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Can SWTOR ever recover from the abyss of bad reviews


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Has anyone seen a game rise back from bad reviews? I was looking at some games that had hype and then fell into the abyss of bad reviews, and I have not seen them recover....ever.

 

No matter what they do to make the game better, that game ist still stuck in the bad reviews.

 

I'm starting to think no matter how much money they could dump in SWTOR, that in the beginning, they already doomed their fate.

 

Am I wrong? What would it take for SWTOR to rise back up? More promotional work by Disney/EA etc etc all involved?

 

Not bashing FYI. I'm kind of concerned and wondering what it would take to turn it around.

 

Thanks to all that reply!

 

May the force be with you!

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It's much better than when it launched and gets applauded for its own niche, not every MMO is groundbreaking and the Star Wars name is a double edged sword. The exposure it gets, means its cheaper and more profitable to release any game but this type and still get great revenue. What The Old Republic needs is extra exposure to net the fan boosts the movies are providing.
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Fortunately for SWTOR, they have the second largest IP in history controlled by the largest IP in history to back them up. The marketing for this is practically done for itself, and although its poor, KOTFE does actually have something rather "unique" compared to most other MMOs. It has a focus on story, and imo, while the story is quite poor and needs to be a RPG, it still actual brings something new to the market which will inevitably attract some people. Not to mention... hell... its star wars... even the worst star wars games are more renown than most others.
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Has anyone seen a game rise back from bad reviews? I was looking at some games that had hype and then fell into the abyss of bad reviews, and I have not seen them recover....ever.

 

No matter what they do to make the game better, that game ist still stuck in the bad reviews.

 

I'm starting to think no matter how much money they could dump in SWTOR, that in the beginning, they already doomed their fate.

 

Am I wrong? What would it take for SWTOR to rise back up? More promotional work by Disney/EA etc etc all involved?

 

Not bashing FYI. I'm kind of concerned and wondering what it would take to turn it around.

 

Thanks to all that reply!

 

May the force be with you!

Not unless it gets tons of bad reviews in big gaming media outlets. That's really where the hurt tends to come in. A few people getting negative on the forums doesn't even rock the boat; it's too standard and expected to even get a head turn from most players and potential players. Especially when only subscribers can post, so that makes it harder for the brunt of negative feedback to get through (I'm sure this is intentional).

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Not unless it gets tons of bad reviews in big gaming media outlets. That's really where the hurt tends to come in. A few people getting negative on the forums doesn't even rock the boat; it's too standard and expected to even get a head turn from most players and potential players. Especially when only subscribers can post, so that makes it harder for the brunt of negative feedback to get through (I'm sure this is intentional).

 

Yeah this... once Game spot, and IGN review this game, then it will have a larger impact if its negative. Surprisingly enough, IGN actually slammed the game and gave a really nice review of KOTFE with the first nine chapters which was rather fair. IGN gave KOTFE a 6.5 which is rather low compared to their usual scores...

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Fortunately for SWTOR, they have the second largest IP in history controlled by the largest IP in history to back them up. The marketing for this is practically done for itself, and although its poor, KOTFE does actually have something rather "unique" compared to most other MMOs. It has a focus on story, and imo, while the story is quite poor and needs to be a RPG, it still actual brings something new to the market which will inevitably attract some people. Not to mention... hell... its star wars... even the worst star wars games are more renown than most others.

 

KOTFE is not a MMO however... Nothing about the game for more than a year has been an MMO... The whole thing could be a single player off-line game...

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Fortunately for SWTOR, they have the second largest IP in history controlled by the largest IP in history to back them up. The marketing for this is practically done for itself, and although its poor, KOTFE does actually have something rather "unique" compared to most other MMOs. It has a focus on story, and imo, while the story is quite poor and needs to be a RPG, it still actual brings something new to the market which will inevitably attract some people. Not to mention... hell... its star wars... even the worst star wars games are more renown than most others.

 

It is such a shame when game producers choose to over-promise and under-deliver because they know the loyal fanbase of the IP in question will let it slide.

 

Turbine did that for far too long with LotRO and even though the game still has its fans I'm no longer one of them, and I'm a bigger Middle-Earth Geek than I am a Star Wars Geek. There will come a point when the Star Wars marque will no longer be enough to paper over the cracks of bad story writing, poor combat design, and heavy-handed moral-monorail preaching.

 

All The Best

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But that took a total redesign and relaunch of the game. I'd say it was only the same name in title only.

 

Oh absolutely. Initially that game was so bad Square-Enix was on the verge of scrapping it. What they ended up doing was firing just about everyone and hired Naoki Yoshida as the new director and producer. This guy is known throughout the gaming world as one of the most passionate individuals in the industry. He's a gamer. He loves gaming and he loves what he does.

 

Yoshida is responsible for turning that game around. He apologized to the players, didn't charge them and led his team in totally revamping that game from the ground up. That includes the engine, the game play, the story, the UI - everything. Oh, and he accomplished this with a small team of around 100.

 

The lines of communication between the community and Yoshida are incredible. He talks to them regularly, takes questions and listens to feedback. His team has made changes to quests, game mechanics and so on within weeks of discussing concerns with their community. Not months, not years, not never.

 

Now whether or not FFXIV is your thing, all you have to do is play the game for awhile to realize someone loves that baby.

 

So to answer the OP's question - yes. Yes you can turn a game around. But it takes passion and commitment. It takes a solid work ethic. It takes knowing who your target audience is and keeping a line of communication open.

 

I like this game but I don't see evidence of any of that here. Take just one thing the devs have totally screwed up, like companions. No one should have to point out to them that players would react negatively to them disappearing, their LI taking a long (permanent?) vacation or conversations screeching to a halt. But that's exactly what happened. So either they didn't know or didn't care. Neither is acceptable. It certainly isn't acceptable that this hasn't been rectified. And that's just ONE glaring issue.

 

Will SWTOR recover? Only if BW does what SE did.

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No it cannot, its too late for this game. Its almost 5 years old

It was a failed experiment from the start. The developers just strung along as most as they could all the starwars nerds so they could squeeze them until they could cover the cost of development and then get some profit.

Everybody who had played an MMO back when this game launched could see this was going to be a flop.

And on top the the failed experiment design, they had that engine.

Cant build a castle on sand.

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Not sure what you mean by recover. It's had a five year run, and is profitable. Sure, it's no WoW, but I'd bet if WoW were released today it wouldn't find nearly the same success. Regardless, this isn't the point we're talking about.

 

Marvel Heroes did an amazing job of turning a game around. The launch (2014) received tons of bad reviews and backlash. A year later, the brought out the 2015 version and everything turned around. Now they are at 2016 version and are constantly improving the overall experience (according to Steam, I have nearly 600 hours in that game - probably double that in reality as I played beta and prior to the Steam version).

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SWTOR is a (nearly) 5 year old game. At this point, reviews aren't really a factor and the game's population isn't going to substantially change for the better no matter what. That ship tends to sail within the first 6 months of release of a game.

 

FFXIV was unique in that it involved a complete top to bottom engine and content rebuild and rerelease - with a whole new marketing campaign to go with it. That isn't going to happen here. What you see is what you get, expansions aside, until the game closes.

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Can? Yes. All it takes is listening to the bad stuff and doing better with the incoming content. A lot of games, mmos included managed - some loudly and some quietly, in modern digital age something being bad on release is not the end of the story - if they want to listen and fix things that is.

Will it? I have my doubts here - Bioware today is not the same company that provided some of the best games in my library - they changed a lot and one of the biggest things that changed for the worst is the willingness to listen. They cut as many avenues of communications as they can and ignore thous they can't. The new generation of Bioware suffers from arrogance, and which is worse - unfounded arrogance as well as over emotional approach to criticism... Unless they find a way to grow up and get their heads out of the sand they are not going to fix anything.

I like this game, I wish all the best to it, I'll support any direction they want to take it... But only if they do it WELL. If they want to concentrate on story? Fine with me. But make it one that is worth following it. Make it a game, where players matter.

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No it cannot, its too late for this game. Its almost 5 years old

It was a failed experiment from the start. The developers just strung along as most as they could all the starwars nerds so they could squeeze them until they could cover the cost of development and then get some profit.

Everybody who had played an MMO back when this game launched could see this was going to be a flop.

And on top the the failed experiment design, they had that engine.

Cant build a castle on sand.

 

Why do you think it was a failed experiment?

 

It hasn't failed for me, but I can't deny that most of my friends and guildies left it after a couple of months after launch and never came back. I was gripped by the stories from the first, but apparently no one I knew gave a **** about stories lol.

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I'll settle for the day when they can improve communication and the content being released to the point where the forums go back to discussing the game and addtional features people want vs unsub threads and massive content droughts.

 

When we get to point where someone is complaining about no new operations/pvp/GSF/Story for past 6 months, I'll become a white knight and shout them down.

 

So bring on KOTET - and I really hope that they head the direction that I (not speaking for community here- GASP) am looking for.

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Yeah this... once Game spot, and IGN review this game, then it will have a larger impact if its negative. Surprisingly enough, IGN actually slammed the game and gave a really nice review of KOTFE with the first nine chapters which was rather fair. IGN gave KOTFE a 6.5 which is rather low compared to their usual scores...

 

You should NEVER trust reviews from the likes of IGN & Gamespot. Their entire review process is based on how much money the company gives them in terms of advertising revenue, in exchange for a good review score.

 

At launch, EA gave PC Gamer a ton of cash to a) do a huge feature b) make a guild in the game - they did both and what a surprise, they gave this game 93%. They hand out 90+ scores to any unfinished game that throws money at them.

 

If you are needing proof - just search out Kane & Lynch, Eidos & Gamespot

 

NEVER trust a review - its the age we live in.

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I'll settle for the day when they can improve communication and the content being released to the point where the forums go back to discussing the game and addtional features people want vs unsub threads and massive content droughts.

 

When we get to point where someone is complaining about no new operations/pvp/GSF/Story for past 6 months, I'll become a white knight and shout them down.

 

So bring on KOTET - and I really hope that they head the direction that I (not speaking for community here- GASP) am looking for.

Well said Jamtas!

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You should NEVER trust reviews from the likes of IGN & Gamespot. Their entire review process is based on how much money the company gives them in terms of advertising revenue, in exchange for a good review score.

 

At launch, EA gave PC Gamer a ton of cash to a) do a huge feature b) make a guild in the game - they did both and what a surprise, they gave this game 93%. They hand out 90+ scores to any unfinished game that throws money at them.

 

If you are needing proof - just search out Kane & Lynch, Eidos & Gamespot

 

NEVER trust a review - its the age we live in.

 

Hehe... I guess, for consistency, we are obligated to disregard your review of IGN, GameSpot, and PCgamer then.. yeah? :p

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