Why does the development team have so few resources/staff?

[Xancath]

I'm not exactly a master of economics here but doesn't more resources = more content = more subs = more money?

 

As I recall there used to be patches (2.4 for example) where we got 2 full ops and a daily area, now they have to break their backs working over 5 months just to deliver a single operation piecemeal-style.

 

Don't exactly have high hopes for ME Andromeda if this is how Bioware does things now lol

Edited January 28, 2017 by Xancath

[grania]

I don't know anything about anything, but I do get the vibe our devs are somewhat.. put upon, yeah.

[Neshira]

Considering that ONE boss and the content that comes with it shouldn't take more than a few days at most, yeah they're put upon. I get the feeling that they aren't being allowed to work on content.

[Kallie]

Considering that ONE boss and the content that comes with it shouldn't take more than a few days at most, yeah they're put upon. I get the feeling that they aren't being allowed to work on content.

 

Wow you really don't know how a game is made do you. It takes more than just a few days

[Aries_cz]

Because money is decided by EA, which is answerable to its shareholders.

 

SWTOR soared high, and then spectacularly fell on its face shortly after launch, which lead to severe cutting of development budgets and plans. Putting significantly more money into a product that does not have guaranteed returns does not look good during shareholders' meetings.

 

And sadly PC-exclusive MMOs do not have such wide appeal these days as a console-oriented action-RPGs like Andromeda is, which is another reason why less money is being put into SWTOR

[Aries_cz]

Considering that ONE boss and the content that comes with it shouldn't take more than a few days at most, yeah they're put upon. I get the feeling that they aren't being allowed to work on content.

 

You have no idea how development of anything works, do you?

[Talon_strikes]

I wonder how much BW is at the mercy of EA at this point.

[Aries_cz]

I wonder how much BW is at the mercy of EA at this point.

 

BioWare is pretty much just a brand of EA now.

 

However, the Canadian BW studios are fine and have a huge support from EA, because their games are massively successful.

 

Austin studio is in a completely different situation, their product is not as loved by EA.

[DanNV]

I wonder how much BW is at the mercy of EA at this point.

 

BW is wholly owned by EA. None of the studios EA has purchased are independent. There is management staff in each studio that manages the employees there so each studio can have a different culture. Each studio is also responsible for it's products just like a division of some other company is responsible for their product lines. A failing product can be very bad for the management of that studio or product.

 

The manage for a particular game is the producer. Hence laying the disaster that SWTOR has turned into at Ben's feet.

[Xancath]

I think it largely has to do with the Bioware Austin studio getting no love from EA whereas their Canadian studios get all the freedom in the world as someone earlier pointed out.

[DanNV]

BWA has 10 job openings posted as of yesterday. One of the major problems at BWA is poor management and inexperience. They'd get more resources from EA if they showed they had a clue how to use them.

[Lhancelot]

BWA has 10 job openings posted as of yesterday. One of the major problems at BWA is poor management and inexperience. They'd get more resources from EA if they showed they had a clue how to use them.

 

Maybe they need to move SWTOR to the Canadian site then? It's just a shame how much potential this game still has, because honestly there simply is no decent newer MMO out atm.

 

There's a huge void with millions of MMO gamers waiting for a MMO that steps up to the plate and delivers.

[Talon_strikes]

Maybe they need to move SWTOR to the Canadian site then? It's just a shame how much potential this game still has, because honestly there simply is no decent newer MMO out atm.

 

There's a huge void with millions of MMO gamers waiting for a MMO that steps up to the plate and delivers.

I think FFVIX is on its way there...

[DanNV]

Maybe they need to move SWTOR to the Canadian site then? It's just a shame how much potential this game still has, because honestly there simply is no decent newer MMO out atm.

 

There's a huge void with millions of MMO gamers waiting for a MMO that steps up to the plate and delivers.

 

I have suggested a managerial change out for SWTOR or giving it to a different studio. I doubt it will happen. They've sunk it so far right now, who in their right mind would want to take it over unless EA was willing to pull a FF and rebuild and relaunch after spending a lot of time with players to get feedback and find out what their customers really want.

[Xancath]

I'd be down for a "realm reborn" of swtor.

 

Or moving the game to Canada.

 

Either of these pleases me

[Jedi_riches]

As others have said, all money is filtered down from EA, but you can tell from EA's E3 coverage last year where their gaming priorities lie and its not this game Its FIFA and their madden series and even battlefield games.

[Andryah]

I think it largely has to do with the Bioware Austin studio getting no love from EA whereas their Canadian studios get all the freedom in the world as someone earlier pointed out.

 

If Austin got no love as you claim... then we would not be seeing any patches, much less new expacs.

 

What IS different between Canada and Austin is the types of games they produce. EA loves disposable game properties... buy, play, discard. And they love it even more when it taps the mobile gaming market. EA is NOT an MMO centric company and never will be. Which does not mean however that they have no interest in producing and maintaining MMOs.

 

As for the premise of this thread, none of us (including the OP) have any idea what the development team, resources, and funding look like in any detail. This thread title is presumptive and pivots around the very popular meme-thought of "I'm not getting what I want, so clearly there are only three devs and a hamster inside the walls at Austin".

[Sundragon]

Somehow I don't think the supposed mass quitting protest is going to help the staff budget. If you want them to have a bigger budget, you should stop people who pretend that they are quitting.

[DanNV]

This thread title is presumptive and pivots around the very popular meme-thought of "I'm not getting what I want, so clearly there are only three devs and a hamster inside the walls at Austin".

 

With ten opens currently posted, most lead or senior, there are obviously a lot more than that. The issue is management, not necessarily the size of the team.

[Andryah]

Maybe they need to move SWTOR to the Canadian site then? It's just a shame how much potential this game still has, because honestly there simply is no decent newer MMO out atm.

 

There's a huge void with millions of MMO gamers waiting for a MMO that steps up to the plate and delivers.

 

World wide MMO populations peaked around 2012, and have been on a slow gradual decline since. The decline varies by region and has been steeper in the west then in Asia. So.. NO.... there is no HUGE void waiting for the perfect MMO. Digital games however is a large and growing player base, but not PC games, and very much not in the MMO segment. Player tastes are rapidly moving into console and mobile gaming

 

There are plenty of acceptable MMOs in the market.. so what you are actually seeing is players spreading out more, and... in recent years.. game hopping more... because they consume content faster then an MMO can produce it. This by the way is not bad.... unless you are one of those players that only wants to play the biggest MMO out there... and if that is the case... that continues to be WoW. Every other MMO is far back in the pack in terms of sustained player count. Even the much touted FFXIV is small potatoes by comparison, and always will be.... but it does well in a sub-only business model because Square Enix has more then a decade of FFx installed avid fan base (more so in Asia then in the west by the way).

Edited January 28, 2017 by Andryah

[YlliyaXor]

Less than needed to deliver what the playerbase demands, within the time frame the playerbase demands it (usually NAO), is not that same as few.

 

The main difference i see is the last two expansions were free, unlike the first two, also KOTFE had more content than KOTET, but it had a lot of non voiced content that, as far as i can tell, no one liked that much.

 

Their problem seems to be that they are trying to find ways to retain subscribers for longer periods of time, and i fear that until they hit that goal they set, we will have more experiments like GC.

[CloudCastle]

What upsets me the most about this is that from day one, when they took away the plans to do more individual class stories, the mantra was always, "the game didn't do well enough." Well, several times now since they have bragged about how well the game has been doing, and there have been several times in the game's history where we've had influxes of new players. Yet this money is not being funneled back into the game. FTP saved this game from extinction and this game has shown up in the top 3-5 MMO's over the years. But it's never enough. I feel like somewhere down the line EA just decided they didn't care anymore and refuse to now give this game the money it needs.

 

Maybe someone out there is more in the know than I am, but it is clear to me that something BIG happened about 1.5 to 2 years ago. I suspect there was a major shake down in management and as a result the game's direction was radically changed, money and/or staff was cut, and a new PR/customer management policy went into place. Around that time several things happened:

 

1) KOTFE entered development, creating a major shift from SWTOR being an MMO to it being a single player RPG with MMO elements.

 

2) SWTOR started wooing an entirely different audience and no longer seemed interested in retention of current customers.

 

3) A new policy went into place that put a serious stranglehold on announcing and/or explaining future plans or content, even basic game mechanics. Announcements were pulled back to barely a week or even a few days before release.

 

4) Some kind of major staff cuts happened around the drop of 4.0. The number of bugs skyrocketed. Whereas the devs used to acknowledge them and even fix most of them in a fairly timely manner, numerous bugs now went unfixed and even unremarked upon. At first I thought the devs were just busy with the drop of 4.0, but then eventually I realized that this was a longer term trend.

 

I don't know what happened at BWA, but it was something big. What I really wish I knew is why they felt it was necessary to make such radical changes to a game that was doing well, in order to go after an entirely different market. I actually really liked some of the 4.0 changes, but then they went and took them to increasing extremes.

 

A small degree of hope returned when the devs actually gave us some real information about future content during the latest stream. (For example, in the beginning they wouldn't even answer whether or not companions would eventually be returned, let alone which ones.)

 

I just wish EA would stop tying their hands. For example, I would gladly pay $50 for a true expansion with actual, open world questing and the return of class stories.

Edited January 28, 2017 by CloudCastle

[dr_mike]

As mentioned previously, budget is probably also an issue: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=900811&highlight=million

[DrewFromPhilly]

It's like the Battlefield games with them, if they don't do as well as Call of Duty then **** it let's try again next year. Battlefield 1 has barely even come out and actually isn't half bad but they're already talking about this year's release - SW battlefront 2.

 

That and madden and so forth, yearly installments and constantly trying to hit it big with title after title - they are not used to the whole MMO idea of releasing a game then supporting it for years. If they decided SWTOR would never beat WoW or significantly tap into the millions who subscribe to that, I don't see how EA could look at that and rationalize or justify bothering to spend money on improving this game.

Edited January 28, 2017 by DrewFromPhilly

[Andryah]

4) Some kind of major staff cuts happened around the drop of 4.0. The number of bugs skyrocketed. Whereas the devs used to acknowledge them and even fix most of them in a fairly timely manner, numerous bugs now went unfixed and even unremarked upon. At first I thought the devs were just busy with the drop of 4.0, but then eventually I realized that this was a longer term trend.

 

Nope. They borked up 3.0 pretty badly.....bad design choices, lingering bugs, lingering exploits, ratification of the infamous cartel slot machines as "working as intended", then shortly thereafter pounding it into the ground and making is largely useless, etc. etc.

 

Major staff cuts are pretty easy to detect.. as word of them will spill out into the internet, not to mention you can use LinkedIn to keep track of major personnel moves inside a company these days. There have been no signs of any major cuts in staffing in Austin since 2012. There have been a number of staff changes and moves within the studio, along with the usual attrition that companies encounter, but not an actual purposed reduction in force.

 

1) KOTFE entered development, creating a major shift from SWTOR being an MMO to it being a single player RPG with MMO elements.

 

You answered your own question, but did not realize it.... 4.0 was not only a clear and deliberate shift by the studio, but a lot of their 4.0 efforts were also to retool old content and make it relevant again (heroics and level sync being clear moves in this).

 

2) SWTOR started wooing an entirely different audience and no longer seemed interested in retention of current customers.

 

Don't discount the fickle and game hopping nature of many MMO players in the market today. Hence ALL studios need to approach active player numbers differently then 5 years ago or 10 years ago.

 

3) A new policy went into place that put a serious stranglehold on announcing and/or explaining future plans or content, even basic game mechanics. Announcements were pulled back to barely a week or even a few days before release.

 

Not really. They have ALWAYS been bad at communications, poor at presenting any kind of real roadmaps, and they did have to deal with some rather nasty attacks on their devs a couple years back (actual death threats made and attempts to stalk and intimidate the devs family).

 

The only notable pullback is that they rarely, if ever let any member of their dev staff interact directly with the forums since that death-threat/stalking incident).

 

Eric and Tait have always been rather erratic in communications with the forum... sometimes better, sometimes worse, never really excellent. I put the cause in this part to them both, at best, only treating the forum and communications as a whole as a part time effort, and even then... most often with reactive communications.

 

But even if Eric and Tait were much more attentive and proactive in communications.. they would still get crucified by some players.. because the player base is diverse in nature and needs, and pretty much any change or addition to the game is going to please some and piss off others.

Edited January 28, 2017 by Andryah