PLEASE Devs, We need something, dates, estimates, details.

[Ergos]

Disagree. What comes, comes when it comes. For all that knowing BW's plans (and that's all they are, plans) might be interesting, I doubt anyone here needs to know them.

 

It's not like people other than those at BW schedule their activities 3 months in advance based on SWTOR expansion release dates. People need to stop confusing what they want with what they need.

 

And yes, there are good reasons for BW to not reveal some future plans, and good reasons for BW to reveal some others. But they are BW's reasons, and what some players think they "need" to know isn't one of them.

 

 

 

I DISAGREE

 

if they want to keep casual gamers only then go ahead and keep us in the dark.

 

If they want to keep a loyal base of gamers that sticks to the game, then throw them a bone

 

Watching your character ID i can see that you are not one of us that has been here since pre-launch, and we are getting fewer and fewer.

 

I been on so many great guild with great people that are pationate for the game, but when the lack of contens hits i see people loging in less and less and some great guilds disband, its heartbreaking since this game has so much more potential, and should be doing so much better.

 

ps: in case i didnt make myself clear, i agree with OP, disagree with above poster

Edited June 24, 2014 by Ergos

[MisterBlackJack]

Oh, come on! Be serious.

 

I'm not going anywhere, but I'd love to know more about the coming updates. They're at the point that they could give us a few crumbs to nibble on. You know, just as long as people don't try to make a meal out of those crumbs. They should absolutely do something to keep players engaged and excited about the future.

 

See the ootinicast podcast. They dropped some info about player housing guild ships the weekly planet conquest event and episode 7.

 

As for class quest they've pretty much said no to more of that

[BuriDogshin]

Watching your character ID i can see that you are not one of us that has been here since pre-launch, and we are getting fewer and fewer.

Well, by analogy:

Can DisneyWorld's success be measured by how many "pre-launch" visitors (100,000 by the way) are still visiting today? Heck no. DisneyWorld has over 50 million visitors each year, the "pre-launch" visitors hardly matter.

[Disclaimer: I own part of DisneyWorld, a tiny percentage of two buildings there. I also own Disney stock.]

 

People get bored with a game after a while ... but that same game still offers a lot of new content to new players. So, as long as your "us that has been here since pre-launch" is replaced by people like me who only joined a year or so ago, the game will do fine. Commercially, you old-timers may not be considered as important as the new blood, because you, compared to new blood, are either more invested in the game and therefore will never leave anyway, or more likely to get bored/frustrated because you've done it all, twice, and the pace of content releases cannot keep you happy. You as a group are high maintenance -- in contrast, BW can entertain new players with no development costs, because the stories they already created are still fun and new people have not seen them before.

 

And that's why Disney makes a fuss about first-time visitors to DisneyWorld, BTW, to ensure that there is always new blood. Disney does not diss the old timers, but they do not cater especially to them either. BW too might be better off diverting some resources to improving the start-game experience and away from developing more end-game content. You and I might not like that, but we can (and if the game is successful, will) be replaced.

[DomiSotto]

if they want to keep casual gamers only then go ahead and keep us in the dark.

 

If they want to keep a loyal base of gamers that sticks to the game, then throw them a bone

 

Watching your character ID i can see that you are not one of us that has been here since pre-launch, and we are getting fewer and fewer.

 

Is it really necessary to artificially create factions where there should be none? Can't you see everyone as a fellow player, no matter if s/he just stepped on Tython or Korriban five minutes ago, or has a Founder displayed after his or her name? The attrition is a natural process, everyone plays for the reasons of their own. It is just a game, you know. Games come and go. No amount of hype is going to keep someone playing if they are too bored with the core of the game. I have been playing for 5 months, and I am starting to get to the point when I am no longer completely immersed. I am interested in finishing my class stories, maybe doing a little more with male alts, but that's that. Great game, but I also want to play ME eventually.

Edited June 24, 2014 by DomiSotto

[BuriDogshin]

Is it really necessary to artificially create factions where there should be none?

Don't worry about, I am proud to be a relatively new (a little over a year now) SWTOR player.

We are the future of the game.

Edited June 24, 2014 by BuriDogshin

[Ruskaeth]

Only steady stream of PvE, PvP and GsF content alongside with events makes the CM worthwhile, for an example. The success of an MMO can measure by how much it attracts new players and at the same time, how well the game manages to hold on to existing player base. I don't even want to start with PvP and recently, my personal experience has been the waning of PvE concentrated players. Raiding teams left and right are wiped from existence on the Red Eclipse. Many have said that they are going to unbsub because of the uncertainty. Giving information would stop half of them from leaving and drive the other half away more certainly (if the interval of operation release is like what it seems to be).

[Malinok]

No amount of hype is going to keep someone playing if they are too bored with the core of the game

 

heartily disagree

 

Let’s say for example sake I’m a bored unmotivated Mule.....let's say I really like carrots, and someone dangles a carrot in front of me, just out of my reach. My eyes open a little wider, my blood starts pumping, my mouth waters, chances are Ill be inclined to move forward and chase that carrot for a bit, because I really want that damn carrot, and I’m looking forward to getting it, no matter how close/far it seems.

 

Now the other scenario, I’m still bored, I’m still lacking motivation, but no carrot, no nothing, just empty fields.

 

So instead I sit still occasionally chewing on the grass in front of me, but probably just lay down and do nothing.

 

The Third Scenario is someone dangles a basket of flowers in front of me, touting how fragrant they are, , exclaiming how pretty and colorful they are....yet they don’t realize, I don’t give a poop about flowers, they don’t interest me, and are mostly for show, and although they are fun to look at, they serve no purpose, and don’t have any substance. I certainly don’t want to eat them.

 

For the Thinking Impaired

 

The Carrot is Detail on Future Operations, and Flowers are SWTOR Barbie play house, aka Strongholds

 

 

Edited June 24, 2014 by Malinok

[Ottoattack]

- When can we expect an expansion: New Planet(s)(and I dont mean like CZ-198 Daily Area), New Operation(s) (we are working on 8 months since release of DF/DP and not even a hint at when a new end game operation will be released, end games subbers are dropping like, well dropping like uninterested players on shadowlands, multiple end game guilds have outright dissolved or quit over last 6 months.

 

- Can we ever expect an extension to individual class or player story

- When will we get a new playable race

 

As neat as I think it will be, I could care less about Flagships and Stronholds as I dont see how thats going to occupy my time for more than a week. or two of decorating and "ooo thats new"

 

Im in the search for other games to occupy my time and finding less and less motiviation to log into swtor outside of my 2 operation nights..and even that is becoming harder and harder.

 

Motivation me devs, customer retention, do eeeeeeeet

 

The reason is BW does not tell you their plans is people unsub until major content. So in theory, not sharing plans keep people sub. I do not think this is correct, but devs think otherwise.

 

Also, TBH, unless version 3 has new either ACs or specs, I do not see people returning to the game, and majority of players/potential players do not care much about housing/guild ships. I am planning to go to F2P and stay their unless there are new ACs, spec and/or individual class stories. Of course these are the most resource intensive, but they are also what gets old subs and new subs on board. Even 2 new planets, 1-2 new WZs/FPs and/or Ops not gonna cut it, and you aint even gonna see half of that in 2.9 and 3.

 

My expectation for 2.9 and 3 is 2 planets, 1 WZ, 2 FPs with recycling older ones as HM and 1 ops. As someone who has been playing the game for almost 2 years and have 55 of every AC, this could barely keep my interest for 2 month. So my plan is F2P till 3.0, sub at 3.0 for a month or two (depending on quality and quantity of the content), then back to F2P. New ACs and/or specs will keep me around for at least a year.

[TUXs]

Just because you say this doesn't make it so.

 

I enjoy playing with my friends. Many of my friends have left the game. If I knew that something exciting was coming, I might have a chance of talking them into coming back (which I've actually done at least once before, twice in the case of a couple of them.)

 

Right now....I've got nothing to show them, really. And if you think that not having my friends around doesn't affect my current enjoyment of the game...

 

Absolutely it does. Very nicely worded.

 

Why? Whenever they give dates, the community just gets mad if they can't meet it.

 

Whenever an estimate is given, the community gets mad that it's too late or too early. "They're just sitting on their as*es, wasting our time!" or "It won't be complete!"

 

Whenever details are given, there is so much hype and so much hate that it's pointless.

 

This is 100% false. History has proven this stupid assumption wrong. This is a VERY VERY understanding community that will defend these developers. To declare otherwise is purely dramatization and a lie.

[tanerb]

We are the future of the game.

 

No, you are just another random sub

[crubel]

No, you are just another random sub

 

At some point, nearly all players leave. You need new ones to replace the old ones that leave, and ideally you bring in more new people than the old leaving. In that aspect, new players are the future, and the more the better for the health of the game. A random sub is the simply the present, and nothing tells us if a random sub today is still a random sub tomorrow because they could leave by just spending a couple minutes to unsub.

[Malinok]

At some point, nearly all players leave. You need new ones to replace the old ones that leave, and ideally you bring in more new people than the old leaving. In that aspect, new players are the future, and the more the better for the health of the game. A random sub is the simply the present, and nothing tells us if a random sub today is still a random sub tomorrow because they could leave by just spending a couple minutes to unsub.

 

 

This

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexlawrence/2012/11/01/five-customer-retention-tips-for-entrepreneurs/

[crubel]

This

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexlawrence/2012/11/01/five-customer-retention-tips-for-entrepreneurs/

 

I don't disagree with that at all, it is incredibly important. In business you need to do two things. Retain existing customers, and get new ones. Let's say you only have 100 customers, but you want 5000? Having the best retention plan but no plan to get new ones won't get you far. You have to do both, although some companies can get lucky if they have incredible marketing and can afford to not retain some customers because the rate of bringing new ones in greater than the rate at which lose, but I guess you can attribute that to a retention plan working.

 

Regardless, retention alone won't get Swtor where other players want it to be. If you are on a low pop server and they have the best retention plan, that won't help you much unless you server transfer. They need more new players.

[Malinok]

well, I would argue they are losing players faster than they are gaining, and if you dont have an existing veteran player base, you end up with what you have now, a catastophy of idiocy, and lack off play skill in PVP and PVE, as well as a very bleak and dwindling rate of PVP Que pops and pug progression ops.

[Preminous]

I think the reason we aren't getting any details is because Strongholds is still on the horizon. They haven't released that yet. They want us all to not just gloss over Strongholds and be focused on the other expansion. Frankly, I've seen a lot of people look at Strongholds and glaze over it. There's the potential for the guild flagships to be interesting, but playing the Sims in a galaxy far, far away doesn't have a lot of people jumping up and down.

 

In fact, the thing I'm most looking forward to in Strongholds is the legacy vault for all of my crafters.

Edited June 25, 2014 by Preminous

[Kantaso]

So you want dates, how about Febtember the 32th.

[CommanderKeeva]

In my opinion it's too early to ask anything about 3.0, when we know so little about Galactic Strongholds and patch 2.9. I mean, sure, we know that we'll get houses and rooms on at least 4 planets and we'll be able to obtain decorations from various sources, but this is pretty much self-explanatory. Some information regarding the expansion has trickled in here from various sources like reddit and cantina tours but still, there's a ton of unanswered questions regarding EVERYTHING from guild capital ships to world conquest events to expanded Legacy options for GSH.

 

It's launching less than two months and there's so much we don't know about it. Why do they have to be so secretive about giving out information? If they're ready to reveal details, they shouldn't just tease with scraps and tidbits in cantina events, hoping that community podcasts and users like Dulfy will eventually be able to piece the crumbs together into something comprehensible.

 

They should just make a yellow post on the General Forums and let us all know. Or at least tell us when it's going to the PTS.

Edited June 25, 2014 by CommanderKeeva

[CommanderKeeva]

Also, please forgive me, I don't really want to play devil's advocate here, but it might have been a mistake releasing Dread Fortress and Dread Palace at the same time, at least from a PR perspective. Don't get me wrong, it was wonderful to suddenly have 10 new bosses to kill but if it came at the cost of not having another operation for an entire year, it might have been better to release Palace roughly 6 months after Fortress.

 

When you think about previous operations:

 

- Explosive Conflict (1.2; March 2012) -> Terror From Beyond (1.4; September 2012): 4 bosses for 6 months

- Terror From Beyond (1.4; September 2012) -> Scum and Villainy (2.0; April 2013): 5 bosses for 7 months

- Scum and Villainy (2.0; April 2013) -> Dread Fortress & Palace (2.4; October 2013): 7 bosses for 6 months

- Dread Fortress & Palace (2.4; October 2013) -> 3.0 Operation (3.0; ~Q4 2014): 10 bosses for 12+ months

 

Forgive me if the dates are off, that was just off the top of my head, but Bioware used to release less Ops contents at comperatively shorter intervals (6-7 months) to keep things relatively fresh. Now we got content worth of two operations but it came at the price of having nothing new for possibly more than an entire year. I think releasing Dread Fortress in October 2013 and Dread Palace sometime around now would have resulted in a better player retention rate.

 

My point is, when you don't have a lot of things to give, you should give what you have in small increments. Then it would make what little you do have seem to last longer.

Edited June 25, 2014 by CommanderKeeva

[NobleSpec]

- When can we expect an expansion: New Planet(s)(and I dont mean like CZ-198 Daily Area), New Operation(s) (we are working on 8 months since release of DF/DP and not even a hint at when a new end game operation will be released, end games subbers are dropping like, well dropping like uninterested players on shadowlands, multiple end game guilds have outright dissolved or quit over last 6 months.

 

- Can we ever expect an extension to individual class or player story

- When will we get a new playable race

 

As neat as I think it will be, I could care less about Flagships and Stronholds as I dont see how thats going to occupy my time for more than a week. or two of decorating and "ooo thats new"

 

Im in the search for other games to occupy my time and finding less and less motiviation to log into swtor outside of my 2 operation nights..and even that is becoming harder and harder.

 

Motivation me devs, customer retention, do eeeeeeeet

It has nothing to do with Motivation.

The Devs release new details when they have it, they said they don't want to overhype something and then not being able to follow through with it.

They are excited I'm sure. Eric or Bruce said they will have more details coming soon in the next few weeks, and that was a couple of weeks ago. So be patient, more info is on the way for 2.9.

[Foambreaker]

- When can we expect an expansion: New Planet(s)(and I dont mean like CZ-198 Daily Area), New Operation(s) (we are working on 8 months since release of DF/DP and not even a hint at when a new end game operation will be released, end games subbers are dropping like, well dropping like uninterested players on shadowlands, multiple end game guilds have outright dissolved or quit over last 6 months.

 

- Can we ever expect an extension to individual class or player story

- When will we get a new playable race

 

As neat as I think it will be, I could care less about Flagships and Stronholds as I dont see how thats going to occupy my time for more than a week. or two of decorating and "ooo thats new"

 

Im in the search for other games to occupy my time and finding less and less motiviation to log into swtor outside of my 2 operation nights..and even that is becoming harder and harder.

 

Motivation me devs, customer retention, do eeeeeeeet

 

No, it is over, they are going to milk the cow for all it is worth and close the doors.

 

All but 2 servers have population issues that are bad enough to cause transfers, which means those servers are dying, we have seen this before. The populations are now lower that when F2P came out, which was supposed to save the game.

 

I like this game, it is the only one I am playing atm, but I can see the writing on the wall.

[JasonThDi]

Well, the Devs are hard at work on content and other stuff, so maybe they will provide estimates on their free time.

 

<a href="http://www.enjin.com/" alt="swtor guild hosting"><img src="http://sigs.enjin.com/sig-swtor/c5e85df45735fda6.png"></a>

 

http://www.swtor.com/r/BydDVX

[TravelersWay]

Disagree. What comes, comes when it comes. For all that knowing BW's plans (and that's all they are, plans) might be interesting, I doubt anyone here needs to know them.

 

It's not like people other than those at BW schedule their activities 3 months in advance based on SWTOR expansion release dates. People need to stop confusing what they want with what they need.

 

And yes, there are good reasons for BW to not reveal some future plans, and good reasons for BW to reveal some others. But they are BW's reasons, and what some players think they "need" to know isn't one of them.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. Despite the fact that there has been no new content to speak of since launch, I am still playing and enjoying the game with two subbed accounts.

 

I would much rather the devs keep deving the game instead of wasting time posting stuff on the web or on the forums just to satisfy the ADHD content locusts of the gaming community.

Edited June 25, 2014 by TravelersWay

[aeterno]

This has BWs problem from the get go...

 

They try so hard not to "overhype" they fail to really excite.

 

Someone up the chain was really really scarred by that Mythic WHO over-promising and under-delivering debacle, but this now is arguably just as bad, if not worse.

 

You look at other MMOs and they have 3 course dinner menus laid out while we live hand to mouth and it's getting so foggy we don't even see what's in the spoon till it's about to enter the mouth.

 

hth can there be more info out on wow garrisons when they're slated for december lol and strongholds are like 8 weeks away.

Edited June 25, 2014 by aeterno

[Devrius]

No, it is over, they are going to milk the cow for all it is worth and close the doors.

 

All but 2 servers have population issues that are bad enough to cause transfers, which means those servers are dying, we have seen this before. The populations are now lower that when F2P came out, which was supposed to save the game.

 

I like this game, it is the only one I am playing atm, but I can see the writing on the wall.

 

I don't think things are that bad, but the whole amalgam packs they are releasing every other day and the flash sells and what not do seem to point to "milk it before it goes dry".

 

I think that if the next expansion is not a huge hit I may need to start looking at another game (because populations will take a fatal dive), in which case I understand the silence from the devs.

 

If it a crucial expansion to the game releasing info before there is anything concrete could potentially harm it.

 

 

Then again, as long as this is the only MMO with the name "Star Wars" attached to it there should be a large enough dedicated group of fans to keep it going, even if we go down to like 3 servers...

[Darth_Wicked]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Despite the fact that there has been no new content to speak of since launch, I am still playing and enjoying the game with two subbed accounts.

 

I would much rather the devs keep deving the game instead of wasting time posting stuff on the web or on the forums just to satisfy the ADHD content locusts of the gaming community.

 

We're reaching a point where, by the time Galactic Strongholds "officially" hits, over a full year will have gone by without a significant update, concerning new operations, daily areas or flashpoints outside tactical ones...

 

And you claim that people are locusts for assuming some information is in order?

 

Truly unbelievable the kind of stuff you read in these forums nowadays.

Edited June 25, 2014 by Darth_Wicked