Five Words That Sum Up State of the Game

[Ottoattack]

My five words:

 

****** ******* ****** ******* ********

 

Censorship

[DanNV]

Lots of really good stuff here that Ben and his team really need to read and reflect on, for the weekend, then come back Monday and start fixing things.

 

I would actually sum it up in seven words, which about covers everything: "Producers don't know what they are doing."

 

I am reminded of a great presentation given by Noaki Yoshida at the GDC 2014 (link for reference: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020179/Behind-the-Realm) - For those who don't know who he is, he is the man responsible for fixing the disaster that was the FFXIV online and turning into FFXIV: ARR and helping move this MMO into the Number Two position in the market.

 

In it there were two very important slides:

 

An MMO Is Like Running A Country

 

1.) If a Dev Team is the Government, The Players Are It's Citizens

If citizens disapprove of your policies, they will move to Canada

Yoshida-san referred to always remembering that even if you are WoW, there is a lot of competition in the space for the MMO player and if you dump all over them, like they did with FFXIV online, they WILL go elsewhere.

 

2.) Clarity, Vision, and Willingness to Listen Are Keys to Success

Without these, the government [devs] devolve into a dictatorship

Yoshida-san mentions that what do citizens do when they are in a dictatorship? They flee as soon as they can and as fast as possible. He attributed developer arrogance as the number one killer of good titles on the market. He also mentions how he is glad there is so much arrogance as Square Enix is able to differentiate themselves by actually listening to customers.

 

3.) Learn to Listen and Adapt. A Complaint is Worth Twice a Compliment.

The silent always leave first

If citizens are complaining it means they still care

Yoshida-san gives an example of wanting to implement a big change in the game. He proposes that you should run the idea before your player base before even committing development resources to it. He then says, if the feedback is too negative, you should abandon the idea before even starting on it. He reiterates, that if the complaints are piling up then you need to address them URGENTLY before they become silent (which means you have lost a customer).

 

4.) Creators Must be Players In There Own Realms

If the leader don't live there, why would their subjects?

Yoshida-san was adamant about this point. How can you know what improvements to make to your game if you don't even play it. At Square Enix, they insist on a certain amount on in game play time regularly among the development and creative staff so they have to live with the changes the make in game.

 

Lessons Learned

 

1.) Never forget the fans

Without them there would be no us

Here Yoshida-san reiterated how hard is is to get customers compared to working to keep them. He says that no change should ever go into a game that upsets customers. They are your citizens, without them you would not have a country.

 

2.) Fun comes first.

If it isn't fun, you are doing it wrong

The comment is self explanatory but he covers a lesson learned from FFXIV online, never put something in the game that makes players dread doing it. If you do, get it out immediately otherwise you risk your title failing. It is a game and games are supposed to be fun. He also mentions how he doesn't like players ever saying something isn't fun. If he reads those comments, he immediately prioritizes it to fix it so it is fun.

 

3.) Never Back Down

Always aim to amaze

Here he talks about realizing the value of what customers expect for their money and reiterates that their are dozens of other companies they could choose to spend that money with. Therefore, you should always strive to exceed what you deliver compared to your competition otherwise your players (and your revenue) will walk.

 

4.) Don't Forget Your Roots

It's what fans crave

This was his last point, do not forget that your customers make you who you are - not you. He reiterates that without your customers there would be no you. That the goal of running an MMO is to always strive to keep your customers because the growth in MMOs doesn't come from new features or expansions, but from good word of mouth from existing customers. He reminds everyone that MMOs are about community, and strong communities will grow games while toxic or weak ones (like they had with the original FFXIV online) will kill you.

 

Now this is from a guy who successfully turned a failing MMO into the second biggest on the market. Can you see how many of those eight points BW violated - especially with the GC System.

[Trevalon]

I would actually sum it up in seven words, which about covers everything: "Producers don't know what they are doing."

 

I am reminded of a great presentation given by Noaki Yoshida at the GDC 2014 (link for reference: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020179/Behind-the-Realm) - For those who don't know who he is, he is the man responsible for fixing the disaster that was the FFXIV online and turning into FFXIV: ARR and helping move this MMO into the Number Two position in the market.

 

In it there were two very important slides:

 

An MMO Is Like Running A Country

 

1.) If a Dev Team is the Government, The Players Are It's Citizens

If citizens disapprove of your policies, they will move to Canada

Yoshida-san referred to always remembering that even if you are WoW, there is a lot of competition in the space for the MMO player and if you dump all over them, like they did with FFXIV online, they WILL go elsewhere.

 

2.) Clarity, Vision, and Willingness to Listen Are Keys to Success

Without these, the government [devs] devolve into a dictatorship

Yoshida-san mentions that what do citizens do when they are in a dictatorship? They flee as soon as they can and as fast as possible. He attributed developer arrogance as the number one killer of good titles on the market. He also mentions how he is glad there is so much arrogance as Square Enix is able to differentiate themselves by actually listening to customers.

 

3.) Learn to Listen and Adapt. A Complaint is Worth Twice a Compliment.

The silent always leave first

If citizens are complaining it means they still care

Yoshida-san gives an example of wanting to implement a big change in the game. He proposes that you should run the idea before your player base before even committing development resources to it. He then says, if the feedback is too negative, you should abandon the idea before even starting on it. He reiterates, that if the complaints are piling up then you need to address them URGENTLY before they become silent (which means you have lost a customer).

 

4.) Creators Must be Players In There Own Realms

If the leader don't live there, why would their subjects?

Yoshida-san was adamant about this point. How can you know what improvements to make to your game if you don't even play it. At Square Enix, they insist on a certain amount on in game play time regularly among the development and creative staff so they have to live with the changes the make in game.

 

Lessons Learned

 

1.) Never forget the fans

Without them there would be no us

Here Yoshida-san reiterated how hard is is to get customers compared to working to keep them. He says that no change should ever go into a game that upsets customers. They are your citizens, without them you would not have a country.

 

2.) Fun comes first.

If it isn't fun, you are doing it wrong

The comment is self explanatory but he covers a lesson learned from FFXIV online, never put something in the game that makes players dread doing it. If you do, get it out immediately otherwise you risk your title failing. It is a game and games are supposed to be fun. He also mentions how he doesn't like players ever saying something isn't fun. If he reads those comments, he immediately prioritizes it to fix it so it is fun.

 

3.) Never Back Down

Always aim to amaze

Here he talks about realizing the value of what customers expect for their money and reiterates that their are dozens of other companies they could choose to spend that money with. Therefore, you should always strive to exceed what you deliver compared to your competition otherwise your players (and your revenue) will walk.

 

4.) Don't Forget Your Roots

It's what fans crave

This was his last point, do not forget that your customers make you who you are - not you. He reiterates that without your customers there would be no you. That the goal of running an MMO is to always strive to keep your customers because the growth in MMOs doesn't come from new features or expansions, but from good word of mouth from existing customers. He reminds everyone that MMOs are about community, and strong communities will grow games while toxic or weak ones (like they had with the original FFXIV online) will kill you.

 

Now this is from a guy who successfully turned a failing MMO into the second biggest on the market. Can you see how many of those eight points BW violated - especially with the GC System.

 

 

Such a poignant post highlighting a true visionary in the world of MMO Development. What Yoshida-San and his guys did with FF14 is really the crowning achievement of MMO success. They took a quite literally a DOA MMO took it OFFLINE for a year, and then relaunched it to be the second biggest MMO out there. That is nothing short of amazing and any developer who doesn't look to Yoshida-San for guidance is a fool.

[Sundragon]

My five words: "Nobody ever quits this game."

[Quraswren]

My five words: "Nobody ever quits this game."

 

Been here a while so, my five words: "You couldn't be more wrong!"

Edited January 28, 2017 by Quraswren

[Joonbeams]

Such a poignant post highlighting a true visionary in the world of MMO Development. What Yoshida-San and his guys did with FF14 is really the crowning achievement of MMO success. They took a quite literally a DOA MMO took it OFFLINE for a year, and then relaunched it to be the second biggest MMO out there. That is nothing short of amazing and any developer who doesn't look to Yoshida-San for guidance is a fool.

 

Agreed, I've never had any interest whatsoever in FF or any other MMO, but this insight from Yoshida-San makes me want to try the game!

[americanaussie]

How about any loot drops?

 

I just ran through three Heroic Star Fortresses on my Jugg 70, because I was bored out of my *********** mind running heroics and then occassionally queuing for pvp and getting rekt wearing 230s, and every single boss I killed dropped exactly one thing: nothing. Decorations have been gone for a while from SFs, but now at 70? No vendor trash. No credits. NOTHING. They didn't even give CXP. I killed the exarch and he falls over and ... no chance to get the mount. No chance at artifact gear to sell on GTN. No blue mats. NO CXP. Not from the kill or from a crate drop. And he was level synced and still hard as balls. I could maybe see, if the missions still grayed out (and some missions STILL do gray out after more than a year, BWA), you nerf the loot so people don't farm them, but this took time and effort to overcome and all I got were repair bills.

 

And the grapple points were still bugged half the time. Bravo.

 

You invest how much dev time and resources into Heroic SFs for the 4.0 cycle and then render them completely pointless in 5.0? Why? Am I not supposed to play the game that way anymore? I thought KOTFE/KOTET was the game. Is it only the game when I'm sub-65? Or is this like the on-rails PVE Space missions that you decided you didn't want people playing anymore, so you rendered them non-rewarding? If the metrics show no one plays the HSFs, then we don't have to make any more or do anything with them ever again! Yay!

 

I mean, there's an endless list of ******** to use as an example of how completely alien BWA's thought processes are, but this is some **** I just randomly decided to do on this one toon, since I hadn't bothered to run him through them before he dinged 70. What other odd parts of the game have you just farted on and walked away from in just the last few months?

 

Ah, who am I kidding? No one cares. I'm not even sure I do.

 

SF sucks yes. But the problems with the grapple hooks is a graphics issue. Switching computers fixed the problem entirely for me.

[AscendingSky]

My five words: "Nobody ever quits this game."

 

Is that why we're down from over one hundred servers to a handful? And why most of those handful are ghost towns?

 

Yes, certainly it must be because no one ever quits...

[AscendingSky]

Agreed, I've never had any interest whatsoever in FF or any other MMO, but this insight from Yoshida-San makes me want to try the game!

 

I've tried it, it's a fun game! Very new player friendly, lots of content. Probably going to go back to it more often now, though I struggle with immersion in it sometimes. I'm just more of a sci-fi person than an anime fantasy one, y'know?

[IstariZen]

Is that why we're down from over one hundred servers to a handful? And why most of those handful are ghost towns?

 

Yes, certainly it must be because no one ever quits...

 

Don't listen to this guy. He quit the game, he just post **** on everything. Soon his sub will run out and we will be free of a group of these.

[StupidWiz]

Don't listen to this guy. He quit the game, he just post **** on everything. Soon his sub will run out and we will be free of a group of these.

+1

[LordAppius]

One word that sums up the entire game and dev team: crap

[stoopicus]

"She should have died hereafter"

 

(j/k. I'm not a doom and gloom kind of guy really.)

Edited January 28, 2017 by stoopicus

[Wayshuba]

Don't listen to this guy. He quit the game, he just post **** on everything. Soon his sub will run out and we will be free of a group of these.

 

Just want to add something here. Whether people are still positive about the game or negative is not what is important. Sure, many who played for several years and have finally unsubbed because the changes made to the game it is no longer fun for them may, of course, be negative. But, at the end of the day, we should all be concerned with EVERYONE enjoying the game. Because the more people that do, the more that sub, and a game grows.

 

Here is where those that are still positive about the game need to be careful. I am willing to bet EA has no established a threshold of minimum subs to keep this game going. Basically, it is have this number or higher or we are pulling the plug.

 

That being said, last year there were estimates that SWTOR has an average of about 14,000 concurrent subscribers. Estimates range on how many concurrents convert to actual total players from 10% of the base to 25% of the player base. I guess that is going to vary based on day and time, but let's give SWTOR the benefit of the doubt for this example and say 10%.

 

So, last year prior to 4.0 when this article came out, there were an average of 14,000 concurrent, and assuming that represents 10% of the player base, that would mean 140,000 players - of all types not just subs.

 

Since that time, the player base has continued to decline regularly. The 5.0 system, more than trying to keep players subbed for longer with the grind and RNG gimics, is also trying to convert F2P players to subs. Unfortunately, a lot of them are just going to leave. They didn't have the desire to sub before and the GC system is definitely not having the desire now.

 

Last year, with the 4.0 launch most of the servers actually reached standard of weekends (according to TORstatus) and a few even went heavy. With 5.0 most of the servers stayed light with a few going standard. So, let's say we are down to maybe 5,000 to 6,000 concurrents that are subs now.

 

That isn't a big bleed from 2016 but it means there are mainly 50k-60k subscribers left. Still okay right? EA pulled the plug on Warhammer Online with 50k active subscribers left.

 

So, while EA may not have declared a shut down date, I have a feeling they have declared a minimum number of subs to keep the title going. The desperation of the team in Austin is starting to emphasize this point.

Edited January 28, 2017 by Wayshuba

[Divona]

 

So, while EA may not have declared a shut down date, I have a feeling they have declared a minimum number of subs to keep the title going. The desperation of the team in Austin is starting to emphasize this point.

 

At least someone who understand all this and business behind it especially with EA money. We are now in critical situation regardless what some players think when they see people are unhappy and unsurbcribing in masses.

The upcoming this summer will be toughest time for Bioware since launch of the game. If they wont get more subs then end of year when EA looks numbers and predictions then will be clear what fate this game has and if it continues 2018.

We shall see.

[DanNV]

I've tried it, it's a fun game! Very new player friendly, lots of content. Probably going to go back to it more often now, though I struggle with immersion in it sometimes. I'm just more of a sci-fi person than an anime fantasy one, y'know?

 

If it was voiced my wife and I might try it, but she doesn't like to have to read every conversation. So, it's out unfortunately.

[Radzkie]

I dont need five words. Just one: RNGeus.

 

5.1 helped slightly but also added another layer of RNG to PVE.

[Wayshuba]

At least someone who understand all this and business behind it especially with EA money. We are now in critical situation regardless what some players think when they see people are unhappy and unsurbcribing in masses.

The upcoming this summer will be toughest time for Bioware since launch of the game. If they wont get more subs then end of year when EA looks numbers and predictions then will be clear what fate this game has and if it continues 2018.

We shall see.

 

Honestly, I don't believe they even have that long. In all my years on MMO gaming I have never seen (except for maybe the NGE) a developer so dead set on ignoring such massive negativity around a game change.

 

I have a feeling, this number was handed to them sometime in calendar Q3 last year and, being that they have been woefully behind their competition in content production (it is so bad that their competition has literally put out almost 50 TIMES the content this game has), they had to resort to a grind/RNG gimmick to try and get more subs and keep them longer.

 

Additionally, EA has spent three quarters talking about the declining revenue in the game. They are setting it up so when they pull the plug, they can say the game has been on constant decline and no longer warrants any investment.

 

If I were a betting man, I would bet that this announcement is coming sometime in 2017 and this title will not live to see the end of 2017. Warhammer Online was announced for closure on Sept. 18, 2013 and was closed on Dec. 18, 2013. I really believe this game is now that close.

[ShinDoRai]

i'll give ya 5 words on it

 

€A - its not in the game !

[Joonbeams]

Still no word from devs on loot tables - the 800lb wookie in the room.

[Fygee]

Too simple, yet too complicated.

 

Outside of that, screw RNG.

[Aeneas_Falco]

Cartel Market Is The Focus

[Christie_Swift]

Five words:

 

Quitting Now And Return Later

[jimmorrisson]

1. Bring

2. Back

3. 4.*

4. Gear

5. Vendors

[Alec_Fortescue]

Five words?

 

Still No Traditional Jedi Robes.