Keith - As the new producer........

[Andryah]

That's what really pi$$es me off about the EA deal. They siphon all of the money out like vampiric leach, and only give back a bare bones shoestring budget. EA couldn't give two rat's asses about swtor, and that is really said. IT's the reason it has never seen its full potential. And the only way that will change is if Bioware as a strong leader in charge who willing to give some push-back to EA to help free up more production income.

 

You are chasing a false target here. This is not how business practices actually work in the corporate world.

 

A business starts with an annual operations plan (each and every year). That plan goes along the lines of..

 

A) a revenue target (in this context it would be collectively negotiated between EA home office and their subsidiary) ... resulting in a plan revenue target all parties agree to.

 

B) once the revenue plan has been agreed on, then they issue a cost plan to support the operation to obtain the target revenue. This of course is based on 1) a margin target based on revenue vs cost and 2) sometimes they include an upside cost plan, an investment plan so to speak.. where they sink a cost on a calculated risk that it will yield X additional revenue.

 

C) Once the revenue and cost plans are locked, then the subsidiary begins operations plans for the year based on their budget combined with their assessment as to how best meet the revenue plan targets.

 

D) revenues actually earned from a product or service DOES NOT go to the subsidiary, but rather aggregates to the home office for corporate consolidation, reporting and audit. This is completely separate from the subsidiaries operations cost plan and ongoing product/service update plans.

 

E) Generally, each quarter, the home office will assess performance to plan (both revenue and cost) and perform a review and make adjustments if the results are either above or below plan. Below plan of course is worse then coming in above plan. Regardless... quarterly review and plan adjustments are part of normal operations and can result in changes up or down to the annual operations plan. If things are particularly bad (like at the 6 month point after launch of SWTOR.. where it became clear the revenue plan would not happen) .. then they replan and scale down costs accordingly... and may make significant changes to their product business plan, investment, etc. ,,which results in layoffs and cost deferrals or cancellations of some planned costs to bring the cost plan back into balance with revenue actuals.

 

Rinse and repeat the above quarterly (and annually) as long as the product or service continues.

 

People really need to drop the fiction about direct reinvesting revenue and come to grips with the fact that a game studio owned by a large game holding company.. DOES NOT collect and apply it's revenue directly back to it's products. Only and independent studio can do that, and even then.. they don't really either as they first have to reconcile all ongoing costs for the entire studio, depreciations, capital expenses, and taxes before they even look at what to do with the NET REVENUE.

 

The unstated challenge in all of the above for SWTOR is that it operates in a fluid and changing market. The MMO market peaked in about 2012.. right about when this MMO released.. and as such they got caught at the worst time in terms of launch success factors. Some of their challenges they have to own for making specific decisions that did not serve them well. Some of their challenges are simply being new to MMOs at Bioware.. so a learning curve. Some of their challenges, such as the broader flux in the MMO market.. is not under their control, and they can only respond to it in the best way they see fit. This MMO, like a number of others, is still struggling with finding a sweat spot in the market where they can attract the largest audience (in a fickle audience market to be honest), retain the audience, attract new audience over time, and compete business wise with it's competitors. That includes deciding where you fit in the total MMO market and working to serve the center point of your target audience, because no MMO can be all things to all people.. not even WoW. This is why different MMOs make different choices in how they evolve their product/service over time, and why some serve certain segments of play style better then others. There is a reason why the big players are producing fewer MMO properties, and the smaller players are hanging on by their finger nails in the market (cough.... Funcom).

Edited April 15, 2017 by Andryah

[Icykill_]

Pre SOR, they never did anything about a certain user on my server multi-boxing macro spawns into GSF for conquest points. Nor did they do anything about it post SOR either.

 

One person using multiple account logins putting a guild in the top 10, and the faction they did it on suffered from dead weight in nearly every match. The only safe time to que from that faction was when it was her raid night, and she'd actually play instead of troll.

 

We have a crap tonne of Imp pvp bots on Harbinger at the moment. They have infected lowbies so much that every match has them in it. That has basically killed any pvp in that bracket because no one wants to play with pvp bots made by credit farmers so they can expand their credit bots everywhere.

 

I was looking forward to the XP event to end because it means lvling in pvp isn't as fast or give better rewards than farming mobs on a planet.

[Groncho]

When u read a nerd forum post about how to be a CFO in 200 words......

[Andryah]

We have a crap tonne of Imp pvp bots on Harbinger at the moment. They have infected lowbies so much that every match has them in it. That has basically killed any pvp in that bracket because no one wants to play with pvp bots made by credit farmers so they can expand their credit bots everywhere.

 

Why are the bots only on the Imp side? Sincere question, as I think it has merit to look at.

 

Humorous comment ------ Do only Imps serve as customers of RMTs?

[Darkside]

You are chasing a false target here. This is not how business practices actually work in the corporate world.

 

A business starts with an annual operations plan (each and every year). That plan goes along the lines of..

 

A) a revenue target (in this context it would be collectively negotiated between EA home office and their subsidiary) ... resulting in a plan revenue target all parties agree to.

 

B) once the revenue plan has been agreed on, then they issue a cost plan to support the operation to obtain the target revenue. This of course is based on 1) a margin target based on revenue vs cost and 2) sometimes they include an upside cost plan, an investment plan so to speak.. where they sink a cost on a calculated risk that it will yield X additional revenue.

 

C) Once the revenue and cost plans are locked, then the subsidiary begins operations plans for the year based on their budget combined with their assessment as to how best meet the revenue plan targets.

 

D) revenues actually earned from a product or service DOES NOT go to the subsidiary, but rather aggregates to the home office for corporate consolidation, reporting and audit. This is completely separate from the subsidiaries operations cost plan and ongoing product/service update plans.

 

E) Generally, each quarter, the home office will assess performance to plan (both revenue and cost) and perform a review and make adjustments if the results are either above or below plan. Below plan of course is worse then coming in above plan. Regardless... quarterly review and plan adjustments are part of normal operations and can result in changes up or down to the annual operations plan. If things are particularly bad (like at the 6 month point after launch of SWTOR.. where it became clear the revenue plan would not happen) .. then they replan and scale down costs accordingly... and may make significant changes to their product business plan, investment, etc. ,,which results in layoffs and cost deferrals or cancellations of some planned costs to bring the cost plan back into balance with revenue actuals.

 

Rinse and repeat the above quarterly (and annually) as long as the product or service continues.

 

People really need to drop the fiction about direct reinvesting revenue and come to grips with the fact that a game studio owned by a large game holding company.. DOES NOT collect and apply it's revenue directly back to it's products. Only and independent studio can do that, and even then.. they don't really either as they first have to reconcile all ongoing costs for the entire studio, depreciations, capital expenses, and taxes before they even look at what to do with the NET REVENUE.

 

The unstated challenge in all of the above for SWTOR is that it operates in a fluid and changing market. The MMO market peaked in about 2012.. right about when this MMO released.. and as such they got caught at the worst time in terms of launch success factors. Some of their challenges they have to own for making specific decisions that did not serve them well. Some of their challenges are simply being new to MMOs at Bioware.. so a learning curve. Some of their challenges, such as the broader flux in the MMO market.. is not under their control, and they can only respond to it in the best way they see fit. This MMO, like a number of others, is still struggling with finding a sweat spot in the market where they can attract the largest audience (in a fickle audience market to be honest), retain the audience, attract new audience over time, and compete business wise with it's competitors. That includes deciding where you fit in the total MMO market and working to serve the center point of your target audience, because no MMO can be all things to all people.. not even WoW. This is why different MMOs make different choices in how they evolve their product/service over time, and why some serve certain segments of play style better then others. There is a reason why the big players are producing fewer MMO properties, and the smaller players are hanging on by their finger nails in the market (cough.... Funcom).

 

So the one flaw in your rather accurate summation is the assumption that EA cares about swtor's original vision, or the financial framework in which it was built or needs to operate in in order to generate income. As someone who has been part of a multi-billion dollar company that has bought many other other companies, and subsequently has been bought themselves, I can tell you first hand that you are always at the mercy and direction of the management from the new parent company. And this almost ALWAYS has a big impact on both the implementation of processes for, and the expenditure of revenue. When the host company's management wants you to cut cost by X amount, and sets forth a budget (not always negotiable) for you to operate within, you have no choice but do your best, but ultimately the final product/service usually suffers. That is until the new host company can tap into the vision, or remove itself completely from the financial operation of the acquired company, neither of which EA will do.

 

That is exactly what we are seeing here. Based on the past elimination of so many departments and support staff, the reduction of the development team, and the trickle of actual development content over the last few years vs. other competitive products with less overall revenue than swtor. EA quickly dropped interest in swtor after its failure to launch, and as so, currently treats it as an asset that they are not necessarily willing to pump more money into, especially considering their purchase cost.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Darkside

[GalacticKegger]

So the one flaw in your rather accurate summation is the assumption that EA cares about swtor's original vision, or the financial framework in which it was built or needs to operate in in order to generate income. As someone who has been part of a multi-billion dollar company that has bought many other other companies, and subsequently has been bought themselves, I can tell you first hand that you are always at the mercy and direction of the management from the new parent company. And this almost ALWAYS has a big impact, on both the implementation of processes for, and the expenditure of revenue. When the host company's management wants you to cut cost by X amount, and sets forth a budget (not always negotiable) for you to operate within, you have no choice but do your best, but ultimately the final product/service usually suffers. That is until the new host company can tap into the vision, or remove itself completely from the financial operation of the acquired company, neither of which EA will do.

 

That is exactly what we are seeing here. Based on the past elimination of so many departments and support staff, the reduction of the development team, and the trickle of actual development content over the last few years vs. other competitive products with less overall revenue than swtor. EA quickly dropped interest in swtor after its failure to launch, and as so, currently treats it as an asset that they are not necessarily willing to pump more money into, especially considering their purchase cost.

You mean like this?

 

Edited April 16, 2017 by GalacticKegger

[Edyn]

OP - Great to hear that Keith is a die hard SWTOR player having 4 300 GC level toons and is a lover of PVP...

 

Hold your tauntauns, there... If someone claims to have four characters at GC rank 300, I feel like that's but a testament to their patience as a grinder rather than a die hard SWTOR player. Let's be real: there's so much more to the game than GC rank and PvP. *cough* main story, class stories, companion stories, explorable planets, fully-voiced FlashPoints and Ops...*cough*

[HiltoftheDragon]

Hold your tauntauns, there... If someone claims to have four characters at GC rank 300, I feel like that's but a testament to their patience as a grinder rather than a die hard SWTOR player. Let's be real: there's so much more to the game than GC rank and PvP. *cough* main story, class stories, companion stories, explorable planets, fully-voiced FlashPoints and Ops...*cough*

 

So what defines a "hardcore" player to you. Does it really matter how one gets four characters to rank 300? A die hard swtor player is exactly what that is.....they're in the game playing it the most enjoyable way possible anytime they can. If its someones passion to play this game then it makes no difference what activities he or she are doing to achieve what they're after.

Edited April 15, 2017 by HiltoftheDragon

[Edyn]

So what defines a "hardcore" player to you. Does it really matter how one gets four characters to rank 300? A die hard swtor player is exactly what that is.....they're in the game playing it the most enjoyable way possible anytime they can. If its someones passion to play this game then it makes no difference what activities he or she are doing to achieve what they're after.

 

I'm just saying that I think a die hard SWTOR player would most likely have more under their belt than grinding Galactic Command ranks and PvPing, as you can choose to grind and PvP in pretty much every MMO out there, not just SWTOR. Still, I'm not saying that this is all that the new producer has accomplished in the game, but those were the credentials the poster referenced when he labeled the new producer as a, "die hard" SWTOR player.

 

To answer your question, my ideal hardcore player is first and foremost someone who loves and is vested in the immersion of the SWTOR universe, which is made possible via the main story arc, class stories, companion stories and romances, planetary missions, exploration missions, Flashpoints, Ops, planetary exploration, Datacron discovery, Stronghold decoration, character outfit customization, etc...

Edited April 15, 2017 by Edyn

[GalacticKegger]

So what defines a "hardcore" player to you. Does it really matter how one gets four characters to rank 300? A die hard swtor player is exactly what that is.....they're in the game playing it the most enjoyable way possible anytime they can. If its someones passion to play this game then it makes no difference what activities he or she are doing to achieve what they're after.

QFT ... regardless of preference.

[Celise]

I am going to get some hate for this.

 

the Galactic Command is not horrible, just needs to be fixed so it works better.

 

There are people that this helps because they are not raiders nor pvp players but everyone seems to forget about them. For raiders and pvp player gear was easy for them but for the others it wasn't.

 

Yea I know well if you are not a raider then you don't need the gear or other things. This was a breath of fresh hair for those people but of course people are going to say they don't count, which is something this community has done since the beginning.

 

Anytime you bring up a way for them to get gear, outside raids and pvp you get hate from this community. I know I can get gear but I know people who actually came back because they were able to get gear "gasp" without having to do raids or pvp.

 

So instead of taking it out completely it would be better to figure out a way that it can be beneficial and give the raiders and pvp a way for them to earn their gear better and a way if you get the same piece you can exchange and make it alt friendly.

 

Happy Easter.

 

the one thing you are missing here is that operations are paywalled, i know that if the paywall is removed and the prefs and f2p'ers can play them again then all the troubles will no longer exist. it's got nothing to do with gearing or your misguided sense of elitism.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Celise

[mmmbuddah]

I'm just saying that I think a die hard SWTOR player would most likely have more under their belt than grinding Galactic Command ranks and PvPing, as you can choose to grind and PvP in pretty much every MMO out there, not just SWTOR. Still, I'm not saying that this is all that the new producer has accomplished in the game, but those were the credentials the poster referenced when he labeled the new producer as a, "die hard" SWTOR player.

 

To answer your question, my ideal hardcore player is first and foremost someone who loves and is vested in the immersion of the SWTOR universe, which is made possible via the main story arc, class stories, companion stories and romances, planetary missions, exploration missions, Flashpoints, Ops, planetary exploration, Datacron discovery, Stronghold decoration, character outfit customization, etc...

 

A diehard player is anyone that sticks to the game through thick and thin. And not to be a *****, but that is not story players. End game group content players, pvpers, roleplayers. Those are the playerbases that will keep the game breathing over long periods of time. As we saw with both Kotfe and Kotet, story players stick around for a few weeks and are gone again. We, the end game group content players stick around far passed that point.

 

I am happy that someone is coming in who understands that all player bases need to be paid attention to, and not someone who tunnel visions story content, touting " GETTING BACK TO STORY " like we dont matter. Story is great, but what we got so far had zero replayability, and the end game players have been ignored for 2 years now. So the group that was catered to were the fickle players that devour new content, and leave. Not the best group to cater to.

Edited April 15, 2017 by mmmbuddah

[merovejec]

tons of achievements

 

Care to share a Print screen on that?

[t-darko]

So Keith, a promotion!! And not just any, you're the Man now!!

 

What can I say; "

"!! I might not be the one to give you work advice but a

set is probably required, as probably a

to the obligatory doubters.

 

Me personally hopes that you're the Chosen One, the One to restore this game's Soul

[Edyn]

...Story is great, but what we got so far had zero replayability, and the end game players have been ignored for 2 years now. So the group that was catered to were the fickle players that devour new content, and leave. Not the best group to cater to.

 

That's one of my issues. Story and Companion stories are one of my favorite parts of the game; however, there's a big difference between Vanilla stories and the current single story arc. I barely made it through KOTFE and KOTET on one character, let alone my alts while I find Vanilla content easily replayable. I mean, if you're going to cater to a single audience via story, you've got to do better than railroading every class into a single, weak story - Vanilla set the bar pretty damn high when it comes to story/stories.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Edyn

[grania]

That's one of my issues. Story and Companion stories are one of my favorite parts of the game; however, there's a big difference between Vanilla stories and the current single story arc. I barely made it through KOTFE and KOTET on one character, let alone my alts while I find Vanilla content easily replayable. I mean, if you're going to cater to a single audience via story, you've got to do better than railroading every class into a single, weak story - Vanilla set the bar pretty damn high when it comes to story/stories.

 

Yeah, I'm a story player though I'm not so sure I feel like I've been catered to >.>

[Jett-Rinn]

That's one of my issues. Story and Companion stories are one of my favorite parts of the game; however, there's a big difference between Vanilla stories and the current single story arc. I barely made it through KOTFE and KOTET on one character, let alone my alts while I find Vanilla content easily re-playable. I mean, if you're going to cater to a single audience via story, you've got to do better than railroading every class into a single, weak story - Vanilla set the bar pretty damn high when it comes to story/stories.

 

I don't see how that group is any different from the Raiders who put X on farm, then leave until the next raid honestly, and we have seen what happens when devs just cater to end game raiders like they did in Wildstar, there has to be a balance.

 

But I do agree on the replayability for end game, that's why I think that the on rails space game was such a huge mistake, they could have open'd that up for endgame PVP battlegrounds Elite Space Operations for Raiders and re-playable flash points for everyone else. Missed opportunity...but who knows what the future holds now.

 

Yeah, I'm a story player though I'm not so sure I feel like I've been catered to >.>

No Original Class content in how long?

Yeah me either. :-(

Edited April 15, 2017 by Jett-Rinn

[mmmbuddah]

I don't see how that group is any different from the Raiders who put X on farm, then leave until the next raid honestly, and we have seen what happens when devs just cater to end game raiders like they did in Wildstar, there has to be a balance.

 

But I do agree on the replayability for end game, that's why I think that the on rails space game was such a huge mistake, they could have open'd that up for endgame PVP battlegrounds Elite Space Operations for Raiders and re-playable flash points for everyone else. Missed opportunity...but who knows what the future holds now.

 

 

No Original Class content in how long?

Yeah me either. :-(

 

Wildstar was a flop from the get go though. That is a pretty bad example. A better example would be this game from the start, it withered away pretty quick because of lack of end game, they remedied that issue and the game population flourished again. Replayable story is great, but the most loyal group of players has and will always be end game players. Raiders, FP players, and PvPers. Like you said there needs to be a balance, but the balance was tipped faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar in favor of story, even if it had no replayability, it was -still- story. 2 years now they have catered 99,9% to story. It is high time to cater to the other play bases now.

[Darkside]

Not really, I just have very little (read as zero) tolerance for the hate machine/SJW on these forums and always have. The so called legitimate complaints he was speaking of usually involved death predictions of the game (It's been raking in money how many years now?) Rant's about how the game isn't more Raid Centric, PVP Centric or like SWG. In fact most of the folks who have issue with me on these forums are Ex SWG nutters.

 

There are folks on the forum who do complain and make logical points like Tux, and then we have the lunatic fringe.....who keep insisting the game is dying, the devs are corrupt and the poor poor fans are being made to pay them year after year.....I mean honestly the Knights of Ren come to their homes with light sabers and everything and force lift their debit cards from these poor souls wallets..

 

And the game is dying you know ....because some random dude on the forum said so.

Any day now just wait and see.

no for realzies this time

And now

Aaaaaaaand now.

 

 

Anyway if anyone doesn't like what I say or how I say it feel free to put me on ignore on the forums and in game or take it up with the mods, it's not going to affect myself or the group of folks I have been playing with one bit.

 

So according to your logic we are at peak subscriber numbers as of today right? If not, then the game HAS died from its peak. However, you probably right, the game isn't dying. All of those original servers are up and at full capacity, and even the ones we have today are jam packed too, right. I think we all know which nutter is denial here.

[Jett-Rinn]

Wildstar was a flop from the get go though. That is a pretty bad example. A better example would be this game from the start, it withered away pretty quick because of lack of end game, they remedied that issue and the game population flourished again. Replayable story is great, but the most loyal group of players has and will always be end game players. Raiders, FP players, and PvPers. Like you said there needs to be a balance, but the balance was tipped faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar in favor of story, even if it had no replayability, it was -still- story. 2 years now they have catered 99,9% to story. It is high time to cater to the other play bases now.

 

It was mostly a flop because of a very Toxic Burning Crusade ethos that pretty much told everyone who wasn't a end game Raider "We don't want you" They realized their mistake way too late.

 

I also think Cater is the wrong word it dose nothing but bring divisiveness on all sides. I would like to see Bioware adopt a L.E.A.N/Agile development philosophy and a content roadmap for all parts of the game. Iv'e seen developers do this with great success and mostly happy players. I want Raiders and PVP players to have plenty to do, I want Story Players to have plenty to do, I don't ever want to see one gated by the other because it's splits the community.

 

Both style players can live in harmony in game.

[Jett-Rinn]

So according to your logic we are at peak subscriber numbers as of today right? If not, then the game HAS died from its peak. However, you probably right, the game isn't dying. All of those original servers are up and at full capacity, and even the ones we have today are jam packed too, right. I think we all know which nutter is denial here.

 

Wow that's not a huge twist to what I said.

 

By Your logic WoW is dead to, because hundreds of dead servers.

 

Look I don't know what the servers are doing capacity wise. I do know I play with a lot of different folks and they all have pretty much been here since day one...I can't say that for any other MMO I play.

I know the last few times I was in the area the Bioware parking lot was packed and my friends who work at Trion and Daybreak are hoping to get a job there.

 

it's all signs of a healthy company, but by all means latch on to the doom scenario one day the game will sunset and you can yell..

 

SEE SEE I TOLD YOU IT WAS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!

Edited April 15, 2017 by Jett-Rinn

[Darkside]

Wow that's not a huge twist to what I said.

 

By Your logic WoW is dead to, because hundreds of dead servers.

 

Look I don't know what the servers are doing capacity wise. I do know I play with a lot of different folks and they all have pretty much been here since day one...I can't say that for any other MMO I play.

I know the last few times I was in the area the Bioware parking lot was packed and my friends who work at Trion and Daybreak are hoping to get a job there.

 

it's all signs of a healthy company, but by all means latch on to the doom scenario one day the game will sunset and you can yell..

 

SEE SEE I TOLD YOU IT WAS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!

 

This really made me lol, cause I bet someone would actually do that.

[Darkside]

It was mostly a flop because of a very Toxic Burning Crusade ethos that pretty much told everyone who wasn't a end game Raider "We don't want you" They realized their mistake way too late.

 

I also think Cater is the wrong word it dose nothing but bring divisiveness on all sides. I would like to see Bioware adopt a L.E.A.N/Agile development philosophy and a content roadmap for all parts of the game. Iv'e seen developers do this with great success and mostly happy players. I want Raiders and PVP players to have plenty to do, I want Story Players to have plenty to do, I don't ever want to see one gated by the other because it's splits the community.

 

Both style players can live in harmony in game.

 

This is absolutely a must for a good mmo. No one should be left out, or excluded for the sake of another. MMO's originally encompassed a vision of providing many and varied outlets for fun, rather than a singular mindset of what one group thinks is fun.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Darkside

[PoshTS]

Wildstar was a flop from the get go though. That is a pretty bad example. A better example would be this game from the start, it withered away pretty quick because of lack of end game, they remedied that issue and the game population flourished again. Replayable story is great, but the most loyal group of players has and will always be end game players. Raiders, FP players, and PvPers. Like you said there needs to be a balance, but the balance was tipped faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar in favor of story, even if it had no replayability, it was -still- story. 2 years now they have catered 99,9% to story. It is high time to cater to the other play bases now.

 

Seriously. And one boss and NO class balance isn't the way to cater to us. I'm just hoping this new lead design guy doesn't main gunnery mando or Sorc heals

[adormitul]

Indeed. I often mention, because it is worth mentioning, that SWTOR is the SECOND most popular MMO in the Western world. It's only bested by WoW(no surprise there). So...where have all those $$$$ went to? Some obscene billionaire at EA for his own orgies on his yacht? ...

 

What we need is a STRONG producer, one that'll take a "no nonsense" approach with EA and bring those $$$$ back! Hell, with that amount of money, we could've had Acts IV and V for ALL THE CLASSES by now! And much, much more! Look at the improvements in Rift, ESO, TSW(its getting a RELAUNCH!) etc etc. And all of them are 1 / 2(or even less) profitable as SWTOR is...

 

...so where's the money? Up some starlete's wazoo? fml...

Hey yacht orgies are expensive you have to procure an Yacht where half the money goes, then the stiumulants where 10% of them money go then the expensive classy ladies/gentlemen about 10% also and you are are left with 30% of all that profit for the game.