SWTOR Deserves A Revival: More Funding, Resources and Manpower

[Damask_Rose]

To be honest, negativity exists in all MMOs to the point I'd probably be concerned if there wasn't someone being negative about a game. If I had a dollar for each time someone's proclaimed a game's dead or dying and said game's still going on for years, I'd have all my bills paid off including student loans.

 

The negativity will always be there, same with the comparing various chats to old days Barrens Chat for how bad it is, or every game having some version of the Jawa game in chat. Some of it's completely valid and understandable, then there's also others who just aren't happy unless they're miserable about anything.

 

Right now I'm playing the beta for a little niche indy MMO named Project Gorgon. The atmosphere is so up beat and positive it's refreshing! They also have admins who keep an eye out for spam and harassment in chat, so there is no equivalent to Barrens chat or the Jawa game. (They also have a cool little code that lets you put spoiler bars on chat!) I'm sure it's because it's a small population, but the contrast to here is dramatic.

[Rion_Starkiller]

Right now I'm playing the beta for a little niche indy MMO named Project Gorgon. The atmosphere is so up beat and positive it's refreshing! They also have admins who keep an eye out for spam and harassment in chat, so there is no equivalent to Barrens chat or the Jawa game. (They also have a cool little code that lets you put spoiler bars on chat!) I'm sure it's because it's a small population, but the contrast to here is dramatic.

 

oh wow. I just looked at the Wiki for that. I want to play a Rakshasa and a Fae now. Are there classes?

Edited January 25, 2019 by Rion_Starkiller

[ZirusZero]

Signed, I want to see this game get more love in the wake of Anthem. At this point I think these two games are all what BW will have left.

[agpoo]

My name is on the sheet

[Ylliarus]

Signed, I want to see this game get more love in the wake of Anthem. At this point I think these two games are all what BW will have left.

 

If Anthem makes references to SWTOR, like little easter eggs and such, the success of one might influence the state of the other. But unfortunately this goes both ways, the failure of Anthem might also impact SWTOR negatively. Although I hope Anthem will prosper, I tried it out today and I really like it!

[Damask_Rose]

oh wow. I just looked at the Wiki for that. I want to play a Rakshasa and a Fae now. Are there classes?

 

There are many! You can have a primary and a secondary active, but you aren't locked into them so one character can theoretically learn them all. For instance I started to focus on Archery and Animal Handling until my husband talked me into Lycanthropy with Priest. I can switch back to Archery/Animal Handling any time I want, well as long as it isn't a full moon

 

Steam has a free trial that includes the first 15 levels, the starter island and the first two areas. That gives you plenty to do to see if you enjoy they game. Everyone starts out with unarmed on the starter island and you can pick up sword, archery and psychology there. Level is per skill. So if you hit lvl 15 on unarmed and stop gaining unarmed exp, you can switch to one of the others and gain exp there.

 

Fae isn't in the game yet, but it should be put in soon. There is a big patch coming this week or next, but that is focusing on lvl 50+ stuff. They are hoping to have the game move out of beta this summer.

[Ylliarus]

I do agree with Yeldah_ and Tahol, its about upper management making bad decisions in regards to the game... which has been happening for years, although I think Keith has been doing far better than Ben at listening to feedback and adapting. I think with more budget he could maybe turn the situation around.

 

I used to see Keith as the Prince That Was Promised back when he took over from Ben Irving. For the first few weeks, perhaps months he had been energetic and engaging with the community. But it quickly died down and tbh, have you seen Keith lately on the forums? In a meaningful way, that is? I know he is very busy at the moment with meetings and all, but it's been like this before the new year as well.

 

Perhaps I expected too much of the change of leadership, that it would revolutionise the game. It wouldn't be the first time I had high hopes that were dashed, ah well.

 

I'm not saying Keith is doing a bad job, because he isn't. However, I expected... more? More improvements, more positive changes, but it's not been that extensive in my opinion. I could see a lack of funding, resources and manpower to be the reason for that so I hope with increased funding etc etc we can have more changes and improvements in the game.

 

It's why I hope to see the petition become widespread! we're almost at 1500 signatures at the moment!

Edited January 27, 2019 by Ylliarus

[Rebamcfan]

Wow Ylliarus, congratulations for reaching the +1500s signers at this point! Keep up the positiveness that drives this community forward!

[Ylliarus]

Wow Ylliarus, congratulations for reaching the +1500s signers at this point! Keep up the positiveness that drives this community forward!

 

Thank you so much! You have no idea how happy I am myself to see so many people proclaim their support for the game, it's absolutely amazing to see

 

I'm trying to get the support of a few other Bioware Influencers, like Swtorista and Kid-lee, but despite my efforts they don't seem interested in it but other Influencers have helped our petition and signal boosted it, for which I am really grateful!

[Ylliarus]

Just a few moments ago we reaches 1600 signatures! It's wonderful to see how milestone after milestone is reached

 

Keep sharing the petition! Share it with your Discord servers, share it with your SWTOR fan pages! Share it with the content creators such as Swtorista, Kid-lee, The Bad Feeling Podcast! Heck, let's aim even higher and try to make Star Wars channels like Star Wars Theory, Stupendous Wave and Star Wars Explained aware of this petition! Share it anywhere and anytime you can!

[grania]

I think I was 1,444. Yeah it would be nice if the larger Star Wars community were more.. inclusive? aware? of SWTOR. I've mentioned the game on a couple different channels I watch that have never talked about it at all. One responded that she plays the game but doesn't discuss it in her videos (for some reason?) Another didn't respond at all and his whole channel is devoted to SW and rpg critiques. I don't know why we're in this situation, we should have a huge thriving game and yet.. ??? Edited January 27, 2019 by grania

[Ylliarus]

I think I was 1,444. Yeah it would be nice if the larger Star Wars community were more.. inclusive? aware? of SWTOR. I've mentioned the game on a couple different channels I watch that have never talked about it at all. One responded that she plays the game but doesn't discuss it in her videos (for some reason?) Another didn't respond at all and his whole channel is devoted to SW and rpg critiques. I don't know why we're in this situation, we should have a huge thriving game and yet.. ???

 

It's one of the purposes of this petition, to draw people's attention to it. The more people sign, the higher the chance the right eyes will see it.

 

The fact that SWTOR isn't part of the official canon is what is debilitating the game at the moment as well. Not one of the major things, but definitely a reason why it isn't more known throughout the Star Wars community. If it were part of the official canon, Disney would be able and willing to produce content around it. More content around the game (books, novels etc) means more attention. It's one thing those who say "don't include SWTOR into the DIsney canon" don't see, that - if the game stays Legends material - it will stay a quiet and not well-known game. Holding onto nostalgia or Legends continuity won't help the game move forward.

 

Besides, what was the last time you saw a commercial about SWTOR? There used to be several ads, but nowadays you don't hear anything. If Disney and EA invested in a publicity campaign, in new ads and commercials, it would raise a lot more awareness around SWTOR and the fact it exists.

[casirabit]

It's one of the purposes of this petition, to draw people's attention to it. The more people sign, the higher the chance the right eyes will see it.

 

The fact that SWTOR isn't part of the official canon is what is debilitating the game at the moment as well. Not one of the major things, but definitely a reason why it isn't more known throughout the Star Wars community. If it were part of the official canon, Disney would be able and willing to produce content around it. More content around the game (books, novels etc) means more attention. It's one thing those who say "don't include SWTOR into the DIsney canon" don't see, that - if the game stays Legends material - it will stay a quiet and not well-known game. Holding onto nostalgia or Legends continuity won't help the game move forward.

 

Besides, what was the last time you saw a commercial about SWTOR? There used to be several ads, but nowadays you don't hear anything. If Disney and EA invested in a publicity campaign, in new ads and commercials, it would raise a lot more awareness around SWTOR and the fact it exists.

 

I just checked the signatures a few minutes ago and it was 1622

[Lhancelot]

Someone contact Taylor Swift. I hear she has a way to motivate millions of people to vote on things she directs them to. If not Swift, then perhaps another celebrity, maybe one that actually plays SWTOR.

 

You know, Robin Williams actually played WOW and didn't hide that fact. Supposedly MLB player Curt Schilling played Everquest, and Freddie Prinze Jr. too.

 

Surely there's some celebrity that plays SWTOR that could pipeline this petition to their minions! (Maybe a Kardashian?)

[Goreshaga]

I don't really care wether the game become actual canon or not.

 

But if the game has to becomes Disney canon, i really hope they'll never, ever give a canonical representation of any of our PC.

The canon JK becoming an alien dude marrying Lana would be completely game breaking for me as my only canon JK would be a female human marrying Theron, for instance.

 

So as long as they can mention them by title with staying gender neutral, and pretty vague as to their species and love interests i'd be fine with it, but anything really specific would probably make me trully hate playing the game.

[FlameYOL]

The fact that SWTOR isn't part of the official canon is what is debilitating the game at the moment as well. Not one of the major things, but definitely a reason why it isn't more known throughout the Star Wars community. If it were part of the official canon, Disney would be able and willing to produce content around it. More content around the game (books, novels etc) means more attention. It's one thing those who say "don't include SWTOR into the DIsney canon" don't see, that - if the game stays Legends material - it will stay a quiet and not well-known game. Holding onto nostalgia or Legends continuity won't help the game move forward.

Honestly I disagree with this sentiment a lot and I'll go over as to why. Even if SWTOR had survived the purge not every canon fan would necessarily be interested in it, they could also just declare Legends to be an alternate universe as opposed to non-canon and that would give it legitimacy to continue alongside the new canon. I think SWTOR is very known throughout the Star Wars community but the problem is entirely more complex than "it's legends so clearly it won't be well-known" as far as MMOs goes SWTOR has too many issues, lack of funding makes us starve for content compared to other triple A releases and that makes the game seem bad when it's actually pretty good despite our rough situation. As far as story goes there are a lot of people who don't give it a chance merely because it's an MMORPG, and maybe this is too anecdotal but I've seen people in the fandom not caring much about merely because they dislike MMOs and don't think they can do a good story. Which in SWTOR's case we both know this is not true, as the vanilla game is pretty immersive and full of lore for legends fans and even perhaps canon fans who want to learn more about legends just by reading the codex entries.

 

Disney can, and should, still produce more content around the game under the legends banner. It's not like SWTOR isn't already continuing so if they wish they can release more novels, comics, perhaps even an new encyclopedia with updated information regarding the game. Legends fans have been starving for new material for years, you could literally do Crystal Star 2.0:Electric Walruu and it would still sell because we've been starved out of content. And I really don't appreciate how dismissive you are being of Legends there, this is literally the last remain of it. How would you feel if the same thing happened to Canon? If someone rebooted but there was that last game still releasing more content into the timeline you enjoyed, but then someone came along and now it's part of the new-new canon. I'm not trying to be dismissive of canon or even hampering your enjoyment of it, but please, don't be so dismissive towards SWTOR being legends, this is quite literally all we still have and we deserve our Star Wars content as much as Canon fans deserve theirs.

[Ardrossan]

I signed the petition a few days ago.

 

As for this sub-topic, not only do I not think the game's popularity would increase if it were canon, I wouldn't play this game if it were. Canon has not struck me as being particularly well put-together. Legends, of course, has plenty of crap, but at least some of it is gold-plated crap.

 

I read most of the canon novels [except the Solo-related ones, I just can't do it], and none of them are equals in epicness to the Thrawn trilogy. None of them have any of the fun screwing around of the X-Wing novels either. And none of them are as well-written as Matt Stover's stuff. What they are is essentially deleted scenes from TFA, TLJ, R1 and Solo, and they're deleted because none of them are particularly interesting or needed to make sense of the movies. They're just fan trivia, and they don't stand up well on their own. I greatly disliked Fate of the Jedi [i would be happy if no one ever mentions Mortis again], but at least that series CAN stand up on its own without reference to another movie or show, or even the preceding series.

 

Although, the way I look at it, vanilla was swtor canon, and everything from KOTFEET on was some horrific caricature. Those expansions are the strongest parallel to canon, because just like canon, they take characters from Legends that we know and love, empty them of substance and subtlety, and dump them in plots that the writers wish they could say they were high for while writing them, which they abandon for another half-baked idea as soon as it's convenient. I liked Rebels well enough, but does anyone seriously think the Thrawn in that show was remotely similar to the one in Zahn's books? Let alone an improvement? I mean, they were both blue, so there's that.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Ardrossan

[FlameYOL]

As for this sub-topic, not only do I not think the game's popularity would increase if it were canon.

 

Yeah, I just don't think that SWTOR is within the majority of casuals fans' radar as far as a Star Wars experience is concerned, their experiences starts and ends with the movies alone (Which there is nothing wrong with it in my opinion) so I doubt that if SWTOR suddenly became canon and we started getting more publicity because of it that there would be that much of an influx of players, heck anecdotal evidence at best but I've known a lot of Star Wars fans through my life IRL but barely any of them touched anything beyond the movies, at best they've played one of the OG Battlefronts or TFU. So from my understanding those are not the people who will put the time, and most importantly money into SWTOR so catering to them might not necessarily be a good move.

 

As far a publicity goes however, I truly don't think that SWTOR needs to be canonized for it to happen. I'm not sure how many people here follow SW's main site of news but sometimes they do these reviews on older Star Wars titles. Those titles are all of course Legends but they still put it out there, I'd like to suggest reading the review on Jedi Outcast (Full link is: https://www.starwars.com/news/replaying-the-classics-star-wars-jedi-knight-ii-jedi-outcast) specifically this quote is very interesting to the point I'm trying to make

"To get the most of Outcast’s lore-intensive narrative, consider playing the first two games as well as Mysteries of the Sith, and maybe even check out Drew Karpyshyn’s novel of the ancient Sith, Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, while you’re at it."

So not only are they showcasing an older, legends title, but also suggesting a novel while at it. And yes it's a novel about a rather famous character in the fandom, but they're still promoting legends regardless of whether or not it's part of their new canon.

Addendum: I'd also like to bring up that they, surprisingly and I think this is something that got overlooked even by us, gave KOTET a shot-out on their site close to the release date despite the fact by that point SWTOR had already been classified as Legends for 2 years. Here's the full article for anyone who's interested https://www.starwars.com/news/6-reasons-to-be-excited-about-star-wars-the-old-republic-knights-of-the-eternal-throne

 

Anyway I don't mean to de-rail the thread any longer, but the TLDR of it is: We can still ask for SWTOR be revitalized without having to worry about its canon status. I'm not even going to get into how that would result into retcons to either SWTOR itself or to canon so it could accommodate SWTOR, either way let's hope the petition continues to gain more and more attention! Hopefully the Devs will have something to show us in regards to the next expansion at Star Wars Celebration this year.

[Ylliarus]

Yeah, I just don't think that SWTOR is within the majority of casuals fans' radar as far as a Star Wars experience is concerned, their experiences starts and ends with the movies alone (Which there is nothing wrong with it in my opinion) so I doubt that if SWTOR suddenly became canon and we started getting more publicity because of it that there would be that much of an influx of players, heck anecdotal evidence at best but I've known a lot of Star Wars fans through my life IRL but barely any of them touched anything beyond the movies, at best they've played one of the OG Battlefronts or TFU. So from my understanding those are not the people who will put the time, and most importantly money into SWTOR so catering to them might not necessarily be a good move.

 

As far a publicity goes however, I truly don't think that SWTOR needs to be canonized for it to happen. I'm not sure how many people here follow SW's main site of news but sometimes they do these reviews on older Star Wars titles. Those titles are all of course Legends but they still put it out there, I'd like to suggest reading the review on Jedi Outcast (Full link is: https://www.starwars.com/news/replaying-the-classics-star-wars-jedi-knight-ii-jedi-outcast) specifically this quote is very interesting to the point I'm trying to make

"To get the most of Outcast’s lore-intensive narrative, consider playing the first two games as well as Mysteries of the Sith, and maybe even check out Drew Karpyshyn’s novel of the ancient Sith, Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, while you’re at it."

So not only are they showcasing an older, legends title, but also suggesting a novel while at it. And yes it's a novel about a rather famous character in the fandom, but they're still promoting legends regardless of whether or not it's part of their new canon.

Addendum: I'd also like to bring up that they, surprisingly and I think this is something that got overlooked even by us, gave KOTET a shot-out on their site close to the release date despite the fact by that point SWTOR had already been classified as Legends for 2 years. Here's the full article for anyone who's interested https://www.starwars.com/news/6-reasons-to-be-excited-about-star-wars-the-old-republic-knights-of-the-eternal-throne

 

Anyway I don't mean to de-rail the thread any longer, but the TLDR of it is: We can still ask for SWTOR be revitalized without having to worry about its canon status. I'm not even going to get into how that would result into retcons to either SWTOR itself or to canon so it could accommodate SWTOR, either way let's hope the petition continues to gain more and more attention! Hopefully the Devs will have something to show us in regards to the next expansion at Star Wars Celebration this year.

 

No, that's definitely a good point and I recognise declaring SWTOR part of the canon isn't the only way to get more attention and awareness around it. I simply believe it would be easier and quicker, but the easy and quick path isn't always the best one

 

I am just somewhat sceptical that Disney would want to invest money and time into something that is Legends. Fact is, if it would be profitable enough then Disney would do it, because money is money and companies are Hutts in that regard. But for example, new novels set around the game (like Deceived, Revan, Annihilation etc) would help in raising attention to the game. Imagine if one of the next new novels was set in SWTOR's setting, that would definitely be a huge boost to the game. But I wonder whether Disney would be willing to work on that with this game being Legends instead of canon.

 

It's my hope frankly that the Benioff and Weiss movies will be set in the Old Republic era. If there is anyone I'd trust to make movies about the Mandalorian Wars, Revan, the Jedi Civil War, it's them. What they did with Game of Thrones is simply amazing and they'd be perfect for a darker setting like KOTOR 2. It's my dream to sew Darth Traya on screen

 

Someone contact Taylor Swift. I hear she has a way to motivate millions of people to vote on things she directs them to. If not Swift, then perhaps another celebrity, maybe one that actually plays SWTOR.

 

You know, Robin Williams actually played WOW and didn't hide that fact. Supposedly MLB player Curt Schilling played Everquest, and Freddie Prinze Jr. too.

 

Surely there's some celebrity that plays SWTOR that could pipeline this petition to their minions! (Maybe a Kardashian?)

 

Ha! If Kim Kardashian plays SWTOR I vow that I'll eat a shoe xD I do get what you're saying though, I might perhaps even have someone in mind.

 

Darin DePaul, Valkorion's voice actor. He might not have the celebrity status that the Kardashians have, but he definitely has a fanbase! One that is even related to SWTOR

 

I just checked the signatures a few minutes ago and it was 1622

 

I checked just now, right before posting this, and we currently have 1712 signatures

[Batwer]

I would be interested to know if it is registered at all by the mentioned ones. BW has fallen into silent mode again. 🙄 👀

[Ylliarus]

I would be interested to know if it is registered at all by the mentioned ones. BW has fallen into silent mode again. 🙄 👀

 

I didn't really expect an answer from Bioware at this point. There would have to be a lot more signatures for them to acknowledge it or something, even more if EA and Disney are to pay attention to it. Which is why I am trying so hard to spread the petition to the right people

[Damask_Rose]

I think I was 1,444. Yeah it would be nice if the larger Star Wars community were more.. inclusive? aware? of SWTOR. I've mentioned the game on a couple different channels I watch that have never talked about it at all. One responded that she plays the game but doesn't discuss it in her videos (for some reason?) Another didn't respond at all and his whole channel is devoted to SW and rpg critiques. I don't know why we're in this situation, we should have a huge thriving game and yet.. ???

 

I have a friend who is one of the biggest SW fans you could hope to meet. He is very active in our local 501st. When he was working at the books store with me he would get all of the authors to come for book signings and the legion would come out to participate. It was tremendous fun! This is my son at Joe Schreiber's "Death Troopers" signing. I digress. So a lot of the Legion tried out SWG but didn't stick with it for long, but only a few tried out SWtOR. I don't know if it was because they didn't enjoy SWG and were put off by SWtOR also being an MMO or if they by and large just aren't interested in the Old Republic. If I remember I'll ask my friend for his opinion.

 

And on the subject of awareness: Back in the day when CC pets were a thing I went to quite a few Game Stops and Best Buys looking for the cards. Almost invariably the clerks either didn't know about SWtORs existence or thought it had already shut down. This was when the population was significantly larger than it is now, and these were guys who's jobs were selling video games.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Damask_Rose

[FlameYOL]

No, that's definitely a good point and I recognise declaring SWTOR part of the canon isn't the only way to get more attention and awareness around it. I simply believe it would be easier and quicker, but the easy and quick path isn't always the best one

 

I am just somewhat sceptical that Disney would want to invest money and time into something that is Legends. Fact is, if it would be profitable enough then Disney would do it, because money is money and companies are Hutts in that regard. But for example, new novels set around the game (like Deceived, Revan, Annihilation etc) would help in raising attention to the game. Imagine if one of the next new novels was set in SWTOR's setting, that would definitely be a huge boost to the game. But I wonder whether Disney would be willing to work on that with this game being Legends instead of canon.

I think so, money is money regardless of where it comes from. If Lucasfilm or even Disney itself isn't willing to release more Legends content I'd argue it's more a matter of ego than profit, if I were then I'd just release one new novel. See how well it does, and if it does well enough release more. Another good idea about bringing attention to the game is perhaps giving a shot-out to the Legends re-print from the Star Wars page itself, like a promotion add, perhaps before a new expansion or big patch to build hype and get people to check out the game?

 

I checked just now, right before posting this, and we currently have 1712 signatures

Excellent!

[Ylliarus]

I think so, money is money regardless of where it comes from. If Lucasfilm or even Disney itself isn't willing to release more Legends content I'd argue it's more a matter of ego than profit, if I were then I'd just release one new novel. See how well it does, and if it does well enough release more. Another good idea about bringing attention to the game is perhaps giving a shot-out to the Legends re-print from the Star Wars page itself, like a promotion add, perhaps before a new expansion or big patch to build hype and get people to check out the game?

 

Exactly! Disney wouldn't need to put a lot of time and effort into it, just regular posts highlighting one or another thing from the game would go a long way in putting the game back onto the map again.

 

For those who have Twitter and want to throw in their support, I have tweeted at Darin DePaul (our Immortal Emperor Valkorion) whether he'd be willing to put his Imperial signature behind the petition! Let's try to show him the SWTOR community would greatly appreciate his support! Like, share or react to the tweet if you want and can, that would already help a lot!

 

[casirabit]

Exactly! Disney wouldn't need to put a lot of time and effort into it, just regular posts highlighting one or another thing from the game would go a long way in putting the game back onto the map again.

 

For those who have Twitter and want to throw in their support, I have tweeted at Darin DePaul (our Immortal Emperor Valkorion) whether he'd be willing to put his Imperial signature behind the petition! Let's try to show him the SWTOR community would greatly appreciate his support! Like, share or react to the tweet if you want and can, that would already help a lot!

 

 

I sent a link to your petition to: https://www.facebook.com/starwarsrocksmyworld/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARDBzs4lt2SVnKNX3LecYJIZM6Nyl9EFXXxOrY1a950Lv9nQhVNqOpijk9dx_pJ3STbSY-tvgshgUkCt&hc_ref=ARTAedDiwMYbikP7M0ZVda_I0W2r4Y5qD7oHdt6KukpKNbH8WdD_-qWq0iylGeNWtds&fref=nf