Given Bioware's horrid communication, releases, and overhyping, I wish theyd refocus.

[TUXs]

Actually on the last dev stream they said it would be this week now.

 

Ugh!!! He could have at least updated that HERE...

[Aries_cz]

Ugh!!! He could have at least updated that HERE...

 

Agreed. While I try to watch the streams, some sort of "what was talked about" after each one of them would be cool.

[Taorus]

Its not correct however.

 

Both in the case of GSF and GSH they are hyping and did hype an initial, sub only release, only to continue to hype the preferred release a month later, and finally hype the F2p release a month after that, each time hyping it as new and exciting. It was not only a poor way to release that content, but the constant hype over that period of time wore thin with a lot of people. It's honestly one of the most literal definitions of overhype

 

Sorry Z, I wasn't clear. What I was talking about was:

 

"EA announced a number last year but in this year's 1st quarter call Swtor was not even mentioned and there was no discussion of F2P revenue as well. My guess is, it came down from last year, as is the sub number."

 

I agree with you on the hype.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Taorus

[AlienEyeTX]

Agreed. While I try to watch the streams, some sort of "what was talked about" after each one of them would be cool.

 

Such a simple thing that would do so much good.

[Preston_Violent]

I am glad that I am not the only adult that saw and understood that.

 

But you must have also understood that (apparent) revenue decrease flows straight from the obvious content decrease. And the latter began way, way, way earlier than the former. SWTOR was pretty profitable during its first sub only year and its first f2p year...they chose not to re-invest anything but just to grab all they could. Because all "but it does make money" arguments used to get insta-muted by "it's a failure game" ones. Which is really hypocrite of EA. At any rate, it's "paying off" now and overall is too late for a change.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Preston_Violent

[ghoul_drool]

Ugh!!! He could have at least updated that HERE...

 

Well, this sucks. Because if it's not today, it's certainly not tomorrow. And there was a whisper that 2.9 would be put on the PTS on the 4th. If that's true, that means their 'reveal' will actually only be the 2.9 PTS patch notes and nothing else.

[Fractal_Eye]

Such a simple thing that would do so much good.

 

Yes, it would, especially since they do their streams during (American) daytime, and a lot of people have to work or can't otherwise watch them.

 

 

Seriously, Bioware, you have, what, 4 or 5 Community Team Members now? Surely one of them could come to update info on the forums after the steams, right?

[arunav]

This wasn't a failure of the customer. It was a failure of EA/BW to understand their market. Even now I don't play this game like an MMO, and I like MMOs. I also like story-driven RPGs, which is what this game really is. As you say, most MMO fans do not want a story-driven RPG, especially at the expense of a) game performance (the engine is still awful), b) multiplayer experience, and c) end game content. EA/BW did not understand their market, and they failed to listen to concerns that were brought to their attention by beta testers. This game offers the greatest single player experience of any MMO I have ever played, and I fully expect it to remain a great single player game. It's too bad they didn't make this KOTOR 3 with a multiplayer option. They would have made solid money and could have sold the flashpoints and operations as expansion DLCs. And the game's reputation would be in much better shape because it would not be pretending to be what is not.

 

I disagree with EA/BW not understanding the MMO market - they were simply trying to introduce a different approach into it, with the game heavily weighted toward casual players, many of whom do play on their own most of the time, and an actual story being the principle appeal (I've tried a couple of other MMOs since this one, and the stories are quite frankly awful in comparison).

 

SWTOR still has plenty of group content (just take a look at how many heroics are on each planet in the achievements section, it's up to 18 FPs now I believe, and 7 operations). The game was designed, as you note, to emphasize more of a single-player, story-driven RPG experience than other MMOs.

 

EA/BW made a bet this would appeal to a large population, especially in a Star Wars setting.

 

Unfortunately, the MMO audience either didn't understand it was a different type of game than they are used to playing (which oddly enough it is constantly asking for), or, as I noted earlier, they recognized SWTOR for what it is, and the design simply doesn't meet the standards that folks who play MMOs prefer.

 

Either way, it doesn't matter now. There aren't enough of us who do like what SWTOR is for EA to justify expanding it as we'd prefer.

Edited June 30, 2014 by arunav

[arunav]

The thing of it is, the Cartel Market is making money. But there's been zero evidence of any of the profits being refunneled into the game.

 

The whole thing might just be exactly as it seems - EA is simply milking the property with the intent to just bleed the people dry with the CM until they recoup their 3m investment and then when the sub base dwindles to the point where its more costly to maintain even with the CM, they'll shut it down.

 

That's my fear, and there's been nothing to dissuade me from that. There's going to be a huge red herring from that on the horizon too - the next "makeb sized expansion" will likely have 3 planets, 1 reb, 1 imp, and 1 both. It will likely be touted and taken up by apologists as "See, they made something new!!!"

 

However, the sad reality is those planets in question have been known about for quite a while, since Torhead originally posted that thing we're not supposed to talk about . In fact, Torhead had pretty much called every release we've had this whole time, all the way back in 2012., minus some changes to some of the finer details.

 

It's not 3.0, but what comes after that has me truly curious and concerned. Because 3.0 will mark the very last of what Torhead mentioned. Also, there seems to be very little coming out via people who do the thing we're not supposed to talk about, which some postulated Bioware has gotten better about hiding their tracks in patches, but it could be something else: they simply don't have anything past that point, because 3.0 will be the last of what the old staff had in development and they simply don't have the staff to make anything new of consequence.

 

I'll thoroughly enjoy 3.0, knowing what it is, and also knowing that the writing is potentially on the wall, and that after 3.0, it could make the lack of solid updates we've endured so far look like Hanukah by comparison.

 

I did not realize the likely 3.0 planets were also part of that list from Torhead long ago.

 

If that is the case, I'm also concerned what will happen in 2015. We've already seen a steep drop in new, playable content in 2014 compared to last year.

 

I guess at the end of the day, it's only a game, and I'm sure there will be another Star Wars MMO down the road. I really like the Old Republic/KOTOR era, though, and still hope this game does get more funding at a later date.

 

Not hearing a word from James Ohlen makes me skeptical, though. His last comments were very much what they should have done differently before launching the game, and they were a long time ago. This is very much his game, and if Mr. Ohlen no longer works on it, you are probably right about what's to come after all the pre-launch work is exhausted.

Edited June 30, 2014 by arunav

[ZionHalcyon]

I did not realize the likely 3.0 planets were also part of that list from Torhead long ago.

 

If that is the case, I'm also concerned what will happen in 2015. We've already seen a steep drop in new, playable content in 2014 compared to last year.

 

I guess at the end of the day, it's only a game, and I'm sure there will be another Star Wars MMO down the road. I really like the Old Republic/KOTOR era, though, and still hope this game does get more funding at a later date.

 

Not hearing a word from James Ohlen makes me skeptical, though. His last comments were very much what they should have done differently before launching the game, and they were a long time ago. This is very much his game, and if Mr. Ohlen no longer works on it, you are probably right about what's to come after all the pre-launch work is exhausted.

 

He was one of the ones let go, and had some choice words about what happened.

[arunav]

He was one of the ones let go, and had some choice words about what happened.

 

James Ohlen still works at BW (Austin I believe), and is a Vice President and Creative Director.

 

My impression is he's working on other games now. We should have heard at least something from him since that presentation was made ages ago to a developers' conference about SWTOR.

Edited July 1, 2014 by arunav

[Toweleeeie]

Bioware advertised the game as a MMO and even one step further said " we would be stupid not to copy some features from the most successful MMO". So MMO players bought the game with those expectation. I'm willing to bet they never played KoToR or it's sequel.

The MMO players buy the game and space bar through the games greatest strength. Then quit after a month and tell all their friends it sucks.

I'd be willing to bet that 99% of the player base that has subbed since launch have played KoToR. I would also bet that this game is the first MMO a good 30% of the current population has ever played. I hear it all the time running Ops and FPs.

 

So Bioware targeted the wrong audience with what they were putting out because they wanted that Blizzard money and were fired for it. This new team is trying to "fix" the game to appeal to the MMO audience that has already moved on long ago. They are now finding out that with the reduced team there is no way to keep up with demand anyway. So nobody is happy.

The CM is irrelevant.

 

Tldr: game was sold to wrong audience and they left. Now all that's left is the right (story lovers) audience and they are now targeting the wrong (MMO)audience... Again

 

I like both game types and love Star Wars, that's why I'm still here.

Edited July 1, 2014 by Toweleeeie

[LordArtemis]

A very good wrap up, still I'd higlight some entries:

 

Does not PVP

They would if there was open world PvP and by open world I'm not speaking about ganking randonly lowbies but defending their areas.

 

Open world PVP would likely make PVP more appealing to casual players, though I would say that is my personal view....I have not seen any information on this particular point.

 

Is not driven by reward based play

Although they all like upgrading their character but it's not in an epeen way not being the %1 player totally maxed out.

 

Sure, and I would add that that upgrading generally seems to be to make game content easier to engage in....as you indicated, certainly not BIS.

 

Enjoys the CM

As long as it does not kill in game progression and is mostly based on cosmetic or convenience features.

 

I might argue that most casuals do not seem to care much about CM impact and "pay to win", but my point is just based on casual observation of this game and the market, hardly conclusive. I leave this to opinion.