ZionHalcyon Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 I think the thing that pisses me off the most is the sheer potential this game had, and the wrong messages BioWare and EA took from its under-performance and eventual failures. The concept was large and fantastic. The early writing was really good. But it never should have been unlimited story because you cannot finance that indefinitely. The core story should have had a beginning, a middle, and an end. You do that with 8, or even 6 classes by combining Jedi and Sith, and you have yourself a damn good game. Hell, because there would be a beginning a middle and an end which would be much easier to budget, you could have gone with different stories for each advanced class. Launch that sucker with a Cartel Market that doesn't rely on RNG but has direct sale cosmetic items and the things we have in there now and you are Off to the Races early with a much better Financial turn out. In terms of where to take story from there, they could have gone any number of routes. They could have developed chunks of story as an alternative path for the different classes on different planets. Eventually that would have lead to a type of Choose Your Own Adventure Star Wars story that would have been able to have been budgeted and planned for ahead of time. On top of this, these alternate stories could have been sold per planet on the Cartel Market thus financing their own development. If that idea is a little too grand, they could have gone the faction route like makeb and developed an alternate story based on Faction that takes place in the same time period. They could then have sold those stories as full on expansions. The beauty of having a story with a beginning, middle, and an end is that you can plan and budget accordingly, as well as make sure the pacing is dead on, something the vanilla game struggled with mightily. Do that, get rid of heroics, and start off PvP with a full-blown hutt ball league, and you got yourself a profitable Star Wars game. One that would have out performed expectations. And by cutting down classes to 6 and not worrying about developing heroics, resources would have been put in to make the story better as well as a more fleshed-out end game. One of the killer things is that it seems like the people who make these games never really talked with the players who would want to play them. They get these big ideas but never bounce them off of the players who would say "no I don't want to play a game like that". Make the game The Players want to play, not the one you want to make. That is the cardinal rule of game development. Those who develop for their own self satisfaction will always fall short and will never understand the player backlash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menofhorror Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 People are rightfully angry at the lack of content but the overall direction is good and much better than in 4.0 times. Balanced content (as minimal as it is) and lots quality of life changes. Would be a shame to close the game now and a mistake in my eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordTurin Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 /shrug. I actually don't read this as saying SWTOR will shut down tbh. I can see them not producing new content, but it seems like they are betting pretty heavily on Anthem. Given what happened with Andromeda though, I would assume that as long as SWTOR is making a decent profit, they'll keep it open to have some kind of regular cash stream in case Anthem flops as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsillah Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 The sad reality for those who want BioWare to make a comment, is that if it is still up in the air, there may be nothing they should comment on. It may be in the air but the fact that it's on the table means that they are at a point where making the deadline for Anthem might be more valuable than maintaining this game...at least putting new content in it. Maybe it's why we haven't seen the new roadmap yet. I do agree that this would be hard to comment on for them. However the lack of a roadmap and general communication is noticeable. Eric basically only posts the bare minimum even for his doing. Times may be rather more tense at Biowar Austin than we might have realised. Considering how the game's been doing I frankly can understand it if they decide to shutdown support for this game. I think they need to worry about saving Anthem and Bioware more than anything right now. Just not sure if they can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YungDemon Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 (edited) A surprise to be sure (lol not really), but a welcome one. On to the next multiplayer online Star Wars game, whether it's an mmo or arena! Hopefully one with true action combat. Edited January 24, 2018 by YungDemon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rheshalea Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 I really hope SWTOR is going to be around for a long time to come. IF they can get some worthwhile content out soon, of course. I personally don't have any interest in Anthem, at least not yet. So for me, if SWTOR shuts down, it only means EAware won't get another eurocent from me. I won't say "ever", because who knows, one day they might produce something I want to play again. I hope Disney won't renew EA's Star Wars license when it runs out, though. It should be a license to print money, but for some reason EA doesn't seem to understand that. Or maybe they think SW-fans and/or gamers are so stupid they'll buy and play any old crap they produce, as long as it looks pretty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsillah Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. On to the next multiplayer online Star Wars game, whether it's an mmo or arena! Hopefully one with true action combat. Well the Visceral game got cancelled and there was something else in production slated for 2019 so whatever SW game is next it won't be made by Bioware and it won't be out anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menofhorror Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 A surprise to be sure (lol not really), but a welcome one. On to the next multiplayer online Star Wars game, whether it's an mmo or arena! Hopefully one with true action combat. So you are actually rooting for the game's closure because obviously there will be a new mutiplayer online Star Wars game? Obviously....s/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienEyeTX Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 https://kotaku.com/bioware-doubles-down-on-anthem-as-pressure-mounts-1822380989 From the article: So not definite, but it looks like if this is being discussed, this is not good news for us. I would guarantee that it's not the first time they've discussed it. The game has been out for six years. I would guess that this has been discussed at least for the past couple of years. Although, I think we can all see the writing on the wall. It's not like they're going to suddenly throw a bunch of cash and resources at this game. They will skate by with what they can get away with. When that little bit ceases to be enough to keep people around, it will be done. At this point, the game pretty much is what it is and that's what it will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rheshalea Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 A surprise to be sure (lol not really), but a welcome one. On to the next multiplayer online Star Wars game, whether it's an mmo or arena! Hopefully one with true action combat. Do let me know if you find a new PvE Star Wars MMO. Or even just a new Star Wars RPG, I might actually prefer that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZionHalcyon Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 A surprise to be sure (lol not really), but a welcome one. On to the next multiplayer online Star Wars game, whether it's an mmo or arena! Hopefully one with true action combat. Sadly the new one closest to release was just shut down at Visceral. Seriously, what the hell has EA done with the Star Wars license? Pissing in a boba fett toilet would produce more content than EA has since getting the license it seems. I don't know if Disney even cares, but I would be royally pissed off right now if I were them. And I would be letting EA know that unless they get their **** together, I am shopping that license around and not going back with them once the deal is up in 2020. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsillah Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Seriously, what the hell has EA done with the Star Wars license? Well ain't that the 100 million dollar question? If I were Disney I wouldn't be impressed either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xordevoreaux Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 I think that considering the state of the game it may be a good thing if SWTOR would close down. Not a good thing. This is the last full-blown Star Wars MMO, ever. $200 million to make this one. That's not happening again. Any new "MMO" would be browser-based and chincier than a Facebook game app. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casirabit Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 If SWTOR is closing, then why are there so many new ( or refurbished..) Cartel Market items? The new OP? Something doesn't add up. SWG was closing but they added the free flight and it still closed. So I been on the side that you are, not wanting to believe it but I saw the things Soe added to SWG and it still closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZionHalcyon Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 Not a good thing. This is the last full-blown Star Wars MMO, ever. $200 million to make this one. That's not happening again. Any new "MMO" would be browser-based and chincier than a Facebook game app. What is sick is it could have worked. It really could have. But some very poor design decisions from the get-go killed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jojobanutz Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 It's Kotaku. Clickbait is thier stock in trade, not news. Take anything they say with a shovelfull of salt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manjaca Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Bioware and EA can be sure that I and much other People will no more pay for Bioware an EA games. They destroyed ME Andromeda! EA destroyed Battlefront 2 aka Payfront 2! If they Close now SWTOR, much Players will turn back from EA/Bioware games. And the Reputation from EA/Bioware will once again suffer. So much Players dont buy ME Andromeda and Battlefron 2 because off bad development and Pay to Win. Who will buy Anthem after so much bad Reputation from EA/Bioware? I sure will not buy Anthem after destroying SWTOR! Sorry for my bad English Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZionHalcyon Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 Well ain't that the 100 million dollar question? If I were Disney I wouldn't be impressed either. I wish we knew who to write to suggest Disney NOT renew with EA. We need a better company managing it. All the big Producers have their share of problems, but of all the ones out there, I'd want Bethseda. While they are hardly perfect, I know at the very least they would give the Star Wars Story the proper attention it deserves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurj Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 It makes me think 2 things: 1. The road map is late because Keith is most likely fighting for resources, and 2. The higher-ups at Bioware are no longer interested in developing an IP they do not own. Keith and Eric aren’t saying much because they don’t have much to tell us - nothing we would want to hear, anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZionHalcyon Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 It's Kotaku. Clickbait is thier stock in trade, not news. Take anything they say with a shovelfull of salt! Already been covered and you haven't read the thread. The source is 100% solid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Bioware and EA can be sure that I and much other People will no more pay for Bioware an EA games. They destroyed ME Andromeda! EA destroyed Battlefront 2 aka Payfront 2! If they Close now SWTOR, much Players will turn back from EA/Bioware games. And the Reputation from EA/Bioware will once again suffer. So much Players dont buy ME Andromeda and Battlefron 2 because off bad development and Pay to Win. Who will buy Anthem after so much bad Reputation from EA/Bioware? I sure will not buy Anthem after destroying SWTOR! Sorry for my bad English No worries at all my friend, your point was clearly made. SWTOR is the only good thing Bioware has going for it imo...Anthem will be late to the party and flop, and Bioware will be left looking back at the games they gave up on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xordevoreaux Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Daybreak Games, maybe. They took over EQ and EQ2 and they're still both running. Not well, but EQ started in 1999 and it's still there. Better than shutting down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tahana Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 I think they need to worry about saving Anthem and Bioware more than anything right now. Just not sure if they can. I can agree with this.. Bioware has been a large chunk of my gaming life.. It is pretty obvious that SWTOR subs and crates aren't enough to keep them viable.. But actually discussion of the effects and causes are more of a chicken or egg discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZionHalcyon Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 It makes me think 2 things: 1. The road map is late because Keith is most likely fighting for resources, and 2. The higher-ups at Bioware are no longer interested in developing an IP they do not own. Keith and Eric aren’t saying much because they don’t have much to tell us - nothing we would want to hear, anyways. Yup. Could also explain why Kieth went from chatty to suddenly crickets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExarSun Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 I dont know about you guys, but after they have destroyed Mass Effect, if they manage to flop this game (already fine and strong on this road) they will lose me as a customer forever...considering i bought every one of their games from KOTOR 1 , Jade Empire to ME an DA series to SWTOR. I have zero interest in Anthem. EA has done nothing with the SW licence, so here is hoping somebody at Disney cares enough about this. EAware should be ashamed of what they have done to this game and the total silence towards its customers. This may look smart now, but I assure you, its not a reputation you want for your future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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