Why the disappointed don't leave...

I won't say that I hate this game, but for me I keep playing precisely "Because there's nothing better at the moment". I've tried a lot of the newer games. Most had aspects I liked. All of them, however, had some game breaking flaw that turned me away after 2 months or less.

Wall of text regarding said other games


Then there's SWTOR. I was here for release, stuck it out through EV/KP while many of my friends quit. Things were looking up with EC, TFB, and the much needed QoL improvements made. I honestly liked the CM at first too. I got $6 per month "for free" to spend on convenience unlocks like added inventory space, rocket boots, ship upgrades, etc. Even Makeb, IMO, was worth the $10 I spent on it. Slowly but surely though, EA is driving me away from the game with their perceived focus on said CM. And while SnV is still relatively fresh and fun, good grief, just let TFB die already. No matter what difficulty tweaks get done, it's still the same instance we've had for 9 months now, and they're trying to sell it as new content.

The game I'm most looking forward to is FFXIV. I had a chance to play in the beta last weekend and read the beta tester forums most of the week waiting for servers to come back up again. The game play feels a lot more like an FF title than an MMO. The quest givers are amusing if you take the time to read everything. What's selling me most on the game though is the attitude of the developers. They're passionate about making a great game and they listen to player feedback.

LOL, scratches head and grips reality a little tighter.

I worked with a client that ordered a study ahead of a down cycle that they believed was approaching. The study (not by my firm, we participated in the implementation) concluded that people use a great deal more toilet paper during economic hard times which I found very funny at first. My client was not in the TP business, but careful review of the study led to the conclusion that it was right on. So my client, with my participation, acquired a generic TP company. Needless to say, a severe down turn did occur and they cleaned up.

No red herring or any other fish type here. The principles employed and analysis would be the same. It is a business and social concept endeavor and not specifically product related.

Actually, your dismissal of the point that I was making is a little fishy and not much on point.

I dont hate I just want to be able to transfer from EU > NA server.

Definition of Newspeak:

The use of positive words to infer something is a positive when it is often not.
Example: "Lay-offs" is bad, "Right sizing" is also bad, but sounds good.

And... back to /ignore you go.

You would be banned from these boards in 30 seconds flat for your constant insults if not for the fact that you always defend every decision EA/BW makes.

The price of stand alone games has not got down. The price of movies has not gone down. The price of cable TV has not gone down.

In theory, the base for MMO's should increase in tough times as they are a very cheap entertainment option. The movie industry historically sees boom times whenever the economy is on the downside.

The games are the problem, not the economy or changing consumer habits. Two million people bought TOR knowing it was a subscription based game. The cost of the subscription may have some impact on people's decisions to keep or cancel their sub but the game itself will have far more impact.

free to play is a marketing strategy. players are paying, many pay more than they would have originally as a subscriber only. it's much like the pricing strategy of "buy one get one free". people like the word free, even though it usually doesn't mean what they think it means

Andryah... CosmicKat... You're both right.

First, not only has the market changed, but the whole world has changed. Today, there are more ways to spend your entertainment money, and you probably have less of it, thus it makes more peole want to try before they buy. Giving away the base content of your video game is a way to get people to try it out and entice them to spend their money on it. And in the realm of MMOs, the subscription fee has always been a big sticking point for many people: I'm sure there's tons of reasons that could be listed, but I've always believed that a large number of people will simply refuse to accept that they don't actually own the software they buy and subscription fees slap that denial in the face. So there are very valid reasons why the pure subscription model has started to become outdated. You simply can't deny these elements as being a large factors in the move towards the "freemium" model (gah... I hate that term, but does the job of describing what the business model is in one word).

However, CosmicKat is 100% right that people have abandoned all of the big MMO releases in droves simply because of the games themselves. Ultimately, pretty much every MMO release in the last five years or so has been WoW with a different skin on it; and yes, that does include SWTOR. So these games have been starting out with massive numbers that flee in droves within 60 to 90 days after launch because they're essentially playing WoW without ten years of content additions: why would you pay the same amount to play a version of WoW without ten years of content additions that you would pay to play WoW with the 10 years of content? It doesn't matter that SWTOR is set in the Star Wars universe, in the end it's just a slick version of WoW, and this is the same reason that a game like Battlefield sells a third of what Call of Duty does: what's the point playing a slicker version of an older game, when there's still millions of people playing that older one?

So yes... the MMO world has changed... but we're still playing the same MMO that we have been for the last ten years. It looks like we've got a new class of games on the horizon that are all looking to be different, all utilizing the free to play model; but the MMOs of 2007-2012 all graduated from "WoW Clone High" and their move to F2P is purely for survival.

Being critical does not negate enjoyment of what is.

Critical discussion is simply an attempt to ensure a better experience.

Were we to just sit back because we find some aspects of the game enjoyable regardless of how much other aspects suck, nothing would be improved. If the company isn't challenged to improve they will not bother. Why fix something if people accept it? As long as they get paid, the product is working. But if there are things that might chase people away and they say nothing about it, the company can't fix it.

I like SWTOR. I like the people I game with. There are a number of things, however, that I hate about EA/BW and this game and have no reservations about voicing them because if I don't, the powers that be will have no idea that there might be an issue. If these issues finally cause me to leave the game, but I've said nothing about these issues, it is my own fault that they weren't fixed.

If I say things about issues, and they don't get fixed, now the onus of responsibility is on the company. We've seen this with many long term bugs that not only haven't been fixed, but communication on those issues is also missing. Some people are leaving, some are staying and trying to fight the good fight but eventually they too may give up. The responsibility belongs to EA/BW to stem the tide of cancellations by addressing the issues...something they have been very, very lax in lately.

THIS

Sorry guys, but your actually not on opposite sides here. You both have valid points you have made. So in essence you are both correct IMO.