No SWTOR mention at the EA panel at SW Celebration?

[Tsillah]

Doubt the latest "expac" really did much if it didn't get worse. It was more solo content that could be completed in a few hours, and not only that but we also had the mess that was Galactic Command all thanks to Ben who thought that "RNG is exciting!!!!!!!!".

 

Hopefully the new Producer is actually listening to the feedback on the forums and sees that solo content (and especially trying to add RNG to progression) is NOT the way to go for this game.

 

Well that's my point really. I expect it to be much worse and that's what I'm curious about.

[Yomitako]

I've not heard anything about a new Star Wars MMO at all, but I do know that Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall 2) had a blog on their site about them working on a new Star Wars game as well. Since BF2 is with DICE and Criterion according to the Wiki, I'm curious to see what Respawn wants to cook up for a game as well, though as far as I know from what was told there, it appears to be a 3rd person game of some sort.

 

Guess we'll all just have to wait and see what may come of it.

[Soljin]

If there is another MMO in development this game will run up to its release and then shut down just prior to the new release.

 

If the new producer does not equate to significant improvements in SWToR or the opposite it may be foretelling of the new game in development...

 

Most don't seem to have considered the new producer could have been promoted from within to set this game up for Maintenance mode...or at the very least a very specific directive of some sort.

 

If they wanted to turn the game around it may have been prudent to bring in a name from a successful MMO to replace the previous producer....

 

Its a pretty big task to assign a potentially first time producer especially in regards to a game this size....

Edited April 16, 2017 by Soljin

[stoopicus]

Not really , most people who play swtor do not like FPS games, and I for one do not want to play first person shooter mmos, its lamer than lame.

 

Yeah, disagree completely, BL and BL2 were two of the best games ever made, and it's a fantastic format for RPG that I would love to see with a Star Wars game (for that matter, the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series was incredible too), but to each their own.

 

Also, citation needed on your "most people" claim there

Edited April 17, 2017 by stoopicus

[annabethchase]

Yeah, disagree completely, BL and BL2 were two of the best games ever made, and it's a fantastic format for RPG that I would love to see with a Star Wars game (for that matter, the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series was incredible too), but to each their own.

 

Also, citation needed on your "most people" claim there

 

common sense tells you that people that play one genre for countless hours a week aren't also putting the same time into other genres. There are only so many hours in a day. True MMO fans play MMO's nearly exclusively.

 

Now if you're aiming for the casual SW fan that will play nearly any genre as long as it's good, then the next game should be neither an MMO, old school RPG nor first person shooter. Something like Grand Theft Auto seems like the right open world model for the next big SW game after Battlefront 2.

[annabethchase]

Well that's my point really. I expect it to be much worse and that's what I'm curious about.

 

You're comparing to the point in time where many people saw 0 reason to subscribe. The massive number of people who decided to skip subbing from chapter 9 until Chapter 16 was released, and then to only sub for a month to "get it all" is probably the most documented revenue related failing of the 4.0 cycle.

[Costello]

It doesn't seem that anyone, least of all the people responsible for the game are that interested or excited about it.

 

The Orlando Cantena event at the 40th Anniversary Star Wars Celebration revealed that there is some twin boss fight coming and that 5.3 will have a flashpoint. And that was it. This isn't some summary or such, there were no thumb drives with details on or screen shots or anything just 2 lines of what the future holds.

 

5.2 gets delayed and its par for the course with the development team. No combat changes because someone had 2 weeks paternity leave well can't expect him to have done anything in the previous 4 months, but there are more people working on it honest.

[Tsillah]

You're comparing to the point in time where many people saw 0 reason to subscribe. The massive number of people who decided to skip subbing from chapter 9 until Chapter 16 was released, and then to only sub for a month to "get it all" is probably the most documented revenue related failing of the 4.0 cycle.

 

It's considered normal I guess that an MMO with some years under its belt gets a flow of up and down populations as the expansions come out and fade. Each cycle has some noteable events I suppose:

 

1) Announcement of the new expansion. This could generate some interest and give people a reason to come back and see where their account is again to prepare for what's new or bring new people in who are curious about what's being marketed.

2) Details come out about the expansion. This is a volatile moment, particularly the last couple of years in SWTOR because BWA seemed to manage to piss more people off than needed, but also a lot of people will get some excitement for what's coming and people may therefore increase playing to prepare.

3) The expansion hits. This is generally a peak as people give it a try and see what's new. So this is a rise in population that will last as long as it keeps enough people busy and it should have a refreshing effect on the overall game.

4) Main patches follow with additional content to keep the momentum going. The momentum will drop but should maintain enough activity.

5) Go back to step 1.

 

Now, what I saw with 4.0 is that step 2 was definitely problematic because of the lack of new actual content but what they did with operations did revitalise the game to some degree. Step 3 and 4 did have some effect but the episodal release did hurt and people did start wondering a lot more why they had to pay a sub. BWA didn't have a good answer for that. Also the expansion was rather small in comparison, which hurt after a content drought as it was. As soon as the last chapter was out, people were out also.

 

So when we look at 5.0 I think it's safe to state that in step 2 and 3 some pivotal moments happened about the new gearing system in particular. Arguably the story was better than KotFE but it didn't seem to have much replay value either and is it was an even smaller expansion content wise than KotFE it would come as no surprise to me that the damage was significant. Where I saw the biggest problem occur for 4.0 before the release (so step 2), we saw with 5.0 that the problem started in step 2 but the big hit came with step 3, because people's expectations of the problems were realistic as it was proven on release.

 

I am not comparing the last few months to the report he was mentioning. All I said was that I am more interested in the current numbers as of December because it seems to me that what's different between 4.0 and 5.0 is that a lot of people left the game before the release of 4.0 because of what was coming (or rather what was not coming) but that 5.0 caused the biggest damage after the release. And that's what I find an interesting difference and I'm really curious how bad it really is.

 

As a general disclaimer: I do not say or know that this game is dying, but I do think 5.0 did a lot of damage to the game.

[stoopicus]

common sense tells you that people that play one genre for countless hours a week aren't also putting the same time into other genres. There are only so many hours in a day. True MMO fans play MMO's nearly exclusively.

 

Now if you're aiming for the casual SW fan that will play nearly any genre as long as it's good, then the next game should be neither an MMO, old school RPG nor first person shooter. Something like Grand Theft Auto seems like the right open world model for the next big SW game after Battlefront 2.

 

Sorry, that's not "common sense" at all, and it feels like you're projecting yourself onto what "most people" might be like. I mean, in extremis in this little discussion between you and I in these two posts, you're only batting .500 after all, because I definitely play many other types of games in addition to putting "countless hours" into this one

 

I'm playing this game mostly now - but I put 1000 hours into BL2, and will do the same for BL3, for example.

Edited April 17, 2017 by stoopicus

[Jett-Rinn]

Oh, they wouldn't. If they release another SW MMO then this one is toast.

 

I don't picture them doing that, though, over a MOBA or ARPG, at this point. Sort of like how TSW is relaunching as an ARPG.

 

What I would love to see is a Borderlands 2 style FPS/MMO/RPG hybrid. Seems unlikely though. Still, if Gearbox can pull off incredibly good games with that model, so can Bioware.

 

Hey if they did a SW Borderlands style ARPG with MMO elements and Co-op I would be all over it.

[stoopicus]

Hey if they did a SW Borderlands style ARPG with MMO elements and Co-op I would be all over it.

 

I know! It totally seems like an awesome format for the genre to me as well.

[Sith_Ravager]

Not really , most people who play swtor do not like FPS games, and I for one do not want to play first person shooter mmos, its lamer than lame.

 

Agree 100%

[Soljin]

I know! It totally seems like an awesome format for the genre to me as well.

 

I was kind of hoping for a Diablo style Star Wars title. It's something I could sink countless hours into, has lots of loot and character customization/ building.

[Rion_Starkiller]

I'm hoping for a Dragon Age MMO since they say they're working on "a new IP." But it's probably Star Wars. Maybe even KotOR3 that they keep saying they are NOT working on.

 

Also, the only FPS I liked was Half Life 2 So I hope it's not Destiny FPS style, though i might be able to get into wielding a FPS lightsaber.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Rion_Starkiller

[Soljin]

Not really , most people who play swtor do not like FPS games, and I for one do not want to play first person shooter mmos, its lamer than lame.

 

I never play FPS games and likely never will. I want to see my character for one and I generally always set my view distance to max...I like to be panned out and see as much as possible.

 

I won't even consider the new Battlefront.