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Give us the data

Kurin

By Kurin
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Kurin

Kurin

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At the Phoenix Cantina event early this year, I asked, "What is the most popular thing that players do in game?" What I expected to hear them say, "questing" or "flashpoints", but the answer I got stunned me:

 

Eric Musco replies, "BioWare cannot disclose any information about metrics."

 

His answer was so abrupt, that I could swear half of the room almost yelled out, "Burn!" I know a few people walked up to me after and said essentially just that.

 

Now, of course, since this happened to me, the memory of it is clear in my mind. Not that I hold a grudge, but I couldn't help remembering (which is why I asked the question) all of the awesome data that was presented by BioWare during the guild summit.

 

Which is why I want to point out this, great question that was posed and answered during the presser last week:

 

Swtorista: Are you aware the most commonly guessed solution is to allow F2P to queue? For everything? Ranked?

 

Dev: We looked at those numbers, and it would be trivial. For example F2P players can do 5 warzones a week – the amount of players hitting that restriction are less than 2%, around 1.4% of players who have that restriction. And that’s from the pool of F2P players that play warzones at all. It would not even make a difference. We have better solutions – we’re working on it.

 

Here, data is used, which BioWare has tons of, to explain why the community's perception of a fix, sadly wouldn't be very effective. It's an EXCELLENT answer. I honestly expect that BioWare has many, many answers of this nature that actually describe why they make many of the decisions they do. They have the data, and they can use that data to make very informed decisions. All we players can do is speculate, because we don't have the data.

 

So BioWare...please, please, please, consider backing off your "we don't give metrics" stance now and again. I'm not saying you open up a database of every single bit of data you have, but I hope you can see how this particular kind of answer is absolutely amazing.

Edited by Kurin
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EricMusco

EricMusco

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At the Phoenix Cantina event early this year, I asked, "What is the most popular thing that players do in game?" What I expected to hear them say, "questing" or "flashpoints", but the answer I got stunned me:

 

 

 

His answer was so abrupt, that I could swear half of the room almost yelled out, "Burn!" I know a few people walked up to me after and said essentially just that.

 

Now, of course, since this happened to me, the memory of it is clear in my mind. Not that I hold a grudge, but I couldn't help remembering (which is why I asked the question) all of the awesome data that was presented by BioWare during the guild summit.

 

Which is why I want to point out this, great question that was posed and answered during the presser last week:

 

 

 

Here, data is used, which BioWare has tons of, to explain why the community's perception of a fix, sadly wouldn't be very effective. It's an EXCELLENT answer. I honestly expect that BioWare has many, many answers of this nature that actually describe why they make many of the decisions they do. They have the data, and they can use that data to make very informed decisions. All we players can do is speculate, because we don't have the data.

 

So BioWare...please, please, please, consider backing off your "we don't give metrics" stance now and again. I'm not saying you open up a database of every single bit of data you have, but I hope you can see how this particular kind of answer is absolutely amazing.

 

Sorry for the burn Kurin! :mon_trap:

 

To your last question (which I made bold above), I have great news... We are working on publishing some data this week! We are targeting Wednesday, so keep your eyes on the front page of swtor.com.

 

-eric

Edited by TaitWatson
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TUXs

TUXs

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Sorry for the burn Kurin! :mon_trap:

 

To your last question (which I made bold above), I have great news... We are working publishing some data this week! We are targeting Wednesday, so keep your eyes on the front page of swtor.com.

 

-eric

Awesome news!!! I always enjoy seeing the numbers you guys have.

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Wefi

Wefi

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Sorry for the burn Kurin! :mon_trap:

 

To your last question (which I made bold above), I have great news... We are working on publishing some data this week! We are targeting Wednesday, so keep your eyes on the front page of swtor.com.

 

-eric

 

Cant wait.

 

also..

Must resist making SOON and timeframe joke.

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Arkerus

Arkerus

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I think this will be really interesting. I am looking forward to it. That said...

 

I am bracing myself for the ^&%#storm of armchair business analysts who won't add anything of value to the conversation but will be convinced:

 

1. Bioware is lying

2. They know what it should look like/remove all resources from XYZ and re-write the engine

3. Their pet project needs to be done now to save the game

Edited by Arkerus
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Kurin

Kurin

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Sorry for the burn Kurin! :mon_trap:

 

To your last question (which I made bold above), I have great news... We are working on publishing some data this week! We are targeting Wednesday, so keep your eyes on the front page of swtor.com.

 

-eric

 

Thanks Eric. Looking forward to it.

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Apophis_

Apophis_

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Sorry for the burn Kurin! :mon_trap:

 

To your last question (which I made bold above), I have great news... We are working on publishing some data this week! We are targeting Wednesday, so keep your eyes on the front page of swtor.com.

 

-eric

 

I love all kinds of data, and seeing something official about SWTOR would be really nice! Thanks!

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Telanis

Telanis

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It's an EXCELLENT answer.

 

It's a terrible answer. They completely ignore the possibility that the reason players might not queue is because they'll be locked out quickly and it's thus pointless. The weekly takes them 3 weeks (2 if they win at least 5 matches). They also don't seem to realize that if no one hits the restriction, then the restriction is also pointless and they might as well not have it.

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Heezdedjim

Heezdedjim

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Please include one of those trendy infographics on total characters that reached 55 during the 12x period and other fun stuff; how many created, hours played in class missions, etc. If your numbers will show a big win for the game in recent history in any area, then I'm sure 12x will show it more than any.
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Orizuru

Orizuru

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I imagine that they are very careful about what data ends up being available.

 

We've all seen the preposterous things armchair developers have suggested. The things armchair analysts might take away from any metrics that are made available could be very harmful to the game if they are presented inaccurately.

 

The thread on SWTOR 2 and how quickly that idea went viral should help anyone understand if they aren't following me completely.

 

I can't wait to see what they give us though!

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Oyranos

Oyranos

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Everybody wants for swtor a better or improved engine... that is why all wishlists, swtor 2 topics, getting viral.

 

Nobody wants a swtor 2 but answers like

 

Heather: Any plans on updating the engine?

 

Dev: [resounding No] It’s what we got.

 

Makes you wonder.. They could say : we continuously improving the engine... but instead...

Edited by Oyranos
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TUXs

TUXs

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Everybody wants for swtor a better or improved engine... that is why all wishlists, swtor 2 topics, getting viral.

 

Nobody wants a swtor 2 but answers like

 

Makes you wonder.. They could say : we continuously improving the engine... but instead...

Yeah, they could have softened that delivery a bit more...but anyone who honestly thought an engine change was a feasible idea was deluding themselves. I give them credit for honesty...not delivery :)

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Foambreaker

Foambreaker

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Sorry for the burn Kurin! :mon_trap:

 

To your last question (which I made bold above), I have great news... We are working on publishing some data this week! We are targeting Wednesday, so keep your eyes on the front page of swtor.com.

 

-eric

 

lol, from one developer to another, your forum mods will regret this :D

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jorill

jorill

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Yeah, they could have softened that delivery a bit more...but anyone who honestly thought an engine change was a feasible idea was deluding themselves. I give them credit for honesty...not delivery :)

 

They probably could of used some tact as you say there but its good a developer actually said it. Developers only do something that drastic if they have no choice.

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Deewe

Deewe

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Yeah, they could have softened that delivery a bit more...but anyone who honestly thought an engine change was a feasible idea was deluding themselves. I give them credit for honesty...not delivery :)

Technically it's doable.

 

Now would I be the producer of this game I'd do this along a SWTOR relaunch only.

 

Ie taking all assets and moving to a brand new game with some heavy changes on some core design features.

This way it would benefits all the advertisement new MMO have.

Edited by Deewe
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ScarlettDiablo

ScarlettDiablo

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It's a terrible answer. They completely ignore the possibility that the reason players might not queue is because they'll be locked out quickly and it's thus pointless. The weekly takes them 3 weeks (2 if they win at least 5 matches). They also don't seem to realize that if no one hits the restriction, then the restriction is also pointless and they might as well not have it.

 

Excellent point!

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Rankyn

Rankyn

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It's a terrible answer. They completely ignore the possibility that the reason players might not queue is because they'll be locked out quickly and it's thus pointless. The weekly takes them 3 weeks (2 if they win at least 5 matches). They also don't seem to realize that if no one hits the restriction, then the restriction is also pointless and they might as well not have it.
Seems to me that if anyone was serious enough about the game to care whether or not they got the weekly done, they'd pony up money to overcome the restriction.
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Arkerus

Arkerus

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Technically it's doable.

 

Now would I be the producer of this game I'd do this along a SWTOR relaunch only.

 

Ie taking all assets and moving to a brand new game with some heavy changes on some core design features.

This way it would benefits all the advertisement new MMO have.

 

*lol*

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TravelersWay

TravelersWay

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Technically it's doable.

 

Now would I be the producer of this game I'd do this along a SWTOR relaunch only.

 

Ie taking all assets and moving to a brand new game with some heavy changes on some core design features.

This way it would benefits all the advertisement new MMO have.

 

So you've done this with other MMOs, have you?

 

Technically it is not doable without starting from scratch. You cannot take assets from one engine and easily and conveniently move them to another. That's just not how MMO coding works.

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Rithoma

Rithoma

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It's a terrible answer. They completely ignore the possibility that the reason players might not queue is because they'll be locked out quickly and it's thus pointless. The weekly takes them 3 weeks (2 if they win at least 5 matches). They also don't seem to realize that if no one hits the restriction, then the restriction is also pointless and they might as well not have it.

 

You have a good point. The plain number of 1.4% doesn't really say anything since we don't know what it is based. That means we don't know what "kind" of F2Pers were taken into considertion. Active and inactive accounts? If only active, how long back did they set the date when an account counts as inactive? Did they check all toons or does it already count if a F2Per reaches the cap on only one toon? How many toons are F2Pers allowed to have again? 4? So, maybe somebody uses only 1 toon to do PvP while he uses his other 3 toons for PvE only. That breaks it down to 25% already. So, the number without any background information on which factors were chosen to get that number, is not really a clear answer.

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Heezdedjim

Heezdedjim

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It's a terrible answer. They completely ignore the possibility that the reason players might not queue is because they'll be locked out quickly and it's thus pointless. The weekly takes them 3 weeks (2 if they win at least 5 matches). They also don't seem to realize that if no one hits the restriction, then the restriction is also pointless and they might as well not have it.

It's a poor answer also because it's a lie. The reason they won't remove the limit has nothing to do with the people who are subject to the limit and are not hitting it. It has everything to do with the people who have no limit to hit, because they're paying a sub. For those who actually do PvP all the time there is very little incentive for them to sub other than removing the 5 warzones a week cap. Remove that "incentive" and most or all of the most active PvP players would drop their subs.

Edited by Heezdedjim
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