EA / Bioware, please advertise this game

[ZionHalcyon]

No.

 

And even if they do, they are already fans and playing the game. Advertising is about getting new people to play or bring people back who have lost contact with the game

 

Honestly?

 

Can't tell you the last time I saw a WoW commercial. Path of Exile on Steam is one of the best F2P games out there, but never saw a commercial for it. Can't say I have seen anything for FInal Fantasy Online on TV lately.

 

Point being, it isn't just BioWare that lays off the marketing since launch. And while I used to be in the same advertising camp as you, I have come to realize that what we are expressing isn't the cause, but a symptom.

 

Why do we want BioWare to advertise?

Well, to have more people in the game to group up with.

 

Why are there so few people?

 

Now THAT's the correct question.

 

However, few get the answer right.

 

They will say " because the game is dead or in maintenance mode" or "the Devs don't care!" or "They don't have money!"

 

None of that is actually true.

 

 

However, know what is true?

 

The reason that there are so few people playing is because this is the business model BioWare adopted for SWTOR.

 

What do I mean?

 

What I mean, is, it came out this year that with BioWare's SWTOR business model, they expect people to resub, play a bit, leave, and come back when there is more content. THAT is their publicly admitted business model.

 

They know the servers are dead. They expect them to fill up for Onslaught, be good for a few months, and then be dead again. They FACTOR THAT IN.

 

Now, for those of us who hang around, it sucks. It sucks REALLY bad.

 

And one thing we will never know is this:

 

Is this business model one they decided on, or one that was pushed onto them by EA?

Unless a dev or former dev breaks their silence, we won't know. But SWTOR still makes EA money. They just don't care to try to keep people subscribed. Whether that is BioWare or EA's fault is anybody's guess....

[OlBuzzard]

 

[/snip ... snip .. snip !!]

 

The reason that there are so few people playing is because this is the business model BioWare adopted for SWTOR.

 

What do I mean?

 

What I mean, is, it came out this year that with BioWare's SWTOR business model, they expect people to resub, play a bit, leave, and come back when there is more content. THAT is their publicly admitted business model.

 

They know the servers are dead. They expect them to fill up for Onslaught, be good for a few months, and then be dead again. They FACTOR THAT IN.

 

Now, for those of us who hang around, it sucks. It sucks REALLY bad.

 

And one thing we will never know is this:

 

Is this business model one they decided on, or one that was pushed onto them by EA?

Unless a dev or former dev breaks their silence, we won't know. But SWTOR still makes EA money. They just don't care to try to keep people subscribed. Whether that is BioWare or EA's fault is anybody's guess....

 

While you and I might disagree on a point or two .. IMO.. your conclusion is pretty much right on target.

 

Hopefully the new story line that is coming with 6.0 will be something that most of us can really enjoy !

 

I'm balancing the facts of where the game is at .. VS ... where it seems to be headed .. VS .. some other stuff that seems to surface all to often. Add to that what seems to be a deaf ear to the please of the community over all ..

 

I'm kind of struggling with repetitive facts overshadowing personal desire to see the game move in a more positive direction.

 

My first choice would be to make a more positive impact ... see at least one or two suggestions (a couple in particular) actually happen .. and really enjoy a few more good years with SWTOR.

 

As much as I hate to admit it .. some of the constant negative posts, topics and complaints may have some small root of truth. Time will tell.

 

Eventually the truth always finds a way to express itself !

[ZionHalcyon]

While you and I might disagree on a point or two .. IMO.. your conclusion is pretty much right on target.

 

Hopefully the new story line that is coming with 6.0 will be something that most of us can really enjoy !

 

I'm balancing the facts of where the game is at .. VS ... where it seems to be headed .. VS .. some other stuff that seems to surface all to often. Add to that what seems to be a deaf ear to the please of the community over all ..

 

I'm kind of struggling with repetitive facts overshadowing personal desire to see the game move in a more positive direction.

 

My first choice would be to make a more positive impact ... see at least one or two suggestions (a couple in particular) actually happen .. and really enjoy a few more good years with SWTOR.

 

As much as I hate to admit it .. some of the constant negative posts, topics and complaints may have some small root of truth. Time will tell.

 

Eventually the truth always finds a way to express itself !

 

Yup.

 

Personally, I'd love for SWTOR to have a model more focused on Subscriber retention. And I think early on they did try to do this, or else dip their toes in the pool on it while still trying to stick to a non-recurring sub model (which is probably why it always failed). Never helped that before Keith it was always some EA beancounter in charge.

[Rolodome]

I want to agree, but arguably part of the problem is word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of advertising out there (also free) and word of mouth is largely going to say that this game sucks.

 

Those who play multiple MMOs, it only stands out if you're into single-player story or a big Star Wars fan and that's if you subscribe. If you try F2P, you're going to get turned off quickly by all the restrictions.

 

One example that is particularly punitive is lack of access to sprint early on. This is going to mean that a subscriber and F2P friend are going to be constantly out of sync, and you'd be crazy if you think they aren't going to notice. When you get access to a mount, same issue. Nobody wants to sit around waiting for their friend to catch up, while their friend has to take forever to get anywhere.

 

Another example is XP gain. F2P XP gain is slower, so once again, the F2P and sub friend are going to be out of sync, with one leveling faster than the other.

 

I get that not everything can be free in a F2P model for it to work, but when you rob people of basic QOL, you're all but guaranteeing they're going to become intensely disinterested and go somewhere that is more enjoyable. They aren't a captive audience and there is plenty of competition. They can find models that are smoother to navigate.

 

SWTOR needs to do a major overhaul in how QOL is treated if it wants to attract people, IMO. Namely:

 

1) Get rid of basic punitive QOL differences like access to sprint and mount, and XP gain.

 

2) Go through the legacy tree and grant most of the stuff by default to everyone, F2P, Preferred, or Subscriber. Things like... Rocket Boost, Field Respec (respeccing in general should be free cost for everybody as well), Mount While Moving, Tactical Markers, starship conveniences. Basically anything that isn't something where a person might want to choose, like character-based XP boost or something, should just be granted by default. This would, I believe, give a huge boost to the quality feel of the game when you're new, whether you go F2P, Preferred, or Sub, to start out with. And it doesn't require new features, just changing how existing features are acquired.

 

3) Create a B2P option that grants you Preferred status and gives you the Preferred-centric unlocks in a bundle.

 

4) Open up access to the forums and ticket system / bug reporting (maybe limit F2P access to forums if there are reasons like spam avoidance, but at least open it up to preferred). Priority in the ticket system can be lower by default, but everyone should have access to it. They are all playing the game and can all run into issues. Needing to go somewhere other than an official ticket system just creates more overhead for BW in managing issues and leaves people to be abandoned and quit if things go wrong and they can't get them fixed.

 

I think changes like this would make a MASSIVE difference in how the game is perceived and how likely people are to stick around. I could probably name more things I think should be changed, but I think those are the most important with the least controversy attached, meaning I don't think there are strong arguments to be made that changing these things would be damaging in some way. Some other changes might be more debatable in terms of long-term consequences.

[ImmortalLowlife]

D23 is this weekend. This would be a good time to drop some social media adds promoting the new expansion. But I get the feeling the suits at EA are long past caring about SWTOR and are approving the bare minimum funds for the game until they (hopefully) loose the SW ip. They've completely run it into the ground with their greedy anti consumer tactics. I'm ready for someone else to get a shot. Imagine someone like Insomniac or CDPR with the SW ip....

[OlBuzzard]

I want to agree, but arguably part of the problem is word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of advertising out there (also free) and word of mouth is largely going to say that this game sucks.

 

Those who play multiple MMOs, it only stands out if you're into single-player story or a big Star Wars fan and that's if you subscribe. If you try F2P, you're going to get turned off quickly by all the restrictions.

 

One example that is particularly punitive is lack of access to sprint early on. This is going to mean that a subscriber and F2P friend are going to be constantly out of sync, and you'd be crazy if you think they aren't going to notice. When you get access to a mount, same issue. Nobody wants to sit around waiting for their friend to catch up, while their friend has to take forever to get anywhere.

 

Another example is XP gain. F2P XP gain is slower, so once again, the F2P and sub friend are going to be out of sync, with one leveling faster than the other.

 

I get that not everything can be free in a F2P model for it to work, but when you rob people of basic QOL, you're all but guaranteeing they're going to become intensely disinterested and go somewhere that is more enjoyable. They aren't a captive audience and there is plenty of competition. They can find models that are smoother to navigate.

 

SWTOR needs to do a major overhaul in how QOL is treated if it wants to attract people, IMO. Namely:

 

1) Get rid of basic punitive QOL differences like access to sprint and mount, and XP gain.

 

2) Go through the legacy tree and grant most of the stuff by default to everyone, F2P, Preferred, or Subscriber. Things like... Rocket Boost, Field Respec (respeccing in general should be free cost for everybody as well), Mount While Moving, Tactical Markers, starship conveniences. Basically anything that isn't something where a person might want to choose, like character-based XP boost or something, should just be granted by default. This would, I believe, give a huge boost to the quality feel of the game when you're new, whether you go F2P, Preferred, or Sub, to start out with. And it doesn't require new features, just changing how existing features are acquired.

 

3) Create a B2P option that grants you Preferred status and gives you the Preferred-centric unlocks in a bundle.

 

4) Open up access to the forums and ticket system / bug reporting (maybe limit F2P access to forums if there are reasons like spam avoidance, but at least open it up to preferred). Priority in the ticket system can be lower by default, but everyone should have access to it. They are all playing the game and can all run into issues. Needing to go somewhere other than an official ticket system just creates more overhead for BW in managing issues and leaves people to be abandoned and quit if things go wrong and they can't get them fixed.

 

I think changes like this would make a MASSIVE difference in how the game is perceived and how likely people are to stick around. I could probably name more things I think should be changed, but I think those are the most important with the least controversy attached, meaning I don't think there are strong arguments to be made that changing these things would be damaging in some way. Some other changes might be more debatable in terms of long-term consequences.

 

Ummm.. I find this interesting. Some of these areas I'm unfamiliar with. So I don't feel particularly qualified to make a definitive comment on.

 

You may have a valid approach to at least some of these points. Certainly at the least I would imagine bundling larger portions of the F2P packaging would certainly be in everyone's best interest (at least to a degree). There again.. I wish I understood a little more of this.

 

Interesting ... very interesting !