Why swtor is not succesfull

[CreationXII]

Just read this article from gamespy about how essential it is to add "fluff" and minigames to make a succesfull mmorpg

 

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/world-of-wa...1225272p1.html

 

I believe swtor is missing this crucial element and that is why I am considering ending my subscription.

 

If you look at WOW or lotro or other mmo's that have been around awhile they have this "fluff" and roleplaying elements within the world. I remember spending countless hours just screwing around in goldshire but swtor doesnt really seem to have any place like that. The fleet sorta works but besides trolling in general chat all the fleet is really good for is using the gtn and staging flashpoints or pvp. So far Bioware has not been able to suck me into their world as well LOTRO or WOW or SWG has.

 

Its worth noting that I think swtor does a lot of things right, the story is awesome, the combat is good and many other things are great about it. However, it is missing some crucial elements needed to retain players.

 

What you guys think?

[Sanen]

meh not all mmos are like wow to be honest with ya. if i do remember in beta u could duel on the fleet but when ppl started pushing ppl over the edge on some areas on the fleet just to win a duel it kind of became very annoying. Im sure later in the games future they will have a planet for higher lvls to just hang out at instead of the fleet which is mostly packed all the time.

[SajmanPeetee]

I agree with the article.

[Snakeyees]

There is no article the powers the be have removed it. Page 404 not found

[monkgryphon]

There is no article the powers the be have removed it. Page 404 not found

 

He didn't type the real link. He typed a copy of a condensed URL, so you the '...' in it screws it up.

 

OP, copy the URL from the browser for the page you are trying to link, don't copy someone's else link.

 

EDIT: Here's the link I think he was trying to post:

 

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria/1225272p1.html

Edited July 7, 2012 by monkgryphon

[Snakeyees]

He didn't type the real link. He typed a copy of a condensed URL, so you the '...' in it screws it up.

 

OP, copy the URL from the browser for the page you are trying to link, don't copy someone's else link.

 

EDIT: Here's the link I think he was trying to post:

 

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria/1225272p1.html

 

Cool thanks

[ThroneOfOP]

I get a page not found error.

 

I think it is a little too early though but i believe the 'fluff' will come in time.

 

The bar in tattoo.. would have been a iconic place for ppl to mingle. For both sides.

Or Jabba 's pleasure barge but we are in the wrong era.

 

Lotro had Bree (Prancing Pony) and characters playing instrument(which i enjoyed)

[Jedi_Scribe]

I think TOR has a lot of fluff. The space mini-game is the most in-depth mini-game I've seen in an MMO. Sure a lot of people want it to be a more major part of the game but as a MINI-GAME it's pretty awesome. And all the story and voice-over is technically fluff too, meaning TOR has more fluff than any game out there.

[Snakeyees]

I get a page not found error.

 

I think it is a little too early though but i believe the 'fluff' will come in time.

 

The bar in tattoo.. would have been a iconic place for ppl to mingle. For both sides.

Or Jabba 's pleasure barge but we are in the wrong era.

 

Lotro had Bree (Prancing Pony) and characters playing instrument(which i enjoyed)

 

you use the link the guy posted above my last post thanking him.

 

LOTR FOREVER soon as my sub ends I'm going back to it. at least turbine knows how to make a MMO even if their Customer service sucks.

[MajikMyst]

It is a fair article.. Oddly though it doesn't say that this game will be unsuccessful..

 

I find threads like these to be very disturbing.. If you don't like this game.. Fine.. Troll else where.. Thanks!!

[jgoldsack]

SWTOR is not a failure, but it is also not the successful game it can be. Right now it is just "another game".. there is really nothing about it that one cannot get in another game (aside from lightsabers). It is in desperate need of a "social" upgrade... mini games, sitting, dancing, day/night cycles ... the fluff.

 

The problem is, when they add things that would be considered fluff (which many consider the legacy system to be), they get hounded for it, because they didn't add content. Then when content gets added, they get hounded for not adding more fluff. However, one personas fluff is another persons content. Myself, I don't really do Operations or Flashpoints, so to me, that is fluff. I enjoy the little things like mini-games, cantinas, etc. To me, making those active and alive are content.

 

Bioware needs to find that balance of both. Add both the social content and the progression content at the same time. There is no reason to keep them separate and no reason to not do both.

 

I want to be able to sit down and have a drink in a cantina, while I beat people in Sabbac and Pazzak.

[Jedi_Scribe]

LoTRO has good fluff but it has the most amateurish interface I've ever seen and the game itself is very uninspired. Bree makes a great chatroom though.

[ThroneOfOP]

you use the link the guy posted above my last post thanking him.

 

LOTR FOREVER soon as my sub ends I'm going back to it. at least turbine knows how to make a MMO even if their Customer service sucks.

 

God.. this thread makes me wanna go back to LOTRO.. To be able to play instrument around a camp fire with your guild after a day of grinding.. and ofocurse pipeweed .. haha..

[Socialist]

First of all, before they release fluff, they got some appearance issues.

 

Most Sith Inquisitors do not look like Sith at all, more like Victorian era housewives. There must be more Sith-like options, a set of light armour based off Kallig's heavy armour would be a start. Jedi Knights also have the hood issue, they've got few hoodless options.

 

Then the head + hood and the mask + hood issue, which are a great letdownsfor RPers, specially the mask + hood.

 

Perhaps baloon chat as well.

 

 

Those might seem pointless, but are essential to roleplaying.

 

Still, I believe that those fixes can only come out by 1.5 or 1.6. By now, they are fine tuning this game's basics (which they must do), and these are not priorities. believe they are not banging rocks in Austin and these things will come with time.

Edited July 7, 2012 by Socialist

[Hyde_v]

Hmm. I do rather agree with the article's author. Star Wars is missing a lot of the "fluff" that some other MMO's have. There are few chairs you can actually sit on. Computers on the wall are not interactive. A few emotes are weird and have no action associated with them (Try /sleep and you'll remain standing.) A holo chess mini game would rock.

 

I have seen an upcoming features video where the developers showed us an old Super NES SW game being played in TOR. So, it would appear that the developers are aware of the lack of fluff and are going to put some in. A recent Q&A quoted one developer saying they were now going to concentrate on some quality of life issues in the game. I can only hope that some of this fluff is included.

[Gruug]

The argument regarding LOTOR being a better game then SWTOR holds no water for me. Especially after it went "f2p". I don't care to subsidises those people that don't care to sub up. I don't care to miss out on items in the store that should be include in my subscription. I use to sub to LOTOR but no more. They are not getting a dime from me and I won't play the so-called "free" side either.

 

SWTOR is not a failure.....YET. What will determine if SWTOR has "legs" is what they do over the first 18 months since launch. If Bioware provides enough CONTENT and updates to the game, they will be in good shape. Based upon how they have responded to some of the complaints, I think that Bioware will do just fine.

[Karquile]

If you have trouble loading the article link, try here.

[ZirusZero]

-3rd biggest MMO on the market

 

It is successful.

[Tygranir]

How are people seeing SWTOR as unsuccessful?

 

People are saying LOTRO is better.... but which has more players?

[Insomnio]

-3rd biggest MMO on the market

 

It is successful.

 

3rd biggest is second biggest loser.

[Comstrike]

Obviously, I play LOTRO (Sons of Numenor, Landroval server - now recruiting!,) and certainly I'm playing it a lot more than I'm in SWTOR these days.

 

I think first, WoW is a fluke. And no, for those about to hit "quote" I do not mean it isn't a success in some way. Rather, it was simply a game that has reached a level of population, financial success, that isn't going to be replicated anytime in the next ten or twenty years. And more importantly, it did not get there instantly or quickly. Nor is it going to be remotely as large in two more years.

 

Second, LOTRO has done very well. You don't have to like the game to be able to acknowledge that Turbine did something well. They've survived, grown, and after five years, remain a high quality, highly respected, and still consistently praised game in this industry and genre.

 

Turbine realized that no matter how you intend somebody to play a game, they will do what they want once you release it. People don't like being told "how" to play." People don't want you to tell them "how" to live in-game, anymore than they do in real-life.

 

They know you can't force people to re-roll, and not to try to sell rolling all classes as "content."

 

They had story long before somebody coined the "fourth pillar" PR farce that was foisted on us here. But they didn't try to tell us our story, they let us create real characters, and let those characters experience the world around them.

 

They know you can't compel people to grind for gear, as we saw when whole populations of players refused to run instances requiring "radiance gear," which ultimately was removed from the game and declared a failure. They tried to bait us with carrots, they tried to get us to give-up on pulling Radiance Gear by saying it wasn't going anyplace. They failed, but they did pull it finally.

 

They built-out and expanded systems that let us express ourselves in-game, such as cosmetics, dyes, home decor, "Kinship/Guild" hall decor. Character bios. RP tags. Open housing areas. Fishing hobbies. Player Music. Crafting. Legendary Gear titles/devices.

 

They realized that Gear in a different color is not customization. They know that gear isn't even something people want to be seen in sometimes. When LOTRO started, they too thought that they had to have tons of "leet" looking Anime style gear to make players happy and to look "different," only to find out that people thought the gear looked stupid in a game like that.

 

They know FLUFF SELLS. And they figured out years before this game arrived, that year-round subscriptions were dead as a model.

 

Finally, we come to SWTOR. This game does have good bones. It can still become a great game. It is NOT that right now. I enjoy it, so far as it goes. I'll stick around. So will some of our imports from LOTRO. Most have gone back to LOTRO however, to see what happens here. It isn't totally fair to compare a well polished game like LOTRO to a newbie coming out of the gates like SWTOR. And some things that have happened in Austin are common enough events at most studios after a major launch, such as extra staff being let go.

 

However, the game is indisputably and deeply flawed, and not in the routine ways for a new MMORPG. I suspect they know this. Right now this is like watching the ****shima disaster in MMORPG form. Maybe they'll get control. Or maybe this will turn into the biggest radioactive mess in MMORPG history. There are indications they are, and have been doing a LOT of soul searching, internal retooling, and adjusting plans for this game. Or maybe they are just stuffing lead down their pants. Jury is still out.

 

Regardless, they could learn a lot from LOTRO, and I don't say that to impune anybody's effort here. Just to point to something I and others really like.

[Comstrike]

How are people seeing SWTOR as unsuccessful?

 

People are saying LOTRO is better.... but which has more players?

 

More people eat at McDonalds, but is it better than Delmonico's?

 

Raw numbers of players aren't what people are putting forward as the point of comparison. People are pointing out that in a broader context, LOTRO, which gains from years of development SWTOR hasn't had time for yet, is a model with features that are appealing. This is a more mature, abstract comparison folks are making.

[Draekos]

Fluff and other events are good, one of the things that SWTOR lacks(IMO of course) is a feeling of life. I like the game, but would like more to do outside the basic stuff(pvp, group pve, dailies). Edited July 7, 2012 by Draekos

[RobNightfall]

The game also lacks the ability to organize large numbers of players to show up for events at the same time due to the flaws in the game's engine. You simply can not organize 50+ player events of any kind, especially mass PvP. LOTRO's PvP system is admittedly weak, but you can end up in battles of 25 vs. 25 or larger and the game will not bog down. You can also set up a party and invite the entire server and have 50+ people show up and again, the game will not bog down. The "massively" part of MMO seems to have been lost. Combined with BW's poor customer service and general lack of responsiveness to players, and you end up with a game that feels lifeless.

[Comstrike]

The argument regarding LOTOR being a better game then SWTOR holds no water for me. Especially after it went "f2p". I don't care to subsidises those people that don't care to sub up. I don't care to miss out on items in the store that should be include in my subscription. I use to sub to LOTOR but no more. They are not getting a dime from me and I won't play the so-called "free" side either.

 

SWTOR is not a failure.....YET. What will determine if SWTOR has "legs" is what they do over the first 18 months since launch. If Bioware provides enough CONTENT and updates to the game, they will be in good shape. Based upon how they have responded to some of the complaints, I think that Bioware will do just fine.

 

You'll be subsidizing people playing this game for free, up to lvl 15, and a lot of people may keep playing without regard to moving beyond that level.

 

As for you view that things in the store are a "subscribers" god given right for paying $15 a month? I'll respectfully reject that entirely. If you want to play golf, you buy the clubs. If you want want to get onto the greens, you pay greens fees. If you want to look good, you buy stuff at the pro shop. Curiously, the greens fees don't come with clubs or extra gear. So why should you get new clubs, or the latest Tiger Woods shirt, because you paid for a single round of golf? The retail game box are your clubs, the server access are your greens fees, and sadly we don't yet have a pro-shop in SWTOR.......yet.

 

Don't take that as an attack, or a reflection on your personal views, I know folks in my own guild here, that left LOTRO saying the same things. I don't speak ill of them for feeling as they do, no is that my point here. However I simply and strongly disagree with some of how you feel things are or should be.