Bioware's unshaken confidence is troubling

Rift really hasn't been doing that well. I find it funny when people bring this up. I was at Pax Prime in Seattle this past August.

I was Volunteering as an exhibitor for the Meridian 59 booth. We met a designer and someone from QA from Rift. They seemed desperate for people to play their game.

Here's the deal: I want SWTOR to survive and flourish. I really like the game overall. However, there are GLARING issues with this game (I'm not going to rehash them here...no point in repeating it) and yet Bioware seems to be blissfully (blindly?) boastful of their game. I get how PR works, blah, blah (so don't attempt to give me a lesson), but I have seen ZERO humility on Bioware's part that indicates that they have heard their customers. Look at Trion. Whether you like Rift or not (I found it to be rather bland myself) that is a company working its a*s off for your $15 a month. They have approached the community with humility and open ears, and it has paid off. Meanwhile, Bioware is too busy spinning the hype machine and patting itself on the back to approach the community's concerns humbly and comprehensively.

Please know that I am writing this post as a fan of the game (and Bioware) and I really want the game to succeed. In my life, I have never seen an individual or entity succeed in the long term by avoiding self-reflection and constructive criticism.....ever.

http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/sales-data/49494/rift/

"In touch with the playerbase"

They copy and pasted a Pokemon mini game into their MMO and they're in touch with the playerbase?

Do i really need to explain WHY SWTOR sold so much in it's first week?

And not to mention that fact that it's losing activity, which mean if SWTOR was selling (presumably) well, than activity should have either stayed the same or gone up, but it isn't. It's declining. And not even steadily, it's falling with the fury of a thousand Hindenburgs

Because here are the facts. Week 1 had 16 full servers, week 2 went down to about 8 and this week they're struggling to keep 1-2 full servers ON WEEKENDS.

You can say they're raising the server cap, but that isn't consistent with the activity charts, so SOMEONE is lying

I also feel, and this puts me in with the tin foil hat crowd, that BW/EA cut a lot of corners and positioned the game to bank on it's hype and the fact that the Star Wars brand will keep a certain number of players around indefinitely. Overcharge on the retail price, sell lots of copies up front, launch when it maximizes sales, limited innovation, safe simple design and keep the costs of developing the game and running the game as low as possible..

Logical fallacies 101:

1. State opinion as fact.
2. Pre-emptively label anyone who disagrees with said opinion as wrong/mentally defective.
3. When someone does disagree with 1., point out you already proved they were wrong.

Rift really hasn't been doing that well. I find it funny when people bring this up. I was at Pax Prime in Seattle this past August.

I was Volunteering as an exhibitor for the Meridian 59 booth. We met a designer and someone from QA from Rift. They seemed desperate for people to play their game.

Do i really need to explain WHY SWTOR sold so much in it's first week?

And not to mention that fact that it's losing activity, which mean if SWTOR was selling (presumably) well, than activity should have either stayed the same or gone up, but it isn't. It's declining. And not even steadily, it's falling with the fury of a thousand Hindenburgs

Because here are the facts. Week 1 had 16 full servers, week 2 went down to about 8 and this week they're struggling to keep 1-2 full servers ON WEEKENDS.

You can say they're raising the server cap, but that isn't consistent with the activity charts, so SOMEONE is lying

Rift has been very public about their sales numbers and have announced sales over 1m and that they have seen significant growth over time. This report has sales under 500k. Maybe Trion is lying or it's low because vgchartz doesn't include Amazon, Walmart or digital(such as Steam) sales. After an initial launch, it's generally hard to find a box copy of most MMOs so I wouldn't expect vgchartz to report much growth.