For those who criticize Bioware for focusing on story/solo play......

[TUXs]

This is the smartest thing they've done since release. Its no secret that the majority of players prefer the story driven, play anytime you like, solo content. I like everything, but its a really smart move.

 

And FYI, subs are increasing.

A great example of metrics being misread...subs are increasing because of bonus rewards and a pending expansion...not because of the specifics of the expansion, because we have none.

[Ghisallo]

This is the smartest thing they've done since release. Its no secret that the majority of players prefer the story driven, play anytime you like, solo content. I like everything, but its a really smart move.

 

And FYI, subs are increasing.

 

Its no secret.... hmmmm....

 

(from Brian Ohlen)

 

There was a tone of regret in his voice as Ohlen continued his recounting of the month after launch: "We had people going through the game so fast that within one month, four to five weeks, we suddenly had close to half a million people at the endgame. It was something we didn't expect at all. We had all those people at the endgame and suddenly certain things like having only one Operation, and having no group finder [tool] become much bigger challenges than what we thought they were going to be."

 

"[Voice acting] was a known entity, and cost was quite low in comparison to the cost of the rest of the project." In other words, BioWare had been there and done that with voice acting already in its other games and budgeted accordingly. However, BioWare did not have a tested platform to build an MMO. Much of the cost was funneled toward creating an engine that supported a team of over 300 people working on it at the same time and adding choice and consequence to the MMO story. "Don't be scared about adding voice over and cool cinematic content," he advised his audience, "but do be careful about adding lots of choice with consequence because that adds to QA cost and development cost and makes it hard to design everything."

 

"One of our concerns was about the elder game," he conceded. "It wasn't developed as much as we would have liked. It didn't have as many operations -- our versions of raids -- as we'd have liked. We didn't have some important social features such as a group finder to make finding groups at the elder game easier. We were also notably lacking on some guild features."

 

I could go on. Quoting how they said ADDING that elder game and community features is what stopped the subscription hemorage. You are making an assumption based on confirmation bias... that is what YOU like and thus it must be the majority. It isn't. Those who ONLY focus on elder game are also in the minority. Those on PvP also the minority. The largest minority in an MMO like SWTOR are those who enjoy a bit of everything. Ignore all but the story for 2 long and you know what you get... more than one pissed off minority. When you piss of multiple minorities they usually total up to a majority.

 

You also make the classic blunder in thinking that raw player numbers matter. In a game like WoW where the majority of cash comes only from subs you are correct. In a Game like SWTOR the minority of players fuel the game's revenue and they are what is important.... NOT player ####s but $$$$$$$.

 

So seeing that $$$$ is all important, AND the fact that the Financial model is HEAVILY tilted to making money off of people who want elder game (passes, exp gain, gear equip bypass etc), where do you think most of the money comes from? What impact, without a change in the financial model, do you think your theory would have if put into practice.

 

I get it. Some of us MUST that we are some special little snowflake and some of us HAVE to feel that some stranger half a continent away really gets us and wants to make us happy. Do they? With one intent... making us happy makes them money. This change has NOTHING to do with the story and making the current story players happy. It has EVERYTHING to do with attracting new players who will say "hey I can get a free level 60, do a fun story to get my companions and DAMN look at all those elder game scaled OPs and FPS."

 

This expac is NOT about you and it is not about me. It's a gamble that they can keep you and me while attracting and maintaining new and, long ago left, returning players who come here because of the hype for Force Awakens. The CFO has called them out and said "you better grow more than you did with SoR with the new movie coming out." THAT IS IT. We are simply along for the ride as EA tries to make bank in the Financial Quarter the movie launches in.

 

If you look at how the game did indeed grow with SoR, did it just have story? Nope. It added two new OPS and how many new FPS? Again confirmation bias on your part, you like story and ignore the complete context. The story did help yes, but the story alone would not have been enough. You need both for a game with a financial model like this. If they could survive as a b2p game and a fluff cash shop you might be right. They can't though, not with the $$$$ that EA expects. EA is on the record as saying the game would not be seen as a success unless it made 90 million a year. They are only making that money with their current model and that is heavily tilted towards players who do elder game.

 

(Post launch, BBC interview...CEO states the game would only be a success with 500,000+ subscribers... that equals 89 million and change).

Edited August 17, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Joesixxpack]

A wild voice of reason appears!

 

The absolutist and insular, factional ******** people post in these threads is mind boggling. Glad to see more rational posts going up.

[Ghisallo]

A great example of metrics being misread...subs are increasing because of bonus rewards and a pending expansion...not because of the specifics of the expansion, because we have none.

 

Pretty much. I like how people are missing how they are HEAVILY incentivizing subscriptions. You only do this when you fear you are going to lose them. Also look at how they are releasing the last chapters of the story in installments. This is what BW is rolling the dice on, if you bother to read everything they put out and use a litle critical thinking.

 

okay players not happy may leave, lets try to hook them with free crap to stay subbed up. Hopefully after the first chapters of the story drop that gets them hooked on the story and they wait for the monthly installments, and the rescaled old stuff hopefully keeps their interest. Then we have to pray by the end of that story we have new elder game ready to drop otherwise we will have a repeat of launch and we will lose A LOT of players and only keep the diehard story players. We want the diehard story players too, all of our players are important because all players are potential $$$, BUT alone they can't keep our lights on and servers running.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Xaehl]

Its no secret.... hmmmm....

 

This expac is NOT about you and it is not about me. It's a gamble that they can keep you and me while attracting and maintaining new and, long ago left, returning players who come here because of the hype for Force Awakens. The CFO has called them out and said "you better grow more than you did with SoR with the new movie coming out." THAT IS IT. We are simply along for the ride as EA tries to make bank in the Financial Quarter the movie launches in.

 

(Post launch, BBC interview...CEO states the game would only be a success with 500,000+ subscribers... that equals 89 million and change).

 

Actually it is about me.

[Leklor]

I took some time to think about the whole thing, and I think, as a mostly story player, that the situation is imperfect but it might also be necessary.

If BW is to be believed, there is a lot of work redoing the itemization and upscaling the group content. And it's needed. I mean, the reason I don't do flashpoints right now is because I now them by heart. They are part of the leveling and are mandatory. By adding litteraly more than 20 FPs as a new permanent rotation, I might finally get around to actually play FPs (Not Ops though, it's out of the question, not my kind of thing.).

However, the absence of new group content IS a flaw at release. Not a deadly one, to me, but a flaw.

What will really suck is if they don't add a single FP or Op in the coming chapters of KOTFE.

They need to have at least a flashpoint or two ready for the first "monthly" chapter, maybe as side stories or something. But they need some.

If they wait until chapter 16 releases, I agree with the group players that the game will suffer. Both because there will be a loud minority who will feel scorned and because then even the new players will eventually get through with the upscaled content.

[Rizartha]

You will be surprised how accurate metric information can be, when using it was first starting out Target received a lot of heat because they were looking at individual consumers purchasing habits and additional data and then using it to design ads tailored to those individual people. A LOT of people freaked out when Target started sending them ads on baby supplies THEN finding out that they were actually pregnant.

[Shwarzchild]

Ghisallo....

 

Phenomenal post. Just phenomenal. Talk about hitting the nail on the head.

[FerkWork]

Its no secret.... hmmmm....

 

(from Brian Ohlen)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could go on. Quoting how they said ADDING that elder game and community features is what stopped the subscription hemorage. You are making an assumption based on confirmation bias... that is what YOU like and thus it must be the majority. It isn't. Those who ONLY focus on elder game are also in the minority. Those on PvP also the minority. The largest minority in an MMO like SWTOR are those who enjoy a bit of everything. Ignore all but the story for 2 long and you know what you get... more than one pissed off minority. When you piss of multiple minorities they usually total up to a majority.

 

You also make the classic blunder in thinking that raw player numbers matter. In a game like WoW where the majority of cash comes only from subs you are correct. In a Game like SWTOR the minority of players fuel the game's revenue and they are what is important.... NOT player ####s but $$$$$$$.

 

So seeing that $$$$ is all important, AND the fact that the Financial model is HEAVILY tilted to making money off of people who want elder game (passes, exp gain, gear equip bypass etc), where do you think most of the money comes from? What impact, without a change in the financial model, do you think your theory would have if put into practice.

 

I get it. Some of us MUST that we are some special little snowflake and some of us HAVE to feel that some stranger half a continent away really gets us and wants to make us happy. Do they? With one intent... making us happy makes them money. This change has NOTHING to do with the story and making the current story players happy. It has EVERYTHING to do with attracting new players who will say "hey I can get a free level 60, do a fun story to get my companions and DAMN look at all those elder game scaled OPs and FPS."

 

This expac is NOT about you and it is not about me. It's a gamble that they can keep you and me while attracting and maintaining new and, long ago left, returning players who come here because of the hype for Force Awakens. The CFO has called them out and said "you better grow more than you did with SoR with the new movie coming out." THAT IS IT. We are simply along for the ride as EA tries to make bank in the Financial Quarter the movie launches in.

 

If you look at how the game did indeed grow with SoR, did it just have story? Nope. It added two new OPS and how many new FPS? Again confirmation bias on your part, you like story and ignore the complete context. The story did help yes, but the story alone would not have been enough. You need both for a game with a financial model like this. If they could survive as a b2p game and a fluff cash shop you might be right. They can't though, not with the $$$$ that EA expects. EA is on the record as saying the game would not be seen as a success unless it made 90 million a year. They are only making that money with their current model and that is heavily tilted towards players who do elder game.

 

(Post launch, BBC interview...CEO states the game would only be a success with 500,000+ subscribers... that equals 89 million and change).

 

/thread

[Karasuman]

I've been playing MMO's for a long time, and the common thread between every single one of them is that, according to the forums, whenever an xpac is coming out soon, there are *always* going to be huge problems with everything and <insert game name here> is going to die a horrible death when the expansion hits. It's like Groundhog Day: MMO Edition.

 

Truth is, this focus on story *will* draw a lot of people to the game who were not playing previously. Now, whether the expansion will have enough to keep them subbed, that remains to be seen.

[Ghisallo]

You will be surprised how accurate metric information can be, when using it was first starting out Target received a lot of heat because they were looking at individual consumers purchasing habits and additional data and then using it to design ads tailored to those individual people. A LOT of people freaked out when Target started sending them ads on baby supplies THEN finding out that they were actually pregnant.

 

You would be right IF the bulk of evidence did not show that the line about metrics is largely PR spin. If it wasn't and the elder game crowd was not very important to this game the financial model would be changing, they would not...

 

currently be scaling up all the prior elder game instanced content AND promising to start coding new elder game as soon as KotFE dropped. They would not be HEAVILY incentivizing maintaining a subscription. In the same announcement the MMO fans would not have been mentioned and he would not have said "for now" in regards to the story.

 

In the recent past they would not have said that adding the elder game, and community features, they lacked at launch stopped the subscription hemorrhage. With this launch lesson in mind they would not be releasing the new story in installments.

 

Yes they can say "more time is spent doing the solo story/daily/weekly stuff" and this is likely true, in part because of the group finder incentives, currency limits and lock out dynamics, you can only do so much before you are basically forced to solo by the game. They even want to leave it at that simple metric statement because, if they don't, then they have to come out and say this is not about any current player. How do you think that would play?

 

okay guys, this isn't about any of you, is about adding new players. EA wants us to make a lot of money off of the new movies and that means adding A LOT more players. We hope you have the patience to stick with us even though we do seem to be neglecting a great many of you. We only have so much of a budget and there is A LOT of work needed to not so much attract but maintain as many of these new players as possible.

 

It would go over like a fart in church. Almost everyone would say, regardless of play style

 

WHAT?!?!?!?! you care more about making money for 1 quarter and pray we stick around, rather than support those of us who have been here through all the ups and downs?!? FFFFF You /cancelsub."

 

So we get two faced spin... "we are focusing on the story for now, that's what our metrics say, but even though our metrics say that it is only for now and we are spending a lot of resources on rescaling elder game now and will start new elder game design as soon as the new story starts."

 

I am actually shocked at any who do not see the inherent contradiction in the above distillation of their multiple announcements regarding KotFE, and thus the obvious marketing BS being thrown at us just justify the nature of KotFE and avoid the truth, we are not the focus of the expac, it is players that may, or may not, come join us in the fall.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Shirx]

Regardless of the metrics.... I think the constant whining about what the expansion holds is ridiculous. if you like what's in store -- stay , if you don't ....just maybe stop playing? I've seen this same type of thing in many other games too -- easiest example for me is WoW....this stuff happens around every expansion. I'll never get the logic why people feel they must stay and play content they don't like.....that's beyond moronic.

 

If you hate what the game has in store, you know well in advance what the intention / theme is of an upcoming expansion -- just leave. The game has a free mode, its not like you have to spend money to monitor the game as the months ticket by (not to mention I'm pretty sure as features come about and they FINALLY introduce new Ops / FPs it will make news on the various gaming websites) .

 

All you guys write like you take it so personal, like it causes so much angst in your lives? ITS A DAMN GAME PEOPLE! Where they hell are your priorities.....vote with your money.

 

I love the story stuff, don't much care about Ops (and BTW -- speaking that point if the person who happened to write in his early posts that the people that don't care about Ops are really the people that can't handle them nonsense --- you are a joke. That's ridiculous.....so now unless someone ENJOYS the same content as YOU they aren't a real player or something? Some people legit just don't enjoy the raid setting.....I've raided plenty over the years in many games...don't feel like it anymore...so stop your epeen stroking "oh mighty raider!" and come back back to earth....its a GAME..)....I'll stay as long I derive entertainment value from the story content. Guess what I'll do when it bores me............I'll stop playing.

 

About the metrics thing, I was shaking my head to many of the ignorant comments in this thread..... "Wow how many of these people are in business or ever been part of real decision making at work"....I wonder....

 

Many of you basically said "it depends how you interpret the metrics and they can be interpreted however you want" was the theme I read over and over......LOL...if that's your view....you can apply that logic with ANY set of data on ANY topic ever....What's the point of ever doing data collection and reporting then?

 

One metric that's VERY easy (or should be anyway) for them to report is subscriptions and probably even time played on subscription accounts. If I were BioWare I'd keep watch of those stats closely, that's all you need to know for what the customers want. If the ranters on these forums are right....over the months after the expansion comes out such "metrics" should drop like a stone. Likewise though if the numbers raise or even stay pretty even -- the data (if I'm BioWare) would tell me that forum ranters....are just that largely.....ranters.

[Draqsko]

Well here are some issues.

 

Talking about metrics regarding play style means nothing without the context in which they look at the data.

1. Did they consider the impact that lockouts have or the impact of the weekly/daily Group finder reward system?

2. When you consider those logic dictates that players either finish them and stop playing for the week OR keep playing in non-instanced content. It's little logical things like this that get dismissed.

 

You also have to look at that comment in the face of EVERYTHING else they have said. What else did they say?

1. That they did not have the time to do new instanced content, along with story, because they are redoing how itemization and how instanced content scales etc.

2. They are doing a soft reset of the ENTIRE game by resetting our companions (the only way to effectively do "free level 60 in this game.)

3. They have stated that they will start on new instanced content as soon as KotFE drops.

4. We also have the CFO at the 3rd quarter earnings call basically saying "SWTOR added players with SoR and better knock it out of the park with Episode VII coming out."

5. We also have a financial model that is HEAVILY tilted to either subscribing or buying from the cash shop the tools to get around instance queue and gear equip limits.

 

Again total context... logic. So when we look at EVERYTHING they have said what do we see?

 

1. We have the CFO saying "SoR brought new players you better do BETTER come December 2015" and the EA of the last three years has shown they have NO problem with firing people or canceling entire projects, even long existing ones, if they do not meet expected ROIs.

2. They have limited resources and know that the only way to grow as demanded is to lower the bar to entry, the perennial problem of all MMOs. That is why MMO's give free end game level characters now. The companion system complicates that here in Rift so we have the Companion reset. this REQUIRES story. Forget the metrics, unless they do away with Companions the NEED the story for new/returning players to get that "free" level 60.

3. They KNOW that a SP RPG focused game would not survive for long with their current financial model so they say "we are not forgetting the MMO fans" and that as soon as KotFE drops new instanced content is being made. They are also "wasting" the resources to level up ALL Operations and FPs to try and retain new players with content by having them think "this game is HUGE" and that current players will wait until the spring when new instanced content will likely land.

 

Tl/Dr... when we look at everything in context the talk of metrics is PR spin because they would look like money grubbers if they said

 

"EA has us on notice to make a lot more money because of the movie coming out. This means in the short term resetting the game to attract and hopefully retain new players. We hope you have the patience to stick through this period of transition because, never fear, once through the period of transition you will have new instanced content because we understand that for an MMO to survive with our financial model we need such repeatable content. This is the lesson we learned at launch and we have not forgotten it. If we didn't learn this lesson we would not be spending all the time retuning over 20 different instances to end game and coding new instances when KotFE drops."

 

Is it a gamble they are making? heck yes. If it works it will be great for us all. More players = more money = more content. If it fails though, and all gambles have a chance of failing, you will see layoffs and a period of confusion while they try to figure out what narrower path they will follow as they will have a cut rather than expanded budget. Welcome to the world of game development.

 

I said the same thing on the day they announced no new ops when 4.0 launches, and I was scorned, laughed at and told to leave the game if I didn't like it. But I am not as eloquent as you in backing it up

[Max_Killjoy]

The metrics aren't wrong at all...the interpretation of those metrics is what's flawed.

 

They've flat out made statements in the past about their metrics that were astonishingly wrong. They interpret the data very poorly. The only "stupid" people here, are the ones assuming they're infallible.

 

The modern mythology of numbers. Mistaking raw data for knowledge and interpretation for truth.

 

"But Bioware has Numbers, and Numbers Never Lie!"

[Max_Killjoy]

-About 2 companions (In some case 3) per class are confirmed to have a role in the first 9 chapters and can be recruited again, the other 3 can be retrieved at a terminal after Chapter 9 although they probably won't have returned in the story yet. Even though there is no offical confirmation, every single data obtained by the same way as these were have been true up to now.

 

Well let's hope you're right about that part (emphasis added).

[Draqsko]

The modern mythology of numbers. Mistaking raw data for knowledge and interpretation for truth.

 

"But Bioware has Numbers, and Numbers Never Lie!"

 

Numbers never lie.

 

But sometimes humans can't see the forest from the trees.

[Ghisallo]

Numbers never lie.

 

But sometimes humans can't see the forest from the trees.

 

Or they take whatever interpretation the numbers suits the current marketing goal. In a business this is the usual answer, you don't stay in business long if you miss the forest for any length of time.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Or they take whatever interpretation the numbers suits the current marketing goal. In a business this is the usual answer, you don't stay in business long if you miss the forest for any length of time.

 

Yet here is Bioware Austin ( and SWToR ) years later still turning a profit. Guess they are interpreting their numbers correctly and can see that forest quite clearly.

[Khevar]

Yet here is Bioware Austin ( and SWToR ) years later still turning a profit. Guess they are interpreting their numbers correctly and can see that forest quite clearly.

This is a fair point, actually.

 

Although I wouldn't be surprised if the powerhouse of the Star Wars IP allows a company to make a profit on it despite poor interpretation of numbers.

 

It's not like there's an alternative SW MMO avaiilable ...

[Ghisallo]

Yet here is Bioware Austin ( and SWToR ) years later still turning a profit. Guess they are interpreting their numbers correctly and can see that forest quite clearly.

 

Yes and if you look athow they were turning a profit it was by NOT focusing just on story. Trends like that don't change in 3-6 months.

 

hence why, if you bothered to read what I wrote, why I say this is marketing. They do not want to piss off people by saying they are focusing on new rather than existing players. So they say what thy say.

 

BUT you are the Captain of the "confirmation bias" crowd, so I do not expect reading in context and other such critical thinking skills. If you did you would see that I acknowledge story is important but that when you take ALL of BW Austin's comments together, and don't cherry pick as you ALWAYS do, a very different narrative than the one you so desperately cling to is revealed.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Grayseven]

Regardless of the metrics.... I think the constant whining about what the expansion holds is ridiculous. if you like what's in store -- stay , if you don't ....just maybe stop playing? I've seen this same type of thing in many other games too -- easiest example for me is WoW....this stuff happens around every expansion. I'll never get the logic why people feel they must stay and play content they don't like.....that's beyond moronic.

 

What you call whining others call discussion. Without discussion the powers that be would have no idea of the thoughts of the players. People discuss things like this because they genuinely care for the game they play. I've been here since before launch and have a lot of time invested in this game and a lot of friendships within the game that I'd rather not lose. Therefor, I'll make my views known and discuss the reasons why I feel a certain way about a topic. I also made the mistake of resubbing days before the announcement of the lack of new ops and fps and I sub for 6 months at a wack, so I'm stuck here until January. I can honestly say my time in game is much, much less than it used to be because it currently bores the pants off of me.

 

If you hate what the game has in store, you know well in advance what the intention / theme is of an upcoming expansion -- just leave. The game has a free mode, its not like you have to spend money to monitor the game as the months ticket by (not to mention I'm pretty sure as features come about and they FINALLY introduce new Ops / FPs it will make news on the various gaming websites) .

 

I can guarantee I won't resub come January and won't sub again until there are new ops and fps. The problem is the lack of information on the upcoming expansion...a sure sign in my eyes that things are going to happen that people might not like and they hope to milk subs before that. And by giving rewards for players sub'd by "X" date is a good example of trying to encourage sub numbers. People do strange things for free stuff.

 

All you guys write like you take it so personal, like it causes so much angst in your lives? ITS A DAMN GAME PEOPLE! Where they hell are your priorities.....vote with your money.

 

It's a hobby. It is an investment of time and money. If what others care about bothers YOU so much, why are you on the forums? Where are your priorities?

 

I love the story stuff, don't much care about Ops (and BTW -- speaking that point if the person who happened to write in his early posts that the people that don't care about Ops are really the people that can't handle them nonsense --- you are a joke. That's ridiculous.....so now unless someone ENJOYS the same content as YOU they aren't a real player or something? Some people legit just don't enjoy the raid setting.....I've raided plenty over the years in many games...don't feel like it anymore...so stop your epeen stroking "oh mighty raider!" and come back back to earth....its a GAME..)....I'll stay as long I derive entertainment value from the story content. Guess what I'll do when it bores me............I'll stop playing.

 

I like the story stuff. I like the ops and fp stuff. I like most of the PvP stuff (I hate the endless stuns and poor resolve system). I like the dailies for the most part but I have to be in the mood to grind. I like the time I spend doing things with guildies who I consider friends even if I haven't met the vast majority of them outside of this game. In other words, I like MMO's...not single player RPG's...and find it greatly disturbing that the focus is on the single player aspects of this game.

 

Of course it's a game, but as I've said before it's also an investment of time and money. I hated leaving SWG after over a year of beta testing and 5 years of play. I hated leaving WoW after 6 years of play. But they ceased to offer me what I was looking for and I had to bite the bullet and brush off the time invested in both. I can do the same here. I won't go without a fight, but I will at some point finally just wash my hands of it all and move on.

 

About the metrics thing, I was shaking my head to many of the ignorant comments in this thread..... "Wow how many of these people are in business or ever been part of real decision making at work"....I wonder....

 

Every day. Every. Single. Day. And I hate it. I hate having to pour over endless pages of raw data to ensure that the carnival of charts, graphs and PowerPoint presentations are actually saying what the data says and not what some petty empire builder wants them to say to justify some capital project. I miss the good old days out on the shop floor where all I had to do was collect quality data and input it while others interpreted the data.

 

Many of you basically said "it depends how you interpret the metrics and they can be interpreted however you want" was the theme I read over and over......LOL...if that's your view....you can apply that logic with ANY set of data on ANY topic ever....What's the point of ever doing data collection and reporting then?

 

Welcome to the real world where data has been used to say what someone wanted it to say as far back as ancient Sumeria when some bean-counter started reading clay tablets pursuant to giving a report to the King. The point is that you ensure enough different people are interpreting the data to give you a clear picture of what the data says. A person concerned about one aspect of the data will interpret the data on their view, another might have different concerns using the same data. Both may be right but the way they report that data will be biased to their concerns. Few people interpreting data are impartial observers of that data.

 

One metric that's VERY easy (or should be anyway) for them to report is subscriptions and probably even time played on subscription accounts. If I were BioWare I'd keep watch of those stats closely, that's all you need to know for what the customers want. If the ranters on these forums are right....over the months after the expansion comes out such "metrics" should drop like a stone. Likewise though if the numbers raise or even stay pretty even -- the data (if I'm BioWare) would tell me that forum ranters....are just that largely.....ranters.

 

You'd think it'd be easy, but no...it isn't. For example, right now people might be playing their hearts out knowing (or thinking) that the game they like isn't going to exist come October. New expansions also tend to up sub numbers in the months before launch, especially when freebies are involved for subbing which will...you guessed it...skew the metrics.

 

And school just started back up, so kids playing their fingers off during break now have limited game time...once more skewing the metrics.

 

Sub numbers may very well stay up. Or, at least, subs will come and go more frequently depending on the release cadence of chapters (which seems to have gone from monthly to "we hope to release close to monthly"). There may very well be plenty of people out there who live for solo, single player games and the apparent simplification to the game will appeal to much younger players who will no longer have to worry about things like gearing and optimization.

 

I'm curious as to what will happen to Cartel Market numbers though. From the Dev posts and interviews I've read, it's the long-term subscribers who buy the most and if the game switches to a younger player base of transient subscribers will the CM sales decline?

 

The whole thing seems to be a gamble based on what I can very easily see as being a biased interpretation of player metrics. This is an opinion, not fact, and just as I kept track of SWG after I left and continue to keep track of WoW, Eve and EQ among others I'll keep track of this game if I unsub come January. I'll know one way or the other whether my opinion and supposition were correct.

 

Regardless, I'll still continue to post my views and opinions on this and other topics because if I and others like me and you don't, the Dev's have no idea how we feel about their decisions.

[Nuffmeister]

Myself and five of my friends all re-subbed to take advantage of the story xp promotion. We are here for the story and smaller group content, possibly looking at getting into raiding down the line. So far we are enjoying the game, though the bonus story xp seems a tad antisocial whilst levelling.

 

I can understand how some people can be upset at the lack of announced group content coming up in the new expansion, especially those who seem to have made it their mission on the forums to actively attack and derail any threads calling for more solo / story driven content. This announcement must be a huge blow for both the narcissistics and egocentrics among you.

 

Hopefully they can and will cater to all styles of game play. I still have a dream of massive open world pvp, but I doubt that will ever happen. We are adopting a wait and see attitude, and if we enjoy the upcoming content we'll stay subbed, if not we'll deal with that situation when it arises.

[FerkWork]

Myself and five of my friends all re-subbed to take advantage of the story xp promotion. We are here for the story and smaller group content, possibly looking at getting into raiding down the line. So far we are enjoying the game, though the bonus story xp seems a tad antisocial whilst levelling.

 

I can understand how some people can be upset at the lack of announced group content coming up in the new expansion, especially those who seem to have made it their mission on the forums to actively attack and derail any threads calling for more solo / story driven content. This announcement must be a huge blow for both the narcissistics and egocentrics among you.

 

Hopefully they can and will cater to all styles of game play. I still have a dream of massive open world pvp, but I doubt that will ever happen. We are adopting a wait and see attitude, and if we enjoy the upcoming content we'll stay subbed, if not we'll deal with that situation when it arises.

 

Mmm cute insults. "Everyone who disagree with me is a narcissistic egocentric person." How narcissistic of you

 

OWPvP died when this engine couldn't support it cause it's made of poop for that

Edited August 18, 2015 by FerkWork

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Yes and if you look athow they were turning a profit it was by NOT focusing just on story. Trends like that don't change in 3-6 months.

 

hence why, if you bothered to read what I wrote, why I say this is marketing. They do not want to piss off people by saying they are focusing on new rather than existing players. So they say what thy say.

 

BUT you are the Captain of the "confirmation bias" crowd, so I do not expect reading in context and other such critical thinking skills. If you did you would see that I acknowledge story is important but that when you take ALL of BW Austin's comments together, and don't cherry pick as you ALWAYS do, a very different narrative than the one you so desperately cling to is revealed.

 

Sorry I stopped reading your walls of irrelevant text after your previous threads where you pick and choose what you reply to and then basically just keep repeating the same nonsense without actually addressing any counter points others ( myself included )put against you. Oh and how you love to treat your opinion and supposed industry insider knowledge as fact..

 

Now you have the nerve to accuse me of cherry picking heh, that's rich.

 

Now all I did to turn on your latest rant is basically say that Bioware must be interpreting their numbers correctly because they continue to turn a profit and are still in business ... you were the one who said basically companies that fail to interpret numbers correctly and "miss the forest" don't stay in business long right? Thus by your own logic Bioware must be doing it right or are you going to turn that one around to suit yourself too? Whatever else you are going on about is moot to me and often relates back to your previously aborted argument so why would I get back in to them again when you failed to finish them last time?

 

Now if you really want to argue with me over all this marketing crap and your supposed expertise and how you know better than all of Bioware on how the future of their company will pan out around this expansion yada ya etc. then how about you go back and finish the previous few topics you tried it on and then subsequently gave up on?

 

No need to start the same tired, old, disproven rant against me yet again in yet another topic when you've failed miserably in others.

 

Now that being said - I'm sure if you have a simple point to make you can just make it because half of the time you quite frankly don't make a lot of sense and that's putting it simply.

[Nuffmeister]

Mmm cute insults. "Everyone who disagree with me is a narcissistic egocentric person." How narcissistic of you

 

Yes, that's exactly what I said, nice try.