In my opinion, the single most important factor that is affecting SWTOR's current situation, as well as it's future, is the reputation this game has. I'm not speaking of the content, as I am one of the few who understand that new MMOs aren't always as polished as we want. What I speak of is the perception of the gamer community as a whole towards this game and it's developers.

It's a sad fact that many have already denounced this game dead or dying. They call it "TORtanic". They joke about the game going F2P. The game's own community forums are full of topics containing nothing but farewell letters and post-mortems. I'm not even going to go into how many times the Dev team's little "gaffes" have made headlines on gaming websites. This, coupled with current players frustrations towards the Devs (Soon™), and general EA hatred, does not paint a pretty picture.

New players look into this game and hear nothing but negativity. Old players are hesitant to return due to bad press or experiences. Even if Bioware manages to fix everything the current player base is calling for, would they be able to bring people in when the current outlook on this game is so incredibly antagonistic? Server transfers and merges will soothe the aches of the current player base, but it's only solving the issue of keeping the current players happy. If anything, the need for these transfers showcases to new players how badly the population has been hurt. It may draw back a few old players who are waiting on this, but I don't see it being enough to change the ever downward trend that SWTOR has been experiencing.

So my question to you is this: Is there something that we as a community can do to help fix this game's reputation? Is this an issue only further development can change? Do the community managers/Dev team need to change the way they do things? Or given enough time and content updates, will SWTOR make a miraculous comeback to be the MMO we all want it to be?

It is silly to blame or hold accountable the players. The rise or fall of TOR rests solely in the hands of BioWare. Because the majority of any players in a MMO game seldom post on the forums. BioWare does need to look at the input on the forums for improvement of the game, but more importantly, they need to look at thier own internal data to see what direction the game needs to go.

For a example, this was a post from a Blizz moderator about players complaining about a feature they added and how do they know what is needed for the game versus the input of the players on the forums....

...... " By looking at actual stats, actual progression, time spent playing, where, and to what extent, ... so yes, we absolutely are able to tell without a doubt that the plan we're enacting is actually what players playing the game want and need, and are not just listening to people on the forums. " .......

How well BioWare does this wil determine the future success of TOR.

No

At this point either the development team realizes that this ship can in fact sink and take the appropriate actions, or we watch this ship go down.

No because every positive post gets closed while hate threads by the same fifteen or twenty trolls are allowed to be opened for weeks. It's up to the community manager to stop providing the stage and rocks for those that hate BioWare no matter what, the last one refused to do it...and the new one isn't doing too much in that regard either.

Not every negative post is from people that hate BioWare. In fact its probably the opposite. The negative posts are from those that are most affected in one way or the other and are die hard fans that are venting their frustration. What do you think is more important for BioWare? The fluffy posts from people hoping to gain some kind of forum favor off the community and BioWare reps? Or the posts that help the developers understand and fix the problems that will kill the game. Yes there are probably over a thousand pages of complaints about low population. But those thousand pages are worth more to BioWare than all the posts from the Egyptian Swimmers in de Nile (denial).

No because every positive post gets closed while hate threads by the same fifteen or twenty trolls are allowed to be opened for weeks. It's up to the community manager to stop providing the stage and rocks for those that hate BioWare no matter what, the last one refused to do it...and the new one isn't doing too much in that regard either.

This.

I personally think that the main reason that this game is not doing well is that it followed the WoW formula. Whoever at EA/BioWare thought that copying WoW would be a good idea was quite frankly wrong. Although the story aspect is very good, after 9 years of WoW, players really wanted something different than the same old grinds. It also does not help that some of the same bugs that were in beta are still around. Add to that the features that should have been in the game at launch that are still not in game as of 2 major patchs and numerous minor patches....

If the plan was to copy WoW's formula they failed horribly. The game (a game released in 2011mind you) should have had the feature that the current WoW has now, not what the 2004 WoW had at launch. Going back in time feature wise is not the way to make a current MMO.

With all that said I still like this game....but it needs serious work.

The reputation would be worse if the mods DIDN'T close the threads of every player's horror story of how their server is dead.

yes, the reputation would match reality in that case, that the servers truly ARE dead!

Nobody gave the game a chance at release, they won't now and the WOW/GW2/Diablo trolls are allowed to build freaking houses in the General Discussion section, that's why this game is in such a massively overblown negative spotlight.

Not sure about that to be honest. From the general opinions posted it just seems a lot of people were disappointed obviously. On the other hand some of those who are positive (like yourself) are too quick to dismiss the opinions of others just because they like the game.

Sure it's not nice hearing people slate something you like, but there is a lot of constructive criticism from people that has been posted from both those that have put out well thought posts with genuine issues and those who are just frustrated/venting on forum.

It's obvious this game has faults, it's obvious that the story aspect of this game has been massively overblown and it's very obvious that some of the more veteran MMO'ers aren't satisfied with this.

I'm not supporting outright trolling but there is always a reason for a negative backlash.

Nobody gave the game a chance at release, they won't now and the WOW/GW2/Diablo trolls are allowed to build freaking houses in the General Discussion section, that's why this game is in such a massively overblown negative spotlight.

Ive said it before and I'll say it again. Just because an opinion differs from yours. Does not make it a troll. Ive played D3 and I hated it millions enjoy it but I don't. Never played WoW doesn't appeal to me.If GW2 is enjoyable then great I'll play that. I want SWTOR to be successful so badly. But pretending it is successful will achieve nothing. I complain and will continue to complain until the issue that affects me is resolved. I think the game is great. Its beautiful the PvP game play is awesome the sound, stories and quests are superb. But my server is dead and I want transfers sooner, not later. That doesn't make me a troll. It makes you misguided and blind and ignorant to the reality that there are fundamental flaws that need addressing .

So, here's a question: Would a change in GM-Player Interaction go towards improving the outlook of this game? Would you like to see something like the early days of WoW where GMs would log on and goof around with players? Would you like to see Community Managers post in topics with responses other than "this is locked" or "stay on topic"?

If Bioware works towards a better rapport with players, would SWTOR's reputation be able to bounce back?

It is silly to blame or hold accountable the players. The rise or fall of TOR rests solely in the hands of BioWare. Because the majority of any players in a MMO game seldom post on the forums. BioWare does need to look at the input on the forums for improvement of the game, but more importantly, they need to look at thier own internal data to see what direction the game needs to go.

 

For a example, this was a post from a Blizz moderator about players complaining about a feature they added and how do they know what is needed for the game versus the input of the players on the forums....

 

...... " By looking at actual stats, actual progression, time spent playing, where, and to what extent, ... so yes, we absolutely are able to tell without a doubt that the plan we're enacting is actually what players playing the game want and need, and are not just listening to people on the forums. " .......

 

How well BioWare does this wil determine the future success of TOR.

Actually I do not give the Blizzard quote much credibility. I remember the firestorm after the launch of Cata on the WOW forums that makes things here look tame in comparison. After a 2M sub loss, they say that they know what players want because they are looking at internal stats. IMO the only reason that WOW only lost 2M subs is that it is so good at it's core in so many ways that many people decided to keep playing in spite of the current crop of devs.

Perhaps the WOW team is reacting to the unsub surveys that they have collected over the last year or so. They are certainly paying lip service in upcoming changes in Panda; changes that reverse many things done in Cata when they had the Wrath data to go on. We will see.

The problems with the stats is that they are open to interpretation and that they are contextual. By contextual I mean that if the WOW formula is raid or die at cap, then (for those players who do not unsub after leveling a number of 85s) it is clear that the stats will show that most players are raiders even if those people unsubbing are saying that they are leaving because they are not.

what killing this game, is Bioware lack of progress. I left over a month go (was really enjoying parts of the game but I wanted Ranked warzone and maybe some server merges). I have come back to see there is not even a timeline for either of those features. I can understand that rank warzone could be a big task etc and take time, but server transfer have been a "coming soon" for 3 months now. I know with any gamers I talk to the reputation of Swtor is that it's dying and bioware don't care.

that is shown by the fact that over a month ago they could move aussies to australia server by hand. SO then why weren't they moving people off dead server by hand?

Ive said it before and I'll say it again. Just because an opinion differs from yours. Does not make it a troll. Ive played D3 and I hated it millions enjoy it but I don't. Never played WoW doesn't appeal to me.If GW2 is enjoyable then great I'll play that. I want SWTOR to be successful so badly. But pretending it is successful will achieve nothing. I complain and will continue to complain until the issue that affects me is resolved. I think the game is great. Its beautiful the PvP game play is awesome the sound, stories and quests are superb. But my server is dead and I want transfers sooner, not later. That doesn't make me a troll. It makes you misguided and blind and ignorant to the reality that there are fundamental flaws that need addressing .

What you have failed to realised is that massively over-spamming the same things in all of these threads turns this into a circus of flaming and trolling that the actual trolls get to gorge themselves on all day long, they call this place TOR-chan for a reason you know, great you have things you don't like about the game and wish to express your constructive criticism, consolidate into one thread and talk about it there but don't post ten different threads about the same thing and spam about it everywhere.

No I am not referring to you, I am referring to this entire section, it's a troll-fest and makes anyone that comes into the game become completely disheartened with it and they just leave within days of arrival, i've seen trolls do it before, a new player comes in, asks about certain things and this 'community' just trolls and spams that thread into death and people just stop posting and presumably get tired and leave.

Express your opinions, but do it in a civilized manner, not this childish display.

Every game is a finite experience. You can't play a game forever. At least I can't. If I get 6 months out of a game then, to me, that game has served it's purpose, which is to give me entertainment as a break from the responsibilities of my life. Game's over, I just move on to another game, whether it's an mmo, shooter, single-player rpg, whatever. I don't ever expect a game to hold my attention for more than 3 to 6 months.

That being said, my experience with this game as far as what hurts my enjoyment of it for me is the complaining and whining in PvP. I loved PvP in this game, but I stopped playing it because the majority of players do nothing but complain --in & out of warzone matches -- about other players, about how they're not getting the medals they feel they deserve, etc.. The only exception to this is when they win -- when they win then PvP is great & they don't complain so much. I can't count how many warzones I've been in where people are literally cursing at each other and pointing fingers about what the other person is doing wrong. Hey, here's a reality check : when you're in a warzone you're playing a game -- within a game.

what killing this game, is Bioware lack of progress. I left over a month(was really enjoying parts of the game but I wanted Ranked warzone and maybe some server merges). I have come back to see there not even a timeline for either of those features. I can understand rank warzone could be a big task etc and take time, but server transfer have been a "coming soon" for 3 months now. I know with any gamers I talk to the reputation of Swtor is that it's dying and bioware don't care.

that shown by the fact that over a month ago they could move aussies to australia server by hand. Why weren't they moving people off dead server by hand?

What? Ranked Warzones is on track for 1.3 and Server TRANSFERS will come in 1.3 with the super server merge coming afterwards, as say 1.3.5.

What? Ranked Warzones is on track for 1.3 and Server TRANSFERS will come in 1.3 with the super server merge coming afterwards, as say 1.3.5.

and when is 1.3 coming out? there is no time line it's the same old "soon" (remember 1.2 spent over 3 weeks on the test center and 1.3 isn't even on test server yet). That would mean those features are at least another month away if not more

What you have failed to realised is that massively over-spamming the same things in all of these threads turns this into a circus of flaming and trolling that the actual trolls get to gorge themselves on all day long, they call this place TOR-chan for a reason you know, great you have things you don't like about the game and wish to express your constructive criticism, consolidate into one thread and talk about it there but don't post ten different threads about the same thing and spam about it everywhere.

 

No I am not referring to you, I am referring to this entire section, it's a troll-fest and makes anyone that comes into the game become completely disheartened with it and they just leave within days of arrival, i've seen trolls do it before, a new player comes in, asks about certain things and this 'community' just trolls and spams that thread into death and people just stop posting and presumably get tired and leave.

 

Express your opinions, but do it in a civilized manner, not this childish display.

The childish display is not limited to the "haters".

The childish display is not limited to the "haters".

Hence 'circus'.

Or given enough time and content updates, will SWTOR make a miraculous comeback to be the MMO we all want it to be?

No. And for proof, look no further than Age of Conan.

Even after a ton of updates, and becoming a very playable game, and even F2P... it still never recovered.