Honest opinion- do you think the game is in trouble?

[Xeres-]

No not really. The server transfers helped a lot. I think the initial subscriber numbers were high and I don't think TOR would have been able to sustain them given how they developed the game. I think now the subscriber numbers are starting to settle down because now you have the people who are in the game for the long haul instead of just trying it out. Edited June 20, 2012 by Xeres-

[bpphantom]

Honest opinion? Nope. It's not in "trouble". Is it the WoW killer so many apparently thought it would be? Also nope. I'm happy with how SWtOR has turned out and I think that it will just get better in the next few months.

[Vankris]

Honest opinion- do you think the game is in trouble?

 

I think the game is doing fine for now. At 6 month mark, it's a solid second place P2P MMO of all time. The developer does not give the impression to have abandonned the franshise, in fact quite the contrary, we know about many future content of the game.

 

Also, it felt that bioware listen to the community in term of what and how they implement new feature (reduction of ability delay, quick transport from planet to ship, UI customization, combat log, server merger and very soon, group finder)

 

With recent server merger, game has never felt more alive. Ranked warzone will boost the game and give it the competitive edge it lacks in PVP.

 

I am not worry. Just because the game is World Second in MMO league, admitedly far behind WoW, but also far ahead the competion as far as sub based MMO are concerned, doesn't make it a bad game. Just because a team is not world champion every year that it is a bad team.

 

The game is fine and growing.

[Nyla]

I don't think it's really in trouble but they completely missed the opportunity to make it a huge and successful game.

[obi-joachim]

 

Bioware "EA" is thinking about making it free to play so 100% yes.

 

Ok first of all, thinking and doing is two different things. Second of all, do you really think they will go F2P with 1.3 mill subs? Gosh these people.

[Diktat]

...And another thing re. space combat.

 

So people expect BW to have created for launch a game that comprised:

 

- planet-side sandboxed worlds with fully open pvp

- And freeform sandboxed space combat.

 

So essentially BW should've created a game that is the same size as both WoW and EvE combined? Do you have any idea as to how much work that would've been? We'd have been looking at a holiday 13 release date for that. I think that we all need to be a bit more realistic guys...

Let's be reallistic.

+3 years development (I think are more like 5 years but I'm not sure, so I cut down to 3) and around 300 million usd investment, and we've got an aracde as space combat (what a joke!!) in a Star Wars skinned WoW clone. Honestly, I fail to see where all those millions went.

Wait! Maybe all that money went to pay the acting voices for every single NPC in the game, something absolutely unneccessary except for the storyline, because in game development was not invested for sure.

Maybe you are happy with what you get but personaly I expect much more from a game with such investment and under Star Wars franchise.

Edited June 20, 2012 by Diktat

[Wrixen]

Sorry if this has bin said but IMO, All MMO's are in trouble. They are not tailored to the true fans anymore. There made to make money. And that needs lots of players. Mostly younger players unfortunately. But in this day and age, holding anyone's attention for very long is very hard. Especially the younger generations. Entertainment will never die. But it will get old. If an MMO is to last, it need to stay NEW or it needs a dedicated community. Or both.

 

Juat my opinion.

[ippollite]

Today the game is really irritating me.

 

I dont know why, just something is really really annoying me about it. Im level 32, im an operative agent, im running around in tanaris.

 

There just seems to be a sudden shift in act 2 to mob grinding. Its not the quests per se, but more the access to the quest givers. For instance, my class quest just made me CRAWL through a dungeon of about 10000 rakghouls, all of whom could see through stealth it seems (well, every 1 minute i got to run past a group thanks to uber stealth)... I had to run through this MASSIVE dungeon for one lousy obejective right at the end of it.

One thing. A massive dungeon crawl for one thing. They didnt even bother to break up the variation by pretend giving me a few things to click. Nope. One thing, 10,000 mobs. Narrow corridors to prevent me sneaking my way through.

 

And then when i finished it i had to go to my quest giver to get the next step who just so happens to live inside a rakhghoul nest. So you have to run through another dungeon playing avoid the psychic mob just to get to him and have him tell you to go through another bunch of them.

 

Jesus wept. Its tedious stuff. Im seriously starting to think that bioware have lost have the plot and that just maybe aside a few nice NPCs dragon age 2 is the norm rather than the exception. Its like theyve forgotten whats annoying with a purpose, versus whats ust annoying for the sake of it.

 

Annoying for a purpose: datacrons.

Annoying for the sake of it: 5 republic mobs who charge at the empires main facility on tanaris EVERY TIME you drive through it and who all immediately turn on you.

Annoying for the sake of it: instant dismounts EVERY TIME a mob aggros.

 

I dunno. Its annoying me. I got 1 character to 38 and by the second week stopped playing, and this is only the second one ive gotten to act 2. Im starting to remember why i stopped. No matter how engaging the class quests are, they feel like theyre diminishing in proportion to my play time. The first act almost took up half my game time (and even though nar shadarr was annoying, it was still okay of sort), and was mildly entetaining... but now... now my class story accounts for around 10% of my game time and nowhere near enough to keep me on top of the level requirements. Its hamster wheel garbage. Its grinding earth elementals in the badlands all over again :/

Edited June 20, 2012 by ippollite

[-Dench]

Taris is a nightmare. I think it's the most unpopular planet on the Imperial side of the game.

[Kyllum]

guild wars 2 will end craptor

[jarjarloves]

Let's be reallistic.

+3 years development (I think are more like 5 years but I'm not sure, so I cut down to 3) and around 300 million usd investment, and we've got an aracde as space combat (what a joke!!) in a Star Wars skinned WoW clone. Honestly, I fail to see where all those millions went.

Wait! Maybe all that money went to pay the acting voices for every single NPC in the game, something absolutely unneccessary except for the storyline, because in game development was not invested for sure.

Maybe you are happy with what you get but personaly I expect much more from a game with such investment and under Star Wars franchise.

 

it didn't cost 300 million dollars. Where do you people get this crap from. It probably cost less then 200 million but we will never know since they have never and will never tell us.

 

What we do know is during the first earnings call they said it made the budget back off the initial box sales

[ippollite]

Taris is a nightmare. I think it's the most unpopular planet on the Imperial side of the game.

 

thanks for telling me this. Genuinely. The thoughts going through my head are very much "this game is hamster wheel garbage" right now. I really want to get one character to 50, but having taris being the first part of act 2 its not a wild leap to think that this is the shape of things to come. Its nice to hear it might not be.

 

But honestly bioware, this is shockingly poor stuff here.

[Dubbya]

I am enjoying the game. I am not sure what type of mmo's you guys are used to playing, but ALL mmo's that I have played are the same (talking Diablo 1, 2, 3, UO, EQ, SWG, WoW, and now this). They are all a grind fest. That is the point. You grind something and then spend what you collected in the grind on something (that you deem) cool. Then you rinse and repeat. The value comes in "is that grind enjoyable"?

 

Right now the pvp rocks, the storyline is great (it needs to continue past level 50 and be updated regularly), the side bar quests are awesome.

 

Here is an idea STOP skipping the quests dialogue and wanting your carrot right now and you may enjoy the game.

[TUXs]

Right now the pvp rocks

 

Are you new to PvP or were you being sarcastic?! PvP is a MESS! 4 boxes isn't exactly 'rocking' PvP.

[Nemmar]

I really enjoy the game.

 

There really is a volatile base of MMO players that never stay long anywhere because they love to hate.

 

The only problem with ToR is that the raid content needs to be bigger. The PvP changes that made the damage too big on pvp need to be slightly tuned so PvP isnt so daunting at level 50.

 

I dont think F2P is the way to go for ToR. From a personal monetary point of view i suppose it would be ok, but i prefer the P2P model. Of course, considering they go for an F2P model like Guild Wars. If its anything like D&D and the like then its the end for me in this game.

 

Realisticly speaking though, this refered to the new free trial and not the full game itself.

[Gruug]

I am enjoying the game. I am not sure what type of mmo's you guys are used to playing, but ALL mmo's that I have played are the same (talking Diablo 1, 2, 3, UO, EQ, SWG, WoW, and now this). They are all a grind fest. That is the point. You grind something and then spend what you collected in the grind on something (that you deem) cool. Then you rinse and repeat. The value comes in "is that grind enjoyable"?

 

Right now the pvp rocks, the storyline is great (it needs to continue past level 50 and be updated regularly), the side bar quests are awesome.

 

Here is an idea STOP skipping the quests dialogue and wanting your carrot right now and you may enjoy the game.

 

I have to agree with everything said here....except I don't PvP much so I don't have an opinion there.

 

And yes, slow down and enjoy the game. I have 11 character, 3 at 50 and 8 a various stages. I am playing all of them except the open world PvP ones at different times but SLOWLY. The story is great. FP's are pretty good. OPs are pretty good. Enjoy the game....don't rush through it.

Edited June 20, 2012 by Gruug

[Blackardin]

It's very hard to ignore the various harbingers of doom that have popped up over the months. Since my own rp server (Lord Kalypho) has turned into a ghost fleet, i abandoned my IA and went to a better populated server. This is within 6 months of playing. Something I never thought that I would have been doing in the first year.

 

I have defended swtor tooth and nail since day one, but even i had a bit of "oh dear...maybe I have been wrong" as I was re-rolling another character last night.

 

So being honest, are any of the die hard defenders of the game starting to feel the same way?

 

Most of the "harbingers of Doom" have very little idea of what they are talking about, the genre or how they progress through the years. Most of it is conjecture and hyperboli or extrapolations of rumors such as "ftp" etc. They tend to latch onto some obscure fact and then extrapolate it out to their own end.

 

There are others that, apparently, expect miracles and insist on inclusions for this game that I've yet to see in even the games they are comparing them to.

 

Bottom line here is that for a MMORPG, it has all the ingredients for one to enjoy the genre if one does not expect the game to play for them. It has bugs, there is alot more to include, but that, as with all these ongoing games, will come in time.

[Dubbya]

Are you new to PvP or were you being sarcastic?! PvP is a MESS! 4 boxes isn't exactly 'rocking' PvP.

 

if you played pvp in wow, you will realize this beats it by a mile. not sure what you mean by 4 boxes...

[CosmicKat]

Blizzard (maybe).

 

Or someone that actually innovates and moved the MMORPG forward and doesn't basically try to rehash Everquest (1999).

 

Blizzard hasn't had an innovative idea in their existence. Every game they make is a copy of something else. If there is no other "Everquest", there will be no template to make WoW2.

 

Rehashing Everquest might just be what saves this industry. All it will take is one company to realize that 100 longterm subscribers are more valuable than 1000 short term ones. The MMO's made today will kill the industry, not because they suck, but because they are designed to be "finished", and finished in weeks. Everquest was designed to be a game you never stop playing... and it worked.

[DorkTrooper]

The MMO's made today will kill the industry, not because they suck, but because they are designed to be "finished", and finished in weeks.

 

I don't think EA/BW deliberately designed SWTOR to be finished in weeks. I can't remember who the quote is from, but someone in an interview said that the devs were surprised at how fast the players went through the content.

 

Implication is that they thought the content at launch would be enough to keep people busy until the next update, and so on. A gross underestimation on their part, at least as pertains to some players. I am not one of those who burned through the content, so I can't say what amount of "I'm bored, there's nothing to doooo!" busywork would have to be added to appease that crowd. I like the pace of the game right now, because I actually have a shot at keeping up with the updates/added levels on at least one character without sacrificing sleep to play a game in my free time.

[belizar]

if you played pvp in wow, you will realize this beats it by a mile. not sure what you mean by 4 boxes...

 

well saying tor beats wow in pvp isnt saying alot

[JeremyDale]

It's very hard to ignore the various harbingers of doom that have popped up over the months. Since my own rp server (Lord Kalypho) has turned into a ghost fleet, i abandoned my IA and went to a better populated server. This is within 6 months of playing. Something I never thought that I would have been doing in the first year.

 

I have defended swtor tooth and nail since day one, but even i had a bit of "oh dear...maybe I have been wrong" as I was re-rolling another character last night.

 

So being honest, are any of the die hard defenders of the game starting to feel the same way?

 

This game has been trouble since the first day I have played it. Almost everyone I knew on the game has become bored and canceled their sub. I canceled mine the other day as well. All of the things I said based on my first impressions are still true of this game today - and it's dying and will continue to die because this game did way more things wrong than right.

 

This is a decent game for people who love rolling ALTs. It's a terrible game for people who don't. That's the bottom line.

 

I could go into more detail of all the things that are wrong with this game but to be honest that would require a few thousand pages and I've already gone over them ad nauseum on this forum in the past anyways. So there is no need to rehash them.

 

But to answer your question: Yes, the game is in trouble. It's been in trouble since release. Eventually it will stabilize with a relateively small clique of players who enjoy rolling alts over and over and listening to cutscenes. It will deffinitely go Free to Play. And while it may take this game a while to fade out completely, it lost its shine a long time ago in a galaxy far away.

Edited June 20, 2012 by JeremyDale

[metalgearyoda]

been down this road with 3 other MMOs. AoC, Rift, and Lotro.

 

All 3 of them are doing well.

 

Doom and gloom is mainly just so the wow fanboys and convince themselves to go back.

[mattgyver]

It really depends on your definition for "In Trouble." I don't think SWTOR is going anywhere, and I don't think it's basic nature will change. So for those who like it as it is, I think it will be fine. Pop might keep ebbing, but guilds and servers will consolidate.

[Sirsri]

It really depends on your definition for "In Trouble." I don't think SWTOR is going anywhere, and I don't think it's basic nature will change. So for those who like it as it is, I think it will be fine. Pop might keep ebbing, but guilds and servers will consolidate.

 

SWTOR as an entity is in trouble if enough people leave. LucasArts doesn't want another SWG on their brand, nor does EA want to keep pouring in the resources (especially the LA licence) to a product that's not making enough money. What those cutoff points are is hard to say, because obviously EA may be willing to run at a loss until they have something else near release that would replace.

 

The problem we're into is what are they going to try and do to either attract new subscribers, retain the ones they have etc. They may not radically change the game, but they might start trying a lot of things that end up being complete disasters.