In your educated opinion, what's the fate of this game?

[Bosefus_]

I have never really been into computer games and I have never played an MMO in my life, but I'm really loving this game. True, it has its flaws, but I can overlook most of them. I will be honest, though. I'm pretty concerned about the future of SWTOR. I've heard it's losing subscriptions at an alarming rate, and I don't see how this Free to Play option could be anything but an ominous sign of the future to come.

 

I don't stay caught up with news, so I was hoping someone could fill me in. What does the future of this game look like?

Are the developers optimistic? Pessimistic? Indifferent?

Could SWTOR bounce back, or has it had too many blows in its short existence?

 

I'm looking at this game like a relationship. If the game has a future, I will stick around. If the game is doomed, I would rather bail sooner than later, before I become even more attached.

[Blighboy]

While I'm not terribly experienced with MMOs, depending on how they handle F2P it could be a good thing. LotRO supposedly became a huge success upon switching to a free to play model. Though as I heard one person comment, "LotRO was a much better game".

[Ratior]

Don't get attached.

Player population will probably suffer further since GW2 will be pre-launched in a few hours' time.

 

I wish I have more positive things to say like I did earlier in the year, but I have not.

 

The decision is ultimately yours to make.

[Tuscad]

I feel that in a few months we will just need a doctor to come in and declare it dead. I don't see a good future for this game, I could state why but then the fanboys would come in and start picking apart my post and try to make things personal so I am not even going to bother. Edited August 25, 2012 by Tuscad

[Skirata_Kal]

LOL, looking at the title I'm guessing you'll get a fair number of uneducated opinions passed off as educated ones, though even that is a matter of perspective I supose.

 

In my humble opinion, there is certainly cause for concern about this game. The reasons are as follows, based upon MY OWN experience (others will differ, disagree and even call me a hater despite the fact I like the game and hope it succeeds...i.e. I hope I'm wrong about some of this though I fear I'm not):

 

1. 2+ million copies sold, only 1.7 million stuck around long enough for a sub, down to 1.3 million subs in May and now according to latest investor call, somewhere between 600k-800k (guess based upon them saying less than a million and greater than half a million). I'm sorry fans, but there's just no credible way to put a positive spin on that.

 

2. Going f2p less than a year after launch when they had repeatedly said it wouldn't be a good fit for this game (now it's supposed to be the game's salvation...we shall see...I hope they're right, but not optimistic).

 

3. Some analysts say f2p can add millions of new players while others say they might lose as much as 70% of remaining subs...that one's a wash, because after all, what do analysts know? (and with the way they word it, it is actually concievablly possible for both sides to be right lol).

 

4. It's a theme park MMO where they endeavored to have a "great, wonderful community experience." Theme park MMO's simply aren't great for communities, a Sandbox works better at community building IMHO. I personally prefer theme park's since my community experience comes from guild, friends and family (and RL neighbors lol). With that said, I would never have objected to some Sandbox elements being added.

 

5. Unrealized promises (e.g. monthly updates). Granted, if it's a choice between monthly game breaking bugs or less frequent updates, I'll choose the latter. Bioware needs to be more careful with its promises, though. We remember lol.

 

6. Inconsistent stories. Initially "40% cited the sub as their reason for quitting and MANY of them would still be playing if it were f2p" then later they said "40% cited the sub as their reason for quitting and that they would ALL still be playing if it were f2p". Might be subtle, but that kind of changing story doesn't help with the credibility and trust area. Neither does initially saying "If you have a sub, you won't have to pay extra for content" and now they're saying they're not sure if Makeb will be free for subs or not. Not very promising so far.

 

Make of the above what you will. Obviously, some will disagree and that's ok. Again, I love the game and really do hope they pull it out, but when looking at what made other games great and then looking at this one...the optimism meter is a little bit low, I'm afraid.

[Laris_Rai]

The first year of any MMO is sure to be the hardest. I think this game will enjoy a fairly healthy run.

[GalaxyStrong]

This game would be fine if they just did some freaking ADVERTISING!!!!! I didn't even know this game existed till some told me about it, out pure chance. All they really need is a new Marketing Campaign!!! It really drives me crazy when a game goes down hard not because it's bad but because the creators and investors do a **** job at marketing the game. Remember when WOW did a marketing/Advertising campaign with Mountain Dew? That what i'm talking about, they need to do something like that. Hell, if they just did anything it would help. But I have a bad feeling the people at EA are just too dense to have that kind of realization. BUMMER:(

[Blighboy]

This game would be fine if they just did some freaking ADVERTISING!!!!! I didn't even know this game existed till some told me about it, out pure chance. All they really need is a new Marketing Campaign!!! It really drives me crazy when a game goes down hard not because it's bad but because the creators and investors do a **** job at marketing the game. Remember when WOW did a marketing/Advertising campaign with Mountain Dew? That what i'm talking about, they need to do something like that. Hell, if they just did anything it would help. But I have a bad feeling the people at EA are just too dense to have that kind of realization. BUMMER:(

 

Given how many copies were sold and how many subs they then lost, I'd say advertising is the least of their problems. They need to learn how to keep players, not attract them.

[Rezii]

I played LOTRO since launch, and regardless of the updates they rolled out, the bug-riddled bosses, the lack of real content for several months, I never stopped playing LOTRO from late 2007 to October 2011. LOTRO went F2P in August 2010 (correct me if I'm wrong), and I still played even though I detested the idea of going F2P. At first it was ok, but as the months rolled by, more and more ads in game showed up, more fluff and less real content came, and when Rise of Isengard launched, I was less than satisfied with the lone bugged 1 mob raid, the repetitive skirmish system, and how things such as removing relics from your LIs was a store-only buyable item. I was fed up with it, and was actually eager to try something new, like SWTOR. Though nearly 9 months later, this game hasn't nearly put up with LOTRO's output of challenging content, not with this trivial faceroll of 3 raids. Yes, there was only 1 raid later on through LOTRO's 50 cap, but it is still to this day the best raid instance I've ever played. The raids here? I doubt I'll remember them like I do the Rift of Nurz Ghashu.

 

So with all that said, I expect the quality of this game to do down just like LOTRO's did. Don't get me wrong, LOTRO is not a bad game, it just lost my favor. Just like SWTOR has, only in a matter of months instead of years. So don't invest too much into this game. I might check back on this later on, but my attention has shifted to something that will soon be launching in a few hours.

[GalaxyStrong]

Given how many copies were sold and how many subs they then lost, I'd say advertising is the least of their problems. They need to learn how to keep players, not attract them.

 

I think were gonna have to agree to disagree on this one, LOL. But, I do see your point.

[Knockerz]

I don't know. If GW2 and MoP don't do very well either, then the decline of swtor would be more in line with the downward trend in mmorpgs games and the game industry as whole. I'm expecting that GW2 and MoP will follow the same fate as swtor.

 

GW2 has no end game and MoP doesn't add any thing special that hasn't already been done in previous expansion. Pokemon battles is just a gimmick that shouldn't even be in wow period. Blizzard is running out of ideas much like how Microsoft will make changes to word for the sake of change, but that don't improve the application program. The point is to sell a product by making changes. However, those changes don't necessary improve the product like previous changes.

Edited August 25, 2012 by Knockerz

[SpazCats]

I've been playing MMO's for about 7 years now (although I played single player video games since LONG before that, since the early 80's).

 

SWTOR had a lot of potential... it was a newly released MMO with the Star Wars IP, just when many players were getting tired of what was out there at the time for MMO's. WoW was/is getting very old for a lot of people. I really thought this would be a great chance for a game with such a coveted IP to slip in and become very successful (I did not really expect it to beat WoW, but at least give it a run for its money).

 

As I said, the potential was there.

 

But then SWTOR released, prematurely. They should have waited another 6 months at least. But oh well, I still wasn't too concerned at that point. But then it seemed the developers could not fix bugs within any semblance of a reasonable time frame or make new content without huge resources and time being committed. Games like Rift (with a MUCH smaller budget), in the meantime, managed to do updates at lightspeed +10 compared to Bioware and this game.

 

The game went stagnant. Not a good thing to do for a subscription MMO, and especially an MMO that is the new kid on the block.

 

People gave lots of constructive criticism on the forums, right from the beginning. Bioware appeared to take little notice. Not much changed.

 

Subscriptions dropped. Then Bioware/EA noticed. /sigh

 

F2P was announced (after so many forums posters (veteran MMO players I might add) said this could never happen this early on. But it did because, at that point, there was little choice to try and get enough cash flow to make things work and appease EA and its stockholders.

 

Bottom line (TL;DR) UNLESS Bioware fixes all the bugs, all the "little" issues, all the lack of content and turns this game around... F2P will only extend this game's death.

 

I really hope they do turn this around... and maybe they will. But from Bioware's/EA's performance so far, I have serious doubts.

 

With that in mind, I expect to see this game dead (as in servers shutdown) within a year.

 

BUT, I will be very happy to be proved wrong. The next year should be interesting, either way.

[Tuscad]

I've been playing MMO's for about 7 years now (although I played single player video games since LONG before that, since the early 80's).

 

SWTOR had a lot of potential... it was a newly released MMO with the Star Wars IP, just when many players were getting tired of what was out there at the time for MMO's. WoW was/is getting very old for a lot of people. I really thought this would be a great chance for a game with such a coveted IP to slip in and become very successful (I did not really expect it to beat WoW, but at least give it a run for its money).

 

As I said, the potential was there.

 

But then SWTOR released, prematurely. They should have waited another 6 months at least. But oh well, I still wasn't too concerned at that point. But then it seemed the developers could not fix bugs within any semblance of a reasonable time frame or make new content without huge resources and time being committed. Games like Rift (with a MUCH smaller budget), in the meantime, managed to do updates at lightspeed +10 compared to Bioware and this game.

 

The game went stagnant. Not a good thing to do for a subscription MMO, and especially an MMO that is the new kid on the block.

 

People gave lots of constructive criticism on the forums, right from the beginning. Bioware appeared to take little notice. Not much changed.

 

Subscriptions dropped. Then Bioware/EA noticed. /sigh

 

F2P was announced (after so many forums posters (veteran MMO players I might add) said this could never happen this early on. But it did because, at that point, there was little choice to try and get enough cash flow to make things work and appease EA and its stockholders.

 

Bottom line (TL;DR) UNLESS Bioware fixes all the bugs, all the "little" issues, all the lack of content and turns this game around... F2P will only extend this game's death.

 

I really hope they do turn this around... and maybe they will. But from Bioware's/EA's performance so far, I have serious doubts.

 

With that in mind, I expect to see this game dead (as in servers shutdown) within a year.

 

BUT, I will be very happy to be proved wrong. The next year should be interesting, either way.

 

Very well said, these are my thoughts as well.

[Savej]

In the immediate future it may suffer greatly (they could probably easily do more server mergers now) but f2p will probably kick it back to life. This game is better than LOTR was - it has more quests, more class quests, you can play both sides and it has pvp. LOTR had better art choices/directions and comparable lore but that was all. It also had less competition and less finnicky players.

[Shingara]

I see the game being in a dip for a while, i dont see it dieing or any doomsaying stuff but i see the content draught will effect players, i see people going and doing other things like gw2, assassins creed 3 when it comes out or just going back to wow for panda patch, but i see the game getting back on its feet once they put some real content and fluff in.

 

Unlike other games people are invested in the IP more then the game, they want a truly epic star wars game, the leveling in this game is spot on and the best leveling i have ever seen in an mmo, but this is the key thing, you come to a sudden stop and once ops are done you left with no fluff to fall back on which content draught require.

 

So its gonna be quiet for a bit but by xmas i see it being back on its feet.

[Gomla]

The thing is, companies want WoW sized subscription base and that just isn't going to happen.

 

Before WoW, MMO's were a niche genre. We never had millions of players in the games before but they were, to put it blunt, quite tedious by today's standards (long grinds, harder mobs, complex professions, harsh death penalty ... you get the idea).

 

So WoW brought the MMO genre to the masses. To coin a buzz word, it made them "accessible" and toned down a lot of the grind.

 

don't worry i'm going somewhere with this.

 

Now we come to the problem.

 

In order to pull in some of that crowd, other games have taken it upon themselves to mimic what was successful there. Where WoW took elements from all the MMO's before it so do MMO's being released now. The downside being a lot of people want something new, they have played WoW for years and aren't looking for a simple reskin.

 

Had this game been released 5 years ago as WoW was building up it's popularity then it would have done better. It would have drawn in people wanting to get into the MMO scene and those people would now look upon this as a lot of folks do at WoW.

 

The sad part here is this game came into the world during a tough time for MMO's. A lot of companies are looking to get into the MMO scene and are all fighting for a portion of the market that is itself dwindling.

 

MMO's that have a small budget can do quite well with a smaller sub base (i'll throw Rift in here, people may say it's a failure but it's still doing well and bringing in a profit to Trion) but when a game blows hundreds of millions and doesn't deliver something that truly sets it apart then it will not keep in a huge player base especially now when that player base is very demanding.

 

People have years invested in other MMO's and left to come here but this game didn't deliver to them so they went back.

 

As for where it goes from here, it all comes down to how well that player base takes to F2P. If it goes well and starts to bring in a profit then it will live a while longer. If not then it's lights out, all out.

 

If it keeps in a phase like it is doing then EA will cut it's losses and, once it's made a profit, shut it down.

 

EA isn't the type of company to keep something running thats in relative player base limbo. They will do what is best for business. If they are not making a good return then this becomes a dead project.

[DeltaEkotte]

The game HAD the potential to go so very far. But they released the game early too many bugs/glitches too early on and they added content fairly close to the launch date. If Bioware had focused on fixing bugs and not adding content more people would still be subbed and SWTOR would have more of a chance. In my educated opinion, SWTOR was a good game but I think its too far gone to be saved at this point. The fact that the game will only be F2P up to lv 50 is the only chance SWTOR has I think, and its a really same chance. All in all, the race-horse that beat SWG broke its leg, time to take it out back and put it down.

[alifaraaz]

My guess is it will linger on. Regardless of I how I feel about it (enjoying it a fair bit) its taken massive hits. I expect it to follow a similar path to lotro after its f2p, I.e a ton of content quickly released to attract people, and then it will slow down again to a somewhat normal pace.

 

What I hope is that they'd also learn from lotro mistakes and their own mistakes, but only time will tell. I don't expect the game to fully, die, but I don't expect it to explode and become awesome. I imagine number of players will probably settle around 1 million once f2p arrives, maybe a bit higher. And about 30% of them paying either a sub or over $15 worth of stuff a month, keeping the game going.

[DarthBuckets]

In the short term, players have dropped off because of the rocky first year, impending competition, and the content draught since 1.2.

 

In the next month and a half, players will have a new gear tier, warzone, and Operation to play, which will satisfy them until they consume it all within a month or two.

 

Free-to-play will be like a relaunch for this game, especially since the GW2 and MOP expectations/numbers will stabilize.

 

Content updates will come more regularly now (especially since they can be monetized for F2P players and "premium" subs will need to look attractive to continue). Existing subscribers will complain about "holding back" content in 2012.

 

Subs will likely fluctuate between 200k-1mil "premium" players for several years and the game will be highly profitable under the F2P model.

 

When new story content is added, there will be spikes in activity. It will be similar to paid DLC on console games. I expect a new planet and small level cap twice a year or so starting in 2013.

 

There is an opportunity to really surprise people with new and exciting game systems (example: free-form multiplayer space gaming), but those wouldn't come until Q2 2013 at the earliest, if at all.

 

Players will come, go, come back, quit forever, stay subbed since launch.

 

The players and guilds that enjoy the game will continue to enjoy the game. People who don't play the game will find something else to rag on all the time and move on.

Edited August 25, 2012 by DarthBuckets

[iprovoast]

I think that F2p is going to make or break the game, I think that if F2p results in a resurgence in subs, I'd expect it to be moderately successful, if F2p doesn't, then it might just linger on...

[Kubernetic]

I have never really been into computer games and I have never played an MMO in my life, but I'm really loving this game. True, it has its flaws, but I can overlook most of them. I will be honest, though. I'm pretty concerned about the future of SWTOR. I've heard it's losing subscriptions at an alarming rate, and I don't see how this Free to Play option could be anything but an ominous sign of the future to come.

 

I don't stay caught up with news, so I was hoping someone could fill me in. What does the future of this game look like?

Are the developers optimistic? Pessimistic? Indifferent?

Could SWTOR bounce back, or has it had too many blows in its short existence?

 

I'm looking at this game like a relationship. If the game has a future, I will stick around. If the game is doomed, I would rather bail sooner than later, before I become even more attached.

 

They have changed tack very quickly and have begun to move toward an F2P hybrid model long before the game reaches its doom-state.

 

One thing we should all be worried about, in my opinion, is the state of today's falsely entitled gamers. No matter what game you play, unless it's a game that significantly walls off mature adults from children or childish people, we're going to be dealing with these QQers and whiners of extraordinary magnitude, trying to throw their weight around and demanding full status updates due toa $15/month subscription.

 

Apart from that, I think this game has a bright future. BioWare's heart is in the right place. They've created a fantastic game that has provided me months of entertainment, and although it's hit some rocky spells, not the least of which is a behemoth corporation lording over them, I still think there's a lot of life left in this game, and many years to come.

 

Honestly, I'm not sure any sci-fi game has the ability to maintain a massive subscription base short of a niche market, like those of STO, EVE, and SWTOR. I believe more people find fantasy games and realistic modern games to be more enthralling than science fiction, at least in the MMO space, in much the same way this seems to occur in the television space.

 

Science fiction shows get cancelled. Law and medical and police cookie-cutter shows get renewed for dozens of seasons. Maybe there's a commentary on greater society there. Maybe it's a lack of looking forward with a hopeful mindset rather than looking backward with a fond nostalgia.

 

I'm not sure why most of the players left this game, but I apparently didn't run into any of their problematic elements, because I still find it to be the most entertaining MMO in the industry at the moment. I may be wrong about all of this, and we may be 6 months away from the complete shutdown of the servers. If that's the case, so be it, but it will have been one hell of a game while it lasted, and one I was more than happy to buy, pay a continuing subscription for, and spend my time in.

[jarjarloves]

I've been playing MMO's for about 7 years now (although I played single player video games since LONG before that, since the early 80's).

 

SWTOR had a lot of potential... it was a newly released MMO with the Star Wars IP, just when many players were getting tired of what was out there at the time for MMO's. WoW was/is getting very old for a lot of people. I really thought this would be a great chance for a game with such a coveted IP to slip in and become very successful (I did not really expect it to beat WoW, but at least give it a run for its money).

 

As I said, the potential was there.

 

But then SWTOR released, prematurely. They should have waited another 6 months at least. But oh well, I still wasn't too concerned at that point. But then it seemed the developers could not fix bugs within any semblance of a reasonable time frame or make new content without huge resources and time being committed. Games like Rift (with a MUCH smaller budget), in the meantime, managed to do updates at lightspeed +10 compared to Bioware and this game.

 

The game went stagnant. Not a good thing to do for a subscription MMO, and especially an MMO that is the new kid on the block.

 

People gave lots of constructive criticism on the forums, right from the beginning. Bioware appeared to take little notice. Not much changed.

 

Subscriptions dropped. Then Bioware/EA noticed. /sigh

 

F2P was announced (after so many forums posters (veteran MMO players I might add) said this could never happen this early on. But it did because, at that point, there was little choice to try and get enough cash flow to make things work and appease EA and its stockholders.

 

Bottom line (TL;DR) UNLESS Bioware fixes all the bugs, all the "little" issues, all the lack of content and turns this game around... F2P will only extend this game's death.

 

I really hope they do turn this around... and maybe they will. But from Bioware's/EA's performance so far, I have serious doubts.

 

With that in mind, I expect to see this game dead (as in servers shutdown) within a year.

 

BUT, I will be very happy to be proved wrong. The next year should be interesting, either way.

 

servers shut down in a year? You have to be joking? EA is still running WAR, DAOC, and UO. None of which are F2P.

 

You are right though the game does have a lot of potential. Truth is NO ONE here knows what will happen to the game and it is impossible to tell.

[Mailek]

Being an ex SWG player who played through the 3 combat systems SOE implemented to it, I'll say this. Once SWTOR goes F2P I can see an influx of ex SWTOR players who want to check out the game again, KOTOR fans who refused to buy the game based on the subscription, and the F2P junkies / trolls. The KOTOR fans will level toons 1-50 of the different classes, then the majority of them will most likely stop playing once their stories end. Ex SWTOR players will probably check out new features like the group finder, level some other toons and most will probably quit again. F2P junkies / trolls will stick around, buy some stuff off the market place, troll / act like idiots in general chat, then eventually get banned or quit out of boredom.

 

SWTOR will survive, the hardcore Star Wars fans will keep it going, even if the player population declines to very low levels. LA/SOE kept SWG going with less then 50k players for quite a few years after all that NGE fiasco happening. The only thing saving SWTOR anyways is the brand name, we all know that.

Edited August 25, 2012 by Mailek

[SpazCats]

servers shut down in a year? You have to be joking? EA is still running WAR, DAOC, and UO. None of which are F2P.

 

You are right though the game does have a lot of potential. Truth is NO ONE here knows what will happen to the game and it is impossible to tell.

 

Oh I so wish I was! But it seems that Bioware/EA (and it's mainly EA I feel) that has been making some pretty serious snap decisions on this game. So it would not surprise me if they continued on that path, and as soon as F2P does not carry the hope they thought it did, that they just might make another snap decision and shut the game down.

 

To be sure, this is, of course, my opinion. And, as I stated before, I hope I am wrong. And yeah, no one knows what will happen here... even Bioware/EA at this point.

[Mailek]

Oh I so wish I was! But it seems that Bioware/EA (and it's mainly EA I feel) that has been making some pretty serious snap decisions on this game. So it would not surprise me if they continued on that path, and as soon as F2P does not carry the hope they thought it did, that they just might make another snap decision and shut the game down.

 

To be sure, this is, of course, my opinion. And, as I stated before, I hope I am wrong. And yeah, no one knows what will happen here... even Bioware/EA at this point.

 

Problem is EA would need to also convince LA that shutting down SWTOR would be the right thing to do, since they are joint publishers.