For anyone that was wondering about James Ohlen

[DarthGile]

It took 10 days for me during early access (this is still without skipping a single line of VO, even on side quests). Granted, I was also in Beta and knew all the quests and how to do them efficiently. Not once did I blame Bioware for me leveling so fast. It was my own decision.

 

Complaining about lack of content as a hardcore gamer in a themepark MMO is like complaining that your car keeps running outta gas... when you drive 8 hrs a day. Of course you're gonna run out when you grind on like that...

 

I'm glad that J. Ohlen is still Creative Director. If anything, we see that he learned his mistakes without being replaced. And judging from the article, he is clearly aware of that himself. We'll see how Makeb's launch will do. Perhaps the new "macrobinocular and seeker droid" storyline/repeatable content will be replayable enough to keep endgamers doing something fun instead of the "yawn--kill these guys and loot this stuff" dailies.

Edited March 29, 2013 by DarthGile

[Caltone]

Well it took me about 2 1/2 months for my first 50. I had a couple of alts I played some in addition to my main.

 

What boggles my mind is the articles says many people were average 40 hours a week! And some were pulling 120 hours/week

 

I love this game and play it actively as much as I can but if I even came close to 40 hours a week in game, I would not have a wife, family or much of anything else except for SWTOR.

 

I mean, if you are going to devote that kind of time to the game, just wow...

[Alduinsm]

This is a better article with more detail

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/29/gdc-2013-james-ohlen-on-how-f2p-saved-swtor/

Edited March 29, 2013 by Alduinsm

[AlaricSevGirl]

Well it took me about 2 1/2 months for my first 50.

 

Right but I was leveling 2 to 50 at the same time thus it took me longer, plus I have a full time job, son, etc. I came back to the game in early February and my highest character is level 34. Real life, real job obligations.

[Tatile]

This is a better article with more detail

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/29/gdc-2013-james-ohlen-on-how-f2p-saved-swtor/

 

Thanks The information about the Voice Acting and subsequent QA problems was very interesting, considering that there have been some on these boards saying that it's far too expensive to maintain and the continued worry over future story content from those who actually enjoy the VA quests. It's also nice to see that Mr. Ohlen (and presumably others) where disappointed with how the PTS was handled - it does seem to have improved recently, especially with the 2.0 testing.

 

Edit:

Right but I was leveling 2 to 50 at the same time thus it took me longer, plus I have a full time job, son, etc. I came back to the game in early February and my highest character is level 34. Real life, real job obligations.

 

The guy's not attacking you just because he plays differently to you, so could you please stop attacking everyone else? Not all of us have kids or full time jobs, so we have free time and choose to spend it how we wish. You get to spend your free time doing what you like, as well.

Edited March 29, 2013 by Tatile

[Monoth]

The biggest mistake that Bioware made was indeed that they overestimated the number of players that would actually play more than 1 class from 1-50 for the story!

 

I think people would of done more of the different class stories if they didn't require you to do the same side quests every time you rolled a new alt. Sorry but most of the class stories were not compelling enough to force players to grind to reach the next part of the class story. If they would of made the leveling experience unique for each class then people would of played all the different classes... But since only like 20% of the leveling experience was unique people quickly got burned out and bored.

 

Any MMO that is not dynamic is going to fail, you can't expect players to do the same static linear stuff over and over and over and over again without getting bored. There really was no excuse for this as anyone who would of done their homework would of saw this issue in all the MMO's that came before SWTOR.

 

The other HUGE mistake was not having a open world pvp end game.... Ilum was a complete disaster and the new version of Ilum is no better.... If you want to keep people longer you need some sort of pvp end game besides warzones... something along the lines of what Aion does with the fortress battles...

 

The other issue Bioware had was people wanted more of a SWG 2.0 then a extremely linear static theme park.

Edited March 29, 2013 by Monoth

[ninjonxb]

I thought the article was very good. I liked the details about how EA is reacting.

However, I really want a transcript or a video. There are a few articles that are interpreting things differently and I want to see exactly what he said and interpret it myself.

[AlaricSevGirl]

 

The guy's not attacking you just because he plays differently to you, so could you please stop attacking everyone else? Not all of us have kids or full time jobs, so we have free time and choose to spend it how we wish. You get to spend your free time doing what you like, as well.

 

Attacking? I am in no way attacking anyone. I was saying that yes it took that poster half the time it took me but that was because said poster was leveling 1, I was leveling 2. If I was leveling one it would agree with his/her post. Really...attacking...be thankful I'm not saying what I think of you.

Edited March 29, 2013 by AlaricSevGirl

[Tatile]

Attacking? Well I could say something about you right now, but I am in no way attacking anyone. I was saying that yes it took that poster half the time it took me but that was because said poster was leveling 1, I was leveling 2. If I was leveling one it would agree with his/her post. Really...

 

Sorry, but whenever I've seen people use "real life" in the past in these situations, it's been as an attack on other players, hence my interpretation of your post. I certainly did not intend my post to come across as an attack, either.

[Shoogli]

This is a better article with more detail

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/29/gdc-2013-james-ohlen-on-how-f2p-saved-swtor/

 

There some very interresting tidbit at the very end of this one, and, since English isn't my primary language, I was wondering what you guys exactly understand about this part :

 

And thanks to the current success of TOR, BioWare is now the studio that will lead the charge for EA MMORPGs in the future, ones that aren't just Star Wars but other IPs as well.

 

[MiaRB]

There some very interresting tidbit at the very end of this one, and, since English isn't my primary language, I was wondering what you guys exactly understand about this part :

 

 

 

 

mass effect MMO.

[FeelFlow]

That's great news.

 

Great that F2P etc. made the game a success and that BW and EA are feeling good about the game.

 

Because TOR is a great game with a fantastic story. Yes, it has a few rough edges (good-looking gear or the lack of) and still a few missing standard MMO features (i.e. barber-shop - yes I know it's coming - dual spec etc.).

 

Here's hoping that the upcoming xpac is great, that we get the promised QoL features soon and the by now near-legendary super-secret space game.

[Shoogli]

mass effect MMO.

 

Lol you know what ?

 

I was about to write :

 

World of Mass Effect

 

Instead of just :

 

 

in my previous post...

[ninjonxb]

mass effect MMO.

 

That is what I was thinking.

That is why I want an actual transcript so I can see exactly what he said because that statement both excites and worries me.

 

However a few notes. Bioware has confirmed that the next ME game is not going to be an MMO (does not mean there will not be a ME mmo but something to be aware of)

 

Bioware has also confirmed multiple times (Including at the ME retrospective panel at PAX East a couple weeks ago) that they are working on a new IP. No other information is known except that it is being lead by the guys who worked on ME series. Very possible that this new IP could be written from the ground up to exist in an MMO setting.

[shagadoodle]

As you get older you will not pay attention to what people say but what they do...

[FeelFlow]

Wait, how was Bioware supposed to know that people lived in their parents basements, didn't have a real life and could play the game 120 hrs a week? It took me 5 months to reach level 50 on my bounty hunter and my shadow.

 

I bought the game in March 2012 and my first character only hit 50 in Jan this year. True, I'm an altaholic so I've been playing all the other classes but if you watch the class story cinematically and the other quest cematics at least once, the hand really does take ages to level in.

 

I can't help thinking that having come from a story driven RPG background, BW thought that they'd have the same audience for an MMO - which is probably not the case. I think that they'd thought that players would take ages in each planet and experience fully all the story lines when as per JO's presentation, loads of players appeared to space bar and power level their way to 50 in a very short time indeed.

Edited March 29, 2013 by FeelFlow

[Imhotep]

sorry, this guy is one of the key idiots that resulted in a launch that was late and so very far from being ready. Its nothing sort of complete lunacy to say they were surprised that the content they thought would take 3 to 5 months to consume was consumed by most in 3 to 5 weeks and by a lot in 3 to 5 day! Having any mmo gamer play the game would have shown that to be the case, as it did on launch. The whole management of the SWTOR launch by the key staff was nothing short of an embarrassment, Im sure EA were equally to blame but as the bean counters what do you expect, they would keep pouring millions into the game that was never going to be finished or ever launch?

 

In any great success or great failure there are key players and teams, no mater how good a team is if the captains suck the team loses. I wish James all the best, but he's an idiot and probably needs to reconsider his career choices in mmo game making

 

While I wont defend the dev team for TOR I will take issue with your statement. Games cannot be designed around power gamers if they were they would all fail. You call Ohlen an idiot but what games have you designed? Sounds to me like another internet tough guy with an alligator mouth to cover his hummingbird arse.

[Jett-Rinn]

Wait, how was Bioware supposed to know that people lived in their parents basements, didn't have a real life and could play the game 120 hrs a week? It took me 5 months to reach level 50 on my bounty hunter and my shadow.

 

THIS^^^^^^

 

I think before too long we will see James replace Hickman....or at least that is my fervent wish.

 

While I wont defend the dev team for TOR I will take issue with your statement. Games cannot be designed around power gamers if they were they would all fail. You call Ohlen an idiot but what games have you designed? Sounds to me like another internet tough guy with an alligator mouth to cover his hummingbird arse.

 

Nope he is just another lame *** Bioware/EA hater part of the same group of losers that gave ME3 so much grief because the ending wasn't how they would have done it.

Edited March 29, 2013 by Jett-Rinn

[HanStyle]

Salute Ohlen ! Nice to see him around

[islander]

This is a better article with more detail

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/29/gdc-2013-james-ohlen-on-how-f2p-saved-swtor/

 

This article might be one of the best I've ever read on massively. Thats not saying much, but still...

[Andryah]

That was a good article. It is good to see them being honest about what they learned. It means that they know that things had/have to change and that is the first step into fixing things.

 

I think that they are on the right track.

 

/Agree.

 

In addition, if you take time to really dissect the disclosures he made (quite candidly I might add, for a game company) there is a wealth of information here about how things worked and are working behind the scenes.....very different from the hate based hyperbole that splatters the forum from time to time.

Edited March 29, 2013 by Andryah

[MrSchmo]

It took 10 days for me during early access (this is still without skipping a single line of VO, even on side quests). Granted, I was also in Beta and knew all the quests and how to do them efficiently. Not once did I blame Bioware for me leveling so fast. It was my own decision.

 

Complaining about lack of content as a hardcore gamer in a themepark MMO is like complaining that your car keeps running outta gas... when you drive 8 hrs a day. Of course you're gonna run out when you grind on like that...

 

I'm glad that J. Ohlen is still Creative Director. If anything, we see that he learned his mistakes without being replaced. And judging from the article, he is clearly aware of that himself. We'll see how Makeb's launch will do. Perhaps the new "macrobinocular and seeker droid" storyline/repeatable content will be replayable enough to keep endgamers doing something fun instead of the "yawn--kill these guys and loot this stuff" dailies.

Great level headed comment.

[Illyean]

well first let me apologise if my 'he's an idiot' comment offended any of you, not really my intention.

 

That said, HE is admitting the mistakes, HE is saying they got it wrong, HE is saying they had no idea things would play out like they did and for that HE takes responsibility - I'll commend him for that, but what the hell are you guys doing trying to defend the position HE is saying is HIS fault?

 

Im not saying anything about power levelling, in fact quite the reverse, the game was finished by power levellers in a few days, the average player with the 'new game and its star wars' head of steam took a few weeks, if you took longer thats great it wasn't a race it was about playing it for fun. I don't recall how long I took on my first 50, I wasn't counting till I hit 50 and thought, oh is that it, didn't take very long to get here.

 

The point is the levelling curve they had planned for was exceeded by MONTHS, not by a few days, by MONTHS. Leaving them with a gap in content they thought they would have months to make up (like many MMO's at launch). The result was they lost hundreds of thousands of subs very early, combined with the 'lets open more servers' plan and what you ended up with was a population spread over far too many servers and a deepening spiral of decline.

 

This in turn lead to server transfers to try to get the now very dramatically lower population into the same place so they could play together, a 'rush' to get new FP/OP/QoL out (which they did pretty well given the circumstances IMO), further server consolidation and F2P. Put that lot in the same time line as GW2, SWOTR PvP being a train wreck, new WoW expansion and a few other game launches and its not hard to see why EA forced huge costs cuts.

 

If you think for one moment anyone at any level regards that as a success then you are an idiot.

 

Thankfully their actions have started to turn it around and although its now a very different prospect its stabilising.

[MGriffith]

I bought the game in March 2012 and my first character only hit 50 in Jan this year. True, I'm an altaholic so I've been playing all the other classes but if you watch the class story cinematically and the other quest cematics at least once, the hand really does take ages to level in.

 

I can't help thinking that having come from a story driven RPG background, BW thought that they'd have the same audience for an MMO - which is probably not the case. I think that they'd thought that players would take ages in each planet and experience fully all the story lines when as per JO's presentation, loads of players appeared to space bar and power level their way to 50 in a very short time indeed.

 

The Secret World ran into the same problems. A rich story driven game with a deep (much deeper than SW:TOR's) skill system. And it ran head first in a vocal minority of players who were absolutely determined to finish the game in one day and pick every imagined fault and slight with the developers. Players who were still sore in the behind from the fact that the company blundered at the launch of a game over ten years earlier.

[Elear]

There some very interresting tidbit at the very end of this one, and, since English isn't my primary language, I was wondering what you guys exactly understand about this part :

 

And thanks to the current success of TOR, BioWare is now the studio that will lead the charge for EA MMORPGs in the future, ones that aren't just Star Wars but other IPs as well.

 

 

Considering that any experience is 'stored' on studio employees, this means one of 2 things:

- life expectancy of SWTOR at EA is shorter than average emplyment lenght of people there(looking at SWTOR history, that doesn't seem to be much)

- number of people working on SWTOR is going to be significantly reduced while they are being funneled into new project.

- OR there is always option that he was just talking randomly and ment nothing by that.