game is probably going to end up being a huge disappointment. I think there are two factors here.

1. BW games have always focused on story line. MMO players from what I have seen, and this in my first MMO really don't care that much about story line. The result is a great number of people rushing to 50 bypassing the story and then being bored. Frankly since I reached 50 with my first char I have rolled some new ones. 50+ is freakin boring if you are a real RPG fan.

2. Maybe TOR really has more RPG fans than EA realizes. I know I get real tired of the "your mom" and "you're gay" nonsense in chat. Ignore? Sure I could but then if I want to be social then what. Unfortunately the social skills of most of the players is lacking. Maybe its cause I am 55 but learn some freakin manners and boundaries. In person I would have broken a bottle on a lot of heads by now, or just wised up and stopped going to that bar, e.g., cancel my sub cause it just ain't worth putting up with butt toast slices.

3. The original server expansion was nerfed. It should have been far fewer servers coming online. It should have been free transfers for folks that wanted to escape that insanity of hyper packed servers and actually try and role play or be social. So a lot of us, like me, rolled new toons on new servers but eventually had to go back to our old servers as the new ones died out. By then the old servers were less populated and some of us just gave up and cancelled subs because after all we are doing this to have fun and relax.

4. What killed this game was corporate mismanagement probably on the EA level. The WOW fanboys were only here temp. They were gonna leave at the end of the first sub cycle, e.g., 3-6 months, e.g., March-June. When did sub numbers plummet? They should have just held fast and waited out the first wave but they expanded, too fast and too soon.

5. I love this game. I waited years for it. I am so disappointed. I will keep playing as long as I can get some fun out of it but I doubt that it will be more than another 6 months.

6. The only thing that will save this game is EA remembering who the customer here really is. Its the folks that played and modded KOTOR and their younger siblings and children. Its the folks that hung on playing Sith Lords. Customer service starts with realizing who your customer base really is. EA has lost track of that with this game and in the end that is what really killed it.