So, state of the game?

[ganthore]

So, I have become a sub, after my military career has come to an end. Mainly because I love what this game is, what this game is about, and the fact that this is the most story driven MMO I have ever played. Something I feel is lacking in the MMO community.

 

My money will be devoted to this game for as long as they keep the servers open. Now.

 

That being said, what is the state of this game? How are the server populations? What does the future hold for Star Wars The Old Republic? I hope to hear some positive things, even though I know I am in the General Forums, and it is usually doom and gloom on game servers. I just want this game to succeed so much, because this game I believe is the rightful future of true MMOs.

[Sangrar]

2 major expansions on the way, all major recurring events returning after update 2.8, good stuff is going to come.

[Vandicus]

Well there's people to PvP or PvE or(if you're on an RP server) to RP with.

 

In August guild flagships and player housing is expected.

 

Sometime later this year, a level cap increase and at least one new planet is expected as part of an expansion.

 

There's some speculation that we may see a new race this year.

[LordAcra]

Do we really need another increased level cap

[ganthore]

Good to see so many good things planed for this game. How is the marketing for this game going? I hope a nice influx of new gamers is happening. I wish more would see how great this game truly can be and how much it already is

[Petnil]

It seems we keep gettng new players in SWTOR so you would think the playerbase would be growing. The thing is players leave this game at about the same rate as we get new players. At least that is the feeling i get.

 

At the moment were mostly just waiting for strongholds and that big "Makebstyle" expansion we all asume must have a level increase. Not sure that has been confirmed though.

 

Marketing could be better i guess. I cant remember seeing an add for SWTOR, but then again star wars kinda markets itstelf. When theese new starwars movies launch SWTOR will probably spend some $ on adds

 

I like this game, but i dont think it has what it takes to be the next big thing. Not that i think it will close down anytime soon, but SWTOR need to be better at keeping players for it to have real promise. Maybe future expansions will bring something extra to make players stay longer.

[BrianDavion]

baaasicly we're in the "pre-expansion lull" every MMO has on occasion, plenty to do but we're just waiting for the big next thing

[psandak]

Do we really need another increased level cap

 

It's the way RPGs work, especially MMORPGs. It's a primary "carrot." New level to reach and new skill points to distribute.

 

YES, I know there are exceptions, but they are just that...exceptions; if every game followed the exceptions they would not be exceptions.

 

Getting back to the OP...

 

Ignore the "gloom and doom"-ers; haters are gonna hate. As someone else pointed out we are in a "lull" period waiting for truly new content (due in mid-august). Furthermore, while school is out in many places, finals are just ramping up in others and with warmer weather many players choose to take advantage of it (OMG shock of shocks ) and are not playing all the time...like they do during the winter.

[ZETA_SCORPII]

So, I have become a sub, after my military career has come to an end. Mainly because I love what this game is, what this game is about, and the fact that this is the most story driven MMO I have ever played. Something I feel is lacking in the MMO community.

 

My money will be devoted to this game for as long as they keep the servers open. Now.

 

That being said, what is the state of this game? How are the server populations? What does the future hold for Star Wars The Old Republic? I hope to hear some positive things, even though I know I am in the General Forums, and it is usually doom and gloom on game servers. I just want this game to succeed so much, because this game I believe is the rightful future of true MMOs.

 

The game is alive and thriving on my server (Harbinger). There is no shortage of raiding and while you're not doing that there is plenty to keep you occupied at endgame. This is a great Star Wars game and no other can even come close to it's bad***ness.

[TUXs]

Stagnated for new content, but you're new, so plenty for you to do.

[Undying-Rage]

As Tux said plenty for you to do since you're new, but for any vet or old timer a game thats bleeding subs and pops being dealt blows from new games like Wildstar and ESO. Lack of endgame content both PvP AND PvE.

[Adaliaya]

One thing, choose your server well. If you play on less populated server you might get feeling game is not doing well. Low pop etc.

If you are US player I would recommend Harbinger or if you're roleplayer Ebon Hawk, and for EU player TRE is good choice, then again, if you're roleplayer, Progenitor is good one.

Enjoy game:)

[hooty]

I can only go by my own perspective. Maybe what's happened with my friends/guilds is not typical but here is what I see. The overall # of players at any given time is roughly holding steady, but the demographics have changed. Average player age is down. More F2P, fewer subs. More short term players and fewer long term players. Players who do sub don't stay sub'd as long. Did BW make wise decisions to focus on starfighter and player housing rather than new stories/levels? Lot's of players like what they did. Lot's of players also left the game over it.

[Superman_AZ]

Do we really need another increased level cap

 

Should get to 60 and freeze. Forever. It is possible to make new story addons, quests, and content WITHOUT raising the level limit. Attach it to a storymode and have it pay out BIG, and people will play it. Especially if you add a BiS item to the end of the storyline.

[AlienEyeTX]

So, I have become a sub, after my military career has come to an end. Mainly because I love what this game is, what this game is about, and the fact that this is the most story driven MMO I have ever played. Something I feel is lacking in the MMO community.

 

My money will be devoted to this game for as long as they keep the servers open. Now.

 

That being said, what is the state of this game? How are the server populations? What does the future hold for Star Wars The Old Republic? I hope to hear some positive things, even though I know I am in the General Forums, and it is usually doom and gloom on game servers. I just want this game to succeed so much, because this game I believe is the rightful future of true MMOs.

 

Plenty of people online. Lots of stuff to do. Lots of guilds to choose from. Servers rarely down for any reason.

 

So, I'd say things are pretty good here.

[Cyberwoman]

To be fair, I don't think anyone can give an answer that is simply not armchair observation. The only people who will have any idea of how well the game is doing is probably BW/EA.

 

From my point of view at least, the game dose seem to be doing well! It seems to have gained a solid player base since going F2P. There is plenty to get your teeth into, especially for newer or returning player. We have the Strongholds expansion coming up soon, and I believe a new 'RotHC style expansion is on its way. I do not think the game is going anywhere soon.

[SgtJeremy]

Avoid the RP servers unless you RP which you probably don't but I shouldn't make assumptions. The community is pretty good as far as my server is concerned but most players in my server are more or less solo players or have found a guild to do Ops with already so it's pretty slow or really slow Ops wise and Flashpoint wise as well. The queues can go as long as 10-15 minutes to as long as 2-3 hours. And I play erratically so this varies but for the most part queues are pretty slow. So are warzones.

 

This begs the question as to why I joined a RP server and it's a long story, but long story short I figured the community would be more forgiving to Flashpoint mistakes on a RP server. Now I just feel married to my server.

 

The game isn't as lively as I wish, but once again as far as my server is concerned. It's next to impossible to find a group for heroics and flashpoints quickly. Like I said before could take hours. The game is kind of struggling to find a niche that'll bring a lot of MMO players to SWTOR. Most of the people here I am assuming are Star Wars fans that really love Star Wars. The Story Driven gameplay is kind of been a miss, although I love it personally, not a lot of people bought into the gimmick as it does nothing for end game content or PvP content. Long rant that had little to nothing to do with your question but for some reason I won't stop typing. Enjoy

[Smashnbash]

Doesn't really have much to do with the OP, but in terms of so much to do....

I was just having a bit of a day dream about this game and the class stories. So I was like 'yeah I want to play all the class stories' Which of course would include a bit of side quests. Then I said....ok hang on, since I like to play the stories and not just skip skip skip....this will take a very long time! It took me long enough just to get through the JK story....I have a feeling I am gonna be needing many nights where I lock myself in a room and shut out the world

[DarthDymond]

State of the Game in Terms of Population/Profitability:

Long Version:

 

Game launched with over 2 million box sales, but was unable to sustain that level of interest and over the following two years declined to around 500,000 subscribers (with most of that drop-off happening in the first six months) - this still makes it the third-largest Western MMO (close to EVE Online, miles behind WoW's 7+ million), but the huge drop off led to many players declaring the game "TORtanic" and a "failure". EA/BioWare adopted a Free-to-Play (F2P) model in response to the drop-off.

 

With the addition of Free-to-Play, there are hundreds of thousands of additional F2P and Preferred players as well. (One report said around 2 million within the first six months of F2P being launched, but I think that involves heavy number padding that includes people who created a F2P account but only signed in once for five minutes.)

 

Population is not evenly distributed across the servers, however. So I would strongly suggest finding a server where your usual gaming hours match up with the peak hours (usually 7pm-midnight server time). I'd also check out the Server Forums to see what the population seems to be once you've found a potential choice.

 

As is the case with many MMOs, hard numbers on players/subscribers are few and far between. What we do know from EA Earnings Calls during calendar year 2013 is that the game has seen a steady/continued increase in F2P profit, but a decline in profit from subscriptions. [source] Some subscribers probably left the game altogether, but others have likely switched to Preferred status if they found that setup works better for them. A third-party report also put SWTOR as the second highest MMO for F2P revenue in 2013, behind only WoW (and the 8th highest online game overall).

tl;dr version: Subscriber numbers are down but still the third-biggest Western MMO. Active players and revenue are up thanks to Free-to-Play model.

 

State of the Game in Terms of Content:

[breakdown of Content Updates from Update: 1.3 through the current live Update: 2.7]

 

Long version:

 

The game launched without several "standard" MMO features (such as a Group Finder or customizable User Interface) and rather light on End-Game Content, which was probably a huge factor in the population drop-off mentioned above. Since then most of these features have been added, and End Game content (as well as alternative Leveling Content) is regularly released through Updates.

 

The game has now established a fairly reliable 2-month Update Cycle (in 2013 it was about 8 weeks between updates, and they are currently on a 9-week cycle). Content in each Update tends to vary between PVP Warzones (e.g. Updates 2.7, 2.5 and 2.4), Flashpoints (e.g. Updates 2.7, 2.6 and 2.3),Operations (e.g. Updates 2.4 and 2.0), Reoccurring Events (e.g. Updates 2.5 and 2.3) and other additions (Daily Quest areas, Character Customization feature, etc.). Some people consider this pace too slow, others say it is fine (I certainly think it is squarely in line with industry standard).

 

In 2013 two "Digital Expansions" were released, and two more have been announced for 2014 (although I expect the second one will end up being early 2015). The first, Rise of the Hutt Cartel, was a paid expansion ($10 for subscribers when it launched, now free to all subscribers) that raised the level cap and added a new leveling planet as well as new features and a new Operation. The next two, Galactic Starfighter and the upcoming Strongholds, are both free to all players (subscribers get access months before F2P players) and both add brand new game modes/features (the Starfighter PVP game and Player Housing respectively). All we know about the upcoming fourth expansion is that it will be similar in scope to Hutt Cartel.

 

The tradeoff for the two smaller Expansions being free is that they each take up the lion's share of two Updates in the cycle, one for "Early Access" (when subscribers get access to most of the features) and one for the "Official Release" (when F2P get access and the full slate of features is released).

 

Strongholds was originally supposed to have its "Early Access" release in the upcoming Update 2.8 (now being released a week from today), but was pushed back to Update 2.9 to add in more features. This, plus a decision to put another feature from the same Update on hold (a new GSF ship), has left Update 2.8 very light on content, with only a Nightmare Mode for an existing Operation and a new Event scheduled.

 

Because last October's Update 2.4 also included two full Operations in the same Update, it also appears it will be a full year between the release of brand new Operations (since none have been announced for the August Update).

 

While the game's overall history of Updates has been strong (as long as one understands that not every aspect of the game will get new content in each Update), we are in something of a lull for the summer, particularly for fans of Operations who don't do Nightmare Modes.

tl;dr version: Content Updates on a 9-week cycle, with two Digital Expansions a year, put out a good volume of content overall, but no single aspect gets new content in every Update, and we are looking at a long gap between new Operations. Update 2.8 is pretty light, causing a lull on new content for this summer.

Edited June 3, 2014 by DarthDymond