How to bring back players and re-energize the game (pvp)

[FourPawnBenoni]

You need to take note of what is creating the most popularity right now. It's COMPETITVE PVP, e-sports. Pubg, Fortnite, LoL, Overwatch etc are all the most watched games on Twitch.

 

How to use this for SWTOR? Well, keep in mind that ranked pvp when the game was first released was incredibly popular. Even on Pot5, after significant population decline which forced the first server merges, we were tracking over 30 ranked teams/guilds on the server forums as an unofficial ranking system. This is just one of many servers at the time, so population wasn't an issue. I played on a team with Hoth Ski Patrol if that rings any bells for people that have been around.

 

With this in mind, EA should host it's own pvp tournament on Twitch, with announcers, etc. Time it with the release of a new war zone. Advertise to all former players (they have their emails) and have the players registered under team/guild names that existing players will recognize and remember. Have a bracket on the website with a nice reward for teams that advance far enough. Then repeat this regularly.

 

I guarantee you this will bring back a lot of the player base. The word spreads. The combat system, visuals and traditional maps have always been viewed favorably. Just clean up some of the desync on jugg leaps, op rolls & teleporting.

 

Lastly, get rid of the gearing mechanism that makes it so prohibitive to people that want to come back and pvp (it's just too much of a grind, and expensive with the augments). Back in 4.0, a player could get max pvp gear in about a week of solid playing. That was perfect, especially since people like alts. If you don't fix the gearing, even people that want to come back are going to hesitate at the time sink the system currently is.

[SteveTheCynic]

and have the players registered under team/guild names that existing players will recognize and remember

How do you propose that this should work? Especially if the guilds in question haven't been disbanded or renamed already, how do you propose that BW should achieve this?

 

Are you seriously proposing that those old players who haven't played in *years* should be forcibly inserted into existing guilds without consulting the existing membership? What if the guild still exists, with its old name(1), and those old players were ejected along the way for inactivity, and the guild is now full?

 

(Don't get me started on the weirdness of the underlying theory: a bunch of competitive games that aren't MMORPGs are very popular, therefore the best solution to SWTOR's woes would be a relaunch of ranked PvP in an MMORPG. Does not compute.)

[TUXs]

The problem isn't limited to PvP...the problem this game is suffering from is lack of development. It doesn't matter if you PvP or play solo, nobody is satisfied with the lack of content coming out of Austin. Development has seemingly ceased on this game lately.

[FourPawnBenoni]

How do you propose that this should work? Especially if the guilds in question haven't been disbanded or renamed already, how do you propose that BW should achieve this?

 

Are you seriously proposing that those old players who haven't played in *years* should be forcibly inserted into existing guilds without consulting the existing membership? What if the guild still exists, with its old name(1), and those old players were ejected along the way for inactivity, and the guild is now full?

 

(Don't get me started on the weirdness of the underlying theory: a bunch of competitive games that aren't MMORPGs are very popular, therefore the best solution to SWTOR's woes would be a relaunch of ranked PvP in an MMORPG. Does not compute.)

 

Thanks for the response and good questions.

 

First, no I don't mean that people should be forced to stay with old guild names. I just mean that teams are registered as a team. For example, the problem I have with group ranked standings is that everything is still ranked by players. Who is the best ranked team in SWTOR? No clue, because there is no way to measure it. I propose that the teams/guilds are promoted and ranked. There are many ways it could work, I'm not saying this is the best but here is one: A person that gets over X rating in team ranked gets an invitation to fill out a registration online. He submits the guild/team name he wants and the player names of his teammates.

 

Second, there are MMORPG's that run competitive pvp tournaments. Also, I think it's illogical to assume it wouldn't work just because it's not as popular as battle royal or FP shooter. I think there would be many interesting things to watch in a match as a viewer from an observer camera. For example, when off nodes are challenged, hutt ball plays, etc.

Edited June 18, 2018 by FourPawnBenoni

[Storm-Cutter]

• Rewards
  
• Content
  
• Promotion
  
• Movie tie-ins
  
• Eliminate cheating and win-trading q- synching
  
• Incentives
  
• Revamp game and engine
  
• Re-think balance, stuns, CC, mobility, breakers, defensives, heals and DPS.
  

 

Then communicate with your playerbase and work with them to make it great and people may come back, or at least not leave so quickly.

 

That's what needs to happen.

 

What have they got planned for v5.9 onwards.....? very little if any of the above. - And that is why they fail.

Edited June 18, 2018 by Storm-Cutter

[t-darko]

The problem isn't limited to PvP...the problem this game is suffering from is lack of development. It doesn't matter if you PvP or play solo, nobody is satisfied with the lack of content coming out of Austin. Development has seemingly ceased on this game lately.

 

/Sign

[TalonVII]

I say screw most of that. What this game needs besides more content development is some SANDBOX things to do.

 

Personally I say take some of the good stuff from SWG, allowing players to create our own stuff to do. Make planets so they are not just one off stopping places to go, but make them alive with their own things going on.

 

Keep the story. The story is a damn good driving force, bit give us other things to do besides that.

 

If I want PvP till my eyes bleed, I'll go play World of Warahips.

 

Give me an immersive SW universe. Give me a reason to go back to Alderaan or Tatooine, or Ord Mantell.

 

Sand box. Let us create stuff to do for ourselves while the devs give us more over arching story to do.

 

Blend the best of both worlds.

 

My 2 credits.

[Andryah]

This is NOT a PvP centric MMO.. so most of your comparisons, allusions, and ideas are misplaced.

 

This IS an MMO that is primarily PvE with some PvP for those that enjoy PvP.

 

If you want to bring back players....only more and faster content drops will likely do that. Period... full stop. MMO players are not like they used to be years ago when people actually camped their favorite MMO even during content droughts ... they will only come back and play when fresh content drops.

[Andryah]

I say screw most of that. What this game needs besides more content development is some SANDBOX things to do.

 

I think the market has demonstrated over the years that Sandbox is very niche with the player base.... and most MMO players actually do not enjoy it and will not play it.

 

EVE Online is probably the most successful sandbox MMO in the market... and even it cannot sustain population numbers.

 

Also.. to note.. the rave promises about upcoming Sand-Park MMOs.. to bridge the gap between Sandbox and Thempark approaches ----> vaporware. The reason being very likely the same reason Sandbox approach has a limited player audience.

 

Please note: you are absolutely entitled to ask for what you want... but I just think you need to be realistic about how popular Sandbox actually is in MMOs.

Edited June 18, 2018 by Andryah

[jimmorrisson]

The only way to bring back players and re-energize the game is to have a west coast server.

[xordevoreaux]

This is NOT a PvP centric MMO.. so most of your comparisons, allusions, and ideas are misplaced.

 

This IS an MMO that is primarily PvE with some PvP for those that enjoy PvP.

 

If you want to bring back players....only more and faster content drops will likely do that. Period... full stop. MMO players are not like they used to be years ago when people actually camped their favorite MMO even during content droughts ... they will only come back and play when fresh content drops.

 

I agree. OP's premise doesn't hold water.

[Goreshaga]

How to bring back player and re-energise the game ?

 

Simple : more and on a more regular basis new content of all sort not just PvP, because PvP is not everything and there are players you don't give a crap about PvP, but would like to have new story or ops or whatever they like doing in the game content too.

[Lhancelot]

Lastly, get rid of the gearing mechanism that makes it so prohibitive to people that want to come back and pvp (it's just too much of a grind, and expensive with the augments). Back in 4.0, a player could get max pvp gear in about a week of solid playing. That was perfect, especially since people like alts. If you don't fix the gearing, even people that want to come back are going to hesitate at the time sink the system currently is.

 

The grind is absolutely awful, I agree.

 

I hope with these soon to come changes and improvements PVP will become even more popular which then garners even more attention from the devs. Changes you mention here in the quote above are good ones.

[casirabit]

This is NOT a PvP centric MMO.. so most of your comparisons, allusions, and ideas are misplaced.

 

This IS an MMO that is primarily PvE with some PvP for those that enjoy PvP.

 

If you want to bring back players....only more and faster content drops will likely do that. Period... full stop. MMO players are not like they used to be years ago when people actually camped their favorite MMO even during content droughts ... they will only come back and play when fresh content drops.

 

This. .

[IoNonSoEVero]

This is NOT a PvP centric MMO.. so most of your comparisons, allusions, and ideas are misplaced.

 

This IS an MMO that is primarily PvE with some PvP for those that enjoy PvP.

 

If you want to bring back players....only more and faster content drops will likely do that. Period... full stop. MMO players are not like they used to be years ago when people actually camped their favorite MMO even during content droughts ... they will only come back and play when fresh content drops.

 

Exactly.

[DocGamer]

Maintenance Mode is one hell of a drug.

[JattaGin]

What TUXs wrote.

 

+1

[TrixxieTriss]

You need to take note of what is creating the most popularity right now. It's COMPETITVE PVP, e-sports. Pubg, Fortnite, LoL, Overwatch etc are all the most watched games on Twitch.

 

How to use this for SWTOR? Well, keep in mind that ranked pvp when the game was first released was incredibly popular. Even on Pot5, after significant population decline which forced the first server merges, we were tracking over 30 ranked teams/guilds on the server forums as an unofficial ranking system. This is just one of many servers at the time, so population wasn't an issue. I played on a team with Hoth Ski Patrol if that rings any bells for people that have been around.

 

With this in mind, EA should host it's own pvp tournament on Twitch, with announcers, etc. Time it with the release of a new war zone. Advertise to all former players (they have their emails) and have the players registered under team/guild names that existing players will recognize and remember. Have a bracket on the website with a nice reward for teams that advance far enough. Then repeat this regularly.

 

I guarantee you this will bring back a lot of the player base. The word spreads. The combat system, visuals and traditional maps have always been viewed favorably. Just clean up some of the desync on jugg leaps, op rolls & teleporting.

 

Lastly, get rid of the gearing mechanism that makes it so prohibitive to people that want to come back and pvp (it's just too much of a grind, and expensive with the augments). Back in 4.0, a player could get max pvp gear in about a week of solid playing. That was perfect, especially since people like alts. If you don't fix the gearing, even people that want to come back are going to hesitate at the time sink the system currently is.

 

And bring back 8 man ranked and have a seperate Hull Ball league

[Storm-Cutter]

And bring back 8 man ranked and have a seperate Hull Ball league

 

exactly. - But it also needs a complete revamp, new PVP modes and a completely new game engine. - And when that is in place a whole high-profile promotion - With huge events with big cash prizes.

 

- what you'll get is maybe a re-skin map, mixed faction WZ ( coz low population) and a buff/nerf to something that really didn't need tweaking.

 

When you have to repeatedly wait >10 mins at primetime on a Saturday night for a WZ pop, this is never gonna become a global e-sport.

[TrixxieTriss]

exactly. - But it also needs a complete revamp, new PVP modes and a completely new game engine. - And when that is in place a whole high-profile promotion - With huge events with big cash prizes.

 

- what you'll get is maybe a re-skin map, mixed faction WZ ( coz low population) and a buff/nerf to something that really didn't need tweaking.

 

When you have to repeatedly wait >10 mins at primetime on a Saturday night for a WZ pop, this is never gonna become a global e-sport.

 

Sad but true

[Yeldah_]

Put more servers out and translate the game into more languages (Chinese, Japanese, Spanish for example). Soon as EA realizes that gamers exist outside of North America, SWTOR can go big.

[TrixxieTriss]

Put more servers out and translate the game into more languages (Chinese, Japanese, Spanish for example). Soon as EA realizes that gamers exist outside of North America, SWTOR can go big.

 

It didn’t stop them shutting the APAC servers even though one server was full. I can’t ever see them opening other language or regional servers.

Next step will be them merging all the EU servers into the American one(s).

[omaan]

I say screw most of that. What this game needs besides more content development is some SANDBOX things to do.

 

Personally I say take some of the good stuff from SWG, allowing players to create our own stuff to do. Make planets so they are not just one off stopping places to go, but make them alive with their own things going on.

 

Keep the story. The story is a damn good driving force, bit give us other things to do besides that.

 

If I want PvP till my eyes bleed, I'll go play World of Warahips.

 

Give me an immersive SW universe. Give me a reason to go back to Alderaan or Tatooine, or Ord Mantell.

 

Sand box. Let us create stuff to do for ourselves while the devs give us more over arching story to do.

 

Blend the best of both worlds.

 

My 2 credits.

 

We are talking about pvp here so if you dont have anything about pvp you really shouldnt write anything. A Host of people playing pvp in this game, and even if you dont like pvp in star wars it doesn't mean devs should remove or stop developing it.

 

If you want this game to be successful, it must have both pvp and pve content with SAME LEVEL of development. Those people who write here about "this is mostly pve game, it needs more pve" are living in illusions if they think that this game can survive only with pve players. Almost Every successful mmo game has both pve and pvp development at nearly same level.

 

But anyway, this game is done. Buggs, d-sync, low funding, server merge and the most awful - cross faction eating this game very fast. During next weeks you will see a dramatical decrease in population, and soon Eaware will stop the development of swtor completely. Waiting for new star wars mmo.

Edited June 19, 2018 by omaan