Draekos Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 As poorly as this game has turned out in terms of retained players I see absolutely no reason for it to go offline for many many years to come. Less content(if that is even possible at the snail's pace we are getting stuff) and maintainence mode sure, but I'd be shocked if there wasnt at least one server still running SWTOR in 2020 barring another SW MMO which shuts it down like this one did with galaxies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunny_Bun Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 I think it is incredibly kind of you to suggest that my opinion has value Educated? Yes I went to oxford But can I pretend I know? Know? no. I merely hope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpazCats Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 I think it is incredibly kind of you to suggest that my opinion has value Call me sentimental... but I believe all of our opinions have value. Even the one's that disagree with mine. That, and I can actually HEAR your statement being voiced by Scorpio for some reason. There is a borg like sense in there for some reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arunav Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 (edited) I still don't believe how naive the player base is, or at least many that post here. The game isn't going to have a huge space expansion, it's not going to get loads of story content, EA doesn't care about programming your hoods to go down or fixing PvP so it isn't limited to WZs, even with the limitations of the game engine, even if putting the war back into a Star Wars MMO would go a long way in stabilizing subs. You can't get a substantial space platform going? Fine - put it on the ground, instanced and restricted enough that it will run. Ilum, for example, could be 25 vs. 25 or 20 vs. 20 for as many instances over as a server can handle. Other players would be in queue, and the map would need to be adjusted accordingly, objectives changed. Faction imbalances would no longer matter. Add the appropriate awards so all 50s would want to make this a part of their regular game time. But potential changes like this and many others that could fix the game won't happen. Short of EA completely changing it's mind, TOR is going into maintenance mode with sales in the cash shop to get dollars back. Many casual Star Wars and sci-fi fans will likely try the game, and be willing to purchase a few things. There will also likely be a hardcore, loyal player base, those that are more dedicated to the IP than the game itself, and they will be milked even more, with subscriptions fees and impulse purchases. This game had so much potential. It was released before it was finished because some dip**** at EA didn't realize that a Star Wars MMO would sell well at any time of year, not only the holiday season, was worth extra investment in development costs and months, given the sunk cost already involved, and it flopped. BW has had two rounds of layoffs, and there is only a skeletal staff left. Most of the pivotal development personnel that made the game no longer work on TOR or at BW altogether. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, and was planned to be very profitable, even finally setting up a genuine rival to WoW. Or, the dip**** at EA who launched it early thought so. Jeff Hickman is now in charge to monetize what's left. The upcoming ugly armor tier for TFB is your reward for paying your subscription since January, an incentive to fork over more money so you don't have to run around in a potato sack as a Jedi Master once the cash shop arrives. In short, there was a great Star Wars MMO in the making. EA came along and released it before it was finished, and now is simply attempting to get its money back. Edited August 25, 2012 by arunav Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunny_Bun Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Call me sentimental... but I believe all of our opinions have value. Even the one's that disagree with mine. That, and I can actually HEAR your statement being voiced by Scorpio for some reason. There is a borg like sense in there for some reason It is not intended, I'm just jaded If it were me (and it is not) I would start to listen to the community (and I do not mean me), This game feels salvageable - give in - listen to your community bioware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draekos Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 This game feels salvageable - give in - listen to your community bioware Be careful what you ask for, ask Ops and Sorcs what they think about BW listening to the community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avrid Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 i don't think the game will be around long if they don't learn how to communicate with their customers properly. SW:ToR needs to take a look at the commincation that the secret world, and final fantasy 14 do with their customers to keep them informed. the secret world is giving their customers, weeks of notice when the next game update is coming and whats in it. final fantasy the producer of the game is giving constant updates on where the game is going and what is coming out next. If SWToR's team won't do this then this game will fail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christhesithlord Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Well, listening to the community is what made us lose the weight of our choices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natareus Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 And to think that this game killed off SWG which had been running for 8 years while this game will probably only last at the most another year unless they have a complete turnaround. At this point, I'd rather have SWG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordArtemis Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Looking at this objectively, quite a few games have continued to thrive with low populations. SWG survived for many years after the CU/NGE debacle. Anarchy online continues to exist. It really depends on how expensive it is to maintain the title. As to the future sub count, they could end up being pretty healthy, IMO, if they add the features that people asked for and expected in Beta. The game needs repeatable sandbox content. If they choose to add in missing features and that sandbox content I expect subs will rise and then become stable. The devs will determine the future of this game and it's fate based on their development priorities. Adding end game content will not help IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specialbrew Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 summa sumarum, people bought this game for 49,99 euros nine months ago, today you can pick it up for 9,99 pretty much says it all tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkirus Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 I really donot know. But I donot have a positive feel for it's future. They seem to lack the type of leadership it will take to salvage the game enough to get back a lot of those who have left.. Depends also I guess on how they do the FTP. Have not deleted it off my harddrive. And more then likely I will be back when they go FTP. Got nothing to lose by doing so. But I am not going to be paying while I wait to see how it does. Time proves all things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkirus Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 summa sumarum, people bought this game for 49,99 euros nine months ago, today you can pick it up for 9,99 pretty much says it all tbh. When it goes FTP, you will be able to download it for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chamby-X Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Yikes... I have been worried about the game and this post isn't making me feel any better lol Maybe I'm the kind of player that's part of the problem... a KOTOR fan and Star Wars addict that has zero prior experience in MMO's but couldn't resist playing KOTOR 3 (and 4, 5, 6, 7....) After playing the game off and on at a friend's place since spring I've finally mustered the cash to get a cpu of my own that can run it. I really want to play through all the class stories... hope I can manage it before doomsday :( And I hold out hope the game survives, of course. Bioware don't fail me now! And give me Jade Empire 2 please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKMaster Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 It's Star Wars, we fans will keep it going. The MMO'ers will play w/e new Harry Potter - LOTR rip off fantasy POS is thrown at them then move on to the next "big thing". But we'll still be here, were Star Wars fanboys, as long as Lucas peddles it, we'll buy it. And tbh if we didnt have this game we'd be on our 500th run through of KOTOR 1 / 2 or driving by the local Trekkie nest causing trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 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. Protip: don't ask others for relationship advice. Nothing good can come out of it. Particularly with this crowd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soluss Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 My honest opinion is that this game is not going to make it. They built a great single player game. Unfortunately this is an MMO. As an MMO you need to have more then just reroll. They had piss poor management and made poor decision after poor decision since beta. I feel that the development was really ameturish. Yes, all games have bugs but they have a heap of them here. Its not so much that but they take so long to fix them. The ones they do fix, arent really fixed and break more stuff. The content updating was horrid. In an MMO you need to have a direction. You need a plan of post release. It seems that they have no idea what they are doing. Statements alone show they have poor management. Things like "we will release whatever gets done first" thats not how you do things. You plan development and schedule it. Yeah, you may get curve balls... but at this point, you can tell they have absolutely no content plan in place. They work on this, they work on that.... they dont do anything. People question why we get no answers. The simple reason is that they dont know. They dont know because they have poor leadership. I could go on all day but Ill end with this.... I dont believe the game will survive. F2P is their last ditch effort. If they dont generate alot of money off it then they wont have much of a choice but to shut down. I mean, you may still have a game but it will be one that never sees an update ... aka maintanance mode. I dont feel F2P is going to save them because the game hasnt changed. People will spend money for value. 2 million people didnt find value for 15 bucks a month. I doubt they are going to find value, in the same game with added paid for xp potions and fluffernutter gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshenK Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 F2P isn't going to help, now you can play the same game we have now only with much less to do for free. The fault is BioWare doesn't do anything we the players tell them to do. They repeat lines of "Soon" over and over again to a point that it's become a running joke. The in game support is well I think we all know how that is. Really what does this game have that other games don't have? Oh it has Story. And BioWare already gave up on that. How about the rest of the game. Content? WoW, Rift, GW2 and every other MMO out has more. PvP? Yeah matches don't even pop anymore. Role play? No chat bubbles, no real 'social' zones, the chat system is awful. Again other games have much more. F2P is going to hold off the shutdown for a couple of months and that's what the game is looking at. The player base is leaving in hoards, there are much better MMO's coming out. One that will be a big game changer in just a few hours. All TOR is getting is a new planet that we'll have to pay for. A cash shop that will just have reskins of the armor we all dislike. The super secret space thing? Yeah if we haven't heard anything about that by now I don't think it's in the works. The fate of TOR is shutdown by the end of the year or early next year. All TOR will be remembered for is being the little game that could but didn't. And robbed players of a great Star Wars game that everyone loved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gungan Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 (edited) It's Star Wars, we fans will keep it going. The MMO'ers will play w/e new Harry Potter - LOTR rip off fantasy POS is thrown at them then move on to the next "big thing". But we'll still be here, were Star Wars fanboys, as long as Lucas peddles it, we'll buy it. And tbh if we didnt have this game we'd be on our 500th run through of KOTOR 1 / 2 or driving by the local Trekkie nest causing trouble. I'm a huge Star Wars fanboy, but this game hardly has any of the good Star Wars EU lore, and they don't seem to have any interest in adding things they haven't made up themselves out of thin air. Makeb? Come on. I have emotional investment in any of their made up lore like I do for the established canon. Eternity Vault was just stupid. Having common enemies with the Empire just detracts from the animosity between the Reps and Imps. I might as well just read the books. They make more sense than what BioWare is doing. Edited August 25, 2012 by Gungan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 (edited) F2P is going to hold off the shutdown for a couple of months and that's what the game is looking at. The player base is leaving in hoards, there are much better MMO's coming out. Freemium access models are not only popular among players, they are healthy for the MMO because they inject significant additional revenue, which results in a companies ability to increase their operations plan costs (read: investment into new content) while maintaining their profit contributions to the company. Lord of the Rings Online saw its monthly revenue double after it stopped requiring subscriptions in 2010. DC Universe Online saw a seven-fold revenue increase when it did the same late last year. Even the venerable Team Fortress 2 started bringing in 12 times as much money when it switched to a primarily hat-based business model. I could continue, but you get the idea. Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/08/good-riddance-the-death-of-online-gamings-monthly-subscription-model Edited August 25, 2012 by Andryah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpazCats Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Freemium access models are not only popular among players, they are healthy for the MMO because they inject significant additional revenue, which results in a companies ability to increase their operations plan costs (read: investment into new content) while maintaining their profit contributions to the company. Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/08/good-riddance-the-death-of-online-gamings-monthly-subscription-model You did not address AshenK's post one bit (except you looked at the keyword "F2P" and went on from there). I swear you pop in to a thread, read it real quick, pop in a quick response of some random muttering of one-sided support for the game, look up the next thread, and rinse, wash, repeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 (edited) You did not address AshenK's post one bit (except you looked at the keyword "F2P" and went on from there). I swear you pop in to a thread, read it real quick, pop in a quick response of some random muttering of one-sided support for the game, look up the next thread, and rinse, wash, repeat. A primary point in his post was F2P won't help the game... followed by the usual repetative and subjective yada yada negative game commentary. Rather then target the repetative yada yada, as you acuse me of so often doing , I provided a contrast on the matter of F2P. Please don't tell me how to post, or what to post. Edited August 25, 2012 by Andryah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draekos Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 (edited) The fate of TOR is shutdown by the end of the year or early next year. All TOR will be remembered for is being the little game that could but didn't. And robbed players of a great Star Wars game that everyone loved. I get that you are an unhappy customer, but please provide some insight as to why this game will be gone by early next year or even this year. I can still log into other EA owned MMOs today which had far fewer players than SWTOR. Do you have any facts to support this statement? Edited August 25, 2012 by Draekos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soluss Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 I get that you are an unhappy customer, but please provide some insight as to why this game will be gone by early next year or even this year. I can still log into other EA owned MMOs today which had far fewer players than SWTOR. Do you have any facts to support this statement? Logging in and getting updates to a thriving game are two different things. If this game does not make enough money then it will look the same, as it does now, at this time next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpazCats Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 A primary point in his post was F2P won't help the game... followed by the usual repetative and subjective yada yada negative game commentary. Rather then target the repetative yada yada, as you acuse me of so often doing , I provided a contrast on the matter of F2P. Please don't tell me how to post, or what to post. From what I read, AshenK was not debating the pros and cons of F2P, HE WAS DISCUSSING WHY F2P WON'T HELP THE GAME. You went on to simply discuss the pros of F2P (not that I am arguing them... F2P can help inject revenue), but you did not address the post you were replying to. I think you just wanted to spam some random support for the game, be it whatever it can be as something loosely related to the post you were replying to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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