This is all about maximum profit for minimum effort

[JecVanguard]

The reason they haven't released any new content is because it costs money. EA is a business, they have to make money. The best way is to cut costs. Everyone has invested many years playing the game, which is the only reason I haven't left; I think it's a kind of insanity that keeps me playing. Since there's nothing new the only reason I can think of that keeps me in the game is that I've invest 6.5 years of time. I'm not hopefully that they will release any good content because why should they. They have a captive audience so they will release a minimum viable product just to keep things ticking over until the game dies. It's good business - low cost, guaranteed income; you cant really blame them.

[Bakgrind]

Back when Ben Irving was at the helm of SWTOR he wanted to release monthly installments for the game. Which in and of it self doesn't sound like a bad idea except that they failed in the implementation of it. They simply could not release a quality piece meal monthly content in a timely fashion that wasn't buggy and behind schedule. So what was supposed to be monthly turned out to be anything but monthly. And now we are at the is what it aspect of the game. August 7 SWTOR is Introducing the New Rishi Stronghold. But if that doesn't interest you ( it doesn't me ) then you are in for a rather long wait until next year.

[JecVanguard]

There's only so long that paying customers will put up with this sort of thing before they vote with their feet. Regrettably there's no alternative. When my mobile provider annoys me I at the end of the contract I switch to another provider, usually because they have a special offer. There's no other game in town, EA has us by the short and curlies, play their game or play nothing. Not a good place to be, but what can one do... Edited August 4, 2018 by JecVanguard

[Kiesu]

Though I don't have evidence on this, I'm pretty certain a lot of the lack of content comes down to them not having enough staff with the experience and knowledge needed to work all of their ideas into the Hero Engine. It is such an obscure small engine they haven't modified much since then launch, I'm pretty confident the knowledge on working on this engine is a skill not very many people actually ever trained on. So, no matter how many great ideas the devs might have, having a shortage on staff that can actually code all this stuff for this engine is probably to blame.

 

Sometimes companies do a complete overhaul on their game engines/codes and rewrite the game for the sole purpose of getting updates out faster (ESL is in the progress of doing just that right now). But, the bigger and older the game, the harder doing all that gets... not to mention more costly. So they're effectively stuck with a messy code with a small crew of people with the engine knowledge. Coders with knowledge on multiple engines are often in high demand across all of gaming market. Writers not so much.

[casirabit]

There's only so long that paying customers will put up with this sort of thing before they vote with their feet. Regrettably there's no alternative. When my mobile provider annoys me I at the end of the contract I switch to another provider, usually because they have a special offer. There's no other game in town, EA has us by the short and curlies, play their game or play nothing. Not a good place to be, but what can one do...

 

Well there is 6.0 coming, we just don't know when as they haven't mentioned the details of yet.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=946806

[Demonicterran]

I would assume that the development team has been steadily declining over the course since the game launched. Today I simply don’t think there is enough developers to create anything big. What they are capable of however is to maintain the Cartel Market shop: They create armor, weapons, mounts etc for packs, or list some of the most rare and desirable armor and weapons for direct purchase with Cartel Coins so that players open their wallets. Edited August 4, 2018 by Demonicterran

[Sarova]

This is all about maximum profit for minimum effort

The reason they haven't released any new content is because it costs money. EA is a business, they have to make money. The best way is to cut costs. Everyone has invested many years playing the game, which is the only reason I haven't left; I think it's a kind of insanity that keeps me playing. Since there's nothing new the only reason I can think of that keeps me in the game is that I've invest 6.5 years of time. I'm not hopefully that they will release any good content because why should they. They have a captive audience so they will release a minimum viable product just to keep things ticking over until the game dies. It's good business - low cost, guaranteed income; you cant really blame them.

Indeed. This is exactly how business in capitalism is supposed to work. EA's company has shareholders, therefore their primary focus has to be about profit first & how they bring in that profit with minimum spend. With a product like SWTOR they know the Star Wars brand and original game play keeps those of us who were here at launch still subbing - many are hoping for more of that. EA only need to do the bare minimum to attract new customers; changes in society and the way people spend their money mean many no longer have the loyalty/attention that customers used to have just a decade ago. The next "new shiny thing" will get their attention and therefore their money. Sometimes investing does not work; I played wow for 10 years and I left as expansions got so boring & there was no real story like there is in swtor. WOW tried to tempt me back with all sorts of offers but the interest is gone - I only remain on their mailing list for news of wow classic which may tempt me back out of nostalgia. SWTOR keeps getting my money because of the original class stories. Even during a hiatus (e.g. between 5.9-5.9.2), I still find lots to do through old content.

[OmikronGamma]

There's only so long that paying customers will put up with this sort of thing before they vote with their feet.

 

I started subbing recently. Once last year and now for 90 days. I've been with the game since the demise of NFSWorld, a game butchered by EA. THere is so much changed in here, a lot not for the better, esp if you look at crafting and market inflation.

 

THe game wont change a lot for the better. Since I realize that, I take what I get.

 

To me CS is good, nice and helpful, so I cherish that (they need 2 manually add me 550 ccons every month)

 

As a sub I can play all expansions, even when I lapse. The only thing I will lose is access to my toon overload, since I have at least 30 per legacy...

 

People have shown the game their back. THats why its like this.

 

I dont understand why crafting was butchred the way it is, BTW, maybe someone can enlighten me

[Andryah]

The reason they haven't released any new content is because it costs money. EA is a business, they have to make money. The best way is to cut costs. Everyone has invested many years playing the game, which is the only reason I haven't left; I think it's a kind of insanity that keeps me playing. Since there's nothing new the only reason I can think of that keeps me in the game is that I've invest 6.5 years of time. I'm not hopefully that they will release any good content because why should they. They have a captive audience so they will release a minimum viable product just to keep things ticking over until the game dies. It's good business - low cost, guaranteed income; you cant really blame them.

 

Other then pushing a ranting editorial opinion to the forum... what exactly is your point?

 

And years invested in playing a game is a POOR excuse for just lingering around and feeling miserable about it. You literally cannot play MMOs and not have this occur. In fact.. it is the nature of MMOs... so either embrace it or stop playing MMOs altogether in my view. I've left well developed characters, vast collections of items and gear, and fortunes in in-game currency as I move from MMO to MMO over the last two decades.... and I am fine with it.. because it's ALL VIRTUAL anyway.. and I have no rights or ownership to any of it other then to play with it while inside the game. Some people will give all their stuff away or sell off their in game currency to the RMTs... but I personally just leave there and move on, unless my guild is still active there in which case I often give most of my wealth and items to the guild.

 

Now.. I have known some players over the years that will actually trade some of what they have in one MMO with some other player who is looking to move from one MMO to another. in essence.. they trade off items in their current MMO in order to get items in another MMO to jump-start them at the new MMO. It's a win win for both parties as long as they are not trying to actually swap accounts (which is a ToS violation in most MMOs these days).

Edited August 4, 2018 by Andryah

[SourOrange]

You absolutely can blame the people in charge for this. Someone had to give this plan the green light, and at the end of the day, someone needs to take responsibility for it. That's called being professional.

[IoNonSoEVero]

The flaw in that logic is that when they don't release any new content ---> players eventually give up and leave. Or they stop subbing or spending any other money on the game.

 

Given how many long term players seem to be taking breaks right now they have reached critical mass with this. After a while many players will not continue to subscribe if they're not getting anything new out of it and they've already completed all the available content. Making money requires spending money, and if they want players to return to the game they need something for them to play.

[Lhancelot]

I dont understand why crafting was butchred the way it is, BTW, maybe someone can enlighten me

 

Butchered how?

 

I think the only main change is how you craft assembly components whereas before you never did that. Oh, and they added all recipes on to vendors... forgot about that. Used to be, the recipes for armors etc were drops right?

 

Basically they dumbed it down. I never found crafting on swtor particularly engaging so it doesn't really bother me, the changes I mean.

 

The thing I don't like is the amount of bloat to tiers of crafting there is now, when 300 was cap lvl for crafting it was ok, now it's 600. That's a lot of assembly component crafting to get to 600.

[DarthWoad]

because it's ALL VIRTUAL anyway.. and I have no rights or ownership to any of it other then to play with it while inside the game.

 

:rolleyes:

 

Is this your best argument? There's no point in caring about anything because it's all a video game and virtual?

Edited August 4, 2018 by DarthWoad